The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 654: Patterns

The Prince laughed, and got pulled into a conversation about the benefits of only allowing trained personnel into the work areas, while Dominic thought about how he was going to recruit enough fully trained tradesmen that he could staff the Academy.

The Sects were good with their magical trades. But they also needed mages who could work with everyone else in town, because so many of the trades used magical devices in their work, and the new mages needed to know what they were being used for to create what was needed.

If they didn’t understand, they wouldn’t make what was actually needed, only something close to the description, and then the tradesmen would have to work around the limitations.

It was too expensive to ask them to make it twice.

The problem was that master craftsmen didn’t simply sit around waiting for someone to recruit them. If they had the skills, they would already be using them.

There were many in the Duchy now, but they were all running businesses, or they had moved to one of the Baronies to work as the Baron’s personal employee. That was a guaranteed job, and it could be passed down through the generations, far more secure than a shop in town, though less lucrative.

Not everyone would want the path of riches, but very few would turn down the opportunity to set their children up for life.

That might be the route that he would have to take. Giving them job security while they worked for the Academy. But he could talk to the Elders about that, and Rill would likely be able to assist with it as well.

Fortunately, the man was seated on the other side of the table.

“Merchant Rill, what do you think? Your Guild has the job boards for the tradesmen, are there some skilled enough to teach who would be willing to relocate?”

Rill nodded slowly. “It’s not a long list, however I do have a few on the list who might qualify. However, there are minor issues with the ones most likely to accept.”

Dominic made an ’out with it’ gesture, for the Merchant’s Guild Leader to keep speaking.

“There were a lot of people injured in the disaster, or in the war that came before it.

People who kept their homes, as they weren’t too close to one of the flooded rivers, but who struggle to keep their shops open. If you’re willing to hire cripples for the Academy, I should be able to find you actual masters. If not, then some out of work journeymen will surely take you up on the offer.”

Pops poked Dominic in the side, encouraging him to accept.

“Alright. We need them to teach students. Even a one handed master, or one in a wheelchair, can teach students better than nearly anyone still working through the ranks of Journeyman. I mean, look at me. I’m called a Journeyman by the trade skill core, but there is no doubt that Pops here could work the forge better than I do with an ale in his offhand.”

Pops laughed, dragging the nearby Knights reluctantly into his amusement.

They didn’t want to laugh at the Duke, especially not directly to his face. But Dominic did not appear to have any pretences about his skill level.

Or perhaps he simply trusted the smith that much.

Most of them had no idea who Pops was, but when Prince Alex began to laugh, everyone took it as a sign that the old Dwarf lived up to Dominic’s assessment of him, and the Duke wasn’t simply being self deprecating.

“I believe that you also had business this morning. Is it something for the table, or Duchy Business?” Dominic asked.

“Duchy Business, I’m afraid. However, I will try to keep it to a brief meeting after the meal, and we can join the tournament by the end of the first joust.”

Dominic nodded. “In that case, join me in the office when you’re done with breakfast. The noble Knights look entirely too eager to be waiting on us to get started.”

Rill rose from the table. “Quite right. We can’t keep them waiting for simple business, even if it is urgent.”

They retreated to the office at the back of the house, and Rill immediately took out a large stack of documents from his storage device.

“This is what I thought that you should see.

These are all requisition requests from various customers of the Merchant’s Guild, either for supplies or information.

At first, they didn’t seem to be connected, but someone at another branch compiled them and sent them along to me. Once I had time to go through them, it became clear that there is someone looking for us.

For Wistover, that is.

They can’t be who they claim to be, as many of the Nobles that are on these requisition lists have been here in the past month. So, there is no reason that they would be asking for information about where a new magitech fireplace insert was originating from.

Of course, some of these requests were already answered, which could be an issue, depending who is behind them. But most of them were put on hold once someone realized that the question didn’t make any sense, based on who was supposedly asking.

Why would a representative of the Royal Palace of West Keria be asking about the new rifles that the Cygnian Army was fielding when the King was here for the negotiation?

They wouldn’t.

He wasn’t there to make the request, and his top Generals were here with him.

So, the question becomes: who is trying to find us, and how have they been able to so easily pretend to be members of a dozen different major factions from across half the continent. We’ve even got requests in here from the far southern reaches.

Those were the ones that raised the least alarm, as we did send a whole shipment to the region to bribe Royal Family members with.

They’re not as strong with magic as the northeastern region’s Royals, so they have to hire magic users to staff their castles. It makes sense to send them fireplaces that make both cooking and heating less mana intensive in a cold climate.

The final straw was when someone claiming to be from the Duskblade Sect approached our staff in a rural outpost in Axbridge.

They clearly didn’t know that the whole Sect had relocated here, and that they were the ones making them. However, the person who came in asking had their token, and the magic on it was intact.

That caused the branch office to send out an alert about false magical identification, and triggered the release of this research.”

Dominic sighed.

“This is not going to be a short meeting at all. I will have someone bring coffee, and we can get into this looking for patterns.”