The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 484: Why So Close?

After a few minutes of socializing, getting some of the hormonal need to chat with the women out of their systems, the Barons began to make their way back over to Dominic.

He was the one who would be assigning them territories, and most of them were’t sure how well he remembered them, or what for.

When they had left the Capital, they were still wet behind the ears Noble recruits, none of them with any combat experience, and though they had trained hard, Dominic had seen them at their newest. Certainly not at their best.

Dax, the son of Marquis Burton, and loyal brother of the Natural Sons’ Regiment, came over with a smile on his face, which now looked far more haggard and gaunt than it had the last time that Dominic saw him.

"Baron Dax, good to see you again, and congratulations on your promotion." Dominic greeted him.

"Thank you, Duke Dominic.

Now that’s a strange thing to say. Though I’m lucky in a way. If they had decided to recognize your Royal Lineage and bring you into the family as a Prince, I would have to call you ’Your Highness’ and I’m not sure that I can do that with a straight face after I’ve seen you hurl mortars at Dagos soldiers like a Goblin throwing rocks."

Dominic laughed "I’ve thrown them at Goblins as well. I highly recommend it.

A bit of a waste of munitions, if you ask me. But if you throw enough of them, your casualty rates drop significantly.

All that it took was a few thousand mortar rounds, and most of a Goblin invasion force was gone."

Dax laughed "How did you get them to charge you? We launched mortars into their ranks outside the city for weeks without stop, and still didn’t manage to get rid of them."

"I charged them, and the mages that were controlling them. All it takes is a bit of pressure and they have no problem getting back into mortar range. Or into punching range, if you don’t throw them fast enough."

"I will keep that in mind. Are we still expecting to get more monsters in the area?"

"Naturally. They live in the wild areas, and there are more than enough of them around that we will never truly get rid of them. But then we’re not completely done with that Dagos Prince yet, are we?

I fully expect that he’s going to do something stupid and aggressive soon, since his last plan didn’t work out for him."

The soldier sighed, then shrugged. "Well, if it brings it all to a nice tidy conclusion, I’m all for it.

But I wanted to ask you a bit about the Barony Manors. Are they really in inhabitable condition?"

"Most of them, yeah. There are many further out that have taken heavy damage and decay losses. But the ones closest to the Main town were under a curse, and nothing came in to mess with them.

No monsters, no looters, nothing.

They might have taken some damage, or gotten unwanted visitors in the past few months, but even then, most of them should only need cleaning and basic repairs to move in, and they’ll still have the majority of their basic goods.

They weren’t invaded by looters, but hostile mages and summoned monsters, to they never remove things like furniture and kitchenware."

Dax shrugged. "You’ve got a point there. Even if they ripped out the walls to burn for heat, they’re not going to take the stove with them.

So, it’s mostly a matter of finding the right spots.

The boys all have big plans for the next few years before that tax exemption ends, so you should likely be prepared for a bit of chaos."

"Oh, there’s no need to worry about that. We’ve got Mountain Trolls as Manor Guards, Royal Guards patrolling with the Princess. We brought back the veiled maids program, and we’ve got magic using militia with magitech rifles."

"So, in short, you’ve built a city that is an absolute nightmare for anyone else? That does sound fun to live in.

What sort of rifles have you given the locals?"

"A simplified version of the ones that I made for the Regiment. It took a bit of work, but I got the design to work much more smoothly, with just a bit more magic. I gave them the option for mana bullets, instead of just solid shot made with a spell.

But that’s because most of the militia are magic users already. Minor Sorcerers, mixed blood sorts, failed mage academy applicants. Pretty near every commoner in town can use at least slightly more magic than usual.

It’s enough that we didn’t even have to go out of our way to recruit shift workers for a factory making magitech stove inserts.

That’s our major export right now, by the way."

"Well, now I feel much better about spending the evening looking for a wife. Who knows, if I find one and hit it off, we can go house hunting together.

Literally."

"Well, that’s one way to help a lady feel at home. If she gets to pick the house and the territory that goes with it, there is no room for complaints, either.

I will warn you, though. The Baronies here were quite small when they were originally founded, so if the King awarded you a larger portion of land as a Barony, not every house will be eligible for renovation.

The two that are already here are only a few square kilometres each, and that is already enough that they almost overlap some of the other houses." Dominic added.

"It’s good land, so I can see how that would make sense for Wavemates. They had a lot more Nobles and fewer Commoners. Enough that it blurred the distinction between what should be a Knight and what was a Barony.

A side effect of being a bit too free with the titles, I suppose. My father had some opinions on the matter, but I’ve learned not to trust speculation."

The theory did sound plausible, though. If the Baronies should have been Knights living under the Earldom, then it made sense that they were so close together. Then, when they were promoted to Baron, their lands were simply smaller than their title would normally warrant.