NOVEL NEXT Chapter 112: If not now, then when?
As Rian and Ren Xiyang left Viscountess Venenum and the others, Rian turned round and said, “Oh, so it turns out that Earl Rosewood can’t do everything.”
Ren Xiyang leaned in and bumped Rian on the shoulder. “If I can’t do everything, then you can do even less.”
“Be careful of treason there, my subject.”
“You’re not king yet.”
“You simply need to wait, dear Earl Rosewood.”
“Things remain to be seen.”
The Royal Guards who were waiting for Prince Rian internally sweated as the two continued to joke about Prince Rian’s future kingly prospects. They wished Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian didn’t joke around so much like this! And if they had to joke like this, couldn’t they do so in private?
Ren Xiyang had dinner with Rian and the others. Afterwards, they went to their rooms for the night.
Ren Xiyang was finally alone.
He had a lot to think about.
His first thought was about doing work regarding the Rosewood fief. He felt off for not doing any work today.
However, Kel and the others in the Rosewood Group were telling him to rest more (even though he had fully recovered), and they were taking on more initiative.
Ren Xiyang’s initial reaction was to continue to manage the various projects—
—until he remembered that this was exactly why he had promoted all of them. He wanted them to take over the management of the Rosewood Group, so that he could quit with peace of mind and return to his fields and his research.
His second thought was regarding the testing today.
Could he have done better?
He spread out his magic, this time across the entire manor house. He picked up the heat signatures of hundreds of people and encountered dozens of magical shields, many of which were privacy spells.
If he wanted to know what was being hidden by those shields, he would need to pierce through them, ideally without letting the caster realise it.
Ren Xiyang concluded that he could have done better. However, for the purposes of uncovering suspicious shields, what he showed was sufficient.
Ignoring the ‘homework’ that Count Aegean had ‘given’ him, that left Ren Xiyang with his plan regarding Rian.
Over the last few days, he had had some thoughts (such as during Count Aegean’s lectures). Now, he organised them.
There were three main scenarios to consider:
S1. Rian didn’t like him romantically.
S2. Rian liked him romantically but didn’t want to get together for whatever reason.
S3. Rian liked him romantically and also wanted to be together with him.
For each scenario, there were two questions he needed to answer:
Q1. How likely was each scenario?
Q2. What should he do in each scenario?
To answer Q1, he needed more information.
He was starting to suspect that Rian might have started to like him—this morning, he offered his hand to help him out of the carriage.
Rian was gentlemanly in general, but he had never offered his hand like that before.
But then again, this world was a romance novel. What if the world’s genre affected Rian’s behaviour?
“Aiya,” Ren Xiyang muttered to himself. The best way to figure out which scenario was correct was to talk to Rian.
Life was too busy for him to spend so much time trying to deduce from Rian’s actions. Who had the time for all that angst? He had enough of it due to his gender.
Now that Ren Xiyang decided to ask, the follow-up question was how.
Should he confess directly? Or should he lead with a different question instead, such as whether Rian liked men, or whether he was planning to implement all of the laws from the Rosewood fief across the kingdom, including the gay marriage laws?
It was better to be direct. Rian would probably take his hypothetical confession well, even if Rian didn’t like him romantically.
The primary worse cases Ren Xiyang could think of were: things getting awkward, Ren Xiyang getting teased, and Rian pulling out from their collaborations.
Ren Xiyang wrote a note down: get Rian to sign a contract before confessing.
Perfect.
With a contract, Ren Xiyang could reduce the impacts of the worse case outcomes of a confession. He’d do it after this business with Viscountess Venenum was over.
The next step was to figure out Q2 for all the scenarios—what he should do.
S1: If Rian didn’t like him romantically, then Ren Xiyang would behave as usual. It wouldn’t be awkward if Ren Xiyang didn’t make it awkward. He also wouldn’t go to the Imperial Magical Academy, which was a huge bonus.
S2: If Rian liked him romantically, but didn’t want to get together, then the resultant actions would depend on the reasons. If the reasons were insurmountable, then this scenario was effectively the same as the first one. If the reasons could be dealt with, then they could deal with them together. Ren Xiyang may or may not go to the Academy in this scenario (probably not).
S3: If Rian liked him romantically and also wanted to be together with him, then they needed to be clear on the logistics. He would attend the Academy because a long-distance relationship didn’t sound fun.
(Ren Xiyang almost hoped that Rian wouldn’t want to get together, so he wouldn’t have to attend the Academy.)
(Did he have to apply for the Academy? What if he simply forgot…)
But in the long term, would he have to move to the Capital? If he didn’t, wouldn’t they have a long-distance relationship anyway? That wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term.
Would he be able to marry the Crown Prince of Sedaveria, the future King? What about heirs and children? What about the politics?
Ren Xiyang didn’t care for children, and giving birth was not an option. (He suppressed some lingering dysphoria at the thought.)
He wouldn’t care about politics if Rian could deal with it. But he acknowledged that it would be easier for him to abandon the ‘Earl Rosewood’ position than it was for Rian to give up being a crown prince and future king.
If Rian needed children with his marriage partner, if Rian needed a Queen by his side while Ren Xiyang stood behind them, then they couldn’t be together.
That was enough for tonight. Ren Xiyang put down his pen, closed his notebook, and went to bed.
After Rian’s servants left his room, Rian’s smile dropped and he exhaled heavily.
There were many things for him to do. He felt as though the world was against him making a confession. Did the world not want him to have a romance? Was romance only for his younger brother?
Rian’s mouth set into a determined line.
He was better than his younger brother. Anything Alexius could have, he would have better.
Count Aegean had given him a lot of reading to do. Duke Mauveine’s questioning for the last few days had given Rian ideas to strengthen his projects and upcoming legislation proposals.
But first, he was going to work on his confession plan. He had already been thinking about it for two years. If he didn’t want it to take another two years for them to get together, he had to start now.
He needed to settle on a location, time, gifts and gold (seduction methods), and engagement ring, and he needed to work the marriage laws and arrange marriage papers.
Location-wise, he wanted somewhere small, romantic, and private in the Rosewood fief, such as Ren Xiyang’s rooms, the rooftop of the Rosewood summer manor, or one of Ren Xiyang’s favourite greenhouses. Doing it in the Rosewood fief also meant they’d be away from his Imperial parents.
Time-wise, Rian thought that one of two dates was best: either in spring with the flowers were in full bloom, or in early summer on Ren Xiyang’s birthday.
In terms of gifts and gold, Rian made a note to get his agents to gather edible plants and his finance staff to prepare ten chests of gold, just to be sure. Rian was afraid that five chests of gold were no longer enough, as Ren Xiyang was becoming richer and richer.
Rian could make the engagement ring himself out of precious metals and jewels. A little bit of metal magic wasn’t hard.
He needed to properly draft the new marriage law proposal before sending it off to his solicitor team.
And he could acquire copies of the Rosewood fief’s marriage papers along with other Rosewood fief bureaucratic papers under the guise of research.
It wasn’t that Rian didn’t want to be public about it—oh, how he wished! But rather, it wasn’t the right time.
Rian wanted to change those marriage laws first. He also wanted to make the entirety of Sedaveria believe that Earl Rosewood was the most powerful mage yet the most generous noble and that the marriage-partnership of the two most powerful people in the country was simply natural.
As for succession and the family line…if Ren Xiyang didn’t want to—or couldn’t—maybe they could try the “surrogacy” thing that Ren Xiyang mentioned. Or maybe they don’t need to have children and could pass succession to Alexius and his children instead, which would also help with the stability of the Azure Family and reduce any infighting.
There are a lot of examples of royal family members fighting with each other, which was both wasteful and weakened the country. Not that Rian and Alexius would fight—Alexius was too easily bribed with gold.
Rian looked at his plan and smirked. Perfect.
That evening, Rian’s secret agents in Sedaveria received an unusual order list from their master: rare, unusual or tasty edible plants (alive), pure gold (10 grams), pure silver (10 grams), red jewels (multiple), and two sets of each bureaucratic paper and form from the Rosewood fief including birth, death, and marriage applications. Aside from the plants which should be taken to Prince Rian’s private property in the Rosewood fief, the rest should be delivered to him upon his return to Sedaveria.
They didn’t know how this related to Sedaverian politics and intelligence gathering, but they diligently went ahead with their task.
King Augustus returned to his rooms at the top of the castle and closed the door with BAM!
Useless, fucking useless! What were those academic mages doing, why couldn’t they break a measly Sedaverian contract?!! After they broke the contract, he’d kill one of them as an example for the others.
And damn the nobles! None of the nobles would look him directly in the eye, all of them keeping their heads ‘respectfully’ bowed.
He knew they were judging him and scorning him in their hearts!
All over the capital, the nobles were meeting, discussing everything about the leaked magical contract.
Knock, knock.
“Who is it?” King Augustus said irritably.
Princess Aurelia entered and closed the door behind her. She briefly met his eyes before bowing. “Your Majesty, I want to discuss the contract with you.”
King Augustus snorted and turned away from her. “If it’s not about the contract breaking, then I don’t want to hear.”
“It will soon be a week since the duel,” Aurelia said.
That worsened King Augustus’s mood.
“If we can pay the relevant sums soon, then the contract enforcement period will be no longer than three months. If the sums are not paid, then it can stretch out to six months or more.”
King Augustus drew his sword and stabbed it into the ground with a THUNK! “Do you question my ability to break the contract?! Why should I pay anything to them?” As long as he broke the contract, its terms meant nothing!
Aurelia remained silent.
“Leave! And don’t you dare mention this again!”
Aurelia bowed deeply. “I heed your words, Your Majesty.” She departed, closing the door again without a sound.
After Princess Aurelia left, King Augustus called in his agents.
“Tell me what the nobles have been doing behind my back.”
The agents kept their heads down as they reported.
King Augustus’s lips curled up in disdain as various names came up.
“—Additionally, we have a report that Viscountess Venenum has met privately with Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood of Sedaveria.”
King Augustus straightened. “Explain!”
“They had two meetings of unknown purpose. Viscountess Venenum’s people also met with Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood separately.”
King Augustus muttered darkly, “Viscountess Venenum is becoming too bold if she dares to ally with the Sedaverians…”
Prince Alexius: I’m here to have a fun time, why does my annoying older brother keep insulting me?!
Prince Rian: Here’s a bag of gold.
Prince Alexius: Ohhh, thank you, you’re the best older brother!
Hmm, writing from the point of view of both Ren Xiyang and Rian, there is no mystery regarding what they want to do haha…haha….