Queen Mira frowned. With the sound-amplification spell, she immediately said, “This match is now over! The duelling field’s shields must be repaired!”
Both Rian and Ren Xiyang stopped. Ren Xiyang’s fire staff dissipated.
Queen Mira ended her sound-amplification spell. She descended from her viewing platform and strode over to the magical control point of the duelling field’s shields.
Rian frowned as he straightened, his ice swords sublimating back to water vapour.
“Oh, what a shame,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian’s eyes snapped to Ayden. “You did that on purpose.”
“I wanted to break through your personal shield and severely injure you,” Ren Xiyang said serenely. “That way, you won’t pester me for another duel any time soon. But instead, you dodged and the attack hit the big shield instead.”
If Ren Xiyang had spread that fire energy over a wider area, it wouldn’t have been enough to crack the shields. But he had focused that energy into sharp diamond bullets of fire. All that pressure on very tiny spots was just enough to sound the alarm.
“You’re talking a lot, you did it on purpose,” Rian said drily.
Ren Xiyang walked over, looking over the wet and singed clothing on Rian’s body. “You don’t have enough magical energy left to defeat your little brother.” He reached out and placed a hand on Rian’s shoulder. “If I push you hard…”
Rian: “…” Both of them were using huge amounts of energy and magic. How could Ayden still have more energy?!
“You have a method to replenish your magic energy stores faster than me!” Rian suddenly realised.
“No. I just use free heat—heat generously supplied by the sun.”
Rian’s eyes widened. “You’re saying we should duel again in the winter when I should have the advantage.”
Ren Xiyang shrugged. “If you need the advantage, sure.”
Rian narrowed his eyes. “Earl Ayden Rosewood, the more I know you, the more I realise just what kind of person you really are.”
“I should say the same about you.”
They both gave each other a look.
Rian reached out first for a handshake. “Good game.”
“Good game.”
Satisfied that they were on the same page, they finally headed off the duelling field. Alexius raced down from the Imperial box to meet them and gush over the duel.
The watching audience had no idea what Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood had been talking about. But it was clear that there were no hard feelings between the two.
More than one person let out a sigh of relief as the tension during the match finally dissipated.
“Huh, why did the shield fail?”
“Can’t you see? The shields still look fine!”
“Was it all those attacks hitting the shield? Are they that strong?!”
“They probably forgot to refresh the spells.”
“Hmm, after such a fight, I’m feeling a bit hungry!”
As Queen Mira and the other mage located the fracture and realised what had happened, Queen Mira quietly made a note in her heart about Earl Rosewood.
After the duel, both Rian and Ren Xiyang changed their clothes into something more appropriate for lunch.
(It was weird, Earl Rosewood was still dressing himself without any servant’s help.)
With so many nobles present, lunch was held in the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace.
The nobles who sat near the King and Queen praised them regularly for raising such a talented son. Yesterday, Prince Rian had shown off in that dazzling entrance, and today, Prince Rian had shown off his magical expertise and his ability to ally with another powerful mage.
Rian’s return smile appropriately warm and confident and mature and shy at the various praise he received.
Alexius was in awe of both Rian and Ayden. He was also imbued with the drive to study magic harder to be just as amazing as them.
Honestly, Ren Xiyang could have taught Alexius direct magic manipulation directly. There was no need to learn nonverbal casting first. However, direct magic manipulation was inherently more dangerous, and Ren Xiyang wasn’t sure Alexius was mature enough to handle that responsibility. So he played along with Rian in advising Alexius to take it step by step.
After lunch was over, the adult nobles retired to a collection of drawing rooms, while the noble children were ushered out to the gardens to mingle.
This included Rian, which meant Rian pulled Ayden along and didn’t let him go to the Royal University Bookstore by himself.
Count Aegean and his brother Sir Gerlach Aegean also followed them to the gardens to supervise the princes along with a host of Royal Guards and the other guards for the other noble children. Luckily, the gardens were very big, more than big enough to contain all these people.
Günter Blewitt was the first child to directly approach Rian and Earl Rosewood. “You were both pretty good today,” he said reluctantly. He paused, his eyes clearly wanting Rian to say something.
But Rian feigned ignorance.
Günter grounded his teeth. “Can you show me a bit of that ice sword?”
Alexius pursed his lips. “Can you cast nonverbally yet? No? Then don’t even think about it!” Anyway, Alexius was first in line to get tutoring from Rian and Ayden!
“I wasn’t talking to you, Your Highness,” Günter retorted.
Off at the sides, Count Aegean gave his younger brother a reprimanding look as Alexius and Günter verbally clashed again. “What have you been teaching Prince Alexius?”
Sir Gerlach Aegean wasn’t bothered. “His Highness is only ten. Prince Rian is a genius, there’s no need to compare—oh, what are they doing now?”
Count Aegean suddenly had a bad premonition.
Earl Rosewood had just asked Prince Rian if one of the Royal Guards could find them a wooden sword.
“Do you want a duel with swords now?” Rian asked eagerly. He called over two Royal Guards and demanded their metal swords.
“No, I want to show you something.” Ren Xiyang took one of the swords, drew it out of its scabbard and then dropped it onto the ground.
The owner of the sword inwardly winced. My sword!!!
Rian watched, frowning.
A moment later, Ren Xiyang did the direct-magic version of a levitation spell. The sword floated a hand span off the ground. He stepped lightly on top of the sword.
The owner of the sword grimaced. My poor sword! QAQ!!!!
By controlling the height of the blade, Ren Xiyang flew forward and up into the air.
“!!!!”
Down on the ground, Rian’s mouth dropped open, along with the mouths all the kids watching. Their gazes were stuck on Earl Rosewood flying up in the air, the dazzling sky as his background.
Ren Xiyang flew on the sword like it was a skateboard, weaving up through the air, going up high and descending steeply, and even doing a loop.
Rian finally recovered. “Earl Rosewood! You come back down here this instant and show me!”
Ren Xiyang had worked hard on this to show to Rian, at the expense of working on something more important like gender transition magic. But it was worth it.
He hid his smirk as he descended in front of Rian. He stopped, and remained levitating, just high enough that he was now taller than Rian. “Your Highness, surely you know the basic levitation spell?”
“There’s knowing it, and there’s controlling it while standing on it,” Rian countered.
“Remember how I taught you direct ice manipulation? It’s the same process,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian understood immediately. He took the other Royal Guard’s sword, unsheathed it, and put it on the ground too. He started first with nonverbally casting the levitation spell, studying how the magic worked, before taking over with direct magic manipulation.
Count Aegean wanted to close his eyes and ears and pretend that nothing of consequence was happening, that the young noble children were all having a great time socialising together with their two feet firmly on the ground.
He didn’t want to see that Rian’s borrowed sword was now floating off the ground with Rian balancing precariously on top of it, making slow circles around Earl Rosewood.
“You’re a quick learner, your Highness,” Ren Xiyang said.
“I’m hurt that you could have thought otherwise,” Rian countered as he slowly moved faster. “I could use a spell to stick my feet to the sword or vice versa, couldn’t I? Similar to skiing or snowboarding…”
“You could.”
Rian did just that, casting a sticking spell between the soles of his shoes and the metal blade of the sword. He courageously started to fly just a little higher, around waist height. By moving his feet he could partially steer the sword, just like how Earl Rosewood did it.
Alexius looked between his older brother and Ayden Rosewood with extreme envy. Seeing as his brother was engrossed in practising, he sneaked over to Ayden. His drew his brows together and made his eyes grow wet. “Earl Rosewood, can you teach me? I’ll…I’ll pay you three gold pieces! No, five!”
Rian: “…”
Ren Xiyang felt a trickle of amusement. “Can you directly manipulate magic yet, Your Highness?”
“No, but this must be easier than combat magic, right?”
“In the future, when you’re more skilled,” Ren Xiyang said firmly. It was easy to cast attacks. It was harder to precisely control the sword and make sure you didn’t fall off and die.
Alexius deflated, his imaginary puppy ears drooping.
Ren Xiyang, once again, didn’t know how to coax this child. He grimaced. “Perhaps…”
Alexius continued to act sad.
“Perhaps you can stand in front of me on the sword, okay?”
Alexius slowly looked up. “Do you mean it, Earl Rosewood?”
“Yes. But it means I’ll have to hold onto you lest you fall.”
Alexius brightened immediately, his entire face becoming sunny and his imaginary tail wagging like mad. “Thank you!”
Ren Xiyang lowered the sword’s floating height until it was on the ground and stepped back towards the hilt.
Alexius stepped onto the sword, excited as can be. He didn’t mind when Earl Rosewood wrapped an arm around his waist.
“Ready?” Ren Xiyang murmured.
“Yes!”
“Don’t be scared.” Ren Xiyang raised the height of the sword.
Alexius reflexively grabbed onto the arm around his waist as his eyes grew wide. As Earl Rosewood flew higher and faster, overtaking Rian, Alexius’s mouth curved into a giant grin. He laughed happily. This was so amazing! Haha, look, he was so tall now! And it was so smooth, so much smoother than riding on a horse!
Rian felt as though his chest was filled with sour vinegar. He narrowed his eyes at his little brother. Smart, smart little child, heh, look at him standing so close to Ayden like that, holding Ayden’s arm as the two flew around. No wonder his little brother grew up to become the male lead of the romance novel!
The other children in the gardens also watched, eyes hot. It looked fun, it looked awesome! They wanted to learn too! They wanted to go on a flying sword as well!
Günter selectively forgot that he had insulted Earl Rosewood previously. Alexius had tried to spend five gold coins to pay for Earl Rosewood’s help. Günter had a lot more money, he could tempt Earl Rosewood with more gold!
Tierri Mauveine watched with longing. Psychic magic? Forget that, this looked much more interesting and cool!
Cassiopeia, who was also in the gardens with her friends, wasn’t as impressed—her old world had so many different kinds of flying and flying-like contraptions. But she had to admit, it looked pretty fun. She wouldn’t use a sword though. Wouldn’t a larger flat surface be more suitable?
Count Aegean was done. He was done. He couldn’t deal with this any longer. He had to give Rian more work to compensate! He glared at his younger brother. “You supervise them, I’m taking a rest!"
Sir Gerlach Aegean sweated. Whoops, he hadn’t expected any of this!
After Count Aegean left, Ren Xiyang descended with Alexius. Günter Blewitt and Tierri Mauveine had both come over, along with some other opportunistic children.
“I want to fly too,” Günter demanded. “I’ll give you ten gold!”
The other children didn’t say anything, but they looked at Earl Rosewood with clear intention.
Ren Xiyang’s lips quirked up. “Oh? We don’t need to fly on a sword.” He glanced around the gardens. “This bench isn’t fixed to the ground.” He stepped off the sword and jumped on top of the backrest of the white garden bench.
The bench started to levitate.
“Three of you can get on first,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Okay!” Günter wasn’t shy, he immediately climbed on.
Tierri and another water-mage child also climbed on quickly.
With that, Ren Xiyang lifted off with the garden bench and three children.
“Yes!! Wow!!!” Günter exclaimed.
One of the children down on the ground made a decision. She grabbed her friends and dragged them over to where Prince Alexius was standing. This was now a line! A line for Earl Rosewood to take them flying! Her actions triggered more noble children to hurry over.
Rian gritted his teeth. Damn it, Ayden Rosewood! He wanted to join that line too, but he technically knew how to fly now, and joining that line would be bullying children and would collapse his image!
The various guards watched with complicated feelings as their charges flew up higher than buildings. Their charges laughed and giggled and spoke excitedly while the guards worried.
Sir Gerlach Aegean looked at the bright side: at least Count Aegean wasn’t here to see this.
Rian, you’re going to be made up of 99% vinegar at this rate….
Ren Xiyang: Now I just need some hanfu and I’ll be a cultivator.
Rian: (´･ω･`)?
Cassiopeia: Wait, what?
The October BL Newsletter (that I worked on!) is now here~
Queen Mira frowned. With the sound-amplification spell, she immediately said, “This match is now over! The duelling field’s shields must be repaired!”
Both Rian and Ren Xiyang stopped. Ren Xiyang’s fire staff dissipated.
Queen Mira ended her sound-amplification spell. She descended from her viewing platform and strode over to the magical control point of the duelling field’s shields.
Rian frowned as he straightened, his ice swords sublimating back to water vapour.
“Oh, what a shame,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian’s eyes snapped to Ayden. “You did that on purpose.”
“I wanted to break through your personal shield and severely injure you,” Ren Xiyang said serenely. “That way, you won’t pester me for another duel any time soon. But instead, you dodged and the attack hit the big shield instead.”
If Ren Xiyang had spread that fire energy over a wider area, it wouldn’t have been enough to crack the shields. But he had focused that energy into sharp diamond bullets of fire. All that pressure on very tiny spots was just enough to sound the alarm.
“You’re talking a lot, you did it on purpose,” Rian said drily.
Ren Xiyang walked over, looking over the wet and singed clothing on Rian’s body. “You don’t have enough magical energy left to defeat your little brother.” He reached out and placed a hand on Rian’s shoulder. “If I push you hard…”
Rian: “…” Both of them were using huge amounts of energy and magic. How could Ayden still have more energy?!
“You have a method to replenish your magic energy stores faster than me!” Rian suddenly realised.
“No. I just use free heat—heat generously supplied by the sun.”
Rian’s eyes widened. “You’re saying we should duel again in the winter when I should have the advantage.”
Ren Xiyang shrugged. “If you need the advantage, sure.”
Rian narrowed his eyes. “Earl Ayden Rosewood, the more I know you, the more I realise just what kind of person you really are.”
“I should say the same about you.”
They both gave each other a look.
Rian reached out first for a handshake. “Good game.”
“Good game.”
Satisfied that they were on the same page, they finally headed off the duelling field. Alexius raced down from the Imperial box to meet them and gush over the duel.
The watching audience had no idea what Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood had been talking about. But it was clear that there were no hard feelings between the two.
More than one person let out a sigh of relief as the tension during the match finally dissipated.
“Huh, why did the shield fail?”
“Can’t you see? The shields still look fine!”
“Was it all those attacks hitting the shield? Are they that strong?!”
“They probably forgot to refresh the spells.”
“Hmm, after such a fight, I’m feeling a bit hungry!”
As Queen Mira and the other mage located the fracture and realised what had happened, Queen Mira quietly made a note in her heart about Earl Rosewood.
After the duel, both Rian and Ren Xiyang changed their clothes into something more appropriate for lunch.
(It was weird, Earl Rosewood was still dressing himself without any servant’s help.)
With so many nobles present, lunch was held in the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace.
The nobles who sat near the King and Queen praised them regularly for raising such a talented son. Yesterday, Prince Rian had shown off in that dazzling entrance, and today, Prince Rian had shown off his magical expertise and his ability to ally with another powerful mage.
Rian’s return smile appropriately warm and confident and mature and shy at the various praise he received.
Alexius was in awe of both Rian and Ayden. He was also imbued with the drive to study magic harder to be just as amazing as them.
Honestly, Ren Xiyang could have taught Alexius direct magic manipulation directly. There was no need to learn nonverbal casting first. However, direct magic manipulation was inherently more dangerous, and Ren Xiyang wasn’t sure Alexius was mature enough to handle that responsibility. So he played along with Rian in advising Alexius to take it step by step.
After lunch was over, the adult nobles retired to a collection of drawing rooms, while the noble children were ushered out to the gardens to mingle.
This included Rian, which meant Rian pulled Ayden along and didn’t let him go to the Royal University Bookstore by himself.
Count Aegean and his brother Sir Gerlach Aegean also followed them to the gardens to supervise the princes along with a host of Royal Guards and the other guards for the other noble children. Luckily, the gardens were very big, more than big enough to contain all these people.
Günter Blewitt was the first child to directly approach Rian and Earl Rosewood. “You were both pretty good today,” he said reluctantly. He paused, his eyes clearly wanting Rian to say something.
But Rian feigned ignorance.
Günter grounded his teeth. “Can you show me a bit of that ice sword?”
Alexius pursed his lips. “Can you cast nonverbally yet? No? Then don’t even think about it!” Anyway, Alexius was first in line to get tutoring from Rian and Ayden!
“I wasn’t talking to you, Your Highness,” Günter retorted.
Off at the sides, Count Aegean gave his younger brother a reprimanding look as Alexius and Günter verbally clashed again. “What have you been teaching Prince Alexius?”
Sir Gerlach Aegean wasn’t bothered. “His Highness is only ten. Prince Rian is a genius, there’s no need to compare—oh, what are they doing now?”
Count Aegean suddenly had a bad premonition.
Earl Rosewood had just asked Prince Rian if one of the Royal Guards could find them a wooden sword.
“Do you want a duel with swords now?” Rian asked eagerly. He called over two Royal Guards and demanded their metal swords.
“No, I want to show you something.” Ren Xiyang took one of the swords, drew it out of its scabbard and then dropped it onto the ground.
The owner of the sword inwardly winced. My sword!!!
Rian watched, frowning.
A moment later, Ren Xiyang did the direct-magic version of a levitation spell. The sword floated a hand span off the ground. He stepped lightly on top of the sword.
The owner of the sword grimaced. My poor sword! QAQ!!!!
By controlling the height of the blade, Ren Xiyang flew forward and up into the air.
“!!!!”
Down on the ground, Rian’s mouth dropped open, along with the mouths all the kids watching. Their gazes were stuck on Earl Rosewood flying up in the air, the dazzling sky as his background.
Ren Xiyang flew on the sword like it was a skateboard, weaving up through the air, going up high and descending steeply, and even doing a loop.
Rian finally recovered. “Earl Rosewood! You come back down here this instant and show me!”
Ren Xiyang had worked hard on this to show to Rian, at the expense of working on something more important like gender transition magic. But it was worth it.
He hid his smirk as he descended in front of Rian. He stopped, and remained levitating, just high enough that he was now taller than Rian. “Your Highness, surely you know the basic levitation spell?”
“There’s knowing it, and there’s controlling it while standing on it,” Rian countered.
“Remember how I taught you direct ice manipulation? It’s the same process,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian understood immediately. He took the other Royal Guard’s sword, unsheathed it, and put it on the ground too. He started first with nonverbally casting the levitation spell, studying how the magic worked, before taking over with direct magic manipulation.
Count Aegean wanted to close his eyes and ears and pretend that nothing of consequence was happening, that the young noble children were all having a great time socialising together with their two feet firmly on the ground.
He didn’t want to see that Rian’s borrowed sword was now floating off the ground with Rian balancing precariously on top of it, making slow circles around Earl Rosewood.
“You’re a quick learner, your Highness,” Ren Xiyang said.
“I’m hurt that you could have thought otherwise,” Rian countered as he slowly moved faster. “I could use a spell to stick my feet to the sword or vice versa, couldn’t I? Similar to skiing or snowboarding…”
“You could.”
Rian did just that, casting a sticking spell between the soles of his shoes and the metal blade of the sword. He courageously started to fly just a little higher, around waist height. By moving his feet he could partially steer the sword, just like how Earl Rosewood did it.
Alexius looked between his older brother and Ayden Rosewood with extreme envy. Seeing as his brother was engrossed in practising, he sneaked over to Ayden. His drew his brows together and made his eyes grow wet. “Earl Rosewood, can you teach me? I’ll…I’ll pay you three gold pieces! No, five!”
Rian: “…”
Ren Xiyang felt a trickle of amusement. “Can you directly manipulate magic yet, Your Highness?”
“No, but this must be easier than combat magic, right?”
“In the future, when you’re more skilled,” Ren Xiyang said firmly. It was easy to cast attacks. It was harder to precisely control the sword and make sure you didn’t fall off and die.
Alexius deflated, his imaginary puppy ears drooping.
Ren Xiyang, once again, didn’t know how to coax this child. He grimaced. “Perhaps…”
Alexius continued to act sad.
“Perhaps you can stand in front of me on the sword, okay?”
Alexius slowly looked up. “Do you mean it, Earl Rosewood?”
“Yes. But it means I’ll have to hold onto you lest you fall.”
Alexius brightened immediately, his entire face becoming sunny and his imaginary tail wagging like mad. “Thank you!”
Ren Xiyang lowered the sword’s floating height until it was on the ground and stepped back towards the hilt.
Alexius stepped onto the sword, excited as can be. He didn’t mind when Earl Rosewood wrapped an arm around his waist.
“Ready?” Ren Xiyang murmured.
“Yes!”
“Don’t be scared.” Ren Xiyang raised the height of the sword.
Alexius reflexively grabbed onto the arm around his waist as his eyes grew wide. As Earl Rosewood flew higher and faster, overtaking Rian, Alexius’s mouth curved into a giant grin. He laughed happily. This was so amazing! Haha, look, he was so tall now! And it was so smooth, so much smoother than riding on a horse!
Rian felt as though his chest was filled with sour vinegar. He narrowed his eyes at his little brother. Smart, smart little child, heh, look at him standing so close to Ayden like that, holding Ayden’s arm as the two flew around. No wonder his little brother grew up to become the male lead of the romance novel!
The other children in the gardens also watched, eyes hot. It looked fun, it looked awesome! They wanted to learn too! They wanted to go on a flying sword as well!
Günter selectively forgot that he had insulted Earl Rosewood previously. Alexius had tried to spend five gold coins to pay for Earl Rosewood’s help. Günter had a lot more money, he could tempt Earl Rosewood with more gold!
Tierri Mauveine watched with longing. Psychic magic? Forget that, this looked much more interesting and cool!
Cassiopeia, who was also in the gardens with her friends, wasn’t as impressed—her old world had so many different kinds of flying and flying-like contraptions. But she had to admit, it looked pretty fun. She wouldn’t use a sword though. Wouldn’t a larger flat surface be more suitable?
Count Aegean was done. He was done. He couldn’t deal with this any longer. He had to give Rian more work to compensate! He glared at his younger brother. “You supervise them, I’m taking a rest!"
Sir Gerlach Aegean sweated. Whoops, he hadn’t expected any of this!
After Count Aegean left, Ren Xiyang descended with Alexius. Günter Blewitt and Tierri Mauveine had both come over, along with some other opportunistic children.
“I want to fly too,” Günter demanded. “I’ll give you ten gold!”
The other children didn’t say anything, but they looked at Earl Rosewood with clear intention.
Ren Xiyang’s lips quirked up. “Oh? We don’t need to fly on a sword.” He glanced around the gardens. “This bench isn’t fixed to the ground.” He stepped off the sword and jumped on top of the backrest of the white garden bench.
The bench started to levitate.
“Three of you can get on first,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Okay!” Günter wasn’t shy, he immediately climbed on.
Tierri and another water-mage child also climbed on quickly.
With that, Ren Xiyang lifted off with the garden bench and three children.
“Yes!! Wow!!!” Günter exclaimed.
One of the children down on the ground made a decision. She grabbed her friends and dragged them over to where Prince Alexius was standing. This was now a line! A line for Earl Rosewood to take them flying! Her actions triggered more noble children to hurry over.
Rian gritted his teeth. Damn it, Ayden Rosewood! He wanted to join that line too, but he technically knew how to fly now, and joining that line would be bullying children and would collapse his image!
The various guards watched with complicated feelings as their charges flew up higher than buildings. Their charges laughed and giggled and spoke excitedly while the guards worried.
Sir Gerlach Aegean looked at the bright side: at least Count Aegean wasn’t here to see this.
Rian, you’re going to be made up of 99% vinegar at this rate….
Ren Xiyang: Now I just need some hanfu and I’ll be a cultivator.
Rian: (´･ω･`)?
Cassiopeia: Wait, what?
The October BL Newsletter (that I worked on!) is now here~
