Hadrian jiggled the cat string toy and watched the cats pouncing, Princess Sasha with more grace than Lady Artemis.
“…There’s something I want to tell you,” Hadrian said, not quite looking at Prince Pollux.
“Yes?”
“Ayden suggested that I join the university as a post-graduate researcher, to obtain a doctorate for my research.”
“Will you?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll be meeting with several academics next week at the University. If I do go ahead, then I might see you around the university campus.”
“I hope it goes well,” Prince Pollux said.
“Thank you.”
Hadrian wanted to say more, but he didn’t know what. He sneaked a glance at Prince Pollux but couldn’t discern anything in particular from Prince Pollux’s expression.
“Meow meow!” Princess Sasha mewed haughtily.
Hadrian switched his attention back to the cats. “My apologies, my princess,” he said.
Prince Pollux chuckled.
The sound of his laughter made Hadrian’s gaze snap back him.
“She’s getting quite spoilt,” Prince Pollux said with a slight smile.
“She’s cute, so she deserves to spoilt,” Hadrian said. He felt a little thrill when Prince Pollux’s smile widened.
“Meow!”
“Yes, my princess!”
Prince Pollux laughed, while Hadrian diligently moved the cat toy again.
Ren Xiyang had several follow-up meetings regarding the new clinic. After these discussions, Ren Xiyang, the Capital Hospital, the University, and Duke Schauss came to a three-year agreement.
The Capital Hospital would provide several rooms at one of the secondary hospital buildings at a reduced cost and provide the equivalent of a full time healer to work at the clinic—funded by the Hospital, not the clinic. Functionally, this would be three different healers, two working two days a week, and one working one day a week at the clinic.
Meanwhile, the University would provide two healer-researcher mages, three days a week to work and research at the clinic.
Duke Schauss would provide the equivalent of one full-time healer, most likely a fixed single healer for the first year, pending resourcing for the later two years, and funding to support a student healer mage for three years to learn, research, and heal.
Ren Xiyang, through the Rosewood Group, would pay the gap in the room fees, renovation costs, and wages for the administrative staff and any additional healer mages.
Further investment and extension would be re-negotiated in 2.5 years, before the deadline of the original agreements.
With the contributions determined, the matters were handed to the lawyers on all sides to finalise the contracts, after which all parties signed.
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.
The space the Hospital allocated for the clinic had previous been a meeting room and ward (for non-urgent healing). Cassiopeia led the design of the new clinic, putting in a reception area, two private consultation rooms, and a flexible office/meeting space for the healers. She wanted to go for a modern but inviting style, and with soft furnishings and vibrant green plants.
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Ren Xiyang and Cassiopeia also sat down and agreed on the prices for initial and subsequent consultations for the first six months. These prices were low, for two reasons: firstly, the Hospital, the University, and Duke Schauss were paying the wages of their healers; and secondly, the first patients would essentially be volunteers for the healers who were inexperienced with the new treatment methods.
As Cassiopeia also flagged previously, they added in further discounts for patients under certain wealth thresholds, with the possibility of a complete fee waive, with the Rosewood Group picking up the costs.
For outsiders, it felt as though there was new gossip relating to Earl Rosewood every other week.
One week, it was news about how Prince Pollux of Angio recovered mobility in his legs after being paralysed for many years. Even if he couldn’t walk yet, it was merely a matter of time.
Another week, it was news about how the Rosewood fief was now the 3rd highest tax-paying fief, after the Capital Azure fief and the Schauss fief. And Earl Ayden Rosewood wasn’t even 18 yet! He couldn’t even legally get married in his own fief!
Then, there was news about how Earl Rosewood, jointly with Lady Cassiopeia Schauss and others, was opening a new clinic that would be focused on healing and researching several ailments involving defective internal organs and nerves, restoring mobility due to nerve damage, and even ‘gender transition’ (whatever that meant).
Then, there was news that Earl Rosewood and Prince Alexius had released a new line of floating desks, that could be paired with their floating office chairs.
There was a clamour of flustered gossip when the Rosewood Group printing press started releasing romance novels with male-male, female-female, and male-female couples, and sex education booklets. This was a far cry from the educational materials they had been printing previously!
And funnily enough, the Rosewood Group actually opened a new branch for wedding services! Those booklets about marriage were clearly advertisements after all!
In contrast, the news about Crown Prince Rian seemed less groundbreaking. Oh, the Royal Healers’ Association now had another branch in another fief this week? Oh, the Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program had expanded again? Who did Crown Prince Rian meet this week about the future national census? Has Crown Prince Rian made any updates on his currently-in-development education initiative?
There didn’t seem to be any new news about Crown Prince Rian, it was just the same kind of news.
If those nobles stopped to think about the bigger picture, they might have been disconcerted to realise just how wide Crown Prince Rian’s influence had spread.
And some nobles did stop and think. But there wasn’t much they could do to stop Crown Prince Rian’s expansion, aside from not letting Crown Prince Rian’s organisations into their fief—which meant they were pressured to organise the equivalent activities themselves.
What these nobles didn’t know was what Crown Prince Rian was doing secretly. Some of them might even have certain material in their hands.
For example, an unknown printing press was quietly printing and releasing erotica of all gender combinations into the market and had to do re-prints several times. These novellas were being quietly passed among closed circles in the aristocracy, including those who were opposing Crown Prince Rian.
Who knew that erotica would sell so well? Alas, a certain someone had to reinvest any profits to pay authors to write more and the printing press to print more…
Winter deepened.
The end of the year came and passed, and the new year arrived.
Prince Alexius’s new tournament begun, with matches every weekend. This would eventually lead up to a grand final event not long after his next birthday.
Meanwhile, the clinic officially opened.
At the opening of the clinic, there were only two full-time staff: one receptionist/administrator hired by Ren Xiyang, and one male healer who was paid by Duke Schauss. Aside from them, there were the three part-time healers from the Capital Hospital and the two healer-academics from the University.
Cassiopeia would be there two days a week, maximum, if there were any patients. Ren Xiyang would only be there one day a week (he had other work to do!).
During the first week, there were no patients.
The week after, the clinic had its first patient. It was an older nobleman, who had accidentally fallen from a great height two decades ago, and now had paraplegia. He had heard about Prince Pollux’s recovery.
Ren Xiyang and the male healer from Duke Schauss, Senior Healer Blossom, met with the older nobleman.
Ren Xiyang conducted an analysis scan first, and then Senior Healer Blossom.
“Well?” the nobleman asked. “Can you heal it?”
“Yes,” Ren Xiyang said. “Not including re-learning to walk, it should take three to six months, with regular twice-weekly sessions.”
“That’s much faster than with Prince Pollux,” the nobleman said with a suspicious frown.
“I had talked with Duke Schauss, and he agreed that a faster speed would be fine. Eventually, the clinic hopes to develop healing spells that would complete it in a single session,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Will you be my healer?” the nobleman asked. Cough, it felt like a weird question to ask: the young Earl Rosewood was the one with experience, not the experienced senior healer!
“If you’re willing, I suggest my colleague, Senior Healer Blossom, to be your dedicated healer. We’ll co-write your healing plan and I’ll be present at the initial sessions to guide my colleague,” Ren Xiyang said.
Senior Healer Blossom said calmly, “I have two decades of experience healing injuries in the back and legs. I’m also skilled in the reference healing method. Yes, you will be my first patient to receive this particular treatment, but please rest assured that under my healing, you will walk again.”
The nobleman agreed with a sense of relief. Ultimately, he felt safer in the hands of the senior healer.
They organised twice-weekly regular sessions for the next three months and confirmed the reference person—the nobleman accepted Senior Healer Blossom to be the reference.
After the nobleman left, Ren Xiyang worked with Senior Healer Blossom to devise a healing plan based on Ren Xiyang’s experiences healing Prince Pollux.
As promised, Ren Xiyang attended the first two sessions with Senior Healer Blossom and the nobleman. Senior Healer Blossom leveraged his past healing experience and quickly settled into the rhythm of healing nerves, restoring muscle, and strengthening bone.
Ren Xiyang left him to it and moved onto other work.
After that, more patients started to trickle in. There was nobles and wealthy commoners with affected mobility and old injuries that couldn’t be healed with traditional spells, women who wanted to conceive but had been unable to, and men who had been deemed impotent but wanted children.
The first patient who had anything to do with gender transition was a young noblewoman named Luna Alizarin.
Cassiopeia finally had a patient!
The young noblewoman outwardly looked female and was inwardly female too. The problem she wanted solved was the appearance of her genitals, as they appeared ambiguous.
Cassiopeia and a more senior female healer met with the young noblewoman. Cassiopeia explained that it would be a straight-forward process to adjust the external appearance within three-to-six months, with the main issue being finding a suitable reference person.
“And that’s it?” the young noblewoman asked, glancing between Cassiopeia and the senior female healer.
“Yes,” Cassiopeia said. “Your case is very straightforward.”
The young noblewoman made a wry expression. “And what are the risks? What is the probability of success?”
“The main risk is slight pain if we modify things too quickly, but that can be solved with traditional standard healing spells,” Cassiopeia said. “I’m confident of success. I’ve been using the reference healing method for over a year now. But if you want someone else, Earl Rosewood would certainly agree.”
“I’d like to think about it.”
“Please take your time.” Cassiopeia couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. She reiterated the healing process and bid the young noblewoman farewell.
And then she went back to having no patient and making no progress in her research plan to produce a fast gender transition spell.
A few weeks later, the young noblewoman returned with another woman.
“This is my older sister, Maraya,” Lady Luna Alizarin said.
Lady Maraya Alizarin gave Cassiopeia a sharp, assessing look. “I have agreed to my Luna’s reference. However, before anything proceeds, I need you to sign a contract of confidentiality and privacy.”
“Yes, I can do that,” Cassiopeia said. “Have you drawn up a contract already? Otherwise, I could ask Earl Rosewood to draw one up.”
“I have prepared one already.” Lady Maraya Alizarin handed her a thin folder.
Cassiopeia didn’t sign it right away, and the two women didn’t push her. Cassiopeia spent the rest of the session informing the young noblewoman’s sister about the healing process, timeframes, and costs. She re-iterated her confidence in completing the healing process successfully.
Afterwards, Cassiopeia took the contract to her lawyer. Her lawyer agreed that it was fine, and so Cassiopeia signed it the next time the two women came in.
Finally, the healing could begin!
Rian: Between me and work, who do you love more?
Ren Xiyang: …
Rian: You must answer!
Ren Xiyang: You?
Rian: My dear, please sound more confident.
Thanks to Trin for the name “Maraya” and thank to KeKe for the name “Luna”.
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Geez, I got so sucked into the plot (again) that I did not even notice it was the little theater at the end I was reading!! 😅 Shifting the focus is really nice from time to time, especially to Hadrian & Pollux. And Cassiopeia’s patient appears to be an interesting case too.
ahhh, there isn’t a big visual difference between the main story and the little theatre 😅
I’m glad the shift of focus was good here!
taking off~
🥰🥰
Hehe at this rate no one can say a thing when they announce the betrothal
🤭🤭🤭🤭