Chapter 327: We Need Facilities
"Will Wistover be making these for mass production?" Prince George asked carefully.
Dominic shook his head. "I intend to arm the Royal Guard with them, and perhaps some of the elite town guard. But I have given the huntsmen and some others an older version of the magitech rifles, while the city guard officers have mana pistols.
They’re more practical in a close quarters fight, and the city guard aren’t travelling soldiers. They just need enough to defend town against monster invasions."
The Prince nodded. "That is true. Perhaps you could attract some adventurers as well? They tend to make it easier to keep wild monsters and other issues under control, and they’ll give a steady clientele for entertainment venues when there isn’t a conference in town."
"Not a bad point. We could use some adventurers in the region. There is plenty of room for them to settle, and more than enough work for them to take up.
Even the wild boars run in large packs further from town. We could send them out every day with bounties and not run out." Dominic agreed.
Alexis shrugged. "We already informed the Guild, they will pass it along to the Mercenary Guild and let them know. It might be some time before anyone decides to give the region a try, but the boards will have information about Wistover up soon."
Prince George nodded. "That could work. If nothing else, it will tell everyone that Wistover is established enough that you can afford to set and pay bounties, and that you’ve got somewhere for visitors to stay.
A lot of smaller towns only have one small in with three or four rooms, which serve mostly as overflow for the local drunks who don’t make it home for the night."
Alexis nodded. "That’s why even the caravans stop outside most villages, and then come in for the market in the morning. There isn’t usually a good spot to stop that isn’t unwelcoming to outsiders.
Small towns have a very insular sort of attitude when they haven’t had a new family move in for generations.
Wistover is all refugees and hired specialists, so it’s still developing its own culture. I think that if we start bringing in Adventurers, we should be able to integrate them into town well enough.
Then it will just be a matter of keeping them paid and busy."
And keeping them loyal. With the chance that there were still Dagos infiltration groups left in the region, armed strangers were a danger if they were not clearly loyal to Cygnia.
Or to Wavemates, Alexis realized.
Many of the locals had very little affection for Cygnia as a nation, and had only come to Wistover because there was a Wavemates Dragonkin as the Duke.
Those residents might prove to be the most loyal to the town, but whether they would be as accommodating of outsiders was a hurdle that they would have to overcome later.
Dominic smiled at the visiting Prince and got to his feet. "I will leave you two to catch up, and I will see you at dinner. I know what we need now, or at least what I would have liked to see in towns I visited in the past. So, I will start getting that arranged.
How long do we have before the first envoys arrive?"
Prince George shrugged. "Probably a week. I am ahead of schedule because I wanted to visit the young Princess."
Dominic nodded. "That’s what I expected. Since the Cygnia Delegation under Prince Russel didn’t know anything about it, you were definitely ahead of schedule."
"Yes, I saw the Prince on my way in. He knows now, and he’s continuing his work, with an eye to watching for groups that might have tried to follow us in. There were signs of large groups of monsters on the way in, and we hunted a few of them. But none of them had a leader with them, so we couldn’t verify the situation."
Alexis sighed. "We can verify it. I will explain the whole situation to you while Dominic goes to get facilities set up. I’m sure he has a better grasp of what the common soldier wants than either of us who grew up in a Palace."
Dominic laughed as he left the room. Princess Alexis surely had a pretty decent idea after years of slumming it with the guards and Paladins. But still, the Noble Officers never were privy to the majority of ’undocumented procurement’ activities that the enlisted men got up to.
The entire point of keeping them off the books was so that the Nobles didn’t find out, after all.
But going out into town was only half to arrange for facilities, and the other half was to assure the locals that they weren’t under attack.
That was a foreign army camped outside their city limits, close enough that there were farms on all sides of them.
The Hunters would already be on edge, but they were outnumbered five hundred to one. Hardly in a position to defend the village against such a force, and there were more coming.
His first stop was at the Inn, which as many others was not nearly large enough even for the officers of a force like George’s.
"Innkeeper, I have some information that you will need. And perhaps you can work with me on a plan to make things work without causing ourselves future issues." Dominic explained.
"I suspect that it has to do with the officers of that army outside the gates?" The older man replied.
"Indeed. And the officers from the other two similar forces that are likely to arrive here in the next few weeks."
The innkeeper looked around at the room and shook his head. "Even if I chase out all the locals, there isn’t room for that here."
"And that’s why we need to talk. Do you want to keep this place mostly for locals and merchants? If so, I will construct an additional facility for events. Something with room for a tavern, perhaps some gaming tables, and a larger hotel overhead for officers." Dominic suggested.
"Split into at least four sections if you’ve got three armies. You can’t have it all open when things get tense. If you can’t separate them, they’ll tear the place up."