NOVEL NEXT Chapter 222: Do you remember the original novel?
Countess Venenum may have caught all those involved in the underground tower, but now that meant that Lady Iris Helios was busy preparing all the court cases against these individuals. Queen Aurelia offered to assist, but Iris declined. Queen Aurelia had enough work.
“You help reduce my work, unlike all the nobles who make trouble and ask me to solve them,” Aurelia said wryly.
“It’s my duty,” Iris said, inclining her head. “If those nobles make too much trouble, please send to me and I’ll deal with them.” Her eyes lowered for a brief moment.
Truthfully, she wanted to keep Queen Aurelia busy. This way, she would be too busy to think about marriage and thus ignore the nobles’ urging her to chose a consort (ideally their handsome son/nephew). Thankfully, the nobles themselves kept Aurelia busy with other matters.
“You must know that the nobility dislike you for doing so,” Aurelia said, with a touch of exasperation—towards the nobles—in her voice.
“I know,” Iris said. “I am your willing shield and sword. When it’s politically hard for you to refuse, I will do so for you. And those nobles wouldn’t become offended if they didn’t open themselves up for offence. Look at Countess Venenum and Marquis Terra. Neither of them require Your Majesty to help solve their problems.”
Aurelia sighed lightly. “You could cover your edge up slightly, Iris.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Unsurprisingly, one day during morning court, a group of nobles stood up and attempted to impeach Lady Iris Helios for abuse of power.
“Denied,” Queen Aurelia said.
“But Your Majesty—!”
“Lady Helios has been bequeathed power by me to fulfil her role,” Queen Aurelia said. “If there is something that she has done that offends you, impeach me.”
The nobles restrained themselves. Impeaching the queen? They’d be stupid to do that!
“We’ll write a report of the problems we encountered and the issues with Lady Helios’s decisions,” the spokes-noble said begrudgingly.
“No more than four pages, total,” Iris said coolly. “Do try to be succinct. You may not have much work but we do.”
The noble frowned and looked at Queen Aurelia in grievance.
“Does Lady Helios speak wrongly?” Queen Aurelia asked.
Another noble pulled the first noble back, lest they dig a bigger pit for themselves. “We thank Your Majesty for your benevolence.”
Queen Aurelia nodded. “Now, let’s continue…”
Hadrian was happy to return to the Terra fief. He missed his family, he missed his home, he missed the fief. His siblings took Lady Artemis, arguing that Hadrian could spend time with his cat once he returned to Sedaveria. Hadrian reluctantly agreed.
His father showed him the glass factory he had set up and the staff he had hired, They started test-producing the new glass that Hadrian had developed. Through this process, he felt closer to his father, showing his father that he was still useful to the Terra family.
Once the factory prototypes were satisfactory, Hadrian focused on producing hundreds of flat glass panes to produce the stock for his very first sale to the Rosewood Group.
Unfortunately, Hadrian couldn’t escape his parents talking to him about marriage.
They brought up all the other noblemen his age who were now married, some of whom already had children.
Then, they showed him the profiles of various eligible noblewomen.
“I’m at Sedaveria most of the time, I’m busy researching,” Hadrian protested.
“Then how about this noblewoman? She’s planning to study at Sedaveria’s university this autumn. Or how about her? She’s interested in travelling to Sedaveria…”
Hadrian weakly protested, but was defeated by his parents. He reluctantly met with several noblewomen over the course of the summer.
Thankfully, nothing came out of them. The noblewomen who met him probably didn’t find him very impressive. This was a sentiment that he agreed with. All Hadrian had was his glass research.
“Are you sure you didn’t like any of them?” his mother asked, concerned.
“They’re all good people,” Hadrian reassured her.
“You didn’t feel your heart skip after seeing any of them? Which one did you like the most?”
“Mother,” Hadrian protested.
Marchioness Terra sighed. “How could you not like any of them…”
“We simply don’t have any fate,” Hadrian said. “Mother, I’m grateful that you’re letting me choose.”
“The Terra family doesn’t need political marriages. I just want you to be happy.”
“I know, Mother. I am happy.”
Marchioness Terra patted his arm. “If you meet anyone you like in Sedaveria, that’s also acceptable.”
Hadrian lowered his head and sighed. “Yes, Mother.”
Then, he escaped back to the glass factory.
The Imperial Magical Academy begun one month earlier than the University. Before summer had ended, Ren Xiyang and Rian were at the academy to conduct their alternative-stream entry exams for the third and last time.
As Cassiopeia, her friends, and Alexius, Adrienne, and Günter were also starting at the academy, they also came to take alternative-stream entry exams.
And as the summer ended, Ren Xiyang and Rian were once again back in ‘their’ apartment on the Imperial Academy grounds.
(Alexius had thought about asking to share an apartment with Ayden, but he then suddenly realised that Ayden and his big brother were in love and Rian would definitely act greasy in front of him and Alexius didn’t want his eyes blinded. Cough cough, even Alexius could get embarrassed!)
To mark their first night back, Ren Xiyang personally cooked, and Rian didn’t need to use any of his make-Ren-Xiyang-cook vouchers.
The centrepiece, slow-cooked duck, had been cooking for hours. Ren Xiyang had also started making dessert—the dough was currently chilling. Right now, Ren Xiyang prepared the meat and vegetables for the main-course sides.
Rian liked watching Ren Xiyang hard at work; the look of concentration of Ren Xiyang’s face was very handsome. Though, to be fair, Ren Xiyang looked handsome from all angles.
“Do you realise that the original novel is about to start?” Rian said.
“Hm. Are you worried about something? I don’t remember anything important we still need to do.” Ren Xiyang’s tone conveyed that he was dubious about Rian ever being worried about anything.
“I’m not worried about anything,” Rian said, tilting his chin up in confidence. That earned him a pulse of amusement from Ren Xiyang. “I merely recalled your stories about novels where the world would force plot events.”
“If you’re worried, we can put more effort into pandemic preparedness,” Ren Xiyang said.
“I’m not worried, I merely won’t accept anything going wrong,” Rian said.
“Hungry?”
“Of course,” Rian said.
Ren Xiyang switched to preparing the first dish for tonight: thin slices of raw tuna and salmon, with drizzles of reduced soy sauce, lemon juice, pickled ginger, scattered microgreens, and dots of horseradish, prepared wasabi-style.
Rian poured two cups of roasted barely tea and helped set the table. He picked up his chopsticks and took the first piece of salmon from the shared plate. “Hm, delicious.”
“Good.”
With the food cushioning their stomachs, Ren Xiyang returned to preparing the main course.
Rian stood close to watch. “I prepared a report about the differences between my first life at this point, and this life.”
“And what’s the biggest change?” Ren Xiyang asked.
Rian thought to himself.
Sedaveria was quite different now compared to Rian’s first life. Ren Xiyang had changed the Rosewood fief to something almost unrecognisable, and Rian’s initiatives had spread across the kingdom.
But in some sense, Angio was even more different. The political landscape had been completely up-ended. King Augustus was gone, Queen Aurelia in his place. Lady Iris Helios and the Queen’s Board rose in power. Northern ethnic groups had claimed back their land, reducing Angio’s northern borders. Nobles were being forced to farm and increase food stores. Research into the zombie-plague was completely halted, and all those involved were being brought to justice.
Of course, Rian felt that Sedaveria was still a lot better, though he conceded that Angio had to start from a worse position.
However, the biggest difference though…
Rian’s lips curled up, and his eyes curved with joy, “The biggest difference is that I’m engaged to you~”
Ren Xiyang smiled back. “Transmigrating here was worth it.”
Rian felt touched. “And no offence to Cassiopeia, but we are obviously so much more amazing. If this world were a novel, it would be a romance novel about us,” he said. “A deeply romantic romance between a smart and cute earl and the handsome and princely prince.”
Ren Xiyang blinked. “You mean a gay novel? A fanfiction of the orginal novel? Or a BL.”
“BL?”
“Boys love.”
“It should be men’s love,” Rian said. “A story that everyone should read.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips twitched and he turned his gaze back to his cooking. “Don’t think I don’t know about your booming secret little side business funding male-male romance stories with princes and noblemen.”
Rian wasn’t embarrassed at all. “Did you read any of them? Those authors are quite good at writing erotic scenes, especially after I gave them some tips.”
“I’m too busy to read. And don’t I have my own real-life prince?”
“Next time, I’ll read one of those scenes to you and see if you get hard,” Rian said.
“If you wish.” Ren Xiyang plated up one side dish—fried soft tofu with a spicy caramelised soy sauce—and turned to the next. “I did notice that there are a lot more LGBT+ people in the world. There weren’t any in the original novel.”
“I just hadn’t met you yet,” Rian said. He got up. “I want to help you cook. What can I do?”
“You can steam those greens for me, and move those dishes to the table…”
With Rian’s help, main course was soon complete. They had slow cooked duck, fried soft tofu, soup dumplings, roasted eggplants, steamed greens, and white rice.
“Another thing that has changed is all the delicious food,” Rian said. He chuckled. “And I can cook now too.”
“When we retire, it would be nice if we lived in a small manor house, just the two of us,” Ren Xiyang said. “We can cook together, and we can order food if we don’t want to.”
“Consider it done,” Rian said. “I’ll have the most perfect cottage built for the two of us.”
Ren Xiyang chuckled. “Imagine if we retired before your parents did.”
“I want to be king,” Rian said seriously. “But if you want to retire first, I will support you. I’ll be the richest person in the kingdom, after all.”
Ren Xiyang waved the idea aside. “I said I’ll be your consort. Queen Mira said she’ll teach me more about her work after we finish at the academy.”
Rian had a flash of bitterness. “I still can’t believe you went to my Imperial Father to make trains. Now he gets the glory.”
“But now he’s too busy to complain about our engagement,” Ren Xiyang said. “We’ll think of something even more amazing to do once you become king.”
“That’s a promise, and I’ll remember it,” Rian said.
Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to write a contract?”
Rian laughed. “If you say so. That reminds me of all the contracts we’ve written…” This led them to reminisce about their five years together.
After the main course was cleared, Ren Xiyang continued making dessert. He cut and rolled the dough into long thin sticks and baked them.
While they were baking, Ren Xiyang and Rian prepared bowls of white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, strawberry-white chocolate, and green-tea chocolate, chopped freeze-dried berries, and chopped nuts. Once the long thin biscuits were done, Ren Xiyang coated most of them in a chocolate, leaving a small part clear to hold. Some of the biscuits also received a sprinkle of chopped berries or nuts.
“In my old world, these are called ‘pocky’,” Ren Xiyang said. He ate one first.
Rian followed suit. The ‘pocky’ stick was crisp, snapping easily as he bit down. The contrast between the biscuit and outer chocolate was moreish, and the small size left one wanting more.
“In my old world, there was also something called the pocky challenge.” Ren Xiyang placed one end a new pocky in his mouth and then looked at Rian expectantly.
We each bite in turns, and the first person to give up loses, Ren Xiyang said via the telepathy link. He also flashed an image in Rian’s mind.
Rian’s eyes widened. “Ohhh.” He stepped forward, placed his hands on Ren Xiyang’s hips, and leaned forward.
At first, there was the sweetness of the pocky. Then, there was the sweetness of Ren Xiyang’s lips.
In this challenge, no on lost. Once the pocky was finished, Rian pulled Ren Xiyang closer and deepened their kiss.
Rian: I like this challenge ^_^
Writing this chapter made me hungry 😔
Thanks to Mndless’s comment about Ren Xiyang realising that he had broken the novel and turned it into a queer romance series…as you can see, I changed it so that confident!Rian believes that he would be the main character of the novel, of course!
Now, finally, we’ve reached the start of the original novel!
The End! (Joke, joke)
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