The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 433: Trolls Love Tea

The first order of business the next morning was to check on the town, to make sure that everyone managed to get settled in well enough without supervision.

"I will check on the town, you check the farms." Alexis suggested, looking at the map of new arrivals. They had heavily favoured farm life, even though they hadn’t brought much farming equipment with them.

Perhaps they had never had much, but Dominic strongly suspected that many of them were not farmers to begin with, and had simply taken the chance to upgrade.

That was within their rights, as far as he was concerned. When you were offered something good, you took what you could handle to give yourself the best shot in the future. Anything less would be doing your family a disservice.

"Alright, I will go check on them. The farm houses are mostly complete, but I can help them meet the neighbours as well. A bit of friendly meet and greet will help them get everything in order before the rains get bad.

It already looks like it might rain again this afternoon, and some of them are likely to need encouragement to go out and start getting what they can out of the fields.

Fortunately, with the majority already harvested, they can likely pay off some of the neighbour boys to help them get it in under cover." Dominic agreed.

He stepped outside, and immediately, a pair of trolls came running to meet him.

"Big boss man, where are we going? Are we going to see friends?" The troll asked.

"We are. We are going to make sure that your friends got settled into good houses, and that they have what they need. I have the map." Dominic explained.

The pair nodded, and then two more came running over to stand beside Alexis.

"What are you doing?" She asked them.

"You smell like the boss, so we will follow you too." The Troll explained, as if that was the end of the conversation.

"I have guards."

"Tiny guards. And the woman with no face." The Troll agreed, but showed no signs of moving.

Alexis turned to Dominic for support, but he just shrugged. "It’s only two. They’re good for heavy lifting if you need to help someone. Just let them accompany you, I will start on a training plan to get them up to your standards later."

That was not the problem. She preferred not to make a spectacle of herself, and that would not be possible if she was walking around with a pair of massive Mountain Trolls.

At that point, why not just ride a horse through town with a banner?

But as she left the Manor, and saw that the new people all waved happily when they saw the Trolls, she realized that their presence actually made her job easier.

The new arrivals came out to greet the trolls, even before they knew who she was.

"We bring them soup when there isn’t enough soup." The Troll explained.

"You have nature magic?" Alexis asked.

"Really good magic. Even better than the Garden Elf."

"Why do you call her that? I can introduce you later, if you don’t know her name." She replied.

"The goats call her that, so we call her that." He replied with a shrug.

"Who else have the goats introduced you to?" The veiled maid asked.

"All the faceless women, Beth the cook, the lost ’not a goat’ named Jasmine that keeps hiding in the horse shed, and Colonel Wilkes, who carries candy in his pockets."

The maid laughed at the Trolls’ rendition of how the goats saw everyone.

The creatures terrorized the farrier, constantly butting into her and chasing her out of places she was trying to work. To hear that the goats thought that she was just lost and getting into things she wasn’t supposed to touch made it even funnier.

But to think that Colonel Wilkes, ever the professional soldier, carried candy in his pockets for the goats. The trolls knew how to get the real gossip.

"Are there more interesting people that we should know about? We’re going to see the ones that live in town today." The maid asked, hoping to get advance warning of anyone who might be trouble.

"There is the cake lady. She’s got seventeen cats, she is interesting. Oh, and that farmer with the ox tail. He’s interesting too. Strong like an ox, but shaped like a human." The Troll explained.

The maid smiled behind her veil. The Troll obviously hadn’t understood the sort of people that she was actually wanting to know about, and instead told her about the ones whose existence was memorable to the Trolls.

So, she asked directly. "Are there any troublemakers in the group?"

The Troll shook his head. "No troublemakers. The old Dave chased them all away, and then we had to move."

"That would be the Elder, the old human with the name Dave, right?" She asked.

"Yep, that’s the one. He’s just over there, I can smell him."

"You can smell people?"

"Only upwind. You’re not easy to smell, there’s too much soap on you. It tickles my nose, like the lilac flowers you made it from."

Alexis laughed at the interaction between the maid and the Troll. Perhaps bringing him along on their trip was not a bad thing after all. Not only did the new people like him, he had exceptional senses.

"The baker is a good person, I think I will like her." The other troll suddenly announced, though they were two blocks from the bakery.

"How do you know that?" Alexis asked curiously.

"She smells like sweets and only one male. Plus, everyone greets her when they walk past her shop. I can hear them."

Alexis smiled, while the maid nearly choked on her tongue. The trolls could smell if you had been with someone recently? Oh, they were going to be a gossip goldmine around the Manor.

How could they not be, when they were so sweet and simple, but could tell instantly if someone had been sleeping around or having an affair?