The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 475: Too Many

Dominic relayed the same message to the Mitfield troops that he had to the Axbridge runner, and got nearly the same response.

They were eager to see what sort of potentially available women would show up for the officers to meet outside of the main event for the higher Nobles.

Not everyone was in a financial position to be dropping a fortune on bridal gifts to wed some spoiled daughter of a wealthy landowner.

The custom was that the bridal gifts matched the dowry, and a pampered daughter of a wealthy family would get a pretty substantial dowry. More than most of these men could afford.

But a daughter of a branch family who was working a day job?

That was the sort of bride that they could happily take home and try making an entire sports team with. Plus, she was more likely to be trustworthy with the finances than the pampered one.

The longer that he talked with the soldiers, the more that he realized practicality was King to the lower Nobles.

Even if they had a chance at a Princess or a Duke’s daughter, they wouldn’t take it except in highly specific circumstances. Something like Dominic’s situation, where they were likely to inherit a large amount of wealth and a huge territory, were obviously an exception.

But they also wouldn’t want to marry into the Royal family if they could get a small property of their own, only if they were looking at a large financial reward, but no title or lands.

The next stop was the airship factory, and Dominic discovered that they had worked wonders in the short time that he was away.

The essential structure of the flight envelope was beginning to take shape already, with sections being assembled on the ground, and lifted upright with the crane.

That let them assemble half of the cross members at ground level, instead of doing the attachments after the structure was in the air. It saved a huge amount of time, and Dominic could tell already that they were going to be ready and waiting on materials by the time that the silk for the covering finally arrived.

"Lord Dominic. I hear that there are fun times ahead for the Manor House." Gully greeted him.

"Indeed. We’ve got what feels like half the Noble Bachelors of the eastern continent headed for us already, and I’m reasonably certain that the other half is just waiting for permission."

"Well, we’re on our way to keeping the schedule. I have talked to the Merchants, and they will drop our order here as soon as it arrives, so there are no delays."

"In that case, I will leave you to your work. I need to go talk to the Adventurers about housing some people and parties in their space."

The airship team laughed as Dominic left to make arrangements for even more guests, but quickly returned to their tasks.

They were lying low, trying not to get noticed or have people spread their description all over the continent. At least, not so soon after they had arrived. Once they had been here a while, fewer people would question their origins, and more people would be unclear just how long they had worked at the airship factory.

If the person who was asked about it had arrived after they had, the answer would be "longer than I’ve lived in town" and that was perfect, as they were hoping to create an overlap to dissuade awkward questions.

"Lord Dominic, come on into the office, we were just pouring a drink. Dave, do you want tea?" Guild Master Stone called as the group approached the Adventurer’s Guild building.

"Leaf soup is good." Dave agreed.

The assistants brought out a large kettle of tea and a set of beer mugs for the Dave brigade to drink tea from, while Dominic stepped inside the Adventurer’s Guild office, where he found Rill, the Merchant Guild leader, as well as Pops and Engineer Marcos of the Royal Infrastructure teams waiting for him.

"Word spreads fast, it seems," he greeted the room.

"Indeed. We’ve just learned that we have at most a week to prepare for the event of a century.

These sorts of massive matchmaking events do not happen often, and certainly not on an international scale. So, it falls on us to make the Nobles of three nations feel welcome here, and we have limited available housing, with even fewer traveller amenities, such as restaurants." Engineer Marcos replied.

Rill nodded. "We have people on the way, and they’ll stay for the duration instead of moving on. But it’s not going to be enough to make Wistover into a metropolis."

Dominic shrugged. "I never intended to.

My first thought was to call the farmers, have them come into town for an outdoor market selling every specialty that they can bake, boil or roast, and put it all under a large tent.

It won’t be like anything else that the Nobles have ever seen, but I do have one amendment.

It’s not three nations. It’s five. Possibly six."

The others simply stared at him, refusing to process that news.

"We have guests from West Keria already, as well as Amer, Cygnia, Mitfield and Axbridge. But I wouldn’t rule out at least one more nation sending some ladies our way."

"Well, I suppose that doesn’t change much, other than the likelihood that we’re going to have someone lose their minds over a dish they don’t like." Branch Leader Stone laughed.

Dominic turned to Pops. "What are the odds that we can get a sufficient amount of entertainment and food set up before they arrive? I know it’s not really your department, but you’ve likely got the most experience with impromptu parties."

The old dwarf laughed. "Impromptu parties, I like that.

I already had mead order more liquor and ale, the Innkeeper has ordered everything he can get his hands on. But Rill has ten caravans of supplies coming our way, with a full merchant fair to support them.

That will take care of the basic shopping, we will just need to have our farmers chip in to keep the food flowing.

It’s far less than what they were shipping when we still had the Cygnia military force here, so I know that they can come up with the actual supplies, it’s just a matter of getting it cooked and distributed when the town is already bursting at the seams."

Engineer Marcos sighed. "That’s true. We’ve been building houses, apartment blocks, storefronts with housing, warehouses, anything and everything. But the moment that we finish and sign off, someone is standing next to us with an allocation order signed off by Castellan Julio and a load of furniture to move in."