These Side Characters Have More Important Things To Do

The Rosewood carriage now held Earl Rosewood, Prince Rian, Kel and Maria. The latter two felt very out-of-place.

“Earl Rosewood, we’ve determined the best route to visit all the homes of those living in Redmond,” Kel broke the silence. “However, not all roads are wide enough for a carriage to pass through.”

“I know, we’ll walk,” Ren Xiyang said.

“I’ve already agreed to walk,” Rian added. He gave the two women big wide blue eyes and a sweet smile. “This is my first time in Redmond, thank you in advance for showing me around.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness,” Kel stuttered, restraining the urge to squish. The prince’s bright eyes and smile were too disarming.

—And Rian knew it. It was just a shame it didn’t work on Ayden.

The carriage soon stopped at a high-class horse stable, and everyone disembarked. The horses were taken care of by the attentive stable staff. The coachman stayed behind with the Rosewood carriage, while the others continued on.

“My Lord, Your Highness, the first house is this way,” Maria said, taking the lead.

The Royal Guards surrounded the group, keeping the townspeople back. Periodically, they would announce, “Make way for Prince Rian Azure! Make way for Earl Rosewood!” so everyone knew who they were.

The watching townspeople whispered amongst themselves.

“The prince is so handsome!”

“Where is the new Earl?”

“—I think I heard that the new Earl dyed his hair black!”

“Yeah, I saw him duel Prince Rian the other day! That’s him!”

“He’s a little small…”

“He’s a little young…”

“Ssh! He can burn the entire town down by himself!”

“What are they doing here?”

Ren Xiyang fought to keep his expression blank at the gossip from the townspeople. Instead, he focused on evaluating the surrounding infrastructure.

Here, the roads were nicely paved and the streets were kept clean. The house they stopped at was a skinny double-story house among a row of almost identical houses.

The watching townspeople—many of whom had followed them—gave each other looks. Anticipation built in their hearts. Was someone at that house in trouble?

Maria stepped forward and knocked.

A harried older woman fearfully opened the door. She had spied the approaching entourage from her front window and heard the Royal Guards’ loud announcements. She didn’t expect them to come knocking at her door!

“Y-your Highness, ah, L-l-lord—I mean, Earl Rosewood, how can I help you?” she stuttered nervously.

Her two youngest children peeked out from behind her skirts.

Ren Xiyang stepped forward. “Ma’am, you are the mother of Miss Iris Batley?”

The woman paled. “Yes…”

“Miss Iris Batley was innocently caught in the assassinations of my family members. Now that I’m Earl Rosewood, you’re entitled to the bereavement payment: six months’ worth of their wages.” Ren Xiyang personally pulled out the requisite number of silver and copper coins from his bag, though it was Kel who passed the money from him to the woman.

The woman was stunned, staring at the coins in her hands. “Earl Rosewood…! This, this is…”

Earl Rosewood’s eyes were deep and serious. “My condolences. Your daughter shouldn’t have died. Accept the money.”

“Please listen to the Earl, ma’am,” Kel added.

The woman swallowed heavily. Her fingers finally closed over on the small pile of coins. She lowered her upper body. “Thank you, thank you Earl Rosewood. We’re forever in your debt—”

“Enough. It’s merely my duty. Good day, Mrs Batley. Kel, Maria, let’s go.” Ren Xiyang didn’t want to stand around listening to self-indebtedness and praises.

“Yes, Earl Rosewood.”

Mrs Batley watched the group departing in disbelief. She couldn’t believe she had met the Earl and saw the Prince up close and received money. Her eyes felt sore. Her daughter would have been the most excited about this…if only…

 

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Similar scenes repeated over a dozen times as Ren Xiyang visited the various households. His money bag slowly became lighter and lighter.

The watching townspeople were in shock. A noble willingly giving other people money? Why? (And can they get some free money too??)

As Ren Xiyang ventured into the town, he walked down both small and big streets, both dirt and paved streets, both dirty and clean streets. He had saw weather-beaten adults and children on the streets, and he saw rich merchants and citizens around the high market areas.

He glanced at Rian, who had remained surprisingly quiet. “Are you tired, your Highness?”

Rian put his hands behind his back. “No, of course not, how dare you suggest otherwise, Earl Rosewood.”

Maria felt a frisson of fear for the Earl—

—but the Earl was completely unmoved and unperturbed.

Maria glanced at Kel, but it seemed that Kel was quite unperturbed as well. Maria blinked. She hadn’t realised just how good the Earl’s relationship with the prince was!

Rian held his banter back as Kel approached the last house on their list. They had gone through a lot of the town, and were now close to where they had started.

The money handover went smoothly and with that, Ren Xiyang completed the payments for those servants who had families in Redmond. He nodded to Kel and Maria. “Let’s go back.”

“—Wait, Earl Rosewood,” Rian said.

Ren Xiyang glanced at him. “Your Highness, we have walked around town as you wished.”

“But now I have a different wish,” Rian said without a trace of embarrassment.

Ren Xiyang’s flat look did nothing to Rian. He already knew that Ayden Rosewood’s face was just like that.

“Now that we’re in town, Earl Rosewood should take the opportunity to acquire new clothing. You cannot wear black all the time.”

Ren Xiyang: “…” At times like this, he was reminded that the prince was a real rich second generation that put other second generations to shame. He turned to Kel and Maria. “Let’s go back.”

Rian took a big step forward and blocked Ren Xiyang’s way. “Don’t make me pull rank,” he said in a joking tone. “I’ll even pay for you!”

Ren Xiyang pursed his lips slightly.

Rian looked back innocently. “I’ll pay. It’s a gift, not a favour.”

“Very well,” Ren Xiyang said.

Rian’s eyes crinkled. Ayden’s weak spot was definitely gold!

The two bewildered servants and the many twitchy Royal Guards followed Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian to the ‘high street’ of Redmond town. Here, the paved road was kept very well and its visitors dressed richly. The library-teahouse was on this street too.

“When you come to the Capital, I’ll call my favourite designers and tailors,” Rian said. “However, until then, I noticed that this store looked sufficient.” Rian pointed to a particular storefront.

Although Ayden Rosewood didn’t reply to him, Rian continued talking with ease. Even if it didn’t look like he was listening, Ayden was definitely listening: Ayden was always keeping careful watch of surroundings, and that included what was being said.

After spending time with Ayden over the last few days, he had already understood Ayden’s underlying character. He appreciated how Ayden discarded the excessive politeness and distance that many others gave Rian due to him being the eldest prince. Despite Ayden's cold face, he obviously considered him a friend—or at least a friendly acquaintance.

Rian wondered what would happen if he teased Ayden…

The Royal Guards cleared the selected shop of customers before letting Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood enter.

Inside, there were racks of ready-to-wear clothing. It looked like an post-industrial clothing shop, not like a cloth or tailors’ shop that might have existed in the true medieval ages.

The shop owner, a woman with worn hands and a simple yet well-tailored dress, greeted them at the door.

“Your Highness, Lord Rosewood, it is my honour to serve you. The clothing for young men can be found on this side of the shop…”

On the “men’s” side, clothing was organised by dominant colour. Rian immediately gravitated to the white-and-blue clothing.

“Earl Rosewood, I believe you’d fit well in this.”

Ren Xiyang glanced at the clothes, then looked pointedly at the white-and-blue dressed Rian. “Your Highness, do you by any chance want me to match you?”

Rian smirked. “You’re right, I should commission my personal tailor so that you can match me properly,” he said with a laugh. He stepped away from the blue clothes. “Since you’re a Rosewood, you should wear some more red instead of only black.”

Then, he started to simply pull out various outfits and handed them to the Royal Guard following him. Meanwhile, the shop owner took out various measuring implements and measured Ren Xiyang.

“These are enough,” Rian finally stopped. “Add in some socks, gloves, and boots for Earl Rosewood too.”

The dutiful Royal Guard placed the pile of clothing on the counter and also took out a few gold coins to pay for it all. There were many red clothes, various white shirts, and a handful of black pieces. Rian couldn’t help but add in a blue shirt too, the same blue as Rian’s eyes.

“Yes, thank you, thank you for your patronage. I will tailor these clothes to fit Earl Rosewood as soon as possible!” the shop owner said.

“We’ll contact you later about the Rosewood emblem embroidery,” Kel said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” Ren Xiyang said. He gave the prince a look. “Is there anything else, Your Highness?”

“For now, we may return,” Rian said easily.

The Royal Guards had prepared ahead of time. Two of them had gone off while the prince was shopping, one to retrieve the Rosewood carriage and their horses, and the other to retrieve Count Aegean with the Imperial Carriage.

When Rian and Ren Xiyang exited the clothing store, those two carriages and multiple horses were waiting outside.

Count Aegean was also waiting on the street. “Your Highness, I hope you had a pleasant itinerary,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Yes, Count Aegean. How was the library and tea?”

“Let’s talk inside the carriage,” Count Aegean said pointedly, also giving Earl Rosewood a look.

Ren Xiyang took the initiative to enter the Rosewood carriage first. Rian also didn’t complain, obediently entering the Imperial carriage with Count Aegean. Kel and Maria both decided to sit on the driver’s bench with the Rosewood coachman.

The Imperial carriage started off first, followed by the Rosewood carriage, all flanked by the Royal Guards.

Once the two carriages left the town, the townspeople released a huge breath and started to chatter.

“I can’t believe Prince Azure visited our town! And we got to see him!”

“Did you see the prince’s clothes? That was gold thread right there!”

“The earl is so little! It’s hard to believe that our new earl is a child.”

“The earl is smaller than the prince.”

“And those Royal Guards were so big!”

“Did you hear? The new Earl Rosewood gave money away!”

“Tch, it wasn’t away to any-old-body. T’was the families of the servants that were killed.”

“I heard from Lily who heard from Peter that it was payment for being killed while at work…”

“Payment? Why would a lord do that…”

“Maybe…maybe he’s afraid no one will want to serve him, so he’s giving out money.”

“Do you think the money is cursed? Even if you didn’t want to accept it, you’d be forced to! Remember how the new lord is some genius fire mage?”

“Still, it was giving money away! What is he thinking?”

“Really weird, really weird…”

These words couldn’t be heard inside the Rosewood carriage.

Ren Xiyang idly looked out the window, watching the scenery, reflecting back on today’s events so far. He had learnt a lot about the state of Redmond town. There were now a lot more things that Ren Xiyang wanted to do next, and giving out those bereavement payments was really the cheapest.

Ah, but at least Prince Rian helped him save on personal clothing costs.

 

 

 

 

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Rian-gold-dispenser-Azure~

 

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I’ve put up a basic glossary of characters and noble families here: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/478340/these-side-characters-have-more-important-things-to-do/glossary/

There sure are a lot 😅😅