The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 633: An Acolyte To Help

The newly arrived mage simply shrugged "I am an acolyte from the Kinewen Academy’s branch location in the Beast Realm. I am trained in magical theory, spell crafting, accounting and political theory.

At this point, you likely know as much as I do.

I was simply grabbed from class, told that I had to deliver a letter before taking up a new assignment, and to try not to get shot.

I didn’t even know what that meant until I saw the weapon in your hands."

Dominic frowned. "I don’t suppose that you angered someone, did you?"

The mage shrugged. "Probably not? I’m just an acolyte. I mean, yeah, I failed a few classes here and there, but not enough that it should have upset anyone in power. It’s not like I am totally useless. I am exceptionally skilled at spell crafting and magical theory, and I did pass accounting."

Dominic laughed, "I already have a Steward, so you don’t need to worry too much about the accounting part.

The other two aspects will be more important, given how Wistover is developing, and the fact that your former employer insists that you are supposedly loyal to a fault."

The Acolyte laughed. "Don’t you use the life bond curse here? If I betray the Wavemates lineage, or the Academy, I will actually die. As in, no chance for resurrection, dead."

Dominic shook his head. "It’s not a common practice here. Though if you are sworn both to Wavemates and your Academy, we should be on good terms.

I am the last of the Wavemates Royals left in this world, as far as I know."

The mage nodded, then looked behind Dominic to where Alexis was approaching with the Daves and her Royal Guard.

"If that is true, then you don’t need to worry about an inheritance battle, I suppose. I will have to ask you about the current situation later."

Alexis arrived at the scene, and gave Dominic a look that clearly said "Explain in ten words or fewer". So, he handed her the letter.

There was a short pause as she read, then frowned in dismay and looked at the mage standing in front of them.

"Why should we believe that you are not a spy or a threat sent here to infiltrate Wistover?" She asked.

For a moment, the mage hesitated, until Dominic laughed.

"There’s no point in lying to her. She sees through it every time. Just come out with it, and you’re unlikely to die for the truth."

The mage shrugged. "I can’t say that I’m not a spy. If the headmaster requests an update, I will give it to him. But I am unable to betray the Wavemates lineage. It’s a spell that all Acolytes of my Academy are put under."

Alexis wasn’t sure what to do with that information. She had expected him to gloss over most of the truth, instead of lying outright.

"Why did you swear to the Wavemates Royal Lineage? Wavemates as a nation is gone, and has been for a decade, since you were a small child."

"They still govern my region in the Beast Realm."

Dominic realized that he was actually terrible at interrogating strangers. He hadn’t thought to ask any of the important questions at all.

"And is their goal to bring the Wavemates lineage back into power here?" Alexis asked.

"No. The Academy isn’t concerned with politics on that level. As long as the lineage survives, there will always be Royal Dragonkin. There is no need to make them rulers of every place that they live.

Not when their abilities will bring them to the forefront of society in a generation or two, anyhow.

When you live as long as a dragonkin, there isn’t any need to rush things. Three human Kings might pass through their reign before a single dragonkin becomes an old man. So, it’s easy enough to arrange to have one of his children marry into a Royal Family to continue the lineage if that’s what he desires.

Personally, I think it’s overrated.

Who wants to rule over kingdoms full of humans who are just going to whine about everything and then die before you have time to resolve the problems they were upset about?"

Alexis smiled at the man’s academic annoyance.

His tone suggested that he hadn’t experienced the situation from a life or death point of view, only that of an outside researcher. But it also left them with one more question.

"Are you dragonkin, then?"

The mage shook his head. "No, I’m a quarter Troll. I’ll likely live close to two hundred years, not as long as the Prince here, but longer than most humans unless they’re strongly magical."

"So, you fully expect to outlive me, and most of the people present, then. It makes sense why you take the long view of things."

The mage smiled "I wouldn’t say that. You’re still young, and your magic is powerful. You’ve likely got half a century on me at the very least. Trollish regeneration makes me look younger than I am. But there are a few here who will certainly live longer than me.

The Dave Trolls, for certain. The Shapeshifter, and the old drunkard."

Dominic laughed, while Jack shrugged.

"How do you figure that Jack is going to live longer than you?"

The old man was clearly on his last legs, nearing a state that most would call geriatric. Add his alcoholism to that, and it was a miracle his liver and heart hadn’t failed him yet.

"Can’t you feel it? He’s been cursed with Vampirism. If he dies, he’s just going to rise again the next morning."

Jack frowned as he downed rum like it was water.

"Dammit, I knew that nothing good could come of a little bit of strange in a Coven house," he muttered.

Dominic gave the man an impressed look.

It took some seriously bad decision-making to let an undead woman take you home to her family, but to do it before you truly knew her, and to bed her in her family’s home?

Old Jack had done some things that few would live to tell about.