The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 699: The Price

The King paused for a moment to ensure that everyone was up to speed with his plan.

"Alright, the Advisors will hand you the payment requests that Dagos has made for the lands of the Province."

Dominic opened the packet that he was handed, and found that the price was actually much lower than he had feared. Weapons, vehicles, tools, food shipped monthly for the next ten years, trade concessions, and a marriage alliance between the Royal Families.

All of them looked pretty standard, as far as Dominic could tell. Though, he did see that it mentioned the "Royal Families" not "The Legitimate Children of the Kings" which would have guaranteed that it was a pairing that would put them somewhere in the line of succession for one of the thrones.

"Alright, this looks reasonable. Shipping food for half a million every month for ten years will be an issue, but I assume that load will be spread over more than just the regional Baronies?" Dominic asked.

The King nodded. "It will. We have arranged the details, and you will get an official notification of obligation soon.

The cash payments on top of that amount have already been arranged from the crown treasury, what is included is the amount that will need to be sourced from the Nobles.

However, we will reduce the amount paid from the taxes owed so that no territory is unduly burdened due to high industrial or agricultural capacity. The other Nobles will be informed at the dinner this evening, but as this is directly relevant to your territories, it was deemed advisable to inform you ahead of time."

In short, he wanted to be sure that they weren’t going to rebel against the idea, or get the impression that they were going to be facing the entire bill, as Stansia Province was the most productive in the nation, while many others were struggling.

Dominic did quick mental math. The total shipment was five thousand tonnes a month. That was a hundred airship loads with their new cargo airships, or ten ground-based convoys.

That was ... certainly logistically possible. At least it would be if they had three or four airships to do the job with, or were willing to send out caravans with portals to cut down on travel time.

That would change the math on their production schedule, as Dominic assumed that the King would be pushing to get an order of airships for the Kingdom moved to the front of the line. Either that, or shipping was going to be paid by Dagos. He hadn’t read that part of the details, only the summary.

Getting that much food moved, plus the weapons and tools to rebuild their defensive force, as they had lost virtually all their material stockpiles and equipment in the disaster, was going to be a nightmare.

Though, if he could get a nice forge going to make them new weapons...

They were expensive, much more expensive than food, anyhow. Sending entire airships full of tools and weapons to Dagos would leave Stansia Province as a tax-free territory for a decade.

Dominic would just have to eat the cost of the manufacturing and labour.

If he explained it to all the Barons, he was certain that they would be on board with the plan, and would likely even agree to set aside crops, even if they had to pay their farmers for them until the tax exemption ended in a year and a half.

The real challenge was going to be seeing how many farmers they could get back into Kinewen Province when there were no more cities in the region.

And how much the King was going to let him get away with.

There was nothing in this report about how the Province was going to be regulated or distributed. So, he would have to find out from the King or one of the Advisors later.

If it was assigned to someone else, he would have to brief them on the culture of the area as well, so that they didn’t end up ruling over empty land. That would be a tragedy, especially with the vast potential of the region.

Though, it really would be an ironic turnaround.

Before Dagos invaded, Kinewen was the capital, and the far side of Stansia Province was essentially uninhabited.

Now, Wistover was becoming the regional capital, and the Kinewen region was empty.

The King tapped his desk to gather everyone’s attention.

"And now, for the part that I know you’ve all been waiting to hear about. The title of Governor of Stansia Province will be changed to Governor of the Western Territories, encompassing Stansia and Kinewen Provinces.

Once a formal assessment of safety and population have been made, Counts and Barons will be promoted from within the Nobility to ensure stability in the region.

The interim military force protecting the region will be announced soon.

Expect that the title of Governor will likely remain within the Royal Family, through my children and grandchildren.

As a supervisory position, I expect that it will largely be bureaucratic within the next decade, though for now, it remains an active management position, and Governor Dominic will be responsible for the reporting and assessments for the Crown."

Dominic bowed politely, doing his best not to let his true opinion of being assigned more paperwork show.

It was an incredible honour, and a level of power that only a few others within the Kingdom could match.

But it was a lot of paperwork.

Nobody seemed to object to the announcement, or perhaps they had expected it. But the people in this room also weren’t the ones who were likely to see the new appointments.

It was the ones outside in the party that were most likely to be in line for a promotion to Count or Baron who might be awarded lands within the Province. Which reminded Dominic, he was also supposed to have a report on the unpopulated regions of Stansia Province ready soon, so that more lands and titles could be assigned.

How had he ended up with this much bureaucracy in his life?