The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 545: What To Choose

Dominic led the new arrival to his office, where he found that there was already a crowd waiting for him. All the Princes were waiting in chairs along one wall, and Alexis was at his desk with a scowl on her face.

"Prince George, it’s good to see you again. I had thought that the ladies had completely overwhelmed you. Prince Fahad, welcome back. Prince Alex, this should be of great interest to you."

Then he turned to Alexis. "My lovely wife, how kind of you to keep my chair warm while I was out. This fine gentleman has come to apologize for the city of Westleby’s role in the rebellion, and to ask our assistance in properly conveying that to the King of Dagos."

"And why might he have come to you before going to his own King?" Alexis asked, not trusting Dominic’s words.

"I may or may not have killed a large number of people in the city during my most recent hunt for war criminals."

The man nodded solemnly, and Alexis turned her attention to him.

"Did he?"

"Yes your Highness. Well over ten thousand in total. You see, what happened was..."

Everyone listened quietly as the mage explained the situation, and how they had been pressured by their Noble to join the cause, then fed false information that he had only realized was false after the storm had nearly destroyed everything, and he had disobeyed orders.

That was when he had travelled into Skiple to see old friends and learned the truth of things.

"Well, I at least understand where he’s coming from. They were deceived, even if they should have known better. Since when were the Dagos Royals so friendly with mages? And why wouldn’t they let you talk to anyone outside your region if they were actually on the right side?

It should have been obvious that you were being scammed." Prince Alex noted.

The mage nodded. "They were never friendly to us, but they saw the need to have mages around. All the Nobles, and especially the Royals, were terrified of the Wavemates sorcerers turning on them and trying to take back their nation before taking over large parts of Dagos.

The fear seemed unjustified, given how fast their nation fell the first time, but it was such an ingrained fear that we all assumed that the Nobles knew something that we didn’t."

Alex smiled at his sister, and Alexis winked at him.

"I would say that much was true. They definitely knew something that you didn’t. The Dragon King chose not to fight back because he knew that it would turn all the human nations against his people.

But most of the Sorcerer Nobles who survived the first few days fled during the attack, and were replaced by Dagos Nobles.

That was why they were terrified. Duke Wistover, with just fifty trolls, could take any city in the north of Dagos. If fifty or a hundred Sorcerer Lords returned to Wavemates, and launched coordinated attacks on Dagos, not even the Cygnia Armies already stationed there would be likely to save them from the wrath of their returned enemies." The Second Prince agreed.

Prince George Mitfield cleared his throat. "That may be true, but the most urgent part of his arrival here should be finding a way to introduce the matter at court in Albroles without having him executed as a traitor."

Prince Fahad drummed his fingers on the desk, and Dominic led the mage to an empty seat in the corner of the room.

The man looked utterly terrified by his current company, Royals from three different nations, plus the Duke of Wistover. But he was determined that he was not going to let another tragedy befall his city.

Westleby was only thirty thousand people to begin with, and Dominic had killed nearly every man between fifteen and forty years old.

They couldn’t take any more punishment.

The city had blessedly avoided the fate of being flooded the way that the cities north of it had, but it was still a coastal city, and it had taken extensive damage from the storm.

Now that they had no men left to do the rebuilding, as they had all been conscripted into the army, then annihilated in an afternoon, it was up to him and the other old men to find a way to save who was left.

"What if we have one of the Princes accompany him to court in Albroles? That should at least get him through the door and buy him time to speak before the King makes a decision?

The information that the last clone of Prince Kaizon is based in Helster might be valuable enough information to buy his life, and that of his village.

Does anyone know how large Helster is? We might be able to arrange something to go get that last clone orb." Dominic suggested.

The mage shuddered, and Alexis rolled her eyes. Dominic wasn’t actually planning on wiping out the whole city of Helster to find the orb.

Probably.

If he was left to do the planning, it would likely involve a cavalry regiment with mortars and an airship bombardment fleet. So, it would likely destroy a large part of the city if they didn’t turn over the Orb and their clone of the Prince.

The more concerning part was that it was just a clone, and they likely thought that it was the real Prince.

Nobody knew where the original was, or what had happened to him.

Someone obviously had him near them long enough to make many of these orbs, and they were based on his personality, but she didn’t know what sort of magic had been used.

If it was blood magic, as they had seen in use elsewhere during the battles, there might not even be an original Prince Kaizon left, just a small fragment of his soul stored in the last active orb.

And that would be a tragedy for everyone looking to see justice done in Dagos.