The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 789: Dave Is Too Soft

Now that Katerina was mobile, the true need for a nanny was apparent.

As if she had been trapped all her life, the tiny dragonkin was eagerly crawling everywhere, intent on getting into everything that she had never been allowed to touch before.

Prince Claudius found it highly entertaining.

Alexis did not.

There were many things that Alexis did not find amusing these days. Her brother, for one. The fact that Katerina had an uncanny knack for waking up five minutes after she went to sleep, for another. But most notably, the fact that the young Princess appeared to be able to con Dave into doing anything that she wanted.

Twice already today, she had caught the Trolls trying to sneak toys to the child. They were ones that Katerina was allowed to have, and ones that she had specifically asked for, according to Dave.

Mostly, that meant she pointed in their general direction, and the Trolls were happy to oblige.

Alexis was going to have to break them of that habit, the Princess was already too spoiled, and nobody wanted to find out what it would be like if someone who could breathe fire started to throw actual tantrums.

So, the task fell to Dominic, who was much better at getting Dave to listen to him, even if the Trolls disagreed with the instructions.

"Alright, what the Princess wants is for Miss Katerina to learn a lesson. If she wants the toys, she has to go get them herself. If she learns that she can treat you as messengers and errand boys, she will never learn, and you will be too busy to do your jobs," he explained.

Dave frowned. Dominic had a point. The little one was very needy. If they indulged her all day long, they wouldn’t be doing their work.

Plus, there was already a lady troll looking after her.

If Katerina really had needed the things that she was asking for, her nanny would have gone and grabbed them. In short, Dave had been hoodwinked by an infant. An adorable infant that it was too hard to say no to.

But the boss was the boss, and they had promised to listen to him.

That did not make the little one happy. Not at all. However, after only a few minutes of complaint, she crawled across the room to retrieve the toy by herself.

It was a great victory for Alexis, as crawling took a large amount of energy, and wore the Princess out enough that she actually looked forward to her afternoon naps.

All too soon, it was time for the Crown Princes to return home to their duties, as they had extended their social time as much as possible without getting themselves in trouble with the Kings.

Both knew that these moments would be increasingly difficult to come by as time went on, and they took up more responsibilities, so they really had pushed their luck, staying so long after the negotiations had ended.

"Don’t worry, we will come and visit you eventually. Just give it a year or two until the little one is a bit less of a nightmare, and at least one of us will be free to travel for more than a few days at a time." Dominic joked.

Claudius laughed. "It might be more than that, but it’s not a big deal. Eventually, we all need to take care of our own families.

At least Alexis is still in the Kingdom. If I want to go visit Josephine, there are all sorts of political nonsense courtesies involved. Damned Thorvald."

Alexis smiled at her brother’s annoyance. The original marriage alliance still had her moving out of the country, to Bostoveria instead of West Keria. So, it wouldn’t have been any easier for him to come and see her.

"I am certain that I will see you sooner than expected. There are mandatory events for the High Nobles at least once a year. Someone will have to attend."

Claudius was looking directly at his sister, making it clear which of them he would prefer to travel to the Capital for the events.

"Got it, I will make sure that we don’t have to send any apology gifts for missing mandatory events. We’ve got more than enough trustworthy people here that a few days of travel a year aren’t a big deal." Dominic agreed.

With that, Claudius finally gave up on delaying, and took a portal back to the Palace, leaving Dominic and the family to their own devices.

"Well, wife. What do you say we put the little one to bed and spend a nice quiet night reading in the study?" He asked once the Princes were gone.

Alexis smiled back at him. "A good book and a long nap sound absolutely perfect, I think."

And that was exactly what they did, for the entire evening.

The next morning brought the expected horrors that Dominic had gotten used to at this point. The maids threw open the curtains, Katerina cheered as she saw her two favourite people, and a list of concerns that had been brought to the Advisors’ attention in the last day were placed on the night stand.

It wasn’t a hard routine, but it was routine, and Dominic immediately began to scan through the reports, looking for anything important that might have been missed.

He didn’t recall a time when they actually did miss something major. But he didn’t want to get sloppy and start letting his guard down because when he did, it was likely the same time that they would also become complacent, and that was when bad things happened.

As he had begun to understand, the whole purpose of the Noble titles was simply to make sure that everyone else was doing their jobs.

The morning brought nothing of note, other than the patrol routes of the Knights and the number of people in the villages, all of which Dominic added to the records for the Provinces, and then he found himself gloriously free.

For at least a few hours.