“Hands down,” Marchioness Cloud said. “Earl Rosewood, you’ve heard some of the council’s opinions. If you wish to set a motion, prepare the relevant documents.”
“Understood.”
“Next on the agenda, Earl Grey, if you please.”
In the break for lunch, Ren Xiyang invited Baltasar back to the Rosewood house for lunch—the Rosewood chefs were expecting him.
Baltasar agreed and boarded the Rosewood carriage. “I’ll support you if you decide to set a motion,” he said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll talk with Prince Rian about it another time, and we’ll probably set up an education initiative.”
Baltasar smiled wryly. “Of course. How was the Hraun Nation?”
“Interesting. King Firestone showed me their lava magic, I could show you it sometime.”
The trip to the Rosewood house didn’t take long.
“…and oh, by the way, it looks like Lord Hadrian Terra and Prince Pollux will be joining us for lunch,” Ren Xiyang said as they were disembarking.
Baltasar: “…”
It was barely enough warning. Lord Terra, Prince Pollux, and Rosewood staff emerged from the front door to greet them. Baltasar had met Lord Terra already, but he hadn’t met Prince Pollux yet.
Baltasar bowed. “Your Highness, I am Baron Baltasar Cordovan, of the Cordovan fief west of the Rosewood fief.”
“Good afternoon, Baron Cordovan,” Prince Pollux replied.
It was a nice day, so they had lunch outside in the gardens in the back.
At that lunch table, Baltasar learned that Prince Pollux liked creating new spells and was currently collaborating with Ayden and Prince Alexius. Baltasar also learned that Hadrian wanted to develop new glass, with Ayden’s advice.
(It sounded like Hadrian was Ayden’s student, but Baltasar didn’t say that out loud.)
At that lunch table, Hadrian and Pollux found out that Baltasar’s parents had been involved in the murder of Ayden’s parents, and that Baltasar was paying off the compensation for his parents’ crimes, with 40% of that compensation being used to improve the Cordovan fief.
Hadrian and Pollux: “…” They suppressed their urge to question Ayden’s choice of friends.
“—But with Ayden’s help, the Cordovan fief has really turned around,” Baltasar said. “Productivity in the fief has risen because of Ayden’s newly improved crop varieties, and many of our farmers visit the Rosewood fief for training. We also have a branch of the Royal Healers’ Association.”
As Baltasar spoke about his fief—and thus giving Ayden an update along the way—Baltasar felt that his small Cordovan fief’s development was ahead compared to many other fiefs. The close proximity of his fief to the Rosewood fief and his formal relationship with Ayden regarding his fief had a lot of benefits.
Even though he was paying thousands of gold coins in compensation to Ayden, the Cordovan fief was better off than before.
Baltasar suppressed maudlin feelings about his parents. He had to be mature and calm; because of his parents’ crimes, he felt an invisible pressure to perform better than other barons. A mistake could paint him as ‘just like his parents’.
Ayden nodded slightly. “Hm, sounds like your fief is going well.”
“It is. Hadrian, what is your fief like?” Baltasar said.
Hadrian perked up. “My father, Marquis Terra, rules the Terra fief…”
After lunch, Ren Xiyang and Baltasar returned to the Parliament for the afternoon session.
When the gathering ended, Ren Xiyang returned to the Academy. Classes had already ended.
Ren Xiyang changed out of his Councillor robes and headed straight to his greenhouse and field. He tended to his plants in the field. The field was full of plants, with different areas with fast growth and long growth items. He nudged a few to grow faster than usual, so that he could get his first harvest in two weeks instead of four.
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.
Next, Ren Xiyang went to his greenhouse.
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Mbg cbk, tf kjafgfv atf qijcar atja rtbeiv yf kjafgfv jcv ibuufv vbkc njglber vfajlir lcmievlcu tfluta, cewyfg bo ifjnfr, vfqat bo gbbar jcv rb obgat.
Ren Xiyang sensed approaching heat sources. He finished off his work and stepped out of the greenhouse.
“Ayden, I knew you would be here,” Rian said. Following him was a group of students, all of them nobles.
The non-noble students were having their extra classes.
Ren Xiyang inclined his head. “I’m done now. What are we doing?”
“We’re going to play some indoor games,” Rian said. “Come.”
Ren Xiyang fell into place next to Rian. “Have you ever thought of making a new game?” He thought about the games in his past life, but found they were too complicated to explain in one sentence. “How about a farming game?”
Rian quirked his lips. “Oh?”
“It can be a board game with different cards for different actions, like growing plants and selling them.” Ren Xiyang looked at the other children who were listening in. “If we make a good game, then we could produce it and sell it. Imagine if every noble family bought a set to play at home.”
Ren Xiyang could see the children’s eyes brighten.
“So how about it? You can play games, but I want to make one,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian smiled warmly. “Oh dear, now I want to make a game too. What a great idea, Ayden.”
In the end, none of them finished developing a new game. Ren Xiyang led them to start brainstorming, and then said they could examine some currently existing games for inspiration, which then led to actually playing games.
Rian gave Ren Xiyang a little smirk across the table. In this battle, he had won—everyone ended up playing games after all.
Ren Xiyang rolled his eyes back—it wasn’t meant to be a contest.
The next day was the last school day for the week.
In the morning, there was combat magic theory. Ren Xiyang listened—or at least, he tried to. Lord Cyan spoke theoretically about duelling and combat, and the different classes of combat spells. Ren Xiyang wasn’t going to start saying spells, so he tried to keep himself occupied by imagining how he could translate those spells into direct magic manipulation.
After the first hour of the class, Ren Xiyang was absently monitoring the heat movement around the entire academy. To stop himself from dozing off, he drew out what was essentially the magical floor plan of the main building, complete with hidden rooms and details about the different spells.
The teacher, Lord Cyan, was a lightning mage from a branch of the Cyan family. His lips pursed disapproving when he saw Ayden sketching something. So what if Ayden was a strong duellist? He should respect the academy teachers and listen! However, Lord Cyan wasn’t foolish enough to call Ayden out. At least Prince Rian was listening and writing notes.
And so Ren Xiyang passed that morning class without a hitch. He passed his floor plans to Rian silently—he knew Rian would be curious.
Rian glanced at it and tucked it away among his papers—papers that Ren Xiyang knew weren’t all class related.
“Do you want to explore the academy?” Rian asked.
“I don’t need too,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian smiled and pulled Ren Xiyang along with him to go lunch with the other students. But secretly, he wanted to say—wouldn’t it be fun to explore the grounds of the academy together, just us, and discover all the secret rooms? He needed to expedite the development of a secure telepathy spell.
Lunch was pleasant. With two hours allocated for the lunch break, Ren Xiyang had his meal and then had time to tend to his field and greenhouse.
Rian fetched him for the two final classes: magical history, followed by magic practice.
Ren Xiyang listened to the magical history lesson for five minutes before he started drafting a research report on his latest crop experiments.
At least during magic practice class, students could talk freely with each other. The teacher supervising subclass A for magic practice didn’t even bother asking Ren Xiyang or Rian or any other student about whether they could cast the spells designated for practice.
Every student in subclass A was a noble. The children who could be in the same class as Prince Rian wasn’t random.
Eventually, the class became Rian showing off what other spells he knew, and then Rian asking different students to show their speciality spell. He also asked the teacher to cast one of her favourite spells too.
After the show-and-tell as over, Rian leaned into Ren Xiyang. “What’s wrong?”
“There are no non-nobles in this class,” Ren Xiyang replied.
Rian’s eyes sparked with understanding. “I see. Don’t worry.”
When class ended, Ren Xiyang bid farewell to Rian and others and left. He had a meeting with Hadrian, and then a healing session with Prince Pollux, all before the Early Autumn Ball that evening.
Rian watched Ren Xiyang walk away with a sense of loss. He also had to leave, as he was organising the ball. Tomorrow, Ren Xiyang was heading back to the Rosewood fief and he had already told Rian that he’d be going back to the Rosewood house to sleep. He and Ren Xiyang wouldn’t have any time in private until Sunday evening once Ren Xiyang returned.
The voices of chattering students around him brought him back to the present. Rian smiled in response. “Don’t forget to come to tonight’s ball,” he told them.
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Rian bid them farewell. Along with his Royal Guards, he went to the Imperial Palace to oversee the last-minute preparations.
The Early Autumn Ball was held in the main hall of the Imperial Palace. In the evening, the sun was just setting, the sky deepening in colour. The brightest stars were already visible; the small lights scattered around the Imperial Palace grounds looked like stars on earth.
The hall was full of people and buzzing with conversation. Palace servants weaved through the crowd, serving snacks and drinks.
When Florence arrived, Ayden was already there, standing with Prince Rian and some others. She immediately picked out how his outfit matched with Prince Rian, as they had been matching for years.
Her eyes met Ayden’s eyes across the hall. Ayden brightened and gave a little wave beckoning her over.
Florence went over to greet them.
“Hi Ayden. Good evening, Your Highness. Tonight’s arrangement looks very beautiful,” Florence said.
Prince Rian smirked. “Your enjoyment is my pleasure. Lady Florence Sage, have you met Ms Irmina Keller and Ms Carol Parkes? They are two new mage students at the academy this year, both earth mages,” Prince Rian introduced the two young women with him.
Florence nodded. “Lovely to make your acquaintance, Ms Keller, Ms Parkes.”
Irmina Keller and Carol Parkes bowed. “Likewise, my lady.”
“Call me Florence,” Florence said.
“Lady Florence Sage is a renowned plant mage. Earth magic can be used to improve the growth of plants, so if you’re interested in that direction, Lady Sage is the person to go to,” Prince Rian said.
Florence nodded. “Feel free to contact me. You can send a letter to the Sage house.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse us, Lady Sage, there is someone else I want Irmina and Carol to meet,” Prince Rian said. “Ayden?”
Ayden briefly touched Prince Rian’s arm. “I’m going to talk with Florence.”
Prince Rian paused, glancing at Florence.
Florence looked back calmly because she was innocent.
“Enjoy,” Prince Rian said. He led Irmina and Carol off, while Ayden turned to her.
“It feels like it’s been a while,” Florence said.
Ayden nodded. “Yeah. How long are you going to be in the Capital for? I’m heading back to the Rosewood fief this weekend.”
“I’m going to attend the university this year, so I’ll be in the Capital regularly once it starts,” Florence said.
“Really?”
“I still need to look after my fields, so I’ll be attending part time.”
“I’d prefer attending the university part time than the academy,” Ayden said, making a face.
Florence wasn’t surprised. “Try focusing on the other aspects of the academy,” she said. “You’re currently using one of their greenhouses and fields. Think about what other resources you could use.”
Ayden nodded thoughtfully. “I see. How was the academy like for you?”
Florence smiled faintly. “Unlike you, I wasn’t very familiar with the Capital. It was a big change from living at home. I wasn’t allocated a greenhouse or field in my first year. All I had were potted plants in my room…”
Prince Pollux had a stiff expression. He had been invited to the Early Autumn Ball and didn’t know what to expect. As a rule, he hated social events.
After his healing session with Ayden, he had gone back to the Angio embassy to change into the Angio royal military regalia of gold and white, including a simple thin gold crown with lightning motifs.
Once Pollux disembarked his carriage, an Imperial Palace servant personally led him the main hall.
“Prince Pollux Lūpiter, of the Kingdom of Angio!”
As Pollux entered the hall, many eyes turned to him. His stomach flipped uncomfortably, but he kept a stoic expression. His tension eased when he spotted Ayden and Hadrian in the crowd heading over towards him along with Lady Florence Sage.
“Good evening, Your Highness,” Hadrian greeted, bowing.
“Hi again, Prince Pollux,” Ayden said. “Your Highness, I don’t know if you remember Lady Florence Sage. She’s one of the founders of the Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program here in Sedaveria. Florence will also be attending the University this year, albeit on a part-time basis.”
Lady Florence Sage bowed. “Good evening, Your Highness.”
“Lady Sage, I remember,” Pollux said. “You and Ayden were interested in the farming fields when you were touring Angio.”
Lady Florence Sage smiled with amusement. “Indeed we are. I heard that Your Highness is also attending the university too. What classes will you be attending?”
The four of them had formed a little talking circle. As long as Pollux focused on the people in the group, the rest of the hall didn’t matter much. Not being alone at this kind of event made it less painful.
People came over to say hello—there was Baron Baltasar Cordovan with his siblings, and Prince Alexius with his young friends, and even Prince Rian a few times with different young students from the academy. There were also people such as Lord Orion Schauss and Lord Perseus Schauss who were healers, and Lord Anthony Fulvous who had apparently challenged Ayden to a duel several years ago and lost…
Without realising it, through Ayden and Florence, Pollux met several mages who, altogether, would also be attending the same classes as him at the university. And while Florence wouldn’t be attending the same classes, she had already invited him out to have lunch together on the first day of classes.
Thank you to Sealunis, Cyanin and lilbabydino for the support!!
Thanks to Clozed for the name ‘Carol’!
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Thx for the update! Speaking of Schauss… I’ve been wondering where is that transmigrated girl… Cassiopeia was it? While I don’t like her I thought she was important even for a bit 😆
Hahaha, speaking of Cassiopeia, she should appear again soon 🤣🤣🤣 It’s true, she is meant to be important, at least a little bit 😆😆😆
I’ll wait then… I just thought she is one of that character who’s forgotten by their own creator 🤣🤣 happened to one character in a game that I played recently🤣
whistles innocently 😇
Speaking of sidelined characters, or vague references to a character who never has appeared or been explained, I keep wondering about that hermit mentioned on the map … 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
omg the hermit 🤣🤣
i hope Pollux will make friends! He definitely needs more!
Yeah, I hope he makes more friends too!
you’re welcome 🙏 it feels good to be useful even for something like this 🤣
🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 Thank you!
By the way, Pollux never said who he picked as a model… also I don’t remember him choosing a healer either. (But I might have missed something.)
Thank you for the chapter.
Pollux indeed hasn’t decided on a model yet~! For now, Ren Xiyang is healing and using himself as a model.
I just thought, what if, Pollux chooses Hadrien as his model? Though that might not be so good?
Interesting thought 🤭🤭🤭 Pollux might grow big and tall 🤣
Networking at natural levels; always good 🤭
The best kind of networking when people come up to you instead of the other way around 🤭
Awww, sociolising Polux is soooo thoughtfull 🥰❤️ Thank you for your Hard work ❤️💪
Even better, Ren Xiyang doesn’t have to do anything 😆
Florence is an awesome friend and really intuitive about helping with Pollux. Her soft little jelly jab about just having a few pots of plants vs. entire greenhouse and field was hilarious especially when Rian gave her jelly side-eye when she got to talk/be near/play with Ayden and he didn’t… Hahaha 🤣
HAHAH, Florence is so, so great 🥰🥰🥰🥰