The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 571: Too Easily Sidetracked

The Royal observers smiled as Dominic made his sales pitch to the Merchants, trying to convince them to upgrade their airships.

They might not have lost everything the way that the people in their cargo hold had, but these were lean times for everyone, not the optimal moment for most merchants to shell out a huge amount of money on a new airship.

They were tempted, though.

They had heard rumours about this new design even before they had seen it in action, and now that they had firsthand experience, the possibilities seemed endless.

Not just regional transport, they could start shipping perishables all over the continent.

The amount of money that they could make hauling regional spices across the continent at those speeds would quickly make them very wealthy men. Not to mention the fresh regional fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be impossible to get except for the extremely wealthy who could afford a high-level mage to open portals for them.

Lower level mages were very limited in how far they could go.

Usually, it wasn’t more than a hundred kilometres per spell gem level, or fifty per trade core level, if they were a conventional mage.

That was not enough to make a six or seven thousand-kilometre trip without repeatedly exhausting your mage.

So, getting things transported like that usually relied on the Merchant’s Guild doing a portal relay, and they charged an exorbitant rate. Mages who could use portal at a high level were not cheap to hire, and simply casting portal all day long was not a lucrative job.

Why would they bother when they could be personal guards to Royalty, and make more than most Noblemen?

Many things in life were like that. It wasn’t that nobody could do them, it was that the ones who could do them had much better things to do with their time, and paying them to do it would cost more than it was worth.

So, the regional cuisines were somewhat set, and only a huge shakeup of the market, like airships that could travel a steady hundred kilometres an hour all day and night, would be enough to make a real difference.

Not just that, but the one they had seen was also armed.

It might have only been a single cannon on each side, but it was a cargo vessel, and that sort of defensive ability was not easy to justify in most merchant airships.

Only the ones travelling through conflict zones would bother to burn the capacity.

"We will consider it after we have finished with our current obligations. How long does it take to make them?" One of the merchants asked.

"We can turn out one roughly every two weeks, resources pending."

That was pretty good. Two dozen a year would make a significant change to the market for high-value and urgent goods, but not to general transport. They wouldn’t replace the five to ten truck overland transport convoys, which could carry twenty times as much cargo at a slower rate.

But it would cause issues for the other airship captains.

The best paying routes would become the fast-moving ones, and the cost of upgrading would involve a heavy loss on their old airships, once the design started to go out of style.

Dominic did have plans for those old airships, though.

If he could get them at a discount, or perhaps as part of a trade deal for reduced pricing on their new unit, he could use them as point defence airships for Wistover.

Loaded with self-loading cannons and a bit more magic, they would be excellent at defending the Duchy.

The new ones would be better, but there was no need to get rid of the old ones entirely.

It was not yet their time.

Even just giving them a motor upgrade could increase their speed some, and some magic could increase their maximum operating altitude. That was enough.

Prince Alex coughed to get Dominic’s attention.

"Right, I am supposed to be vetting refugees. Thanks for your time, gentlemen. Let me or the workers at the airship factory know if you’re in the market. I don’t know if a definite buyer for the second unit has been found, but Merchant Rill from our local depot will know the answer."

Dominic moved to address the new arrivals, and a few men came forward as the representatives.

"Good day. Things will be a bit unconventional today. I will be collecting the names and family count, along with trade skills, the same as usual, but there have been some security concerns with imposters, so I need to ask everyone some questions individually." Dominic explained.

"Your Grace, the merchants can vouch for our origin." One of the men insisted softly.

"Indeed. And they did. However, that doesn’t completely eliminate our need to ask the questions. I will make them as easy and painless as possible. However, when you come to register the family, everyone will have to be present.

If there is a member unaccounted for, there will be additional questions, and it is possible that the request for specific housing locations or types will be rejected." Dominic explained.

That made sense as a measure to everyone.

They had seen how many people were coming this way. Most were on foot, and there were groups every few hours as they passed overhead. It made them glad to have secured transport by airship.

Most of the groups had been travelling for weeks, and had been turned away in multiple locations before settling on Wistover, or hearing that it might be willing to take far more people of a wider group of backgrounds than anyone else.

The part that they were worried about was just how true the rumours were, and what the restrictions were.

It was entirely up to Dominic and the Barons who they allowed to settle in their territories. The fact that the Duke was clearly dragonkin might let some of them breathe easier, but for all they knew, he might harbour some of those backward notions like the traitor Nobles who had defected to Dagos did.