The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 787: Keep Them Focused

Keeping everyone focused on the biplanes was a remarkably easy task.

They had math to do, based on the cost of the units, and tactical analysis based on the combat effectiveness data that had been presented. Those two tasks alone would take them days, if not weeks, to perfect.

That meant that Dominic could relax a little.

They had the information, they just needed to make their final decisions, based on how much money they were willing to give him.

It was a good problem to have.

The Princes were not going to hesitate about placing their orders. Even if they wanted more later, they had a baseline that they could definitely spend on the military budget this year, and a portion that wasn’t claimed by ongoing expenses.

Only the representative from Chip was left with a particular shortage of cash flow, as his nation was along the northern coast, and had taken heavy damage from the storm that hit Dagos.

Not a direct hit, but close enough to cause some major damage.

That was also why they had come, despite knowing that they would struggle to pay for the new equipment. Having lost the majority of their naval fleet meant that they could no longer patrol their territorial waters as thoroughly as they once had.

That opened the way for pirates and raiders to intercept cargo ships, which increased the cost to get anything shipped to them by sea.

And with increased costs, they were even less able to pay for the essentials that they needed to recover from the disaster.

It was a self-sustaining cycle, a downward spiral that would drag them out of every bit of progress that they had made in the past few decades if they couldn’t do anything about it.

“Perhaps you could go visit the investment bank?” Prince Fahad suggested as the representative from Chip stared helplessly at the figures on the page in front of him.

“I’m afraid that isn’t within the realm of permissions that I have been given. However, I believe that I can make the numbers work for a minimal fleet, along with the other purchases that we have planned.”

Dominic tapped on the desk to get everyone’s attention. “What purchases, might I ask? Perhaps we might be able to offer you a discount, or some well-loved secondhand gear?”

The advisor laughed. “Unless you’ve got used military airships, I’m not sure that you can help. That’s our biggest expense at the moment.”

Prince Fahad began to laugh, quietly at first, then louder as the other Princes joined in.

“What? Did I say something funny?”

Fahad shook his head. “No, not at all. You see, Duke Dominic has been taking old merchant airships on trade for the new high-speed ones that he makes. He’s got to have twenty of them floating around the Duchy that he could upgrade for military use.”

Dominic nodded. That was already done. They had been using them as point defence ships.

“So, you have used military airships, a design that only just came to the market in the last year, just waiting for a customer?”

“Technically, they weren’t used as military airships, I upgraded cargo airships for the purpose, as we keep selling the new designs and I needed some defence fleet vessels for the Duchy.

I’ve got enough that I can spare them for sale to Chip. It will help with your budgeting, and your capability to patrol the shore, which I am certain will be a great relief to the other coastal nations in the region.”

Like West Keria, who had a Prince sitting right here in the room, and shared a border with them.

“You have a point. How much do you want for them?”

Dominic looked at the figures that Chip was working with, and then wrote out a figure.

“That will get you ten militarized airships. Good condition, magitech munitions creation orbs, and new cannons. They’re a standard pattern airship, so you won’t have any trouble teaching a crew to operate them.”

“Oh, that will be wonderful. Let me look at those numbers for a moment, and I will make a decision.”

It didn’t take him long to realize that the used ones were priced at a quarter of what they had been quoted for new ones. Most of that was due to shortage after the storm, but it was still more than Dominic had purchased them for.

So, he turned a profit on the ten airships, they got them for the price of less than three new ones, and Chip could rebuild its shoreline presence.

Ten would be enough that they could make proper patrols again, though it was fewer than the King had requested that they find room for in the budget. Presenting this to him tonight, with a small squadron of biplanes, and ten combat airships for within their budget for just the airships, would be a huge victory.

The sort of victory that would finally begin to turn around the reputation of the King’s advisors in Chip. With the lack of progress recovering from the disaster, they were not exactly in the King’s good graces these days.

In fact, they were so out of favour that most of their duties had been taken over by the Princes, and that was why there wasn’t one available to come here today.

“One moment while I share the good news. I know that the King was planning to place the order for new airships soon, and it would be best for him not to commit to a full order if we can get these airships instead.”

Dominic nodded. Hopefully, it wasn’t too late. This was a big sale for him, and with three hundred biplanes in the region, the airships were not nearly as necessary as they once were.

In fact, Dominic had a plan to replace them with radio towers. Just having a transmitter to relay signals and extend the range would be enough, and that was most of what the airships were doing right now.

The only disadvantage to that was the loss of ability to press the airships into service to move goods around.