The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 603: Larry Knows The City

Amie joined their group as they walked through the city, listening to the excited narration of the group of trolls.

"This is a good spot too. This is where the Merchant’s Guild transfers all their shipments between the caravans going south and the ones going east.

The manager here is friendly, and they planted roses in the front garden.

Then there are the mechanics at the factory.

They make soup in bulk every day, for the workers lunches. Imagine that, they don’t even have to bring their own lunch.

And then there are the fireball people."

"The Magitech Orb specialists on the assembly line." Dominic clarified.

"I thought that Trolls were afraid of fire?" Jenna asked.

The trolls all nodded in agreement. "They taught us how to turn the orb on and off. Very handy."

Jenna sighed. Trolls were trolls. Never too bright, but always excited to everyone about things they had learned. And learning how to put out fire ranked up there with the level of excitement usually reserved for secret arcane arts.

"Now, we have the bakery. This place is important. They also have the place next door for extra ovens because everyone wants morning bread.

Our Sect’s cook makes biscuits for breakfast in a cast iron pan.

With a mushroom cream gravy.

Did you know that there are people who don’t like sausage? But she is still a good cook."

Jack laughed. "We will have to talk to her. Mushroom gravy sounds pretty good, but if she doesn’t like sausage, she could at least put bacon in it."

The trolls looked intrigued. They hadn’t considered that. They would have to talk to the kitchen Larry.

"And now we’re into the new block houses. These are really popular. They’re not for big families, but they’re close to everyone’s work.

The next street leads to a bunch of family compounds, but not many large families have come so far. There’s only like twenty of them, but thousands of these smaller places.

The apartments over the shops are nice, too.

We have been helping make them pretty. The houses are not bad, but they were simple before we showed up. Now, they’ve got style, decoration, and more magic."

They turned a corner, and the market came in sight.

"This is the unofficial city centre. It is where all the big events gather, and the sales market where the food comes to, and the poster board for jobs and missing things is over here."

"The Adventurer’s Guild house is the large building there, so they’ve got their mission board posted as well." Dominic added.

As they passed, some of the locals bowed to Dominic, while most simply waved at the Trolls. Dave and Larry were much better known around town than Dominic was.

Everyone had met him at least once, but walking the city with a group of strangers and the trolls from the Sect, they didn’t always realize it was him right away.

He would have to take his hat off to make it obvious in the future.

"The airship docks are on the other side of the river, you can see them from here. But now we’re at the important stuff.

This is the stall where we sell potions, and that one has the best sweet potatoes, and that one grows really good cabbage. Nobody else has that variety.

Then there are the garlic farm sisters.

They’re pretty."

Lord Blackwell struggled not to laugh at the description. The "Garlic Farm Sisters" were half Ogres, fully two hundred and twenty centimetres tall, and looking at the Mountain Trolls like they wanted to devour them.

Not that Dave minded.

Alistair made notes as they moved through the city, and now he spoke up.

"Wistover really does have an unusual population of magical species, doesn’t it? I had thought that the advisory meant you had some extra mages, but fully one in five people in the city are clearly inhuman, not counting the trolls of the Mage Tower.

Is the other tower the same way?"

Amie shook her head. "No, the Duskblade Sect is mostly human. We did mostly mercenary and escort work in Axbridge before we moved. Having too many members who can’t pass for human makes that difficult."

"That is true. But I suppose that you knew that. I haven’t seen any signs from you at all, even though I already know that you can’t possibly be as young as you look.

Jack and Blackwell made that clear earlier, and you don’t have the unstable mana that a young mage normally would during their growth phase." The Mage Lord insisted.

Amie shrugged, but didn’t answer until they were away from the crowded part of the city, headed for the bridge to the airship factory.

The Larry Trolls had broken off to go back to their own Mage Tower when they passed by, and Amie decided this was as private as they were going to get without taking things into an office.

"As Jack and Blackwell have already deduced, I do not age.

I don’t know how much Dominic knows, he’s not the sort to pry. But I am a pure-blooded Doppelgänger. My ability to shift was damaged as a child, and I lost the ability to freely change my volume.

I can shift my appearance, but only to appearances that are roughly forty or forty-five kilos in weight.

That hasn’t been bad for me, though.

There are so many targets the Sect is assigned to hunt who prey on children that I have been working as a honey trap assassin for decades.

Now that we’re in Wistover, I have been learning Blacksmithing and basic magitech from Dominic, as well as working as his assigned bodyguard." She explained.

"So, how powerful are you?"

Amie shrugged. "I’m only level fifteen as a mage. But it’s enough, as I am a Doppelgänger, and that is my Innate level. So, all the spells I know get cast at about that level.

I can cast a few more powerful spells, but it really takes it out of me.

The nerve damage limiting my body size also damaged my ability to expand my mana storage. So, in a way I am crippled, but compared to a human, it doesn’t count."

Lord Blackwell laughed. "That is a good point. You might be weak for your species, but you’re far too strong for a human of your appearance. Or any human, really. You’ve likely got more mana reserves than Alistair."