Ren Xiyang took most of the children up into the air for a flight. He asked the ones who hadn’t taken the initiative, in case they were shy. Some of them were indeed shy. But others refused. The biggest shame was when some of the children clearly wanted to have a go, but their membership in certain factions stopped them.
He also asked Rian. Rian ‘reluctantly’ agreed.
With that, Ren Xiyang feigned tiredness and took a seat, while Rian returned the two swords to the Royal Guards.
Prince Rian was very friendly towards the other noble children, and when he smiled at them, most of them felt honoured at having his attention.
However, people talking to them and being friendly was normal. Earl Rosewood taking them to fly (high up in the air!!!) was not normal.
More than anything else, Earl Rosewood’s actions broke multiple barriers between himself and the other children. They sat or wandered over; multiple children glanced furtively (or not so furtively) at him, wondering if he would show something else amazing.
Earl Rosewood was as young as them, he was already an earl, he was as strong as Prince Rian, and oh, not to mention, he could fly!
Alexius stood near Earl Rosewood, taking over the role of speaking to the audience of children. “Well, you all know about germs now, since I told you yesterday,” he said with a puffed-up chest. “And you now know that Earl Rosewood can fly on a sword. Anything my big brother can do, Earl Rosewood can do too! He can make even more beautiful fire flowers. He can duel anyone and win, even adults!”
Nicola Storm, a lightning mage child, spoke up: “Baron Carmine was a weak fire mage. Earl Rosewood has never fought a proper lightning mage, right?” The Storm family, headed by Duke Storm, was the most powerful lightning-mage family in the kingdom. Their family guarded part of the Sedaverian border against Angio, and their family also trained and managed the elite force of lightning combat mages.
“I haven’t,” Earl Rosewood replied mildly. “I haven’t seen lightning magic yet, do you know any spells?”
“Yes!” Nicola Storm paused guiltily. “I’m not allowed to cast them without my tutor or my parents around though. But I want to see Earl Rosewood fight my big brother!”
“Earth is strong against fire,” Malin Brown, an earth mage, said. “I don’t think Earl Rosewood would win against my mother!”
“He’d win against you!” Günter Blewitt retorted. And then he turned back round to Earl Rosewood and said, “Though of course my grandfather would win.”
Ren Xiyang: “…” How did it come down to insulting his skills?
“If you pay me sufficient gold, I will duel whoever you wish. Minimum 1500 gold, and more if I win.”
The noble children and their guards: “….” They all recalled the gossip that Baron Carmine had been forced to give Earl Rosewood 2500 gold…
Off to the side, Rian was trying not to smile. “Study magic well. Remember, once you can cast nonverbal spells, come to me or Earl Rosewood.”
More than one noble child had the glorious daydream of flying on a sword and being better than their parents.
More than one guard had the anxiety-inducing vision of chasing after a flying noble child.
Rian looked at the various childish faces. “Don’t forget, we are the future of Sedaveria. Our fiefs, our kingdom, should get better and better.” He smiled. “That said, we don’t need to be like Earl Rosewood. We each have our own unique strengths.”
Adrienne Obsidian, a shadow-mage child, stepped forward. She tilted her head up, her long black hair parting to reveal her shadowed eyes. “I already know nonverbal magic and even some direct-magic manipulation. Will Earl Rosewood teach me how to fly?”
Ren Xiyang glanced at the accursed Prince Rian who had sold him off as a babysitter-teacher. “Yes, I can. We can meet either tomorrow or the next few days, or you can come to the Rosewood fief whenever you wish.”
That made the other children extra jealous.
Adrienne Obsidian was surprised. She didn’t think Earl Rosewood would agree. Shadow mages tended to be disliked or avoided, and the shadow-magic families tended to keep to themselves—the loose faction of shadow-magic families was in name only.
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.
“I—I will talk with my uncle,” Adrienne finally stammered.
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Ren Xiyang and Rian boarded an Imperial carriage, finally on their way to the Imperial Bookstore.
They went to the Imperial University, which sat near the Imperial Palace and next to the Imperial Magical Academy. The Imperial University Bookstore was near the perimeter of the university, and it was mostly frequented by university students and other scholars. There was also an Imperial University Library, but only members could borrow books.
The Imperial Bookstore had a lavish white-stone front and wide tall windows with clear and stained glass. There were two rows of bookcases along one side and five semi-enclosed seating areas with lounge chairs and tables along the other side.
A bookstore staff member immediately hurried up to them when he saw them coming. “Your Highness Prince Rian, Earl Rosewood, welcome to the Imperial Bookstore. How can I help you?”
“We’re looking for some healing and medical texts,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Please take a seat, my Lord, Your Highness. I will fetch the books immediately.”
While the first staff member went away, another staff member came over and served them light refreshments.
Ren Xiyang sipped his unexpected cup of tea.
The first staff member carried over multiple books on an ornate tray, which is placed down on the table. “My Lord, these are the healing magic books.”
“Do these include any books on anatomy, or on healing magical theory?”
“My deepest apologies, I have not yet fetched them. Please take a look at these to see if they are to your liking and I will return quickly.”
The service at the Imperial Bookstore—at least towards Ren Xiyang/Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian—was impeccable. Ren Xiyang skimmed various contents pages and flipped through dozens of books, before selecting the ones he wanted to purchase.
It was a pity that nothing contained exactly what he wanted, but he also expected that.
After the purchases were completed, Ren Xiyang and Rian went to the Rosewood house first.
Unfortunately for Rian, he had other meetings, so he couldn’t continue accompanying Earl Rosewood.
“By the way, Earl Rosewood, when were you planning on leaving?”
“After I give that flying lesson, confirm communication methods with Florence, and meet with the water systems engineers again in a week.” Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “Why, plans?”
“Something should happen very soon,” Rian said mysteriously.
“Okay.”
Ren Xiyang didn’t give Rian the pleasure of being curious. After he farewelled him, Ren Xiyang headed inside first. He and there-the-entire-time-in-the-background-Kel each carried half of the newly purchased books to Ren Xiyang’s quarters.
“Kel, take the rest of the day off. I don’t have any work for you.”
“My Lord, there is still work that I can do,” Kel said seriously.
“Then you can do that if you want,” Ren Xiyang conceded.
“Yes, my Lord.” Kel bowed and quietly left the earl, closing the door behind her.
Ren Xiyang went over and locked the door nonetheless. He didn’t want to be disturbed.
He went back to his desk and sat down. He looked over the books on his desk and flipped open a few to see their contents page again.
Promised contents included basic to advanced healing spells, medical information and spells for children’s bodies, detailed human anatomy…
None of them mentioned gender transition magic.
Maybe gender transition magic existed already, in some obscure book, or under an unexpected name. Perhaps in the novel world, gay and trans people lived their best lives all entirely without the main female lead noticing.
But Ren Xiyang didn’t want to risk it. This body was already ten: it should have started the very first stages of puberty. There was time pressure for him to develop something and stop his body from undergoing the wrong puberty again.
He pulled the anatomy book closer and turned through the pages. He pulled over some fresh sheets of paper and a pen, to take notes.
He first wanted to refresh his knowledge of the human body and its processes.
Back in his previous world, he had done some research about how biological sex appeared in fetuses and how various sex hormones were produced in the body or synthetically and how those hormones affected the human body, before he had started on T.
But how that came about physiologically or mechanically wasn’t in Ren Xiyang’s research. He wasn’t a scientist in those fields.
…
The anatomy book had no mention of hormone-producing glands.
Ren Xiyang tried the other books next. He was skimming by the end of it.
Nothing close.
Ren Xiyang exhaled, closed the books, and went to have dinner with Kel.
(He learnt that Kel had been communicating with the Rosewood managers on various matters for the Rosewood Estate council.)
After dinner, Ren Xiyang was back again at his desk, but this time, he didn’t open any books. Instead, he started to write down his wayward thoughts on what he needed to do.
Developing magic spells was out of the question. While Ren Xiyang was getting better at guessing how to pronounce spells, he still didn’t understand how to create spells.
This meant he needed to use direct magic manipulation.
His current progress with healing magic was mediocre. He could cast the formal spells upon the in-need Rosewood residents who came to the weekly charitable lunch. And in private, he had also practised direct magic healing on himself for minor injuries.
But that direct magic healing wasn’t from scratch. Firstly, he had the formal spells, so he could learn how the healing magic behaved and how the body behaved as the magic fixed it. Second, he could usually compare the injured location with a nearby uninjured location, which gave him a focused target for what the end result should look like.
He found no formal spells to increase or decrease hormone production. He found no formal spells to magically transform various sex characteristics.
He had no formal method to pick out the pituitary gland or the adrenal glands or even the ovaries in his body to try and control the ratio of produced hormones.
He had no formal method to distinguish sex hormones from other hormones, let alone from the thousands of different chemical compounds and cells in the human body.
So what could he do?
He needed at least one target example. He needed a detailed magical study of a least one cis male body, preferably an alive one.
The first person who came to mind was—
—Rian.
Ren Xiyang frowned. Would Rian agree to be studied? Would it be creepy, or would it stoke Rian’s ego? Given Rian’s jealous rich-second-generation nature, he would probably agree if Ren Xiyang mentioned finding some other men instead.
Then maybe he could get his body to act like a cis male body. Then maybe he could slowly make it become a cis male body.
Ren Xiyang listed out multiple things he’d need to learn and do before he could even think about asking Rian. If he could get this to work, then maybe transmigrating into this novel wasn’t such a bad thing.
Transmigration Bureau clerk: Oh~?
Ren Xiyang: 🔪🔪🔪
Transmigration Bureau clerk: Never mind!
You can see hints of the route I’m going to be taking with Ren Xiyang’s medical transition in this story. I have deliberated over it a lot. By writing a bit vaguely here, I also give myself some wriggle room in the future! Ultimately, what I want changes depending on my mood 😆
I also wrote a fanfic for Kinktober! It’s First time (for the Nth time) [explicit] for Teaming Up with System 225
Wait, “before he started on T” in the previous world?? So he was trans too in his original world omg… did i just totally forget or was it never mentioned before 😭
I don’t think it was mentioned before he always said he was male before
Ren Xiyang has been quite clear about his gender ^_^
It was mentioned before when they talked about how they treated women during the apocalypse… and about how he was glad no one realized his sex at birth while he was working in the apocalypse
I think you forgot, I’m pretty sure it was mentioned in the beginning chapters when Ren was thinking of his previous apocalyptic life.
That’s right, it’s been mentioned a few times previously, but I think some people picked up all the hints more easily haha
I’m such an idiot 🥲
🤗🤗🤗 You’re not!! If the chapters came out faster/closer together, then it would be easier to remember…
hahaha don’t feel bad I’m an idiot too, and idiots got an advantage, we can be carefree and not think about anything ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for reading! 🤗
Also, about the transition: Ren Xiyang still has two or three years before his period begins, but how to magically change one’s gender is really a hard question. He’ll really have to study Rian to figure out the hormone stuff.
And about medical knowledge during the medieval period of Europe… They took apart a lot of corpses, but didn’t figure out a lot. There were even illegal dealings with corpses, which might’ve been part of why plagues and such spread so well in larger cities. The far east and the orient, which had a lot of trade with the east mainly through the Silk Road, were far more advanced in their medical studies, despite dumb attempts at creating the “Elixir of Life” with stuff like arsenic and cinnabarite (contains mercury). Oh, the “Elixir of Life” was often used to poison emperors, and it’s also the reason for the existence of Chinese mummies–in short, alchemy is horrific.
Thank you for the chapter!
Oh and during the 1920s I think Europe and the US dg out a lot of mummies in Egypt and sold them for lots of money, also using all kinds of body parts as “medicine”. It’s a disgusting topic, so I’m not gonna elaborate here. If one desires, they can look it up and integrate it into a story to increase the horror level for some darker scenes.
Well, periods can start quite soon to be honest, I did some research into start times of periods and actually it’s pretty much the same as modern times when kids get enough to eat, aka can start at 10 or younger! So Ren Xiyang is under much tighter time pressure because it’s not as though the original novel mentioned when Alyssa started!
Yeah, I’m vaguely setting the medical knowledge here to be a bit vague, and that spells usually work because they…work…not because healers know how they work exactly. Medicines that work have been around for ages, but it’s not like people knew that there were molecules in the medicine that binded with certain sites in the human body to solve X problem…
I’ve also heard about the grinding-up-mummies 😅😅 British stealing at its finest.
Wait, shouldn’t there be some type of adjacent spells in the medical books under a different topic? What do nobles do if they have hormonal imbalance problems? Fertility problems? Abnormal hair-growth problems?
Thanks for the chapter!💖
They wouldn’t know what hormones are, hair growth could definitely be dealt with specific hair growth or hair removal spells… but the fertility problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That could certainly be related! Sex spells too, while we’re at it ;P
Let’s pretend that Ren Xiyang didn’t think of those? Because it’s not like he wants to increase his “female” fertility, and the male fertility spells might not work on his non-cis body… (that’s me covering up the plot hole 😆😆😆)
Oooh boy here we go, our boy is officially beginning transition 2.0 let’s hope everything goes well!
Yep! So it begins!! >w<
Let’s go Ren Xiyang. Screw those stupid hormones! Remake yourself according to your will! I look forward to how this will go author.
Ren Xiyang should be good when he grows up >w<
Was gonna ask if Ren Ren was AFAB and went through a T in his previous life but it was already answered in the comments
Rooting for you Ren Xiyang!!!
Fighting!!
Thx for the chappy
😆😆😆 PlumaDeQuetzal remembered better than me, there were mentions of it previously.
Thank you for reading!
who is adrienne? did she play a big role in the novel? now that i think about it, what about that blewitt kid? it didn’t seem like it from rian and rxy’s attitude towards him.
Adrienne Obsidian is a young shadow mage, who is a new side character ^_^ I don’t think she’ll play a big role in the novel–Ren Xiyang and Rian are the main players. Gunter Blewitt is yet another side character hahaha
first lemme ask you…are you a medical student CUZ GODDAMN EVEN IF YOU ARE YOUR THINKING IS SO CREATIVE! I love it!! and what do you mean by “writing a bit vaguely” The things you have written are already so innovative, how are you so imaginative!! I LOVE YOU. THIS IS AMAZING. And believe me, I am frank when I say this all, these are the most sincere words from my heart.Keep up the great work! luv ya
Hahah I’m definitely not a medical student! I did a lot of googling for this story hahahaha
Thank you so much 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
anyways that doesn’t change the fact that you are a brilliant author!
+1 brilliant author😊
🥺🥺🥺
Flying kids on swords! Hahahaha! Rian’s in for a surprise 😁
Thanks for the latest!
Flying kids on swords, and the adults who are super stressed out hahahaha
Thank you for reading!
Good luck Ayden ;-; hopefully you’ll find a way
Thank you for the chapter!!! <3
Ren Xiyang will work hard ^_^
Thank you for reading!
Why do i think that next time Ren would copy a certain salted fish and add a cart to the sword to fly more kids
………. omg I have a future plot point that is similar to this and I didn’t even realise how similar it was to Wen Zhihao’s actions 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
And so it begins… Ahhh, can’t wait for the full transition (*^ω^) hehe. But I’m feeling kinda sketchy. DIY-ing these kinds of thing, I feel like something will go wrong ..・ヾ(。＞＜)シ. Ren ren, be careful! Also good news! Next week I got few days off! So I can read the upcoming chapter more quickly! (☆▽☆) that is if I’m not sleeping haha!
cough cough, yeah, things could go wrong, definitely a case of don’t try this at home!
!!! I do hope you get some sleep!
Ren Xiyang, completely straightfaced: Hey, take off your pants. I need to compare sizes, for science.
Rian: 👁👄👁
😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😉😉😉😉😉😉
Rian : So you are only interested in my body !!! 😢 You scum !!!
Also Rian : But I’ll reluctantly agree..
Rian “reluctantly agreeing”, quickly strips off all of his clothes: Now come at me!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
ahhh so excited to see gender transition magic :3
now im recalling both my first and second puberties, the fat redistribution felt like fire ‘:D
i wonder if removing certain existing organs like the mammaries and ovaries would assist with transitioning? like a “cyst or tumor removal” spell vibe? …would they have that spell alxbskhd wondering cause i’ve personally realized that after my top surgery, i started experiencing some T changes like hair growth along my entire torso even tho i’ve been off HRT for a while.
The transition will be good~ (at least, I think it’ll be good hahah) Heheheh, look forward to the changes Ren Xiyang will get ^_^
If this were a het novel…. 😆. Thank you
It would be a different story if this were a het novel hahaha