Chapter 354: Always Early
Dominic’s optimism turned out to be misplaced only hours later, when a Cygnia airship was spotted incoming from the southeast.
The message had given them two weeks before Crown Prince Claudius would arrive, but just as everyone else had done, he was incredibly early for the meeting.
Dominic jogged over to the airship fields, where dozens of other vessels were already anchored.
"Do we have someone to marshal another airship in? A Royal from Cygnia should be aboard that airship." Dominic asked the first man he found standing around the field.
"Yes, Your Grace. We were just discussing where to have him land. Nobody was sure if we should guide him to the field or have him anchor on the Manor House directly, as they’ve identified the airship as Crown Prince Claudius." He replied.
Right, the airships all had radios.
"Have him land here in the clearing. The roof of the Manor isn’t set up to anchor the airship, and the compound has a full mage sect camped in it. No room for him to land there." Dominic relayed.
"Got it." The worker ran off, and seconds later the airship was descending, headed for the landing area where all the others had unloaded their cargo before moving to a parking area to be anchored down.
The moment that the airship’s landing rope was secured, Prince Claudius jumped down from the vessel, then stretched his arms over his head with a smile on his face.
"Not a fan of flying, Your Highness?" Dominic asked in a teasing tone.
"I don’t mind the heights, but being stuck in a cramped airship with a bunch of Royal Advisors and actuaries for the meetings with Axbridge and Mitfield is not my idea of fun.
Just because the airship can carry a few more people should not mean that we have to cram them in." Claudius grumbled.
"Then perhaps you would like to start with a shower? It’s only a few minutes to the manor." Dominic suggested.
Prince Claudius shook his head. "It’s the crowded spaces, not the smell, that bothers me. I’ve killed far too many Goblins for a few over perfumed Nobles to offend my senses."
Indeed, the airship did smell like a house of ill repute, unwashed bodies and far too much perfume used to cover the lingering scents of days spent aboard.
Once they were in the open for a few minutes, the potency would diminish rapidly. But the interior of the airship would need days to be properly ventilated and cleaned before you could enter without being immediately hit with the scent.
The same was done for all the other airships, but it was mostly the scent of too many soldiers with no shower and beans for breakfast. Questionably worse than the perfume, but no less lingering in its potency.
"In that case, why don’t we take the long way back? We weren’t expecting you for another fortnight, but the village is doing quite well already." Dominic suggested.
"Oh? I heard that you have made some progress with the Merchants. I take it that you’ve had a good crop?" He asked.
"Indeed. But we are also selling small amounts of magitech, and we’ve got a full shipment of magitech fireplaces ready to go out when the caravan arrives tomorrow.
How about we stop at the factory first, and you can see how the process works?"
The Crown Prince smiled at Dominic’s offer. "That sounds wonderful. Though, with your specialties, I had thought that it would be a steam tractor or weapons factory built first."
Dominic laughed. "I’m not the one working in the factory this time. But we do have repair bays for the caravans’ tractors.
We intend to expand to making new ones as well, but we’re still getting our workers trained on the simple magitech orbs for the fireplaces and lamps, so we haven’t gotten to a full on tractor factory."
The sounds of the production line could be heard from well outside the factory walls, and the Crown Prince was becoming visibly excited as they approached.
"You really did make a whole factory for magitech? How did you even find enough Techno Wizards?" He asked.
"We didn’t. The fireplaces use the most basic of magitech orbs, so we had the techno wizards that we did find spend weeks training new students as factory workers.
You could call them magitech engineering apprentices, but without much likelihood of becoming journeymen.
You see, there isn’t much ongoing training, as the factory only makes a few items.
However, as we expand into more complex products, there will be openings for more training, and a path forward for the production line workers.
The fireplaces might not be glamorous, but they are still magitech, and the Guild should give us a good price for them. That allows us to pay the workers quite generously, to the point that there won’t be many complaints about a career on the production line." Dominic narrated as they approached.
Then, he swung open the door to reveal the process inside.
"Welcome, Crown Prince, to the Wistover Magitech Factory."
Prince Claudius stared in awe at the efficient layout of the factory, from the clay casting moulds and kiln, to the die cutters that were sending stacks of metal plates down the line, and finally to the pair of mages in the corner, meditating as they created low-quality gems for the fire creation and light orbs.
"Everything is done in one place, and the only raw materials we need are clay and mages. There is a large riverside quarry just outside of town, with enough sediment to keep us at full production for years.
We are hoping that the rainy season washes enough good grey clay down river to replace what we’ve pulled out because we’ve got a mountain of it moved to settle before use.
But we will sort out supply issues when we get to them." Dominic explained.
Claudius shook his head. "I think that the amount of clay will be the least of your concerns. This is stunning, and you have most definitely underestimated the amount of envy that such wealth will provoke.
Tell me, what family owns this factory?"
"Mine. Well, ours. It belongs to the Duchy, and Princess Alexis has taken charge of our budget." Dominic explained.
"A Duke who doesn’t do his own budgeting?"
Dominic shrugged at the accusation. "She’s better at it than I am. Besides, even if she wanted to go all out and buy a mountain of jewellery or fine silks, we could just trade them for factory goods and still turn a profit."
Prince Claudius smiled. The thought of Princess Alexis becoming a spoiled and girly noblewoman, wallowing in luxury and uselessness, was just so ridiculous that he couldn’t put her face to the image.
"Well, you should be fine then. As long as she takes a large enough guard on her monster hunting trips." He allowed.
Dominic smirked. "About that. You’ll understand when we get to the Manor. She’s not short on guards, but we’ve got a mage tower going up to train even more."