The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 505: With Trionne

Dominic took a fresh pot of tea from the maid, and poured a cup for Trionne.

"I hope it’s to your taste, it’s a local vintage."

The old witch sipped the tea, then smiled. "You have trolls here. This is their tea, nobody else makes tea like this."

"Indeed. I have a force of Mountain Trolls as Manor Guards. They are quite adept, and completely loyal."

"To a Dragon Prince? I would imagine that utterly loyal might be an understatement. Don’t mind that portal, they will want to send some sluts through in a few minutes."

Dominic nearly choked on his tea.

"Pardon?"

"Oh, Noble Ladies. You know what they’re like. Nothing but boys, money and fashion in their minds, utterly vapid."

"Can you send them back? We’ve got enough of those. Maybe replace them with some mages, perhaps a witch or two?"

Trionne smiled. "I like you, Duke of Wistover. I will tell them. Did you need a concubine? The King surely has at least one or two suitable ladies in the Palace he could send."

"That is... highly unwise. My wife would not be pleased."

The old woman shrugged. "If she kills you, I can just bring you back to life. An undead Dragonkin would be quite powerful."

"Has anyone ever mentioned that Techno Witches are a bit off?"

"Many times. This tea is lovely, though. Perhaps I will have them send one of my great-granddaughters here. Do you have a proper school?"

"We do. Run by the Duskblade Sect. I don’t know how their supply of Techno Witch teachers is, though."

"A shame that. Mages are a bit boring."

Dominic was quickly realizing why Alexis had run away. Trying to talk to Techno Witches was enough to drive anyone a bit crazy. But he could already hear the sound of running feet on the other side of the portal.

"I think they noticed you are gone."

"It seems so. But they really should not have made me wait. Don’t worry, we won’t be sending a whole army to put on a show for my presence here.

Not that I need one here in Wistover. There are so many skeletons in town, I could raise an entire army."

Dominic hadn’t realized that was an option.

Necromancers were rare, and a Techno Witch who had studied necromantic magic was even more absurd. However, many species of monsters’ bones didn’t burn well, so they had been buried after cremation, and there were the memorial cairns in town filled with bones as well.

A pair of guards in black tabards stopped at the portal, panting for breath.

"Advisor Trionne, you were supposed to wait for the formal request and the others to be ready." The guard huffed.

"That took too long. Look at this wonderful tea that the Duke made for me.

Plus, how often do you get to chat with someone who has such a wonderful nickname? Only a select few Royals manage to earn themselves a proper nickname. The Butcher of Wistover. It just oozes with charisma."

The guards silently stared at her, but the ancient Duchess Dowager didn’t seem to mind at all.

If she was going to ignore the angry Royal Guards, so would Dominic. They were on the other side of the portal, so they weren’t planning to come over. That meant they were someone else’s problem.

A few seconds later, a pair of terrified looking young men in black mage robes with their hoods up came to stand by the portal, and waited silently as Trionne and Dominic sipped tea.

"Do you think that they’re coming in, or did you train them to be silent until addressed?" Dominic asked.

"They’re escorting the debutantes. We couldn’t show up to a debutante ball without them. But they’re just acolytes, they haven’t earned the right to speak in front of their betters yet."

Dominic refilled their tea while Trionne watched the party outside the window, and waited for the others to arrive.

Four middle-aged women in grey dresses that made them look like a stern Governess were the next to arrive, followed by a line of young women walking in strict lockstep.

They looked nearly as terrified as the first two young men did, but mostly terrified of the women in grey.

"Ah, there they are. Duke Dominic, meet the ladies of the Shersdonia Royal Court. Well, ladies might be pushing it, but I recall that they all have some Noble blood." Trionne explained, her voice quiet, but carrying.

"Advisor, kindly do not disparage the lineage of the young ladies in front of the foreign Nobles."

The women in grey stepped through the portal with their stern glared turned on the unrepentant Techno Witch, who waved her teacup at them.

"Oh, don’t give me that. We all know their background. The Duke will surely look into their lineage soon enough, and the Merchant’s Guild won’t lie to him. It’s better that we just tell him in advance.

Besides, he’s got the Natural Sons’ Regiment here."

The young ladies looked confused, and Dominic smiled.

"They’re all younger sons, illegitimate sons and other minor Nobles who enlisted for the promise of titles and lands. A future that they could earn in exchange for miliary merits. They had exceptional records during the conflict with Dagos, but not a man among them was in line for an inheritance that he didn’t earn himself."

That made the young ladies relax a little.

"There are also over a hundred other Noblemen here from all over Cygnia, and they include many who are in line for titles. We also have the Crown Prince of Axbridge here, but he’s officially in attendance in the role of Envoy, not as part of the event."

That didn’t get as many of them excited as Dominic had expected, and he began to wonder if the ladies of Shersdonia were more practical than others, or if these particular ones had been briefed by their families on what sort of nobleman would be best for them to seek out for marriage.

In his experience, even if they had practical thoughts, the idea of getting to be favoured by an extremely wealthy Prince was always more alluring than the idea of marrying a newly appointed Baron or Knight, who had little more than a title and some freshly healed war wounds.

Or, going by their mana levels, perhaps these ladies were simply expecting to make their own way through life, and having a competent husband was a bonus, not a requirement?

Getting a bunch more magic users did seem like a rather generous gift from the Necromancer King.

Suspiciously generous, really.