NOVEL NEXT Chapter 230: Just buy a house
Ren Xiyang extricated Rian from his body. “Do you even need to ask?”
“You could be accepted into the university post-graduate research program directly,” Rian said.
“I don’t need research training,” Ren Xiyang said.
Ren Xiyang had done multiple years of undergraduate and postgraduate in his first life. Aside from the PhD qualification, postgraduate research at a university was for training research skills and networking purposes. Ren Xiyang didn’t need either.
Perhaps, in the future, he could get a qualification for fun. But right now, it wasn’t important. No one questioned his capability for research.
“Are you going to go?” Ren Xiyang asked. “You can go without me.”
“Yangyang, I could never go without you. Anyway, princes need to worry more about military feats than academic feats.” Rian gave him a look. “You must have something you’re planning next. Can you tell me yet? Can you tell me now?” He picked up Ren Xiyang’s hands and gave him a cute look.
Ren Xiyang transmitted that image back to Rian. This would work better if you weren’t taller than me.
Rian smiled and leaned in. But I like being taller than you.
“I’ve decided what I want to do next,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian reined in his licentiousness. “Oh?”
“Instead of going to university, I’ve decided to open a university,” Ren Xiyang said. “It’ll be called the Agriculture and Technology Research Institute.”
Rian’s eyes glowed. “My dear, you have such great ideas! Why didn’t I think of that? Why attend when you can be the chancellor of your own institution…”
“Hm, I’ll need your help getting it set up though,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian kissed Ren Xiyang’s hand. “Of course.” Then, he started kissing Ren Xiyang’s wrist.
Ren Xiyang: “…”
There was no point talking about work. Ren Xiyang hugged Rian and took him to the bedroom to release Rian’s energy first.
Following Ren Xiyang’s advice, Rian gathered some of the Rosewood proposals and work reports and sent them off to the nobles. Rian also had his servants ask them if they wanted to delay their investment meeting. All of the nobles said they could still meet at the same time.
(Cue those nobles being forced to stay up late to look over the documents that Rian had sent and prepare their own proposals.)
As a result, Rian had two kinds of meetings.
First were the meetings where the nobles copied the Rosewood proposals. The written reports Rian was handed were ‘well-written’, but when speaking, the nobles lacked resolve as they talked about investing in building roads and infrastructure and buying agricultural machines that they would loan at a discounted price to farmers.
Rian didn’t mind that they copied Ren Xiyang. After all, why shouldn’t they? Ren Xiyang had shown that doing all these things worked, and he should be held as a role model for other nobles. It was good that these nobles, who previously hated Earl Rosewood, were now seeing the light.
Hence, Rian accepted these investment plans and allocated these nobles thousands of gold coins to carry out the proposals.
These nobles left their meetings happy—hahaha, they had barely put something together, and yet Prince Rian gave them so much gold!
…Only to realise that now they had to actually do the work. Given Prince Rian’s targeted questioning, he was clearly going to check up on them!
The nobles cursed—whose idea was it to ask Prince Rian for money to invest in their fief?!!!
Rian’s second kind of meeting were the ones where the nobles proposed magical-technology production, wanting money to develop and produce items such as ‘levitating carts’ and ‘compact long-distance communication crystals.’
The written proposals had vague processes and boasted high future return.
When Rian questioned them, however, it was clear that these nobles didn’t know the details. They didn’t have the knowledge, systems in place, nor the people, to carry out these difficult projects.
Did they think Rian would help them fill in all these deficiencies? When they hadn’t even come up with a new innovative idea? When Rian had explicitly said he’d be investing gold, not personnel or time?
These nobles were insulting the hard work that he, Ren Xiyang, and all their staff put into creating those items.
“Unfortunately, I am unable to invest in your proposal in its current state,” Rian said. “Too many details are lacking. Show me a proof-of-concept first, and we’ll talk further about investment then.”
These nobles left unhappy. They had worked late into the night on those proposals!
Upon talking with other nobles, the nobles who failed tried to convince themselves that it was a good thing that Prince Rian didn’t agree. Otherwise, they would have suffered like certain other nobles who now had to leave the Capital and return to their home fief to enact the plans they had proposed.
Eventually, the nobles who failed would regret and come back to Prince Rian to ask for money, but that was in the future.
When the university academic year ended, Pollux and Hadrian had set off back to Angio.
No one bat an eyelid when Pollux invited Hadrian to sit in his floating carriage. And so, they spent two weeks together in a small, enclosed space, teasing cats, holding hands, and kissing.
Neither of them wanted to talk about the separation that they would face. Inevitably, they parted at the Terra fief.
Hadrian escorted Prince Pollux’s contingent to the Terra border and stopped and watched as they grew distant. He wanted to linger longer, but he was afraid it would be too telling, so he had to steel his resolve and turn away.
He was happy to be back home. His youngest siblings seemed to have grown taller, and the lands surrounding the castle were lusher. After nine months of research, Hadrian had also developed better glass that he now wanted to put into production.
Not long after Prince Pollux left, Marchioness Terra called him in for a meeting.
Hadrian walked into her office reluctantly. He was afraid she’d ask about marriage again.
His mother asked about university life and research first, which slowly put Hadrian in a tentative ease. Further topics included the current social and political landscape in Sedaveria, the monthly social events they held, and whether Hadrian liked the food cooked by the Angio chefs.
“—and I don’t understand how it slipped our minds, but we should purchase some property in the Sedaverian capital, and stop imposing on Earl Rosewood,” Marchioness Terra said.
Hadrian had a pulse of alarm. If he no longer lived at the Rosewood house, then he couldn’t live with Prince Pollux, and it would be harder to see each other secretly. But unfortunately, his mother’s words made sense. “I’ll see to it. Does Mother have any requirements?”
“Buy something nice. We don’t lack money.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“You’re getting older. Your glass research is going well. You need to think about marriage now. Have you re-considered any of the noblewomen I showed you last year?”
Hadrian shook his head. “No, Mother, I’m not suitable for any of them—”
“Hadrian, don’t belittle yourself like that,” Marchioness Terra said sternly. “You’re a good, kind, handsome, wealthy, and smart young man. Any of those noblewomen would have happy to have you as their husband. Or are you refusing my intentions because you already have someone in mind?”
“Mother…”
“What happened with your friend?”
“Friend?”
“A few months ago, you spoke to your father about your friend who was in denial. How is he?”
“I—”
“Are you still in denial?”
Hadrian’s eyes widened. He stared at his mother, and then abruptly lowered his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mumbled.
“Hadrian.”
Hadrian lowered his head even more. “No, not in denial.”
Marchioness Terra sighed in relief. “Good. You can’t keep a woman waiting in an ambiguous space like that. Who is it? Do I know her? Did you meet her at university?”
“It’s a bit complicated…”
Marchioness Terra narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t had sex with her, have you? Is she pregnant? Did you secretly get married?”
Hadrian’s face was very hot. “Mother! Of course not! My…lover…can’t get pregnant.”
Marchioness Terra looked at Hadrian, which made Hadrian avoid her gaze.
“I do have other children,” Marchioness Terra said slowly. “However, perhaps Earl Rosewood’s reference healing clinic can work miracles in the future.”
Hadrian pressed his lips together.
“Tell me more about her.”
Hadrian shook his head.
“Is there something wrong?”
Hadrian clenched his fists. “I can’t tell you more, I really can’t. But Mother, rest assured that my lover is a good person. Can I go to the glass factory now?”
Marchioness Terra sighed. “Fine, go.”
Hadrian fled and hid in the glass factory until dinner. He couldn’t meet his mother’s eyes during dinner, and fled the dinner the table as soon as he was able to, stole Lady Artemis back from his siblings, and locked himself in his quarters.
“Oh, Lady Artemis, what should I do,” he said sadly while cuddling his cat.
“Me-ow,” Lady Artemis said lazily.
Despite his relationship with Prince Pollux, Hadrian was still aware of their power differences. He couldn’t act as casual as Ayden, who seemed to disregard all power and age differences.
He was still aware of the contract that he had signed. He had kept it carefully.
Hence, as long as Prince Pollux wanted to keep their relationship a secret, Hadrian couldn’t say anything to anyone.
But did he want to say anything to anyone? He wasn’t sure.
A small part of him was afraid. There was fear that Prince Pollux wasn’t serious. There was fear that telling others would lead to backlash. There was fear that he wasn’t good enough.
After petting Lady Artemis for quite a while, Hadrian sighed. Once he and Prince Pollux met each other in person again, perhaps they could talk. But until then, he wouldn’t do anything this summer. It was enough that his mother would no longer give him profiles of unmarried noblewomen.
After reluctantly separating from Hadrian, Pollux travelled to Angio’s capital.
Aurelia and Lady Iris Helios met him at the city gates. The people gathered at the streets to watch them pass.
Queen Aurelia and her ladies-in-waiting were all riding big horses down the streets, in full view of others, while Pollux sat in his carriage.
It reminded him of how Prince Rian and Ayden rode horses together on Prince Rian’s birthday. It sparked a small want in Pollux’s chest—he wanted to ride a horse and parade confidently in the future too.
Lady Iris Helios organised a big welcome-back feast for him that evening. On the next day, Pollux met with Aurelia in private.
“I want to tell you about why I’m going back to Sedaveria, even though my university course is over,” Pollux said. He pulled out a confidentiality contract. “Please sign this. I need you to sign this before I’m allowed tell you anything.”
Aurelia made a wry expression, but nevertheless skimmed the contract before signing it.
Feeling the contract magic’s settle into place, Pollux relaxed. “Ayden and Prince Rian have contracted me to work a big new magical-development project regarding transport infrastructure. They want to extend the current floating carriages into larger and longer vehicles that can be used for long-distance travel. Ayden calls them maglev trains. He thinks it’ll take at least five years to develop a prototype, and a decade for anything operation to occur.”
“You’re a prince of Angio,” Aurelia said. “Working for Sedaveria…”
“I know,” Pollux said. “But I’ve been thinking. I want to contribute to Angio. I want to help build our nation. But I’m not good at many things and I’m not good at speaking with many people. But I can develop spells, and working with Ayden has shown me that. If Ayden trusts me to work on this, then I want to work on it. As one of the main magical-technical developers, I’d have a good understanding of the technology. And then I can bring it back to Angio.”
Aurelia frowned. “And they’d let you?”
“They want me to,” Pollux said. “Ayden wants to extend the ‘train system’ directly into Angio. In the future, he thinks it’ll be possible to travel from the Sedaverian capital to here in just two days. It would open up a lot of trade and collaboration opportunities.”
Aurelia’s eyes flashed. She quickly understood the implications of such high-speed travel.
“Ayden wants Angio’s thoughts and contributions,” Pollux said.
Aurelia’s lips thinned as she thought. Finally, she said, “If you plan to stay in Sedaveria for a decade, then I’ll have someone purchase a house for you in Sedaveria.”
Pollux nodded. “That’s a good idea.” With his own property, he would be more willing to make big changes to suit his wants and needs. And then he could invite Hadrian over…
Look at this art by eliana!! So adorable!
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