NOVEL NEXT Chapter 76: Winter in the Rosewood fief
Ren Xiyang had nothing to do with the aristocratic gossip. Winter had officially arrived. Although the Rosewood fief hadn’t received any snow yet like the northernmost fiefs, the nights were frosty and the days were cold.
He was more interested in the unveiling of the new heating lamps.
Overnight, almost like magic, these new heating lamps appeared in various places around the Rosewood fief and the Capital.
In the Rosewood fief, they appeared in all the Rosewood properties, including the main manor house and the luxury hotels, as well as in the main shop selling magical items in Redmond town.
In the Capital, they appeared in Prince Rian’s gardens and in various luxury stores.
Numerous nobles, merchants, and the rich saw these, and the more curious ones took a closer look. Their hearts were not ready for the subtle Azure & Rosewood branding!
The staff/servant at the store/hotel politely introduced it, “This is the new heating lamp produced in combination by His Highness Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood. It produces a warm heat that is completely smokeless and completely safe, with no fire risk. This model allows you to adjust the temperature at your will. In this slot here, there is a magic crystal that powers it. Alternatively, you or your servants can take the lamp outside during the day to collect energy before bringing it inside for the night, thus saving on magic crystals.”
Smokeless, controllable, fire-safe, and convenient! Not to mention, the luxury versions were beautiful, with delicate wood carvings and gold and silver detailing. It was expensive, but one couldn’t expect less given that Prince Rian played a part in their production.
“We only have ten of these in stock, but for a smaller room, these other models are suitable…”
Some of these rich people, with the mentality of being the first and of not missing out, bought the most expensive lamp right then and there!
By the afternoon, Alexius learnt about it and he almost jumped Rian in protest at the start of afternoon tea. “I heard you made some heating lamps with Ayden!” He looked around Rian’s garden and saw the heating lamps placed around the seating area for warmth. “Them! Why didn’t you tell me early? Why???”
“I thought you didn’t like me talking about business,” Rian said mildly. He turned and smiled at the other noble children whom he had invited today. Oh, Alexius was perfect, providing with Rian the opportunity to introduce and show off the new heating lamps.
After all, weren’t these heating lamps so convenient for them to use? If their household used heating spells, then the adult nobles had to control and maintain them. Many young mage children weren’t allowed to cast or modify spells without adult supervision. If the household used burning fires, then servants could maintain them, but then there was smoke which wasn’t good for growing lungs. The heating lamps solved these problems, they could be operated by anyone and they were safe.
Alexius gritted his teeth. “I want one!”
“Because you’re my brother, I’ve saved some for you as a gift,” Rian said kindly.
Alexius’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Rian!”
Oh, and look how jealous some of the other noble children were.
Not every noble family bought a lamp—be it that it was unnecessary, costly, not within their aesthetics, because they supported the Schauss family, or for some other reason.
Nonetheless, the gold coins came rolling in. Rian proudly announced the sales figures to Ren Xiyang during their next late-night-communication-mirror-chat and promised that he’ll send Ren Xiyang’s cut very soon. There were sales in the Rosewood fief too, but since there were fewer rich people and no nobles aside from Ren Xiyang, there were fewer purchases.
Ren Xiyang relaxed. He hadn’t realised he had been so uncertain about it.
“I really should have trusted your judgement on their ability to sell,” Ren Xiyang said.
As expected, Rian puffed up on his end. “I am your prince, after all. Follow me, Earl Rosewood, and I’ll show you riches.”
“Oh, great.” As expected, Ren Xiyang became more energetic at the thought of more money.
“I’ve also been talking to Viscount Obsidian and I think we have another avenue to make money…”
The two of them had a good call that night.
With more money coming in, Ren Xiyang felt his burden lessening. He didn’t have to worry as much about finances (leaving that to Master Otto and the Rosewood managers) and instead focused on other fief management matters.
The census team pulled together some initial census results into a draft report. The total population of the Rosewood fief was about 20 thousand, which was less than Ren Xiyang had expected. There were modern university campuses with three times as many enrolled students. But in retrospect, it made sense. There were only three urban centres in the Rosewood fief that could be considered towns, and the rest were small villages of various sizes. Realising this, managing the fief didn’t seem that overwhelming, especially since the Rosewood estate council was taking on more responsibilities.
Thanks to Solicitor Carmine’s hard work, the Rosewood fief’s Death Penalty Abolition Act passed. The Rosewood estate disseminated updated written materials and hired heralds spread the news within the fief. It became good gossip to have in many homes across the fief and the kingdom. Though, this gossip was soon replaced with the much more interesting news that some noble was found cheating and had three illegitimate children!
Solicitor Carmine and his team swiftly moved on to preparing the next new piece of legislation.
The new short-term winter accommodation ‘camp’ area was going well with minor issues that were slowly worked out as the days passed. One lunch a week was free—this remained unchanged. The other meals required either a small amount of money or labour on the Rosewood estate.
Ren Xiyang felt like a capitalist, but the people around him seemed to think that allowing people to exchange labour for meals and housing was quite charitable, even more kindly than the Church of the Saintess.
The four main matters for winter were food, clothing, heating, and bandits. Food storage and production was going very smoothly, especially with the new casual labourers. The clothing issue was mitigated a lot with the new temporary housing that also had central underfloor heating. Heating was powered primarily by collected wood, and occasionally by Ren Xiyang himself.
As for bandits, several villages had pulled together a citizen ‘militia’ of sorts and made some makeshift watch towers with a rudimentary flag-signalling system. But Ren Xiyang wasn’t sure about them, so he took Rian’s advice and frequently and randomly flew around the fief to keep any potential bandits on their toes.
After Rian heard that he took his advice, Rian gave more advice—
“You should also visit your neighbours. Since you’re planning to trade regularly with the Angio kingdom, your merchants and caravans will need to pass through numerous fiefs on the way to the border.”
“I see, I’m planning to trade regularly huh,” Ren Xiyang deadpanned.
“There are some great sources for clear smooth glass. Don’t you want some for your new greenhouse?”
“…”
Rian got him there.
So, in addition to spot checks around the fief, Ren Xiyang also visited the neighbouring nobles. The luxury heating lamps became good and convenient gifts.
In between everything, Ren Xiyang sometimes thought about Cassiopeia. He could probably help her clear up her mistaken beliefs. Some might say he should help her.
But Ren Xiyang wasn’t responsible for her. She wasn’t a resident of the Rosewood fief, which put her at the very bottom of Ren Xiyang’s priority list. And Ren Xiyang had a very, very long list.
As winter deepened, snow fell down on the Rosewood fief.
Despite this, the local town markets were still bustling.
“Get your freshly baked bread here!”
“Firewood for sale!”
“Officially sourced firewood from the Rosewood estate for sale!”
“Officially sourced tofu from the Rosewood estate for sale!”
“Do you also have the new ‘soy sauce’?”
“I do, I do!”
“What’s that flying overhead?”
“Oh, I think it’s Earl Rosewood!!”
“Wow, we got to see Earl Rosewood today!”
“Sir, would you like to purchase a new magical heating lamp produced by Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian? We have multiple designs, starting from this small and economical lamp, smokeless and good for the air…”
“Oh, I’ve heard of this! Wife, our daughter has been coughing lately from the smoke from the fireplace, why don’t we buy this for her room?”
“Husband, you’re forgiven. Shopkeeper, we’ll purchase two!”
Over at the temporary housing area on the outskirts of Redmond town, a group of kids woke up late to see the snow outside their window.
It was the same group of kids that had chased the disguised Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian during the Harvest Festival.
They all slept in the same one-room house, one among the tight cluster of temporary near-identical mud-brick houses built in the camp area. The houses were a bit dark inside, due to small windows, and many of the houses shared walls. This was all to help keep in the warmth.
All the heat was provided under-floor. There was a series of tunnel-like passages under the mud-brick houses that carried hot air from the big soup kitchen. The houses closest to the big soup kitchen were warmest and reserved for the weakest. These kids weren’t particularly weak—they were very lively—so their allocated house was moderately distanced away.
These kids felt that this winter was the warmest yet. Using their blankets as cloaks, they pulled each other outside and headed over to the soup kitchen for their breakfast. Of course, they didn’t forget their little wooden ‘cards’, which showed that they had done some work recently and could have a meal!
Along the way, they met with other street kids—their housing area was full of kids like them. But instead of their usual fighting, they only insulted each other. After all, if they fought, they’d delay eating time!
The soup kitchen was in a big warehouse-like structure. Along one side, soup and bread were served. On the other side, there were Rosewood estate staff members who helped with problems and work-finding. In between were a couple of rough plank tables and benches, but most people who came in sat directly on the (warm!) floor.
The groups of kids raced each other to get into line, arguing over who was first.
“Hey—stop bickering, get into line nice and orderly or I’ll tell the Earl!” one of the food-dishing staff members said.
The kids honestly stopped bickering. The scent of food was too enticing to think about unimportant stuff, anyway. It was curry today! The kids were going to fight over who could eat the chilliest curry next.
A group of older men glanced over at the lively kids and snorted, but there was a relaxed smile in their eyes. This group were ex-soldiers, and most of them had missing limbs or other physical impairments. Some of them had family in the Rosewood fief, and some of them didn’t. Either way, they ended up on the streets in the Rosewood fief after returning from battle, unable to find a stable job. Winters had always been harsh, and they never knew if they could make it. Many of them weren’t particularly old, but rough living had worn them down.
Unexpectedly, this winter was shaping up to be even better than the autumn that just passed. The Rosewood estate wanted between two and four hours of labour a day for three meals and accommodation, depending on the labouring intensity. And the Rosewood staff were active in finding jobs for people with a range of abilities.
Some of the ex-soldiers could still do physical labour for restricted amounts of time, and now they had a fairly stable part-time job farming on the Rosewood estate. Some of them were now watchmen, a task they could do seated. Some of them helped train local civilians. Some of them helped carve out more utensils and bowls for the soup kitchen. Some played instruments during the nightly entertainment, and some of them gamely started to learn to read so that they could take on one of the many jobs that involved reading and writing.
And since they and others like them didn’t have to work long hours, there was a lot of time for entertainment and learning to read and even planning for their future. They were glad they were at the Rosewood fief, warm and fed.
For a group of extended family members trudging down an icy dirt road, it was very, very cold. One of the children was sobbing quietly in hunger.
They came from one of the northern fiefs and had a fairly isolated farm. They hadn’t heard much about the new Rosewood farming techniques aside from some vague rumours. Unfortunately, their crop yield hadn’t gone well, yet they were forced to pay up the same amount of wheat as they had last year for their taxes. When the snow came, one family member became sick and they used up most of their savings to find a doctor.
When some of those family members had gone into the nearest town to fetch a doctor, they heard some news: that the Rosewood fief had free food and free housing.
“And how truthful is it, huh? Who would go all the way to the Rosewood fief?”
“Hey, trust me a bit more! In fact, the O’Connor family already left! Free food, free clothes, free housing, they even help you find a job! Ah, if I didn’t have my farm here, and my young children, I might even go myself.”
The family members had originally dismissed it. But as their food stores dwindled and starvation became a strong possibility, it started to become a serious idea.
They didn’t own their land anyway, it was rented from the noble family ruling the fief.
After much deliberation, the family decided to leave.
Master Otto Silvercharm: Earl Rosewood! The expenditures! Stating respectfully, they’re going through the roof! ('A`)
Ren Xiyang: Oh, here’s the profits from the heating lamps.
Master Otto Silvercharm: .….…..….…..….…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Master Otto Silvercharm: *dead, his poor heart can’t take all these ups and downs*
Consider this future: the Rosewood Conglomerate, with CEO Ren Xiyang.
Then instead of a farming and fief building BL, we’ll have a CEO x Rich Second-Generation BL instead 😆
(An Alternate Universe, perhaps hehe, feat. Executive Assistant Kel, poor Financial Department Head Otto Silvercharm, and Rich Lady Mira trying to throw money at Ren Xiyang for him to stop dating Rian)
By the way, I wrote a winter-theme short story for Secret Santa (2022) with (yet another) omega/omega pairing 😆 It’s called Five times Kian was oblivious and one time he wasn’t (a holiday miracle!)