NOVEL NEXT Chapter 62: Earl Rosewood is a bad noble (Prince Rian is a bad prince?)
That very afternoon, Rian received a shipment of food from Earl Rosewood. Along with more fresh tofu, jarred chilli oil and pickled chilli, there was also a box of baked crunchy apples—baked till they had a crisp crunch, and a pot of soy yoghurt with a swirl of jammy fruit from the Rosewood estate.
How could he have ever doubted Ren Xiyang?
Rian gave the fresh tofu to Count Aegean and enjoyed the baked crunchy apples as a snack and the soy yoghurt as a dessert.
(Annoyingly, Alexius found out and took a jar of pickled chilli and made him share the baked crunchy apples.)
Rian didn’t have a scheduled call with Ren Xiyang that evening. It made him realise a big problem with the current communication mirrors—that they had to schedule time beforehand and both have their mirrors at hand. There was no way for Rian to leave a message or alert Ren Xiyang to an unplanned call.
When they met as planned on the next night, Rian first requested more baked apples and then told Ren Xiyang about his Imperial Parents’ current suspicions.
As was becoming the usual, Ren Xiyang was lying in bed during the call.
For Reasons, Rian was also lying in bed, with the communication mirror resting on his bedside table. With the lights dimmed, it felt as though they were having an illicit meeting.
Well, it was illicit in his Imperial Parents’ eyes.
“—Unfortunately, your background is quite suspect, Earl Rosewood,” Rian joked.
“It seems those anonymous letters had more impact than I initially thought,” Ren Xiyang replied in a sleepy voice. “But if it means monitoring my work, then so be it.”
“Something else will come up and Investigators’ focus will shift,” Rian said. There were numerous scandals and reveals among the aristocracy year round. There were numerous foreign powers sending their spies in (just as Sedaveria did to other foreign countries) that needed to be dealt with. Although the anonymous letters had cast doubts on Earl Rosewood, they should have also led to increased scrutiny of the Angio Kingdom.
“I simply need to make sure my tax tributes to the Capital are all in order.” Ren Xiyang had no intention to change his plans.
Rian smiled to himself. “Ah yes, some of which will eventually come back into my pocket.”
“Have you traced the origin of those letters?”
“Not quite yet,” Rian admitted. “But I believe my Imperial Parents haven’t found the originators either.”
“I’ll leave that matter to you, then. I’m busy.”
“And you don’t think I’m busy too? How dare you imply otherwise!”
Ren Xiyang gave an amused snort. “You have more resources than me.”
“That’s true,” Rian said proudly. “I recently realised a flaw in these communication mirrors. They’re not something we carry or examine frequently, or else I would have talked with your yesterday.”
“Ah.” There was a meaningful tone in Ren Xiyang’s voice.
Rian pricked his ears. “Say what’s on your mind, Earl Rosewood.”
“Let me tell you about telecommunication systems in my old world…”
Anon hate or no anon hate, the Rosewood fief and its people continued on their day-by-day.
The slanderous rumours spread to the Rosewood fief too, but it was hard for the residents to look at the young Earl Rosewood helping out at the weekly charity lunch at Redmond and think ‘enemy spy’.
Earl Rosewood wasn’t a spy; he was simply bad at being a noble.
Almost immediately after the rumours came to the Rosewood fief, a counter-rumour sprung up: that the original rumour was crafted by some disgruntled non-Rosewood people!
So what if the earl talked to various merchants about trading with other kingdoms? That didn’t make him a spy—everyone knew that Earl Rosewood loved food and unusual food ingredients! For example, just this morning, a whole fleet of carts came from the Sage fief carrying rice to Earl Rosewood!
And importantly, Earl Rosewood didn’t act any different. He continued to meet with both the Rosewood staff and Rosewood residents. He continued to surprise the farmers in the fields. He continued to heat the food at the Redmond charity lunches and hold free healing consultations.
Other people from other fiefs were just jealous.
With the harvest very fast approaching, compounding on top of his usual duties, Ren Xiyang was too busy to care about the rumours. (Not that he usually cared anyway.)
His accountant, Master Otto Silvercharm, integrated with the other Rosewood staff and started to calculate accounts, expenses and income. Looking at the reports, Ren Xiyang wished more people could challenge him to a duel—it was quite lucrative. But, there was still enough money to hire more people.
From both the recommendations of the current workers and from an open call, Ren Xiyang hired a team of temporary workers to help out with the harvest and to build an extra warehouse and granary to store the abundant crops. With all this new mature grain, and vegetables that Ren Xiyang magically ripened in a week, there was going to be plentiful food to harvest.
The Rosewood estate council’s work included: exploring whether they could make paper and stationary on-estate given their high use; continuing to support towns in improving their rubbish and human waste disposal systems; and creating a task force for winter preparedness, which would involve both promoting current staff and hiring new relevant staff. As there were now increasingly many products under the Rosewood estate—from soy-based products to soaps—some Rosewood staff were diverted to take charge of distribution.
The Rosewood estate also started to hire new tax collectors and dedicated people for the new census collection team. Tax collection and the census would happen after the harvest, at the same time.
Then, the moment the negative rumours about Earl Rosewood started to die down, a week after the initial anonymous letters as other gossip replaced it, the Rosewood estate unveiled something new.
Luxury hotels.
After Manager Gregory was fired and other more competent managers took over the project, things had finally gotten moving. Three manor-to-luxury hotel transformations were completed at three different locations in the Rosewood fief.
These luxury hotels were expensive, luxurious inns for anyone with money to stay for a night or more. Wealthy citizens had the opportunity to admire all the collected art, sleep in soft beds, and enjoy fancy meals served by Rosewood chefs—chefs who knew how to cook the new dishes that appeared at the Rosewood summer manor, dishes that appeared on Earl Rosewood’s very dining table.
Many of Earl Rosewood’s projects were focused on alleviating the lower class. But the hotels were places of relaxation where the rich could enjoy Earl Rosewood’s generosity.
The cheapest room for one person was one gold coin per night, including dinner and breakfast. One gold coin was the total annual earning of most commoners, but for merchants and other wealthy citizens, this could be paid.
Not to mention, there were 30% off prices during the first week!
The first opening week’s promotion of “30% off” was a marketing business technique that the kingdom had never seen before, let alone the Rosewood fief. Many merchants, sniffing this deal, quickly booked a room to take advantage of this, not planning to stay there again at full price in the future.
However, they say that once you have experienced luxury, it was hard to go back.
The luxury at the Rosewood hotels was so far beyond the roadside inns. After experiencing the cleanliness, elegant service, and exquisite food, many merchants felt nauseous at the thought of going back to those inns.
Some of these merchants were passing through the Rosewood fief for trading purposes—after harvest time and before winter was when business spiked. If the trading in the Rosewood fief was good, they might prefer to come here again in the future…
And staying there overnight wasn’t the only offering: the rooms could be booked to hold meetings! The privacy and service offered at a Rosewood hotel were at least comparable to the most expensive restaurants in town. While the Rosewood properties weren’t in the town centres, they were surrounded by beautiful gardens and fresh sweet air, bringing a feeling of calmness. Perhaps it could make one’s potential client more willing to agree to some business dealing.
The bookings made for the weeks after the promotion week weren’t full, but they weren’t empty either.
Meanwhile, Earl Rosewood was back on the aristocratic gossip list.
“Last week, he was an enemy spy, this week he’s destroying his pride as a noble!”
“Young people don’t know how to respect their family heritage!”
“Earl Rosewood is a villain who wants to destroy the social order!"
“The new Earl Rosewood has bastardised his family’s properties! Oh, if his father were alive to see this!”
“Cough, I wonder how much money one of these ‘hotels’ can make…”
“According to this advertising leaflet, there are a number of different ‘packages’ available…if they are booked out every day, then Earl Rosewood is making hundreds of gold coins a month…”
“The thought of commoners off the street walking through one’s home, though!”
“This is not surprising, Earl Rosewood is commoner dressed up as a noble!”
Unfortunately for nobles who believed in aristocratic pride and superiority, Ren Xiyang would prefer money, thank you.
Rian still hadn’t discovered the identity of the anonymous letter writer.
It was more difficult than Rian expected.
In part, because the letter writer had hidden their traces very well. The people who had physically brought in the anonymous letters to the Postal Office knew no identifying details of the person(s) who gave them the letter and coins to do so. The letters themselves were completely ordinary in quality; no handwriting analysis could be done on the unnatural handwriting style.
And in part, due to the people Rian had at his disposal. He had set some of his Royal Guards to find out information, but that wasn’t their area of expertise. They tried their best, but Rian needed more people, different people.
Rian didn’t yet have the kind of people he had when he was an adult in his first life. He was partial to some of his people in his first life, and he wanted them again.
But to get many of them, he would need to leave the Capital.
With the catering almost fully organised for the next social event, Rian gathered momentum in his plans to visit different fiefs around Sedaveria and to find people along the way.
The timing was constrained. With the harvest occurring or about to occur across the kingdom, farmers would be too busy and tired to listen to Rian talk about different agricultural techniques. However, this knowledge would best be delivered before the winter planting season, at the latest before the next spring planting season.
Additionally, Rian wanted to avoid travelling over winter due to snowfall, and his birthday was in early spring and had associated commitments.
With this in mind, and as different nobles gave their replies as to whether he could visit their fief, Rian’s route started to crystallise. He planned to leave not long after the next social event, to visit the northern fiefs first, before heading down south.
He took his plans to his Imperial Parents for their approval. He met them in King Edric’s office and gave them his report detailing his plans.
Queen Mira glanced down the planned itinerary and ah—there it was. A visit to the Rosewood fief, even though Earl Rosewood did not need to be taught his own agricultural methods.
“Every stop and visit has its own reasons,” Rian said calmly. “The details are given in the report I prepared.”
“Tell us,” King Edric said.
“You have planned a visit to the Rosewood fief, unnecessarily,” Queen Mira added pointedly. “You will be seeing Earl Rosewood in less than a week.”
Cough, Rian had seen Earl Rosewood last night. He had jokingly asked if Ren Xiyang would make him pay one gold coin or more to stay at the Rosewood summer manor in the future and Ren Xiyang had jokingly (?) said that yes, he would have to pay.
“You may have noticed that I also have the Sage fief on my itinerary,” Rian said. “At the other fiefs, I will teach the improved agricultural methods. At the Rosewood and Sage fiefs, I will learn any new approaches.” He stood up straight, his blue gaze meeting King Edric, and then Queen Mira, without deviation. “This trip will be not only to improve agricultural production across our kingdom. It also includes visits to those who support me.”
King Edric’s eyes sharpened. “Is that so.” His gaze turned critical as he examined his twelve-year-old son. This was a sign that Rian was looking forward to the future. Support from the nobility was crucial for ascension to the throne.
But would Rian obediently remain a prince until King Edric naturally died or willingly stepped down? Or did Rian plan to overthrow him in the future?
If Rian planned to be obedient, what need was there to rush the expansion of his own supporting faction?
Queen Mira’s lips thinned. Rian had interpreted her orders.
“You’ve made yourself very busy,” King Edric said.
Rian smiled placidly. “After seeing how much Earl Rosewood is doing for his fief, this is the least I can do for our kingdom. The kingdom and our people serve us, and we must serve them in return. I understand that now, and I want to implement it in my actions. I have contacted each noble family to find a suitable time to visit, and they have already agreed.”
Regardless of whether or not King Edric and Queen Mira wanted to oppose Rian’s trip, the fact remained that Rian had already planned it clearly and other nobles knew it was supposed to happen.
“Very well,” King Edric conceded. “I will ensure you have a suitable contingent of Royal Guards to accompany you.”
“You have prepared well,” Queen Mira acknowledged. “But note that you must work extensively on your studies upon your return.”
Rian bowed. “Thank you for your permission. I will uphold the Imperial Family’s name.”
Rian was constrained by his apparent age and his position. But his Imperial Parents had their own restrictions and modes of behaviour given the watchful eye of the Sedaverian aristocracy, which Rian could also use to his advantage.
Meet Villain Earl Rosewood and Villain Prince Rian ;P
Thank you so much to Turducken for the ink (!!!!!)
On a separate note, this chapter felt unusually hard to write. I had to reorganise the scenes so much…