These Side Characters Have More Important Things To DoCh131 - Fire and lightning, very very frightening!

King Augustus’s face grew red as he rose from his throne. “You dare accuse me?!”

“I dare.” Viscount Amethystus took a step forward. S0s2hk

“You—”

“I dare to challenge you to a duel. We can even sign a contract.”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Aurelia, execute him!”

Aurelia tensed up. It was happening— 1UuTGj

“I challenged you to a duel. Are you so weak?” Viscount Amethystus’s mocking voice struck right at King Augustus’s sore spot. “Well, you had to be weak, to steal the defenceless body of my daughter!”

“Aurelia, why are you hesitating! Marcus!”

Small dark shapes whizzed across the room. Viscount Amethystus and other nobles from his faction aimed directly for King Augustus.

Aurelia’s eyes grew dark. She jumped in front of King Augustus and cast a shield.

BAM BAM BAM! The stones and blades smashed into her shield.

Marcus stepped forward. Lightning crackled across the room.

Nobles jumped to their feet. Projectiles shot around the hall. Fire blasts caused the hanging Lūpiter banners to burst into flame, quickly filling the air with smoke.

Aurelia turned to King Augustus. “Let’s get to safety, Your Majesty.” YO6wA2

King Augustus glared at her. “Why did you ignore my direct order?”

BAM-BANG! Aurelia flinched as something broke her shield and whistled past her and King Augustus before hitting the throne.

“Your Majesty, it’s no longer safe to remain in that hall.”

King Augustus felt humiliated. WEAK resounded in his head. He covered up his unease by sneering. “Look at Marcus. Why can’t you be more like him? Your shield broke at such a small attack!” MbGq59

FWOSH! A fire blast narrowly missed King Augustus. His heart gave a few panicked beats. He quickly shifted, placing Aurelia between him and the rest of the court. “Do your job and protect me!”

Aurelia’s lips thinned. She turned around to face the court and cast a spell to increase the sound of her voice. “Desist at once. Reckless behaviour in morning court is a punishable offence.”

Attacks paused.

“Are you aiding the traitors?” Marcus countered. d m7CT

Aurelia looked at him coldly. “Can you even see through the dust and smoke?” Aurelia named specific nobles in the audience to put out the flames, settle the dust, and clear the smoke.

By the time visibility was restored, Viscount Amethystus and his faction escaped, with the guards outside the courtroom all knocked out.

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It wasn’t just Viscount Amethystus and his faction that were gone. A few other nobles were missing as well.

The hall was left in disarray, in an appalling condition. LaApik

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

King Augustus stepped out from behind Aurelia, hand on the hilt of his sword. He glared at the remaining nobles. “They dared, so they reap the consequences. Send the army to the Amethystus fief immediately!”

Zjgmer rafqqfv obgkjgv. “Tbeg Zjpfras, P nbiecaffg ab qfgrbcjiis mtjrf vbkc Nlrmbeca Cwfatsraer!”

Cegfilj’r rlwwfglcu jccbsjcmf yegra. “Yeg jgws lr mbwqifafis fcujufv, qgbafmalcu beg ybgvfgr ogbw fcfws mbecaglfr,” rtf rjlv rtjgqis.

Zjgmer rcffgfv. “Qf mjc rqjgf j yjaajilbc bg akb. Nlrmbeca Cwfatsraer tjr pera mbwwlaafv agfjrbc!” w9g53Q

“Yt, atfc ktfgf vb sbe lcafcv ab ‘olcv’ j yjaajilbc bg akb? Mgbw beg cbgatfgc ybgvfg klat atf yjgyjgljcr? Mgbw beg fjrafgc ybgvfg klat Vfvjnfglj? Qtb kbeiv sbe ilxf ab lcnjvf er olgra?”

“Then conscript some peasants and city guards,” King Augustus said dismissively.

“If you want anarchy and famine, then go ahead,” Aurelia said coldly. “Instead of a civil war, we should be focusing our efforts on avoiding another famine. Unless you want to rely on Prince Rian’s charity once more.”

King Augustus ignored Aurelia. “Prince Marcus, your mission is thus: catch Viscount Amethystus and bring him back, whether dead or alive is your choice.” CkQdlt

Marcus bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty. I will not fail you.”

King Augustus finally felt some satisfaction that morning. “Good.” He sat down again and waved a dismissive hand. “Aurelia, continue with morning court.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Each attendee to that morning court left with their own secret thoughts. ZEHV35

It was ‘thought-provoking’ to see Viscount Amethystus’s daring actions and his successful escape. Was it bravery or recklessness? Was the news about his daughter’s corpse the last straw, or was it a convenient excuse?

It was ‘odd’ to see King Augustus cower behind his daughter. Though, his disregard for economic matters was expected: their coffers were ‘his’ coffers, after all. His decision to send the army after Viscount Amethystus was also expected—authoritative might was what kept him in power for the last three decades.

It was ‘interesting’ to see Prince Marcus jumping up to fight and willing to assume some military control. His lightning attacks had seemed poorly aimed but actually calculated.

It was ‘curious’ to see Princess Aurelia dare to speak in front of King Augustus and Prince Marcus like that, reprimanding them for their derelict of duty to the national security and economy, and to the wellbeing of the commoners. King Augustus might control the military, but what was a military without its supply chain? Aurelia had more power than what might appear on the surface. HzEPpq

Regardless, it was clear that the days in Angio were only going to become more chaotic from here on out.

The civil unrest in Angio had no bearing upon the excited buzz of activity in the Rosewood fief.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Over the last week, Florence had been staying at the Rosewood manor. She had various meetings with Ayden, worked on their co-written book, and drafted up a simple manual on improving crop yield for Prince Rian’s agricultural initiative. But aside from that, her days were leisurely, with lots of opportunities to enjoy the summer sun.

Hadrian wasn’t having a holiday. jEbtM3

Unfortunately for Hadrian, he hadn’t been prepared for Earl Rosewood’s schedule. There were so many meetings! Sitting in Earl Rosewood’s flying carriage soon lost its novelty as he accompanied Earl Rosewood all over the Rosewood fief. He must have seen more commoners while in the Rosewood fief than he had ever seen during his life.

Earl Rosewood introduced him to the people they met, asking for permission to allow him to sit in on their meeting. The people always agreed, giving him, this unfamiliar foreigner noble, curious looks. But after they started talking and Earl Rosewood and Kel/Maria/Aaron/Rosewood staff talked back, Hadrian faded into the background. Through these meetings, he was exposed to all kinds of topics, including education, classroom design, water systems, sewage treatment, fire safety, food storage, first-point-of-care healthcare and in-house printing presses.

Admittedly, Hadrian didn’t stay fully engaged in every meeting.  But he did some thinking. What should he research about? What topic seemed most interesting to him? Certainly not sewage systems. Anti-bandit measures perked his interest, except the people in the Rosewood fief seemed more interested in two approaches—one of raising awareness of the Rosewood charity programs to prevent people resorting to banditry, and one of quick communication systems to alert Earl Rosewood and/or others to come and provide aid quickly if a bandit raid were to occur. Neither of these approaches interested Hadrian that much. He would need to think more.

Aside from meetings, Earl Rosewood even asked him to do work—he had to magically flatten some newly built roads! That was the ‘secret’ to the Rosewood fief’s flat roads! UreHqd

Hadrian was exhausted at the end of the day and fell asleep the moment his head rested on the pillow. Yes, he slept quite well, but during his waking moments, he felt some regret—this was a lot more intense than when his father took him around the Terra fief.

He didn’t think he could get more tired until the day right before the half-yearly Rosewood meeting occurred.

On this day, dozens of Rosewood staff and other invited persons arrived at the Rosewood manor. Not every Rosewood staff member was coming—after all, things still needed to keep running. The staff who were unable to make it this time would attend the next meeting and vice versa.

Hadrian followed Earl Rosewood as usual. And Earl Rosewood was the main person in charge of setting up the large outdoor auditorium that would be capable of seating all the attendees and more—at least twice as many people were expected to come to the opening session, since there was going to be a special magical showcase from Earl Rosewood! Iy0Kfg

And since Hadrian was following Earl Rosewood, that meant he was roped into helping Earl Rosewood turn a flat paddock on the Rosewood estate into a large open-air auditorium.

—Yes, there was a plan to build a more permanent venue capable of seating thousands of people, but that was currently de-prioritised. So instead, they used the paddock, which at other times was also used for friendly sporting matches.

Hadrian helped Earl Rosewood and many staff set up a front raised stage, a flat seating area with at least 100 chairs, and a raised semi-circular stadium-style seating with even more seating.

In the afternoon, Earl Rosewood let Hadrian go, while he continued working. 7aR3qX

Hadrian didn’t envy him.

The night’s dinner was out in the front area of the Rosewood manor. The manor was lit up, with curious spell lights that outlined the manor that made a beautiful backdrop.

Despite the hundreds of people in attendance, it didn’t feel claustrophobic and tight due to the spacious area allocated and the ‘roof’ of stars overhead. Over the course of the night, three different groups of musicians would play music.

There were dozens of sit-down dining tables of multiple sizes, as well as raised tables for eating while standing, and clusters of chairs with low side tables. V3wvIA

On opposite sides were rows of ‘stalls’ that had food. Attendees could either visit the stalls and be served directly before finding a place to sit down and eat, or they could sit down first and flag down one of the wandering servers and order food to be taken over.

(Most of the kitchen staff tonight and for the next few days, were actually externally contracted, given that half of the Rosewood kitchen staff were busy attending the meeting.)

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These methods were all detailed on papers left on the tables and explained to attendees as they arrived for dinner.

At this dinner, nobles and commoners walked in the same space, equally sharing the title of ‘participant of the Rosewood meeting’. There were heads-of-fiefs like Viscount Obsidian, Viscountess Sage, and Baron Cordovan; there were nobles like Lady Florence Sage, Solicitor Carmine, the adult son of Baroness Cedar, and the two young Cordovan siblings; and there were commoners, like town mayors and village chiefs, and those who were builders and cooks and administrators and teachers in the Rosewood group. Ls27T

Ren Xiyang was a popular figure. He would barely finish talking to someone when someone else came up to talk to him—something that he found amusing and ironic, and a bit frustrating because it was hard to eat.

He wished Rian was here, so that everyone would flock around him instead and Ren Xiyang could have more peace.

The opening session of the Rosewood meeting would start at 10 am. Attendees filled the seating area, chatting and watching curiously as Ren Xiyang prepared for the magical presentation.

Ren Xiyang set up a large cylindrical shield far behind the stage, which would reduce light intensity and sound. Lightning rods were placed outside the shield, as a precaution in case the lightning escaped the shield. He scattered magical batteries stones on the ground, so that the magical and electrical energy wouldn’t be wasted. VSWgbz

Ren Xiyang didn’t plan to do something too flashy—his excuse was that Rian wasn’t there.

As Ren Xiyang’s gaze swept over the audience watching him, he felt a little twinge in his heart.

It would be nice if Rian was here, even if it meant doing more on this display. None of this would have been possible without Rian’s support over the years.

With his set-up done, Ren Xiyang headed to the stage. wtiTdo

Kel walked onto the stage too.

The chatter died down as audiences leaned forward in their seats in anticipation.

There was a sound-amplification spell on the stage. Kel stepped forward and spoke, her words projected to everyone.

“Good morning esteemed guests, Rosewood staff, Rosewood citizens, and visitors. My name is Kel Walker, Executive Assistant to Earl Rosewood. I would like to thank you all for taking the time to attend the Rosewood Group’s Summer Meeting. We have a wonderful cast of speakers for this meeting. But first, let me introduce Earl Rosewood. Earl Rosewood became the youngest family head in Sedaveria in the last two centuries and is arguably the most powerful fire mage in Sedaveria. His accomplishments include…” mrJ64Z

Ren Xiyang: “…” His ears felt hot with embarrassment. He wanted to cover his face. Why was Kel doing this to him? She didn’t do it last time!

“…Now, let me invite Earl Rosewood forward to speak. Please give a round of applause for Earl Ayden Rosewood!”

“Hail Earl Rosewood!”

The Rosewood staff led the applause, clapping and even stamping their feet to the point that Ren Xiyang feared the structural integrity of the temporary raised seating area. ODp4z6

“Thank you to everyone for your support,” he said drily. “Firstly, I want to thank everyone here for your hard work and contribution to the Rosewood fief. We should also thank all the Rosewood staff, workers, consultants and affiliates who are unable to be here today due to their busy work. A round of applause, please.”

Ren Xiyang started clapping first, leading the applause.

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“Over the next three days, we will hear about many different projects undertaken by both Rosewood staff and Rosewood residents. We will also have special talks from the representatives of Crown Prince Rian’s Royal Healers’ Association and his new agricultural initiative. I will also talk about the Rosewood Group’s strategic vision. But before that, sit back, and enjoy.”

“WOO-HOO!!” someone screamed in excitement, which triggered a round of excited applause. kh8YQL

Kel exited the stage.

Without waiting for the clapping to die down, Ren Xiyang started.

In the beginning, there was fire.

A wall of fire burst up behind him. fDLIbx

Those closest gasped.

Then, there was earth.

Behind the stage, Ren Xiyang released a spell that would make a dozen blocks of stone rhythmically rise and fall, hitting the ground with a deep da-thump-da-thump-da-thump sound.

Then, he raised his head, weaving his hands together. The fire wall behind him rose, twisting into two columns of flames that circled around each other as they reached for the skies. uKmYTR

Heads tilted up, following its ascent. Without noticing, the beat of the stones became faster and faster, making their hearts beat faster and faster.

Dark clouds gathered overhead, casting a shadow onto the ground below.

Then—

FLASH-BOOM! GsCAQT

Lightning exploded!

  bjU5vK