The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 510: Angry Poppy

The engineers rushed inside the moment that Dominic mentioned them, already unrolling blueprints.

"Your Grace, we’ve got plans, and if we rush, we can get the base structures up before the airships land. Our apologies for interrupting a meeting between Advisors."

"No worries. Your work is time-sensitive. What do you have for me?"

"We have room for a secondary courtyard ring outside the existing one. It will cramp the gardens, and bring the housing nearly to the pastures, but if we limit the exterior space and make them four stories tall instead of two, with tile roofs, we can get them up in under an hour a piece.

There won’t be anything in them, not even a fireplace insert, but we can call for some to be shipped over.

The guests should be arriving with travel supplies, I hope, and they can fill it as they wish. It’s working in the warehouses we built between the city and the airship docks as well. We added a mezzanine level to them, which we can remove later if we need so that they can set tents on two floors.

It’s crowded, but it’s indoors, dry and clean."

Dominic nodded. "Are there still more of them being built? I suspect that we’re not going to see a slowdown in housing demand any time soon, and we can’t put everyone out in the rain.

Not with this sort of weather.

Once we build proper housing for everyone who stays, they can be repurposed into factories and such. It’s not a major loss for us to build as many warehouses as we can.

The big airship is on its way back as well. They’re collecting livestock, which will have to go to the farmers. We don’t have room for them inside the Manor grounds."

The engineer from the infrastructure team laughed. "I doubt those goats would let them stay, anyhow. Territorial, they are."

Then he nodded and handed over the designs for Dominic to check.

They were basically the same as the existing ones, with a balcony around every level, and a small yard. Smaller than the front row, and not surrounded by hedges. But time was limited, and they were going to have to rush to just get the basic building up.

"Alright, do what you can. We will likely be filling them as fast as you put them up."

The engineers left, and Dave escorted Princess Poppy in, with the girl slung over his shoulder, and Prince Fahad chasing after him.

"Dave, put the Princess down." The Prince demanded.

"Nope. She’s in trouble. Boss lady said we can’t thump a Princess, so she’s going to the boss man."

Dominic saw that Fahad was smiling at Dave’s response, but he was doing his best to keep a serious composure, given the circumstances. The problem was that he was completely incapable of stopping Dave without resorting to violence.

He had tried the nonviolent route, and the troll had just picked him up and carried him in the other hand.

"Kindly arrange the Princess in a chair and guard the door." Dominic instructed.

Dave very gently placed the irate and red-faced Princess in a chair, while she glared at him with a level of fury that shocked Dominic. Princess Poppy was a very bubbly person, not the sort to stab anyone, and certainly not the sort to pick fights with a four hundred kilo troll in battle armour.

"Alright, Your Highness. Kindly start at the beginning because I have no idea what was going on while I was busy with the Advisor from Shersdonia."

Princess Poppy sat silently, glaring at everyone. So, Dominic poured tea for the group, and then went to the cabinet to offer a harder beverage to Prince Fahad and Trionne.

"Crown Prince Fahad, this is Duchess Dowager Trionne, Advisor to the King of Shersdonia. Duchess Trionne, Crown Prince Fahad of Axbridge, and his younger sister Princess Poppy."

Trionne nodded politely. "Good to see you again, Your Highness."

Fahad gave Dominic a look that screamed ’get her out of here’, but the old woman lived for gossip, and he might need to have Dave physically remove her.

"Now, can I get an overview, or do I need to call Dave back in to explain the nuances of the situation?"

Fahad cleared his throat, and Poppy sighed.

"Fine, but only because letting Dave try to explain would be a travesty.

I first met Janice of Biverlow Mews when we were small children. She’s been a bitch ever since."

Fahad growled at her, while Trionne smiled.

"What? I won’t say that I like her. Anyhow. Every time that we meet, she goes out of her way to try to frame me for something. This time, she paid off one of her escorts to corner me in a dressing room.

He attempted to pull at my clothes, so she could snap a compromising picture, and I lost my temper."

She went silent and crossed her arms over her chest, while Dominic finished a glass of rum and poured himself another.

"So, what you’re saying is that I have a bleeding man in the medical centre, who should be charged with sexual assault, but who can’t be because it would ruin your reputation. And I can’t charge him with corruption because he works for a Cygnia Noble, and he was just doing as his employer said.

If it were one of mine, this would be easier.

Prince Fahad, do you have anything to add?"

The Crown Prince contemplated his answer over an entire glass of rum, while Dominic waited patiently.

"I am not convinced that the two of them will be able to peacefully coexist in the same place at this point. One or the other needs to be relocated."

"Dave, what are the guests saying about the situation? I know that you have good ears."

Dave smiled. "Everyone likes the Poppy, even when she is bratty. The other girl has lots of friends, too. But not the real friends, the sort who want things."

That didn’t make it easier. If she were awful to everyone, there wouldn’t be any complaints if he relocated her to one of the houses in town. But it sounded like she had fairly high status.

As he recalled, Biverlow Mews was a County, so she was most likely a Count’s daughter. Influential enough that most would want to make the alliance, and that openly kicking her out would cause political complaints about Dominic.

But the first issue would be dealing with her injured man.