Ren Xiyang waited until Rian reclined back on the sofa before taking a seat himself.
“Go ahead,” Rian said generously. He waved a lazy hand, levitating some of his papers over.
Ren Xiyang inwardly snorted. Who was Rian trying to impress?
The following session was as usual. Ren Xiyang checked and cross-referenced various internal matters. He suspected that by ‘copying’ Rian’s body, his own body’s physical age was ever so slowly catching up with Rian’s physical age. This wasn’t bad, probably.
Once he was done, he nudged Rian’s legs off the sofa and sat down on the now-vacated space.
Rian put his papers down. “I read your census report. You asked quite detailed questions.”
Ren Xiyang looked at him. “And?”
“However, given all the new migrants, I believe it’s now out of date.”
“But it’s still useful,” Ren Xiyang said. “Yes, there would be people who evaded the count, people who were accidentally missed, and new migrants. But are you going to give me gold to run another census?”
“Well, this depends on how you’re going to repay me,” Rian said with a suggestive edge to his voice.
“Yeah, no.”
Rian pouted. “Really?”
“I already know what you want, and no, we just duelled this morning.”
Rian sighed. “Am I not your best friend?”
Ren Xiyang inwardly rolled his eyes. “You are.”
“And so…”
Ren Xiyang was speechless when Rian pulled off a puppy-dog expression. “Not so soon.”
“Well, that depends on your definition of soon.”
“At least six months.”
Rian still wasn’t satisfied. “What if I give you a bigger cut of the profits for the new flying carriages?”
“Maybe.”
Rian gave a quick smile. “That’s a yes from you then! Let’s work on the carriages some more—”
“I’ve been thinking about our old contracts,” Ren Xiyang said. They had already spent the entire week working on those flying carriages before the duel.
Rian pouted but he stood up. “I still have them.” He went over to his desk’s secret compartment and pulled his copies out.
Ren Xiyang glanced over the contracts.
The contracts listed their original plans. For Rian, it was to invest in medical research in Sedaveria and develop good diplomatic relations with the Angio Kingdom. For Ren Xiyang, it was to invite and welcome the magical medical researchers from the Angio Kingdom to Sedaveria and cooperate with Prince Rian on matters about the Angio Kingdom and medical research.
In retrospect, it was easier said than done, especially since they both had other responsibilities, wanted to make money, and because those in the Angio Kingdom and Sedaveria weren’t as cooperative as they could be.
“Neither of us placed strict dates or timelines,” Rian said. He smirked. “They’re not magical contracts, so neither of us truly needs to comply.”
“And I didn’t sign with my real name, either.”
Rian sighed wistfully. “If it was a magical contract, it wouldn’t matter if you used a different name. I must have been too excited to think clearly.”
Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “You were excited?”
Rian gave him a pointed look. “Weren’t you pleasantly surprised to find that someone else knew about the state of this world?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You’ve certainly warmed up,” Rian said. “I remember when you used to act cold to everyone else. But now you’re nice. You can return to just favouring me,” he added.
Ren Xiyang was taken aback. He had become nice? “I’ll decline the next year of social functions.”
“Have you forgotten the contracts already? You’re supposed to cooperate with me.”
“But there are no Angio ambassadors or medical researchers at those social functions,” Ren Xiyang countered.
“Then perhaps there will be, soon,” Rian said. “My Imperial Mother is still working on inviting Angio ambassadors. And it’s not a bad idea to invite selected talented commoners to some of those events.”
“I still rather not—”
“You’re going, or I’m dragging you along.” Rian took back the contracts. “Aside from improving Sedaveria, the key aim of these contracts was to avoid the plague-curse.”
“Are you sure we can’t duel their king?”
Rian raised his eyebrows. “Have you been thinking about this for a long time? I thought I was the one who liked duelling.”
“I’m surprised you’re trying to convince me otherwise.”
“Firstly, we can’t kill him, Xiyang,” Rian said sternly. “It would be a blatant war declaration, no matter how much the Angio citizens may dislike their king.”
Ren Xiyang knew this. That didn’t stop it from being a big shame that he couldn’t challenge the Angio king to a duel, win, and kill him along the way. “In that case, we could duel him without killing him.”
“Which is harder. King Augustus has killed multiple mages already in his duels. In a fight to the death, you could use all your strength. But when killing isn’t the desired outcome, you have to accurately judge and hold back and still win.”
“Are you afraid because he’s a lightning mage? There were modern ways to deal with lightning and electricity.”
“Suppose you don’t die. Then, what if you duel him and get injured? Who would heal you?”
Ren Xiyang’s lips tightened. Being incapacitated was one of his fears—he was afraid of being outed nonconsensually. This kind of thing was a too-familiar trope in novels and he had no intention of having it happen to him.
“Then I need to work hard to make my body indistinguishable from yours. Or you need to learn how to heal as well as Duke Schauss.”
Rian frowned.
Ren Xiyang continued, “Lightning isn’t too far removed from fire. I wanted to examine electricity and lightning magic anyway, and whether I could recreate some of my old world’s technologies. So what if we’re inefficient at lightning magic compared to lightning mages? We just need to be much better.”
Rian sighed. “We’re not going to be better than King Augustus. To be frank, my Imperial Father may not even be able to defeat him.”
“Then we should both train. Aren’t you going to become the king in the future? You should be better than your father. And I’ll be better than the Angio king.” Ren Xiyang’s tone was steady without fluctuations, as though each of those things was a given, as though it would just take some straightforward steps.
“It’s not as easy as you make it sound. There are matters we need to consider.”
“What if training involved duelling against each other or duelling as a pair against other mages?”
Rian’s eyes widened. “Oh~” He grinned, eyes shining. “Very well, if we must.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips quirked up in response.
“But, before we get too excited—”
Ren Xiyang gave the bright-eyed prince a pointed look.
“—We can’t kill the Angio king, or else we’ll trigger a war. But he can’t remain on the throne.” Rian’s smile turned from excited to serene. “So, what we want is a coup, but it can’t be done by our hands. If there’s any evidence that Sedaveria had a part in it, then there’ll always be resentment. I can’t suggest this action to my Imperial Father, lest he becomes suspicious that I want to stage a coup in Sedaveria afterwards.”
“Are you indirectly asking me whether I’d support you?” Ren Xiyang said drily.
“I asked nothing of the sort because I know you’ll support me,” Rian said. “We must encourage the good people of Angio to topple their king. As I expected, the Angio king enforced a corvee. From my reports, dissent mostly comes from the citizens. It hasn’t reached the worse point yet. However, there have already been a dozen deaths on the building site, along with the usual deaths over winter. Given that the Angio king only released some commoners to go back and farm, they’ll be having a famine soon just like in my first life.”
“If you try to make it worse by sending ‘bandits’ or inducing a worse famine, it won’t go well,” Ren Xiyang warned.
“Our goal is to indirectly show how useless and tyrannical their current king is. With your help, we can indirectly support better candidates through trade agreements and show how good life could be instead.”
“Are you going to give me more money?”
Rian cleared his throat. “I’m currently carefully maintaining my finances.” He gave Ren Xiyang a pointed look. “My Healers’ Service will benefit your fief.”
“Just checking,” Ren Xiyang said shamelessly.
“The service is on track to become fully operational in summer. How is your current progress in trading with Angio?”
“Without a proper visit, any trading has been indirect. I should visit Angio.” He looked at Rian. “We should both visit Angio to trade. If security is an issue, we can bring a few more powerful mages.”
“It’s not a simple matter for me to visit,” Rian said with a sigh. As the eldest prince, he would represent the Imperial Family of Sedaveria and would have to visit the Angio Court. But if only he went, instead of his Imperial Mother or Imperial Father, it would appear as though Sedaveria was belittling Angio by sending a young boy prince. Not to mention the work involved in organising an official visit with an unwilling Angio court.
“However, my Imperial Mother has been able to maintain contact with the Angio court. By the way, they finally admitted that they were unable to attend last summer’s ball.”
“If you can’t get them to invite you, then you could announce the visit. Short of declaring war, they won’t stop you,” Ren Xiyang said.
“An invitation is preferred,” Rian said. “You don’t like sudden visits from miscellaneous nobles, do you?”
“If they want to duel me and give me money, then it’s fine,” Ren Xiyang said.
“We’ll get a proper invitation to visit the Angio court,” Rian said firmly. “It’ll take some time. During which you and I need to make some preparations…”
Together, Ren Xiyang and Rian laid out new timelines and plans inside Prince Rian’s study room.
Outside, Imperial servants and various visitors moved back and forth; residents and merchants and tourists filled the bustling Capital streets, and farmers in their fields toiled the land.
With spring bringing forth new green leaves and new delicate flowers, there was a sense of change in the air.
*
*
*
Over the following months, Ren Xiyang and Rian were busy carrying out their plans, adjusting along the way as unexpected challenges and opportunities emerged.
The crops in the fields grew, were harvested, and new crops were planted to begin the cycle again.
The seasons changed and changed again. New roads and buildings appeared across the Rosewood fief.
And, in what felt like a blink of an eye, it was nearly two years later, and Prince Rian’s 15th birthday was now approaching.
;P
Well, that was the time skip >w
Ren Xiyang waited until Rian reclined back on the sofa before taking a seat himself.
“Go ahead,” Rian said generously. He waved a lazy hand, levitating some of his papers over.
Ren Xiyang inwardly snorted. Who was Rian trying to impress?
The following session was as usual. Ren Xiyang checked and cross-referenced various internal matters. He suspected that by ‘copying’ Rian’s body, his own body’s physical age was ever so slowly catching up with Rian’s physical age. This wasn’t bad, probably.
Once he was done, he nudged Rian’s legs off the sofa and sat down on the now-vacated space.
Rian put his papers down. “I read your census report. You asked quite detailed questions.”
Ren Xiyang looked at him. “And?”
“However, given all the new migrants, I believe it’s now out of date.”
“But it’s still useful,” Ren Xiyang said. “Yes, there would be people who evaded the count, people who were accidentally missed, and new migrants. But are you going to give me gold to run another census?”
“Well, this depends on how you’re going to repay me,” Rian said with a suggestive edge to his voice.
“Yeah, no.”
Rian pouted. “Really?”
“I already know what you want, and no, we just duelled this morning.”
Rian sighed. “Am I not your best friend?”
Ren Xiyang inwardly rolled his eyes. “You are.”
“And so…”
Ren Xiyang was speechless when Rian pulled off a puppy-dog expression. “Not so soon.”
“Well, that depends on your definition of soon.”
“At least six months.”
Rian still wasn’t satisfied. “What if I give you a bigger cut of the profits for the new flying carriages?”
“Maybe.”
Rian gave a quick smile. “That’s a yes from you then! Let’s work on the carriages some more—”
“I’ve been thinking about our old contracts,” Ren Xiyang said. They had already spent the entire week working on those flying carriages before the duel.
Rian pouted but he stood up. “I still have them.” He went over to his desk’s secret compartment and pulled his copies out.
Ren Xiyang glanced over the contracts.
The contracts listed their original plans. For Rian, it was to invest in medical research in Sedaveria and develop good diplomatic relations with the Angio Kingdom. For Ren Xiyang, it was to invite and welcome the magical medical researchers from the Angio Kingdom to Sedaveria and cooperate with Prince Rian on matters about the Angio Kingdom and medical research.
In retrospect, it was easier said than done, especially since they both had other responsibilities, wanted to make money, and because those in the Angio Kingdom and Sedaveria weren’t as cooperative as they could be.
“Neither of us placed strict dates or timelines,” Rian said. He smirked. “They’re not magical contracts, so neither of us truly needs to comply.”
“And I didn’t sign with my real name, either.”
Rian sighed wistfully. “If it was a magical contract, it wouldn’t matter if you used a different name. I must have been too excited to think clearly.”
Ren Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “You were excited?”
Rian gave him a pointed look. “Weren’t you pleasantly surprised to find that someone else knew about the state of this world?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You’ve certainly warmed up,” Rian said. “I remember when you used to act cold to everyone else. But now you’re nice. You can return to just favouring me,” he added.
Ren Xiyang was taken aback. He had become nice? “I’ll decline the next year of social functions.”
“Have you forgotten the contracts already? You’re supposed to cooperate with me.”
“But there are no Angio ambassadors or medical researchers at those social functions,” Ren Xiyang countered.
“Then perhaps there will be, soon,” Rian said. “My Imperial Mother is still working on inviting Angio ambassadors. And it’s not a bad idea to invite selected talented commoners to some of those events.”
“I still rather not—”
“You’re going, or I’m dragging you along.” Rian took back the contracts. “Aside from improving Sedaveria, the key aim of these contracts was to avoid the plague-curse.”
“Are you sure we can’t duel their king?”
Rian raised his eyebrows. “Have you been thinking about this for a long time? I thought I was the one who liked duelling.”
“I’m surprised you’re trying to convince me otherwise.”
“Firstly, we can’t kill him, Xiyang,” Rian said sternly. “It would be a blatant war declaration, no matter how much the Angio citizens may dislike their king.”
Ren Xiyang knew this. That didn’t stop it from being a big shame that he couldn’t challenge the Angio king to a duel, win, and kill him along the way. “In that case, we could duel him without killing him.”
“Which is harder. King Augustus has killed multiple mages already in his duels. In a fight to the death, you could use all your strength. But when killing isn’t the desired outcome, you have to accurately judge and hold back and still win.”
“Are you afraid because he’s a lightning mage? There were modern ways to deal with lightning and electricity.”
“Suppose you don’t die. Then, what if you duel him and get injured? Who would heal you?”
Ren Xiyang’s lips tightened. Being incapacitated was one of his fears—he was afraid of being outed nonconsensually. This kind of thing was a too-familiar trope in novels and he had no intention of having it happen to him.
“Then I need to work hard to make my body indistinguishable from yours. Or you need to learn how to heal as well as Duke Schauss.”
Rian frowned.
Ren Xiyang continued, “Lightning isn’t too far removed from fire. I wanted to examine electricity and lightning magic anyway, and whether I could recreate some of my old world’s technologies. So what if we’re inefficient at lightning magic compared to lightning mages? We just need to be much better.”
Rian sighed. “We’re not going to be better than King Augustus. To be frank, my Imperial Father may not even be able to defeat him.”
“Then we should both train. Aren’t you going to become the king in the future? You should be better than your father. And I’ll be better than the Angio king.” Ren Xiyang’s tone was steady without fluctuations, as though each of those things was a given, as though it would just take some straightforward steps.
“It’s not as easy as you make it sound. There are matters we need to consider.”
“What if training involved duelling against each other or duelling as a pair against other mages?”
Rian’s eyes widened. “Oh~” He grinned, eyes shining. “Very well, if we must.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips quirked up in response.
“But, before we get too excited—”
Ren Xiyang gave the bright-eyed prince a pointed look.
“—We can’t kill the Angio king, or else we’ll trigger a war. But he can’t remain on the throne.” Rian’s smile turned from excited to serene. “So, what we want is a coup, but it can’t be done by our hands. If there’s any evidence that Sedaveria had a part in it, then there’ll always be resentment. I can’t suggest this action to my Imperial Father, lest he becomes suspicious that I want to stage a coup in Sedaveria afterwards.”
“Are you indirectly asking me whether I’d support you?” Ren Xiyang said drily.
“I asked nothing of the sort because I know you’ll support me,” Rian said. “We must encourage the good people of Angio to topple their king. As I expected, the Angio king enforced a corvee. From my reports, dissent mostly comes from the citizens. It hasn’t reached the worse point yet. However, there have already been a dozen deaths on the building site, along with the usual deaths over winter. Given that the Angio king only released some commoners to go back and farm, they’ll be having a famine soon just like in my first life.”
“If you try to make it worse by sending ‘bandits’ or inducing a worse famine, it won’t go well,” Ren Xiyang warned.
“Our goal is to indirectly show how useless and tyrannical their current king is. With your help, we can indirectly support better candidates through trade agreements and show how good life could be instead.”
“Are you going to give me more money?”
Rian cleared his throat. “I’m currently carefully maintaining my finances.” He gave Ren Xiyang a pointed look. “My Healers’ Service will benefit your fief.”
“Just checking,” Ren Xiyang said shamelessly.
“The service is on track to become fully operational in summer. How is your current progress in trading with Angio?”
“Without a proper visit, any trading has been indirect. I should visit Angio.” He looked at Rian. “We should both visit Angio to trade. If security is an issue, we can bring a few more powerful mages.”
“It’s not a simple matter for me to visit,” Rian said with a sigh. As the eldest prince, he would represent the Imperial Family of Sedaveria and would have to visit the Angio Court. But if only he went, instead of his Imperial Mother or Imperial Father, it would appear as though Sedaveria was belittling Angio by sending a young boy prince. Not to mention the work involved in organising an official visit with an unwilling Angio court.
“However, my Imperial Mother has been able to maintain contact with the Angio court. By the way, they finally admitted that they were unable to attend last summer’s ball.”
“If you can’t get them to invite you, then you could announce the visit. Short of declaring war, they won’t stop you,” Ren Xiyang said.
“An invitation is preferred,” Rian said. “You don’t like sudden visits from miscellaneous nobles, do you?”
“If they want to duel me and give me money, then it’s fine,” Ren Xiyang said.
“We’ll get a proper invitation to visit the Angio court,” Rian said firmly. “It’ll take some time. During which you and I need to make some preparations…”
Together, Ren Xiyang and Rian laid out new timelines and plans inside Prince Rian’s study room.
Outside, Imperial servants and various visitors moved back and forth; residents and merchants and tourists filled the bustling Capital streets, and farmers in their fields toiled the land.
With spring bringing forth new green leaves and new delicate flowers, there was a sense of change in the air.
*
*
*
Over the following months, Ren Xiyang and Rian were busy carrying out their plans, adjusting along the way as unexpected challenges and opportunities emerged.
The crops in the fields grew, were harvested, and new crops were planted to begin the cycle again.
The seasons changed and changed again. New roads and buildings appeared across the Rosewood fief.
And, in what felt like a blink of an eye, it was nearly two years later, and Prince Rian’s 15th birthday was now approaching.
;P
Well, that was the time skip >w
