NOVEL NEXT Chapter 219: King Edric Compromises
As an ice mage, the cold didn’t bother King Edric. He held the miniature ice train and examined it. There were three components to the train: a front carriage, middle carriage, and end carriage, with back and front aerodynamic tapering. He had to commend Earl Rosewood—despite being a fire mage, he had crafted fine details, including doors, windows, and long horizontal lines evoking the sleek design. If nothing else, Earl Rosewood had a good crafting sense.
Then, King Edric realised that the train was hollow, with tiny seats and lounges and tables inside.
“Your Majesty, I’m requesting your permission and your assistance to bring these to life,” Earl Rosewood said.
King Edric suppressed the urge to say ‘yes!’ and recovered his image as a stern king. “You say that these ‘trains’ would use less energy. But I see that these are going to be bigger and heavier.”
“This is my speculation, the propulsion and levitation spells are yet to be determined, but I believe that it’s possible,” Earl Rosewood said.
“And how do you plan to power these? How much magical energy would they require?”
“I’m not sure yet, Your Majesty. Your Majesty will need to decide on standards, including train width and size, for the kingdom to follow.”
King Edric’s eyes flashed. Setting down standards for all their descendants to follow—the establishment of maglev trains would be written down as one of King Edric’s achievements in the history books.
“If these trains are to be built, they will need private suites, if not private trains,” King Edric said pointedly.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“These trains would need to be more durable than the current floating carriages, if they are to achieve high speeds.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You’ll need a test track to test out these maglev trains. To come even close to matching water transport, the efficiency of these trains will need to increase…”
Earl Rosewood nodded and wrote down notes obediently.
The end of the meeting came faster than expected. King Edric organised to meet with Earl Rosewood again in three weeks, so that Earl Rosewood could prepare a proper report on his progress thus far, and for King Edric to start assigning personnel to the project.
King Edric kept the designs and the ice trains—several, as Earl Rosewood magically built some more. Earl Rosewood had also built an ice ‘station’ where passengers would get off and on.
King Edric put them away for the time being. But when Queen Mira came into his office at the end of the day, he took them out again.
“Mira, take a look at this,” King Edric said.
Queen Mira looked at the papers with a familiar handwriting, and then at the miniature ice vehicles with elongated shapes. “How curious, are these the new versions of floating carriages?”
King Edric smirked. “No, they’re not floating carriages, they’re magic-levitation trains, or maglevs. Once they’re made, they’ll be over five times faster than floating carriages, capable to transporting people and goods across the kingdom in a day.”
“Oh, are you going to work on a project with Ayden now? This seems like something that would take several decades to roll out.”
King Edric stiffened. Wait a minute…!!!
“It’s—it’s a good project that will improve the kingdom,” he said stiffly.
“I’m sure it is,” Queen Mira agreed. “And did you tell Ayden about the allegations against him?”
“I did,” King Edric said. “He suggested that he run workshops for the other nobles to teach them…” He trailed off.
“Oh? Did Ayden suggest that those workshops be free or require a fee?”
“He didn’t specify…”
“Well, it seems that Ayden has good ideas. Did anything else happen today?”
Other things did happen today, so King Edric summarised them briefly, and then Queen Mira briefly summarised what she had done. Afterwards, they headed to their quarters for the night.
However, King Edric felt like he was in a fog. The trains seemed amazing. Why didn’t someone else have that idea? Why did it have to be Earl Rosewood? Wait, he had an entire meeting with Earl Rosewood, and aside from the initial annoyance, he stopped being irritated…! He even gave Earl Rosewood ideas to improve the trains…!
Was this Earl Rosewood’s dishonest plan to make him agree to let him marry Rian?
But the trains…they would be awe-inspiring if built…
Eventually, King Edric came to a conclusion. He could like the idea and dislike the person who came up with the idea.
Tch, Earl Rosewood had some good points and some bad points, just like every other noble. And he knew most of those accusations were baseless, anyway. Tch!
The moment Ren Xiyang and Rian entered their joint quarters at the academy and achieved privacy, Rian started to complain.
“Yangyang!” Rian made a piteous look. “How could you bypass me and talk to my Imperial Father about the trains! Do you think we can’t bring your ideas into reality? Don’t you love me anymore? Are you angling for the current king? Mhhfff!”
Ren Xiyang put his hand over Rian’s mouth. “We could make trains ourselves, but coordinating with other fiefs to lay down the tracks and organise the timetable would be much easier with King Edric overseeing it.”
Why didn’t you shut me up with a kiss? But I also have connections! Rian protested via telepathic connection.
“Your ability to compel other nobles to do something isn’t as good as your father’s,” Ren Xiyang said bluntly. “Your father can also mobilise much more people.”
Rian pretended to be mortally wounded. My dear love, how could you…
Ren Xiyang’s lips twitched in amusement. “Come on, don’t we both have enough work? Can you forecast the weather yet?” He lifted his hand off Rian’s mouth.
Rian pretended to be even more mortally wounded. “The weather is influenced by so many factors, it’s not easy to store all of that information…”
“I know, I know, my old world required super computers to forecast the weather, and it’d only be accurate for a day or so, if not less. But did you want to chat about work or do something else?”
Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow and glanced towards their bedroom pointedly.
Rian’s eyes flashed. “Since you betrayed me, how about making it up to me?”
“Oh?” Ren Xiyang pretended to be clueless. “I could help you with some of your work.”
“Well…”
Rian pulled Ren Xiyang to the bedroom. He also knew how to prioritise!
Meanwhile, Pollux had been using his walker every day and had stopped using the treadmill.
At first, Hadrian or a servant would assist him by moving the walker into position and helping him stand. But then, one morning, Pollux decided to get up from his chair by himself, with great success and only a little bit of nervousness.
Pollux’s independence, strength, and confidence grew.
Pollux fiddled around the walker and made it so that it could fold up and collapse down. He kept it in a compartment in his floating chair. When the opportunity arose, he took out the walker and placed it in front of his chair, in a locked position. He could then reach out and pull himself upright. Then, he would unlock it, and take a step.
Over the days and weeks, he loosened his grip on the walker and took bigger and bigger steps. He walked all over his quarters; he walked all over the Rosewood house and gardens. He slowly raised his gaze higher and higher.
He was walking. He was putting one foot in front of the other. He could move across relatively flat ground on his own two legs.
But, at the same time, Pollux didn’t feel like this was proper walking.
He asked Ayden whether he should transition to a cane next, but Ayden told him there was no need. A cane would make his gait imbalanced. Crutches would be better, or Pollux could simply move straight to walking without assistance.
So, Pollux made a small goal for himself: when he could stand and walk with barely any reliance on the walker, he’d start walking without it!
With the weather warming up, Hadrian invited him to walk around the local neighbourhood, while taking their cats out for a walk too.
Pollux agreed.
Ayden had suggested making harnesses and leashes for the cats, so that they wouldn’t stray and wouldn’t bother others. Wolfgang had been horrified at the idea and instead gifted Pollux and Hadrian a padded basket to carry their cats around if they so wished.
(Wolfgang’s sister thought leashes were a great idea for all the annoying people and animals in her life.)
((The cat lounge preparations were underway, much to Wolfgang’s suffering, as his sister forced him to take on responsibility.))
So, Hadrian carried the basket with Princess Sasha and Lady Artemis and walked alongside Pollux with his walker.
“Meow meow meow!” Artemis mewed near-continuously, like a little chatterbox.
Princess Sasha was much calmer, her gaze sweeping across the sights and the humans. Her eyes narrowed onto the birds in the tree. Then—she jumped!
“Ah, Princess!” Hadrian lurched forward but couldn’t catch her. “Your Highness—”
Pollux gripped his walker. “Princess Sasha, return.”
Princess Sasha ignored him, running up the tree and causing the birds to flutter away.
Hadrian hurried to the tree, still carrying the basket with Artemis inside.
“Meow meow meow!” Artemis mewed.
“Please come down, Princess Sasha,” Hadrian called.
Princess Sasha was perched on a tree branch. She looked down…and didn’t move.
“Sasha,” Pollux called.
Princess Sasha looked at him, but didn’t move.
“…Your Highness, I think Princess Sasha may be stuck in the tree,” one of the guards said politely.
Pollux and Hadrian looked at each other, and then at Princess Sasha on the tree.
…The longer Princess Sasha stayed there, the longer it seemed to be true.
Hadrian put the basket down and raised his hands. He spoke the levitation spell and floated Princess Sasha down, back into the basket. “Don’t jump like that, please.”
Princess Sasha licked herself, pretending not to hear.
Pollux’s lips twitched. “Perhaps Ayden is right…shall we continue?”
“Yes, Your Highness!” Hadrian picked up the basket again, and they continued their walk.
After that, Pollux continued to practice.
Then, one morning, Pollux felt that he was ready to try and walk by himself, without any assistance.
It wasn’t any special day. He simply couldn’t wait any longer.
His manservant, Benedict, had come in to help him with his morning tasks.
Pollux didn’t let him help him up. He told him to put his walker a few steps away from the bed and stand back.
He exhaled. With his hands on the bed, he pushed himself upright. He tried not to think too much. He tried to focus on the destination, rather than the path.
Step. Step. Step. Grab!
Pollux grabbed onto the walker, steadying himself, while his heart drummed loudly in his ears. He had done it!
Later that morning, Pollux used the walker and took the lift downstairs to where breakfast would be served. Hadrian was waiting outside, as usual.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” he greeted.
“Good morning, Hadrian,” Pollux replied. He entered the room first.
A servant pulled his chair back.
Pollux casually put the walker to one side and walked over to the chair. With his hands to help, he lowered himself into the seat, while the servant assisted by pushing the chair in.
The servant was well trained, masking his surprise.
Hadrian’s eyes widened. “Your Highness! You can walk without assistance!”
Pollux’s lips unconsciously curved up. “Hm, yes.”
“That’s amazing.”
Pollux’s eyes curved in proudness. “Hm. I suspect I won’t even need the walker by the time we go back to Angio.”
Spring was almost over and summer was almost here. He still planned to take his chair to the university. He still needed to practice walking up and down stairs.
But Pollux was confident that by the time he left Sedaveria and arrived at Angio’s Capital, he would be able to walk freely, including walking right in front of his father’s face.
And then, Pollux could really think about his future, a future where he could do whatever he wanted.
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