Anya’s lips curled up. “Do you have something in mind?”

“Maybe,” Ren Xiyang said. “But I need to think about it some more. Do you have any literature reviews about magical herb research?”

“You could ask me what you want to know.”

“I don’t exactly know what I want to know.”

Anya laughed. “Let’s go back to my office, I’ll give you a textbook on the topic.”

Back in Anya’s office, Anya pulled a book out of a tall pile of books. “Here you go. Keep it, it’s yours.”

The book was written by Anya herself with other colleagues, dated a few years ago.

“Thank you.”

“I understand that you don’t have much time to decide on a research topic,” Anya said.

Ren Xiyang nodded. “I’ll decide by tomorrow and contact you.”

“Very well.”

“Now, about the rest of the agenda.”

“You’ve seen my current research now,” Anya said. “Prince Rian wants you to give a talk at the university.”

“Yes.” Ren Xiyang’s eyes softened for a brief moment. “I wouldn’t mind giving a talk, if there are interested people at the university.”

“How about this. You can come to my group meeting next week, and give a short overview about your research then. I’ll see if I can invite someone from plant research too.”

“Thank you.”

 

---

 

After meeting with Anya, Ren Xiyang returned to the Rosewood house. He had a healing session with Prince Pollux and a meeting with Florence. The target opening date for the new restaurant was after the new year, in the winter when vegetables were rarer and more expensive. In between meetings, Ren Xiyang read the contents page of the book that Anya gave him and skimmed several figures and diagrams.

Rian came over for dinner at the Rosewood house, and Ren Xiyang went with him back to the academy.

Ren Xiyang sat on the sofa, and Rian straddled his lap.

“So, what project did you decide on?” Rian said, as he snuck a hand under Ren Xiyang’s shirt.

Ren Xiyang: “…Are we going to talk like this?”

Rian smirked. “What’s the problem?”

“Anya showed me her laboratory. She didn’t seem too interested in the projects I proposed.”

Rian frowned. “Then—”

“She thought they were too easy for me, and that I didn’t need her help on any of them.”

“Indeed.”

“I’ve been thinking about magical plants, and possible research projects related to them. I talked with Florence earlier about it too.”

Rian’s lips thinned. “Did you already decide with Florence then?”

“I haven’t. I wanted to talk to you.” Ren Xiyang kissed the jealous Rian on the lips. “I hadn’t realised how interesting magical plants are. They develop unique magical properties, all on their own, and can interact with the human body in very specific ways. A large component of Anya’s research is enhancing the potency of current known magical herbs, but I think that’s too incremental. So, I thought about developing a potion for plant fertilisation, or studying magical plants to make our own magical-plant-inspired energy absorbing devices.”

“Hmm.”

Ren Xiyang curled his lips up. “I like the idea of using magical plants to help non-magical plants grow. Or a garden of magical plants that power the magical devices of the building inside. When I thought about you, I thought about the development of magical plant defence systems.”

“How does that relate to me?”

“You’re obsessed with duelling.”

Rian nodded. “That’s true, we should duel now. I don’t want to wait until my birthday.”

Ren Xiyang poked him in the side. “What makes you think I’d give you a duel as a gift on your next birthday? What if I’m planning something else?”

“Let’s connect and I’ll find out," Rian said, pushing over a telepathic connection.

Ren Xiyang denied him. “I’m meant to keep us to our agenda. I also thought about developing ‘indicator’ magical plants, to indicate the health and chemical composition of the earth, to help determine if the other plants in the field need more water or fertiliser.”

“All of your ideas are good.”

“However, Anya has a medical focus to her research. And none of these ideas sound hard, right?”

“You are very smart,” Rian said.

“So, I thought of something that is hard. And I haven’t told Florence about this yet.” Ren Xiyang’s heart started to race a little, against his will. “Breeding a magical plant that can create synthesised hormones, or equivalently, a magical plant that can aid in the physical gender transition process.”

Rian’s expression become serious. “That would be hard. But out of all your ideas, that would also have the most impact. We already have plant fertilisers and energy-absorbing devices and defence spells. Right now, the number of healers with the ability conduct the transition is one.”

“More than one,” Ren Xiyang protested. “Cassiopeia, those Angio healers, and the Capital healers.”

“One and a half,” Rian amended with a pointed look. “Aside from Cassiopeia, I doubt the others know where—or how—to even start. And the process is quite lengthy. If you can develop a gender-transition potion, this could alleviate the bottleneck.”

“And other healers and doctors could dispense it,” Ren Xiyang said.

Rian smiled faintly. “In that case, it sounds like you’ve decided on your project.”

Ren Xiyang hesitated, then nodded. “I don’t think I’ll pitch it as such.”

“You’re conducting targeted magical synthesis.”

“Instead of incremental enhancements, I want to genetically modify plants to create something specific and known and not yet produced by any plant.”

Rian’s smile widened. “Amazing, my Lord.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Ren Xiyang relaxed. He rubbed Rian’s hips (where his hands had been resting). “What about you?”

“I spoke to Lord Cloud from the university and to my Imperial Father. My Imperial Father agrees that natural disaster prediction would be extremely useful to have. I have developed a multi-stage project, starting with weather forecasting.”

Ren Xiyang blinked. “Oh! Weather forecasting! My old world had that, before the zombie apocalypse.” He pursed his lips. “It’s quite hard and would be a multi-year project by itself. They used a lot of computers, and it was usually only right for a few days, if at all. Not to mention this world has mages who are powerful enough to affect the weather…”

Rian narrowed his eyes at Ren Xiyang. “You’re not thinking of messing up my forecasting, are you?”

“Don’t you want me to modify the weather so that your forecasting is correct?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Rian smirked.

“I was joking.”

“I was serious.”

Ren Xiyang kissed Rian.

Rian deepened the kiss right away.

 

---

 

With their projects decided, Ren Xiyang and Rian worked on the details, including the relevance to political science, and presented the research proposals to their supervisors and the group of supervisors. Both projects were accepted.

And so, the rhythm of their lives adjusted to a new schedule.

Ren Xiyang still returned to the Rosewood fief over the weekend.

The tax collection and census data gathering were completed and the Rosewood administrative staff moved onto the subsequent information consolidation. For the farmers in the fief, the main farming season was over—faster and easier than last year, due to the technological and magical help that was now available—which meant increased time for education. As it turned out, free food continued to be an attractive lure, as was the food prizes for high-achievers and successful completion of learning stages.

During the weekdays, Ren Xiyang went back to the Capital to see Rian.

He would head to the university on Tuesday, to spend time with Anya and her research group. Ren Xiyang had drawn up a plan, and for the first month, he wanted to learn more about magical plants and magical plant research. Then, he’d start genetically modifying them to see how they’d react.

On Wednesday afternoons, he met with Florence. The microgreens growing pipeline was well underway, and he liked discussing other plant projects with Florence, including his new vision of a scientific agricultural research institute.

On Thursday mornings, he met with Hadrian. Hadrian was making progress with his glass development, working on smoothing the process before scaling up.

On Thursday afternoons, he took part in the first year’s duelling class at the academy, alternating between subclass A and subclass B with Rian.

Throughout the week, he healed Prince Pollux. On every other week, he met with Prince Pollux and Alexius to advance the next generation of floating chairs and single-person vehicles, to test prototypes and decide on release dates.

Ren Xiyang also started hiring a few commoner mage students who agreed to work for him right away. They helped him at the Capital, working on either magical product production or as a research assistant on one of his research projects.

Ren Xiyang had many other meetings throughout the week, and the rest of his daylight hours were filled with work and research and tending to plants in his greenhouse and academy field.

At night, he returned to his quarters with Rian.

They talked about the Lavender-Dravite-Coral fief issues, including how they could support the people who had originally wanted to leave but had been illegally stopped. They talked about the progress of the LGBT+ primers, books, and general encyclopedias, which meant discussing Cassiopeia along the way.

Meanwhile, Rian’s days were no less busy.

He practiced duelling with Ren Xiyang in the morning, and coaxed Ren Xiyang to stop working and do something more fun at night. He made sure they had meals with the other students in the dining hall, and he regularly helped with first-year study sessions organised by Josephine and Neil. He also made sure Ren Xiyang attended the weekly class on life skills occasionally, and made sure that Ren Xiyang attended a joint research-study class together with other alternative-stream students.

It was inevitable that Rian and Ren Xiyang would have less contact with the other students. But perhaps that was a good thing after all. This way, Rian didn’t have to worry so much about Ren Xiyang’s admirers—Ren Xiyang’s mind was so full of research and work (and Rian) that he was completely oblivious to all the puppy-love-eyed students.

A female student even dared to asked Ren Xiyang to have afternoon tea on the weekend! Thankfully, Ren Xiyang had asked whether she was asking to work for him at the Rosewood fief on the weekend.

Rian declined for her.

Rian also had meetings with the Royal Healers’ Association and the Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program. He coordinated his secret agents to monitor suspicious nobles. He also secretly coordinated with Maria to ensure that the funding of novels, songs, and plays depicting the romance between men and men (and other related matters) were well underway.

And he also had his research. The concept of ‘weather forecasting’ made many people think of fortune-telling—something that wasn’t well-respected, because it was all charlatans. But with some vague descriptions from Ren Xiyang, Rian developed his own ideas and plans. His first step was to develop a magical map capable of nowcasting, i.e., able to accurately determine the current weather. Then, by recording the weather over hours, days, weeks, he could start to pick out patterns and determine the drivers of weather.

 

---

 

In the blink of an eye, over a month passed and it was the end of the year.

Queen Mira returned to the Capital to spend the new year with her family.

Her time in the Lavender, Coral, and Dravite fiefs had been enlightening. In fiefs far away from the Capital, the Royal authority was weak and the local authority was strong. Without frequent communication, the culture diverged.

To increase Royal authority and the connectedness of the kingdom, they needed trade, roads, fast vehicles, and long-distance communication devices.

All things that Rian and Earl Rosewood had worked on, together.

Seeing the Lavender, Coral, and Dravite fiefs also served to highlight just how different they were from the Rosewood fief.

Queen Mira suspected that even if the Rosewood fief was located far away from the Capital, Earl Rosewood would still bring the fief up to prosperity. The gap between Earl Rosewood’s ability and leadership, and the ability and leadership of Baron Lavender, Baron Dravite, and Earl Coral, was a chasm.

For his age, there was no-one comparable to Earl Rosewood, aside from Rian himself. Many people older also couldn’t compare to Earl Rosewood.

No other fief had had such a huge change in the last few years. And Queen Mira had been keeping an eye on Earl Rosewood since he first appeared out of thin air, so she knew that Earl Rosewood worked hard.

Queen Mira felt wry as she recalled all of Rian’s arguments about why Earl Rosewood was the most suitable romantic partner.

She had to admit…that from a power and ability perspective, Earl Rosewood was the most suitable person.

As for the matter of children…if Rian was willing to pass the line onto Alexius, then maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. That would be much better than infighting.

Upon returning to the Capital, Queen Mira and the Capital Investigators formally submitted the charges against the Lavender, Dravite and Coral lords, with the trials happening at the next Imperial Council Gathering.

And then, Queen Mira requested an audience with Earl Rosewood.

The servant at the door announced her next visitors.

“Your Majesty, Earl Rosewood is here for his meeting with you—”

“Hello, Imperial Mother,” Rian entered through the door first and smiled brightly.

“Rian,” Queen Mira said flatly.

“Good afternoon, Your Majesty,” Earl Rosewood said, following Rian in.

“Rian, you may leave,” Queen Mira said.

Rian blinked innocently. “But Ayden will tell me everything you said. I may as well be here and avoid any misunderstanding.”

Queen Mira looked at Earl Rosewood.

Earl Rosewood turned to Rian. “I’ll tell you everything anyway, why don’t you go and play with Alexius?”

“Don’t let my Imperial Mother bully you,” Rian said affectionately. He patted Earl Rosewood on the arm.

“You said that out loud,” Earl Rosewood said.

Rian blinked. “Oh?” He turned to Queen Mira and smiled innocently. “I was only joking.”

Queen Mira: “…Rian.”

Rian bowed and left.

“Earl Rosewood, take a seat.”

Earl Rosewood took the offered seat.

Queen Mira looked him silently. But Earl Rosewood was as steady as Rian and looked calmly back at her without saying anything.

 

 

 

---

 

Student #1: *has a crush on Rian*

Rian: Well, I am the Crown Prince ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Student #2: *has a crush on Ren Xiyang*

Rian: I must never allow Ren Xiyang to meet this person in private!

Ren Xiyang: Huh?

Rian: *innocent smile* I was just wondering about your research~

 

 

 

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