The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 568: Suspicious Actions

Chapter 568: Suspicious Actions

Dominic folded his hands in his lap. “I am aware that there is a strong loyalist sentiment among the residents of Stansia Province that would prefer that the old Nobility was reinstated to their positions, or that a Cygnian Noble Family with relations to the old Wavemates Noble Families was chosen to represent their territories.”

Trionne spoke in his defence. “It is the understanding of the Shersdonian Crown that such is already the case, and that as much as possible given the casualty rates, the newly appointed Cygnia Nobles were ones with bloodlines related to the cities they have been chosen to govern.”

Prince Alex sighed. “Fat lot of good it has done. The old Noble Family branches are gone, and the relatives we sent have mostly been in Cygnia for generations.

The cities are still only marginally under control, and the only thing keeping them from rebelling is the lack of options.”

Put that way, he had a point. Now that they’d seen that they could actually overthrow the Nobles that were ruling them, many of the commoners in the cities were far more willing to do it a second time.

They were just waiting for the chance and motivation to make another change.

What they had was better than what they had removed, but it was still not everything that nostalgia and wishful thinking made them desire.

Prince Fahad turned to Advisor Trionne. “If your people are only there for humanitarian purposes, surely you would not object to some additional assistance?

The Axbridge Army is willing to send both ground forces and light naval vessels to Dagos, starting with the Kinewen area and extending north toward the ocean.”

Trionne smiled softly, a caring expression that looked completely out of place in this serious setting. Then she shrugged.

“The more, the merrier. Kinewen is currently underwater, though the levels are receding at a decent rate now that the storms are ending.

The Necromancer King has no issues with your forces taking on the rescue efforts, as there is no risk of excessive undead creation.

The area appears to be free of lingering resentment, and terror at a natural disaster is not enough to trigger a mass turning incident.”

“And why would that be an issue for your people? You are known for the number of Necromancers in your army. Surely, you see how this could be interpreted as an annexation plan.”

Dominic sighed, while Trionne rolled her eyes, but didn’t speak.

“Duke Dominic, do you have some insight into this matter?” Prince Alex asked.

“Indeed. You see, Necromancers can raise a great number of undead, if they put their mind to it and have the resources. But they cannot control a great number of undead.

Turning millions of undead would only create a scourge that they would have to sacrifice their controlled undead to deal with, leaving them in a far worse position than where they started.

Once summoned undead are out of a Necromancer’s control, it is not easy to bring them back under control.

This was explained to me by a Shersdonian Lich Lord, who was quite concerned about the possibility of undead hordes rising from the floodwaters to overwhelm his relief force.” Dominic explained.

Prince Russel shook his head. “This still sounds an awful lot like a plot to invade and overthrow Dagos, even should our rescue efforts manage to get the King out of Albroles.”

Prince Fahad nodded in agreement, while all the Emissaries looked outraged. But Dominic noted that all of them had supported sending their own nation’s troops into Dagos in various locations.

In the edge of his vision, Elder Manif silently signed to Dominic.

[At least they’re focused on the invasion aspect.]

That was true. There were other, much more concerning issues, from his personal perspective.

So far, they had only touched on the possibility that there would be a revolt.

But they were so focused on what was happening within Dagos right now that they hadn’t considered the pure number of refugees headed this way after the storms.

At least, not yet.

The Royals were all more concerned about the immediate threats, that the other groups present in this room might be making a play for the territories that Dagos was going to lose control over with their most recent casualties.

But the way Dominic’s luck had been going, he should have known that they would be reminded of him sooner or later.

The first to get the alert were Alexis and her brothers.

[Twenty inbound airships, arriving in Wistover within the hour. Reports of nearly twenty thousand refugees on path to reach the Duchy within the next forty-eight hours.]

Dominic had the message signed to him by Elder Manif, as he did not yet have a magical communication device linked to anyone for real-time updates.

But that was all that it took to get him back in the spotlight.

“Duke Dominic, might you have an explanation for this phenomenon? All of these airships have bypassed a major city to request landing clearance in Wistover.” Prince Russel began.

“We are a trading port, as agreed by the Emissaries here. It’s only natural that they would request docking to deliver cargo and reload for foreign destinations.” Dominic began.

“Yet none of them came bearing cargo to trade, only commoners from the edge of the storm affected regions, or within Axbridge.” The Prince countered.

“Many people see Wistover, with its open land options, and commoner friendly Nobility as a prime place to settle.

We were also not seriously damaged by the storms, and that has led to some superstitious sorts believing that we are a lucky spot. As I understand it, there is a city within Chip that is the same way. Atlerid, I believe it’s called.”

The Prince scoffed. Sure, that city had gotten its fair share of refugees, but that’s because it was east of where the storm made landfall.

Most of the coastal cities had evacuated further inland, even if it meant going across the border into Carwick or Olmond.

“We will be investigating this situation. The King believes that there is more to it.” Prince Russell declared.

Alexis sighed, but remained silent.

As both the more junior Royal, and the Duchess of Wistover, anything that she said would only cause more issues in this matter. She was also not clear of suspicion, though the King’s concerns about her involvement were not as much about the chance of foreign loyalty.