The next morning, Ren Xiyang and Rian had their usual practice duel.
The Royal Guards trembled, unsure whether the duelling field’s shields would hold under the onslaught today. Earl Rosewood even used lightning that crashed and thundered, making their hearts jump.
Rian gritted his teeth and fought back, using all of his magic and skills to block the first lightning strike and then to divert the second lightning strike.
CRASH—BOOM!
Ren Xiyang’s eyes flashed. His next attack was made of fire.
Rian growled. “Don’t be afraid of using lightning!” He sent out a web of water and used them as channels for an array of crackling electricity. With additional peripheral attacks, Rian cornered Ren Xiyang against the duelling field’s shield.
Ren Xiyang’s eyes narrowed. Rian’s heart thumped.
Thin streams of plasma cut into Rian’s lightning web and headed straight for him, pulling electricity along with them. Rian sunk more magic into his web, wrestling back control.
“One more minute!” a Royal Guard called out.
The amount of fire and ice and lightning across the field made it near-impossible for spectators to see what was happening.
Adrenalin pumped through Rian’s veins. Fighting on the edge made his heart thump and his magic thrum.
CRASH!!
Their attacks collided, resulting in a huge explosion. Instinctively, Rian pulled up layers of shields up around him, defending against Ren Xiyang’s final sneak attack through the smoke and flames.
“Duel, over!”
They dropped their magic; the sudden quiet made the panting sound of Rian’s breath particularly loud.
The corner of Rian’s lips went up. “You could have tried harder to defeat me,” he said.
“Perhaps you’re getting stronger,” Ren Xiyang replied, wiping off the sweat on his face. He held out his opposite hand for a handshake, which Rian took. “Rian…”
Rian’s heart skipped a beat. “Yes?”
Ren Xiyang’s eyes shifted to the side. Rian followed his gaze, spotting their audience of Royal Guards and students.
Ren Xiyang dropped his hand. “I have a meeting this morning, and I want to head over to the Rosewood house early.”
Rian felt a stab of disappointment, mixed with a suffocating feeling of frustration. “Very well.”
They walked back to their quarters together, but they didn’t speak.
Ren Xiyang could feel the heat signatures of all the those in earshot, which kept his mouth closed. Once they entered their quarters, Gary, Rian’s manservant, was there to help Rian.
Ren Xiyang had breakfast delivered to their quarters and was finishing up his quick breakfast by the time Rian was ready.
“I’ll be back in the evening,” Ren Xiyang said. “Have a good day, Your Highness.”
“I will,” Rian said.
Ren Xiyang headed to the front reception. “I’m here to request leave again,” he told the nervous staff member.
“Please wait here,” the staff member said. This time, he came back with the dean.
Dean Palatinate swept his hand to a nearby office. “Come in, we need to talk.”
Ren Xiyang entered the office and sat down.
“Earl Rosewood, how have you been finding classes? Is there a problem?” Dean Palatinate asked.
“I already know all I want to know regarding what’s taught here,” Ren Xiyang said.
“But to be a well-rounded person, it’s important to know the things you don’t want to know as well,” Dean Palatinate said.
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.
“Yes, the country would greatly benefit if all mages knew how to install water and sewage piping, whether they wanted to or not.”
Gfjc Ujijalcjaf’r fzqgfrrlbc rtbkfv j mgjmx. “Tbe—atlr lr jc jvnjcmfv fvemjalbcji lcralaealbc—”
“Pa’r agef atja mbwqifaf ecvfgrajcvlcu bo kjafg wjcjufwfca rsrafwr lr yfsbcv atf jmjvfws.”
Gfjc Ujijalcjaf’r fzqgfrrlbc mgjmxfv mbwqifafis. Lf bqfcfv tlr wbeat kbgvifrris, ecjyif ab olcv j relajyif mbecafg. (Yt, tf atbeuta bo rfnfgji atlcur tf mbeiv rjs, yea cbcf bo atfw kfgf jqqgbqgljaf.)
Ren Xiyang stood up. “Please proceed with my expulsion. I’m busy. Have a good day.”
With no more words wasted, Ren Xiyang left.
Dean Palatinate was left to stew. Now, he understood Vice Dean Blewitt’s feelings. Earl Rosewood wanted to be expelled. But they couldn’t expel him. Earl Rosewood was powerful and influential, and Crown Prince Rian’s good friend.
They couldn’t expel him. But they couldn’t let him skip class.
Dean Palatinate could grant Earl Rosewood special leave. But then other noble students would want special leave as well. Who would be left in class? Dean Palatinate rubbed his temples. He had been worried that Crown Prince Rian would be unreasonable, after he asked for ‘commoner’ quarters, the greenhouse, and the field allocation. But in the end, it was Earl Rosewood who was giving him a headache!
Ren Xiyang arrived at the Rosewood house and went straight to his office with Kel by his side. Together, they reviewed the briefing materials before having the long-distance meeting with the winter-preparation team back in the Rosewood fief.
Then, as promised, head steward Mr Conway showed him two less-used storerooms that had been cleared, ready for Ren Xiyang’s new farming projects. As instructed, the original shelving had been kept. Various Rosewood staff were mobilised to acquire additional materials.
In one storeroom, Ren Xiyang wanted to grow microgreens—vegetable and herb seedlings. In Sedaveria, vegetables and herbs were left to grow to their full state before harvest. This made sense, given that purchasing seeds wasn’t cheap and growing them bigger meant more food.
But Ren Xiyang thought this could be a good business opportunity and provided more cooking and recipe opportunities. Once he grew microgreens and made a dish with them for Rian and selected guests, he strongly suspected he could get a lot of money from people who wanted to eat the microgreens as Prince Rian.
Rian…
Ren Xiyang’s chest felt uncomfortable.
Rian had been looking forward to going to the academy together and spending time together. But sitting in class felt suffocating, knowing that there were a hundred other things he’d rather do, and two hundred other things he needed to do.
They might have deposed of King Augustus, but Ren Xiyang was still Earl of the Rosewood fief. He was still responsible for his people.
That uncomfortable feeling was guilt. Guilt which wouldn’t help Ren Xiyang in the task at hand.
Pushing the feeling aside, Ren Xiyang installed spell lighting on the undersides of the shelves, with the brightness and wavelengths calibrated from his previous research. On the shelves were new shallow, wide boxes of soil with drainage holes, draining into a flat wide tray underneath. The soil was light and porous.
With thanks to the Rosewood staff, Ren Xiyang had several bags of seeds: beetroot, broccoli, lettuce, mustard, peas, rocket, sorrel, sunflower, and watercress. Ren Xiyang started soaking the larger seeds separately. He scattered the small seeds on top of the soil and covered them with more soil. He misted water, moistening the soil and seeds thoroughly. He then covered the trays of seeds. Once they started sprouting, then he’d remove their coverings.
Ren Xiyang went to the other prepared storeroom. Here, he wanted to try growing mushrooms.
Currently, mushrooms were typically foraged and only a fraction of mushrooms on the market were cultivated. Determining the ideal growing conditions for mushrooms could lead to a profitable business in the future and diversify the food in the Rosewood fief.
Ren Xiyang knew the basics of mushroom growing not because of his professional background, but because some people had tried to use mushrooms to remove toxins from soil once the apocalypse started.
This was going to be an experiment. He wanted to try different growing mediums with different temperature and humidity levels. He also wanted to see if plant growth magic worked on non-plants like mushrooms or fungi.
In the future, he could explore how truffles grew. It was hard to grow it commercially in his old world, but maybe with magic, he could crack the code and dominate the market.
This wasn’t strictly agriculture, but even academics needed a change in research every once and a while.
In the mushroom storeroom, Ren Xiyang didn’t install any growing lights. The boxes were deep. Some had a chunk of log inside, while others had straw or sawdust. Using heat, Ren Xiyang sterilised everything below the point of combustion, and then moistened everything.
He didn’t have mushrooms spores or spawns. Instead, the staff had bought several varieties of mushrooms for him. Ren Xiyang cut off the ends of the mushrooms. The tops would be taken to the kitchen to be cooked; as for the ends, Ren Xiyang cut them into smaller pieces and scattered them on the different mediums. Then, he covered them with moist straw, and finally covered the boxes with cloth.
After all of this was done, it was time for lunch.
Morning class without Ren Xiyang. Lunch without Ren Xiyang. And now, afternoon classes without Ren Xiyang.
Rian was starting to second-guess himself.
If he wasn’t actually an adult, if Ren Xiyang wasn’t actually an adult, then there would be no argument about whether they should attend the academy classes or not.
But they were adults. Rian had already attended the academy once. The teaching this time was almost exactly the same; in Lord Zaffre’s case, it was word-for-word.
He wanted Ren Xiyang to attend the academy. But he didn’t want to force Ren Xiyang.
Technically, Ren Xiyang had attended even more schooling than Rian had. From five years old to over twenty-five years old, Ren Xiyang had attended school, then university. Ren Xiyang had also been working for longer than Rian.
Never had Rian distinctly felt their differences until now. It made him realise that he didn’t know Ren Xiyang as well as he thought he had.
If Ren Xiyang didn’t want to attend the academy, then Rian needed to think of ways for him to smoothly exit.
He missed Ren Xiyang so much.
In the early afternoon, Ren Xiyang read and commented on several reports. When his concentration started to flag, he went to his microgreens storeroom to plant any seeds he had left soaking. He double checked everything there, and in the mushroom storeroom, and made sure that various parameters were recorded.
His thoughts drifted back to Rian.
He sighed.
He didn’t like this feeling of fighting with Rian.
He wouldn’t have started growing microgreens if it weren’t for Rian. And then there was the greenhouse and the field that Rian acquired for him.
Ren Xiyang went back to his office and reviewed his task list. There were no urgent items left, but there were some important items he should work on—
Work.
Ren Xiyang had an unsettling feeling in his stomach.
He felt that the academy was a waste of time because it was time where he couldn’t be productive or useful.
Why did he feel as though he needed to be working all the time?
He suddenly realised two facts that were the different sides to the same outcome: (1) he should work less to devote time to his relationship; and (2) relationships took work, too.
Ren Xiyang didn’t know how much work—and thought—that Rian put into arranging everything at the academy, from the quarters together to the greenhouse; he didn’t know how much work Rian had put into all his gifts over the last few years.
He had become too used to Rian’s thoughtfulness.
Rian was right. Ren Xiyang had set up the Rosewood council and the system of teams to reduce his workload and to give others the opportunity to lead and the responsibility over their area. Ren Xiyang needed to take a deep breath, and step back, and trust the council and the teams.
Rian was right. At the very least, he could attend the practice classes. The teachers didn’t care what they did as long as they could cast the assigned spells. He could practice lava magic or develop new spells; he could carry some potted plants and do some testing, and he could even grow microgreens in class if he wanted.
Spending time with Rian wasn’t a waste.
At 4:15 pm in the afternoon, Cassiopeia Schauss arrived at the Rosewood house. The days since the early autumn ball had passed extremely quickly and it was time for her meeting with Ayden Rosewood.
Today, she wore a white and dark-blue dress. She had jewellery in her hair, on her ears, around her neck, and around her wrists. They were all spelled jewellery from her father.
Her father had also come with her, and he didn’t seem very happy.
“Let me sit in that meeting with you,” her father said.
“No,” Cassiopeia said. She half suspected that Ayden wanted to talk about certain matters that her father couldn’t know.
“I could sit in the same room as you, so that I can see you, while you use a privacy spell.”
“No,” Cassiopeia said. What if her father could read lips? It was too risky.
“What if—”
“Father! I’m not a baby. I’m thirteen.” Cassiopeia disembarked from the carriage first.
Ayden and his servants were waiting at the door. “Your Grace, Cassiopeia,” Ayden greeted.
Ayden took Cassiopeia up to his office, while her father was led away by the servants.
Cassiopeia’s stomach twisted nervously.
“So—” Ayden started.
“I’m sorry,” Cassiopeia blurted out, unable to bear it any longer.
“Hm. So, there were a few things I wanted to talk to you about today. First, is the original novel and the original plot.”
Cassiopeia looked at him blankly. That was it? Now they were going to talk about the plot? Just like that?
“Prince Rian and I have worked hard to ensure that the original plot does not occur,” Ayden said. “You may have noticed King Lūpiter’s abdication.”
“…And the underground tower reveal.”
“And the underground tower reveal,” Ayden acknowledged. “We also fund research into diseases and push for greater awareness around cleanliness practices, and the Royal Healers’ Association has improved healthcare access. It’s possible that none of the book-plots would come true. Given that, what are your plans?”
Cassiopeia’s lips turned down. She dropped her head. “I don’t know. I’m the Saintess, aren’t I?”
“Most likely, yes.”
“Then I should just heal a lot of people, right?”
“Hm, a good overall aim.”
Cassiopeia sighed, depressed. Healing a lot of people, that was just so normal and average. There were hundreds of healers. There was only one Saintess.
“How is your healing skills now?” Ayden asked.
“My father says I’m good,” Cassiopeia said. “I healed someone with a rare disease that no one else could heal.”
“Oh? That’s good.”
Cassiopeia felt a bit better.
“How did you heal that person?”
Cassiopeia grimaced. She had been asked this by others too. “To be honest…I’m not entirely sure. When I started, the source of the disease, the blood vessels and flesh just felt wrong, and then I just…used magic to fix it.”
_(: 」∠)_
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Aww. They’re reflecting on their actions 🥹
Rian is willing to help Xiyang transition out of the academy, and Xiyang is willing to compromise for Rian and attend classes.
I hope they have a good heart to heart soon.
Yeah, they’ve gotten over their initial bit of hot-headed emotions, and it’s time for reflection~!
They definitely need to talk soon!
Are you really going to leave us in the middle of their conversation? 🤣
Also, good progress on Ren Xiyang’s and Rian’s part! Hope they can compromise. Also, the Dean can grant special leave to people who can pass a direct magic manipulation exam with specific requirements! Let’s see how many noble kids dare to pout!
Thank you for the update.
I agree… the cliffhanger is quite…. ugh 😵 and they finally thinking things from the other’s perspective. 3 chapters now… 😓
The chapters will pass by quickly, in retrospect… 🤔🤔🤔
HAHAHAH I’m writing up to the tapas character limit for chapters 🤣🤣🤣
Not many kids would pass a direct magic manipulation exam…many teachers wouldn’t either 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I still think Rian should persuade the academy to let Ayden take the magic version of a CLEP exam to verify he doesn’t need the academy
But he could still attend elective classes he likes and shares with Rian and pick his boyfriend up from class~
And Rian could maybe shorten or socialize in a different way than just being in classes all the time
Practical lessons with Ayden? Lmao like they’d make him a teacher
anyway glad to see both are thinking about how to compromise for each other
Awwwww, that’s a very lovely image of Ren Xiyang picking up his boyfriend from class! Thank you for your comment and your ideas!
Hmmm… If Cassiopeia got more interested in anatomy and overall biology of a body she could become even a bigger healing cheat. Like she could instinctly sense someting is off and fix it, so i huess if she knew what is wrong she could research it and make a guide for other healers
Yeah!!!! Thank you for your comment!
Thank goodness there is reflection.
It had to happen eventually 😏😏😆😆
Ren’s obsession with work, while understandable given his past, felt a lot like escapism to me. Running away from yourself, my dear, are we? But as a reader, it was very nice to see them both reflect. Prince Pollux, a change of your healer is on the horizon! 🤭
Ren Xiyang’s work does have a bit of an escapism air!
Love how CS apologized and RXY was like nope, not important, let’s focus
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Cassiopeia’s not-so-great actions were years ago, Ren Xiyang has more things to do and focus on 🤣🤣🤣
i see hope over the horizon 🥺 let them be happy together and nit all grumpy
Understood! 😆😆😆
i don’t necessarily think Ayden should skip grades, because there are important classes he needs, it’s just that his work is more important… so BOOM! WORK PROGRAM! He should have reduced classes due to his special circumstances. This would also be useful to other students, commoners mostly, who may have to work on-top of schooling!
Ooooh, work program! Interesting. There are important classes that he might technically need in the future, but he’ll learn them in the future, right? 😆😆😆😆 Thank you for your comment!
ITS 👏 NOT 👏 A WASTE 👏 TO SPEND TIME 👏 WITH RIAN whoo okie we getting closer to solutions i feel… wonder if this will become some Gift of Magi situation where Ren Xiyamg figures he will go to (most) classes meanwhile Rian found a way for him to get out akxhsjdh
🥰🥰🥰 Hahahahah hopefully they can work together for long-term solutions 🤣🤣
Uh awww, thank you for the chapter 🖤🖤🖤🥰💪💪
Thank you for reading 🥰🥰