The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 509: There Will Be Questions

"Now that I see you standing next to the painting of him as a younger man, the resemblance is undeniable. There is no way around the fact that you are a Wavemates Prince." Trionne announced, then turned to look at some of the other paintings.

Dominic nodded. "I should likely make this room off limits if I bring more people down here. It’s a bit too obvious that we’re related, and that’s going to raise some questions."

The Techno Witch laughed. "Oh, yes it will. But everyone who had ever met the King will have those questions. The older you get, the more that you look like him.

It’s most likely inevitable. His father was the same way. The whole lineage looks like miniature clones of their fathers as they grow up. Give it another fifteen years, and you’ll likely be close to two metres tall, and built like everyone expects a Dragon King to be."

Dominic sighed, and Trionne smiled. "Personally, I’m with you on this one. Taking over responsibilities is overrated. Who would want to be a Royal if they could trust someone else to do the job?"

Dominic laughed. "You know, I started as a blacksmith in the Royal Forges, then went to Advisor, before things got out of hand."

Trionne winked at him. "That’s because you chose to be Advisor to one of the battle obsessed twins. You should have known that talking to them about new weapons is practically foreplay.

Oh, that’s brilliant. I wonder if any of my girls know about weapons? The might be able to land a Royal Guard. The whole Paladin Order is a bit ammo sexual."

Dominic chuckled. That was actually a good description, even if it wasn’t a real word.

"Is this a conspiracy to embed Noble spies among my people?"

Trionne rolled her eyes at him. "If it was, don’t you think I’d pick someone smarter than that lot? Shersdonia has Black Ladies, similar to your Veiled Maids, but trained in Necromancy and blade work. They are a much better option to honey trap the Paladins."

She was not wrong about that.

"Let’s check the rest of the rooms. Perhaps there is something left behind by the old staff."

Dominic locked the room behind them when they went back to the main hall, then checked the next room, only to find a public toilet. That seemed like an unlikely place for a clue, but perhaps that was the point. The cleaning staff were the only ones who would normally pay this area any attention, and unlike the bare rooms, there were some potential hiding spots here.

Dominic quickly scanned the most likely spots, but found that they had all been cleaned as well as everything else, with only a bit of dust left from the long time sealed away.

"No secret love letters hidden in the ladies room?" Trionne asked.

"Nothing I can find. If they left one, they hid it well. Perhaps staff will find it when they come to clean. But I’m not convinced that there will be anything to find. The attack came too fast to evacuate the town, so nobody was brought to the manor to hide.

If anyone was here during the final day, it was a staff member who couldn’t fight, and I don’t know who all would have had access."

The old woman shrugged. "Likely none of them. This wasn’t a place that common staff was allowed to know about. Only the head maid was allowed in the Earl’s office and quarters. None of the rest would have had access."

"Ah, that explains it."

"I take it that there were not a lot of survivors from the region?" She asked.

"Not that I know of. From what I can tell, only a few were killed inside the Manor, the rest died on the grounds. The wall around the compound didn’t exist at the time, I added that recently, to protect the extra guests."

"Ah, I haven’t looked outside yet. I didn’t realize that you’d added fortifications."

They moved from room to room, finding nothing but years of dust, and empty rooms, as all the furniture had been moved into the storage cube for preservation.

It was actually a brilliant idea. It kept everything from getting aged just sitting around waiting for important guests, and most of the contents of the cube looked nearly new.

"Well, that was a bit less exciting than expected, after the first room. But it’s quite nostalgic being back down here again. Should we rejoin the others before they come looking for us?" Trionne suggested.

"I think we should. The entire compound is so horribly overcrowded that it will be a while before I am finished with the day’s duties.

It seems every time we think that things are getting settled, more people arrive."

The old witch laughed. "Oh, you have no idea. We had the Oracle look before I came over. You have so many more people coming.

In fact, there should be more here soon. Not more than an hour, if we count the ones that are coming from western Cygnia. It’s going to be a grand party, the sort that they will talk about for decades to come."

"I should have ordered more Rum."

"Indeed. I suspect that the entire city will sell out of it soon."

The old witch smirked at him as she poured something into her tea from a flask hidden in her coat.

When they returned to the office and sealed the entrance behind them, Dominic unlocked the office, and found a runner waiting outside.

"How bad?"

"Seven airships on final approach, four engineers waiting for construction instructions relating to the Manor compound, and Princess Poppy stabbed someone."

That last one definitely sounded like a "Princess Alexis" sort of issue.

Then, Dominic remembered that Poppy was an Axbridge Princess, not a Cygnia Princess. That made it most definitely his problem.

"Please send the Princess and the victim in. If the engineers are ready, I will see them while she prepares."