Rating: PG-13/mature-ish
Ren Xiyang obediently recalled the questions that he had been asked and his subsequent answers, to the best of his ability.
Based on Rian’s expression, Ren Xiyang could guess whether he answered correctly or not.
Rian’s expression become increasingly distorted. “…The passing grade shouldn’t be 100%.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself or me?” Ren Xiyang said.
“—Thus, I believe you passed everything,” Rian said.
“If you say so. Even if I don’t pass everything, I can still skip those classes,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian gave him a cold look.
“But, with your help, I’m confident that I passed everything,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian’s expression brightened. “Good. So, what do you want to do now?”
Ren Xiyang opened his notebook. “I wrote down all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t over the study time period… I’ve been to the greenhouse and field already, it’s the microgreens and mushrooms next.” Ren Xiyang’s exams had ended earlier than Rian’s, so he had already been able to check on his research plants. “What about you?”
Rian leaned into Ren Xiyang’s personal space to look at what Ren Xiyang had written down. His lips curled up and he pointed out one of the entries. “I see, I see.”
“That’s for after dinner.” Ren Xiyang closed his notebook.
“Well, we have time before dinner, don’t we?” Rian took Ren Xiyang’s hand.
Ren Xiyang felt the familiar magical nudge. He extended out his own magical telepathy link.
Rian’s thoughts were transmitted instantly. Xiyang, Xiyang T_T I missed you so much, I want to make you blush~
Ren Xiyang: “…”
Xiyang, Xiyang— “Open up your link some more,” Rian said, tugging Ren Xiyang’s hand.
It was hard for Ren Xiyang to resist Rian’s look of love and adoration.
Opening the telepathic link up further made it much more chaotic: they were both thinking at the same time, and it gave rise to multiple conversations at the same time.
Rian’s thoughts went, It’s been so long, you must have passed the exams, we haven’t had sex for ages, I worked hard for you, when can you cook dinner for me? Oh, I need to prepare your outfit for the coming social event…
And with the telepathic open wide, it was difficult to vet thoughts before they were released. Ren Xiyang’s thoughts were, I probably passed, nothing we can do about it now unless you do something corrupt so don’t even think about it, your eyes are sparkly, when did Rian’s muscles get bigger ugh (handsome/jealous/envy/need to work harder), dinner? let me check my journal later…
Rian smiled happily. “Why do you praise me so much in your head but never out loud?”
Ren Xiyang’s thought betrayed him. Because wouldn’t he become more stuck up?
Rian: Betrayed!!! “Xiyang, I know I’m handsome, and it’s the truth. How is that being stuck up?”
Ren Xiyang patted him on the head. Spoiled little kid.
Rian pouted, which made Ren Xiyang think, see, exactly, which made Rian pout even harder.
(It was a never-ending cycle.)
Unsurprisingly, Ren Xiyang was the one who restricted his telepathic connection first.
“Xiyang, Xiyang—”
“We need to go to dinner.”
Rian blinked. “How did time pass so quickly? I thought we’ll have time for a quick—”
Ren Xiyang gave him a disapproving look.
Rian smiled in a carefree manner. Even though he couldn’t hear Ren Xiyang’s thoughts, he knew what he was thinking. “We can’t be efficient in every area of our lives.” He stood up and pulled Ren Xiyang with him. “Come on.”
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.
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“I’ll still be attending the academy, and I’ll still be available,” Rian said.
“Oh, you want to spend more time with Prince Rian?” one of the boys said with a suggestive tone towards the female student.
“I’m honoured that you wish to spend time with me, all of you,” Rian said, looking at each student seated at the table.
“Are you saying you already have some marriage candidates in mind?” a different male student asked.
Rian’s lips curled up. “I hope to marry the second most powerful mage my age.”
The students blinked at him.
“The most powerful being you?” Ren Xiyang said drily.
“Exactly!” Rian looked at the people at their table. “So, I’ll consider marrying anyone who can defeat Ayden here in battle.”
Students: “……”
“By the way, because I’m busy, my standard gold fee for one-on-one duelling has increased,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian patted Ren Xiyang on the shoulder. “Then my potential marriage suitors can help line your pockets.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
One of the girls pursed her lips. “Are you saying your potential candidates are Nicola Storm or Adrienne Obsidian?”
“I like Adrienne,” Ren Xiyang said with a thoughtful expression.
Internally, Rian scowled at Ren Xiyang. Externally, he smiled mysteriously. “We’ll have to wait and see, don’t we? So, come on, work hard.”
“Hehehe, well, I already have an agreement with someone I like—” another student said.
“WHAT?!!”
Rian glanced at Ren Xiyang as the table dissolved into pestering the apparently already-engaged noble student.
Under the table, Rian’s foot tapped against Ren Xiyang’s.
Rian: If only they knew~ Mwah, mwah, mwah!
Ren Xiyang: Hmm. Eat your dinner.
Rian: Yes dear! That means you care ♥
In contrast to the energetic student dining hall, the teachers’ dining hall was quieter than usual.
Given that these exams were different from normal, they were more tiring. But the teachers couldn’t rest yet, as they still had to teach classes tomorrow. And they needed to convene outside of usual work hours to discuss the students’ results and so forth.
In the hall, several first-year teachers sat together.
“How did Prince Rian go with your exam?” Lord Zaffre asked Lord Coquelicot next to him.
Lord Coquelicot frowned. “What about His Highness?”
“His answers…” Lord Zaffre didn’t want to say it.
“His spell-writing form is very precise,” Lady Celadon said.
“I believe it’s safe to say that he is the brightest student,” Lord Cyan said.
“We all know Prince Rian’s duelling ability,” Lord Zaffre said. “But surely His Highness cannot excel in everything.” He looked at Lord Coquelicot in particular. Magical History had always been the students’ hardest class.
Lord Coquelicot didn’t say anything and continued to eat in silence. During the exam, Prince Rian had mentioned more historical figures, events, and magical research detail than even Lord Coquelicot had known. Lord Coquelicot had thought Prince Rian was wrong and making things up but…it turned out the wrong one was himself. It wasn’t a good feeling to have.
“Well?” Lord Zaffre prodded.
“The marks that Prince Rian will receive with be determined in due course,” Lord Coquelicot said flatly.
Lord Cyan and Lady Celadon both nodded, and thus, Lord Zaffre had to drop the topic.
After they returned back to their quarters, Rian faced Ren Xiyang, arms crossed. “Adrienne? Adrienne?”
“She’s a good duellist,” Ren Xiyang said. “So, who’s going to top or bottom tonight?”
“We haven’t finished discussing the fact that you think Adrienne could beat you??!”
“I couldn’t say Duke Storm, could I? He’s already married.”
Rian hugged and squeezed Ren Xiyang tightly. “Xiyang! Let’s duel right now!”
“It’s late.”
“What if, whoever loses get to choose to top or bottom as a consolation prize?”
Note that Ren Xiyang was still being squeezed. “…Well, it’s good that you know you would lose. Unless you wanted me to lose on purpose so that you could finally win a duel against me?”
Rian leaned forward and bit down on Ren Xiyang’s ear.
“Or do you want to table-top duel? In which case I would lose…unless you want to lose on purpose?”
Rian huffed. “Isn’t it about making a win-win situation for both of us?”
Ren Xiyang’s lips curved up. Rian was a little cute when he was like this.
“Xiyang!”
“It’s cute when you’re like this,” Ren Xiyang said out loud. “Come on, let’s have a soak in the bath together.”
Rian finally stopped squeezing him so hard. “Very well, I will accept your request.” He was even more appeased when Ren Xiyang kissed him on the lips.
With no more engagements for tonight, there was only one matter left on Rian’s schedule that night—‘relearning’ intimacy with Ren Xiyang.
Rian woke up the next day with Ren Xiyang in his arms, feeling very refreshed. His eyes and skin glowed with renewed vigour.
They got changed together and went out to the duelling field to practice team duelling against other student teams.
After washing off, they went to breakfast. At breakfast today, they sat with the third-year students they had duelled with earlier.
“Your Highness, I heard that you’ll consider marrying someone who can defeat Ayden. Is this true?” one of the third-year students asked.
“Well, if someone could make more money and contribute to the kingdom than Ayden, I would also consider them,” Rian said with a wink.
“How is that even possible?”
Ren Xiyang: “…” He gave Rian a look. “Are we only friends because I give you money?”
“Well,” Rian grinned. He looked at the other people at the table. “I’ll tell you why when Ayden isn’t here later,” he said in a loud whisper.
The other students laughed.
It was obvious to the students that this was a joke—the friendship between Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood was well known, inspirational and envy-inducing and they certainly weren’t friends just because Earl Rosewood gave Prince Rian money or benefits.
But Ren Xiyang felt Rian’s words had a different meaning.
In the future, Rian would tell these mages that they were engaged.
Ren Xiyang suddenly really looked forward to this future.
After breakfast, Ren Xiyang went to the Rosewood house. At long last, he could be fully focused on his work once more. In the morning, he examined his microgreens and mushrooms, and let the chefs come in and harvest what they wanted.
Before lunch, he had a long meeting with Hadrian—he had really neglected him this past month. During the meeting, they went through Hadrian’s progress over the last month and some of the issues he was having. Ren Xiyang went with him to his work lab to see the setup that he had improved with Prince Pollux’s help. Ren Xiyang helped by charging his magical crystals with more raw fire-magic power.
Ren Xiyang also asked him about his future plans: work-wise, but also personal-wise. Hadrian told him that he planned to stay at least till summer.
“In that case, if you have any winter-holiday traditions or other traditions, tell me and we can organise it here,” Ren Xiyang said. “Otherwise, I like to make hotpot on new year’s eve.”
Hadrian nodded. “Okay.”
Ren Xiyang then had lunch with Hadrian, Pollux, Kel, and Maria.
Afterwards, Ren Xiyang went through his physical inbox and wrote a letter to Anya Rose to ask about meeting again. In the afternoon, Ren Xiyang went with Prince Pollux to the Imperial Palace to have afternoon tea with Alexius and catch up on what was happening with the floating office chairs and floating single-person transport projects.
Upon returning to the Rosewood house, Ren Xiyang conducted a healing session with Prince Pollux and Hadrian, and then met with Florence. Florence stayed for dinner, and Rian came over for dinner.
(Rian couldn’t let Ren Xiyang have dinner with so many love rivals without him!)
When Ren Xiyang returned to the academy with Rian, he did some administration work before commencing ‘night-time’ activities.
Overall, it was a very fulfilling day.
Meanwhile, unbeknown to Ren Xiyang, the news that Prince Rian would consider marrying someone who could defeat Earl Rosewood in a duel or could make more money than Earl Rosewood had spread across the student cohort and beyond.
The rumours reached Queen Mira’s ears.
Queen Mira: “…”
She couldn’t suffer alone, so she told King Edric at the earliest opportunity.
King Edric’s face cracked. “No, I don’t allow it!”
Queen Mira felt that King Edric hadn’t suffered enough yet, so she added, “Historically, there have been cases of princesses or ladies hosting a duelling tournament to determine marriage suitors. What if Rian does the same thing?”
King Edric felt deep pain at that moment as he unwillingly imagined Rian hosting such a tournament and Earl Rosewood wining and carrying Rian off in a princess carry…
Queen Mira was satisfied and left King Edric.
King Edric: Why did you tell me???
Queen Mira: Didn’t you want to be a better father?
King Edric: …
Alexius: HAHA does Rian want to be single his whole life?
Rian: 😏😏😏
Alexius: Why do I have a bad feeling about this…
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The King and Queen really do have a good relationship. Real old married couple vibes.
I’m waiting to see Xiyang delinquent results and Rian’s perfect boy results. To Rian, what makes a pass is 100%? If that’s the case then he’s the only one who passes 😂
You’re right, the King and Queen are actually going well together, despite these little things haha
Rian has very high standards 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, I cannot wait for more people to know! 🤗But… wasn’t this supposed to be the chapter 188?
Yeah! And OMG I numbered this chapter wrong, thanks for catching that!
dying from telepathic cuteness halp
🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
I thought for sure Ren Xiyang’s comeback to Rian marrying the second most powerful mage would be “so you’re marrying yourself” 😏
OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG!! That would have been a great comeback!!!
Rian should make an announcement that he changed his mind and will be marrying the most powerful mage of his time, then publicly lose to Xiyang in a duel. Let everybody figure it out themselves XD
OMG hahahah!!!!!!
seems like queen mira is having some fun playing with the king 😂😂
Queen Mira’s work is hard, she needs some kind of outlet 🤣🤣🤣
“Then my potential marriage candidates can help line your pockets.” ALCHAKXHSJX MENACES
Rian always remembers to help Ren Xiyang earn more money 🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂thank you for the chapter
Thank you for reading!
OMG I want that tournament. 🤣
Also I thought about it and I want calming stones. 🤣 Different setting, don’t care. 🤣
Thank you for the chapter.
Calming stones hahaha!!!!!
Thank you for reading!