Rian’s trip around the kingdom had been very fruitful. His retinue slowly but steadily increased with his people.
Though, not all the people that Rian ‘obtained’ were part of his retinue in his first life. Some of them were good people who had been hired by Alexius or others. Some of them were new people that Rian found with potential, such as young child commoners with magic. (Loyalty was best built early.)
Rian didn’t feel guilty taking “Alexius’s people.” Since Rian was going to stay alive in this life, Alexius won’t be becoming king and wouldn’t need these people. Rian needed them more. Alexius could just continue having a relaxing life—Rian would support him.
The first part of Rian’s trip was almost coming to a close. He was looking forward to the next destination: the Rosewood fief.
Rian arrived at the Rosewood fief just as the Rosewood fief’s harvest festival was beginning.
Ren Xiyang was waiting for him outside the Rosewood manor. His lips curled up. “Hungry, your Highness?”
“Extremely, after my long journey,” Rian immediately agreed. He dismissed most of his people, aside from the Royal Guards and went with Ren Xiyang to the ground floor room with the makeshift kitchen.
Once they were in the room alone, Rian cast a privacy spell. Then he turned very serious.
“Earl Rosewood. I received your roses and snacks.”
“Oh, good.”
Rian raised an eyebrow. “And why did you send them to Alexius and others too?”
“Because Baron Carmine cancelled the trade so I had leftover cut roses. I didn’t know what else to do with them, it’s not like all of them can be turned into soap. There are still some in cold storage if you want some more.”
“…You didn’t need to be so honest. We also need to work on your tone, Earl Rosewood. I hope you know who has given you the most things.”
Ren Xiyang pretended to think. “Well, it would soon be the Cordovan estate. Should I send them roses?” He smirked, ducking back as Rian attempted to grapple with him. “Now, now, Your Highness, be civilised or I might not feed you tonight.”
“You wouldn’t dare, Earl Xiyang.” Rian peered at the makeshift-kitchen area. “So, what heavenly delicacies will you cook tonight, just for me?”
“You’ll be the first to taste the dishes tonight,” Ren Xiyang said.
The corners of Rian’s lips curved right up. Hehe, good!
“In preparation for tomorrow, do you see this?” Ren Xiyang motioned towards a big lump of clay the size of his torso sitting on the ‘stove’ area of the makeshift kitchen.
Rian narrowed his eyes. “Yes. It’s hot.”
“That’s right, it’s currently baking. It’s called ‘beggar’s chicken’, and it needs to be baked in a low heat for many hours.” Ren Xiyang had been maintaining the heat magically since the afternoon.
“Beggar’s chicken.” Rian unconsciously made a face.
“The story goes that this dish was first made by a beggar who stole a chicken, potentially from an emperor. Pretend that I stole this chicken from you.”
“You’re resorting to thievery now?”
“Only from you. But before that…”
The side dishes for the beggar’s chicken were some vegetables. But in addition, Ren Xiyang made something that wasn’t a traditional side: potato chips.
He prepared both thick-cut and thin-cut potato chips, with some already pre-boiled or pre-fried. In front of Rian, he gave them a final deep fry and placed them all on a set of plates. It was accompanied by a trio of dips: tomato sauce, mustard, and spicy mayo.
Rian’s mouth salivated at the rich scent. He tried one, and—!!!! It was so good! He tried another type. This was even better!
Ren Xiyang also ate some deep-fried chips. “Good?”
“Deep frying in so much oil, you really are decadent,” Rian said right after and right before he ate some more chips.
“Only the best for the future Crown Prince.”
“I say, you’re getting better at flattery.”
“Oh, I was joking.”
“You’re not getting better at joking.” Rian ate another deep-fried potato chip. “But I’ll forgive you for now.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips curled up. “Uh-huh. Now don’t eat too much of those just yet, let me prepare the main course…”
Once they finished eating the main course, they went up to Ren Xiyang’s quarters while the Rosewood staff cleaned up.
Rian sat down on his usual sofa while Ren Xiyang took out dessert—a salted egg moon cake, cut into small triangular slices—and cups of tea.
Rian hummed in satisfaction as he had a taste of the moon cake. He sipped his tea. “Now, I suppose we should talk about the new agricultural improvements while I’m here, but since you already know everything I could tell you, what ever shall we do over the next few days?”
“I’ve acquired the clothing. Have you learnt the spells?”
“Indeed I have.” Rian rubbed his chin. “It would be quite amusing if we could slip the watch of my Royal Guards.”
“That depends on whether they’ll watch my window tomorrow or not,” Ren Xiyang replied.
Rian snickered. “We’ll see.”
“But there’s something I want to talk to you about,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Oh?”
“I want to make a heating talisman that can replenish its energy from the sun. It is possible?”
“The usual magical energy storage are crystals,” Rian said. “That said, there are energy-gathering arrays. If you combined it with a heating spell…”
Ren Xiyang took out some blank paper and a pen and started to sketch what he had in mind. “The heating talisman needs to be adjustable and activatable by non-mages. During the day, some kind of energy array would gather energy from sunlight, which is then released over the night. But I don’t know how this is written in talisman-form.”
Rian took a pen for himself. “These are the talisman spells that you could use, but we’ll have to figure out how to chain them together…”
Ren Xiyang moved over to Rian’s side to better read what Rian was writing. “How do you chain them together? You can’t just draw a line connecting them.”
Rian snorted. “Thank goodness I’m here. It’s more sophisticated than that…”
One light-coloured head and one dark-coloured head leaned in close as the number of used papers increased and the amount of tea in cups decreased. Complicated prototype talismans were scattered all over the table.
Eventually, Rian put down his pen. “Don’t you have a bedtime, Xiyang?”
“With you here, how could I go to sleep early?” Ren Xiyang moved to pick up the papers, but Rian placed his hand down first.
“No more work allowed.”
Ren Xiyang made a face.
“Don’t doubt me. We’ll continue on this later, it’ll be done before winter comes.”
Ren Xiyang exhaled, realising that he had made a face. The pressure of preparing for winter had clearly gotten to him. “Fine.”
Rian stood up. He said slowly, “Ren Xiyang, you should realise that you can’t help everyone.”
“Take care of yourself before you take care of others, I know,” Ren Xiyang replied, thinking of all those aeroplane safety videos pre-apocalypse.
“Spoken like a good noble. Now, don’t we have important things to do tomorrow?”
“You’re right.”
Rian raised his chin. “Of course I’m right. So sleep well, and be sprightly tomorrow morning for me, Earl Rosewood.”
Ren Xiyang gave back a wry smile. “Yes, Your Highness. Your wish is my command.”
“If only all of my wishes were your command…”
“Don’t push it, Rian.”
With one last bicker (or two), the two finally separated for bed.
The next day, Rian and Ren Xiyang had breakfast together and then both went up to Ren Xiyang’s suite.
“Don’t disturb us, we have many matters to discuss,” Rian said solemnly to his Royal Guards, right before he closed the door. He cast the sound-blocking spell first.
Then, both of them changed into ill-fitting worn old clothing with dried mud that Ren Xiyang had acquired, and Rian cast some spells to temporarily change their hair colours and eye colours to dull brown. They also tucked some old and battered copper coins into their various pockets.
“You can be Mud, my little brother,” Rian said, raising his hand to show how Ren Xiyang’s height was lower than his.
“Oh, shouldn’t you be called Luck, some boy who I protect from the harshness of the streets?” Ren Xiyang countered. “Look at your soft, fair skin. So sheltered and weak.”
“You’re weak.”
“No, you’re weak.”
In the end, Rian settled on the fake name ‘William’ and Ren Xiyang took on the fake name ‘John’.
Ren Xiyang went and opened the window. He glanced down.
There were Royal Guards outside the room’s door, and there were Royal Guards outside the manor, doubling the number of guards patrolling around. There was almost always someone looking around the area.
“Does His Highness know an invisibility spell or a misdirection spell?” Ren Xiyang asked.
“I do. It was handy while I was at the Imperial Magical Academy.” As the Crown Prince, Rian had been highly sought after while at the Academy. Sometimes, he needed a way to quickly slip away. He grabbed Ren Xiyang’s wooden sword leaning against the side wall and stepped on it. “Stand close.”
Ren Xiyang stood behind him on the sword. “Shall I?”
“I can do it.” Rian made the sword—and therefore the two of them—levitate a moment later. He then whispered a spell under his breath. It was part invisibility, part misdirection. Both worked together to make people’s gazes skip over them, though it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny if those guards stared hard.
At a small gap in the patrol, the two of them flew out of the window and up into the air.
Rian scanned the ground below them, but there weren’t any sudden movements. He stood taller, proud. “Looks like we escaped.”
“Do I need to praise you, William?”
Rian rolled his eyes. “Don’t fall.”
With that, the two headed to Redmond town.
Rian and Ren Xiyang landed on the outskirts of Redmond. After hiding the wooden sword, the two of them walked the rest of the way.
The Redmond Harvest Festival technically happened throughout the town, but the main festivities and activities were focused at the popular markets. Ren Xiyang led the way.
Rian was excited about this outing. He had never done this kind of thing before. He was always a prince, all day, every day. But now, no one gave them a second glance. It was a bit uncomfortable, actually. But he was also curious about this new experience and perspective.
It also felt very naughty, which was perfect.
The two ‘boys’ strolled down the streets. Around them, many people of all shapes and sizes sat, walked, ran, talked and gossiped.
“—Hey, who are you two! We’ve haven’t seen yous around!” a young voice called out, followed by some raucous shouting.
It was a group of street kids, orphans or effectively orphans, who ran together. They came to every charity lunch in Redmond town.
(The charity lunches should increase in frequency, and the housing for kids like them needed to be figured out too before the cold set in…)
Ren Xiyang pressed his lips together, not wanting to talk.
Rian, however, gave an easy grin and approached them, forcing Ren Xiyang to follow.
“Hello there. We’re visiting.”
The group of kids gave them a look of suspicion. “You talk like a rich kid,” one of them accused.
“Kicked out of my house, wasn’t I?” Rian said, acting sheepish. “All my clothes were stolen too…”
The kids made partly fake sounds of pity.
“I’m hungry, do you know where to buy some food?” Rian asked.
“…You have money?”
“I do.”
The eyes of the kids changed.
Ren Xiyang wanted to face-palm. He grabbed Rian’s wrist. “We’re going, now.” At that, he dragged Rian off.
The kids chased after them.
Rian laughed as he ran. To think, an earl and a prince reduced to running like this!
Ren Xiyang reached into his pockets and threw out some copper coins at the kids. They quickly came to a stop to pick the coins up, while Ren Xiyang and Rian escaped.
As they entered a more crowded area, Ren Xiyang stopped running and finally let go of Rian’s wrist.
“I would whack you on the head if it wouldn’t destroy even more of your brain cells,” Ren Xiyang grumbled.
Rian burst out laughing again. “What’s wrong? It’s not like they can beat us.”
Ren Xiyang couldn’t be bothered saying that it would risk revealing their identities. “Look. The main market.”
Rian finally stopped laughing and looked around.
The biggest market in Redmond town were tiny in comparison to the markets in the Capital. However, right now, the two of them were kids, standing amongst all the bustle instead of looking from above. Because of this, everything looked bigger.
There were colourful decorations, there was loud music and loud shouting. The dozens of stalls selling food and handicrafts and items of all kinds were all bustling. In a partly cleared area, a group of people were putting on acrobatic acts, and at the edge of the market, another person was telling a story with some puppets.
This was the complete opposite of what Rian had been doing this time in his first life.
In his first life, he had been studying quietly, he had been associating with the people his Imperial Parents had planned for him to associate with. He hadn’t yet been fully aware of the complexities and realities of the kingdom and its citizens.
As Ren Xiyang nudged him to enter the big crowd of commoners, Rian willingly stepped forward.
This second life might be stinkier than his first life, but he liked it much better.
Question: Why didn’t the Royal Guards think anything was wrong when Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood appeared to be spending quite a long time in Earl Rosewood’s suite?
Answer: Because everyone knows that the two of them like spending a lot of time together! And both Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian are known to work long hours on occasion and not stop regardless of hunger!
_stairswell drew some art of Ren Xiyang!!!! It’s so cute and villainous!
Rian’s trip around the kingdom had been very fruitful. His retinue slowly but steadily increased with his people.
Though, not all the people that Rian ‘obtained’ were part of his retinue in his first life. Some of them were good people who had been hired by Alexius or others. Some of them were new people that Rian found with potential, such as young child commoners with magic. (Loyalty was best built early.)
Rian didn’t feel guilty taking “Alexius’s people.” Since Rian was going to stay alive in this life, Alexius won’t be becoming king and wouldn’t need these people. Rian needed them more. Alexius could just continue having a relaxing life—Rian would support him.
The first part of Rian’s trip was almost coming to a close. He was looking forward to the next destination: the Rosewood fief.
Rian arrived at the Rosewood fief just as the Rosewood fief’s harvest festival was beginning.
Ren Xiyang was waiting for him outside the Rosewood manor. His lips curled up. “Hungry, your Highness?”
“Extremely, after my long journey,” Rian immediately agreed. He dismissed most of his people, aside from the Royal Guards and went with Ren Xiyang to the ground floor room with the makeshift kitchen.
Once they were in the room alone, Rian cast a privacy spell. Then he turned very serious.
“Earl Rosewood. I received your roses and snacks.”
“Oh, good.”
Rian raised an eyebrow. “And why did you send them to Alexius and others too?”
“Because Baron Carmine cancelled the trade so I had leftover cut roses. I didn’t know what else to do with them, it’s not like all of them can be turned into soap. There are still some in cold storage if you want some more.”
“…You didn’t need to be so honest. We also need to work on your tone, Earl Rosewood. I hope you know who has given you the most things.”
Ren Xiyang pretended to think. “Well, it would soon be the Cordovan estate. Should I send them roses?” He smirked, ducking back as Rian attempted to grapple with him. “Now, now, Your Highness, be civilised or I might not feed you tonight.”
“You wouldn’t dare, Earl Xiyang.” Rian peered at the makeshift-kitchen area. “So, what heavenly delicacies will you cook tonight, just for me?”
“You’ll be the first to taste the dishes tonight,” Ren Xiyang said.
The corners of Rian’s lips curved right up. Hehe, good!
“In preparation for tomorrow, do you see this?” Ren Xiyang motioned towards a big lump of clay the size of his torso sitting on the ‘stove’ area of the makeshift kitchen.
Rian narrowed his eyes. “Yes. It’s hot.”
“That’s right, it’s currently baking. It’s called ‘beggar’s chicken’, and it needs to be baked in a low heat for many hours.” Ren Xiyang had been maintaining the heat magically since the afternoon.
“Beggar’s chicken.” Rian unconsciously made a face.
“The story goes that this dish was first made by a beggar who stole a chicken, potentially from an emperor. Pretend that I stole this chicken from you.”
“You’re resorting to thievery now?”
“Only from you. But before that…”
The side dishes for the beggar’s chicken were some vegetables. But in addition, Ren Xiyang made something that wasn’t a traditional side: potato chips.
He prepared both thick-cut and thin-cut potato chips, with some already pre-boiled or pre-fried. In front of Rian, he gave them a final deep fry and placed them all on a set of plates. It was accompanied by a trio of dips: tomato sauce, mustard, and spicy mayo.
Rian’s mouth salivated at the rich scent. He tried one, and—!!!! It was so good! He tried another type. This was even better!
Ren Xiyang also ate some deep-fried chips. “Good?”
“Deep frying in so much oil, you really are decadent,” Rian said right after and right before he ate some more chips.
“Only the best for the future Crown Prince.”
“I say, you’re getting better at flattery.”
“Oh, I was joking.”
“You’re not getting better at joking.” Rian ate another deep-fried potato chip. “But I’ll forgive you for now.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips curled up. “Uh-huh. Now don’t eat too much of those just yet, let me prepare the main course…”
Once they finished eating the main course, they went up to Ren Xiyang’s quarters while the Rosewood staff cleaned up.
Rian sat down on his usual sofa while Ren Xiyang took out dessert—a salted egg moon cake, cut into small triangular slices—and cups of tea.
Rian hummed in satisfaction as he had a taste of the moon cake. He sipped his tea. “Now, I suppose we should talk about the new agricultural improvements while I’m here, but since you already know everything I could tell you, what ever shall we do over the next few days?”
“I’ve acquired the clothing. Have you learnt the spells?”
“Indeed I have.” Rian rubbed his chin. “It would be quite amusing if we could slip the watch of my Royal Guards.”
“That depends on whether they’ll watch my window tomorrow or not,” Ren Xiyang replied.
Rian snickered. “We’ll see.”
“But there’s something I want to talk to you about,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Oh?”
“I want to make a heating talisman that can replenish its energy from the sun. It is possible?”
“The usual magical energy storage are crystals,” Rian said. “That said, there are energy-gathering arrays. If you combined it with a heating spell…”
Ren Xiyang took out some blank paper and a pen and started to sketch what he had in mind. “The heating talisman needs to be adjustable and activatable by non-mages. During the day, some kind of energy array would gather energy from sunlight, which is then released over the night. But I don’t know how this is written in talisman-form.”
Rian took a pen for himself. “These are the talisman spells that you could use, but we’ll have to figure out how to chain them together…”
Ren Xiyang moved over to Rian’s side to better read what Rian was writing. “How do you chain them together? You can’t just draw a line connecting them.”
Rian snorted. “Thank goodness I’m here. It’s more sophisticated than that…”
One light-coloured head and one dark-coloured head leaned in close as the number of used papers increased and the amount of tea in cups decreased. Complicated prototype talismans were scattered all over the table.
Eventually, Rian put down his pen. “Don’t you have a bedtime, Xiyang?”
“With you here, how could I go to sleep early?” Ren Xiyang moved to pick up the papers, but Rian placed his hand down first.
“No more work allowed.”
Ren Xiyang made a face.
“Don’t doubt me. We’ll continue on this later, it’ll be done before winter comes.”
Ren Xiyang exhaled, realising that he had made a face. The pressure of preparing for winter had clearly gotten to him. “Fine.”
Rian stood up. He said slowly, “Ren Xiyang, you should realise that you can’t help everyone.”
“Take care of yourself before you take care of others, I know,” Ren Xiyang replied, thinking of all those aeroplane safety videos pre-apocalypse.
“Spoken like a good noble. Now, don’t we have important things to do tomorrow?”
“You’re right.”
Rian raised his chin. “Of course I’m right. So sleep well, and be sprightly tomorrow morning for me, Earl Rosewood.”
Ren Xiyang gave back a wry smile. “Yes, Your Highness. Your wish is my command.”
“If only all of my wishes were your command…”
“Don’t push it, Rian.”
With one last bicker (or two), the two finally separated for bed.
The next day, Rian and Ren Xiyang had breakfast together and then both went up to Ren Xiyang’s suite.
“Don’t disturb us, we have many matters to discuss,” Rian said solemnly to his Royal Guards, right before he closed the door. He cast the sound-blocking spell first.
Then, both of them changed into ill-fitting worn old clothing with dried mud that Ren Xiyang had acquired, and Rian cast some spells to temporarily change their hair colours and eye colours to dull brown. They also tucked some old and battered copper coins into their various pockets.
“You can be Mud, my little brother,” Rian said, raising his hand to show how Ren Xiyang’s height was lower than his.
“Oh, shouldn’t you be called Luck, some boy who I protect from the harshness of the streets?” Ren Xiyang countered. “Look at your soft, fair skin. So sheltered and weak.”
“You’re weak.”
“No, you’re weak.”
In the end, Rian settled on the fake name ‘William’ and Ren Xiyang took on the fake name ‘John’.
Ren Xiyang went and opened the window. He glanced down.
There were Royal Guards outside the room’s door, and there were Royal Guards outside the manor, doubling the number of guards patrolling around. There was almost always someone looking around the area.
“Does His Highness know an invisibility spell or a misdirection spell?” Ren Xiyang asked.
“I do. It was handy while I was at the Imperial Magical Academy.” As the Crown Prince, Rian had been highly sought after while at the Academy. Sometimes, he needed a way to quickly slip away. He grabbed Ren Xiyang’s wooden sword leaning against the side wall and stepped on it. “Stand close.”
Ren Xiyang stood behind him on the sword. “Shall I?”
“I can do it.” Rian made the sword—and therefore the two of them—levitate a moment later. He then whispered a spell under his breath. It was part invisibility, part misdirection. Both worked together to make people’s gazes skip over them, though it wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny if those guards stared hard.
At a small gap in the patrol, the two of them flew out of the window and up into the air.
Rian scanned the ground below them, but there weren’t any sudden movements. He stood taller, proud. “Looks like we escaped.”
“Do I need to praise you, William?”
Rian rolled his eyes. “Don’t fall.”
With that, the two headed to Redmond town.
Rian and Ren Xiyang landed on the outskirts of Redmond. After hiding the wooden sword, the two of them walked the rest of the way.
The Redmond Harvest Festival technically happened throughout the town, but the main festivities and activities were focused at the popular markets. Ren Xiyang led the way.
Rian was excited about this outing. He had never done this kind of thing before. He was always a prince, all day, every day. But now, no one gave them a second glance. It was a bit uncomfortable, actually. But he was also curious about this new experience and perspective.
It also felt very naughty, which was perfect.
The two ‘boys’ strolled down the streets. Around them, many people of all shapes and sizes sat, walked, ran, talked and gossiped.
“—Hey, who are you two! We’ve haven’t seen yous around!” a young voice called out, followed by some raucous shouting.
It was a group of street kids, orphans or effectively orphans, who ran together. They came to every charity lunch in Redmond town.
(The charity lunches should increase in frequency, and the housing for kids like them needed to be figured out too before the cold set in…)
Ren Xiyang pressed his lips together, not wanting to talk.
Rian, however, gave an easy grin and approached them, forcing Ren Xiyang to follow.
“Hello there. We’re visiting.”
The group of kids gave them a look of suspicion. “You talk like a rich kid,” one of them accused.
“Kicked out of my house, wasn’t I?” Rian said, acting sheepish. “All my clothes were stolen too…”
The kids made partly fake sounds of pity.
“I’m hungry, do you know where to buy some food?” Rian asked.
“…You have money?”
“I do.”
The eyes of the kids changed.
Ren Xiyang wanted to face-palm. He grabbed Rian’s wrist. “We’re going, now.” At that, he dragged Rian off.
The kids chased after them.
Rian laughed as he ran. To think, an earl and a prince reduced to running like this!
Ren Xiyang reached into his pockets and threw out some copper coins at the kids. They quickly came to a stop to pick the coins up, while Ren Xiyang and Rian escaped.
As they entered a more crowded area, Ren Xiyang stopped running and finally let go of Rian’s wrist.
“I would whack you on the head if it wouldn’t destroy even more of your brain cells,” Ren Xiyang grumbled.
Rian burst out laughing again. “What’s wrong? It’s not like they can beat us.”
Ren Xiyang couldn’t be bothered saying that it would risk revealing their identities. “Look. The main market.”
Rian finally stopped laughing and looked around.
The biggest market in Redmond town were tiny in comparison to the markets in the Capital. However, right now, the two of them were kids, standing amongst all the bustle instead of looking from above. Because of this, everything looked bigger.
There were colourful decorations, there was loud music and loud shouting. The dozens of stalls selling food and handicrafts and items of all kinds were all bustling. In a partly cleared area, a group of people were putting on acrobatic acts, and at the edge of the market, another person was telling a story with some puppets.
This was the complete opposite of what Rian had been doing this time in his first life.
In his first life, he had been studying quietly, he had been associating with the people his Imperial Parents had planned for him to associate with. He hadn’t yet been fully aware of the complexities and realities of the kingdom and its citizens.
As Ren Xiyang nudged him to enter the big crowd of commoners, Rian willingly stepped forward.
This second life might be stinkier than his first life, but he liked it much better.
Question: Why didn’t the Royal Guards think anything was wrong when Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood appeared to be spending quite a long time in Earl Rosewood’s suite?
Answer: Because everyone knows that the two of them like spending a lot of time together! And both Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian are known to work long hours on occasion and not stop regardless of hunger!
_stairswell drew some art of Ren Xiyang!!!! It’s so cute and villainous!
