Chapter 340: Nuance
The maids brought over a stack of paper and some pens so that everyone could write down the ideas that they had and the conflicting rules of their nations.
Fortunately, the men who arrived were veterans in the art of political negotiation, and they were already aware of the rules that were applied by other nations who were likely to arrive in the near future.
Right now, it was mostly to sort the issues between the nations bordering Cygnia, but in the future, they were likely to see visitors from all over the eastern side of the nation.
"If we start with the specific items that you would like to have, or see as a requirement, then add the items that you know should be included for other nations’ requirements, that will really help speed up the process.
We were going to have the team start right away, but if the existing design isn’t going to work, then we should at least make an effort to get them a workable design as soon as possible." Dominic suggested.
The two Princes shared a conspiratorial smile, while Alexis sighed.
"Husband, you have missed the nuance to this topic. If you let them run wild, they will treat the renovation as if it were their own home, and the budget as unlimited.
It’s best to get ahead of them and set their expectations as low as humanly possible." She insisted.
"Our dear Royal Cousin has so little faith in us. Certainly, the young Duke Wistover will be more reasonable about our thoughts on the redesign of the Manor?" Prince Fahad joked.
Alexis winked at him. "Remember, this is also his ancestral home. All sorts of legacy, history and memories attached."
The Prince sighed. "Well, we’re already doing decently to come up with separate villas within the estate."
Alexis nodded. "That was a brilliant idea, I do say. Most just put up a dividing wall and make the upper floors into separate wings."
Dominic snapped his fingers, getting everyone’s attention. "So that’s why there’s always staircases at either end of the grand ballroom. Because you can’t walk all the way around the upper floors, they’re blocked."
The Royals nodded. "For exactly this reason. You can’t have spies, assassins and horny drunkards wandering between different wings of the house during parties and events.
If the upper levels are divided, then they should only show up where they belong, unless they snuck past the guards."
It didn’t take long to come up with the full list of updates that were needed to make the Manor suitable for multiple Royal Envoys. In fact, Dominic likely could have made the list work with their existing upgrade plans.
However, the idea of turning it into a defensible compound, like the other family compounds, gave them a good feeling.
Surely, they would still find reasons to fight over who got which villa. That much was inevitable within the world of political posturing. However, it would also meet all their requirements, as well as giving them much more room to move around, instead of being all crowded within one large defensible building.
The military aspect was the part that was going to need the most work, Dominic realized.
With multiple Royals here, there was a real chance that someone would send a proper army against them, and that they would need to hold until reinforcements arrived from a third country.
But in the age of magitech, the old designs were not nearly as effective as they used to be, and Dominic found that he was going to need to come up with a whole new plan for their defensive strategy.
With magitech cannons and airships, simply putting up a stone wall wouldn’t stop anyone for long.
They could get the mages to enchant it, which would be necessary, no matter what they decided. But they needed something that was going to be much more durable.
A walled city didn’t seem practical at the moment, as they were expecting a large expansion of the population, and their current population wasn’t high enough to host the soldiers who were coming to accompany the envoys.
So, they would start with the manor, and then decide on the rest as they went.
Then Dominic realized one more important fact. Their newly equipped town guard wasn’t much of a defensive force, considering the armies camped outside of town.
They were going to have to train and equip even more soldiers, then find something for them to do between international gatherings so that they weren’t expecting a population to support more soldiers than there were farmers.
The whole situation was a bit of a mess right now, but they could count on the troops that the Princes brought to do most of the actual work.
Perhaps they should allow some of them to come keep watch on the walls when they were visiting?
That sounded like a good plan, but Dominic had no idea if it was against protocol.
And this was why he had wanted to escape.
He was about to suggest that they get an artist for their visions, which would put off the serious discussions for a few minutes, giving him time to plan. But Alexis was way ahead of him, and Engineer Marcos came in behind one of the veiled maids, already carrying a whole stack of design drawings.
The way that he was fumbling with them, they were clearly hastily assembled, possibly drawn by his team in the last hour.
That made Dominic feel a bit better.
At least he wasn’t the only one who was struggling with what needed to be done here.
More importantly, there was now a proper professional in the room, and he could come up with all the design sketches for them, following the guidelines that the Royals had come up with.
Of course, being a Royal Engineer, Marcos already knew what the rules were for all of Cygnia’s allies. Every major estate was built to at least marginally comply, and then the local Lord would apologize for the humble nature of their estate when it didn’t quite meet some of the visitor’s requests and expectations.