In the afternoon of the next day—two days after their previous meeting—Rian Azure once again graced Ren Xiyang’s door.
“Prince Rian,” Ren Xiyang greeted.
“Good afternoon, Earl Rosewood.” Rian walked familiarly into Ayden Rosewood’s suite. A Royal Guard carried a box and placed it on the table, before leaving, conscientiously closing the door for them.
Rian cast the sound-blocking spell before giving Ayden an amused look. “I hear your servants are aflutter about their meetings with you,” he said.
Ren Xiyang made a noncommittal sound. It wasn’t as though the meetings were a confidential closed book exam. “And this is?”
Rian opened the box, revealing a crystal ball inside. “I recall that you contacted the Capital Investigators via a crystal ball. During the meeting with my Imperial Mother last night, she confirmed that she will be attending the funerals, and that I’ll be leaving immediately after with her.”
Rian’s excuse for being here was to follow the Capital Investigators. But the Capital Investigators were now wrapping up their investigations around the Rosewood summer manor. The six assassins were being transported back to the Capital, and the scope and focus of the investigation had now changed from the murders themselves to those behind the murders—the Cordovans and their ‘unknown’ benefactors. So Rian’s excuse was fast disintegrating beneath his feet.
Rian touched the edge of the box. “Thus, we need to calibrate your crystal ball with mine.”
“My crystal ball is in the main study.”
“Which begs the question, why hasn’t Earl Rosewood moved into the study yet?”
“The investigators occasionally frequent the room,” Ren Xiyang said. He could tell where everyone was in the Rosewood manor if he wanted, and as he became familiar with various people, he could also distinguish between different heat sources.
Rian’s eyebrows raised slightly. “A very useful ability. I suppose you know when I go to sleep as well.”
“I’m not that curious,” Ren Xiyang said drily. He wasn’t interested in people’s personal actions. He only tracked heat sources by their proximity to him—it was a defensive reflex.
Rian closed the box again. “Then we’ll do so later.” He stood up, walking over to stand by an open space in the room.
Ren Xiyang turned on the sofa to watch him.
Rian clasped his hands together in a cute manner and smiled. A plethora of icy flowers appeared, glinting in the light around him. From the clear ice to the white clothing and bright eyes, Prince Rian Azure exuded a sense of sweet innocence, the kind of innocent that would make readers want to reach out and squeeze his cheeks.
“Am I a handsome male lead now?”
Ren Xiyang analysed very seriously. “If you were much taller, yes.”
The ice cracked, just like Rian’s expression.
Rian huffed. “I’ll definitely grow taller soon. Haven’t you noticed that you’re even shorter than me?”
“But I’m not a male lead, so does it matter?”
Rian couldn’t fault that. In the novel, Ayden Rosewood was so unimportant that he didn’t appear at all. “But suppose you were. Then, what would your entrance be like?”
Ren Xiyang stood up, facing Rian. He crossed his arms and a wall of fire flared up behind him. His clothes and hair fluttered in the created wind, and the bright light from behind made his face look menacing.
Rian: “…” He focused inwardly. A moment later, the delicate ice flowers became a wall of knife-sharp ice shards. His eyes became shadowed as his smile took on a dark tone.
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.
Ktf akb ojmfv boo, olgf jcv lmf, tba jcv mbiv.
Efc Wlsjcu’r fsfr abbx bc j ibbx bo jwerfwfca. Lf fzalcuelrtfv atf oijwfr olgra, ecjyif ab mbcalcef yflcu rb kjrafoei klat wjulm.
Eljc rwlgxfv rilutais jr tf ifa tlr bkc lmf kjii vlrrlqjaf yjmx lcab kjafg njqbeg. “Ycf kbeiv atlcx sbe kfgf j nliijlc bo atlr kbgiv,” tf rjlv jr tf kfca ab ajxf j rfja bcmf wbgf bc atf rboj.
Ren Xiyang also sat back down. “I’m no doubt the villain in some eyes,” he said.
Rian gave him a deep look. “I heard you’re changing the laws in Rosewood fief.”
“Since you’ve heard, do I really need to say anything else?”
“Your fief may become the location that criminals go to avoid execution.”
Ren Xiyang leaned back on his sofa. “This doesn’t mean there won’t be any punishment.”
Rian’s eyebrows raised. “Oh? Will you cut off limbs instead?”
“Then I would create a disabled population that the fief would need to support instead,” Ren Xiyang said drily.
Rian’s eyebrows raised a little more. “Oh? You’ll put them to work instead?”
“If they work, it would be for community service, not punishment. I don’t need unskilled work,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Then what would you do instead?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh,” Rian said very pointedly.
Ren Xiyang huffed slightly. “Prince Rian, my expertise is agriculture, not on prison reform. However, death is not the answer. What if you convict the wrong person?”
“Criminal investigators can view suspects’ memories.”
“But did you know that memories can be easily fabricated and false? They are not reliable. False memories form naturally. They could also be planted.”
Rian’s lips thinned.
“And…if you kill often, if the common people see death often, then it becomes normalised.” Ren Xiyang’s eyes darkened.
The zombie apocalypse was chaotic. People killed zombies, but they also killed each other. Death was everywhere. To survive, you had to numb yourself to it. And given how the leaders were like, the culture that sprung up was repulsive. To gloss over dead bodies, to be callous when sacrificing others to ensure your own survival, to lord over someone else’s misfortune. More than one ability user joked about using others as zombie bait.
Ren Xiyang couldn’t stomach having public executions as spectacles. He wanted to be as far away from what it was like in the zombie apocalypse as possible.
Rian gazed at Ayden. For him, death was normal. War and capital punishment and famine and disease had always been around in Sedaveria. But the air around Ayden had gotten colder again, just like it had during the carriage ride to Redmond town.
Rian curled his lips up and said lightly, “Are you saying I should look forward to being wrong?”
Ren Xiyang looked up. “Yes.” The air temperature stabilised again.
Rian gave an exaggerated huff. “Very well then, Earl Rosewood. Now, what I actually wanted to talk to you about was the plague-curse, and what I need to do once I return to the Capital.”
Ren Xiyang nodded slightly.
“The diplomacy routes are currently under the hands of my parents. Once my Imperial Father uncovers Angio’s involvement in the death of your family, it would be clear that certain people in Angio wanted to destabilise Sedaveria. Appropriate diplomacy between appropriate parties will follow. However, diplomacy isn’t guaranteed. The plague-curse was developed once. It could be developed again by another party. There could be another person or persons who are in similar situations to myself or you who could cause unanticipated changes. Multiple lines of defence are required,” Rian said.
“Yes.”
“So, I’ve informed the King and Queen about the nature of pathogens. My Imperial Mother has told me that the healers in the Capital Hospital have begun to study it. However, they’re not particularly fast.”
Ren Xiyang understood perfectly well how slow research could be.
“However, you already know about it.” Rian leaned forward slightly. “How did the plague spread in your world? How did you manage it? You’ve read the novel, you know what we tried.”
Ren Xiyang’s eyelids lowered. Manage it? They barely were able to survive, let alone manage it. The management of plague-curse in the novel was a lot better than in his world. But he gathered his thoughts and began to speak.
“The plague spread through exchange of fluids in physical skin contact with an infected. Aside from trying to keep groups isolated at the beginning, body armour and special tear-resistant clothing was developed…”
Rian listened seriously, transforming Ayden’s words to their current context. “Since the plague-curse curse has a magical element, we would need curse-magic resistant clothing…”
The two scoped out multiple methods that could be used to prevent or manage plagues. Eventually, they moved to the desk to write up a summary of their ideas, which Rian then used a spell to duplicate.
Afterwards, Rian had a Royal Guard carry the box with the crystal ball to the main study room.
The Rosewood’s crystal ball was displayed a podium near the desk. Ren Xiyang’s hands passed through the protective wards around it and plucked it from its place.
Rian cast the necessary spell to link the two crystal balls, and the two tested it out. Everything worked smoothly.
Before Ren Xiyang put the ball back on the podium, Rian stopped him.
“Don’t leave it here, put it in your actual study room.”
“Hm,” Ren Xiyang acquiesced.
“I know you have a meeting soon, so I won’t keep you,” Rian said.
Ren Xiyang nodded. He had some meetings squeezed in before dinner. He didn’t ask why the prince kept such tabs on his employees that he knew that.
They once again planned to meet in two days, before parting.
As the employee meetings with the Earl continued, the servants became increasingly busy.
Some servants had been put on probation, but some had been promoted instead, like Mrs. Cooks to manage the feeding of the entire Rosewood estate, or one of the farmers to manage the other farmers in Earl Rosewood’s stead. Some of them had been tasked with finding yet more people for Earl Rosewood to recruit for various new tasks, such as planting timber trees and increasing tree cover.
The clothes Rian had bought for Ayden Rosewood arrived after they had been tailored: many red pieces of clothing, some black pieces, white shirts, socks, gloves, and new boots. For the servants, this meant they needed some workers to embroider the Rosewood emblem onto them.
And soon after the funeral invitations were sent out, Solicitor Carmine came to the Rosewood summer manor again to organise the actual funerals themselves—the Rosewood cemetery was on the edge of the Rosewood estate. Both Solicitor Carmine and Ren Xiyang were too busy to really talk about the development of new laws, and the servants were no less busy. In addition to their usual tasks and their tasks given by the Earl, the servants also had to carry out the funeral-related tasks given by Solicitor Carmine and to prepare of the Rosewood summer manor to receive an influx of visitors.
The days passed quickly. There was another charity lunch at Redmond town, this time with much more food prepared and many more attendees, as expected.
Ren Xiyang and Rian also met a few more times. Rian learned a lot about some of the technology and medical knowledge that existed in Ayden’s old world, such as x-rays and vaccines and common medicines like antihistamines and fever-reliving medicines. He in turn taught Ayden more spells, from healing spells to general purpose-type spells. Together, they developed and shared their plans for the Capital and the Rosewood fief, both related and not related to the plague-curse.
On the day before the funeral, various nobles from faraway places arrived at the Rosewood summer manor.
If they had expected to speak to Earl Rosewood, they were sorely disappointed. At most, Earl Rosewood would greet them briefly before handing them off to a servant to take them to their suite for the next day. Some of them didn’t see Earl Rosewood at all.
And they couldn’t meet with Prince Rian Azure either, because the prince was meeting with the earl!
Rian knew that this day was the last day in which he’d see Ayden Rosewood for a while, and he didn’t want to let go of this last chance. He domineeringly took up Earl Rosewood’s entire afternoon and dinner, which coincidentally was the time when many nobles from distant locations arrived.
(Ren Xiyang didn’t mind, because it meant he didn’t need to greet random people.)
And then, that day passed, and the day of the funerals arrived.
In a universe where a System exists:
Rian: You could be a villain, Ayden!
System: YES! YES! He’s supposed to be the villainess! Wait, what are you doing—mffff!!
Ren Xiyang: *dusts off his hands*
~and the System was never heard of again~
Thank you for the chapter, but you should look at the link since it displayed it as the first chapter and not as the 29th.😊
It takes the website a bit to display the link properly, that means you came really quickly when the chapter posted! Thank you for reading!!
Aaaah will we get a timeskip? Or no more interactions between rian and ren xiyang for a while? 😔
You know, I’ve been trying to avoid big time skips, because it always feels… a bit weird when you’re reading, right?
Also, I don’t think Rian can leave Ren Xiyang alone 😉
Very good, he seems to be attached even before his feelings came to be 👍👍👍
And I do agree that time skips are weird. Especially when there is a drastic change within a character, it’s like a totally different character.
😘😘😘 ah yeah!! such big character changes are so disjointing
Ah, yes. The most notorious, despicable villain in the kingdom’s history. Promoting science, social welfare, and… gender/class equality. How horrible! Fake noble gasp.
Le gasp! How DARE they fight for equality and better standards of living the audacity!
From the viewpoint of the higher class, it is indeed audacious. There needs to be wealth disparity and ‘lessers’ if you want there to be others living in luxury in power over others. Once there is a class system in any society, most people in the highest classes will take it as their “right” while once trapped at the lower classes some people will do anything to ascend. Hard work and diligence can only get you so far…
👀 good points!
;P
hahahahahaha that is true!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Love the flowers and flames!
Hehehe, thank you!😄
I hope we’ll get a time skip ehem!
hides Do you like time skips?
cough! cough! yes
lmao will time skips bring cale nims slacker life? 😂
If Cale-nim found leader Soo Hyuk he’ll get his Slacker life😂
Thx for the chappy
Thank you for reading 🤗
This novel is exactly my cup of tea! Thank you so much for writing! ☺
Aww, thank you! 🤗🤗
Thanks for the chapter! I like Rian poking holes in Ayden’s plans… the desire to avoid the death penalty is understandable, but you do need to have something viable to replace it. A lot of the transmigration stories with MCs replacing inhumane systems tend to skip over that point…
In the USA, the criminal is punished with jail, fines, and a record that makes future employment and future housing difficult to obtain. Meanwhile, other countries focus on rehabilitation and education-seeking causes for the criminal behavior. Was it poverty? Drug addiction? (In the US that is a moral failing but elsewhere that is a legitimate medical problem that can be treated) Psychological problem? Medical problem? (You would be surprised how often things like PTSD, ADHD, Aggressive personality disorders, etc coupled with poverty leading to lack of education and access to medical care can lead to unemployment then crime.) Many things can be solved if someone cared enough to look into it, come up with a treatment plan, and provide treatment for free. (Preferably early in life, but it is never too late.)That said, there ARE a handful of people who are harmful to society and either do not want to or are not able to be cured – r*pists, serial killers, etc fall under this category. What to do with these people has long been an ethical debate and usually this is where the argument FOR the death penalty with the argument against arising due to the possibility of someone being falsely convicted.
Hehehe I want Ren Xiyang and Rian to work together! Together, they’re better~ But yes, it’s an ethical and moral hard problem…
Me 🤝 Ayden: not wanting to greet random people
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
Hahah I’m glad he’s relatable in that sense!
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for reading!
Thanks for the new chapter! I love Rian and Ren’s banter!
🤗🤗🤗 thank you!
Ahem…When will the actual romance with start….like a rough idea ya know…a hint maybe
Hm… after chapter 50 at minimum 😳😳😳😳😳 it’s a very slow build!
I WILL WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THE DOG FOOD DON’T WORRY!🙏🏻🙏🏻
🥺🥺 Thank you for your support!
NO! U DESERVE IT!🥺🥺
🤣🤣🤣🤣 poor system
Rest In Pieces u_u
The villainess !!! 😆🤣😂
😏😏😏
The little theater was so amusing!
It’s the villai-cannon fodder type! Kkkkkk
😏😏😏 As you can see, I have a strong bias against annoying Systems 😆
He’s kinda just doing whatever he wants (I support what he’s doing!!) so I wonder if it’ll ever backfire on him. In the society he’s currently in even the oppressed find everything he’s doing weird.
for the most part, he’s too strong XDDD
ohhhh, it looks like the system needs a better guide to ‘how to appease Ayden Rosewood‘.
🤣🤣🤣 I think appeasing Ren Xiyang is not that hard. Gold and farming 🤣
XD wait that’s actually true-