NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 174: Can you believe that this was just the second (!) week of classes???
When Rian went to class, several students looked at the empty space next to him.
“Your Highness, is Ayden not attending again?” one dared to asked—because Prince Rian didn’t seem to be in bad mood.
“Indeed, Ayden has been quite busy lately,” Rian said. “I need your help to listen and note down what we’re learning in class, as to summarise to Ayden later.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Ren Xiyang had a scheduled meeting that morning with the Rosewood council. He did subsequent follow-up work, checked in on his microgreens and mushrooms, and had lunch with Hadrian, Prince Pollux (whose new office space had been prepared), Kel, Maria and others at the Rosewood house.
Then he went to the Imperial Palace to see Prince Alexius.
For today’s afternoon tea, Alexius had brought along his friends Tierri, Adrienne, and Günter.
Alexius had sparkling ‘sneaky’ eyes. “Ayden…”
“Yes?” Ren Xiyang put down his teacup.
Alexius pulled out one of the cards that Rian had given him. “Instead of Rian, can you give us a practice session for two hours?” He handed the card over.
This card grants Prince Alexius, and up to three guests, one duelling practice session with Crown Prince Rian for a duration of two hours.
Ren Xiyang’s lips twitched. “Very well.” Luckily, he didn’t have any scheduled association meeting that afternoon.
Alexius cheered. “Yes, thank you!” He stuffed the rest of his cake into his mouth and washed it down with his tea, while Tierri, Adrienne, and Günter finished their afternoon tea in a less dramatic matter.
Once done, Alexius ushered everyone to the palace’s duelling field.
As Ren Xiyang fended off the attacks of four kids, it didn’t escape his notice that the current class Rian was attending was magical combat practice.
When Ren Xiyang went back to the academy in the early evening, Rian wasn’t waiting for him at the greenhouse and field. This was because Rian had several association meetings scheduled today.
However, unexpectedly, there was someone else by his field: a woman with grey-purple hair, dressed in gardening attire.
Ren Xiyang had sensed her at a distance and thought she was just taking a brief look. He had sensed her heat signature around the academy several times previously, so he assumed she was one of the staff.
Yet, by the time Ren Xiyang reached his field, she was still there, examining his field from the communal path along one side of the field.
Ren Xiyang went over. “Hello, how can I help you?”
The woman raised her head. “Are you overseeing this field?” Her tone was friendly and calm.
“Yes.”
“You must be a first year, correct? The field has made great progress in just two weeks.”
“Thank you.”
“May I see? My name is Anya Rose, and I’m one of the gardeners here at the academy and at the university.”
“My name is Ayden Rosewood. You may come in.”
Anya Rose smiled. “Rosewood? Perhaps we’re distantly related. But I’m not very good with history.”
Ren Xiyang nodded, feeling a sense of kinship. “Same.” He led her down the different rows of the field.
Anya correctly identified everything that Ren Xiyang had planted, while Ren Xiyang explained which spells, if any, that he used to speed up plant growth. He also demonstrated the plant growth spells on some of the plants.
“I’ve not heard of that spell before,” Anya said.
“Florence Sage recently developed it. The growth is gentler, spread over a period of time. So, while its effects may not be visible to the naked eye like traditional plant growth spells, it will grow twice as fast over a few days,” Ren Xiyang said. “Do you mind if I water them right now?”
“Not at all. In fact, let me help.”
“Thank you.”
After Anya helped him water the plants, Ren Xiyang showed her his greenhouse next. He also explained his research.
Anya examined everything with curiosity. “As part of my job as an academy gardener, I don’t come in contact with these kinds of plants,” she said. “It’s mostly tending to flowers and making sure there are always flowers on bloom.”
“The flowers on the academy grounds are very beautiful,” Ren Xiyang said seriously.
Anya’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “Thank you, dear. Of course, there are a team of us overseeing the gardens. Seeing all this, do you want to pursue plant research when you grow up?”
“I want to continue plant research when I become older,” Ren Xiyang corrected. “The research I’ve done has already been put into use.”
“Oh my, my mistake. Perhaps you should come and visit the university at some time. The plant research group isn’t large, but I’m sure you’d have many things to discuss together.”
“That would be great,” Ren Xiyang said with a nod.
“I’ll contact you again in the future,” Anya said. “Now, I must be off. Have a good evening.”
“You too.”
After Anya left, Ren Xiyang also left, going back to his shared quarters. He changed into clothes that didn’t have mud on them and did some minor administration until Rian returned.
“Dinner?” Rian asked.
“Dinner,” Ren Xiyang confirmed.
“Some of the students have prepared summaries and key information from the classes today,” Rian said.
“Thank you, Rian.”
“Why are you thanking me?”
Ren Xiyang gave him a look.
Rian chuckled. “Come on.”
As forewarned, the students at Ren Xiyang’s table that evening had carefully prepared summaries, explaining the important content from the classes that day: magical theory and magical combat practice. At the end of it, Ren Xiyang was handed some notes.
“—And what did you do, Ayden?”
“I did some work during most of the day, and then spent the afternoon with Prince Alexius.”
“Oh?”
“In fact…” Ren Xiyang glanced at Rian. “I conducted a training session for him and three of his friends. They all practised duelling against me.”
As expected, Rian’s face stiffened. “Is that so.”
“If Prince Rian is amenable, perhaps we can have a little team-duelling practice here at the academy,” Ren Xiyang said.
As expected, Rian was pleasantly surprised. “Oh, is that so?”
“Well, Your Highness? Do you agree?” Ren Xiyang asked.
The students at their table also looked at Rian.
“Please, Your Highness!”
“It would be amazing.”
“Very well,” Rian said generously. “We can indeed have a little team-duelling practice.”
“Thank you!”
Ren Xiyang looked among the excited faces. “I will entrust the organisation with you all, okay? We could do it during class if the teacher is amenable, or we could do it outside of class time, so that class B can also be involved.”
The other students nodded, signifying a success delegation.
Rian walked back with a bounce in his step.
Ren Xiyang suppressed his smile. “Looking forward to more team-duels? I put you on the spot there.”
Rian’s lips curved up. “Not at all, hardly anything can faze me,” he said generously.
Once in their quarters again, Ren Xiyang put the notes he had received aside and picked up his notebook. “I thought of some ideas for the academy, beyond just the research project.”
Rian pulled out some sheets from between his study books. “Why, so have I.”
“Let me draw up a table,” Ren Xiyang said. He took out a fresh sheet of paper and made three columns: idea, advantages, and disadvantages.
Together, he and Rian filled out the table, spanning over several pieces of paper. The possibilities for Ren Xiyang and the academy included, but were not limited to:
- Research projects in place of a class subject.
- Orals exams for advanced placement, ideally before the academic year started.
- Advanced classes, which were either a new set of classes per year-level, or involved students skipping a year.
- Having assignments throughout the year instead of an end-of-year exam.
- Explicit curriculum written out for each subject and distributed to students.
- Teaching training and workshops for the teachers.
- Having night classes or intensive classes where a lot of content was taught in a short amount of time.
- Taking a university course in place of a class.
- Having “work experience” or an “internship” in place of a class.
- Expanding the subjects offered, and allowing students to pick some number of subjects.
- Having knowledgeable students to assist weaker students.
Certain options were ‘easier’ to implement than others.
In Ren Xiyang’s opinion, the ‘work experience’ and research projects were the easiest to implement. Writing out the curriculum, conducting sudden oral exams, and the development of advance classes would require the teachers to do extra work and could require hiring more staff. It was also technically too late for Ren Xiyang to sign up for classes to the university, and taking a university course in place of an academy course would require some kind of formal agreement between the two institutions.
“—By the way, I met someone who seems to also work at the university today,” Ren Xiyang recalled. “I think her name was something-Rose.”
Rian frowned. “Describe her for me.”
“She had grey-purple hair, probably over 50. She said she was a gardener for both the academy and the university, and said she’ll put me in touch with the plant research group at the university.”
Rian’s frown deepened. “Rose…and yet her hair wasn’t pink or red? Let me get back to you.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Rian made a note to himself, before looking back at their table. “Out of all these, we can implement the student assistance system ourselves.”
“Or rather, something that we can get other kids to implement it,” Ren Xiyang said. “It’ll be good leadership and organisation experience for them. We can’t lead and organise everything.” He patted Rian’s hand. “No, they can’t do it as well as you, but you’ll be there to guide them.”
Rian placed his other hand on top of Ren Xiyang’s hand. “I’ll listen to you.”
Ren Xiyang’s lips twitched. “Thanks, dear,” he said drily. “However, I hope you can pick who should lead it. You know the students much better than me. I still can’t remember all their names…”
Rian patted his hand. “Don’t worry, you’ll learn them all eventually. There are only a thousand or so noble families, and not too many commoner mages either.”
Ren Xiyang: “…”
“I can think of two people who could work together, Josephine White and Neil Edwards,” Rian said. “Josephine has good reach among the noble students, while Neil is friendly and knows all the commoner students in our year.”
“I trust you. I’ll go and request a meeting with Dean Palatinate later.”
Rian nodded.
With this sorted out for now, they returned to their work before going to bed.
The next morning, Rian once again stopped Ren Xiyang from getting up. Rain pattered against the window.
“Don’t you want to have a practice duel?” Ren Xiyang asked, giving Rian a concerned look.
“It’s raining.”
“Can I go to the bathroom quickly, at least?”
“Only if you come back in less than three minutes.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Ren Xiyang got back in bed under three minutes, as promised. Rian immediately hugged him like an octopus.
“I was wondering about your educational experience,” Rian said.
“I’ve told you about it—”
“I want to know more. I want to know everything,” Rian said.
“In that case, it all started with pre-school, when I was about 3 years old—”
“Not that.”
“In the case, my local schooling system considered of pre-school, primary school, lower secondary school and upper secondary school—”
“You’ve already told me that.”
Ren Xiyang poked Rian in the arm. “Then what do you want to know?”
“I want to know about your friends. I want to know if you had any feelings towards someone else.”
“I can barely remember that kind of thing,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian gave him a look. “Just tell me everything that you remember.”
“…In that case, I did have some friends during the different schooling periods. Girls, as it were, but back then I was still pretending…”
Ren Xiyang felt a relief after explaining that he didn’t have any crushes during school and only felt gender envy towards certain boys. Luckily, he didn’t even remember their names. “However, none of them are as handsome as you, nor as smart and knowledgeable as you.”
“Hmmmmm.”
Ren Xiyang poked Rian on the cheek. “Satisfied? Now come on, we need to get ready. Come on, big crown prince.”
“Mmmm.”
Ren Xiyang extricated himself from Rian’s hold and got up first. Then, he lifted Rian up.
“Xiyang!” Rian hooked an arm over Ren Xiyang’s neck. And yet, despite his verbal protest, he didn’t struggle.
“I’ll just put you in your bed and call in Gary.”
Rian: “…” Now, he struggled, slipping out of Ren Xiyang’s hold and standing on his own two feet. “I’ll call in Gary myself, thank you.”
Ahh, all part of their morning routine.
This time, Ren Xiyang and Rian went to the breakfast hall to eat. Afterwards, Rian accompanied Ren Xiyang to request leave.
Dean Palatinate was already at the reception, waiting for them.
“Yes, you may take leave. But we also need to speak when suitable,” Dean Palatinate said.
Ren Xiyang nodded. “I was also thinking that. How does Tuesday next week sound? I don’t have many other things scheduled yet.”
“I’ll also like to attend,” Rian added.
“Then in that case, how about at 4:30 pm, after classes?” Dean Palatinate said.
“That is very suitable,” Rian said.
Ren Xiyang and Rian parted ways.
At the Rosewood house, Ren Xiyang did some Rosewood-fief work, had a discussion with Hadrian about his current progress, and then conducted Prince Pollux’s healing session. He had lunch at the Rosewood fief and checked on his growing microgreens and mushrooms. Upon returning to the academy in the early afternoon, he checked on his greenhouse—the rain meant he didn’t need to water the fields.
Finally, he went to the last magic practice class for the week, joining the group of students in subclass A as they walked from the lecture hall to the practice room.
The students parted, letting Ren Xiyang come to Rian’s side.
“Hello, Ayden!”
“Good afternoon, Ayden!”
“You’re coming to the next class?”
“I am,” Ren Xiyang confirmed. “Your Highness, I’m back.”
“You’re back,” Rian said with welcoming smile.
Lady Ash, taking the class, gave Ren Xiyang a light look but didn’t say anything. She wrote out the spells that everyone had to learn today, gave them a brief demonstration, and then let them practice and talk amongst themselves.
Thank you to Trin for the name Anya!
And thank you to everyone for the different ideas. Many people mentioned making a study group. Thanks to Driftingclouds for suggesting a mentor program and tutoring services too.
Also, turns out that I forgot. Ren Xiyang does know spells—plant spells, taught by his good friend Florence Sage!
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