Chapter 87: Lineage Matters

“Might I know why the lineage of a Gunsmith matters?” One of the Nobles in the strategy meeting asked.

“Because he turned out five hundred uncommon rifles for the army without a single failure. But more importantly, he might be able to innovate new recipes on his own. His accomplishment for the war effort has been nearly twenty times the required rate, and the merits that he has accumulated will certainly be called in soon.

If he happens to have foreign Noble or Royal blood, it will be of vital importance to our future decisions.” The King retorted, as if the man was an idiot.

Princess Alexis smiled softly to herself. Dominic likely didn’t even know how many Royal Merits he had accumulated, or what they could be used for.

If he did, he would have made a request by now, even if it was for additional days off in exchange for his excess production.

“We will discuss this later. For now, we need to shift the Natural Sons’ Regiment into position at the border. I want them mounted on mechanical cavalry for rapid deployment as a ranged cavalry rifles unit. See that they are prepared by morning.” The King decided.

Late that night, Dominic finished his work and returned to his room to find a fresh dinner plate and a note waiting for him.

[Your hometown has been retaken by the army. -PA]

Dominic smiled. They certainly hadn’t done it for him, but it didn’t change the fact that he had seen a bit of vengeance done.

The next morning, the guard picked him up as usual, but led him down a different route than usual.

“Did you forget something in your room?” Dominic asked as they rounded an unfamiliar corner.

The Guard chuckled. “Not at all. Your workstation has been moved. You will get further instructions once you are there.”

Now that they had reached their goal, and had a few dozen extra rifles, Dominic assumed that the army had no more need for him to continue at that pace, but he had nearly a hundred more rifles worth of parts waiting for him to finish them.

As soldiers fell, and weapons took damage, they would need the replacements, and there wasn’t anyone else in the Gunsmith’s forge who could do it. They didn’t have any blueprints for the rifles he had been making.

The room that Dominic was led to was indeed a forge, though it appeared to be in a suite much like Pops’ room. He could even see the presumably unused bedroom next to it.

But the room wasn’t empty, as there were two older, gray haired women in plain dresses, and one preteen boy waiting there for him, along with all of the tooling and jigs that he had prepared for the rifles.

So, perhaps he wasn’t stopping the production, but doing it in private?

That could mean that they wanted some higher quality weapons out of him but didn’t want to advertise it to the other Gunsmiths, but the presence of these two random women was confusing him.

“Royal Sorcerer Dominic, meet Lady Camilla. She was the Governess for the twin Princesses, and now she will be tutoring you in courtly manners and regulations until such time as she deems that you have grasped the fundamentals.

Beside her is Miss Lucy, who will be tutoring you in Arcane Engineering for the foreseeable future.

After your lessons each day, the Crown has requested that you continue to assemble a minimum of five rifles per day, to keep up with replacements and demand. All of your spare parts have been brought, and you may arrange your schedule as you see fit.

The rooms here are vacant, so if your day runs overly long, the guard on duty will call for your meals, and you may remain in this suite.”

Dominic nodded, and Lady Camilla smiled. “It seems that the young Sorcerer has learned the most important part of Noble etiquette. Not interrupting with questions. Perhaps this will be easier than I was led to believe. Young Miss Alexis had implied that he might share some of her personality traits.”

Dominic smiled, and refrained from laughing. He could see how a matched pair of battle obsessed Princesses might have driven their Governess to drinking.

Once they were finished speaking, Dominic bowed politely to the two women. “Tutors, it is a pleasure to meet you both. Please excuse the mess, the tools of my trade do take up a rather significant portion of the room.”

Lady Camilla nodded in response, while Miss Lucy just shrugged.

“It will only get more cluttered in here, which is why you will be learning here and not in your own suite. We were informed, in no uncertain terms, that your Master will not accept the movement of all necessary tools into the shared suite.” She explained.

Dominic would have paid good money to be there when they asked, though. No way was Pops going to surrender half his suite to a Gunsmith’s forge and an Arcane Engineering lab.

Dominic didn’t know what tools that was going to need, but the trade was unlikely to be less space intensive than the Gunsmith’s forge was.

The guard retreated to the door, and Dominic turned to the young boy, who was still standing silently in the corner of the room.

“And who might this be?” He asked.

“That is Miss Lucy’s grandson. He will be on his best behaviour as he observes today’s lessons to determine if a career as a tutor is well suited to his personality.” Lady Camilla explained, with a sharp look at the boy.

Dominic understood. Chances are the boy made a fuss about whatever career path his parents had chosen for him, so he was being subtly punished by needing to stand in the corner of a room and watch others teach all day.

There was no chair where he was stationed, and leaning against the wall would only give so much relief from the strain, unless he was sent to run errands or fetch items.

Lady Camilla brought out a textbook and placed it on the table, facing Dominic.

“Now, let us get started. How many years did you study this tome during your youth?” She asked.

Dominic looked at it, and then brought out a book of his own, salvaged from the ruins of his home.

“Tutor, this is the etiquette book that I studied as a youth.” He explained.

His version was much smaller, and definitely less fancy than hers.

It was also written to be a children’s introductory primer, or a crash course for a Commoner elevated to a Barony, not a comprehensive etiquette guide for the Royal Family themselves.

So, it covered important things, like proper table settings, greeting guests, and how to turn down requests without insult, but didn’t cover much Royal Etiquette or anything on international relations or trade policy.

Dominic was bad at that part. The turning down requests, that was. It was so rare that people asked him for things, that he just instinctively said yes.

Even when he knew that it was going to be troublesome.

But sometimes that worked out well for him. Not long ago, when he was moving through Dagos on his way to Cygnia, he had nearly been caught and interrogated by a military patrol. He was saved when a merchant, whose watch he had repaired for free, hid him in a false bottom of one of the wagons.

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