The World Dragon's Heir
Chapter 92: Advisory Role

Chapter 92: Advisory Role

The next morning, when Dominic got to the workshop, there was a surprise guest waiting for him, along with the two Tutors.

"Princess Alexis, it’s a pleasure to see you this morning." Dominic greeted the athletic blonde, who looked decidedly less comfortable in her elegant dress than she had in her battle armour.

"Sorcerer, it’s good to see that you are well. I have come to invite you to a meeting with the King and his advisors. How quickly can you get changed into military formal attire?" She replied.

"Five minutes, your Highness. There is a spare room here, and I have the necessary items with me."

While he went to the other room, Dominic heard the Princess excusing the Tutors for the day, with the insistence that he would not be back any time soon.

That made the meeting sound much more important than anything that he was likely to be invited to on a normal day, or perhaps the situation was so much more dire than he had imagined.

The King had just sent five hundred cavalry riflemen to assist at the border, surely that should have been enough to stabilize the situation for some time?

Dominic quickly changed, and Princess Alexis gave his outfit a quick inspection before nodding in satisfaction and escorting him from the room.

"You will be attending today as my advisor in matters of magic and weapons supply. Advisor Morgana works for my father, and will be filling a similar role, so you can follow her lead in most situations.

If I look to you for advice, try to come up with something good, but whisper it to me.

Advisors speak only directly to the one they are advising, not anyone else. You may speak to the other advisors, but not about the topics that are being discussed.

Other than that, advisors are also a bodyguard. The chances that someone would try to attack a Royal during an official meeting are low, but never zero. If a fight does break out, your first objective is to protect me." The Princess explained quietly as they walked.

Dominic was dumbfounded. A Royal advisor? Him? What was happening here?

But they were already entering the meeting room, and there was no chance to ask those sorts of questions.

Princess Josephine was also present, along with a pair of older Paladins and her Royal Guards. Prince Claudius was there as well, but none of the other Royals were in the room.

At least not until the King walked in from a side door and everyone bowed.

"Stand. Let’s get this underway. The Dagos airborne units have advanced again this morning, using the cover of darkness to hide the airships. They have taken three border villages, and the sixth prince has been forced to retreat.

The Natural Sons have been sent to the location marked as one on the map, while the First and Second Legions have been sent to the estates of Duke Carrington and Duke Wuthering."

Dominic watched quietly as the markers for the military units were moved, and noted the large gap that they left in the lines. That couldn’t be an oversight, so he waited for someone to explain.

"The First and Second reserves will be moving here, and forming a trench line across the hilltops to prevent ground movement. However, that tactic has proven somewhat less effective than usual, with the increase in airborne troop movements by Dagos.

Their new high lift airships are capable of moving an entire Company of soldiers with their gear at over twenty kilometres an hour.

Moving by night has made them challenging to spot, and we have rain in the forecast for the rest of the week." The King continued.

More markers were placed, and then markers in red, denoting the size of the Dagos military units.

Their army was clearly larger than the Cygnia force, especially after all the casualties that had been taken during the monster invasions recently. But worse, that had also reduced the number of militia that could be called upon to defend the border.

Many had died, and many more were needed at home, as the common people did not believe that the threat was over without any action in their area by the army.

One after another, the military advisors for the King began describing the troop status of the various units, while Dominic took notes.

Beside him, Advisor Morgana smiled softly. The rest of the group had been here for every meeting since the start of the Goblin attacks, so this was just a daily update, but Dominic didn’t know any of it.

All of the other advisors wondered what had made the Princess choose him as a Royal Advisor, but decided that it was as good of a time as any for the younger generation of Royals to bring a younger generation of advisors on board.

Better to start them now, during a war, than to spread the existing advisors too thin. If the new Sorcerer could prove his wisdom now, or at least his loyalty to the Princess, he would be a valued and well-trained advisor by the time that the battles were over.

The deployment discussions took them until after noon when food was brought in. Only after they had eaten did the discussion of battle strategies begin.

{What do you have for me?} Princess Alexis whispered to Dominic just before it was her turn to provide a suggestion.

{High altitude gliders. If we send up a line of balloons, they can send out gliders when enemy troops are spotted. Not to fight, but to shoot down the airships. A few well-placed spells, or barbed chains dragged over the envelope, will take out an airship every time.} Dominic whispered back.

The Crown Prince gave a complex description of potential troop movements to confuse the enemy, leading them to attack towns that were more reinforced than expected. Very traditional, very textbook.

Though, Dominic only gathered that much by watching the bored expressions of the others in the room.

"Princess Alexis?" The King asked.

"I agree that if we have the defence towers tether off a high altitude balloon here, here, here, and here, we can put watches above the cloud cover to search for the incoming airships."

That had been said before, and hardly counted as a suggestion.

"But if we put a Technomage with a glider aboard each of the observation balloons, they can deploy when they spot the airships and attack. The gliders are much faster than an airship, and Dagos’ army will be unable to evade.

Attack the airship and force it to crash-land or emergency drop the troops out of position. Leaving them in the wilderness negates their advantage, and if they have not thoroughly prepared, it might cause heavy casualties the first night."

The King nodded in satisfaction. That was a simple enough idea to implement, and it went well with many of the other ideas presented.