The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 477: Work Them Hard

Now that the list was basically complete, everyone broke off to go take care of their portion of the list, and Dominic headed for the Sheriff’s office so that he could inform Nate of their changes in person, and warn him about the temporary residents of the new developments.

However, when he reached the Sheriff’s office, there was a tumbler full of ice on the desk, and Sheriff Nate was drinking rum straight from the bottle.

"Oh, I see that you already heard. That saves me some time. Did you have any questions, or should I proudly announce what you already knew, and then tell you that I will have Dave help keep watch on the dorms?" Dominic asked.

"That second half.

At least I’ll have a Dave or two to help with the security. The town guards are going to have their hands full. With all the drunks, they won’t be in much of a position to be watching the ladies’ dorms all night.

The Trolls should be a good choice. They’re scary enough that nobody will pick a fight with them, and none of the debutantes will assume they’re lurking with intentions to sneak into a bedroom."

Outside the office, Dave laughed. "Plenty of ladies love the Trolls. Dave gets more handsome as it gets harder to see."

Nate laughed. "Oh, wouldn’t that make a scandal? Some debutante gets caught doing the walk of shame from Dave’s barracks?"

Dominic could see it now. The nobles would be talking about it for a generation, and her entire family would disavow any relation to her. He would likely be facing calls to eject her from the event as an imposter from a Common family by the end of the day.

Sent by her own father.

"Do you need anything else to make preparations for the event?" Dominic asked.

Nate shook his head. "I’m already working on the schedule, and the security rotations for the unofficial events, because you know that it won’t just be Nobles coming into town looking for a good marriage partner."

Dominic nodded. "There will be plans for everyone. Pops and Marcos are going to be working together on the facilities for the party.

I will help where I can, but mostly I’ll just be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, greeting wave after wave of people."

As if he had cursed himself, the radio crackled to life, informing them that an airship from Causter was inbound, and that there was one from Castle City not far behind it.

Both held young Noblemen, some with titles, some without. But Dominic assumed that they were at least decent options, as the tickets for the airship wouldn’t have been cheap on short notice.

Nate took a deep breath. "Alright, I will go make sure that the new houses are actually finished, and not just waiting on something while the teams work on something else.

If we start putting them in half finished apartments, I will never hear the end of it."

Dominic nodded. "I will hold as many of the ladies in the Manor as humanly possible. Actually, I will go build an expanded dorm for the servants, so that the Noble ladies can pack themselves into the main courtyards, and not be isolated from their peers.

They will get over the fact that the conditions are crowded, I’m sure."

Nate shrugged. "Cook Beth’s food can silence many complaints. If they find out that the outlying dorms don’t get fed from the main kitchen, they will become much more willing to take the secondary rooms that would normally be reserved for their servants."

"Now, that is brilliant. The more people we can pack into the main houses, the better. It saves on hunting for them when there is an announcement. Plus, it can double as a team building event.

Does that apply to Noble ladies?

I hope that it applies to them and not just to soldiers and adventurers."

Nate laughed. "I’m not an expert, but I do have some experience, after all these years as a lawman.

The answer is no.

The best that you can hope for is that they don’t claw each other’s eyes out during a midnight fight over an outfit that is too similar to something that another Noble lady wore three days ago.

You don’t want to try to understand them. You really don’t."

"Noted. I will leave as much of that as possible to the Royals. I am not properly trained for that sort of event.

Perhaps that’s why they don’t let new people be Nobles? It takes a bloody lifetime to learn how to deal with them, and if you bring in a new person, you have to train them, and then they don’t know enough to train the next generation."

Nate poured the rum into his glass for a change, and shook his head.

"No, I think that the reason they don’t allow new people to join the Nobility is to keep it exclusive. Like limited access to new weapon designs, it’s only impressive if others can’t have it."

With the airships approaching fast, Dominic left the Sheriff’s to reach the docks before they landed.

Both airships were flying low and slow, and he could feel the magic being used on them to keep them aloft, so they were most likely massively overloaded and relying on a mage to even function.

That only made him more concerned about who might be in the airships, and whether they had done something insane like bringing a dozen servants each.

Many of the senior Nobles were known to not leave home without at least a half dozen guards and three or four servants to take care of their requests. But if they had done that for this trip, there was definitely not going to be enough room for all the young Lords who were likely to come for the party.

The first airship slammed into the ground, and Dominic saw the mage at the helm slump over his controls, exhausted, while the young Nobles ignored the hard landing, and rushed out with the enthusiasm of puppies being introduced to the outdoors for the first time.

Time to shine.