This was the first time Ren Xiyang had met with Queen Mira alone.

Queen Mira’s office was large and spacious, with bookshelves, potted plants, a seating area, and large windows which let in ample light.

The large desk separated Ren Xiyang from Queen Mira. Unlike the cluttered full-to-the-brim feeling of Anya’s office, Queen Mira’s desk was neat and tidy. The items on her desk were elegant and functional.

Queen Mira’s magical aura was restrained, but her gaze was sharp.

Ren Xiyang wasn’t fully relaxed, but he also wasn’t worried. He trusted Rian. He knew Rian’s thoughts. Queen Mira couldn’t shake their relationship.

So he simply let her look at him without making any particular expression. Either Queen Mira liked him, or she didn’t. Regardless, he trusted that he and Queen Mira could manage a professional relationship going forward.

Across the Palace, Ren Xiyang sensed that Rian had encountered Alexius. He could imagine them bickering right now.

“I hear that you have been busy lately,” Queen Mira said. “What have you been doing?”

Ren Xiyang dutifully replied, touching on his research and his work for the Rosewood fief.

“Your focus is the Rosewood fief,” Queen Mira said. “You haven’t presented any proposals to the Imperial Council to make changes kingdom-wide.”

“Some changes don’t require the Council’s approval or legislative changes. The Royal Healers’ Association and the Royal Agricultural Development and Food Security Program allows me and Prince Rian to make a tangible difference, now, without waiting for the Imperial Council,” Ren Xiyang said. “As I understand it, Prince Rian had submitted a proposal to you.”

He didn’t need to state that Queen Mira had been quite slow on processing it, thus lending strength to this argument of avoiding the Imperial Council where possible.

Queen Mira’s expression became colder. “Oh yes, the marriage law amendments, based on the changes in the Rosewood fief. So that Prince Rian can marry you.”

“Otherwise, we would marry in the Rosewood fief,” Ren Xiyang said.

“And what makes you think we’d allow that?”

“Because Prince Rian won’t take no for an answer,” Ren Xiyang said. “He feels that it’s unfortunate that I won’t make an exception for us to be married in the Rosewood fief before we turn 18.”

Queen Mira: “…”

“I think he likes the idea of revealing that we’ve been secretly married for years, and not just that we have been secretly engaged for years,” Ren Xiyang added.

“What makes you think Prince Rian likes you? How did you and Prince Rian get together?”

“I think we work well together. I told him I liked him, and he kissed me,” Ren Xiyang said.

“Like? Not love?” Queen Mira said sharply.

If Queen Mira wasn’t embarrassed, then Ren Xiyang wasn’t embarrassed. “I love him now. That’s why I proposed to him. As it turned out, he had already prepared our rings.”

Queen Mira’s lips tightened. “You must understand the complications of two men together,” she said. “Prince Rian must have an heir. How do you plan to solve that?”

“We’ve discussed this. Prince Alexius will be the heir, and his future children.”

“What if Prince Rian decides he wants his own children in the future?”

“Then he and I will discuss the options going forward.”

“What options?” Queen Mira pressed.

“We could consider a surrogate or develop a magical method to have joint children.”

“A magical method? If it was so easy, don’t you think we’ll have something like that now?”

“New developments build on what has come before,” Ren Xiyang said.

“Are you truly willing to support Prince Rian and stand behind him for the rest of your life? Are you willing to sign a contract saying that you will never betray him?”

“Yes.”

“Will your background pose any risk to Prince Rian, the Royal Family, or the kingdom?”

“No,” Ren Xiyang said firmly. “There will be no problem. Rian already knows everything.”

“And you’re not going to tell me?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Queen Mira frowned.

Ren Xiyang looked back calmly.

“If you marry into the Royal Family,” Queen Mira said. “The Rosewood family line will end with you. Do you not feel guilty about being the last Rosewood? What would your ancestors think?”

In the original novel, Alyssa Rosewood had died young. And Ren Xiyang, occupying what had been Alyssa’s body, didn’t feel that kind of obligation.

“The Rosewood family may end, but its legacy will remain,” Ren Xiyang said. “I hope to set the Rosewood fief as a small democratic state in the future, where the title of ‘Lord Rosewood’ is bestowed upon the temporary elected leader. I hope Your Majesty would allow this.”

“You would trust a stranger to take charge of your fief?”

“I hope that there will be structures and systems in place to avoid misconduct,” Ren Xiyang said. “As demonstrated by others, having a nobleman rule a fief by right of blood is not a guarantee of quality.”

“How much gold do you want, to leave Prince Rian and allow him to marry a woman?”

Ren Xiyang blinked. “I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?”

“For your most recent birthday, Prince Rian gave you ten chests of gold. If I give you ten thousand chests of gold, will you be willing to leave him alone?”

Ren Xiyang felt a touch of helplessness. What had happened to his reputation? Did people really think he loved plants and gold above all else?

“Your Majesty, no amount of gold would tempt me to leave Prince Rian. Only Prince Rian himself could make me leave. Your Majesty, if you have ten thousand chests of gold to spare, I’d like that money to be donated to charitable causes.”

“So, you’re determined to marry Prince Rian and be his consort.”

Ren Xiyang nodded. “Yes.”

“Then what will you do in your role as Prince Rian’s consort?”

“Food, water, healthcare, housing, education, roads, transportation, waste management, and tax reform,” Ren Xiyang said.

Queen Mira frowned. “Oh?”

“—and administration, organisation, and many meetings.”

Queen Mira’s lips twitched. “And what will you do before you hypothetically become his consort?”

“I will expand my impact beyond the Rosewood fief.”

“Oh? How so?”

“I will work with Prince Rian, so that residents of other fiefs can enjoy the same quality of life as the people in the Rosewood fief.”

“With Prince Rian? Can’t you do anything by yourself?”

Ren Xiyang didn’t flinch. “The power of a single person can make ripple. But when we work together, we can create a wave. One person cannot change the fief—or the kingdom. We need many people working together, and I’m honoured to be able to work with all the people that I do. The changes in the Rosewood fief wouldn’t be possible without all the Rosewood staff and residents. It also wouldn’t be possible with Prince Rian. I’m very grateful for his support.”

“Not every fief is like the Rosewood fief. Not every person is amenable to you as Prince Rian. If the nobles or the people don’t accept your relationship, they may refuse to let Prince Rian ascend the throne.”

“We both understand this and are working on it.” Ren Xiyang said.

“How so?”

“I’ll send you the educational materials we’ve been preparing,” Ren Xiyang said.  He took out his trusty notebook and pen and made a note.

“Earl Rosewood, how would you spend ten thousand chests of gold?”

“If I could spend it right now…” Ren Xiyang flipped through his notebook to his reference list with areas of focus. “Soup kitchens, in every fief. Ten thousand chests of gold means ten chests of gold per fief.”

“And how do you expect that will work?”

“Following the process in the Rosewood fief—”

“Run by the nobles of each fief? Or do you want to send your own people out? There are almost a thousand fiefs in the kingdom.”

“The local people should also be involved,” Ren Xiyang said.

“The Church of the Saintess already runs soup kitchens across the kingdom,” Queen Mira said. “Have you thought about simply funding them?”

“How can the soup kitchens run by the church be on the same scale as ones run by the state?” Ren Xiyang countered. “The kingdom can use the revenue collected from taxes, while the church relies on charity.”

“The Church of the Saintess receives a sum of money from the kingdom coffers every month.”

Ren Xiyang blinked. “Oh. Are they regularly audited?”

“You don’t trust them? Or you don’t believe in the Saintess?”

Ren Xiyang smiled wryly. “I believe that powerful and benevolent healer mages exist and have existed. And I also know that organisations need to be audited.”

“If you believe it’s important, raise it at the next Imperial Council meeting,” Queen Mira challenged.

“It’s important but not the most important,” Ren Xiyang said, undaunted. Nevertheless, he jotted that down in his notebook too.

“Then, what is most important?”

“Food, water, housing,” Ren Xiyang said.

“In that case, Earl Rosewood, I will put you in charge of a fund with the equivalent of ten thousand chests of gold to provide food, water, and housing across the kingdom.”

Ren Xiyang jolted. “Your Majesty—”

“The fund will be organised after the new year. Are there any problems?”

Ren Xiyang shook his head. “The conditions of the fund—”

“It will be written out.”

“Thank you.”

“Not every fief is like yours, Earl Rosewood. I hope to see you look beyond the borders of your territory.”

Ren Xiyang bowed his head. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Then he wrote it down in his notebook.

Seeing the full list of things he needed to follow up on, he raised his head again. “Your Majesty, do you have any particular tips for staying organised? How do you manage projects?”

“How do you currently manage projects?”

Unconsciously, Ren Xiyang’s eyes brightened. “The Rosewood Group’s work has grown quite fast recently, and I’ve gained several students, so there’s a mixture of systems. I use this notebook to keep my schedule and capture action items and tasks as they come, but full project planning are either stored in folders or other notebooks. Technically, many projects are being managed by their own team leaders, but it’s important for me to have an overview and know how things are progressing. I’d like to unify the systems, but nothing feels quite right…”

 

---

 

Queen Mira leaned forward, curious as Earl Rosewood started to draw out examples of a ‘kanban board’ for visualising workflow and a ‘Gantt chart’ for laying out dependencies and timelines. Earl Rosewood explained how he was currently using them in different projects, and together, they discussed the benefits and the limitations of these methods.

Not long later, Queen Mira was showing Earl Rosewood some of her old work folders, full of papers, documents, and personnel information.

“…Yes, I hadn’t fully realised that. Short-term projects should be handled differently from something I expect to continue indefinitely,” Earl Rosewood said.

“Precisely,” Queen Mira said. “You’re still young. But with initiatives and long-term changes, it’s important be consistent and steady, and think about setting up self-sustaining systems over time, rather than enacting change as fast as possible.”

Earl Rosewood nodded. “Yes! Sustainability of changes has been on my mind a lot recently.”

“The team doing the work can be more crucial than the initial project plan itself,” Queen Mira continued. “As the queen of the kingdom, it’s impossible for me to tightly oversee what’s happening. Instead, our role is to inspire and to produce a vision in a team of skilled and competent individuals. It is their role to carry out that vision, using whichever system they most prefer.”

Earl Rosewood nodded and wrote down notes at the same time.

It was during this pause as Earl Rosewood wrote notes that Queen Mira realised that they had been talking about project management for longer than expected.

“Earl Rosewood, we’ll have to wrap up our meeting here. Are there any last matters?” Queen Mira asked.

“It was really interesting hearing about how you work,” Earl Rosewood said with bright eyes.

“Hm, your board and chart are also quite interesting.”

Earl Rosewood smiled shyly. “I learnt them from someone else…my unspeakable background, you know.”

Queen Mira snorted. “I know. Are you available for a meeting next week, after the new year?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After they scheduled a meeting, Queen Mira said, “When you leave, call in Prince Rian for me. I want to speak with him.”

Earl Rosewood stood up. “Yes, Your Majesty. Have a good day.”

After Earl Rosewood left, Queen Mira had one of her servants put away all the old folders she had pulled out to show Earl Rosewood.

Once that was done, Rian had arrived at her door.

“Imperial Mother, good morning again,” Rian said.

“Rian.”

“Ayden told me what you two spoke about.”

“How fast,” Queen Mira said drily.

As though Queen Mira didn’t know that he and Earl Rosewood had some kind of well-hidden telepathic spell between them. Tch, he was ten years too young to hide everything from her.

“I have something for you.” Queen Mira pulled out a slim folder.

Rian’s eyes brightened as he accepted it. “The marriage law amendments?”

“I’ve gone through them with my solicitors and we’ve made some comments. Address them and send it back to me.”

Rian turned his bright eyes towards Queen Mira. “Thank you, Imperial Mother!”

“I also have something else for you.”

Rian continued to smile, but there was a wary edge in his gaze. “Yes, Imperial Mother?”

“You know what’s happening to the Lavender, Dravite, and Coral fiefs.”

“The families are retaining control of their fiefs,” Rian said.

“And the junior members are expected to take charge,” Queen Mira said. “Your task is to oversee, supervise and aid the Dravite fief in particular during this transitional period.”

Rian straightened and put on a serious expression. “Understood, Imperial Mother.”

He took out a notebook, identical to Earl Rosewood’s, to write down a note.

Queen Mira’s lips twitched. Influenced by Earl Rosewood, no doubt. “Do you have anything to say to me?”

“May I help Ayden administer the new fund? Can he help me supervise the Dravite fief?”

“Oh? Can he and you do it by yourself?”

“The power of a single person can make ripple. But when we work together, we can create a wave,” Rian said, with a mischievous curl in his lips.

“Fine, do as you will.” Queen Mira waved Rian away. “And oh, stop teasing your brother!”

“I can’t, that’s impossible,” Rian said solemnly, right before he closed the door.

Now that Queen Mira had spoken directly with Earl Rosewood, she now realised just how frivolous Rian appeared in comparison. Sigh!

 

 

 

 

---

 

That evening:

Queen Mira: Earl Rosewood is a good and serious young man. His dedication to work is commendable. He also gets along better with Alexius than Rian.

King Edric: …...….…….….…

 

 

 

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