The next day, Ren Xiyang woke up early once again. After waiting until the patrolling guard turned away, he went out through the window.
Ren Xiyang simply ran around the estate, visiting the farms. It was reassuring to know that things were growing free from the taint of the zombie virus.
He was still sore from the exercise yesterday, though.
He walked back to the manor at a sedate pace. He quietly waited for the guard to face the opposite direction and walk a distance before flying back into his rooms.
He only wiped himself off, rather than wasting water on a bath. He straightened his hair again, tying most of it up. Then, he sat down at his desk. Piles of papers with all his notes awaited him.
The lighting in his suite was entirely provided by magical lights which produced a softened version of light that was the same colour as sunlight. He wanted to study how the magical lights worked…but he had already spent the entirety of yesterday on farming and magic-spell-learning.
His primary objective wasn’t ‘to farm’. It was to prevent the future zombie plague-curse from occurring.
If the disease was inevitable or had an unknown origin, then he would need to consider preventative and preparatory measures, such as setting up hospitals and quarantine facilities and communicating germ theory and the necessity of hand-washing.
But the novel laid out the origin of the plague-curse: it was developed in a magical laboratory in the neighbouring kingdom, with the research starting in three years.
Ren Xiyang had many options, some of which involved murder and some of which didn’t.
Murder was definitely the easiest. All it required was Ren Xiyang flying over there, finding the targets, and then killing.
Unfortunately, the problem with assassinating the key people involved was that others could simply step in to take their place, with the murders giving them another reason to continue their research.
He could try and entice some of the magical researchers over to his fief instead. He could fund his own magical research conference, invite those magical researchers, and impart guidelines for ethical research.
He could go to war with the other kingdom, or he could improve diplomatic and trade relationships.
Every option had costs, consequences, uncertainties, risks and trade-offs.
Ren Xiyang grimaced. At the end of the day, it was all politics, annoyingly. If only there was someone who could deal with the politics for him.
Rian felt a tickle in his nose. He rubbed it casually as he read on the trade and diplomatic relations between his kingdom, Sedaveria, and the Angio Kingdom.
He had expressed interest in Angio to Count Aegean, and the Count willingly imparted knowledge and assigned reading based on the Angio Kingdom.
The plague-curse had come from Angio Kingdom.
The plague-curse was meant to cripple Sedaveria so that the land was ripe for the taking. In reality, Angio had pitted themselves, as the plague-curse spread into their own country after it was seeded in Sedaveria
Rian considered and discarded many options to deal with Angio.
War wasn’t worth it for Sedaveria. Angio wasn’t stronger than them, but they weren’t weak either. Instead of his people dying from the plague-curse, they would be dying on the battlefield instead. The cost to the Imperial coffers would be immense and it would be very difficult for him to convince his Imperial Father to go to war.
After deliberation, Rian felt that the best way to prevent the plague-curse development from beginning was to tie some national interests together. The first step was to have important Angio citizens frequently visiting and staying in Sedaveria and to establish some mutually beneficial trading. As a secondary measure, he wanted to secretly monitor Angio’s healer-researchers.
Everything had a layer of difficulty for Rian: he needed to nudge his Imperial Father to implement all this without his father knowing his true purpose. He might be a prince, and he might be reborn, but he was still constrained in this twelve-year-old body.
Rian raised his head, gazing without focusing on his surroundings. He wondered what Ayden Rosewood planned to do next.
Ren Xiyang was planning to have breakfast next. After the servants knocked, Ren Xiyang went to open the door to let them in.
“Young Master Rosewood, breakfast—” Kel’s eyes widened in shock.
The distinctive red hair was gone! In its place was straight black hair, with part of it tied up. Ayden Rosewood really had used the hair-colour changing charms?!
Ren Xiyang stepped to the side, allowing Kel in.
Kel recovered from her shock. “Young Master Rosewood, was the hair-colour charm suitable?” she asked hesitantly as she placed the tray of breakfast down on the desk.
Ren Xiyang gave the smallest smile, which made him look as young as he should be. “Yes, thank you.”
Kel smiled brightly. “I’m glad you liked it, Young Master Rosewood. For breakfast, the cooks have prepared assorted fruit, small butter pastries, almonds, and a glass of milk.”
After bowing, she left the room and closed the door.
And then she hurried down to the kitchens to update everyone!
While the servants at the Rosewood summer manor were trying to puzzle out their new master, the news of the Rosewood murders and the rumours about ‘Ayden Rosewood’ was the talk at the breakfast table of aristocrats across the kingdom.
How scary that the Rosewood family was assassinated like this! Being a noble wasn’t entirely safe, but no one expected something like this could happen in this day and age.
And who was Ayden Rosewood? Who was the mother of this bastard child? Or, was he not a Rosewood at all, and was merely a scammer? Was this child related to the murderers? Wasn’t his appearance too convenient? Who were the adults behind Ayden Rosewood’s sudden emergence into the limelight?
These rumours were prominent on the minds of the Rosewood managers at the main house in the Capital.
Senior Manager Gregory received Ayden Rosewood’s letter first. He read it, scowled, and then showed it to the other managers.
The managers of the Rosewood estate all had family links to noble houses, albeit from the lowest ranks. They didn’t think that this unknown ‘Ayden Rosewood’ should inherit, let alone order them to pay ‘entitlements’ to the commoner servants. Even if the estate paid ‘entitlements’, who was to say Ayden Rosewood didn’t plan to take that money from the commoner families’ hands afterwards?
In short, Ayden Rosewood’s actions were suspicious, and so after convening, they decided to notify the Investigators at the Capital and submitted the suspicious letter for analysis.
The Capital Investigators then sent the letter to the Investigators on the case at the Rosewood summer manor.
And those Investigators in turn gave a copy to Prince Rian Azure.
It was now evening. Rian had heard from his Royal Guards that they had heard from the Rosewood servants that Ayden Rosewood had dyed his hair black.
Rian also had a copy of Ayden Rosewood’s letter to the Rosewood managers.
Count Aegean was in Rian’s room. He read the letter after Rian finished. He handed the letter back with a snort.
“Who was Ayden Rosewood’s tutor? No respectable noble family has such a policy. Why would anyone pay dead servants who can’t work for six whole months?” Count Aegean shook his head. “Unless Ayden Rosewood has necromancy ties and can animate the dead servants for six months. And you said he dyed his hair black? The late Earl Rosewood would be very unhappy, assuming that Ayden is truly his son.” He stopped and then looked at Prince Rian. “I hope you don’t take that as a prompt to dye your own hair, Prince Rian.”
“I’ll keep that in mind to surprise you,” Rian said with a smile.
Personally, he wasn’t sceptical of Ayden Rosewood in the same way.
He didn’t think Ayden Rosewood was entirely lying. After Ayden Rosewood spoke to him about farming, he had grasped a part of his character. Taking that the Rosewood estate’s money all for himself didn’t seem in character, not when he was very willing to go and farm himself.
“If Ayden Rosewood inherits the estate, he might truly enact this new policy,” Rian said. “In that case, there will be repercussions for the rest of us. What if the servants decide they would rather quit and work for new Earl Ayden Rosewood instead?”
Count Aegean frowned. “The investigation is not over yet, and Ayden Rosewood’s lineage has not even been determined.”
“Then isn’t it about time it’s tested? Everyone is curious, after all.”
Count Aegean pursed his lips.
“I will tell my Imperial Mother later,” Rian decided.
“Don’t dwell too long on it,” Count Aegean said in a warning tone. “Let’s continue your study of the Angio Kingdom.”
“Angio has some delicacies that we don’t have. Do you think Imperial Mother would like to have some of those served at one of the upcoming social functions? We can have some Angio nobility and their chefs visit. Of course, we’ll also have delicacies from the Aegean fief,” Rian added.
Count Aegean had a hint of approval on his face. “It’s good that Your Highness is finally taking an interest in the social functions. For you, more than any other, these social events are where you will form the networks to serve you into the future…”
Rian put on an attentive listening expression. In comparison to nudging his Imperial Father, planting seeds of ideas in Count Aegean was easy.
Count Aegean: Don’t dye your hair too!
Rian: I wasn’t planning to, but maybe I will now.
Count Aegean: ….
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