The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 570: Time Doesn’t Stop

Chapter 570: Time Doesn’t Stop

The stalemate continued, with small tweaks being suggested every few minutes, but no concrete new plans being made.

Then, the news came in that there were airships landing in minutes, and time was up.

“Your Highnesses, I have duties to attend. If you would like to send an attendant with me to verify my genuine intentions, I welcome their presence.” Dominic explained.

Advisor Trionne got to her feet. “I will accompany you, on behalf of the nation of Shersdonia. We have security concerns about the whole region, so it’s only reasonable.

I won’t interfere with your work.”

The other Advisors and Royals frowned at her enthusiasm. Did she not realize that they all still suspected that her people were infiltrating all of Dagos with the intention of overthrowing it?

She was not making Dominic’s situation any easier, implying that they were working together, or that she was at least aligned with his intentions.

On the other hand, by getting up to go with him, she essentially forced the others to send someone with them.

The Royals watching their reports would lose their minds if the two prime troublemakers were left alone and unattended to meet with a collection of airships that could either be from the Axbridge border regions, or northwestern Dagos.

The origins couldn’t be properly traced because of the storms.

Alexis smiled as Prince Alex got to his feet, while Prince George sent a General from the Mitfield Army to join them.

“I will grab Amie, and she can open a portal for us, so we don’t have to look for a ride.” Dominic explained.

The Second Prince laughed. “I can do that for you. It’s not hard to get to the airship docks.”

That certainly reduced the number of excuses that Dominic had to bring his usual bodyguard with him.

So, he whistled for Dave to come in and join them.

Prince Alex wasn’t going to argue with that. Dave had been with them the last time that they were attacked, and the trolls had saved their lives. If Dominic wanted to bring them everywhere, he wouldn’t blame him one bit.

It was just a bit inconvenient to get such a large troll through such an ordinary door.

The airships were just beginning to land when they made it to the docks, and Dominic made a mental note that the first few all had Merchant Guild livery on them, but with the Axbridge and Skiple national symbols.

That didn’t mean that they were carrying passengers from those locations, but the airships themselves were not from Dagos.

“Greetings, Duke Wistover, Your Highness, Madam.” The Merchant began.

“Welcome to Wistover. What might you have for us today?”

“Refugees, as you have likely guessed. You wouldn’t have come in person if we were the materials supply vessel for the factories or the warehouses.

We started out near the Cliftonby River, which was heavily damaged during the storm. For some reason, the storms appeared to be more vicious than normal near anywhere with a Mage Tower, and they requested that we evacuate the civilians from the village near the border.”

“The mage tower didn’t leave with you?” Dominic asked.

“No, Your Grace. They informed us that they would hold the tower as long as possible, and then move inland using their portal array if the situation became untenable.

They had already received nearly a metre of rain by the time that we arrived to evacuate, and we only narrowly missed being forced to leave without the residents as the winds picked up.

We joined one of the convoys, and now we’re here.

It’s been slow-going, as many of the airships are damaged, and all are overloaded. But my duty has been done.”

“Alright. We have been asked to do some interviews with the new arrivals, beyond the basics. There is some concern that there might be military deserters and assassins among the refugees.”

“Well, wouldn’t that be quite the thing. Alright. You’ll find this group is pretty boring, but we passed over some interesting ones earlier today.”

“You can tell me about that as well. If you have concerns, it’s best I hear it in advance.”

“It’s not like that, Your Grace. Just an odd grouping, you might say. From the air, it looked like there was an entire mage tower travelling with a thousand assorted Trolls coming this way.

They’re following the river, so they came from further west, but they’re almost here.”

Prince Alex sighed. That was one of the things that the King was most concerned about. The Trolls were drawn to the Dragon Royals, and an army of thousands of them equipped with magitech gear would be powerful enough to take most cities.

What could you even do against an enemy that didn’t stop when you shot it?

“Send over your people, and I will start sorting them. We’ve got a number of Barons currently moving into new territories and looking for loyal subjects. They will have Knights moving in to assist them soon, but we’re in the middle of a debutante event, and nobody wanted to miss it for the sake of moving.”

The Merchant nodded understandingly. “It’s better to get there for the first time with your new wife and build from nothing. I didn’t even pick my new house, I just made approving noises while my wife did, and then I paid for it.”

Now that was a man who knew how to avoid conflict.

The airships continued to land, and the message was relayed to the other Merchants, so that they all knew what the situation was.

None of the people coming out of the airships seemed to be concerned about the situation, but a few of the Merchants did have more questions.

For example: “I don’t suppose that you know about that rigid airship that’s been working the area, do you? It passed us twice already this week. That thing is insanely fast.

We’re holding twenty kilometres an hour on a good day, without too bad of a headwind, but it’s moving close to a hundred.

Crossing over a thousand kilometres from Kinewen to Wistover, we could have used that sort of speed, and most of us came from at least that much further into Axbridge.”

Dominic made a grand gesture. “You’ve come to the right place. That, my friends, is a product of the Wistover Airship Works. It has just passed final testing, and has been sold to the Merchant’s Guild.

We will have more of them up for sale soon, and as you have observed, the sustained steam-powered transit speed with fifty tonnes of cargo is over a hundred kilometres an hour.

With extra magical assistance, it can go much heavier, and a little faster.”