The World Dragon's Heir

The message was sent, and a response received within seconds. Fast enough that Dominic suspected someone had dropped everything that they were doing to get the response written.

“Well, it seems that the King approves, and if you wish to sell any more used airships at that price, he is willing to buy ten more.”

Dominic mentally calculated their stock, and the locations they currently had an airship on permanent post so that they could have a high altitude watch station in the region.

“Yes, I can spare ten more, making your order twenty airships and five biplanes in total.”

The Princes admired his boldness, offering to buy so much all at once to restock the military.

They were getting orders that were actually much more expensive, as they wanted more of the biplanes, but their nations were larger than Chip, and in better financial condition.

“Well, if Chip is getting a whole fleet of airships today, they can likely wait a bit for their biplanes, right?” Prince Fahad suggested.

The first instinct of the advisor was to argue the point, and make sure that they got their turn on time.

But after careful consideration, he was already getting military equipment faster than anyone else in the room, simply because of what he had chosen. The arrival of the airships would be a cause for celebration in the nation, and then they could do it again when the biplanes were produced.

Claiming that he got a rough deal because of the Crown Princes would help him save face at home, but coming back with a fleet would go much further.

“Alright, I will agree to go after the rest of today’s orders, but before any additional orders that are placed to supplement the ones made today.”

The Princes and the representative shook hands on it, sealing the agreement that their additional orders would go after everyone got the first batch. That wasn’t much of a compromise, as they had already ordered all they could afford at the moment, but it would give them a reason to complain if someone tried to cut the line.

“Alright, I will have the final agreement drawn up by the end of the day, and everyone can sign in the evening.

Are there any objections?” Dominic asked.

Nobody raised any, so Dominic added his notes to the agreement, and then sent it over to Lord Blackwell to be edited and duplicated. The mages would do most of the transcription, but he was officially the political advisor, so this fell mostly under his job to check.

Just in case Dominic made a mistake in the agreement the first time.

With the help of Amie, who used a spell to make all the copies identical before adding the purchase amounts to them, they had the paperwork ready well before dark. That was all that anyone could have hoped for, and Dominic was hoping that was enough to satisfy the Royals that their mission here was complete.

Not that he actually expected them to leave at this point.

They were having far too much fun socializing.

That sort of social setting was exactly what Alexis thrived on. It was the place where she was most comfortable, if you didn’t count the battlefield, and getting to play hostess to the other Royals and the Advisors from Noble families that she had grown up around was a calmingly familiar experience that distracted her from the rapid changes her life had undergone.

As an added bonus, it gave Dominic chances to go on small adventures with Katerina.

Today, they were going to go see the goats.

Dave was feeling especially protective as they headed for the yard. The little dragon was precious, and she rarely went outside the house.

So, this was a new experience for all of them.

The moment that Katerina locked eyes on a goat, her body froze, tracking the animal from much further than Dominic had thought she could see at her age. She was wiggling with excitement in his arms, and she only got more excited as Dominic brought her closer.

As soon as they got close enough for Dominic to touch the goats, Katerina cheered and her claws extended.

“No, you can’t win that fight. If you want to eat one, you’ll have to wait.”

He wasn’t sure if she understood, but her claws retracted, while her eyes remained locked on the goat. For its part, the goat was not concerned about the tiny blonde dragonkin. It just came over to sniff at Dominic, checking to see if he had a treat.

Dave handed Dominic a small bag of grain that the goats liked, and he opened it, bringing Katerina carefully down with his other hand.

Suddenly, Katerina seemed to realize that the goat had horns, and was immediately reaching out for them. She latched on with all the grip strength that she could muster. The goat didn’t mind, the tiny creature was no threat, and she was in Dominic’s arms.

Plus, she had horns. In the mind of the goats, that almost made her one of them.

“Well, that was a success.” Dominic decided as the goat settled down beside them, so Katerina could happily paw at its side, running her hands through the coarse hair.

“Mission accomplished. The little one is exhausted, now we can go back in and not get in trouble for giving back a hyper baby.” Dominic joked with Dave as Katerina finally wore herself out.

“Little ones need a lot of energy, and Troll milk helps them recover faster.” Dave agreed.

Right, while having a Trollish wet nurse was a godsend, it probably didn’t help with the excessive energy issues. It might just be a baby thing, but Dominic was certain that he had heard people say the first six months were supposed to be mostly eating and sleeping.

That was not true at all.

And then, one night after dinner, he set the baby on their bed while he changed from dinner attire to a comfortable mage robe to go out and visit the Adventurer’s Guild for a late evening drink.

And Katerina promptly rolled herself over and began crawling toward the pillows.

Now they were in trouble. The dragon was mobile.