The World Dragon's Heir

The Princess raised her hand and a large steam carriage, marked with the Royal Family’s crest, trundled over to them.

"Your Highness, and her esteemed guest. Please allow me to assist you." The driver announced as he hopped down from his seat and swung out a set of steps before opening the door.

Then Dominic helped the Princess into the carriage, while the Noble ladies waiting around for glimpses of the freshly washed guard officers swooned. The sight of them getting all worked up because a guard was a bit kind to someone was an entertaining contrast to the brutality of his day so far.

But when the Princess closed the door behind Dominic, she was all business.

"What did you need me to know? I’m sure it’s more important than getting to dinner in a hurry." She asked.

"We found a Goblin Lord two days ago, leading a large team to ambush Aramos Village, and then just today, after the farms were attacked by Hobgoblins, we traced the attackers back into the forest and found another group being led by an Ogre." he explained.

"Dammit. Where is the Ogre now?" Princess Alexis asked, pulling a topographical map from her pocket.

"It’s dead. We managed to trip it and hack it apart. The guardsmen got off lucky, there were a lot of injured, but nobody died on that patrol. I can’t be sure that is true for the other patrols in the region, though. There were countless Goblins coming from that direction when I arrived here with the riders.

The message that the riders were ordered to pass on was that the Goblin hordes were mostly bypassing the town, and headed straight for the City. That might not be news anymore, since there are so many of them here, but with the timing, I doubt that wave will be the last of them." he explained.

Princess Alexis nodded and held out the map.

"Where did you finish off the Ogre? And which farms were attacked?" She asked.

"We finished the Ogre about here? I’m not great with topographical maps. But the Hobgoblins attacked a farm on this side of town, and we went straight into the woods, then turned toward the road at the first battle site. The team will have a full report for the guard with more details, my team showed up late."

"And where is your team now?" Axel asked.

"Back at the village. They grew up on the farms there, so they’re staying to protect their homes. Not many of the locals can fight, and they’ve both got good magic weapons." Dominic shrugged.

Alexis nodded. "That makes sense. Nobody wants to fight with the next town over when their own farm is exposed. It’s not official, and I will deny if asked, but that’s most of the reason that the gates were locked. If they let everyone head home, half the reserves and a good chunk of the guard would be gone, and who knows how many of them would be lost to Goblin attacks along the roads to the nearby towns."

The carriage made its way through the streets, and Dominic noticed that they weren’t headed for anywhere that he was familiar with. It was an upscale area, but it seemed that they were taking an alternate route into the Noble District to get to wherever the Princess planned to eat.

Then the carriage just kept going as the Princess made notes on her map and Dominic rested against the wall, exhausted from the day’s battle. He really needed to work on his stamina because combat was proving to be even more strenuous than the forge. fгeewebnovёl.com

The change of sounds from the bustle of the city to a suspicious silence brought him out of his reverie, and Dominic’s eyes shot open to see Princess Alexis staring at him with a smirk on her face.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice. Welcome to the Palace, Mister Dominic. Don’t worry about heading home for work in the morning, Pops is already here at the forges, and I will have rooms arranged for you after dinner."

"Seriously? Is he chained to the forge or something? I can’t see Pops willingly leaving his shop at the staging area on a day like this." Dominic joked.

"It didn’t quite come to that. I will admit that it might have come close to having to use force, but eventually a Royal Decree summoning him here to make gear for the Palace Guard was enough to get him to move.

At least temporarily."

Dominic frowned as he took in the Princess’ features. Still stunningly beautiful with those sharp almost Elfin features, and a hint of a bruise along the jaw line, but there was not a hint of mockery or deceit in her expression.

They really had gone all the way to issuing a Royal Decree to bring Pops to the Palace.

"Do I have to ask him how things got to that point, or can you tell me?" He asked.

Princess Alexis just shrugged. "All I know is that the Royal Armourer suddenly quit and left the city in the middle of the night the day before yesterday, along with a number of other wealthy crafters. The timing seems incredibly suspicious, but I prefer not to pass speculation, when it might have been another Kingdom poaching them away. That happens more often than you might think when it comes to top craftsmen."

The carriage came to a stop, and Dominic adjusted his hood before stepping out. It was a good thing that he did, as there were hundreds of upper nobility members standing around in the garden nearby, having some sort of party.

"Why do you have your hood up?" Alexis whispered.

"Have you forgotten that I have horns?" Dominic replied, then smirked as she froze in realization.

"Maybe. Let’s go inside a moment and I will get you a more appropriate hat. Even playing the mysterious Sorcerer doesn’t get you a pass to wear a hood inside the Palace during an event."

They stepped through the door, and Dominic was grabbed by a pair of strong but slender arms.

"Princess Elanor, it’s good to see you again." he greeted the energetic young Paladin.

"I knew it was you. The whole Palace is abuzz with the news that my sister brought back a date in what sounded suspiciously like Academy Mage Robes. And, they say it was someone who she kills Goblins with." Princess Eleanor giggled, then pulled Dominic’s hood down.

"Here, I have a hat. I thought that this might happen, and everything else you were wearing is likely filthy right now. Stay in those robes, though, even though they’re still a bit wet. We want to remind the nobles that you can kill them if they annoy the Princess."

Alexis thumped her sister on the head. "We are not encouraging them to think that Dominic will kill them on my behalf, no matter how annoying their sons are. They’ll find out in the next day or two that he’s the newly drafted Royal Smith’s apprentice anyhow."

"You have a point. I need to get him more outfits if he’s going to be around the Palace all the time. If you haven’t guessed yet, my father and elder brothers have assigned guards to keep me from sneaking out to fight." The last part was directed at Dominic, who was trying to fix the wide brimmed hat over his head.

Unlike the robes, it wasn’t enchanted to automatically fit, and it wasn’t designed to go over his horns, which kept making it slide up at the front.

"That’s no good. Here, let me adjust that." Alexis laughed, then slid the hat in place and fixed it with hairpins.

"Perfect. It’s not going anywhere, and after you wear it for an hour it will form to your head. New hats are like that. Now, let’s rejoin the party." Elanor explained.