"Old General Merlot, I assume? It’s a pleasure to meet you." Dominic greeted the elderly Noble.
"Just call me Jack, Your Grace. No, just Jack. Yeah."
General Merlot sighed. "Dad, are you drunk?"
"Well, I didn’t know that I was going to be going anywhere until an hour ago, now, did I? I was plenty drunk before that."
Dominic laughed. "It’s the best way to meet anyhow. It helps take the stuffiness out of the event. But who else do we have with us? I don’t believe I had a chance to meet any of you esteemed Gentlemen during my brief stay within the Capital City’s Palace."
"I am Alistair, Mage Lord of the Capital Academy. I have been asked to help with the portal array and advising on matters of Magical Development, as magitech theory is my specialty course.
Beside me is Jenna, former Chief Accountant of the Academy, whose talents are self-explanatory.
On my right is Lord Blackwell, formerly Baron Blackwell, who has passed the title to his son. City planning and infrastructure are his specialty, and he will be leading a full team from Wistover for the foreseeable future."
Jenna and Blackwell both nodded politely, and then stepped aside as more people came through the portal.
"Ah, the mages of the infrastructure team are here." Lord Blackwell declared with a smile.
But nobody even pretended to be fooled.
Sure, they were mages, and they might help with infrastructure, but one look at their faces, and the scars on their arms told anyone with half a brain that these were career soldiers of fortune, not construction workers.
Dominic nodded. "I will arrange somewhere for everyone to stay. Does anyone know how many more civilian workers we will have ing today?
The army is kitted to spend a night in a warehouse, but I will try to find apartments for the others."
"None that need additional acmodation. We can house our Emissaries with the ones who are already on location. The provided housing for representatives is more than sufficient." The Necromancer King decided.
The rest of the nations were only bringing a few more people over, ones who would be here long term. They also weren’t in a hurry to get them here, as they already had people on site who could do the job in the short term.
The bigger issue was that they would eventually have to return to their thrones, and they hadn’t settled the issues with territory and reparations yet.
They were reconsidering asking for parts of the old Wavemates Territory, but they were not happy about the storm’s damage. The curse activation had made them think that it might be better to just leave the whole issue alone and not try to take any part of Dagos. But they still wanted reparations of some sort.
Perhaps a nice trade deal...
That was something that they could argue about without anyone trying to kill each other, and the increased trade would help Dagos rebuild so that they could afford to repay the debts that the other nations felt they owed.
Other than the Necromancer King. His nation hadn’t been hit, and he was mostly here just for entertainment and the chance at a trade agreement with a side of entertainment.
"Advisors, if you would like to join me for tea, we can speak in my office." Dominic suggested, subtly looking to excuse himself from the spotlight.
"Of course, Your Grace. Highness, Your Majesties, by your leave?" Alistair replied.
"Of course. Go get settled in. I am counting on you to guide the Duchy in a productive and prosperous direction."
At least the King didn’t try to pretend that they were going to be loyal to Dominic.
It might end up that way, but for right now, they were very clearly handpicked by the King for their affiliation to him, or perhaps to Crown Prince Claudius.
The King wasn’t young anymore, and while he would live many more years, so would Dominic, and it would make sense for the Crown Prince to start taking up increasingly large portions of the administrative duties.
Either way, Dominic knew that they would be reporting anything that was out of the ordinary to the Royals, and there was going to be a lot for them to report.
Like Dave.
The trolls waved to all the new arrivals as they entered the Manor, while the advisors simply stared at them in confusion.
"Oh, we likely haven’t mentioned yet, there are fifty Mountain Trolls on the Manor Security force. They guard me, the walls, and do general security around the pound, as well as heavy lifting and some nature magic assistance for the gardeners." He explained.
"I see. Well, Wistover is making a name for itself as a magical destination, so I suppose that it only makes sense that you would have magic resistant and highly capable Manor guards." Lord Blackwell decided.
"That is true, but we also have many important guests staying within the Manor. If trouble es up between groups of Royal Guards, I needed someone who could handle it without escalating the situation."
The advisor looked confused for a second, then saw the massive shield slung across the Troll’s back.
If he used that as a barricade, he could block a hallway with relative ease, or separate two arguing parties with a wall of steel. That should get the point across, without Dave having to resort to violence at all.
"Who is taking care of Manor accounting at the moment?" Advisor Jenna asked, her blue eyes stern under steel grey hair pulled into a tight bun.
"That would be Castellan Julio. He is taking on the majority of our financial report making, and reporting daily to myself and the Duchess."
Jenna nodded. "I will bring in a small team to ensure that the entire Duchy’s accounts are in order, including your Barons.
All of them are new to their position, and while they are exempted from another year’s tax levies, it simply would not do if any of them were unprepared to pay after that.
Do you have population reports?"
Dominic laughed. "Oh, that’s the fun part. We’ve taken in tens of thousands of refugees in the last week, with many, many more ing our way. We have reports, but they need to be updated daily."
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