The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 747: Time Flies

Dominic sat in his office, bouncing Princess Katerina on his leg.

Time was moving by him entirely too fast, and they had left the rainy season already moving into the full-scale planting of the early dry season. Everyone wanted to get their crops in before the last major rains happened.

But there was also the chance of flooding, though Wistover had been lucky this year.

Naturally, all of the reports on his desk now were complaints about the lack of farm equipment. They had been making new tractors for months, but there still weren’t enough.

There also weren’t enough seeders, enough large plows, or enough anything else except seed to go into the ground.

They had even taken to pulling farm equipment with the light transports that were coming out of the auto factory. They were all-wheel drive, had a low range option for driving slowly through rough terrain, and highly durable.

But they were far smaller than the usual farm tractors.

Every piece of equipment that could possibly be used had been used, and Dominic had reports that many of the Knights had even gone out with their mechanical horses to help pull plows to prep the fields for planting.

Much to the techno wizards’ dismay.

A mechanical horse was at least as capable as a regular one at pulling a plow. But they were complex machines, and subject to wear and tear if you worked them at near maximum output constantly.

By next harvest they should have more than enough equipment for the Baronies, Dominic hoped.

The factories were putting out tractors and implements at a rather astonishing rate, far faster than anyone had expected them to. It was just that they hadn’t been given enough time to prepare for this season, and had spent a large part of the wet season building the new factories and working with the Techno Wizards and Pops to design new assembly lines and processes.

They could certainly get enough planted to keep the Duchy fed.

That was not going to be a problem, as they had managed it during the wet season with a fraction of the equipment that they had now. It had led to some staggered harvest times, for the ones who arrived later, or got access to the tractor later.

But it all got planted.

That was part of what they were doing now, planning their crop planting dates, and hoping that there would be enough rainfall after they finished planting to keep the crops growing well.

The initial stages, before the crop sprouted, were the most sensitive to proper moisture.

Dominic hadn’t realized that he was going to need to know so much about farming, Trollish nature magic, logistics, and cargo capacities to be Duke. Everyone knew about the politics, the complex relationships that were needed to keep a Noble estate connected to the world and their trade goods moving.

But nobody really thought about what it took to make sure that the territory was producing what they needed for export and tax payments.

The little Princess waved one of his pens like a sword, babbling happy nonsense noises, while Jack Merlot tried not to laugh. She had absolutely zero coordination, in the way of infants everywhere.

But her swings with the pen were remarkably steady.

"Well, that is my report for the day. I know that Lord Blackwell has some updates from the Knights, but that should be it.

The Barons are taking up most of the workload now, and without the constant movement of people, things are beginning to settle down."

Dominic smiled. Since the Princess was born, there had only been a few reports of new villages, mostly Trolls. The few people still in Kinewen Province appeared to have simply returned to their homes as soon as they heard that Dominic had taken over the region.

The Capital region was empty, but once you got a hundred kilometres away, the airships reported that even the way stations were up and running again, ready for ground caravans from the Merchant’s Guild.

They hadn’t gotten an official report from the Guild about the situation, but they had reports that caravans passing that way, but bypassing old Kinewen, had made it as far as Skiple without any issues.

That put his mind at ease. Things were starting to look normal again, and they had even managed to flush out a few more bandit groups with the Knights.

Sending the investigators with them had been an excellent move. The bandits had decided that they were the right balance between important enough to have resources and unimportant enough that their guards likely weren’t highly trained.

The Malton Knights were playing up that idea.

They travelled in armour, but they had switched to wearing heavily worn travelling cloaks and simple black tabards. It made them look like some Baron’s household guard, not a Knightly order.

Especially as they were on actual horses.

The Barons of Dagos could rarely afford or obtain magitech cavalry. The nation used to have a fair bit of it, all concentrated in the army. But now, travelling by horse was considered the country Noble way of doing things.

Truly wealthy ones would use mechanical horses for higher travel speeds and fewer issues getting feed once they were out of Stansia Province.

Or they would use trucks. That was becoming much more popular these days, as horse shaped transportation became more of a Knightly affection for the mobility in combat.

You couldn’t do a lance charge with a transport bus.

Or, perhaps you could, but the practical use of vehicles in combat was currently favouring using them as platforms for mortars and other artillery. A tactic that the Malton Knights had successfully employed against bandits already.

Jack left, and Blackwell came in with a sly wink at Princess Katerina, who thrust the pen at him and giggled before flailing it over her head in victory. Dominic was beginning to suspect that letting her watch Alexis and the Royal Guard forces train might be a mistake.

The tiny one was becoming bloodthirsty in the most adorable way.