The next morning brought the sound of troops moving, and chaos within the city, as thousands of men rushed in to grab last-minute essentials before heading out on a mission.

"Duke Dominic, good morning. We have received orders from the King, late last night.

The majority of the accompanying troops will be deployed to clear the area and ensure its security while the meetings are ongoing.

One hundred men from each of our contingents will be left behind to guard the event, so we will be relying on your local guard force for the rest." Prince Russel informed him the moment that Dominic came down for breakfast.

"Well, that should certainly help clean out the monsters in the area. Do we have airships scouting?" He replied.

"Indeed. They left at first light, though the majority of the troops will be mounted cavalry and travelling by land.

The plan is that they will be able to flush out hiding monsters that the airships do not see, and possibly able to provoke another portal incident, drawing Kaizon’s rebels into the battle, and removing them from being a threat to the cities." Russel explained.

"That sounds like a good and logical idea. Flying over the monsters doesn’t disturb them, they don’t recognize airships as a threat like they do bird type monsters.

Well, they might not recognize them here either. I don’t think that there are any species of bird monsters native to Cygnia large enough to threaten a Goblin." Dominic corrected himself with a shrug.

Prince Russel laughed. "No birds are a threat to Goblins. They taste as bad as they smell, and the bird monsters usually only hunt for food, not for sport."

"That reminds me, I have twenty rifles to hand out. If you can call in one of your officers, I will let them choose who gets the first batch, and I will spend the day making more.

I might be a terrible host, gone into the forge all day, but there simply isn’t anyone else to do the work.

Even if we found someone with the skills, I don’t have a blueprint to make them, I do it from memory." Dominic explained.

The youngest of the Princes present simply smiled in response. "Don’t even worry about it. We can generally entertain ourselves, and Alexis is there to keep us under control.

The meetings today aren’t going to be all that serious, as we’re waiting on reports from our home nations.

Most of what we will be doing is just catching up on paperwork and waiting for reports from the soldiers to come in. With nine groups from each of the three forces spreading out through the Duchy, we will have all the deployment reports that we could ever hope to read."

Dominic laughed. "You have a point. Reading the reports filed by one unit was enough, and I was with them at the time. I can only imagine that the reports of so many will be a full-time job for someone."

Dominic made his way to the forge for the morning and began to prep the moulds for the castings.

They needed to be cleaned, and he would brush them with mana oil as a release agent so that nothing stuck, though the Clay to Steel transformation normally prevented that issue.

He was just about to prep the clay when a small person in tan robes that looked like they were made as desert camouflage entered. Her face was mostly covered, leaving only her eyes showing, but that was normal for the desert environment that outfit was made for.

"I can help you with that, if you’re looking to hire an assistant?" The girl’s voice asked hopefully.

"I might be. But normally, girls with promise would go to Alexis to be trained." Dominic replied.

The girl laughed. "Eww, no. Thank you, but I’d rather not be a domestic servant. Even if her veiled maids are pretty skilled in combat. I saw them training on the way over.

I’m from the Duskblade Sect, but my potential is low, so I’m looking for a side job to help buy resources."

Dominic nodded. "Alright then. Do you know how to mix clay?"

The girl nodded. "I do. You want it to press into the forms, not to cast on a spinning wheel, right?"

"Precisely. I need to make as many rifles as possible for the troops so that we can deal with the Dagos threat." Dominic agreed.

"Will you be making pistols later? I heard that you have a most wonderful mana revolver blueprint, and I would love to see it in action."

Dominic narrowed his eyes. Knowing that he could make mana revolvers was one thing, but what good would it do to watch him if she lacked the skills to learn? Obviously, she wasn’t as weak as she let on, or she wouldn’t have even been accepted into the Duskblade Sect to start with.

"Is the goal to learn to make them, or to find a chance to steal my blueprint?" Dominic asked.

The girl smiled. "Are you always this suspicious?"

"Nope. It’s normally worse, but I have a soft spot for cute kids and anyone willing to help with my work. So, which is it?"

"I want to learn to make them. Do you have any idea how high my status in the Sect would go if I could become an actual gunsmith? I mean, I’ll never be a true smith, I’m not going to give up the trade skill core that the Sect gave me. But if I could make pistols for our agents, I might even make Elder one day."

Dominic smiled. "Show me the trade skill core, and I will consider it. What is your name, young mage?"

Reluctantly, she pulled up her sleeve, revealing a flawlessly smooth and pale arm. That was the sort of skin nobody got naturally, those sorts of "jade beauties" only existed because magic could fix imperfections.

That alone told Dominic all that he needed to know about her status in the sect.

She wasn’t at the bottom. Far from it. She was training as a honeypot assassin, flawless and appealing in every way. But today she was hiding herself to try to learn a new skill that would give her a future other than seducing assassination targets.

But what was attached to the arm was the shocking part.

A simple red cloth armband held a vibrantly glowing red gem, so dark it was almost black.

"Amie, Acolyte of the Duskblade Sect, and now your assistant Gunsmith, at your service."