The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 551: Luck Of The Draw

The Barons cheered as they realized the potential of this arrangement.

Not only did they have a chance at the very best spots, they got to choose their own. The Princess hadn’t even reserved any of the lands.

No, that wasn’t right. The lands closest to the city were not marked as available. So, either they were already assigned to other Barons, or Dominic intended to keep them as Ducal lands, for farmers under his control to work.

Much of that land was actually slated to be part of the city, but they didn’t know that he was already planning ahead for the massive influx of refugees that he was expecting to be here within the week.

He was also counting on being able to keep some of those people around to work the fields.

“Alright, since everyone is too excited to eat properly, let’s get this party started. The bag, please.”

The maid smiled as she shook the bag, rearranging all the cards inside, then held it open at table level for Dominic.

“And our first name of the day is…

Dax.

Congratulations. Come up here and place your token on the land of your choice. I’m sure that you’ve all been obsessively studying the map, hoping for a particular spot.”

“RIGGED!” One of the other Barons joked.

“Right? The man really does have a luck buff. First choice of land, AND he’s marrying a minor Princess of Amerton? Commander Dax has all the luck.”

The jokes continued as Dax helped his bride to her feet, and led her to the map.

“What do you think? The spot that we wanted is available.” He asked, speaking softly.

Princess Min smiled. “That will be lovely. The hill and weather should be perfect for grapes, with lots of flat ground for farming, and that stand of ironwood trees.”

Dax nodded decisively, and placed his token on a spot roughly thirty kilometres from Wistover.

It was a fair way from town, but not so far that they couldn’t get back in an hour with a mechanical horse or steam truck. Once Wistover Duchy had some proper roads built, that was.

That was going to have to be one of the next projects, regardless of how many new residents they got from the refugees.

The roads needed to be built, so that goods could travel smoothly between the Baronies and the airship docks, or the Merchant Guild warehouses.

“Alright, next name. Let’s see how has luck nearly as good as Commander Dax.”

Dominic shook the bag dramatically, then reached in and pulled a name.

“RJ, you’re up.”

The Baron in question rose gracefully to his feet, and helped his bride to hers.

Dominic took a second to remember where he had seen her before, but then it clicked. She was with the Cygnia Noblewomen. Well, one of the batches. However, her Noble Lineage was highly suspect, and Dominic was quite sure that she had been one of Readewentle’s “ladies for hire” before she had come here.

RJ sure did look happy, though.

They could call it life experience, or a chance to start over. It wasn’t like most of the Barons had never seen the inside of such an establishment before.

RJ examined the map, then stooped so she could whisper in his ear, and nodded.

Then, he placed his token down northwest of town by about ten kilometres.

It was away from the river, in a wide open area that Dominic knew from the reports had abundant volunteer crops growing. The Manors there were all in decent shape, so they shouldn’t have issues housing the Knights, but more importantly, they had more farm houses than usual.

“Thank you for the opportunity, Your Grace. We will do our best to get everything in good running order as soon as we finish the wedding.”

One of the other men looked at the map, and gestured across the river. “Why is none of that marked for development? Not just near the river, but a whole section of the west has nothing noted on it.”

Dominic shrugged. “There are houses there, mostly in need of cleaning. But that is where the Monster Summoning Ritual is, and the threat level is too high to be moving civilians in.

For now, it will remain a wild land, with soldiers and Adventurers hunting it regularly to keep the population under control.

We have determined that other than the ones that were being transported to the location, the ritual also summoned a group of monsters or magical beasts on its own every day since we found it.”

“Ah, good call, then. Wouldn’t want to try to convince a farmer to set up next to the source of the Duchy’s greatest monster threat.”

Especially not when the new arrivals might appear in his living room.” Dominic agreed.

RJ sat down, and Dominic pulled another name, keeping the momentum going.

“Baron Potato, Abe, your name is third. Your luck is strong today.”

The Barons all laughed as Abe got to his feet, with Melissa right beside him.

“Well, we already know where we will want to set up. My dearest wife will not be happy without a daily dose of potato, so we will take this plot here.

I’ve already been to the area, and the soil is just right.”

As he didn’t have to attend the events and search for a marriage partner, he had been mostly free the last week, and he had been scouting for good spots.

That one had a suitable Manor House, and while the land was not centred around it, the chosen territory did include the fields he wanted.

Another rustle of the bag, and a fresh name popped out.

“Kirk, you’re up.”

Kirk was a typically blonde Cygnia Noble, as was his bride to be. But Alora was no generic sort of Noble wife. No, Kirk had chosen a Techno Witch as his wife, and the slightly crazy woman was dragging him across the room to get to the map faster.

“I have a device, it will show us just the right spot.” She insisted.

Kirk nodded, and the young woman took a small metal object out of her storage ring. It glowed bright blue as she activated it, and Alexis began to laugh.

Dominic couldn’t see why. At least not at first.

The runes on the outside were numbers. She was using the roll of a magical dice to pick their future home.