The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 715: A Bit More Training

Once lunch was over and Dominic was properly focused again, he retreated to the forge to start working on the weapons for the new Knights who had been assigned to his territory.

This was the best place to be, he decided. It was somewhere that he could relax.

Everywhere else he went, there was stress and paperwork. Here, there was just the forge, and occasionally a visitor.

Mostly the advisors, as they had constant updates for him about the arrival of the Knights, the start of the training, the reports that the Merchants and the other airships had sent back, and various updates from the businesses around town.

Things were operating as intended, and by the end of the first day, the city had a new hat shop, with a purchase of felt and leather on credit from the Merchant’s Guild, in trade for guaranteed first rights to the products until the debt was paid.

That was pretty common for factories who were short on cash.

It wouldn’t help them pay the bills, but if they could make more than what the materials cost, they would get enough from the Guild to at least pay their workers after all their loans were paid.

Normally, it was a sign that a shop was about to go under, and the Guild offered the loans specifically to try to get back as much of what they were owed as possible.

But in this case, they had some faith that the shop would succeed.

With all of his rifle jigs out, the small forge was a crowded place, but he could turn out the parts at incredible speed, just letting muscle memory repeat the process part by part until he had a whole room worth of full parts bins.

By then, it was well past dark, and he tossed them in his storage ring to complete in the morning.

They still needed the magitech cores to create their own ammunition, and Dominic didn’t want to have to pay the mages to make them when he was already racking up the bills putting their Elders to work making flying spells for the special forces.

But it was going to be glorious.

It didn’t matter whether they came across monsters, bandits or a hostile enemy army, nobody was going to expect flying riflemen.

Sure, everyone knew that they had rifles and mortars, but it wasn’t the mages that were notorious for using them, it was the Cygnian Noblemen. And while a few of them could use more magic than the basics, very few of the Natural Sons had a magic related trade skill core.

The next morning, Dominic lingered in bed a little longer than usual, using his wing to shield Alexis from the light of the window, much to the frustration of the maids.

“Fine, I will get out of bed, but know that it is done under protest,” he finally relented.

“Good idea. If she sleeps in too long, she’s just going to be extra hungry when she does get up, and that’s not good for anyone.”

Alexis chuckled to herself as she heard them bickering.

She certainly wasn’t that grumpy in the morning. But she certainly was hungry. It seemed like every day she was getting bigger and hungrier. Given another few weeks, and she was going to have to get her dresses altered again.

That would not happen, it was too much work for a few weeks that they would actually fit, so it was time that she was going to have to actually switch to maternity wear, loose dresses, or pants with a tunic shirt.

While the latter was not made for pregnant women, it worked well for the paunchy beer bellies of Noblemen, and that sort of flexibility was perfect for her.

Dominic smiled as he saw that she had chosen to go with the loose pants tucked into high boots and an oversized sweater today, that he was fairly certain came from his closet.

It was actually a good look, but he could already imagine the scandalized expression of any Noblewoman or farm wife that saw it.

However, she wasn’t planning to go out anywhere today. The entire day was dedicated to working in the office, while she watched from the window as the Royal Guards updated the training of the Malton Knights.

They were going to be teaching the new men about the basics of ballistic weapons, then combined arms group tactics.

Fighting alongside mages and artillery pieces required a very different set of tactics and skills than fighting alongside archers and swordsmen. And until they actually had the men on the training field, there was no way to tell if they knew anything at all about it.

So, the entire yard was busy, including both forges, as some of the horses needed fresh shoes, and the farrier had a small forge in the stable for exactly that purpose.

Dominic watched the Royal Guard teaching formations with mortars set up in the yard, arranging soldiers so that they could not only guard the artillery, but also trap and eliminate any force that came for them.

Then, they moved into breaching techniques, using the [Wings of Light] spell to rush the wall. They skimmed the ground, running with magical assistance, then spread their wings to full extension and used the momentum to run up the wall.

They were practicing with spears, but when he had the rifles ready, they could change tactics, and add a pause at the top of the jump to shoot with relative stability before dropping into the enemy fortress and switching to pistols.

It would be an absolutely brutal tactic executed at night against a walled fortress or camp. The enemy wouldn’t even realize that they were under attack until there were knights firing into their formations and breaching the walls.

They could even go for guard towers to silently eliminate lookouts, or gain the high ground to shoot down into the compound.

If the location had a portcullis, its controls would normally be atop a tower as well.

Making for an easy entry into the city.