Aurelia needed further investigation, but if Marcus was really planning a coup, she had to make a decision.
If she ignored it, then that was implicit acceptance.
There was no neutral option.
Should she stop Marcus?
Should she let him try?
Should she let Marcus try to kill King Augustus first, and then come in and suppress Marcus?
The contract was still in place. It was laughably easy to kill King Augustus—just like how he easily killed non-mages at his whim.
She was Marcus’s biggest threat.
Should she attempt her own plot?
Dozens of possibilities mapped themselves out in her mind.
The way King Augustus was acting was unsatisfactory in Aurelia’s eyes. The current state could not keep going.
If she wanted to return his magic, then she should do it her way and disregard King Augustus’s permission.
If she didn’t want to return his magic, if she didn’t want him to rule anymore, then she needed to do what was necessary.
If she didn’t want Marcus to rule, she needed to do what was necessary.
She already knew the truth in her heart.
She knew King Augustus was a bad ruler.
And she knew that Prince Marcus would be equally unsuitable.
Look at how young Prince Rian was, yet look at all his organisations, his connections, and his power.
Look at how young Earl Rosewood was, yet look at his thriving, wealthy fief—a wealth that was created within the last three years.
Aurelia was older than them. She couldn’t be worse than them. And if she let King Augustus and Prince Marcus take charge, Angio would become weaker and poorer.
That was unacceptable.
She had to take charge.
Planning a coup wasn’t easy, though. Prince Marcus had his backing, and Aurelia needed her own backing.
Aurelia had a cynical feeling. Oh, the two people standing closest to King Augustus were thinking about his demise. King Augustus’s general suspicion and paranoia were well-founded.
“—And I now declare you husband and husband! And I declare you wife and wife!”
The gathered people cheered, clapped, and whistled as the two men and the two women kissed in front of their little town’s community hall.
The two couples had been living together for years, and almost everyone in their little town had known that they were together, and not merely good friends.
But it was only last year that the two women got their marriage paperwork done (prompting the two men to follow suit). And now, after working for the Rosewood Group, they had enough money to host a little wedding.
They decided to do it together—a little nod to their old fanciful idea of pretending to have two man-woman marriages while swapping spouses at night.
“Now, time to eat!” one of the grooms said.
“You didn’t even go five minutes without thinking of food,” the other groom accused good-naturedly.
“But it just smells so good!”
The smell of food was coming from inside the community hall. They, along with many others in the town, had helped build it. Inside, there was a big hall, a few smaller rooms, and a big kitchen for event use. The kitchen was outfitted with Earl Rosewood’s special fireless stove and cold storage box.
For today’s event, friends and family had helped cook a feast for everyone to enjoy.
“Help me carry this tray!”
“Help me set up the tables!”
While the two grooms headed inside to help, the two brides looked at each other, held each other’s hands, and smiled.
Not to be cheesy—but they were allowed to be cheesy on a day like this—but all this wouldn’t have been possible without Earl Rosewood. They still could have had a wedding celebration without him, albeit an unofficial one (not that they cared about bureaucracy). But the scale, the official acceptance, and the community hall itself as a venue, none of this would have existed without Earl Rosewood.
Speaking of Earl Rosewood, he was visiting a large town nearby.
There, students and teachers at the new public school were getting flustered, anxious, and/or excited. They knew that Earl Rosewood was visiting—he was going to inspect their school today!
The teachers were working age, while the students were primarily a mixture of young and old—the kind of people who had time to attend lessons during the daytime, especially since it came with a free meal.
And some of those students felt really grateful of Earl Rosewood. Without him, they wouldn’t have a home to live in, nor food in their belly.
“—Ah ah! I think he’s here!” A student who was seated near the window jumped out of her seat.
“Where?”
“Huh?”
“Really?!”
The students and even the teachers all streamed out of their rooms, gathering into a large crowd. And indeed—there was Earl Rosewood’s floating carriage!
Ren Xiyang, who had been vaguely hoping that he’d see a scene of them pretending to work hard, was doomed to be disappointed. All the public schools he had visited had done something like this.
The school dean stepped forward, a big smile on his face. “Welcome to our town, Earl Rosewood!”
“Welcome, Earl Rosewood!” everyone chorused.
“Thank you,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Today, Earl Rosewood is here to review and check up on your school and teaching,” Aaron said. He was the one accompanying Earl Rosewood today. “We want you to separate into three groups, one of teachers, and two of students. We will speak to each group individually.”
“Yes, yes,” the school dean agreed.
“Teachers first, please come inside and sit down,” Aaron said.
Ren Xiyang and Aaron headed inside with the teachers.
Ren Xiyang took out his notebook and pen. “Let’s begin. How do you find the teaching load? The curriculum?”
The aim of today was to get reviews from both students and teachers to see what was working, what can be improved, and whether they were following the fief-wide curriculum.
Ren Xiyang felt a little exasperated as the teachers and students spoke about how much they liked the school and the learning space, even when he asked them for improvements.
Except, this wasn’t meant to be their long-term school. It was just their community hall, with chairs and tables for the students to sit at. There wasn’t even a blackboard.
The actual school building construction hadn’t started yet. In a few years, they will have a proper school building, with multiple floors, indoor plumbing and temperature control.
But he could understand that they didn’t want to offend him. It’ll just take them some time to get used to it.
Ren Xiyang and Aaron returned to the Rosewood fief in the late afternoon. Ren Xiyang headed back to his rooms first, to change and to pick up the rose seeds that Rian sent him. Then he went to his gardening shed, looking for some pots in which he could grow those roses.
Meanwhile, Aaron, Maria, Kel, Mrs Cooks, and many other Rosewood staff gathered in the kitchens.
—And if they were gathered, everyone knew what that meant: gossip time!
“Have you noticed? The earl seems a little different lately,” Maria said.
“I’ve noticed it too,” Mrs. Cooks said. “I think…” she smiled meaningfully.
“He had his first wet dream?”
“He has someone he likes?”
“Puppy love,” Mrs. Cooks said with a nod.
“Earl Rosewood is growing up. Do you remember when we first saw him? He was so small!”
“But with who?”
“Is it Lady Florence?”
“Or Lady Adrienne?”
“Is it Kel? Kel is the woman that Earl Rosewood sees the most! I can see him liking older, mature women…”
Kel: “…….”
Otto was scandalised. “We can’t talk about this!”
Another staff member nodded in agreement. “That’s right, what’s more important is when Earl Rosewood is going to show us more magic! Isn’t he going to have a big duel with Prince Alexius?”
“But we won’t be able to attend it…”
“Do you think Earl Rosewood could have a birthday duel on his birthday, here in the Rosewood fief, so that we can watch?”
Kel was exasperated. “I don’t think Earl Rosewood is going to start having birthday duels for himself. Don’t spread this around, but it’s Prince Rian and Prince Alexius who requested duels.”
“But you told us that Earl Rosewood was the one who provoked King Augustus to duel him!”
Kel gave a weak smile. “I don’t know how to explain that…”
“I wish I had gone to Angio with you,” Maria said enviously. “I want to see him defeat a king!”
“I think Earl Rosewood is the strongest mage—”
“Well, His Majesty King Edric could be stronger—”
“—I think Earl Rosewood is the strongest mage.”
“Fine, fine, you can think what you want—”
“And he’s looking after our fief!”
“Yeah, it’s good to have Earl Rosewood around again.”
“Maria, you’ve dodged the question! When is Earl Rosewood going to do a magical show? There are many things we need to prepare!”
Knowing Earl Rosewood’s peculiarities (i.e. money-making tendencies), they needed to advertise it and sell food and thus help make money.
“I was thinking we could have it during the Rosewood Group’s work conference,” Maria said.
“Oh, that’s a good idea!”
The work conference had been long planned for after Alexius’s birthday, at a time when Earl Rosewood was supposed to have returned from Angio.
“Let’s have a vote,” Maria said. They were getting used to this concept of ‘voting’. “Should we have Earl Rosewood present before the conference, at the start of the conference, during the conference, or after the conference? Let’s have a show of hands!”
Ren Xiyang patted the dirt in the flowerpots, oblivious to the plans his staff were making for him. He was thinking about dinner and about Rian. There weren’t many days left until they would see each other in person again…
Princess Marcia tried to keep her head down and her presence as small as possible. She didn’t like meal times, when she had to go to the dining hall in the Angio castle and be in the same room as King Augustus.
On this particular evening, Princess Marcia felt a cold feeling across her back. When she glanced up from her plate, she noticed Prince Marcus looking at her.
It wasn’t King Augustus. But that didn’t make her feel any better. She forced herself to eat mechanically and returned to her quarters as soon as she was politely able to.
As she reached her rooms, a queasy feeling overcame her. Her vision went blurry as she staggered over to the nearest chair to sit down.
“Your Highness, what’s wrong?” her lady-in-waiting, Lady Folia, hurried to support her.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, and there were stabbing pains in her gut.
The image of Marcus flashed in her mind.
Marcia gritted her teeth. “Poison.”
Lady Folia gasped. “What should we do? Should I get a healer? A poison mage? Ah! Viscountess Venenum is currently staying in the Capital!”
Marcia was too pained to think. “Just get someone. Get me something to expel it first.”
‘Expel’ being vomit. While Marcia vomited out her dinner into a basin, her lady-in-waiting dashed off to find a mage who could help.
Marcia’s maid-servant helped her drink some water and helped her to bed.
In the end, it was indeed Viscountess Venenum who came by, accompanied by Lady Argentum.
Viscountess Venenum’s face was cold, but she worked efficiently, extracting the poison from Marcia’s body, and containing it inside a small glass vial. She also extracted the poison from the basin of vomit.
Lady Argentum followed up with a mild healing spell, which helped restore Marcia’s energy and thinking capacity.
“Would that have killed me?” Marcia asked weakly.
“The majority of people would not die, but there was a small possibility,” Viscountess Venenum said. “Would you like to keep this?”
“Yes. Lady Folia, deal with payment for me.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Lady Folia bowed to Marcia and then turned to Viscountess Venenum. “Viscountess, we deeply appreciate you coming on such short notice, please come this way...”
Marcia closed her eyes.
Even though Viscountess Venenum had removed all the poison, Marcia still felt physically ill.
Had Marcus really tried to poison her? Marcus, her own twin brother?
Everything came crashing down on her. Years of living in this castle, years of pressure from King Augustus and Prince Marcus and all her other siblings and all the nobles.
Her chest felt tight. She didn’t want to stay in this castle any longer. She wanted out.
But then helplessness took over. Where would she go?
Presently, Lady Folia returned.
“Your Highness, I’ve paid Viscountess Venenum for her time. Additionally, you have received a letter from Lady Helios.”
“Read it out for me.”
“Dear Princess Marcia, Please come to Eldest Princess Aurelia’s study at 11:30 pm tonight. Yours sincerely, Lady Iris Helios.”
Marcia closed her eyes again. “Wake me up when it’s time to go.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
When Marcia arrived at Princess Aurelia’s study, one of Princess Aurelia’s ladies-in-waiting was reading out loud from a book.
“—While plant-growing spells are a quick method to alleviate famine, frequent use of magic to artificially grow plants leeches nutrients from the soil, and will eventually cause the land to become barren, if these nutrients are not replenished. In Section 5.4.1, we examine magical methods to replenish nutrients. In Section 5.4.2, we examine plants that will naturally replenish nutrients in soil over time. In Section 5.4.3, we examine constructed fertilisers—Ah, welcome, Your Highness.”
Aurelia stood up from her desk. “Keep reading and summarise later for me. Princess Marcia, come with me.”
Aurelia took Marcia into her bedroom. They sat down on two sofas, facing each other.
“Marcia, I hope you will keep my following words secret.”
Marcia nodded. “Yes, Aurelia.”
“The castle is becoming dangerous. Would you like to leave?”
Marcia’s eyes widened. “How did you know…I…”
Aurelia’s eyes sharpened. “Tell me.”
Marcia’s eyes lowered. “I was poisoned last night. Viscountess Venenum helped me. I think it was Marcus.”
“I see. Thank you for telling me. Have you worn or tested Prince Rian’s enchanted jewellery?”
Marcia’s head lowered. “No…”
“You should. It will help keep you safe. Now, would you like to leave the castle?”
“But where would I go?” There was an edge of despair.
“You can go to the Dieus family, of our mother,” Aurelia said firmly.
“I don’t know…” Marcia wasn’t close to them, especially after their mother died years ago.
“Think about it. Tell me if you want to go, or if you have another place in mind. There are many people who will accept you, but you must choose wisely.”
“Yes, Aurelia.”
Marcia left more deflated than she came.
Aurelia was left more weary than before the meeting. Prince Marcus was becoming dangerous.
Shout out to RedEmber, who pointed out that using magic to grow crops would lead to nutrient depletion if you don’t replace it like how Ren Xiyang does!
Also…I like writing Aurelia commanding people (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ I unexpectedly like her more and more…
Aurelia needed further investigation, but if Marcus was really planning a coup, she had to make a decision.
If she ignored it, then that was implicit acceptance.
There was no neutral option.
Should she stop Marcus?
Should she let him try?
Should she let Marcus try to kill King Augustus first, and then come in and suppress Marcus?
The contract was still in place. It was laughably easy to kill King Augustus—just like how he easily killed non-mages at his whim.
She was Marcus’s biggest threat.
Should she attempt her own plot?
Dozens of possibilities mapped themselves out in her mind.
The way King Augustus was acting was unsatisfactory in Aurelia’s eyes. The current state could not keep going.
If she wanted to return his magic, then she should do it her way and disregard King Augustus’s permission.
If she didn’t want to return his magic, if she didn’t want him to rule anymore, then she needed to do what was necessary.
If she didn’t want Marcus to rule, she needed to do what was necessary.
She already knew the truth in her heart.
She knew King Augustus was a bad ruler.
And she knew that Prince Marcus would be equally unsuitable.
Look at how young Prince Rian was, yet look at all his organisations, his connections, and his power.
Look at how young Earl Rosewood was, yet look at his thriving, wealthy fief—a wealth that was created within the last three years.
Aurelia was older than them. She couldn’t be worse than them. And if she let King Augustus and Prince Marcus take charge, Angio would become weaker and poorer.
That was unacceptable.
She had to take charge.
Planning a coup wasn’t easy, though. Prince Marcus had his backing, and Aurelia needed her own backing.
Aurelia had a cynical feeling. Oh, the two people standing closest to King Augustus were thinking about his demise. King Augustus’s general suspicion and paranoia were well-founded.
“—And I now declare you husband and husband! And I declare you wife and wife!”
The gathered people cheered, clapped, and whistled as the two men and the two women kissed in front of their little town’s community hall.
The two couples had been living together for years, and almost everyone in their little town had known that they were together, and not merely good friends.
But it was only last year that the two women got their marriage paperwork done (prompting the two men to follow suit). And now, after working for the Rosewood Group, they had enough money to host a little wedding.
They decided to do it together—a little nod to their old fanciful idea of pretending to have two man-woman marriages while swapping spouses at night.
“Now, time to eat!” one of the grooms said.
“You didn’t even go five minutes without thinking of food,” the other groom accused good-naturedly.
“But it just smells so good!”
The smell of food was coming from inside the community hall. They, along with many others in the town, had helped build it. Inside, there was a big hall, a few smaller rooms, and a big kitchen for event use. The kitchen was outfitted with Earl Rosewood’s special fireless stove and cold storage box.
For today’s event, friends and family had helped cook a feast for everyone to enjoy.
“Help me carry this tray!”
“Help me set up the tables!”
While the two grooms headed inside to help, the two brides looked at each other, held each other’s hands, and smiled.
Not to be cheesy—but they were allowed to be cheesy on a day like this—but all this wouldn’t have been possible without Earl Rosewood. They still could have had a wedding celebration without him, albeit an unofficial one (not that they cared about bureaucracy). But the scale, the official acceptance, and the community hall itself as a venue, none of this would have existed without Earl Rosewood.
Speaking of Earl Rosewood, he was visiting a large town nearby.
There, students and teachers at the new public school were getting flustered, anxious, and/or excited. They knew that Earl Rosewood was visiting—he was going to inspect their school today!
The teachers were working age, while the students were primarily a mixture of young and old—the kind of people who had time to attend lessons during the daytime, especially since it came with a free meal.
And some of those students felt really grateful of Earl Rosewood. Without him, they wouldn’t have a home to live in, nor food in their belly.
“—Ah ah! I think he’s here!” A student who was seated near the window jumped out of her seat.
“Where?”
“Huh?”
“Really?!”
The students and even the teachers all streamed out of their rooms, gathering into a large crowd. And indeed—there was Earl Rosewood’s floating carriage!
Ren Xiyang, who had been vaguely hoping that he’d see a scene of them pretending to work hard, was doomed to be disappointed. All the public schools he had visited had done something like this.
The school dean stepped forward, a big smile on his face. “Welcome to our town, Earl Rosewood!”
“Welcome, Earl Rosewood!” everyone chorused.
“Thank you,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Today, Earl Rosewood is here to review and check up on your school and teaching,” Aaron said. He was the one accompanying Earl Rosewood today. “We want you to separate into three groups, one of teachers, and two of students. We will speak to each group individually.”
“Yes, yes,” the school dean agreed.
“Teachers first, please come inside and sit down,” Aaron said.
Ren Xiyang and Aaron headed inside with the teachers.
Ren Xiyang took out his notebook and pen. “Let’s begin. How do you find the teaching load? The curriculum?”
The aim of today was to get reviews from both students and teachers to see what was working, what can be improved, and whether they were following the fief-wide curriculum.
Ren Xiyang felt a little exasperated as the teachers and students spoke about how much they liked the school and the learning space, even when he asked them for improvements.
Except, this wasn’t meant to be their long-term school. It was just their community hall, with chairs and tables for the students to sit at. There wasn’t even a blackboard.
The actual school building construction hadn’t started yet. In a few years, they will have a proper school building, with multiple floors, indoor plumbing and temperature control.
But he could understand that they didn’t want to offend him. It’ll just take them some time to get used to it.
Ren Xiyang and Aaron returned to the Rosewood fief in the late afternoon. Ren Xiyang headed back to his rooms first, to change and to pick up the rose seeds that Rian sent him. Then he went to his gardening shed, looking for some pots in which he could grow those roses.
Meanwhile, Aaron, Maria, Kel, Mrs Cooks, and many other Rosewood staff gathered in the kitchens.
—And if they were gathered, everyone knew what that meant: gossip time!
“Have you noticed? The earl seems a little different lately,” Maria said.
“I’ve noticed it too,” Mrs. Cooks said. “I think…” she smiled meaningfully.
“He had his first wet dream?”
“He has someone he likes?”
“Puppy love,” Mrs. Cooks said with a nod.
“Earl Rosewood is growing up. Do you remember when we first saw him? He was so small!”
“But with who?”
“Is it Lady Florence?”
“Or Lady Adrienne?”
“Is it Kel? Kel is the woman that Earl Rosewood sees the most! I can see him liking older, mature women…”
Kel: “…….”
Otto was scandalised. “We can’t talk about this!”
Another staff member nodded in agreement. “That’s right, what’s more important is when Earl Rosewood is going to show us more magic! Isn’t he going to have a big duel with Prince Alexius?”
“But we won’t be able to attend it…”
“Do you think Earl Rosewood could have a birthday duel on his birthday, here in the Rosewood fief, so that we can watch?”
Kel was exasperated. “I don’t think Earl Rosewood is going to start having birthday duels for himself. Don’t spread this around, but it’s Prince Rian and Prince Alexius who requested duels.”
“But you told us that Earl Rosewood was the one who provoked King Augustus to duel him!”
Kel gave a weak smile. “I don’t know how to explain that…”
“I wish I had gone to Angio with you,” Maria said enviously. “I want to see him defeat a king!”
“I think Earl Rosewood is the strongest mage—”
“Well, His Majesty King Edric could be stronger—”
“—I think Earl Rosewood is the strongest mage.”
“Fine, fine, you can think what you want—”
“And he’s looking after our fief!”
“Yeah, it’s good to have Earl Rosewood around again.”
“Maria, you’ve dodged the question! When is Earl Rosewood going to do a magical show? There are many things we need to prepare!”
Knowing Earl Rosewood’s peculiarities (i.e. money-making tendencies), they needed to advertise it and sell food and thus help make money.
“I was thinking we could have it during the Rosewood Group’s work conference,” Maria said.
“Oh, that’s a good idea!”
The work conference had been long planned for after Alexius’s birthday, at a time when Earl Rosewood was supposed to have returned from Angio.
“Let’s have a vote,” Maria said. They were getting used to this concept of ‘voting’. “Should we have Earl Rosewood present before the conference, at the start of the conference, during the conference, or after the conference? Let’s have a show of hands!”
Ren Xiyang patted the dirt in the flowerpots, oblivious to the plans his staff were making for him. He was thinking about dinner and about Rian. There weren’t many days left until they would see each other in person again…
Princess Marcia tried to keep her head down and her presence as small as possible. She didn’t like meal times, when she had to go to the dining hall in the Angio castle and be in the same room as King Augustus.
On this particular evening, Princess Marcia felt a cold feeling across her back. When she glanced up from her plate, she noticed Prince Marcus looking at her.
It wasn’t King Augustus. But that didn’t make her feel any better. She forced herself to eat mechanically and returned to her quarters as soon as she was politely able to.
As she reached her rooms, a queasy feeling overcame her. Her vision went blurry as she staggered over to the nearest chair to sit down.
“Your Highness, what’s wrong?” her lady-in-waiting, Lady Folia, hurried to support her.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, and there were stabbing pains in her gut.
The image of Marcus flashed in her mind.
Marcia gritted her teeth. “Poison.”
Lady Folia gasped. “What should we do? Should I get a healer? A poison mage? Ah! Viscountess Venenum is currently staying in the Capital!”
Marcia was too pained to think. “Just get someone. Get me something to expel it first.”
‘Expel’ being vomit. While Marcia vomited out her dinner into a basin, her lady-in-waiting dashed off to find a mage who could help.
Marcia’s maid-servant helped her drink some water and helped her to bed.
In the end, it was indeed Viscountess Venenum who came by, accompanied by Lady Argentum.
Viscountess Venenum’s face was cold, but she worked efficiently, extracting the poison from Marcia’s body, and containing it inside a small glass vial. She also extracted the poison from the basin of vomit.
Lady Argentum followed up with a mild healing spell, which helped restore Marcia’s energy and thinking capacity.
“Would that have killed me?” Marcia asked weakly.
“The majority of people would not die, but there was a small possibility,” Viscountess Venenum said. “Would you like to keep this?”
“Yes. Lady Folia, deal with payment for me.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Lady Folia bowed to Marcia and then turned to Viscountess Venenum. “Viscountess, we deeply appreciate you coming on such short notice, please come this way...”
Marcia closed her eyes.
Even though Viscountess Venenum had removed all the poison, Marcia still felt physically ill.
Had Marcus really tried to poison her? Marcus, her own twin brother?
Everything came crashing down on her. Years of living in this castle, years of pressure from King Augustus and Prince Marcus and all her other siblings and all the nobles.
Her chest felt tight. She didn’t want to stay in this castle any longer. She wanted out.
But then helplessness took over. Where would she go?
Presently, Lady Folia returned.
“Your Highness, I’ve paid Viscountess Venenum for her time. Additionally, you have received a letter from Lady Helios.”
“Read it out for me.”
“Dear Princess Marcia, Please come to Eldest Princess Aurelia’s study at 11:30 pm tonight. Yours sincerely, Lady Iris Helios.”
Marcia closed her eyes again. “Wake me up when it’s time to go.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
When Marcia arrived at Princess Aurelia’s study, one of Princess Aurelia’s ladies-in-waiting was reading out loud from a book.
“—While plant-growing spells are a quick method to alleviate famine, frequent use of magic to artificially grow plants leeches nutrients from the soil, and will eventually cause the land to become barren, if these nutrients are not replenished. In Section 5.4.1, we examine magical methods to replenish nutrients. In Section 5.4.2, we examine plants that will naturally replenish nutrients in soil over time. In Section 5.4.3, we examine constructed fertilisers—Ah, welcome, Your Highness.”
Aurelia stood up from her desk. “Keep reading and summarise later for me. Princess Marcia, come with me.”
Aurelia took Marcia into her bedroom. They sat down on two sofas, facing each other.
“Marcia, I hope you will keep my following words secret.”
Marcia nodded. “Yes, Aurelia.”
“The castle is becoming dangerous. Would you like to leave?”
Marcia’s eyes widened. “How did you know…I…”
Aurelia’s eyes sharpened. “Tell me.”
Marcia’s eyes lowered. “I was poisoned last night. Viscountess Venenum helped me. I think it was Marcus.”
“I see. Thank you for telling me. Have you worn or tested Prince Rian’s enchanted jewellery?”
Marcia’s head lowered. “No…”
“You should. It will help keep you safe. Now, would you like to leave the castle?”
“But where would I go?” There was an edge of despair.
“You can go to the Dieus family, of our mother,” Aurelia said firmly.
“I don’t know…” Marcia wasn’t close to them, especially after their mother died years ago.
“Think about it. Tell me if you want to go, or if you have another place in mind. There are many people who will accept you, but you must choose wisely.”
“Yes, Aurelia.”
Marcia left more deflated than she came.
Aurelia was left more weary than before the meeting. Prince Marcus was becoming dangerous.
Shout out to RedEmber, who pointed out that using magic to grow crops would lead to nutrient depletion if you don’t replace it like how Ren Xiyang does!
Also…I like writing Aurelia commanding people (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ I unexpectedly like her more and more…
