NOVEL NEXT Chapter 111: Long distance relationship
The next morning, Ren Xiyang was feeling very bored with Count Aegean’s lesson.
Count Aegean was currently lecturing on historical relations between Sedaveria and the island nation of Hraun which they would be visiting later. There was fighting, trading, truces, etc., and over two dozen names that went in one ear and out the other.
This was useful—for Rian. It wasn’t useful for Ren Xiyang.
Ren Xiyang finished his PhD years ago. He was done attending lectures he didn’t care for.
“—Any questions?” Count Aegean finally ended his long spiel.
“Yes,” Ren Xiyang said.
Count Aegean straightened. “Ask away.”
“Do I need to attend the Imperial Magical Academy?”
Count Aegean: “…” He had thought that Earl Rosewood was finally engaging with his lecture!
He was reluctant to answer. Normally, all mage children attended because the academy taught them advanced magic and gave them a forum to make connections with their peers. But Earl Rosewood didn’t help in either matter. And neither did Prince Rian.
“Technically, no,” Count Aegean finally said. “However, Prince Rian, don’t get any ideas. You have to attend.”
“I’ve already planned to attend,” Rian said. He nudged Ren Xiyang. “Earl Rosewood, you must come to accompany me, if nothing else.”
Ren Xiyang shrugged. “I’ll think about it.” He was thinking that if they got together, then he should attend the academy, so that they don’t have to suffer through a long-distance relationship. But if they don’t get together, then attending the academy was a waste of his time.
Count Aegean suppressed his unhappiness. “If you have no questions about the content, then you can open your books and read until we stop for lunch.”
“I didn’t bring any books,” Ren Xiyang said.
“You can read with me,” Rian said, leaning in closer.
“Or you can read two different books,” Count Aegean cut in. “Prince Rian, continue reading Diplomacy. Earl Rosewood, read Sedaverian History.”
“Yes, Count Aegean,” Ren Xiyang and Rian said at the same time.
They glanced at each other, unspoken amusement in their eyes. They bent their heads down to read.
Count Aegean leaned back in his seat in massaged his temples.
Meanwhile, in the Venenum carriage, Viscountess Venenum and Zea Drusus reviewed their past reports regarding the bandit-hideout searches.
Initially, Viscountess Venenum wanted Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian to check out the locations they had deemed most likely to harbour bandits.
But now, aside from the hiring price, she was no longer sure about those locations.
Viscountess Venenum and her team had listed multiple likely locations.
They had searched some of them already. Most of the time, they found nothing. Twice, they found a small hideout and captured the bandits. But those were small bandit groups. They weren’t the king’s bandits.
The list that Viscountess Venenum had planned to give to Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian consisted of locations that they couldn’t easily access, such as deep in forests, and areas where they had found nothing but suspected that there was something hidden there beyond their abilities.
There were multiple places they no longer suspected after searching. But now Viscountess Venenum was suspicious of them again.
If there were anti-human-detection shields and misdirection spells, all their past search results were not trustworthy.
They needed to search every location again with Earl Rosewood’s proposed techniques.
There was a possibility that the king’s bandits would have ways to avoid detection using Earl Rosewood’s techniques, but Viscountess Venenum thought that was unlikely. As long as she and her team could learn the methods and keep them secret, they would have an edge.
In the late morning, she invited Antonia, Luis, and Valerio to her carriage.
“Have you tried what Earl Rosewood said?” she asked.
Antonia huffed and crossed her arms.
Viscountess Venenum looked at the three mages. “None of you were able to figure it out based on the description.”
Valerio inclined his head.
“Did his description sound reasonable?”
“It does,” Antonia mumbled.
“Then, do you agree to learn from Earl Rosewood?”
Luis also crossed his arms. “We have to, don’t we? Nothing else we can do is enough.”
“Then here is my plan. You three will learn with Earl Rosewood. Zea and I will reassess all the reports and re-map out the list of priority locations to examine or re-examine.”
“I want to test Earl Rosewood’s abilities first,” Antonia said. “We could make shields and see what he can detect blindfolded.”
Viscountess Venenum pursed her lips. It was a good idea. “Then, do you have a clear set of tests that you can create that Earl Rosewood must pass for you to be satisfied?”
“…Not yet.”
“Then we have time right now to sort this out.”
When they stopped for lunch, Viscountess Venenum approached Rian.
Rian showed a calm expression. “Greetings, Viscountess. How can I help you?”
“My three team members, Lady Antonia Argentum, Lord Luis Venenum, and Lord Valerio Silex, have agreed to learn. What time is suitable?”
“We’re available in the late afternoon and evening. Duke Mauveine will be meeting with me and Earl Rosewood directly after lunch first.”
“Very well.”
“Have Lady Argentum, Lord Venenum, and Lord Silex join us in the Rosewood carriage afterwards.”
“Good.” Viscountess Venenum left.
Rian turned and met Ren Xiyang’s eyes. He didn’t need to speak, he knew that Ren Xiyang would know.
After lunch, Duke Mauveine went to the Rosewood carriage on schedule.
Rian greet him and motioned for him to enter the Rosewood carriage after Ren Xiyang.
Duke Mauveine looked at them. He didn’t say anything for an entire minute after the carriage started moving.
But Rian didn’t crack under pressure. He simply looked back.
The one who spoke first lost, and that was Duke Mauveine.
“Is there a plan you’ve neglected to mention to me?” Duke Mauveine asked. “Why did you meet with Viscountess Venenum last night? What did she say to you when we stopped for lunch?”
“We discussed magic,” Rian said.
“And?”
“We were paid 100 gold for our time.”
“Elaborate.”
“They requested certain magical knowledge, and they paid 100 gold for it.”
“What knowledge? This isn’t farming related, or you wouldn’t be so tight lipped,” Duke Mauveine said sharply.-
Rian smiled, which was a bad sign for Duke Mauveine.
“To be fair, you need to pay 100 gold to learn. Don’t worry, we wrote a contract with Viscountess Venenum. There was no exclusivity clause, so we can write a contract with you as well.”
Duke Mauveine: .….….…....
Duke Mauveine turned to the more reasonable (?) Earl Rosewood. “Earl Rosewood, do you have anything to add?”
“No. Prince Rian has said it all.”
Duke Mauveine felt the same frustration and proverbial headache that Count Aegean felt regularly. The more transparent Prince Rian appeared, the more secretive he was. Prince Rian never answered his first question—Is there a plan you’ve neglected to mention to me?
The answer was yes, there were many plans that Prince Rian hadn’t told him about. Plans that were under embargo or contract, plans that required a fee to learn.
Wasn’t Prince Rian busy enough?
In the end, Duke Mauveine didn’t pay 100 gold. Rian expected this—as the head of the Imperial Council, Duke Mauveine didn’t like spending money!
Instead, Duke Mauveine started testing Rian on a range of topics.
Pff, as though Rian could be intimidated by his questioning!
After the contingent stopped for a break, Duke Mauveine left the Rosewood carriage with complex feelings. Antonia Argentum, Luis Venenum, and Valerio Silex took his place.
“We want to test you later,” Antonia Argentum said directly.
“Okay,” Ren Xiyang said.
“But we’ll do it when we stop for the evening,” Antonia said.
“Okay.”
“Teach us now.”
“Okay.”
Ren Xiyang started easy: he tested their level of direct magic manipulation first. Then, he had them close their eyes and see whether they could use magic to detect their element or related elements.
He had some metal for Antonia Argentum, a metal mage, and some earth for Valerio Silex, an earth mage. He didn’t have any poison for Luis Venenum, a poison mage. He had some water for him instead, as poison was typically in liquid form.
They were all competent adult mages. They knew a little direct magic manipulation, and having awareness of local sources of their element was important.
But detection at range was difficult. Ren Xiyang told them to extend out lines of magic and sweep. But the longer the lines were, the more places it could break.
It didn’t take long for him to reach their sensing limits, as Ren Xiyang levitated the pieces of metal, earth, and water through the carriage window.
(He wondered what it looked like from the outside.)
Rian also quietly practised. Yes, he admitted that Ren Xiyang was better than him, but that was no excuse to stop learning. At the very least, he was better than the three Angians.
Antonia Argentum huffed when she was wrong once again. “There is metal there,” she insisted, opening her eyes.
“There is metal there,” Ren Xiyang agreed. “But that’s the metal in the carriage. Not the metal ball I want you to sense.”
“It’s not easy to detect different shapes!” Antonia said.
Valerio snorted. He had a much bigger problem than Antonia: he had to differentiate between Earl Rosewood’s small ball of dirt against the massive earth beneath them.
“Then you need to practice some more. I can see that all of you are using more magic than necessary during sensing. Try thinning out your magic line. That would also help with precision. Do you want to stop and rest now, or continue?”
Antonia gritted her teeth. “Continue.”
Antonia left the Rosewood carriage feeling a bit light-headed. She had pushed on too much, and her magical reserves were almost rock-bottom. If someone attacked now, she would be more useless than a non-mage.
However, that wouldn’t stop her from testing Earl Rosewood. It was time to see whether he could do all the things he was making them practice!
Viscountess Venenum would have to cast all the spells though, because she wasn’t drained of magic.
They had stopped for the night at the manor house of the local noble. Viscountess Venenum and Duke Mauveine organised matters for the overnight stay.
Viscountess Venenum then walked over to the group by the Rosewood carriage.
Duke Mauveine watched and frowned as Viscountess Venenum gathered up Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood and took them inside the manor. Whatever Prince Rian’s plan was, it wasn’t simple.
A servant at the manor house led Viscountess Venenum and the others to the quarters that had been temporarily assigned to her. After the servant left, Viscountess Venenum closed the door and cast extensive privacy spells.
“Earl Rosewood, stand here. Zea has a blindfold for you.”
Antonia crossed her arms. Let’s see how good Earl Rosewood really was!
Zea Drusus put the blindfold on Earl Rosewood. “I will tell you what we want you to sense. You need to point out the direction.”
“Hm.”
“Are you ready?”
“Go ahead.”
“First, locate the Viscountess.”
Earl Rosewood raised his hand and pointed.
That was too easy, Antonia thought.
Zea had Earl Rosewood locate each person in turn. Then, Viscountess Venenum levitated a piece of metal, a ball of earth, and a vial of water and had Earl Rosewood locate those items.
Earl Rosewood didn’t even appear to be trying. His hand pointed without any hesitation.
The hardest part was to come yet! Next, Viscountess Venenum cast multiple different shields.
Antonia felt victory when Earl Rosewood shook his head.
“I can’t differentiate the locations of the items. You have placed shields here, here, here, and here. You should search each of them.”
Antonia snorted. “So you can’t sense them.”
“How can you tell the shields’ locations?” Viscountess Venenum asked.
“Those two disrupt the airflow, and the air temperature is now also different. That one cuts into the floor, so perhaps the earth is hidden behind that shield but I’m not sure. And that one has a clear shine of magic.”
Viscountess Venenum’s eyes deepened. “Let’s try this.”
She tried multiple different types of shields, at different sizes. She put Antonia and the others behind different shields too.
It was clear: Earl Rosewood couldn’t detect which item or which person was behind which shield. But he could detect every single type of shield that Viscountess Venenum tried, even the misdirection ones. Viscountess Venenum asked him how he did it each time.
There were similar answers each time: airflow disruption, temperature variation, and direct magic detection. Earl Rosewood didn’t combat the misdirection spells in any special way—he cut straight through them by using a tight regular grid across the entire space.
Viscountess Venenum felt that Earl Rosewood had overemphasised the importance of heat sensing last night. Airflow and direct magic sensing were just as useful, if not more so. Except, they were just as hard, if not harder.
Viscountess Venenum ended the testing session. “We appreciate your time, Earl Rosewood. We have gained a much better understanding of the methods we could use.”
“It was useful for me as well,” Earl Rosewood said.
After Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian left, Viscountess Venenum turned to Antonia, Luis, Valerio and Zea.
“Our aim is to be able to detect heat differences, air flows, and magic itself, at long range,” Viscountess Venenum said. “Can you do it, or should I ask for Earl Rosewood’s direct help? What are your thoughts on the test?”
Antonia sighed heavily. “He’s not bad. But we can do it. We can learn from him.”
Not only was Earl Rosewood great at flashy lightning magic, he was also great at fine, detailed magic. Given that Earl Rosewood was so strong, Antonia almost wished that he had dealt properly with King Augustus in that duel. Almost, because Antonia wanted to kill the king herself if she could.
She’d need a lot of practice to be able to sense airflow as a metal mage. But it was never easy work to dismantle King Augustus’s grip on the land.
Viscountess Venenum nodded. “Good.”
Meanwhile, back in Sedaveria:
Cassiopeia: *has classes all morning and all afternoon*
But also Cassiopeia: The classes are not bad, in fact, they’re good! I can understand everything, I’m so good at learning!
Author: _(:_」∠)_