NOVEL NEXT Chapter 35: Surprise! Bet you didn’t expect the prince today!
While Ren Xiyang finished his tour of the fief and had a day off, Rian had at long last dealt with all his personal outstanding matters and could finally carry out Ayden Rosewood’s task. Solicitor Carmine had already sent him the lists of families and the bereavement entitlement money to be distributed.
Count Aegean had a distasteful look when he arrived that morning to see Prince Rian preparing to go out. For this task, Rian was carefully choosing clothing that didn’t have the Imperial Family’s emblem on them, but given his wardrobe, the colours were inevitably of the Azure family: white and blue.
“Prince Rian, if I may speak my mind, don’t you think this is below you? Doing this will send a message about your position relative to Earl Rosewood.”
The maid dressing Rian finished arranging the last accessories and quietly exited the room, leaving the prince and the count alone.
Rian turned to Count Aegean. “Count Aegean, I have given my word to Earl Rosewood. And my Imperial Father said it was in my discretion how I deal with the Earl.” He lowered his eyes and hunched his shoulders, affecting the image of a sad little boy. “Count Aegean, I’ve never been able to play with another person my age…I don’t want him to stop playing with me…”
Count Aegean: “…”
Did the prince really think this kind of ploy would work on him? “This matter is between you two, and I will have no part in it. Don’t complain that I didn’t warn you,” he chided.
“Solicitor Carmine of the Rosewood estate will accompany me. Count Aegean, I’m sure you’re busy. Oh, by the way, when I talked to Earl Rosewood last night, he mentioned again that he was interested in importing foods from the Aegean fief. I wrote down a list from what we discussed.” Rian walked to his desk and picked up a piece of paper, handing it to Count Aegean. “Can you do me a favour and send samples of each of these items over to the Rosewood fief?”
Count Aegean: “…” Prince Rian talked to Earl Rosewood last night?!!! And here he was hoping that the two would break contact!
“This is a formal request from me,” Rian said seriously, still offering the list. “If not, then I’ll contact with the Blewitt fief instead.”
Count Aegean took the list. It wasn’t that he disliked the Blewitt Family, but rather if Earl Rosewood was satisfied then it could be a big contract.
“Have a good day, Count Aegean,” Rian said with a smile. He opened his door and had one of his Royal Guards carry the list of names and the box of money Solicitor Carmine had sent over previously.
The rest of the Royal Guards flanked Rian as they walked down to the front of the Imperial Palace.
Solicitor Carmine was waiting with a Rosewood carriage. He bowed. “Good morning, Your Highness. The Rosewood estate is deeply grateful for your aid.”
“Don’t bow to me, I’m here as Earl Rosewood’s friend.”
Solicitor Carmine straightened up. “Please, your Highness.” He opened the door to the Rosewood carriage.
As this was a Rosewood matter, Rian climbed into the Rosewood carriage, rather than taking an Imperial carriage. Solicitor Carmine and the Royal Guard carrying everything also entered the carriage. The rest of his Royal Guards mounted their horses and flanked the carriage.
And so, this big contingent left the Palace grounds and entered the Inner City of the Capital.
The first house they went to was Baron Bole’s residence. His third son had been working for the late Earl Roland Rosewood and had perished under the assassins’ hands.
When the Bole servants saw the Rosewood carriage approaching, they quickly notified the Baron.
Baron Bole hadn’t cared much for his third son. His first and second sons were outstanding mages, and the eldest one was already designated the heir. And look at his third son—a non-mage who was only able to gain employment with the Rosewoods, a family who everyone knew would soon be demoted. When his third son died though, Baron Bole both hated his third son for his terrible choice of employment and hated those accursed Rosewoods for getting his son tangled up in their problems. As for what he thought about the new Earl Rosewood…he held his judgement for now.
When Baron Bole had gone to the Rosewood funerals, the new Earl hadn’t shown any sign of recognising him. Though, it seemed that impoliteness wasn’t personal, because the new Earl hadn’t cared anything about even Duke Schauss who had the biggest fief aside from the Imperial Azure fief.
When the servant told him about the Rosewood carriage, Baron Bole was expecting the little Earl Rosewood. He made some little plans of how he could react depending on the earl’s attitude.
Baron Bole’s heart almost stopped when he saw Prince Rian stepping through his front door instead.
“Your Highness! I—welcome, your Highness, Baron Bole at your service.” Baron Bole quickly bowed.
“Lift your head, Baron Bole. I’m not here in my capacity as a prince,” Rian said.
With uneasiness in his heart—who would trust an Imperial’s word at face value?—Baron Bole straightened up. Only then did he spot the Rosewood’s Solicitor Carmine wearing the Rosewood emblem standing behind the prince.
A doubtful thought rose in Baron Bole’s heart. Could the prince be here representing the Rosewoods? He had heard the rumours and even seen the prince and Earl Rosewood chatting from afar at the funerals, but…
Rian’s expression was serious. “Baron Bole, my condolences for the death of your son. Edward Bole was innocently caught up in the assassinations of the late Earl Rosewood and his family. Under Earl Ayden Rosewood’s new policy, you will receive the bereavement entitlement: six months’ worth of your son’s wages.”
One of Rian’s Royal Guards took out a small bag of money from inside the box and presented it.
Baron Bole frowned. He didn’t care about the money—his third son’s monthly wages were a paltry sum compared to the money in the Bole estate. But to think that Earl Rosewood would dare to pay this kind of money to families like him, too, just like the little commoner families. In fact, only six months’ worth of wages, exactly the same as a commoner? Wasn’t this saying that the Rosewoods looked down on the Bole family?
“Baron Bole, please accept this,” Prince Rian said, interrupting his thoughts. “Earl Rosewood has personally implored me to send this to you on his behalf. This incident is a terrible event, and the Capital Investigators have been gravely investigating the agents behind the assassination. Going forward, I hope you do not blame the new Earl Rosewood for this matter that he would not wish for upon anyone.”
Baron Bole startled back into the present, internally sweating. How could he forget it was Prince Rian in front of him? ‘Not here in his capacity as a prince’—hah! That wasn’t believable at all. One couldn’t shed the mantle of the Imperial family that simply.
Baron Bole quickly ordered a servant to accept the bag of coins. “Your Highness, please thank Earl Rosewood on my behalf for this.”
“Of course.” Rian then skilfully asked about Baron Bole’s children. After making sufficient small talk, he farewelled the Baron and exited, leaving the Baron in a muddle.
Rian had no doubt that the next set of rumours would be about him and Earl Rosewood~
After Baron Bole, Prince Rian and Solicitor Carmine continued to visit the remaining families, mostly merchant families and small noble families. Their surprise at seeing Rian was priceless. Ah, even now, Earl Rosewood was indirectly providing Rian with amusement. The only regret in Rian’s heart was that Earl Rosewood wasn’t with him on this journey of startling nobles.
Unsurprisingly, Ren Xiyang cooked some more new dishes on his day off: jianbing (fried pancakes), chicken satay with a peanut sauce, and of course, more noodles, this time accompanied by roasted meat paired with fresh salad and herbs. He also prepared some fermented bean curd.
During their next crystal-ball-call, Rian sought thanks and praise for completing the task he had completed, and even described all the amusing reactions he received, only be face-slapped by all the dishes Ayden Rosewood had once again made without him!
“Earl Rosewood, when do you plan to come to the Capital?” Rian asked sourly.
“When enough projects are set in motion here,” Ren Xiyang answered. “I can send a jar of the peanut sauce and the fermented bean curd to you, along with more tofu.”
“Marginally acceptable.” Honestly, it was an easy matter to secretly ‘acquire’ the recipes, but it just wasn’t the same. Rian had never had an earl personally cook for him—and yet those servants at the Rosewood summer manor had tasted the things prepared by Ayden’s hands.
“But thank you for handing those last entitlements out for me, for finding time in your busy schedule,” Ren Xiyang coaxed. “You can try giving the fermented bean curd to Count Aegean.”
Rian was placated. “He’s looking over the list you wanted me to give him, so I’ll make sure to let him taste it after he agrees…”
Not long after Ren Xiyang finished his tour of the fief, the first few brave (or reckless) farmers showed up at the Rosewood summer manor asking about the ‘interning’ opportunity. To their surprise, they were taught by Earl Rosewood himself!
The feeling that the Earl was serious grew among the people of the Rosewood fief.
Ren Xiyang was indeed serious. After visiting every single hamlet, village and town, Ren Xiyang now had a very large stack of paper with different requests and suggestions from a wide range of people and places within the Rosewood fief.
He learnt a lot on the visits. For example, the number of technically homeless people was a lot less compared to modern times, in the sense that there were stronger familial ties in his fief, and people—including orphaned children—often had extended family to stay with…or they could squat in old hovels or abandoned buildings without much problem. Ren Xiyang counted that last group as partially homeless: old hovels were not suitable living places, and those who had to live in one were particularly vulnerable people such as those who didn’t have local family ties, those who were disabled, and ex-soldiers.
Housing was just one facet. There were so many projects he needed to take from concept to actuality.
Ren Xiyang could only do admin for oh-so-long, though.
After briefly starting on the tall pile, Ren Xiyang stopped and went out to the fields to farm and to explain some more modern information about agriculture, shocking the farmer-employees and the group of farmer-interns.
He looked at some of the responses in the tall pile the next day. Then stopped and studied healing magic instead.
On the next day after that, with his physical and magical muscles worked out, Ren Xiyang decided to properly tackle a certain component of the tall pile: taxes. Now that he had gathered this, he could compare it with the recorded amounts in the Rosewood fief accounts that Solicitor Carmine had sent him a while ago.
He was not surprised to see the disparity between what the people said they had paid in taxes versus what was written down on the accounts. After confirming with Solicitor Carmine via letter about the Rosewood fief’s standard taxation rule—15% of income or crop yield—Ren Xiyang summoned every single Rosewood tax collector to meet with him as soon as possible.
Count Aegean: PRINCE RIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
The BL Palace is running a mini workshop/event this Saturday 13th August! Info is here. We'll be having some art streams (potentially nsfw ;P) and some talks/panels about BL tropes, culture, community, and writing. Everyone is welcome!