NOVEL NEXT Chapter 80: The new year
After two days of travel, the Rosewood contingent returned to the Rosewood manor in time for lunch.
Ren Xiyang dealt with urgent matters and conducted a quick fly-around the fief. Then, he went to his new favourite place on the Rosewood estate—his greenhouse.
Winter was cold and the daylight hours were shortened. However, it was warm and brightly lit inside his greenhouse.
It was a mud-brick construction, with large gaps where windows should be and a wooden frame for the roof. White cloth stretched over the window gaps and the roof frame. Water would leak through, but that wasn’t a problem for the plants inside—that was just free watering.
Despite its bare-bones nature, Ren Xiyang liked it. Between all the fief building and management, he could come here and do some farming.
It was his personal garden. He tended to everything himself. The best part was that it was entirely dedicated to his research: cross-breeding various staple crops to produce better varieties. He wanted to produce new varieties that required less water, or had a shorter growing cycle, or produced larger grains, or were more resistant to pests, or had more nutrients, and so forth.
He also cast different light spells to figure out which spell was best for providing artificial sunlight. Using the plant-growing spells that Florence had taught him, he could speed up the crop growth cycle, which both sped up research and allowed him to compare the effects of different growing spells.
To think that it would take dying and transmigrating to another world before he could return to something like his original research.
Ren Xiyang knelt down on one knee and touched the different leaves. He assessed the state of the plants with sight, touch, and magic, and wrote down his notes. There were some promising developments already. Even if the improvements looked small, they would have a sizeable effect if deployed in the big fields.
As he finished writing his notes, Ren Xiyang stood up. There was a twinge of pain in his legs, but that was a good thing. Growing pains. His method was working (though he had to dial it back a bit).
After he checked all the plants in the greenhouse, Ren Xiyang headed back to the manor. He practised some more magic—he couldn’t fall behind Rian—and then he worked on a cookbook he was writing. He had dinner, did some reading and magic practice, then it was time for a call with Rian whilst lying in bed.
Ren Xiyang’s next few days were full of meetings, catching up on what had happened while he was gone.
With the influx of people and money, the Rosewood estate and fief’s employees (casual, part-time, and full-time) had swelled. Although Ren Xiyang had appointed leaders within different sub-areas and reduced his direct interactions with all the employees, the number of sub-areas increased so the number of meetings didn’t decrease.
More people than expected had come to the winter camp seeking help, but the camp was handling itself well. The hard work of the winter preparedness team had paid off. With the winter processes in place, it was time for the team to start transitioning to spring preparedness.
The majority of people who came were from the Rosewood fief, but there was a sizeable number of people from outside the Rosewood fief too. Once the snow melted away and travel was easier, they expected that more people would come seeking help. The winter/spring preparedness team had to oversee the expansion of the accommodation, food and clothing supplies and make a plan for integration. The newcomers needed to learn the local culture and laws, especially if they wanted to stay, while the current Rosewood residents also needed to take on an open mind and accept the newcomers.
Ren Xiyang didn’t expect money to be a big issue. Yes, the estate provided housing and clothes and food and medical access. But those living in the winter camp either paid money or worked without pay to stay.
Cough, he really was a capitalist at this point.
Spring was also the main planting season for the year, so the team would need to estimate how much the fief needed to produce to support itself through the year. This would be the first step for the team to start looking into longer-term planning. Eventually, Ren Xiyang wanted the team to split into two subgroups: one for near-term preparedness and one for long-term planning.
He hoped that eventually, the long-term planning team and the Rosewood estate council would take charge and give him more time to farm.
But it was wishful thinking. If he had more free time, Rian would give him more tasks to do.
Not long after mid-winter passed, a small skirmish broke out by the Sedaveria-Angio border in the northernmost Grey fief.
This was normal. Unless there was an explicit peace treaty between the countries—and there wasn’t, at the moment—then small-scale raiding would occur on both sides as ‘unaffiliated bandits’ did as they liked and the countries turned a blind eye. This particular raid involved Angio people raiding multiple small Sedaverian farms near the border. The Sedaverian border forces fought back.
But Rian saw the raids in a different light.
He suspected it was influenced by tax increases and unpaid forced labour in the Angio kingdom. Many citizens had been forced to join the construction of a big new ornamental building for their king, or face paying a fine. Families with savings could avoid the labour, but most subsistence farmers didn’t have enough money. This reduced farming labour across the Angio kingdom, leading to reduced food availability. And in desperate times, some resorted to banditry.
The Angio king had done the opposite of what Ren Xiyang had done, something Rian wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for Ren Xiyang.
Rian might have stood in front of little children and inspired them to improve the kingdom of Sedaveria, but in turn, Ren Xiyang’s actions inspired Rian. When Rian had first returned to the past, to this second life, he had certain plans on how to prevent the plague-curse. But Ren Xiyang expanded his world view on what it meant to develop the entire kingdom.
Ren Xiyang continued his aerial surveillance of the Rosewood fief and surrounds, but didn’t encounter any more bandits.
The biggest kerfuffle in the fief might have been the grumblings from certain people when the marriage laws in the Rosewood fief were overhauled. There was now a minimum age of marriage and marriage was explicitly open between any two people regardless of gender or social class or homeland, with a civil divorce process that didn’t require the man’s consent.
The heralds who spread the news also informed the people that Earl Rosewood had a dedicated team to help anyone who wanted to divorce, with support including accommodation and protection. All the new information was spread widely—Ren Xiyang didn’t want anyone to be able to plead ignorance.
More than one person wondered if Earl Rosewood had been stimulated by something in his past. More than one person insinuated that Earl Rosewood wanted to disrupt the social order and attract all the women in the fief for himself.
But for every dissident, there were five supporters.
“Are you seriously saying that while eating the earl’s food? Really?”
“Why are you protesting so much? Maybe I should go to the Rosewood office, hm?”
“Afraid that the law would make it easier for your wife to divorce you? Then maybe you should be a better husband!”
“What, you can’t afford to raise your daughter? You can’t marry off your daughter anymore? Then send her to the Rosewood estate and she’d get a job and even learn how to read and write! She’s become even richer than you, and I hope she doesn’t give you a single copper coin!”
“If you don’t want to live in the Rosewood fief, then leave! If you don’t like the laws, why don’t you challenge Earl Rosewood?”
Unfortunately for Ren Xiyang, it had been a while since anyone had been foolish enough to challenge him to a duel, and these new laws were ultimately accepted by the Rosewood fief residents too.
The cold but cozy days in the Rosewood fief passed, and somehow, it became the end of the year.
Ren Xiyang gave the staff an extended holiday, and many took the opportunity to go home, carrying their end-of-year-bonus. Meanwhile, Ren Xiyang headed to the Capital.
There wasn’t an Imperial Council gathering this time, but there was a big end-of-year/new-year feast at the Imperial Palace.
The association of future leaders had their second ‘official’ meeting, with Rian inviting some more noble children to join. This time, Rian asked each of the future leaders about their thoughts on the association and the future.
Alexius stressed the importance of not having too many meetings and advocated for fun activities. Seeing how the other children started admiring Alexius too much, Rian agreed and said Earl Rosewood would plan something fun for everyone.
Ren Xiyang: “…” He was busy and here Rian was giving him another task anyway!
On the first day of the new year, Viscount Obsidian released the new line of magical communication devices.
These weren’t the old-fashioned round crystal balls. These were like the contemporary flat mirror-type devices, but with updated designs and new, never-before-seen features.
There were three different devices, coming in a small compact palm size, a larger hand size, and a large book size. Each size had multiple different available cases, from wood and leather to silver and gold.
Their release into the market caused a stir among the Sedaveria aristocracy.
Firstly, this was officially an Obsidian-Azure-Rosewood collaboration. A shadow-magic family was now standing in the light alongside a member of the Imperial family! And look, Earl Rosewood was collaborating with Prince Rian again! (Though that was less surprising.)
Secondly, the communication devices were a large advance compared to prior devices.
Aside from the well-established ability to transmit images and sound, these devices could even send text using a special secondary tablet and stylus! Another big feature was the ability to save images and sound—if the callee was not around to receive the call, then the original caller could leave a short message which could then be played back! The devices could also alert the callee that someone was trying to connect to their device with either sound and/or light that could be individually customised.
There was also a new inbuilt address book function, calendar function, and note-taking function.
But the most revolutionary thing was that non-mages could use it! Prior crystal-ball-type devices required magical signatures for security and often needed magic for activation. But these new devices had a special magic crystal that powered the device, and the security could be set up in multiple different ways, from magical signatures to thumb/hand prints, to facial recognition!
In the past, the richest people in the kingdom were nobles. But now, there were rising merchant and business commoner families with a lot of money to spend. Just like that, the new Obsidian-Azure-Rosewood devices captured a previously un-tapped consumer market!
The devices went out of stock almost immediately, which only heightened interest. The money came rolling in. Although Rian and Ren Xiyang were only entitled to a small fraction of it, money was money. The Obsidian-Azure-Rosewood collaboration would continue to make advancements (and money).
Some noble families looked at Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood with new eyes. After all, it seemed that everything Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood produced made a lot of gold.
Rian noticed the difference in how adults talked to him now. Power was slowly pooling in his hands.
After the new year arrived, the temperature rose and the snow melted. More people started travelling and agricultural activities started ramping up.
Ren Xiyang’s meetings increased as he touched base with multiple project teams. This included deciding which crops should be planted and designating some fields to plant some of his most promising newly bred grain seeds. Ren Xiyang also directed a new team to survey the woodland boundaries to define state-protected forest areas, determine where trees could be harvested for use, and map out which areas in the fief would benefit from reforestation.
—It was better to work on ecological conservation now and save a lot of work and money in the future.
Ren Xiyang also assessed the state of the winter camp. In the end, just over two hundred migrants came, with over five hundred locals living in the camp and hundreds more locals coming by for meals. The short-term camp needed an overhaul to support the future projected population and to meet reasonable living space guidelines.
Many people in the winter camp meant a lot of free labour, though at least a quarter of them had also been officially employed on a part-time basis, with a small fraction employed on a full-time basis. As such, the Rosewood estate and fief staff numbers had increased rapidly and were also projected to increase. The staff education program needed to expand, which meant hiring even more people…
The Rosewood estate and the Rosewood fief were now inextricably linked. With multiple teams working in multiple different industries, it was fair to say that the Rosewood estate and fief was quickly becoming one of the largest employers in the kingdom. Ren Xiyang started calling everything the ‘Rosewood conglomerate’ or the ‘Rosewood Group’. ‘Group’ was shorter to say, and it quickly caught on. The Rosewood estate council became the Rosewood council, with the town mayors and village chiefs regularly invited to the meetings. There was talk to form some more governance bodies for the collection of towns and villages.
While the Rosewood Group grew, there was one person who was negatively impacted—Master Otto! He stressed about the projections of income and the projections of costs for many days, flipping between ‘there will be more than enough money’ and ‘there won’t be enough money!’ It took Ren Xiyang giving him a short holiday and increasing his wage, and Kel hiring a new assistant for him, for Otto to finally calm down.
Before long, some trees started to give out early blooms. Rian’s birthday was approaching. He was going to turn ‘thirteen’ for the second time.
Notice: For the next five weeks, I’m going on holiday and then have two (!) work conferences. So I’ll have limited internet access and/or limited time. So over the next few weeks, there will be no Wednesday updates, only Sunday updates >_<
Until next Sunday, I’ll leave you with the new cover for the novel!
Rian: Tch, don’t look at my man or I’ll make you suffer.
Ren Xiyang: *is hangry*