The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 549: North Of The River

Chapter 549: North Of The River

While Fahad was busy in Albroles, Dominic took the chance to catch up on paperwork, hoping to be done before dark so that he could finally get back to just maintenance levels of hand cramping.

Admittedly, it was a lofty goal, going by the amount of paperwork on his desk.

But it was a necessary one, as so much of the paperwork had to do with assigning lands to the new Barons and Knights.

“Alexis, before you run off, what do you think of starting the assignments north of the river, and running outward? It will take us most of the way to the troll village, so we might be able to hire them to do border patrols once the Barons get settled in.”

Alexis looked at the map that Dominic had unrolled, with one Baron to every ten Knights, based on groups of eleven existing Manor houses.

It would give them all enough territory to call home, and they were already based on how much workable land existed. It was better than drawing arbitrary lines based on actual size, she thought.

“Why just the one side of the river?”

“The other side is where we’re expanding airship manufacturing as well as other dangerous factories.

I don’t want to put anyone too close to them, so I’m thinking that we put two thirds north of the river, and then the rest south.

That will give us a coverage area like this.

The question is how we assign it.

Do we start closer and work outward? That doesn’t seem optimal, for many reasons, including the lack of common workers. But if we just let them pick the ones they like, who knows where we will have issues.

There aren’t really any surviving roads. They were cart paths to begin with, and they’ve all grown over, so we will have to do a huge amount of infrastructure improvement if we’re going to link the houses that are being used for Barony Manors with real roads.

The ones with black marks are the ones that the Adventurer’s Guild flagged as relatively safe to move into.

One red line is heavily damaged or a battle site. The red X is uninhabitable.”

Alexis nodded. She had the same map.

“I think that should work. The manors don’t actually have much variance in size. I’ve been following the notes on them, and they’re all basically built for one large family, with guest rooms.

Half the size of what the Manor in Wistover was, roughly the same as what the first few Barons moved into.

It’s almost like it was an unspoken rule not to go overboard with huge houses here. The real difference is some of them have walls or other defensive fortifications.

If you mark them on the map, they can make a better choice.

Just remember to outline the territory of each Baron, so the Knights from his unit or friend group can move into his territory. It doesn’t matter what house he picks within the zone, they’re so close to the same.

But knowing that they’ll be under someone they know and trust will help the Knights choose.”

“So, we should push the Barons’ weddings to the front of the line?”

Alexis shook her head. “No, just have them pick their lands first. They can get married when they are ready, with their friends and wives knowing where they’re going after.”

“Alright, that should be easy enough. Do you want to help me with the outlines? I’ve got them marked with the help of the Adventurers and Julio. But another set of eyes never hurts.”

Dominic pulled her down into his lap, and Alexis laughed at his blatantly transparent tactics.

But she didn’t get up.

Surprisingly, they were actually getting work done sitting together, and before he knew it, Dominic had finished half the stack of paperwork, while the outlines on the map had been refined to functional territories that all had everything they needed for success.

At least, minimal success. None of them lacked enough farm land, water access, or trees.

Beyond that, there was no guarantee of how far they could take the territories that they were being given by the King. That was all up to them and the people who moved in under them.

“Should we gather them to let them pick? We’ve got the map ready, and you’re right that the Knights will want to be near their old unit commanders.” Dominic suggested.

“We can send the maids with news and have them all come to breakfast tomorrow morning with their prospective brides. I’m sure that some of the ladies will want to have input on the process.

It’s not a chance that any woman ever gets, so giving it to them should get the new Barons off to a good start.” Alexis offered.

Dominic frowned. She had a point. Even she wasn’t given a choice of where she was moving. He was given the Duchy of Wistover, and they were expected to move there and develop it.

There was no input on her part about where they were going, unless it happened with the King before the fact.

In their case, he didn’t get a choice, in the traditional sense, but he was being given back his childhood home, there was no reason for him to choose between locations, only one was suitable.

“Alright, we will make it a full event for breakfast. I will go warn Beth that we will have a full house with a celebration.”

“And then I will be waiting for you in our room.” Alexis agreed.

She got up and opened the door, only to see a portal in the hallway, and Amie with an amused look on her face.

“See, I told you that we shouldn’t open it in the office. Princess, we finished the meetings early, and the King has detained the visitor for final questioning, while he sends troops to help stabilize the south half of the north shore, and the locations that took particularly heavy casualties during the storm.” She explained.

Prince Fahad and his guards stepped through behind her.

“As she said, we managed to get it all done without an overnight stay. Albroles is in rough shape, but its flood mitigation held up, and they only suffered minor flooding.

I will debrief you in the morning.”

“Afternoon. We’re going to let the Barons pick lands in the morning. That will take up everything before lunch.”

“Then I will put on my very best. This should be fun.”