The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 588: Jousting Needs Horses

Rill waved as Dominic entered the warehouse, and came over to greet him in person.

"Welcome back. Did you have an urgent order for the Guild?"

"Unfortunately for my pocketbook, I do. There has been a formal request for a Royal Jousting tournament, and Wistover has no horses, mechanical or otherwise, which can be provided for the event.

I know that Knights typically arrive with their own, but our Knights are newly ascended, and don’t believe that they were allowed to keep the ones from their military service." Dominic explained.

"That is true. Fortunately, we do have a rather large supply of used mechanical horses. Normally, they would take quite some time to get here, but with the assistance of the mages in town, we should be able to arrange it today." Rill agreed.

"Where are they?"

"Mertonver in Wigravia. If there was a road from here directly there, it would be close to five thousand kilometres.

Even by airship, the new pattern one, it would take over a week to make the round trip. And that’s without accounting for poor weather or unfavourable winds.

By traditional airship, it would be well over a month.

They’re retired from the Wigravian Army, so they’re an older pattern of Mechanical horse, but they’re still serviceable, and you can send them to someone here to have them refurbished."

"That should be good enough. How many do you have?"

"We have thousands in stock. They were going to be distributed mostly to the farms, as we got them cheap. So, even if you want enough for the town guard, it shouldn’t break the budget.

I won’t promise the same about refurbishments, but you do have some techno wizards on staff who can likely do the majority of the work."

"You have a point. Between the academy and the other mages that are here, I’m sure that I can hire someone as a full-time serviceman for the horses. If I’m going to give them to the town guard, we will need regular maintenance, and we’ve only got a single farrier at the Manor, plus the stable hands.

If they’re affordable, I will take a lot, though. At the very least, we should reform the Cavalry. If I get one for every Knight as a welcoming gift, and then another hundred for the Guard, with some spares... say five hundred horses in total.

Is it a workable amount?"

Rill nodded. "It is. You might need that extra hundred sooner than you think. These things have been through a civil war. They’re all functional, but that’s about the best that we can say for them.

They’re definitely high hour, and in need of some love.

But if you are willing to refurbish them and send them out, I think that the Nobles in the Duchy would be forever grateful.

The cavalrymen of the Natural Sons will start missing their horses soon. But new ones are expensive."

"Alright, order them up and get them shipped here. But if you’ve got them, get me at least three higher spec warhorse models. One for my wife, and then two for the finalists of the Jousting contest.

That should be a suitable prize if I can get them ready before the event is over.

I’ll go talk to Pops. If he can’t do it, he will know who can."

"I will arrange mages to stage the portals to hop them directly here. You’ve got a large enough shipment volume that we can settle it at the end of the month and still come out ahead based on the shipments that you’ve made from the factories."

Dominic hummed as he tried to do the math. Either those worn out horses were seriously cheap, or he had greatly underestimated how much they were making on the fireplaces and lanterns.

He’d better get at least five technicians to do the refurbishment.

"Alright, I’ve got the money to pay salaries either way, so you might as well put it on the account and get them here as soon as you can.

Next, I’m off to arrange for a jousting ground and general purpose arena or amphitheatre.

Wistover needs some sort of entertainment venue anyhow."

Rill shrugged. "I won’t argue with that. There are plenty of options as well. I have sold nearly every sort of sports equipment to the residents of Wistover, other than Ice Hockey gear, as we don’t get ice here.

Everything from tackle ball to cricket seems to be in high demand to keep folks entertained."

"That’s not a bad idea. We can build a stadium, and host sporting events with fly in international competitors once we get the airships up and running with the new design.

Think of the possibilities.

The number of passenger seat sales that we could make for a Cygnia versus Axbridge sports tournament, or a National Championship, would be enough to feed an innkeeper for the year."

Rill laughed at Dominic’s grand idea. "Indeed. Getting money from the local population is a limited supply. But if you can advertise events to a larger audience, you can bring people with money in from far away.

The Duskblade Sect can bring the closer ones with portals, and you can send airships for those further away.

Now, it will be some time before that’s viable, but even if you have to wait a few years for the region to stabilize, it will still be worth it."

"Just in time for our tax exemption to run out, then. Perfect timing."

Rill’s smile was contagious, and the other workers at the Merchant’s Guild warehouse were trying not to laugh at the look on his face.

"You know that the King is regretting ever uttering those words. He was fully expecting you to struggle not to starve through this wet season, and to be comforting his daughter that she hadn’t made a mistake.

But instead, you’re forming an entire city into a trade hub, and hoarding resources faster than his own treasury.

And not just because of the relief funds he’s paying out to help the Nobles whose lands were impacted by the war."

"It pays to be popular."