The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 706: Dave Can Do That

The guards standing behind Dominic smiled at the mention of letting the Trolls buy a whole province from Dagos with food.

It might not actually be a province for the trolls, but Dominic wouldn’t stop them from living there, and they had heard they only had to pay for ten years. They could find enough trolls to do that.

Dave wasn’t good at math, but Larry had assured him that they only needed 500 acres of potatoes harvested every month to pay the bill. Ten tonnes per acre was an amount that even the humans could get per harvest.

Dave could do that if he just had more trolls.

Only, when he mentioned it to the Larry Trolls over at the Sect tower, they had some concerns.

Namely, that there weren’t actually all that many trolls left.

Ten years ago, they had been heavily congregated in Wavemates as well, and their numbers had been absolutely decimated by the invasion. It was much safer to keep the various species of Trolls spread around the continent, so that one major incident didn’t wipe out entire lineages.

But they could work together to clear some new land and turn it into a soup ingredient farm, with extra land for paying back Dominic.

He took them in and didn’t ask for anything. He even gave them jobs and pay, and fireproof armour.

Lots of trolls in the village would happily do the extra farming if he kept them supplied with fireproof armour.

"We can get the village to help. They have land, none of the humans settled too close to them. Just give them fireproofing and goats, and they will trade you more food than you need." Dave suggested.

Alexis smiled. "You know, that’s actually a good deal. Dominic here is excellent at making fireproofing, and we can get more goats."

Dave smiled. He had done a good thing for his brethren.

They were going to get goats.

He didn’t even try to hide his satisfaction, and Alexis patted him gently on the hand, assuring him that she appreciated what he had done for the other trolls, though he knew that his own brothers couldn’t get the time off work to do it.

They could help the farms around the Duchy when they went on patrols, but they were unable to devote the time to full-time farming, and the magic they could use at every farm was limited.

Dominic stepped back in the house, revelling in the familiar feeling of being back on his home turf, though it was with so much more workload than he had a few days prior.

"Beth, a celebration is in order. And if there is time, can you get someone to clean out the old wine vat in the basement? I will refill it as a house supply," he called.

"Are you sure that it’s wise to fill a vat with wine when you have a Merlot in the house?" Beth called back, which made the old drunkard laugh.

"Hey, I don’t even particularly like wine. But I’ve been behaving myself, there is nothing to fear from having a bit in the building."

He didn’t understand just how much that vat would hold, but it didn’t matter.

He never went to the basement.

The cook started to order more ingredients to be brought in for dinner, as she now knew how many people would be present, while Dominic and the advisors headed for the office, and Alexis went to the main floor library, where she preferred to work.

There were household accounts to do, orders to make, spending to approve, and then she had the requests from the locals that Castellan Julio felt didn’t fall under Dominic’s jurisdiction.

Usually ones about marriages, children, or requests to mediate non-criminal matters.

Today, most of the messages were related to pregnancy announcements, as it was customary to inform the Lord and Lady of your territory when a child was on the way.

Normally, they would send a gift of some sort after the birth, a bit of early goodwill for the future worker of their fiefdom.

Neither Dominic nor Alexis looked down on the common folk the way that so many of the other Nobles did, but the fact still remained that not only were they Duke and Duchess, they were Royal, with a status that only a handful of others in the entire Kingdom could match.

And with Dominic being the Governor of the Province, he might as well be considered an Archduke, second only to the Royal Family.

It was a bit odd to think that she had gotten married, and her status had actually increased from that of a younger Princess. But that was how things had turned out, and they were only looking up.

She just had to ensure that their actual political power matched what they held on paper.

That was something that the Royal Paladins trained in.

Not because they were political players in any sense of the word, but because they had to understand every nuance of political power struggles and influence peddling so that they could properly protect the Royal Family from those who might be holding a grudge.

Just because you didn’t attack them directly didn’t mean that they were not upset.

A slight to another member of their faction, a new government initiative that curtailed a business plan, even approval of a marriage proposal that another family objected to could earn an attempt at retribution, either violently or subtly.

Alexis preferred when they were violent.

Flipping through the stacks of paperwork and messages, she found one curious message, written in a hand far more elegant than any of the others.

It was an ancient style of calligraphy, not for writing letters, but purely for show.

Yet there it was.

[Princess Alexis Cygnus, Paladin of the Royal Order, Duchess Wistover, Queen Consort of the Dragon King, mother to the heir of the Trollish Empire.

I do hope that my letter finds you well, and I wish you the utmost congratulations on your recent wedding.

Please find attached a small token of my appreciation.]

That was it, that was the whole letter, with no sender’s name, and no obvious source.

"Julio! Come here a moment."

The Castellan walked in, bowed, and then looked at the letter in her hand.

"Did you need that sent out immediately, Your Highness?"

"No, it came for me today. Do you recognize it?"

"I think that I would if I had seen it before. That card stock costs more than my monthly salary."

Well, that didn’t answer anything. Plus, she didn’t see whatever was supposed to be attached as a gift.