The Rosewood entourage left as new rumours involving Earl Rosewood started to brew.
Multiple servants and some visiting nobles had seen Lady Cassiopeia Schauss leaving the Imperial Palace distraught, while Earl Rosewood had a very angry expression. Something must have happened! Was there a disagreement between Lady Schauss and Earl Rosewood? Was Prince Rian’s presence the only reason why Lady Schauss made it out unscathed?
But then, Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian went flying over the Capital immediately afterwards, while Lady Schauss hid in her family home! So Prince Rian was implicitly taking Earl Rosewood’s side on whatever argument these children had.
What could they have argued over? Cassiopeia Schauss was so innocent, it was probably Earl Rosewood’s fault, right? Maybe Prince Rian also disagreed with Earl Rosewood, but he sided with Earl Rosewood due to Earl Rosewood’s power…a big mistake given that Cassiopeia Schauss was the only daughter of Duke Schauss!
But then again, maybe the disagreement was so horrible that Prince Rian sided with Earl Rosewood for a good reason…
What could the disagreement be about? No matter how much they wanted to know, the adult nobles restrained themselves from asking Prince Rian or Lady Schauss directly. After all, it was said that Duke Schauss said that it was a matter between children.
But then again, it was said that Prince Rian then implied it wasn’t just a matter between children. Did that mean Prince Rian was implicitly rebuffing Duke Schauss too?
Did Prince Rian want to rewrite the faction lines? Did Prince Rian plan to ally himself more with the other Duchies, like the Blewitt family and the Mauveine family? Or perhaps the Storm family? Prince Rian had danced with Lady Nicola Storm first in the most recent ball!
Or did Prince Rian want to promote Earl Rosewood to become a Duke in place of Duke Schauss? Prince Rian’s Royal Healers’ Service was unannounced, but most nobles knew about it. If that service could become the dominant healers’ organisation, then Duke Schauss would become a lot less important…
There were many things that Earl Rosewood did that the other nobles didn’t like. But not everyone liked Duke Schauss either.
In short, this entire matter was rife in speculation.
While adults might be reticent to ask, some children weren’t.
Rian still had his afternoon teas with his younger brother and various noble children. This afternoon, Günter Blewitt and Tierri Mauveine joined him.
And one Günter Blewitt was not shy in his speech.
“I heard that Earl Rosewood got in an argument with Cassiopeia, and now you want to ally with us!” Günter said. “Tell me what happened, so I can think about whether our families should be allies or not.”
Rian sipped his tea, amused. “Cousin, we’re already allies.” He was aware of how all the surrounding servants and guards stilled and listened.
“But when I grow up—”
“If he doesn’t want to be our ally, then it doesn’t matter anyway,” Alexius huffed, turning his head away from Günter.
Günter opened his mouth to protest.
“Günter, to answer your question,” Rian started, making Günter shut up, “We feel as though Lady Schauss doesn’t approve of the changes that Earl Rosewood has been making to his fief, nor does she appear to approve of the new dishes Earl Rosewood has been making.”
Günter crinkled his nose. “Well, if I was Earl Rosewood I wouldn’t do all those things he’s doing to his fief. But why does Lady Schauss hate Earl Rosewood’s food?”
“This is simply our impression,” Rian said vaguely.
Tierri frowned. “Your Highness, so is there a problem between Earl Rosewood and Lady Schauss?”
“My impression is that their fundamental values may not align,” Rian said with a sigh. “It might be related to policy and spending matters. Not to mention…” Rian lowered his voice. “You know about Duke Schauss’s pre-emptive actions when the late Earl Rosewood died…”
Tierri’s eyes flashed with understanding. He knew about Duke Schauss’s ill-timed petition. If it weren’t for the existence of Ayden Rosewood, the Rosewood fief might be getting subsumed into the Schauss fief right now.
“Does the Schauss family want to rise up?” Günter snorted. “Does he look down on my Blewitt family?”
“Their monopoly over healer training may be broken soon,” Tierri said, glancing at Prince Rian.
“My aim is always to improve our kingdom,” Rian said. “I wonder how your studies have been going, we need to work hard to keep up with Earl Rosewood.”
Günter made a face. “Father won’t let me have a small town to manage, like Earl Rosewood. But I learnt some nonverbal magic, more than you, Prince Alexius!”
Rian sipped his tea and nibbled on a scone, letting Günter and Alexius bicker and show off as much as they wished.
Tierri and the quiet servants around them were much more pensive.
It won’t take long for the rumours to change their tone.
Later that afternoon, Count Aegean walked into Prince Rian’s quarters and found Prince Rian reading through some healing textbooks.
Count Aegean took a look, his eyebrows raising slightly at the complicated text: it wasn’t simply healing spells, but rather historical methods for spell development and the theoretical analysis of known healing spells. “Interesting,” he said, with a tone of approval. “What bought on this reading?”
Rian stopped and smiled.
Count Aegean had a sinking feeling.
“Oh, I was talking with Earl Rosewood about healing recently.”
“…”
Rian’s smile faded and he became serious. “Since Duke Schauss doesn’t seem to want to help with the Royal Healers’ Service, I suspect that I need to know this, at least broadly.” And then he gave a sheepish smile. “I also suspect that the healers at the Capital Hospital may have internal conflicts against me, given that they remained sceptical about Earl Rosewood’s pathogen theories.”
“If you side with Earl Rosewood, then conflicts are unavoidable,” Count Aegean warned.
“But Earl Rosewood’s ideas are making a difference to the kingdom. You can’t deny that he’s done a lot since he became earl.”
“He has,” Count Aegean acknowledged. “Now put that book away. Did you read the eighth book on the history of Sedaveria? Answer my questions…”
Cassiopeia’s friends came to visit. Both Alexandra and Ethel were angry at Earl Rosewood on her behalf. They bought some gifts, which cheered Cassiopeia up a little.
“How could he? At least most people understand that it’s Earl Rosewood’s fault!” Alexandra said.
“What happened, by the way?” Ethel asked.
Cassiopeia frowned and show them the contract she had to sign.
In fact, aside from the public-facing clauses, there was a hidden component listing with more detail the information that couldn’t be revealed, encoded and distributed in such a way that it was unreadable unless all copies of the contract were recombined.
So there were some things that she could say. But Cassiopeia was scared of losing her magic. She was scared that Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood had set a trap for her, so she didn’t say anything aside from—
“—I don’t like Prince Rian or Earl Rosewood! Both of them…” Cassiopeia shook her head while her bottom lip trembled.
“Don’t worry, Earl Rosewood can’t touch you,” Ethel comforted. “Look at this new necklace I bought you!”
Cassiopeia put on a smile and enjoyed her time with her friends.
After her friends left, Cassiopeia was once again left to her own thoughts.
She was angry at how Prince Rian had dared to threaten her. She had a legitimate concern about ‘Earl Ayden Rosewood’, what was wrong about writing those letters? What if ‘Earl Ayden Rosewood’ had been a hidden threat to the kingdom?
She was angry at Alyssa/Ayden Rosewood. Why couldn’t Alyssa have been less suspicious? If she had been herself, then Cassiopeia wouldn’t have suspected her ‘Ayden’ persona and wouldn’t have sent those anonymous letters and wouldn’t have been threatened by Prince Rian and none of this bad stuff would have happened! She didn’t understand why Alyssa was betraying women by dressing and acting like a man. Alyssa probably had a lot of internalised misogyny from her previous life.
Cassiopeia remembered reading a novel about a villainess dressing up a guy to try and avoid destruction flags. Was that why Alyssa was pretending to be a guy? If it was like that, then maybe Cassiopeia could understand…but then there were all the things the two of them said to her.
That they wanted to change the future of the novel. And they wanted her to help them.
—No, the future of the world. The world that was real.
Cassiopeia was real, of course.
But if this world was real, then Cassiopeia had no advantage. She couldn’t control it. Her future, the future she was meant to have, might never come true.
The feeling of losing control was hard to bear. Nothing in the world seemed to make sense anymore. Nothing felt right.
She suddenly felt small and helpless, like she could talk and scream into the void and no one would listen. Like how her father didn’t listen to her when she had bought up her concerns about ‘Ayden’/Alyssa earlier.
Like how her parents in her previous life dismissed her…
Duke Schauss’s servants gathered the gossip that the other nobles wouldn’t say to his face.
His face stiffened when he heard that his old petition—which he never actually filed—was being bought up again.
Prince Rian’s in-progress Royal Healers’ Service was being discussed again, in particular how Duke Schauss was not involved in such a large healing initiative.
And the worse comment was—what does it mean when a duke does less than an earl?
If a large proportion of the aristocracy started to think that Duke Schauss didn’t deserve his status, then his status was already half lost.
Duke Schauss inwardly sneered. So, this was how Prince Rian wanted to ‘punish’ him. As though he hadn’t been the target of rumours before, and worse ones at that.
With Duke Schauss’s cold face and Cassiopeia's distraction, dinner at the Schauss residence was uncomfortable.
Perseus Schauss looked between his father and sister and a resolve formed in his heart. Without telling his family, Perseus sent a meeting request to Prince Rian.
And Prince Rian accepted, inviting him to join his next afternoon tea.
Winter was nipping at the heels of autumn, but Prince Rian’s gardens were kept warm.
Perseus took a seat at the table opposite Prince Rian. A palace servant served them both tea and stepped away.
Prince Alexius wasn’t there, because he had sniffed the scent of a ‘serious meeting’ and decided to have afternoon tea with other people.
After some tea-drinking and polite exchanges, Prince Rian finally put his cup down.
“So, how can I help you?”
“My sister has not been well since her visit,” Perseus said. “Speaking as her brother, what did you say to her?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Your Highness, I implore you to dissolve the contract.”
“It’s not in my best interest to do so. I need its guarantee…and Lady Cassiopeia should understand that she needs the guarantee too.”
Perseus wasn’t happy. Prince Rian was treating Cassiopeia poorly.
“Sedaveria regularly suffers from disease and plagues,” Prince Rian said abruptly.
Perseus straightened. “The Schauss family have been healers for generations. Our family has helped keep Sedaveria protected against those kinds of enemies.”
“Helped nobles like ourselves,” Prince Rian said. “Helped those who could pay.”
Perseus was taken aback. “There are not many healers, we have to help the most important people first.”
“I hope that we could help more people in our lifetime. Study well, Lord Perseus. I look forward to your growth in the future.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Prince Rian asked Perseus some questions about his learnings and healing in general after that. Before Perseus left, Prince Rian also gave him a box containing a selection of sweet and savoury treats.
“Unfortunately, Lady Cassiopeia left before we could have morning tea. Take this and share it as you will, Lord Perseus.”
Perseus went home and was intercepted by his father. Sheepishly, he told his father what Prince Rian had said.
Duke Schauss’s lips thinned. “I see.”
After he was dismissed, Perseus went to the family’s sitting room and took a curious look at the box that Prince Rian had given him.
Cassiopeia happened to walk by. “Perseus, isn’t it late for afternoon tea?”
“Prince Rian gave me this.”
Cassiopeia’s stomach twisted. Prince Rian gave her brother something? She walked over and took a look at the food box and saw the small buns and dumplings and miniature pizza slices alongside the cakes and tarts. Her expression worsened. Those ‘new’ foods were yet more evidence about how Alyssa was wrecking the course of the novel!
Seeing her change in expression, Perseus closed the box of food again. “Never mind…it’s too late for afternoon tea.”
Cassiopeia gritted her teeth and forced out a smile. “No, brother, don’t let me stop you. I need to get back to study.”
Back at the Imperial Palace, Rian inwardly smiled. Sometimes it was fun to play little tricks.
Rian: ^_^
Nobles: It must be Earl Rosewood’s fault!
Rian, the one who threatened Cassiopeia directly and would have made her suffer a lot more if it weren’t for Ren Xiyang: *blinks innocently*
Ren Xiyang: *doesn’t know, doesn’t care, busy with important matters*
Nobles: Wait, no, it must be something wrong with the Schauss family! You know how they…
Duke Schauss: …
Rian: (◕‿◕)
The Rosewood entourage left as new rumours involving Earl Rosewood started to brew.
Multiple servants and some visiting nobles had seen Lady Cassiopeia Schauss leaving the Imperial Palace distraught, while Earl Rosewood had a very angry expression. Something must have happened! Was there a disagreement between Lady Schauss and Earl Rosewood? Was Prince Rian’s presence the only reason why Lady Schauss made it out unscathed?
But then, Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian went flying over the Capital immediately afterwards, while Lady Schauss hid in her family home! So Prince Rian was implicitly taking Earl Rosewood’s side on whatever argument these children had.
What could they have argued over? Cassiopeia Schauss was so innocent, it was probably Earl Rosewood’s fault, right? Maybe Prince Rian also disagreed with Earl Rosewood, but he sided with Earl Rosewood due to Earl Rosewood’s power…a big mistake given that Cassiopeia Schauss was the only daughter of Duke Schauss!
But then again, maybe the disagreement was so horrible that Prince Rian sided with Earl Rosewood for a good reason…
What could the disagreement be about? No matter how much they wanted to know, the adult nobles restrained themselves from asking Prince Rian or Lady Schauss directly. After all, it was said that Duke Schauss said that it was a matter between children.
But then again, it was said that Prince Rian then implied it wasn’t just a matter between children. Did that mean Prince Rian was implicitly rebuffing Duke Schauss too?
Did Prince Rian want to rewrite the faction lines? Did Prince Rian plan to ally himself more with the other Duchies, like the Blewitt family and the Mauveine family? Or perhaps the Storm family? Prince Rian had danced with Lady Nicola Storm first in the most recent ball!
Or did Prince Rian want to promote Earl Rosewood to become a Duke in place of Duke Schauss? Prince Rian’s Royal Healers’ Service was unannounced, but most nobles knew about it. If that service could become the dominant healers’ organisation, then Duke Schauss would become a lot less important…
There were many things that Earl Rosewood did that the other nobles didn’t like. But not everyone liked Duke Schauss either.
In short, this entire matter was rife in speculation.
While adults might be reticent to ask, some children weren’t.
Rian still had his afternoon teas with his younger brother and various noble children. This afternoon, Günter Blewitt and Tierri Mauveine joined him.
And one Günter Blewitt was not shy in his speech.
“I heard that Earl Rosewood got in an argument with Cassiopeia, and now you want to ally with us!” Günter said. “Tell me what happened, so I can think about whether our families should be allies or not.”
Rian sipped his tea, amused. “Cousin, we’re already allies.” He was aware of how all the surrounding servants and guards stilled and listened.
“But when I grow up—”
“If he doesn’t want to be our ally, then it doesn’t matter anyway,” Alexius huffed, turning his head away from Günter.
Günter opened his mouth to protest.
“Günter, to answer your question,” Rian started, making Günter shut up, “We feel as though Lady Schauss doesn’t approve of the changes that Earl Rosewood has been making to his fief, nor does she appear to approve of the new dishes Earl Rosewood has been making.”
Günter crinkled his nose. “Well, if I was Earl Rosewood I wouldn’t do all those things he’s doing to his fief. But why does Lady Schauss hate Earl Rosewood’s food?”
“This is simply our impression,” Rian said vaguely.
Tierri frowned. “Your Highness, so is there a problem between Earl Rosewood and Lady Schauss?”
“My impression is that their fundamental values may not align,” Rian said with a sigh. “It might be related to policy and spending matters. Not to mention…” Rian lowered his voice. “You know about Duke Schauss’s pre-emptive actions when the late Earl Rosewood died…”
Tierri’s eyes flashed with understanding. He knew about Duke Schauss’s ill-timed petition. If it weren’t for the existence of Ayden Rosewood, the Rosewood fief might be getting subsumed into the Schauss fief right now.
“Does the Schauss family want to rise up?” Günter snorted. “Does he look down on my Blewitt family?”
“Their monopoly over healer training may be broken soon,” Tierri said, glancing at Prince Rian.
“My aim is always to improve our kingdom,” Rian said. “I wonder how your studies have been going, we need to work hard to keep up with Earl Rosewood.”
Günter made a face. “Father won’t let me have a small town to manage, like Earl Rosewood. But I learnt some nonverbal magic, more than you, Prince Alexius!”
Rian sipped his tea and nibbled on a scone, letting Günter and Alexius bicker and show off as much as they wished.
Tierri and the quiet servants around them were much more pensive.
It won’t take long for the rumours to change their tone.
Later that afternoon, Count Aegean walked into Prince Rian’s quarters and found Prince Rian reading through some healing textbooks.
Count Aegean took a look, his eyebrows raising slightly at the complicated text: it wasn’t simply healing spells, but rather historical methods for spell development and the theoretical analysis of known healing spells. “Interesting,” he said, with a tone of approval. “What bought on this reading?”
Rian stopped and smiled.
Count Aegean had a sinking feeling.
“Oh, I was talking with Earl Rosewood about healing recently.”
“…”
Rian’s smile faded and he became serious. “Since Duke Schauss doesn’t seem to want to help with the Royal Healers’ Service, I suspect that I need to know this, at least broadly.” And then he gave a sheepish smile. “I also suspect that the healers at the Capital Hospital may have internal conflicts against me, given that they remained sceptical about Earl Rosewood’s pathogen theories.”
“If you side with Earl Rosewood, then conflicts are unavoidable,” Count Aegean warned.
“But Earl Rosewood’s ideas are making a difference to the kingdom. You can’t deny that he’s done a lot since he became earl.”
“He has,” Count Aegean acknowledged. “Now put that book away. Did you read the eighth book on the history of Sedaveria? Answer my questions…”
Cassiopeia’s friends came to visit. Both Alexandra and Ethel were angry at Earl Rosewood on her behalf. They bought some gifts, which cheered Cassiopeia up a little.
“How could he? At least most people understand that it’s Earl Rosewood’s fault!” Alexandra said.
“What happened, by the way?” Ethel asked.
Cassiopeia frowned and show them the contract she had to sign.
In fact, aside from the public-facing clauses, there was a hidden component listing with more detail the information that couldn’t be revealed, encoded and distributed in such a way that it was unreadable unless all copies of the contract were recombined.
So there were some things that she could say. But Cassiopeia was scared of losing her magic. She was scared that Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood had set a trap for her, so she didn’t say anything aside from—
“—I don’t like Prince Rian or Earl Rosewood! Both of them…” Cassiopeia shook her head while her bottom lip trembled.
“Don’t worry, Earl Rosewood can’t touch you,” Ethel comforted. “Look at this new necklace I bought you!”
Cassiopeia put on a smile and enjoyed her time with her friends.
After her friends left, Cassiopeia was once again left to her own thoughts.
She was angry at how Prince Rian had dared to threaten her. She had a legitimate concern about ‘Earl Ayden Rosewood’, what was wrong about writing those letters? What if ‘Earl Ayden Rosewood’ had been a hidden threat to the kingdom?
She was angry at Alyssa/Ayden Rosewood. Why couldn’t Alyssa have been less suspicious? If she had been herself, then Cassiopeia wouldn’t have suspected her ‘Ayden’ persona and wouldn’t have sent those anonymous letters and wouldn’t have been threatened by Prince Rian and none of this bad stuff would have happened! She didn’t understand why Alyssa was betraying women by dressing and acting like a man. Alyssa probably had a lot of internalised misogyny from her previous life.
Cassiopeia remembered reading a novel about a villainess dressing up a guy to try and avoid destruction flags. Was that why Alyssa was pretending to be a guy? If it was like that, then maybe Cassiopeia could understand…but then there were all the things the two of them said to her.
That they wanted to change the future of the novel. And they wanted her to help them.
—No, the future of the world. The world that was real.
Cassiopeia was real, of course.
But if this world was real, then Cassiopeia had no advantage. She couldn’t control it. Her future, the future she was meant to have, might never come true.
The feeling of losing control was hard to bear. Nothing in the world seemed to make sense anymore. Nothing felt right.
She suddenly felt small and helpless, like she could talk and scream into the void and no one would listen. Like how her father didn’t listen to her when she had bought up her concerns about ‘Ayden’/Alyssa earlier.
Like how her parents in her previous life dismissed her…
Duke Schauss’s servants gathered the gossip that the other nobles wouldn’t say to his face.
His face stiffened when he heard that his old petition—which he never actually filed—was being bought up again.
Prince Rian’s in-progress Royal Healers’ Service was being discussed again, in particular how Duke Schauss was not involved in such a large healing initiative.
And the worse comment was—what does it mean when a duke does less than an earl?
If a large proportion of the aristocracy started to think that Duke Schauss didn’t deserve his status, then his status was already half lost.
Duke Schauss inwardly sneered. So, this was how Prince Rian wanted to ‘punish’ him. As though he hadn’t been the target of rumours before, and worse ones at that.
With Duke Schauss’s cold face and Cassiopeia's distraction, dinner at the Schauss residence was uncomfortable.
Perseus Schauss looked between his father and sister and a resolve formed in his heart. Without telling his family, Perseus sent a meeting request to Prince Rian.
And Prince Rian accepted, inviting him to join his next afternoon tea.
Winter was nipping at the heels of autumn, but Prince Rian’s gardens were kept warm.
Perseus took a seat at the table opposite Prince Rian. A palace servant served them both tea and stepped away.
Prince Alexius wasn’t there, because he had sniffed the scent of a ‘serious meeting’ and decided to have afternoon tea with other people.
After some tea-drinking and polite exchanges, Prince Rian finally put his cup down.
“So, how can I help you?”
“My sister has not been well since her visit,” Perseus said. “Speaking as her brother, what did you say to her?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Your Highness, I implore you to dissolve the contract.”
“It’s not in my best interest to do so. I need its guarantee…and Lady Cassiopeia should understand that she needs the guarantee too.”
Perseus wasn’t happy. Prince Rian was treating Cassiopeia poorly.
“Sedaveria regularly suffers from disease and plagues,” Prince Rian said abruptly.
Perseus straightened. “The Schauss family have been healers for generations. Our family has helped keep Sedaveria protected against those kinds of enemies.”
“Helped nobles like ourselves,” Prince Rian said. “Helped those who could pay.”
Perseus was taken aback. “There are not many healers, we have to help the most important people first.”
“I hope that we could help more people in our lifetime. Study well, Lord Perseus. I look forward to your growth in the future.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Prince Rian asked Perseus some questions about his learnings and healing in general after that. Before Perseus left, Prince Rian also gave him a box containing a selection of sweet and savoury treats.
“Unfortunately, Lady Cassiopeia left before we could have morning tea. Take this and share it as you will, Lord Perseus.”
Perseus went home and was intercepted by his father. Sheepishly, he told his father what Prince Rian had said.
Duke Schauss’s lips thinned. “I see.”
After he was dismissed, Perseus went to the family’s sitting room and took a curious look at the box that Prince Rian had given him.
Cassiopeia happened to walk by. “Perseus, isn’t it late for afternoon tea?”
“Prince Rian gave me this.”
Cassiopeia’s stomach twisted. Prince Rian gave her brother something? She walked over and took a look at the food box and saw the small buns and dumplings and miniature pizza slices alongside the cakes and tarts. Her expression worsened. Those ‘new’ foods were yet more evidence about how Alyssa was wrecking the course of the novel!
Seeing her change in expression, Perseus closed the box of food again. “Never mind…it’s too late for afternoon tea.”
Cassiopeia gritted her teeth and forced out a smile. “No, brother, don’t let me stop you. I need to get back to study.”
Back at the Imperial Palace, Rian inwardly smiled. Sometimes it was fun to play little tricks.
Rian: ^_^
Nobles: It must be Earl Rosewood’s fault!
Rian, the one who threatened Cassiopeia directly and would have made her suffer a lot more if it weren’t for Ren Xiyang: *blinks innocently*
Ren Xiyang: *doesn’t know, doesn’t care, busy with important matters*
Nobles: Wait, no, it must be something wrong with the Schauss family! You know how they…
Duke Schauss: …
Rian: (◕‿◕)
