Chapter 341: Russel Is Back
The next morning, Prince Russel and his unit returned to Wistover, having ridden through the night to finish their duties and make it back.
The warning of their announcement came just after breakfast, while Dominic and the others were verifying the details of the day’s work orders with the staff, but before the actual negotiations and inevitable arguments about the Manor’s future layout could begin.
That was the only part that the other two Princes were concerned about, as they were the ones who would be assigned to the location for the duration of the negotiations.
If they were provided the opportunity to make a meeting location feel more like home, there was no way that they would pass it up, and Dominic suspected that Prince Russel would be very much the same once he finally made it to the Manor.
However, that was not the first thing on the Cygnia Prince’s mind when he arrived.
"Duke Dominic, a moment of your time, if you will. Gentlemen, I will join you shortly." He announced the moment he entered the room.
Prince Russel didn’t stop, he went straight to the office with Dominic behind him, and locked the door once they were inside.
"I have an update for you.
We did not find any more Mages. However, we did find many signs of them. There are camps that were clearly human made, not monster, though they are occupied by monster armies now.
Or were when we arrived.
The Duchy is crawling with monsters of every sort but Trolls. Those all appear to have broken their restraints when the mages left and gathered in a single village a day’s journey away, as you had informed us.
Still, the sheer number of monsters that we encountered is far beyond what we are able to handle.
A thousand men, even if they were the Royal Rifles, would not be enough for some of the armies of monsters loose within Stansia Province."
The Prince’s words came out in a rush, as if he feared that he would lose his nerve if he stopped speaking.
"How are your men?" Dominic asked, more concerned about casualties.
"Mostly intact. We lost a little over a hundred reservists during a particularly heated engagement with a group of Venomclaw Crabs. Nasty things, and hard as steel.
I brought back the materials for the craftsmen, hoping that they could make something for my officers in commemoration of the fight.
It’s the largest set of casualties that we’ve seen since the war started.
In all, we lost a hundred sixty men, including five Noble Officers. It’s a loss, but one that was within the known risks when we went out." Prince Russel explained.
Fifteen percent on a single outing was a heavy casualty rate, especially for men that were looking forward to simply finishing up their assignment and going home.
But that was also likely to be the cause of the losses.
The men were already looking forward to what they would do when they got home, and weren’t as guarded as they could have been.
Dominic had faced the Venomclaw Crabs before, and while they were nasty, against an army of spearmen, they shouldn’t have been such a major threat.
They were considered a level five monster, as tough as a hobgoblin, but that was mostly on their durability, as they were incapable of using weapons like a Hobgoblin could.
They also weren’t particularly intelligent.
Or edible.
"In that case, let’s get your men settled in the barracks, and they can stay on wall duty until it’s time to go home. Let them rest up and help the construction team renovate the Manor.
The other Princes have some requests on how things should be upgraded, since we’re doing a renovation anyhow." Dominic suggested.
Prince Russel nodded. "Do you know who is coming for Cygnia? As the Envoy, that is."
Dominic shrugged. "I haven’t received any word, and at this point, I’m beginning to fear that it’s going to turn out to be Princess Alexis, while I’m left to run the house."
Prince Russel laughed. "Well, there is no fear of that, at the very least. As the older brother, I outrank her. So, if there is no official announcement, it becomes my duty, and she gets to organize the events, while you run the Duchy."
Dominic smiled. "That’s wonderful news. I am told that the arrival of Prince George triggered the Axbridge Royalty to send their men early. That’s why everyone is here well before they were supposed to be.
I would assume that the Royal Delegation was supposed to arrive after the Infrastructure teams had finished their work, not before they had even started.
But there isn’t much that we can do about it now.
They’re working all over town, preparing us for an influx of residents, as well as the extra buildings for the Officers. Once those are done, I will see what I can get out of them before they are redeployed."
The Prince chuckled and shook his head. "They’ll run away faster than even my own men. If they’re not already assigned a new task, they will be. Once the rain starts, their job gets busy."
"That’s a good point. We should have them shore up the river banks as well. They look pretty sturdy, but you can never be too safe." Dominic agreed.
Prince Russel shook his head. "You can only keep assigning them tasks for so long. The King has an immense amount of work for them to do after the war, and multiple cities need rebuilt.
The fact that you got priority for a team is already astonishing. I had expected them to start with Castle City so that they could start to deal with the refugee issue."
"You know, I never thought of it that way. I just accepted that they were here because they were needed, but we’re certainly not at the top of the list of people with issues. Even if we didn’t expand the manor, we could make due and just let the visitors post extra guards to mark their territory."