The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 569: Procedural Stalemate

Prince Fahad tapped the table and began to speak.

"As so many of these refugees are Axbridge citizens, we do have some concerns about the situation. They have already crossed our borders, so it would not be practical to turn them back and force them to return to their home nation immediately.

However, we cannot condone such a massive loss of talent.

The refugees seeking shelter within Wistover are not just simple farmers. There are Merchants, wealthy businessmen, even entire Mage Towers. Whole towns along the border have emptied in this exodus, and many thousands of the ones due to arrive by ground in the next few days are nomads from the desert.

Their loyalties were never clear, and now that they are gathering in Wistover, the Axbridge Crown feels that they might be a threat both to the peace, and to the trade agreements that we have come to for the region." He explained.

The phrasing made it clear that this was not his personal opinion, but that of his father, the King of Axbridge.

"What do you suggest that we do about it?" Dominic asked carefully.

"Security vetting. Everyone who enters should be assessed as a threat to the allied nations."

That would also gather a huge amount of information about Wistover’s residents for the various Royal Families.

Prince George Mitfield raised his voice a little as he spoke, asserting authority.

"I would like to suggest that as an impartial party in this matter, Mitfield will oversee the threat assessment.

While we are paty to the alliance, neither the refugees nor their destination are within our nation."

Prince Alex shook his head. "Though they might be refugees, they can now be considered subject to the Cygnian Crown by their own free will.

It wouldn’t be appropriate to have foreigners interrogate them."

He appeared to be reading from the stone tablet in his hands, and Dominic realized that this argument was mostly between the actual Regents, using the representatives here as their proxies.

There was a moment’s silence, while the only sound was the frantic scribbling of the assistants, who took notes and made calculations based on the information that they were receiving.

The pure number of refugees headed to Wistover was overwhelming.

Forget housing them, they would have to build an entire city, even after spreading all the farmers to appropriate properties.

And that was a problem for everyone else.

How did you calculate a proper threat assessment when an entire city appeared where a small village once stood? How did you calculate the military influence that they might wield when they had an inordinate number of Sorcerers, Mages and nonhuman soldiers in said city?

And how did that convert to political influence once they started using all that excess magic and military might to promote the new city’s own interests?

It was the right of a Duke to promote his Duchy. In fact, it was one of his duties as a Landed Nobleman.

However, that did not mean that it wasn’t anyone else’s concern, or that they didn’t wish to be as involved as possible. They were all preparing to argue their point when Advisor Trionne spoke again.

"In the interest of international cooperation, why don’t we delegate teams to take care of the vetting? A member from each nation’s advisory group can be present when each of the refugees comes to register themselves.

They can ask what questions they want, and everyone will have to come, as it’s the only way to get a home in the region." She offered.

Dominic nodded. That would be the best way, and it moved all the responsibility for vetting onto the Emissaries and their teams, not onto him personally.

That way, if someone slipped through, it would not directly come back to him.

He would still have to go and explain the situation at least once a day, at least while everyone was still arriving. But after that, he could start arranging skilled workers to assist the infrastructure teams.

If there really were some who were going to be an issue, they would either learn about it right away, or they would know to keep their affiliation to the Wavemates bloodline quiet.

Dominic wasn’t under any illusion that they would actually find the troublemakers by simply asking questions, unless it was a group of dangerous criminals that were turned in by other travellers.

That wouldn’t be enough to assure the Princes that Wistover was not going to go rogue and try to gather the commoners to gain control of the whole Province.

But it would delay the accusations.

The Senior Royals all turned to each other, having other concerns about the plan.

The Emissaries and their teams were authorized to negotiate, but they were not security forces, and they were not authorized or trained to deal with a situation where they actually found someone who was in the region with nefarious purposes, or who was a wanted criminal.

So, they were going to have to get the soldiers involved.

That meant that there was going to have to be some negotiation between the nations about cooperation, military regulations, and procedures to accomplish the task without violating the Duke’s Noble right to accept citizens who were not indentured to or under sanction by another.

And the biggest part was that in this situation, they couldn’t just ask Dominic to have his people go along with the overseers, as there were still the concerns that all of these new arrivals were part of a grand uprising with goals of elevating his position or rebelling against the Crown.

It left them in a tight spot, and Trionne was living for it.

Nobody knew what they were supposed to do in this situation, but if they didn’t do anything before the first airships arrived, Dominic would have to go greet them, as it was his duty to keep the peace within his territory, and some of them would be cargo ships subject to search and duties on arrival.

Dominic didn’t actually charge any duties on goods being transferred, but it would still be a protocol violation that the other nations could use against whoever tried to stop it.