Once the tax collections were finished, the biplane deliveries began ramping up in speed.

Which brought Dominic’s attention to a small logistical issue that they had not considered before. Everyone wanted a biplane, and everyone was getting a biplane. However, there were three hundred Knights and Barons in the Duchy.

Three hundred airplanes was a lot of traffic in the sky.

Given that these were the newest and shiniest toys, the Nobles looked for any excuse to use them when the weather was good.

Which was basically every day in the dry season.

They organized outings to fly to Lympsbury for lunch, they did overnight outings through Kinewen Province, with a camping stop at the new highway station at the juncture of the bypass highway that went around Kinewen City.

They stopped to visit the Trolls in Western Kinewen Province region to make sure their goats were doing well.

They even organized a group flight to Witheton for the long weekend that earned Dominic a sternly worded letter from the King of Axbridge. He was quite impressed with the engineering, but less impressed with fifty Nobles arriving unannounced at his capital city with military equipment, as his army viewed the biplanes.

Compared to the plane that was actually made for the army, they were a joke. But compared to a standard airship that struggled to hold forty kilometres an hour unless it had a tailwind?

They were a menace, and too agile to accurately target from the deck, even if the airship had guns that could reach far enough to hit them.

That didn’t stop the deliveries of the biplanes, but Dominic had spent most of that morning drafting an apology to the King for the "Misdirected notification of unofficial visit" and another to the Barons about the politics of flying armed aircraft across international borders.

That was a letter he never thought he would write.

And it was not the only problem that he had today. His brother-in-law was coming for a visit, due to arrive in only a few minutes.

If it were Prince Alex, it would be fine. The mage cared more about the technical accomplishments of the Duchy than the details of their actions. But it was Crown Prince Claudius who had come for the visit.

Ostensibly, this visit was to see his niece.

But the notice had come an hour after the King of Axbridge had sent his complaint, and it was for tonight, with no mention of a departure date.

That was likely not a good sign.

Having the Crown Prince show up at your door with half a day’s notice suggest that they had messed up much more than the minor international incident that Dominic intended to treat this as.

"There are carriages at the gate." Dave informed him with a soft chuckle.

The trolls had gotten so used to Wistover that the Royal carriages seemed quaint and antiquated. Five, or even three, years ago, they were state of the art magitech. Now, they were slow, loud and opulent. The sort of vehicle that made a statement of wealth, not technology.

Dominic went out to the yard to greet the visitors, just in time for Potato to fly overhead with his wife in the back seat, waving happily as the trolls on guard duty welcomed them back to the city. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He didn’t even need to see Claudius in the carriage to sense his annoyance.

"His Highness, the Crown Prince of Cygnia," the driver announced.

The plane overhead wiggled its wings in greeting as the Prince exited its carriage, then departed to the northeast, headed home for the evening.

Dominic bowed, and the Prince stopped in front of him.

"Rise, Duke Wistover. We have much to talk about."

Dominic rose, and saw that the Prince’s expression was somewhere between furious and that unique sort of helpless frustration that made people want to trash their surroundings and strangle someone to death.

"Please, do come inside. I will arrange a quiet place for us to sit and discuss affairs of state, family and whatnot."

The Prince snorted in annoyance, but the driver standing behind him cracked a smile.

Dealing with Dominic was one of Claudius least favourite pastimes. Everything that the Dragonkin did caused more chaos. Even moving him to an abandoned ruin in the middle of nowhere, five hundred kilometres from the nearest major road, had ended up with him starting a magitech revolution that had instigated an international trade treaty update.

So, when he had gotten the news this morning that Dominic had simply started forming an entire airforce without informing anyone in the Palace, he was not impressed.

He knew that the army had asked for an interceptor plane design by the end of the season, but they still didn’t have their design, while Dominic apparently had enough warplanes to panic the King of Axbridge. Even though they were clearly flagged as belonging to the Wistover Duchy.

Putting the insignia on the bottom of the wings, as well as the side of the fuselage, was a brilliant move.

Dominic led them into the sitting room, where an unfamiliar man in Royal Guard uniform with the Wavemates crest on the chest greeted them.

"I see that the biplanes aren’t the only thing I was unaware of."

"Oh, I suppose they were hired after you left. These are my personal guards. It was deemed prudent with all the travelling that I do. The Trolls guard the Manor itself, and aren’t really practical to take everywhere I go."

Claudius accepted that explanation for a moment, as the crest was both the Royal Wavemates crest and Dominic’s personal family crest. So, it made sense that his personal guard would wear it, instead of the Wistover crest, or a Cygnian Royal marking.

Technically, they were allowed.

The way that the King had arranged the paperwork for the marriage had Dominic marry into the Royal Family, instead of having Alexis marry out into the Wavemates Royal Family, which would have been more than a little problematic.

They made the announcement all over the continent when a Royal married, and declaring that the Cygnian Royal Family was rebuilding the Wavemates Royal lineage would raise more than a few eyebrows.

"Alright, what comes first, the yelling, the screaming, or do you want to see Princess Katerina?"