The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 560: Spread The Work

The refugees laughed at Dominic’s comment.

While it was tempting to live around all family members, he had a point. Hard work meant not much time to do anything else. So, if you were around only family, your children would have to travel to find marriage partners, even if it was just the next village over.

But that also meant that they wouldn’t have grown up with suitable partners, and the very best would have already been chosen.

The most capable sons would be snapped up by the most ambitious or most beautiful daughters long before marriageable age. There was no doubt about that.

Two thirds of the group had married a childhood friend or neighbour.

“Alright, we will try not to get too settled in tonight. There are some city folk with us, but I get the feeling that I already know what your concern is.” One of the old men began.

“He’s worried that he’s going to end up with a thousand shop clerks in a town with no job openings,” an old woman insisted.

“She’s right. If they can learn to farm, or take up a job in one of the Baronies, it will be best. We do need a few shop assistants, but not many.

The town is growing, so until we have more skilled tradesmen, there are more people than unskilled jobs.

That said, most jobs aren’t too hard to learn, and if you’ve got the potential, we do offer training. The magitech factories are a great example, or if you’ve got children, we’ve got an academy.

It teaches basic knowledge as well as magic.

So, if your kids have the ability, they can be trained to be mages instead of common farmers or shopkeepers. The Duskblade Sect were formerly a mercenary Sect in the Axbridge deserts, and they have the contacts to find work for their graduates who don’t wish to remain in Wistover.

I know how it is, sometimes you just need to see the world.”

A bunch of the kids laughed at the thought. They had seen more than enough of the world for one month.

But their parents were more pragmatic. If their child could be trained as a mage, they could change their fate, earn a fantastic living, perhaps even get hired directly by a Noble, or taken in as a consort, giving their children some Noble blood, even if they were not legitimate.

Mages really did have it good in life.

While they made their marks on the spreadsheet that Dominic had prepared, Amie came out from the Manor to check on him.

“It’s almost time to switch out again. How are things going here?”

“Give me another hour, and I’ll be done getting the signatures so we will know who is looking for what sort of work. It might not be perfect, but it’s enough that I’ll be able to sort it out tonight.”

Amie nodded. “I thought that might be the case. I brought a bunch of Acolytes from the Sect to help finish the work. They’ll do night watch for the new arrivals, so they don’t have any issues with the soldiers.

The last thing we need is a scandal between a travelling soldier and some naive village girl.”

The town guards laughed quietly at the comment.

There were more than a few good-looking young women in the crowd. They could see the temptation to invite one back home for the evening.

Perhaps longer than that. Not all of them were married men, after all.

“Alright, you bring them here, and they can take over from me, while I go release Alexis from the duty of standing watch over the weddings.”

One of the old men cleared his throat. “Did I hear you say there are a lot of weddings? I am a Priest of the Dragon Gods, though I’ve not been able to practice openly in the Capital for a decade.”

Dominic nodded. “We’re hosting a Debutante event, with over a thousand attendees. We’ve got the Barons, and over three hundred Knights and Lords who will be married in the next few weeks, to stay in the Duchy.

Then however many more want to get married here. Some will stay without a title, most will return to the husband’s family estate.

But we’re short on both clerics and space to hold so many weddings. We’ve dedicated the entire Adventurer’s Guild Hall to weddings for the untitled Nobles.”

The old man called a few more over. “We’re all clergy. Is there a temple in town?”

“There is a small one. It’s got a Priest living in it already, but Wistover is already much larger than it used to be. I’m sure that it can either be expanded, or another one can be built across town.

There is always a place for the Clergy.”

The refugees whispered for a moment, then began to cheer and clap.

“What’s got them excited?” Dominic whispered.

“You acknowledged the Clergy. I guess you didn’t really live it, since they chased you right out of the country, but in Kinewen, they outlawed the worship of the Dragon Gods, and converted all the temples to their own pantheon.

Most of the old folk have been attending a church that isn’t their own for years, just so that the local Lords don’t ask too many questions.

The last time folk tried to rebel and stopped attending services, the new Duke of Kinewen burned down half the slums as a punishment.” The old cleric explained.

“I knew that things couldn’t be perfect, but I didn’t know that they were that bad. Most of the others I’ve met were from Lympsbury or Causter, and they both turned on their Nobles the moment that the Cygnia Armies arrived.

They don’t talk much about the time before the war, and I didn’t think to ask, so it never came up.”

“It’s all in the past now, anyhow. Kinewen has been completely flooded. If anything survived outside the Palace district, which has a barrier over it, I will be surprised.

That’s a lot of cleansing, and everything will be built back new with all new residents by the time that everything is settled.

But who knows, it might not even belong to Dagos much longer.

A little birdie told me that they might not be able to get rid of the armies from Witheton who came under the auspices of Axbridge helping Kinewen recover from the disaster after the water goes down.”