Dominic smiled as he inspected the shield.

"That is just what it needed. It’s shiny, faintly blue, but mostly white. Perfect for a Paladin." He decided.

"The spells on it are wrong, though. I think that the Yeti Core that you used had an interaction with the flaming blade orb." The Elder noted.

"Oh? That is interesting."

Dominic put his hand on the shield and drew his sabre to see the effect.

The blade was immediately covered in frost, which gave off a soft white mist around the blade.

"It’s more like Frostfire, or an Ice Blade effect. Not bad at all. It certainly looks like it’s a properly dangerous weapon." Dominic agreed.

"It also doesn’t cost you any mana to use. It appears that it’s all being supplied by the shield." The Elder added.

"Oh, that’s my fault, I cast it with external mana. Here, let me put up the barrier with my own mana and see how much it depletes the storage."

He was careful not to equip the item so that he didn’t risk bonding the magitech orbs, if that was still possible with them integrated into the shield. That would be a tragedy, and make all this hard work useless.

The barrier also came up as a pale white mist, but it was every bit as strong as they had hoped, and the change appeared to be completely cosmetic.

"Well, you can give that to the Princess, for certain. The artistry is good enough, and the effects certainly meet the standard. If nothing else, I would say that she might like any imperfections more, knowing that you made them for her." Amie joked.

"Not pretty, but it works. The story of my life."

Amie and the Elder both laughed at Dominic’s self-deprecating joke. That was obviously untrue, he was a certified pretty boy stuck with a war survivor’s mind. But neither of them would say anything to him about it, in case he took it as accusing his beloved Princess of cradle robbing.

Neither of them actually knew how old Dominic was, only how old he looked. But the Princess was half a decade or more into her marriageable years, certainly into her early twenties.

Then, Amie realized that he likely wasn’t referring to himself, but to his method of solving problems. "Not Pretty, But It Works" was a mechanic’s favourite way of sending things back out the door for another mission.

"Does that mean it’s time to return to the Manor?" Amie asked, while the others examined the shield for flaws.

"I suppose that it is. Then we will be hard at work making more of them for the Royal Guard. But before we go, we need to hire some of the Sect members to make the orbs for us. I wasn’t joking about it taking too long to do on our own in these numbers."

"How many do we need? I will arrange someone." Amie agreed.

"Fifty-four of each. That’s enough to make shields for the entire Royal Guard detachment for all four delegations, and the Princes. But if that’s too many, thirty-four is good, and we can do just the Cygnia Royal Guards, plus the Princes.

They’re going to want the good stuff before they go, and it looks good on the Duchy to have them using our gear so visibly in every fight." Dominic suggested.

"Thirty four it is. Equipping a foreign Royal Guard detachment is likely to cause us more headaches than it gains us goodwill. They have their own nations to equip them, and someone will surely get upset if we start showing them up." Amie reminded him.

"Right. Politics. Perhaps it’s time that I start studying with a tutor again." Dominic sighed.

"I will add it to the schedule once we’re in the forge again. I know what you need to, at least enough to keep everyone happy. It’s part of being a mercenary mage, you see." She explained.

"Good enough for me."

The Elder snorted in amusement. "You two tutoring each other? Is that not a bit too much like a pair of drunkards planning world domination?"

Dominic laughed at the thought. "Or the blind leading the blind. But we both know just enough to fill in the major gaps in each other’s knowledge."

Amie rolled her eyes. "I will pay off some members to make the orbs that we need. It should only be a few days before they have the first batch to us. But you need to go check in with the Royals, and give that gift to Duchess Alexis.

Do that second so that I can be there to see the expression on her face when she gets it."

Dominic winked at the Elder. "I’m off then. However, I will return soon because as soon as these go out, I’m going to get requests for even more designs, and I only know like five magitech orbs that aren’t in the introductory textbooks."

The Elder chuckled softly. "Well, at least someone is brave enough to come in and visit me. The others lack confidence in their skills. When it’s time for you to learn more about magitech engineering, come to me.

I know more than those journeymen in town, and I’ve got all the time in the world."

That was a dangerous combination, Dominic thought. Too much time on his hands and nobody else to talk to. But that might be a good thing when you were looking for a Tutor. At least he didn’t have a work schedule or a list of orders to fill.

While Amie went to place the order, Dominic returned to the house, fearful of what he was going to find when he got back.

He could see the lights on all over the main floor in the middle of the day, so there was some sort of meeting going on, and a house full of guests. Most likely a military meeting, or an emissary from one of the nations had decided that they needed to do more than wait for a new development in the drama with Dagos.