The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 465: Sleep In

The maids brought them breakfast in bed once they realized that the Noble couple was awake, and Dominic began planning for a whole day of relaxation.

Or as much as he could get.

There were always reports to go over, the financial numbers that Alexis had compiled, requests from the residents and the Barons, and any mail that they had received.

"How have the negotiations been going?" He eventually asked, remembering that there was a reason there were so many people in the Manor.

"Very well, actually. I have had to step in on behalf of the Cygnia Royal Family now that my brothers were called away, but we’ve nearly got the deal finalized.

There are just a few small projects that everyone wants to be included in the deal that have to be approved, and then we can do the final signing.

It will be strange to have everyone head home again.

Especially Uncle George.

Getting to spend time with him has been great. I know that you and Fahad get along better than the others, but having George here is almost like having an Elder from the family around to keep everything calm when the Axbridge Prince comes up with a hair brained idea.

Did you know that he suggested making powered gliders to use as bombers?

Not a new type of aircraft, literally strapping rockets to gliders and giving the pilot a bag full of grenades.

See, I knew that you would approve."

Dominic laughed at the sour look on her face and kissed her forehead.

"If it’s bombers or escort aircraft for the airships, I’m sure that we can likely come up with something once the first round of airships is finished.

They’re cargo craft, and lightly armed. So, they might need protection if they’re going to be flying through hostile territory.

Not that they usually fly low enough to take ground fire. But we aren’t making the military version until later. That one will be much more heavily armed, and we will make it more sleek with higher power output, so it can overtake the existing airship fleets of the other nations." He explained.

"You came up with something that will let it do that?" She replied, gesturing with her fork.

"Sort of. We did the math, and it should work out like that. We have the strength, so as long as we make the airship properly sleek, we will have the thrust to push it way over a hundred kilometres an hour."

Alexis laughed. "That will hunt down Dagos airships like they’re parked. Everyone else on the continent is thinking of airship shipping at the speeds of ocean vessels, so you must have done something extreme."

"We made it an integrated airship, not a lift balloon over a conventional ship design like the old ones.

It’s not as traditional looking, or it won’t be, I should say. But it’s going to be fast, and it will hold a huge amount of cargo."

"Well, I suppose that it doesn’t really matter what it looks like, as long as it works. But you know how people are. The cooler looking stuff sells so much better than the functional but ugly."

Dominic chuckled. "I’ve seen people come in asking for bronze grappling hooks, disappointed that there were only steel ones. It didn’t matter that it was a better hook, only that it didn’t look as cool."

"Then you understand the danger. It might be the most powerful cargo airship ever made, but if it doesn’t look like one, they will reject it."

Dominic nodded. "We are making the cargo hold look like a ship, and function as one, technically. You can land it on water to load and unload because that’s where most of the open area is. Or you can dock it at a proper airship dock if you have one.

The difference will mostly be that the lift will be from an attached device, and not one held to the cargo area with ropes.

It’s a bit of a design risk, but it’s the only way that we can get the kinds of speeds that we need out of this design. It’s also going to be relatively oblong and awkward looking, like the classic oval balloons.

I don’t know whether that will help or not, but wide cylinders are better than long and narrow ones from a gas capacity standpoint."

"I’m sure that the Guild will tell you if they think that the final design is an issue. But you can always just make it bigger to give it the right shape if that’s an issue."

Alexis paused as Dominic began to laugh.

"We already had to alter the design so that it would fit in the factory. We might have gone a little bit overboard with the cargo capacity."

"How much?"

"It should be over fifty tonnes with a full crew, fuel and supplies on board."

Alexis just shook her head in dismay. "So, you wanted it to carry as much or more than a sailing ship? No wonder you’ve been holed up in that factory so long, you really were trying to make a merchant ship fly."

Dominic just shrugged in reply and let his hands wander until Alexis swatted at them and frowned.

"I suppose that we should get out of bed before we get truly distracted."

"Or we can lock the door and just spend the day getting distracted."

She was tempted, she truly was. But she had already made plans and promises for the day, and the other Royals would never let her live it down if she skipped a planned event to spend all day in bed.

Even if she wasn’t spending it in bed alone.

"Get dressed up fancy, we will go visit the others and the Envoys from the three nations for lunch. I promised them that I would be there, and they’ll be happy to see you.

They love gossip, and a few hints that Wistover has new products coming to market in the next season will get them all excited.

The better their mood is, the more smoothly the negotiations go."