The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 784: Don’t Tell Alexis

Dominic thought, as the planes were already made, and he could give them a clear timeline on production, that these negotiations would be easy.

He was wrong.

So very wrong.

The negotiations dragged on for nearly a month before a final agreement was made.

The major sticking point was how the planes were going to be used. The King of Axbridge insisted that these were a viable military aircraft, and that they should be strictly restricted to only classified airbases and city defence posts.

That would require calling back all the ones that they had sold to the Barons, as militia use wasn’t appropriate, according to his interpretation.

Naturally, Claudius disagreed, as he rather liked how they were patrolling everywhere over the Duchy.

If they could have them patrol the border areas, they would have much more notice the next time that an army, either human or monster, tried to breach their borders. And that led to a stalemate, which had only been broken when Prince Fahad relented and suggested that the restriction could apply only to outside nations that were part of their trade alliance.

That would keep them from spreading further than the King of Axbridge wanted, and would save them coming back again to deal with the trade agreements with the other nations.

Having the matter settled in advance would be perfect, and there were already clauses in the trade agreement regarding military supplies.

They just had to make the wording of this agreement match so that it would fall under the previous framework.

Dominic hadn’t been deeply involved with the previous negotiations, but now he began to understand why nothing ever got done.

It also reinforced his determination not to let himself be promoted any further.

Not that there were many ways to go up from a Duke and Governor of two Provinces, but if they tried to add an advisory title to that, he was definitely finding a way to politely decline so that he didn’t have to do this again.

Dealing with all the aspects of a negotiation about a new military development might actually be the reason that none of them ever came to market.

People likely heard that this was coming and decided their prototype would be better off destroyed than to suffer the vagaries of a Royal negotiation. At least he was a Duke and his position afforded him some level of respect.

If it wasn’t for that, they would have likely confiscated the rights to the biplanes, paid him a pittance, and then worked out some agreement where he had to make them at a loss to support the nation.

Without considering the creator’s input.

That was just the way that these negotiations went, locked down in a meeting room, without any outside views, or permission to even tell anyone what they were negotiating.

The only thing that was saving Dominic was the fact that he still had a Duchy and two Provinces to take care of, so half his day was spent on paperwork related to his titles.

And there was no shortage of that.

Before he knew it, Dominic found himself living the life of a proper nobleman.

He hosted dinners, listened to petitions from both the locals and the Barons under him once a week, spent what leisure time he could find in the forge, tinkering with alterations of magitech weapons, and the rest of the time on mind-numbingly boring routine work.

What really made it sink in that the adventure of setting up a new Duchy was well and truly over was the day that he found himself in the back garden, with Katerina sitting on his lap, while he sipped coffee from a “World’s Best Dad” mug that Beth had chosen as outdoor appropriate.

It wasn’t a bad feeling.

In fact, once the negotiations finished, and a wing of biplanes was ready to be sent to the Axbridge military depot that had been hastily assembled deep in the desert for training and testing, he was quite enjoying it.

Katerina hadn’t had a flame incident in weeks, and it seemed that she was quickly gaining control over either her magic, or whatever internal organ it was that made it possible for them to spit fire.

It didn’t seem like it was purely magical to Dominic. If it was, why start in his throat, where it kept burning him?

That was just poor spell design.

So, he suspected that it was actually something related to an internal organ that dragons had, allowing them to breathe fire, or whatever other substance their species preferred.

Katerina burbled happily on his lap, reaching for the coffee and its warmth, then began smacking his arm in frustration as he took the hot beverage away.

“You won’t like that,” he warned her.

She wasn’t buying his story. The budding tantrum continued.

So, Dominic did the only reasonable thing he could in that situation, and let her find out the hard way.

He lowered the cup and let her hold it, then dunked one of his fingers in it so that she could taste it. She was far from old enough for even a sippy cup, but the moment that the coffee covered finger entered her mouth, Katerina’s eyes lit up with joy.

“Perhaps I have made a mistake,” Dominic informed the veiled maid waiting by the coffee tray.

“In giving a baby dragon coffee? I can’t see how that would end badly,” she replied in a polite tone that only served to emphasize the heavy dose of sarcasm.

“I drink black coffee. What infant likes black coffee?”

“The daughter of you and Princess Alexis, apparently.”

“You have a point. Both of us are coffee fiends, so it only stands to reason that our child might have inherited the trait. Though, aren’t children supposed to rebel? Go against their parents’ favourite things just to be difficult?”

“I believe that only begins in the teenage years, Your Grace.”

“Damn. Well, I suppose I will have to find a solution, then.”

Katerina pulled his finger from her mouth, in an awkward attempt to put his hand back in the coffee.

“Put a tiny bit into a bottle of milk and see how she likes it.

And don’t tell the Princess.”