The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 453: Plain Rude

Dominic heard a commotion outside the warehouse as the Dwarves were finishing their inspection, and rushed out to see what was happening.

A group of travellers had arrived near the outlying farms, and they appeared to be celebrating their arrival at Wistover with fireworks, which had obviously panicked the sheep, which panicked the trolls, which panicked the new arrivals.

Dominic ran outside to start calming everything down, and put himself between the trolls trying to keep the sheep calm, and the new arrivals.

"What are you idiots doing? Fireworks panic the livestock." He shouted.

"And who might you be?" One of the men asked.

"I am the Duke Wistover. Welcome to the city of Wistover, now kindly stop scaring the livestock."

The man didn’t seem to know how to respond to that.

Instead, they were more concerned that the Trolls had started to pay attention to them now that the sheep were calming down.

"What sort of respectable city would allow Trolls to have weapons?" The man demanded, startling Dominic, and Prince Fahad, who had come out to watch the show.

"Wistover, obviously. The city is majority demihuman, and we’ve got Trolls on the guard force. Is that a problem for you?" Dominic asked.

"Isn’t there supposed to be a new Cygnia city near here? We heard that there were opportunities to build up a new territory from nothing." The man asked.

"You’re right where you thought that you were. This is Cygnia’s newest Duchy. But you seem to have been misled about what was going on here. If you’re looking for an all human enclave, I would suggest that you turn northwest and head toward Kinewen, in Dagos territory."

"Why the hell would we do that? We came from that direction, and people are starving all the way to Lympsbury."

"In that case, I suggest you check your attitude at the door. I have no problem running off Dagos loyalists who are going to be a problem for my people." Dominic retorted.

A few of the others grabbed the man and dragged him back before he could speak any more.

"Lord Wistover, please don’t take his words to heart. There has been a misunderstanding of some sort here. We’re not here to cause trouble.

Our hometown was overrun with monsters when Skiple was invaded, and we’ve been looking for a safe spot to settle since.

Please, do you have settlement permits to work farms and form a town?" An older man asked.

Dominic nodded. "I am the Duke Wistover, and I have the authority to permit settlement within my territory. I am just a bit concerned that you might not be a good fit.

If you can’t accept that most of the region is not purely human, and that there is a lot of magic in use, it might be best to keep moving and try for somewhere in the more settled regions."

The old man smiled, and a small flame formed in his hand.

"We have no problem with magic, Your Grace. Most of our people can use at least a little. There was a traditional academy in town before we were attacked."

Dominic sighed. "Dave, send one runner to go get Baron Keith. I think that he might be a good choice for these travellers.

Baron Keith is a more traditional Cygnia Baron under my authority. Settling around his Barony House might be more comfortable for you, and it’s only a few kilometres from here.

There are good fields available, though no proper town.

However, I will leave the decision to him. If he thinks that there will be problems, I will have him give you a letter of reference to get you through the gates of Castle City.

They’re still looking for plenty of mages to help with the rebuilding after the siege."

The group looked unsure what to do now. They were not happy with the man who had insulted the Duke, but many also held his view on nonhumans. They would have preferred to have things back to how they were at home, with just human mages and commoners around.

But that seemed unlikely to happen, and their guess was that Cygnia was deliberately concentrating nonhumans and mages in the old Wavemates territories.

So, they could take the offer to go to Castle City, or they could take their chances on this place and starting over with nothing.

Both might be options, even if they had gotten off on the wrong foot with the Duke.

But how were they to know that setting off some celebratory fireworks would cause such chaos? The kids were just happy to have arrived somewhere safe, where they could stop running.

Only, they found that there were monsters here too. Just somewhat civilized ones.

And the Duke was one of them.

That was not going to be easy for many of their people to accept.

However, there was a group among them who was not so upset about that. The ones whose families had been hiding a bit of Sorcerous lineage for generations, and saw the chance to actually settle here where it was clear that the local Nobles would not give a damn that they weren’t perfectly human.

The Duke didn’t even try to file down his horns or wear a hat.

If there was anywhere that they could live and be themselves, free of the judgment of the humans without magic, this was the place.

They pulled the others together for a discussion while they waited for the Baron to arrive, and Prince Fahad nudged Dominic before whispering to him.

"Are you sure that it’s wise to let them stay at all? Skiple isn’t known to be much better about demihumans than Dagos, even if they do embrace human magic users."

Dominic shrugged. "I think that the group is going to split. After seeing me, and learning the truth of Wistover, I think most of them are going to leave. But if they think that they can behave, I will let the Baron take them in.

He’s not new to the game, and he knows how to keep the commoners in line.

Plus, he can blame me if he has to take harsh actions against them."