The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 769: Has To Be Dominic

On the back lawn of the Manor, Alexis watched the flying machine rocket skyward at an insane rate, flying nearly vertically.

That had to be Dominic.

She couldn’t even see the pilot, and she knew that it was him. Only a dragon would be so utterly confident in the sky that he would treat a brand-new design like that.

Then the plane rolled upside down and made a loop, coming back the way it had come from, and all doubt that it could be anyone else was erased.

Halfway through the rotation, the sunlight glinted off his horns.

The plane vanished into the distance, and Alexis crooked a finger, calling Benedict over.

"What are the odds that thing is the final design they intend to propose to the King?"

The Royal Guard shook his head. "Between you and me, that one is not for military use. It has two automatic rifles on it, in twenty millimetre shot size. But, he made this one for the Barons and Knights in Wistover Duchy so that they could fly around on patrol."

"I was afraid that you were going to say that.

So, how much worse is the one that he’s going to propose to the army? Because I suspect that anyone who gets in that with him is going to soil themselves, cry and pass out. Not necessarily in that order."

"It seats two people, but I believe the rear seat can be removed and replaced with a hatch to drop mortars."

"Of course, it can. Dominic designed it. Alright, you might as well accompany us while I go speak to my dear husband about the dangers of test flying experimental machines at extreme speeds."

"I am told that the one for the army is twice as fast. That should be a sight to see." Benedict agreed.

Alexis frowned. What had the army asked him for? Wasn’t this already enough?

The Royal Guard got a front-row seat as the biplane slowed and descended, circling the hangars, then tilted slightly nose up and seemed to plummet from the sky the last two metres, before bouncing on the grass and rolling to a stop.

"My best landing yet. Turns out, you need to go just a bit faster than that, or it won’t fly. Get us a speed gauge installed in the dash, and I think we’re good.

Everything else passed the tests."

Dominic shouted at gully over the sound of the turbine spinning down, and the team rushed to prepare the necessary instrument.

"Noted. There is a stall speed of minimum lift. I wasn’t certain that there was when you took off like that."

"Yeah, we’ve got plenty of power, but the drag from having two wings really adds up at higher speeds. If you push it to full throttle, it buffets and shakes. We might want to streamline the other design a little more as well.

If not, it might not make the design spec."

"Got it. Now, can you call off the Duchess? I think that she might remove more than limbs from us this time."

Dominic laughed as he ran over and hugged Alexis.

"What do you think? It’s a beauty, isn’t it? It’s very stable in flight, and as long as you point it a bit down, it will pick up enough speed to keep flying, even with the turbine unpowered.

As long as it doesn’t get shot down, it should be effortless to land safely. Maybe not gently, but safely."

While Alexis’ back was turned, Benedict climbed into the cockpit of the plane to examine the layout and structure, while Gully dangled upside down, adjusting the sensitivity of the controls, then cutting a hole for the new instrument.

He would install it in a few minutes, and then they could send a new test pilot up.

"What were you thinking?" Alexis demanded.

"That I wouldn’t sell my people anything that I wouldn’t use myself. Now, I can safely say that I would use this. It can fly nearly as slow as a carriage moves on a smooth road, or as fast as two hundred kilometres an hour.

It’s got two guns for defensive use, and I tested them against monsters earlier.

It’s a pain to aim them, as you need to move the whole plane. But for a strafing run against an airship or defenders on a wall, they’re more than sufficient. We made them essentially a long barrelled mana revolver this time, that keeps firing if you hold the trigger.

Not the best option, as it turns out. It needs a lot of mana to keep them loaded when you hold the trigger.

But we can improve that, or load it with actual ammunition and solid shot rifles later."

One of the engineers ran out with a device in his hand, the speed gauge for an airship, and Gully quickly fitted it to the dash. Dominic was doing a fine job of keeping the Princess distracted while they worked, and Benedict had already strapped himself into the seat for his turn at the controls.

They hadn’t found any broken or bent components, even after the hard landing. The plane had been designed for abuse, and the Royal Guard was ready to test that theory.

As long as he could find some monsters to strafe for a practice run.

The sound of the turbine starting caught Alexis’ attention, and the Royal Guard waved happily to Benedict as the plane began to roll away, then took off at a much more reasonable rate than Dominic had done.

"The adjustments to the control range seem to work. You need more input for the same deflection now. Good to go. We’ve also got the speed gauge in it, but I don’t know how well it will work. We had to tweak the dial so it would show a speed that high, and there was no time to calibrate it."

"That’s fine. It’s a work in progress. As long as the ones that we sell to the others have all the bugs worked out, I will call it a success."

The plane suddenly twisted in the air, rotating and turning toward the ground, before a line of explosions tore open something behind the tree line.

"Oh, Benedict must have found monsters. I guess he used [Explosion] on the guns," Dominic noted.

"Well, it’s effective. Mana intensive, but effective. Now, you had better write up a full report on the progress of this project, or I’m going to bring Claudius here to make you give him a full report in person."

Dominic held up his hands in surrender. He didn’t need that siscon Crown Prince angry with him.

"I’ll have the report ready in an hour."