The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 525: Selective Outrage

Dominic pulled his hood up over his horns, and prepared to greet the incoming vessels.

The floodwaters weren’t moving fast, but the current was still exceptionally strong, to the point that they would have to dock on the down current side, or possibly along one of the sides with extra restraints to keep their vessel from being dragged under by the turbulence.

The first ship came up along the side wall, steam paddles working furiously to hold it in place alongside the wall as the occupants rushed to the shore.

{Boss, I think that ship is full of dockworkers and hookers.} Amie noted quietly.

{Then bring them in. What’s the worst that could happen with a bunch of commoners in a stolen boat?}

Amie laughed a little as she caught the lines and used magic to anchor them to the wall, as there were no cleats on the structure they had made.

“Come on in. For now, it’s safe enough to remain here.” Dominic called over to the ship.

“Who is in charge here?” The dock man who had thrown the line asked cautiously.

“The Duke of Wistover.”

The man took a second to think about the answer, trying to remember who that was. Then, it came to him, and he almost dropped the line.

“So, there are no Dagos Nobles left alive in that Manor?”

“Not a single one. My apologies if you wanted some.”

The man smiled and waved for someone to come forward.

Three men brought a large ramp, the one that they used to load cargo and passengers. That let the occupants disembark two at a time, while the experienced men ran extra lines to keep the boat from breaking free in the current.

With that one vessel tied off, more began turning their way.

It was a good sign that there were either supplies to be looted in the house, or safety to be found, and they would take either at this point.

“What is your plan to survive this disaster, Lord Wistover?” One of the men asked in a heavy accent that didn’t sound like Dagos to Dominic.

“Well, you see, there is a small issue. I have a longstanding grudge against the Dagos Nobility and Royal Family. I was planning to use artillery to sink their emergency escape vessels and then opening a portal to go home once the water dropped too far for them to approach.”

The civilians standing nearby stared at him in shock, and even Amie had to admire the absolute balls it took to say that to someone’s face, not knowing their loyalty or identity.

“Well, that’s one way to do it.

I suppose I’m not in a position to complain at this point. Half this crew is from the slums or the pirate docks, and we’re near to out of coal to keep the steam chambers running.

If you didn’t have your lady friend call when she did, we would have been washed out to sea.”

“How far is it to the sea from here?”

The man laughed, as with so much water, it truly wasn’t clear where the ocean started, and the flood ended.

“About ten kilometres? The ocean is on the outskirts of the city to the west. It’s built a bit inland to get away from the worst of the storm damage, but I guess that doesn’t matter when the storm is large enough.”

Another vessel was coming closer, and they hoisted what was most definitely the Royal Family flag of the Dagos Empire.

However, that was no longer in use. The new King had chosen to change it when he took over, as he was from a branch family. So, the only one who would possibly use that was a loyalist to Prince Kaizon.

“I recommend that you go down and away from the wall.” Dominic informed the last of the survivors to depart the steamship.

They rushed down the wall, unwilling to risk the wrath of someone who would claim to be the Duke of Wistover. Even if he was a fraud, he was a madman.

“What’s your plan?” Amie asked.

Dominic smiled as he attached a small rope to a mortar shell.

Insidious.

Dominic lit the fuse on his horn and hurled the mortar, letting the thin line trail behind it, as if trying to send a rescue line to the vessel.

As expected, the man at the helm caught what he thought was a mooring line weight right before the Mortar exploded and took out the controls of the sailing vessel, leaving the line slack in the water.

“Not bad. They’re going down fast, and they’ve lost controls. I wonder if they’ll fall for it twice?”

Amie shook her head. “The current is pushing them away from the Manor, so if they don’t have a mage on board with wind magic, there is no way they’ll get close enough.”

Dominic shrugged. “Well, I can try it on the next one. Assuming they don’t send a radio message warning them. We should have brought a portable radio out here so we could hear what’s going on.”

Amie tapped her ear and pointed at the house, where the window to the radio room on the upper floor was open.

“You can hear that?”

She nodded. “Not human, remember? I’m surprised you can’t.”

Dominic shrugged. “There is a lot going on, I can hear the children crying, but not the radio.”

Amie nodded. She was actually using magic to focus on the radio over all the other noise, but she could hear it without the help, though it was challenging to understand anything in the jumble of noise.

“They didn’t get a message out. I think that the explosion took out their radio because they’re still struggling to get the damaged lines retied. They’re not going to be a threat with no rudder left. They’ll make it to the ocean, then get pushed southwest down the coastline by the wind and current.”

Now, they just had to wait for another vessel to get close enough.