NOVEL NEXT Chapter 198: Rian acts possessive again!
After Rian helped Ren Xiyang with planning, Ren Xiyang returned the favour. He joined a full-day meeting with Rian and the people from Rian’s side, including the heads of the Royal Healers’ Association and the Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program, to map out the vision and goals for this year and the next five years.
In addition to expansion plan for the Healers’ Association and Food Security Program, and their alignment with the new charity fund on Ren Xiyang’s side, Rian also considered the various joint Azure-Rosewood ventures, the project to launch a future national census, the project to start an education initiative, management of the Imperial Palace gardens, the funding of more literature, artistic and cultural products, and the overseeing and supervising of the Dravite fief.
The scale of Rian’s projects and organisations were greater than Ren Xiyang’s, and so a large component of the joint planning meeting was about aligning and sharing actions, personnel, and resources. There were subsequent internal meetings within each organisation or project taskforce.
Ren Xiyang and Rian also met with board of the association of future leaders to review the projects that association members had done in the previous year and to set the themes for this year.
Queen Mira gave Ren Xiyang details and conditions about the charity fund. The two met several times, for Queen Mira to clarify further, and for Ren Xiyang to show his newly developed plans for the fund. Rian insisted on attending all of Ren Xiyang’s meetings with his Imperial Mother, and also pulled Ren Xiyang along when his Imperial Mother wanted to talk to him about supervising the Dravite fief.
With all these plans, goals, and visions in place, they were ready to take on the year and make big changes.
Not long after the new year, two new restaurants opened in the Capital: one served elegant upper-class Angian cuisine, and the other served experimental and artistic cuisine.
Upper-class Angian cuisine featured fine ingredients and complex cooking methods. The restaurant consisted entirely of private rooms; the designs of these rooms transported one to an Angian noble’s dining room, rich and stately. The prices were very expensive. The restaurant was welcomed by wealthy travellers from Angio and wealthy local Sedaverians alike. Here, one could experience a slice of Angio’s rich culture and food.
The other restaurant was also fine dining, but its dishes were completely different. The big plates yet small servings had many people talking. The dishes were a feast for the eyes more than a feast for the stomach (given their small size). There were preciously arranged tiny microgreens, dots of thick sauces, swipes of thin sauces, cubes of meat, thin slithers of vegetables and spherical droplets of olive oil. The artistic food arrangement stunned the culinary world and ushered in a new wave of food experimentation.
A month after the new year, Cassiopeia, with the support of Maria, Ren Xiyang, Rian, and others, finalised the first set of introductory LGBT+ information booklets. These booklets were produced by the Rosewood Group press.
The booklets came in two styles: in a simple yet elegant design, and in a colourful and cute design. The core messages were the same in the two styles, but were presented in different ways to match their design. There was a general overview booklet, a booklet focused on the diversity of family structures, a booklet focused on sexuality, a booklet focused on gender identity, and a booklet focused on weddings and marriage (and highlighting that gay marriage was available in the Rosewood fief).
In the Rosewood fief, there were established distribution pathways. Booklets were given out in schools, displayed alongside other Rosewood Group products, placed in the information centres, and handed out by the various heralds who regularly announced new Rosewood fief initiatives, updated laws, and so forth. The heralds also announced the content of the booklets for those who couldn’t read.
New conversations sprung up around the Rosewood fief.
“What’s this?”
“It’s free? Sure, I’ll take one.”
“Hey hey hey, I can actually read the words! It says…All of us, an introduction to gender diversity and sexual diversity. What does that mean?”
“Hahaha, who doesn’t know this kind of thing?”
“…Wait a minute.”
“Is this about a new law?”
“No, good sir. This is related to a past law. Remember how Earl Rosewood introduced marriage between men and men, and women and women, a few years ago? Here, have this booklet.”
“Weddings and Marriages…Is there a new wedding planning company in the Rosewood Group?”
“No, good sir. But that is an interesting idea, perhaps you can suggest it to Earl Rosewood!”
“Hehehe, then I could work for the Rosewood Group!”
“What the fuck is Rosewood doing now? I don’t want this, take it back.”
“Who cares?”
“Oh, I know this name! She’s from the village over, she married her wife last year!”
“If Earl Rosewood is releasing this…maybe…”
“Should we get married too?”
“What are you reading about now?”
“Mama, this says there are more than two genders!”
Many people outside the Rosewood fief kept an eye on what was happening there and what Earl Rosewood was doing. They acquired copies of the booklets and read them carefully. For many people, what they learnt in those booklets weren’t the important part. The important part was using these booklets to pick apart what Earl Rosewood could be planning.
“Earl Rosewood must have a meaning if he is releasing these booklets. The information about gay couples makes sense. Earl Rosewood must want to increase the number of gay marriages in the Rosewood fief, including attracting visitors to come. Perhaps he’s investing in wedding planning services or plans to hire out certain locations to hold marriages, and thus make more money. But what’s this ‘gender diversity’? Transgender people? People whose gender differs from what was presumed for them at birth? What is Earl Rosewood planning next? It must be something related to such people!”
“Do such people even exist? It sounds fake. How could your mother give birth to a baby boy who turns out to be a girl?”
“I don’t know…but Earl Rosewood is definitely planning something.”
“But what?”
In the Capital, Ren Xiyang also distributed these booklets to the students at the academy and everyone in the Rosewood house.
The students at the academy who accepted the booklets were fans to Ayden Rosewood and so accepted the content with relative ease.
Many students who read the booklets didn’t think much about it, aside from—the world had more types of people than they expected.
But several students also developed suspicions. Was Ayden attracted to men?
And a small number of students’ suspicions went further. The way Ayden and Prince Rian interacted felt off—were those two in love? It explained so much!
For these poor students, they suddenly realised just how close Prince Rian acted towards Ayden. What “best friends of the century”? Those two were in a romantic relationship! They felt so pitiful, feeling like the only ones who knew the truth.
Hadrian, being a good boy, carefully read all the booklets that Ayden had given to him.
He was stunned.
He hadn’t known that the Rosewood fief accepted gay marriages. He hadn’t even known that gay people existed, let alone transgender people.
Two men could fall in love, get married, and even adopt children and form a family.
The general information booklet introduced many concepts new to Hadrian.
The booklets specifically on gender diversity and sexuality diversity both had a section asking the reader to think about their own gender and sexuality, rather than to blindly accept what others had told them.
Every person is unique.
The only person who can determine your identity is you.
Hadrian had always thought he’d marry a woman.
Then again, he had always thought he’d become Marquis of the Terra fief and do all the things his father was doing.
Instead, he was here, in Sedaveria, researching industrial glass with Ayden and Prince Pollux.
Hadrian felt a jolt.
Had he ever been attracted to a woman?
Surely he had. He had met many women, and some of them were very beautiful and stunning and attractive. If his father arranged a marriage for him tomorrow with a woman, he could accept it.
And he had never been attracted to another man before.
Hadrian nodded to himself. He had completed the exercise: he was indeed a man who liked women, definitely.
Prince Pollux was facing an unexpected problem.
He was suffering from morning arousal.
After the new year, Pollux had become busier. Since he was living at the Rosewood house and Ayden’s friend, he received a set of booklets. But he put them aside and forgot about them as he went about his day.
He did more work for university. He did more work for the new generation of floating chairs, as they prepared for full-scale production and release. He did some work for Hadrian, bringing in his expertise as Hadrian worked on scaling the new glass-making process. He and Hadrian also kept an eye on their new restaurant. And he was spending more time in undergoing physical therapy.
Ayden’s healing was moving down Pollux’s legs, restoring more and more sensation.
Higher up on his body, his penis was now in full working order.
Before, his penis wouldn’t get hard, no matter what he tried to imagine. Now, it became hard all by itself.
The first time it happened, Pollux hadn’t even noticed until his servant came in to help him up in the morning.
He had become extremely embarrassed, even though his servant remained professional throughout.
After that, Pollux checked before calling his servant in. But there was nothing he could do if he came during the night and dirtied his underwear, not until he secretly learnt a cleaning spell.
However, despite the embarrassment, Pollux was grateful about what it represented.
It showed that Ayden’s healing was working. It showed that he was slowly becoming normal again. It meant that he felt he could start thinking about sex and marriage. Once he fully recovered, he expected that he would receive marriage requests. After all, he was the only non-imprisoned male of the Imperial Lūpiter family. While noblemen tried to obtain Aurelia’s hand in marriage, noblewomen could only target him.
He liked the feeling of being desirable and relevant. It made him all the more eager for his healing to be completed and gave him motivation to work even harder.
On a Wednesday evening not long after the booklets were released, Ren Xiyang and Rian were having dinner at the Rosewood house with Florence, Prince Pollux, Hadrian, Kel and Maria.
Rian asked how everyone was and whether anything interesting happened. The conversation flowed as typical, and then Rian asked, “Oh, did Ayden give you the booklets yet? What do you think of them? Have you read them?”
Maria smartly followed up, “Yes, we would love any feedback regarding them. This could help us improve those booklets, and to improve booklets in the future on other topics.”
There was a moment of silence.
“I read them,” Florence said.
Rian gave her an encouraging smile. “And how did you find them?”
“They were basic yet covered a lot of information. Regarding the booklet about marriages and weddings, one of my friends at the university asked if you were planning to set up a wedding planning service, Ayden.”
Ren Xiyang felt a bit helpless. “The Rosewood Group’s aim isn’t to have a finger in every industry and field.”
“Those who could pay for such have a service have their own people to plan their weddings,” Rian followed up. “Though I, for one, would support your hypothetical wedding planning service, Ayden, for my wedding.”
“Has King Edric and Queen Mira organised your marriage already?” Pollux asked.
Rian smirked.
Pollux’s eyebrows rose. “You do have a marriage planned?” There was a hint of envy in his voice.
Florence wanted to look away as Rian’s smirk widened.
“I’ve received one proposal from the person that matters,” Rian said, puffing up his chest. He turned and looked lovingly into Ren Xiyang’s eyes. “I’m planning to marry Ayden.”
Pollux looked between Rian and Ren Xiyang. “That’s…a joke?”
Rian reached out and took Ren Xiyang’s hand in front of everyone. Then, he pulled Ren Xiyang’s hand closer and kissed it for longer than necessary.
Pollux and Hadrian: O_O
Then, Rian lifted his head to look at Pollux and Hadrian. “We’re engaged. Ayden proposed to me. Our engagement is currently known only by a select few. One of the reasons we made those booklets was to prepare everyone for our future announcement. I hope you may keep it a secret for now, though.”
“Understood,” Florence said, taking pity on the shocked Pollux and Hadrian—they were suffering from Prince Rian’s overt possessiveness for the first time. “Congratulations, your Highness.”
“We wish you a happy future,” Maria added. “We would be very happy if you decide to get married in the Rosewood fief.”
Rian graciously accepted the well-wishes. He gazed at Ren Xiyang. “Ayden and I have been friends for several years and have worked together on many things. Love sprung up between us and the rest is history.”
Rian changed the topic and the rest of the dinner continued; Pollux and Hadrian recovered enough to reply and engage in the conversation.
However, Rian didn’t stop holding Ren Xiyang’s hand, even if it inconvenienced them and forced them both to eat with one hand.
Florence felt internally exasperated. Why was Prince Rian showing off like this? It was clear that no one else at that dinner table had designs for Ayden!
Rian: Everyone, meet my lover-partner-fiancé, Ayden Rosewood. Yes, we are best friends forever. Did you know he is my fiancé? Oh yes, we are getting married together, the two of us, me and my fiancé, Ayden Rosewood.
Florence: Who provoked Prince Rian this time?
I drew a picture of young Ren Xiyang…how time has passed!
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