The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 573: Only One Failure

Dominic let others take care of the situation while he interviewed more of the new arrivals, and found that most of the others were quite mundane.

There were only a few truly tragic sob stories, most had simply decided that with everything wrecked and themselves out of work, or out of a home, it was time to use their remaining savings and take a risk.

Well, if they had savings.

Most of the occupants of the airships admitted to owing the Merchants’ Guild at least part of the fare, and some of them he didn’t ask.

That wasn’t really surprising, and it certainly wasn’t a dealbreaker for new arrivals to show up with some debt. The Merchants’ Guild had a strong presence here in Wistover, and they could take a cut of the shipments that farmers and tradesmen gave to them for sale.

For farmers, who were going to be moving into existing houses, with good fields, it shouldn’t be too heavy of a burden.

But if some of the new arrivals couldn’t find work right away, they were likely to end up in a hard place with the debt contract in place. The Guild wasn’t interested in calling the debts in right away, they had given them time to pay instead.

But Dominic wasn’t under any illusion that their patience would last forever.

Even if it was in the middle of an emergency, they wouldn’t bend the rules to forgive a debt unless it was absolutely necessary. Instead, they would have put a lower repayment price on the debt note if they wanted to make it easy on the debtor.

Many of the ones here were not being charged any interest or fees, they had simply been given six months to pay for their airfare, which was already at a discounted rate.

Merchants were merchants to the very end.

"Alright, I need to go speak with the Sheriff, and then I will come back to have someone escort you all to the waiting area for new arrivals. There is a queue to move out into the Duchy, and for housing within the city.

Please be patient as the process gets to everyone. We are doing our best to ensure that someone has a suitable place to live as soon as possible." He called, loud enough that everyone nearby would hear him.

The notice would keep the people from panicking when he left their sight, and it would buy him a moment to talk to the Sheriff about what was going on with the two in detention.

Sheriff Nate saw him coming, and waved him into a warehouse. The young woman who had signalled distress was sitting there, talking to Dave, but the man who had claimed to be her husband was not.

"Alright, Dave got the whole story out of them. Miss Bea is thirteen, formerly a maid at Marcus’ family estate. Wealthy, but not titled Nobles.

When things got bad, Marcus and his father sold all the other women off to bandits. Bea was kept as a bride, and the father died in an accident during the storm.

The lady of the house ran off at that time.

We have discussed this with the officer from Axbridge, and Marcus is being held on charges of human trafficking and crimes involving an unwilling bride.

The question is what we do with Bea.

Nobody is really in a position to be taking in an extra mouth these days, at least not among the refugees. I’m a single man, it would raise questions if I took in a young bride, the same as the ones that alerted you.

So, we will have to find a spot for her."

Dominic shrugged. "We can always use more veiled maids. Beth could use an extra hand as a scullery maid with all the people she’s needed to cook for lately. Trained servants might not be difficult to come by, but Princess Alexis has her own particular tastes."

The Sheriff laughed. Indeed, the Paladin Princess preferred to only take on staff that was willing to learn to fight.

"Your Grace, I was a kitchen maid at my previous home. I am trained to assist the chef, as well as in basic cleaning tasks." Bea insisted.

"In that case, you’re not going to need much training on your duties. Tell me, how do you feel about stabbing?"

"That depends on who, I suppose?" She replied, clearly confused.

"She’s got potential." Nate laughed.

"Indeed. Dave, make sure that this one makes it back to Beth. Tell the cook to have someone find Bea a bed and a uniform. She can meet the Princess in the morning."

"Your Grace, what Princess do you mean? Am I to serve a visiting Royal?"

"Not a visiting one. The Duchess of Wistover is Princess Alexis of Cygnia."

Bea’s eyes went wide as she realized that she had just volunteered herself to work for a much more esteemed family than she had expected. There were rules to serving the upper Nobles, but the rules for serving the Royals were supposed to be super strict, and the training was brutal.

"Relax, it won’t be too bad. The others will teach you all that you need to know. They are extremely good at what they do, and we haven’t had a single failure in the training process since we arrived here."

Sheriff Nate smiled. "Then I just need to move one to custody, and let the Axbridge Army deal with him. They would like to claim jurisdiction, as he travelled from within their borders."

Dominic nodded. "That’s fine. Just tell them that if it’s too much trouble, they can tie his hands to his ankles and toss him in the river for the river troll to eat."

Nate laughed quietly. "I will repeat that verbatim, My Lord. I don’t doubt that the notion has crossed his mind already. The more we learned, the less likely the Axbridge officers seemed to pursue any punishment but the death penalty."