NOVEL NEXT Chapter 197: New year, new plans
Alexius had followed Rian to Queen Mira’s office, which meant that while Rian was inside, Alexius could talk with Ayden!
“Ayden,” Alexius said, aggrieved, “Rian said that you told him to play with me! I don’t want him to play with me!”
Ayden reached out and patted Alexius on the head. “You did well keeping Rian occupied.”
Alexius perked up. “Ayden, Ayden, since you’re on break now, do you have time to have some duelling practice with me and my friends? My Imperial Father has been training us, but you’re better!”
Ayden quirked his lips up. “Yes, I have time for you and your friends.”
Royal Guards: “…” Was it treason to feel pity for the king?
Alexius had fun talking with Ayden, until Rian came out of the Queen Mira’s office.
“And oh, stop teasing your brother!”
“I can’t, that’s impossible.”
Alexius huffed and glared at Rian. “Why is it impossible? Why can’t you be nice to me like Ayden?”
Rian looked down on him. “You’d be too spoilt if I was also nice to you as Ayden,” he said with a superior tone.
Alexius and Rian started bickering, and they only stopped when Ayden patted them both on the heads.
“You’re more alike than you realise,” Ayden said.
Alexius and Rian both had the same affronted expression, which made Ayden laugh.
On the last day of the year, there was an end-of-year feast at the Imperial Palace.
At Rian’s request, Ren Xiyang headed to the Imperial Palace early.
Ren Xiyang had already changed into his Rian-provided attire for the night. When he met Rian at his quarters, he wasn’t surprised to see that Rian’s clothes matched his, albeit in different colours.
“Come in, Earl Rosewood,” Rian said with a grin.
“Been busy?” Ren Xiyang asked.
“Extremely busy, I’ve been very hard at work,” Rian said, his entire countenance begging for praise.
“Then I look forward to tonight’s feast,” Ren Xiyang said.
Once all servants were out and the door was closed, Rian’s expression changed.
“I wish you could stay over tonight,” Rian said, kissing Ren Xiyang on the lips. “Then I could give you my new year’s gift at the proper time.”
“I think it’s also romantic to give gifts at random times,” Ren Xiyang said seriously. “It shows that we’re thinking about each other without needing to be prompted by special events.”
Rian gave him an adoring look. I love you I love you I love you!
“I also have a gift for you,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian’s eyes widened. Conflicted, he said, “I’ll give you my gift first because I said it first.”
“Alright.”
Ren Xiyang followed Rian to his desk. Rian opened one of his locked drawers and took out a notebook with subtle ice-and-fire motifs.
“Thank you,” Ren Xiyang said.
The corner of Rian’s lips went up. “In fact, it’s a gift for both of us. Open it.”
Ren Xiyang did so, his magical signature unlocking it. On the first inner page, there was a title page: Riri & Yangyang.
On the second page, there was already some writing: Rian had written a small letter entry to Ren Xiyang.
“These are some of the thoughts I had about you today,” Rian said. “I would like you to write an entry, and then I will write an entry, and so forth. In this way, we can build a small book of love letters. In the future, we can look back on it, and it will be a record of our love.”
“Thank you.” Ren Xiyang gave the waiting-for-praise-Rian a kiss.
“Okay, okay, now my gift!” Rian said, not deepening the kiss as he often did.
Ren Xiyang tucked the notebook away alongside his usual notebook in his coat pocket and pulled out a slim box from his other pocket.
Rian opened the box and picked up the locket, his smile widening. The locket was made of a mixture of gold and silver, with intricate patterns on the surface.
He opened the locket and his eyes lit up. “Oh! It’s a painting of you! I love it, Yangyang!” Rian stared at the small portrait of Ren Xiyang. In it, Ren Xiyang had a faint smile, dressed in formal clothing reminiscent of the clothes that Rian had made for him. Opposite the portrait, Ren Xiyang had inscribed his magic and the words, Thinking of you - Ren Xiyang.
The Ren Xiyang in real life had a faint smile too. Maria’s suggestion had been great, Rian really liked it.
“Help me put it on right now,” Rian said, turning around.
Ren Xiyang stepped forward and fixed the necklace chain.
Rian admired the locket some more, and admired himself in front of the mirror too. Reluctantly, he tucked the locket under his shirt. “In the future, I’ll wear it clear view,” he vowed.
Ren Xiyang picked up Rian’s hand. “Hm, in the future.” He looked at them in the mirror, standing in matching clothes and holding hands.
“Or now, how about now?” Rian half-joked.
Both of them imagined what could happen if they walked out of Rian’s quarters, hand-in-hand.
There would be shock, denial, admonishment, disbelief; there would be many eyes and many voices.
No matter how fun it would be to shock everyone though, they ultimately let go of each other’s hands before leaving the quarters. After all, Rian had his grand plans.
The end-of-year feast was a sparkling affair—literally. Prince Rian had decorated the biggest hall in the Imperial Palace with gold decorations and glowing balls of light.
There was no association meeting that night, though King Edric and Queen Mira both gave a speech about the past year and the coming year before food was served.
Prince Pollux sat next to Hadrian, Wolfgang, and some university friends, and ate more food than planned. With flowing conversation, and intermissions with performances, it was the most lively end-of-year celebration Pollux had ever attended.
Ayden didn’t like staying up too late. He stayed up to midnight, and left not long after, preferring not to attend the after-party. When he left, Pollux and Hadrian left him, returning to the Rosewood house.
“Happy new year. Sleep well, we have more food tomorrow—I mean, later today,” Ayden promised.
“Happy new year,” Pollux said.
“Happy new year, Your Highness. I hope that all your wishes come true this year,” Hadrian said earnestly.
“As do yours,” Pollux said.
Pollux returned to his room, and his servant helped set up his communication mirror to call Aurelia. His cute cat, Princess Sasha, jumped onto his lap and climbed onto his shoulder to also look at the mirror.
When the mirrors connected, Pollux saw Aurelia, Marcia, and Ariadne.
Pollux was surprised, but his good mood meant he smiled. “Hello, I just returned from the end-of-year feast at the Sedaverian Imperial Palace.”
“Happy new year,” Aurelia said.
They all exchanged new-year greetings, chatted briefly, before ending the call.
Pollux’s mood dropped a little once the mirror showed his face again.
It had been a while since he left Angio. Although the Rosewood house had put up some Angio new-year decorations and served Angio new-year foods at the dinner table, it wasn’t the same.
“Meow?”
Pollux petted Princess Sasha and gave her a hug. “Happy new year, little princess.”
“Meow!”
Sasha reminded him of all the good things in Sedaveria. Here, he had friends, he had a cute cat, he was learning interesting things at the university, he was making money with Ayden, and he was healing his body.
Recently, he had started on physical therapy—another person moving his legs for him, helping to naturally restore some muscle and strength and improve range of motion.
Sensation was returning to more and more of his lower body.
He wanted to go back to Angio…but he also wanted to go back walking. He wanted to go back and show that he was strong; he wanted those who had looked down on him to regret.
He wanted his father to see that—
“M-eow!”
“Okay, okay, we’re going to bed now,” Pollux said, scratching Princess Sasha under the chin.
Princess Sasha purred.
On the first day of the new year, Rian and Alexius abandoned their parents in favour of spending time at the Rosewood house with Ren Xiyang, Prince Pollux, and Hadrian.
They played games, including table-top duelling. They played with Prince Pollux’s cat. And then they crowded together to have hotpot, eating until they were full. After more games, they had dessert.
Alexius had a big round stomach. He patted it in satisfaction as he lazed on the sofa. “I wish every day was like today.”
“Hm, but I need to work,” Ren Xiyang said.
“I don’t want to spend every day with you,” Rian said to Alexius.
Alexius snorted. “Yes, this day would be better without you here…”
“It’s getting late, you should go home,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Can’t we play one more game?” Alexius gave Ren Xiyang puppy-dog eyes.
Yangyang, I want to stay the night, Rian sent to Ren Xiyang, giving him puppy-dog eyes too.
“I need rest, we had a long day yesterday and I’m tired,” Ren Xiyang said firmly to both princes. “Prince Rian, here.” He handed Rian the love-letters notebook.
Rian smiled mysteriously. “Oh.” He tucked it away.
Alexius pouted. “What was that?”
“Work,” Rian said.
Alexius made a face.
Rian reached over and grabbed Alexius. “Now come on, if I’m leaving, you have to leave with me.”
“Duelling practice tomorrow?” Alexius looked at Ren Xiyang, even as Rian was pulling him.
Ren Xiyang nodded. “Yes, I’ll be there.”
Alexius’s expression eased, while Rian’s expression soured.
Oh, these brothers, Ren Xiyang thought. He pushed them both out and waved them away.
It would have been nice for him and Rian to spend the entire first day of the new year together, but that was something to look forward in the future.
A few days later, Ren Xiyang, Rian, Solicitor Carmine, Kel, Maria were in Ren Xiyang’s office at the Rosewood house, to plan for the future.
They used a wall to magically affix pieces of papers with different goals, projects, tasks, ideas and comments. Projects included those that Ren Xiyang or the Rosewood fief were involved in, and projects that could be done in the future as part of one of the goals. Increasing the Rosewood fief’s influence in the kingdom was one of the goals, and Queen Mira’s allocated fund was one of the future projects.
As the meeting progressed, the notes were organised by impact, priority, timeline/time frame, and theme.
To increase the Rosewood fief’s influence and to raise the Earl Rosewood’s profile, there were several broad areas: Ren Xiyang could tour the kingdom and visit all the fiefs; the Rosewood products could be distributed to be sold in all fiefs; and they could co-invest in projects in other fiefs, including through Rian’s kingdom-wide initiatives.
With almost a thousand fiefs in the kingdom, visiting every fief would be a multi-year, even decade-long process. Ren Xiyang and Rian planned to visit a few more fiefs that summer when they had no academy classes.
Rosewood products were already being distributed across the kingdom, but it was unclear whether they reached every fief. They needed to gather the information from the Rosewood Group affiliated traders and the unaffiliated traders. As part of Rian’s plan to improve the awareness and acceptance of LGBT+ people in the kingdom, the Rosewood Group also needed to increase the number of book traders—so that they could distribute various Rosewood information booklets, fiction and nonfiction books, and encyclopedias.
The fund provided by Queen Mira was going to be an important part of how they could co-invest in projects in other fiefs. As Ren Xiyang had told Queen Mira, the fund was going to be used to establish soup kitchens across the kingdom.
However, Ren Xiyang couldn’t simply use the ten thousand chests full of gold as it was. Otherwise, he was merely acting as an administrator for Imperial funds. It was important that the Rosewood fief also provided additional funds.
It was best if they could match funds be it in cash or with in-kind contributions. However, ten thousand chests full of gold was no small amount. With 500 coins in each chest, that amounted to 5 million gold coins! The Rosewood fief didn’t have that amount of loose money. At this point, Rian stepped into and offered some co-investment: he could provide ten chests of gold a month and could provide the channels that the Royal Healers’ Association and Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program had already set up.
By aligning these initiatives together, they could strengthen each other and expand. Then, once the connections were developed across the kingdom, this would become a pathway to invest in other projects in other fiefs, such as housing, roads, and education.
Solicitor Carmine also noted that it was important to be careful about stepping on the toes of other nobles, which would counter to Ren Xiyang’s goals. This meant that they needed to pick amenable fiefs first, and work in such a way that other fief lieges wanted to invite them over. It was also important that the noble family of each fief also provided co-investment and thus can take some attribution for the good work being done.
Speaking of funds, with all the projects determined, they needed to figure out funds and personnel, including determining whether they had enough competency in the Rosewood Group, how many more people they needed to recruit and/or what kind of training programs they needed to put in place.
A single day wasn’t enough to complete the plans, but it was enough to sketch an outline, and they could continue to fill in further details as the year progressed.
Queen Mira: We should have Earl Rosewood for a private dinner some time.
Alexius: Yay! (⁀ᗢ⁀)
Rian: Yes. (◕‿◕)
King Edric: Σ(°ロ°) What?!
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