NOVEL NEXT Chapter 74: Magical transformation, begin! ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
(Rian lost the flying race.)
During lunch at the Imperial Palace, Queen Mira kept an eye on how Rian behaved.
Rian acted as though he hadn’t just gone recklessly flying. He didn’t protest when she placed him in a seat away from Earl Rosewood. He spoke eloquently to the different nobles at his table.
It was true that Rian’s actions supported his growing reputation as a powerful and skilled mage. The more powerful Rian appeared, the better, as it would suppress competition against him and lead to the nobles accepting Rian as their leader.
But Queen Mira wished Rian didn’t go about it in the way he had been doing.
King Edric felt that his son was very good at maintaining his public persona. Rian had confronted the Schauss family this morning, making Lady Cassiopeia leave in near-tears. Yet here Rian was, collected and unperturbed. He was looking forward to what Rian would do next.
It was one thing to have information, it was another to act on it. If Rian stumbled and made a big mistake, then Alexius could be considered for the Crown Prince position instead.
After lunch, Rian and Ren Xiyang went back to Rian’s study.
Rian closed the door behind him. “Given her potential healing skills, do you still want Cassiopeia on our side?”
Ren Xiyang recognised his own words spoken back at him. “When you’re right, you’re right.”
Rian smirked. “That’s right. Now, would you let me deal with Cassiopeia and the Schauss family as I see fit?”
“I still think they’re not worth our time, but if you really want to, I’m not going to stop you.”
Rian nodded gravely. “You can’t stop me, because I’m your prince—don’t you dare mention Alexius.”
Ren Xiyang blinked innocently. “You’re the one who mentioned him first.”
“I could see the thought in your eyes!”
“I think you’re projecting…”
Rian bickered with Ren Xiyang some more. After successfully making Ren Xiyang smile, Rian finally became serious and switched to their business: the heating lamps.
They spent the rest of the afternoon finalising production, distribution and recommended retail prices.
They met with the relevant managers. They also wrote out a hundred heating charms on specially prepared pieces of paper and wood. The workers would place these small inserts inside the outer lamp casing, thus creating a beautiful finished product.
The two main distribution locations were the Capital and Redmond town, with a selection of lamps at the appropriate price points.
And the prices of the most beautiful lamps were high, and even the cheapest lamps were pricey, ranging from twenty gold to two hundred gold coins a device.
Ren Xiyang was a bit sceptical that they could sell, but Rian reassured him: cheap magical devices were seen as unreliable. Making them expensive would draw buyers in.
“Just trust me,” Rian patted his chest.
Ren Xiyang huffed a smile. “Okay, okay, your Highness.”
Ren Xiyang planned to stay just one more full day in the Capital. He spent that next day discussing with Solicitor Carmine and other senior managers about Rosewood fief matters. In the evening, Rian came by.
“Is the Capital so unattractive to you?” Rian pouted—a pout that was hard to maintain when he saw the prepared snacks on Ren Xiyang’s coffee table.
“Are you offering to take over management of Rosewood fief?”
Rian didn’t answer because he was biting down on a fried sesame seed ball with a bean-paste filling.
After Rian finished snacking, Ren Xiyang said: “Get comfortable.”
Rian knew the drill. He picked up one of his books he had brought with him to the Rosewood house (the books also served as a cover—he was going over Earl Rosewood’s for work not play, Count Aegean!) and lounged down on the sofa. “Proceed when you’re ready. If it doesn’t work, you could stay another day at the Capital.”
Ren Xiyang didn’t deign to answer. He sat down on the sofa near Rian’s groin.
Cassiopeia’s words hadn’t been without impact, even though Ren Xiyang didn’t want to let the words of a self-proclaimed child (‘minor’) get to him.
He was going to start his magical medical transition process now.
Ren Xiyang had wishfully thought about directly ‘healing’ his pituitary gland so that it would send the correct chemical signals to produce the correct ratio of different hormones. However, the pituitary gland was in the brain, and while diagrams in his last life had colour-coded the gland clearly, it all looked like fleshy-brain-substance under Ren Xiyang’s magical examination. Even if he could figure it out, it was too easy to go wrong.
His second idea was to target the sex-hormone-producing glands directly.
Human bodies, regardless of sex, typically produced a variety of different types of hormones, including both estrogen and testosterone. The main sex-hormone-producing glands were the ovaries, testes, and adrenal glands. However, although ovaries produced testosterone, most of it would then be converted to estradiol.
Ren Xiyang planned to force his ovaries to produce more testosterone than usual and get it out of the ovaries successfully to avoid some of that estradiol conversion. The method was to make it behave like testes.
Given the time pressure of impending puberty, he was never going to have enough time to be 100% sure about the method, and he didn’t have any way to test or trial things out. The healing process would have to be adaptive: testing, monitoring, and adjusting.
Ren Xiyang started with a light re-examination first. His left hand pressed against his lower body as a mixture of healing-psychic magic spread out to detect the situation.
Rian lifted his book up and began to read.
Ren Xiyang then hovered his right hand over Rian’s groin. He located Rian’s hormone-producing glands.
That was what he wanted, but not what he currently had.
The healing magic wrapped around one of his internal ovaries and got to work. By adjusting one, he had the other as a reference just in case.
Rian was nominally reading his book (History of Sedaveria, book 9), but his eyes wandered above the edge of the book more than once.
Ren Xiyang’s head was lowered, his eyes were lowered. The bright red of his irises occasionally caught the light. He appeared very still aside from the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and the occasional twitch of his eyes as his gaze shifted. Even the movement of magic was very subtle.
In this moment of quiet, Rian’s mind wandered to more interesting things than his book.
Ren Xiyang had been candid when he told Rian about the different kinds of people in his old world, about gay people, about the technical details of physical transitioning. Rian had been surprised, a bit uncomfortable, but mostly curious. It seemed like yet another remarkable thing about Ren Xiyang’s old world. Ren Xiyang’s factual tone had made Rian unconsciously believe that those things were well-accepted matters.
He hadn’t realised that there would be people like the new Cassiopeia.
Rian had never truly seen Ren Xiyang hurt or angry (annoyed, but not angry)—until Cassiopeia spat out all those words. He would give no leniency towards Cassiopeia henceforth.
It was a real pity that the new Cassiopeia came. Perhaps Ren Xiyang was too productive, and hence someone as destructive as the new Cassiopeia also had to come to this world to balance things out.
As Ren Xiyang shifted, Rian’s thoughts returned to him. What other things Ren Xiyang had not yet told him? What had Ren Xiyang’s first life been like, beyond the zombie apocalypse, beyond his job as an agricultural researcher? What delicious new recipes were hidden in his brain? What new devices could they produce to make thousands of gold coins?
“Are you reading?” Ren Xiyang suddenly spoke.
Rian lowered his book and smiled. “I’m just imagining you becoming a little copy of me. You know, I do grow to be quite tall.”
“You’ve mentioned it more than once,” Ren Xiyang said drily. “If you exercise hard, I’ll copy your muscles too.”
Rian’s eyebrows raised. “Now that’s an interesting application of healing magic. Some of the knights love comparing their arm muscles.”
“Do you need a break?”
“Do you?”
“I don’t.”
“Then neither do I.”
Ren Xiyang tapped the top of Rian’s book. “Then be obedient and read.”
“Yes, my Lord,” Rian joked. He raised the book, blocking his face from view. Whether or not he read honestly was his own little secret.
After stretching his fingers, Ren Xiyang returned to his task.
With a light touch of magic, the affected ovary was starting to behave differently already. But Ren Xiyang needed to be able to do this without using Rian as a reference—he won’t have Rian’s testes to copy from regularly, like a weekly T shot.
Ren Xiyang paused a few times and wrote some notes to himself. It was over an hour later when he finally stopped. He wasn’t sure that things were working how he wanted, but he also felt more relaxed, like there was no longer a sword hanging over his head.
“Thanks,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian closed his book and placed it on his lap. “I’ll thank you for the favour in the future.”
“Yes, yes, I’m increasingly in debt to you. How shall I ever escape?”
“Oh, never,” Rian said happily.
“Oh wait, I’ll be escaping from you tomorrow when I head back to the Rosewood fief.”
A rope of ice started to form between Rian’s hands. “Just stay still for a moment, I just need to tie this to you…”
Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “I’m not liable if anything burns down in here.”
“Are you suggesting a secret night duel outside?”
“Think about your poor parents, Your Highness.”
Rian chuckled. “Shouldn’t I get all the chaos out of my system now while I’m young?”
“No.”
Rian snorted. “I see you like acting like an old man.”
“Well, I am technically older than you.”
“Well, on other technicalities, I’m older than you.”
“The Rosewood fief is prepared for winter, but what about the other fiefs?”
“Why do you want to talk business so late at night,” Rian complained. But he nonetheless improved his posture. “What’s your surplus?”
“I’m not sure. The harvest was good and the census has been completed, but we’re not sure how much consumption there’ll be over winter.”
“Not bad, Earl Rosewood. I should give you more land and people to manage.”
Ren Xiyang immediately raised his hands to ‘block’. “Please, no.”
Rian laughed. He tilted his head and smiled. “Don’t you think you’re doing such a good job?”
“Isn’t it your job to convince the other nobles to be better?”
“Are you implying that I’m failing at my job?”
Ren Xiyang shrugged. “I’m just stating some facts.”
“Oh dear, Earl Rosewood, it looks like we indeed need to have a midnight duel…”
In the end, they didn’t have a midnight duel, but Rian did test out new magical entrance effects on Ren Xiyang. It took a lot of work to maintain his princely aura!
Thank you to Coffeezombie, fjäril, and Kitty for the monetary support! (づ￣ ³￣)づ
Medical feasibility, what’s that? (◕ω◕✿)
Writing the banter between Ren Xiyang and Rian can be both hard and easy _(:3」∠)_ I don’t know if I should write more scenes of them together, or more plot hahaha