Chapter 9: Chapter 8: The dirty little Young Master Rosewood

After bathing, Ren Xiyang put on a set of new clothes that the servant Kel had gotten him. They were better fitting than the ones Ren Xiyang had taken earlier.

He then allowed the servants in to clean up, and someone came to give him breakfast too.

These servants were good at their jobs. They had taken note of what he liked to eat already and served a wide selection of fruit for his breakfast, along with a glass of milk and small dish of almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts.

After he finished, a servant cleared away the dishes, while another servant remained.

“Young Master Rosewood, please inform me of anything you desire,” the servant Maria said. Since Kel was away, she was taking over the task of main-waitstaff for the young master.

Ren Xiyang glanced over his notes from last night. “I need you to collect the names of the employees who had been murdered, and the addresses of their families, in order pay the bereavement entitlements. I also need access to the Rosewood accounting books and the estate funds.”

Maria felt a mixture of surprise and confusion, but her reply was very standard: “As you wish, Young Master Rosewood. Is there anything else?”

“If you can, also bring me a list of the current salaries of everyone employed by the Rosewood estate and collate the current prices of living expenses, such as food and housing and medical treatment.”

Maria lowered her head again. “Yes, Young Master Rosewood.”

“That’s all, thanks,” Ren Xiyang dismissed her.

After Maria left the suite, she pursed her lips, frowning. She hurried to the kitchens, where the servants liked to gather when there wasn’t urgent work to be done.

“Something happened?” Mrs. Cooks asked, concerned. “Did the Young Master like his breakfast?”

“He liked it, children like sweet things…” Maria shook her head, and repeated Ayden Rosewood’s orders.

The listening servants all glanced at each other.

Bereavement entitlements? Salaries and living expenses?

It wasn’t nobility behaviour. But then again, it only confirmed to the servants that Ayden Rosewood hadn’t been raised as a noble.

“…Regardless, we must answer the Young Master,” Aaron finally said.

Part of the Young Master Ayden’s request was easy to fulfil: The servants collaborated together on determining the average cost of modest living. They also had records for most of the summer manor servants’ salaries.

It was a bit more difficult to gather information about the deceased servants. While the servants based in the Rosewood summer manor knew each others’ backgrounds, including where their families lived, they didn’t know the backgrounds of the high-ranking servants that closely followed the Rosewood family wherever they went, since those servants were technically contracted at the Rosewoods’ main property in the Capital. And unfortunately, all of the high-ranking close aides to the Rosewoods who had come to the summer manor had been killed.

The most difficult task was the problem of accessing funds.

The complete Rosewood estate funds were only accessible to the Earl—

—And Ayden Rosewood hadn’t been conferred the title of ‘Earl Rosewood’ yet.

There were camps among the servants. Some of them believe Ayden Rosewood to be a true illegitimate child of Roland Rosewood, and some believed that Ayden Rosewood was a fake. Nonetheless, they all respectfully called him ‘Young Master’—no matter which camp they were in, they weren’t so stupid as to disregard Ayden Rosewood. Not only was Ayden a powerful mage, but if he indeed became the Earl, then they would suffer severe retribution. Ayden Rosewood didn’t act like other nobility…but that meant nothing when a nobleman became angry.

Maria grimaced. It will be up to her to deliver the bad news.

 

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In the late morning, Kel returned triumphantly. She had gone to the large city in the neighbouring Imperial Azure fief that was closer than the Capital, and successfully found both black hair dye and black hair charms. But when she knocked at Young Master Rosewood’s door, there was no response.

“Oh, Kel, Young Master Rosewood is not in the manor…” A passing male servant said, his face a little conflicted.

Kel deflated. “Where is he?”

“Out on the farmland.”

Kel was taken aback. “Supervising the farmers?”

The male servant’s expression became even more conflicted. “You could say that…”

At the same time, in a large meeting room in the Rosewood summer manor, Prince Rian Azure was quite bored listening to the Investigators muttering to themselves about the evidence and interview responses collected so far. He already knew the culprit but couldn’t say, and it wasn’t yet appropriate for him to drop hints. Count Aegean was resting in his own rooms, recovering from the ‘arduous’ trip.

Rian straightened when one of his Royal Guards quietly entered the room.

“Master Rosewood is currently out on the farms,” the Royal Guard said in a hushed voice. He had been assigned to watch over Master Rosewood for the prince.

Rian’s eyes brightened. He stood up, politely excused himself, and left following the guard. His other Royal Guards flanked him.

—Of course he had to pay attention to Ayden Rosewood, it would be impolite otherwise.

The first guard led the group through the rose gardens, past the flat green fields, all the way to the edge of the farmlands.

Ayden Rosewood was very distinctive, the bright red hair and the short height was very different from the rugged farmer-servants with dark brown hair and old clothing.

One group of farmer-servants was planting turnips on half of the fallowing fields and clover on the other half. Another group of farmer-servants had been sent to the other edge of the farms to ‘reclaim’ some unused land to prepare it for planting large crops, while yet another group of farmer-servants were destroying one of the decorative flat grassy green fields to convert it into vegetable beds.

Ayden Rosewood himself was digging a pit at the edge of the main farmland. Two nervous farmers helped him.

As Rian was walking out, there was a group of stiff-faced servants a field ahead of him. The wind blew from them to him, carrying a putrid smell.

When the manor servants reached the pit, Ayden Rosewood and the two farmers jumped out. Ayden directed the servants to drop their items—biowaste—into the pit. Then Ayden used his shovel to mix it all around, before he and the two other farmers placed a thin layer of dirt on top.

“Remember to wash your hands with soap afterwards,” Ayden Rosewood told them.

“Yes, Young Master,” the servants agreed. After dealing with such items, they definitely wanted to scrub clean!

“Young Master Rosewood, is there anything else you would like?” a manor servant asked hesitantly. Last time they had asked that, the young master had told them to gather all the food scraps and human waste on the estate and bring them to the new composting pit. While livestock manure was commonly used as fertiliser, this was the first time they had come in contact with the use of human manure!

“Yes—”

The manor servants tensed up.

“—Go to the markets and buy every single type of fruit, vegetable, and seed that you can find, no matter how obscure. The most important thing is that they can be planted.”

The manor servants inwardly sighed in relief. This task wasn’t so stinky. They accepted the silver coins Ayden Rosewood passed to them (which they will definitely wash too!) and turned to leave.

That was when they noticed the prince and his group of Royal Guards. “Your Highness!” They all turned towards him, lowering their heads and folding their bodies in a bow.

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Ren Xiyang had noticed the prince a long time ago. He glanced over now, half leaning on his shovel and making no move to come closer. “Your Highness, how can I help you?”

On one side, the Prince Rian Azure had pale white hair and pristine white clothing. On the other side, Ayden Rosewood’s red hair was stuffed under a cap with various strands escaping. His black clothes couldn’t hide the fact that they were covered in mud and dirt and who knew what else.

The Royal Guards disliked Ayden Rosewood’s blatantly discourtesy, yet their prince said nothing of it. There were a few notable impolite nobles—the powerful old grouchy ones who didn’t care about currying favour. Everyone knew and expected impoliteness from them. Ayden Rosewood might be twelve, but Rian had already slotted him into that group.

“I came to enquire upon your activities, Master Rosewood,” Rian said with a friendly smile.

“In that case, allow my employees to continue on their tasks,” Ren Xiyang said.

“Of course, go freely, don’t allow my presence to stop you from work,” Rian said.

“Thank you, your Highness!” The manor servants gratefully escaped.

Ren Xiyang stuck his shovel into the dirt upright. “Your Highness, if you stand that far away, how can you inspect my activities?”

Rian smiled wryly. Were they such little boys that provoked and were provoked? But nonetheless, he straightened his spine and walked over, trying his best not to breath too deeply. “I was simply curious. Your family died only a day ago.”

“Planting and the seasons await no one,” Ren Xiyang said blandly. “The Capital Investigators are working, and Prince Rian himself is overseeing. What worries should I have?”

Rian’s lips twitched. “Understood, I was merely concerned,” he said. “This pit that you have dug here, what’s its purpose?”

“Land is finite, and it’s better to leave as much of it untouched as possible. Thus, it’s important to maximise the yield of the farmland we have.”

Rian inclined his head. Crop yield was an eternal worry for the kingdom. One bad season could trigger a terrible famine. “I understand manure should be used as a fertiliser to improve yield. The combined raising of cattle and livestock alongside crop rotation was one of the agricultural turning points in Sedaveria’s old history.”

Ren Xiyang’s look towards Rian gained one point of approval. “That’s right, fertiliser is one of the essential tools for improving crop yield. Manure from livestock isn’t the only fertiliser. Using bio-waste in general helps close up part of the food and nutrient cycle…”

Rian listened, surprised, as Ayden Rosewood started talking to him about all the considerations that one had to take into account when creating fertiliser and its subsequent application.

Biological, chemical, or thermal processing? Potassium? Phosphate? Nitrogen? Water drainage? Rian had studied a lot, but farming was not one of those topics. He was also inexplicably delighted to learn that the reticent Ayden Rosewood could willingly speak so much.

The two farmer-servants-with-no-sense-of-existence were even more stunned. Who knew that farming could be so scholarly in nature? Even the nobles were better at them when it came to farming???

The Royal Guards with even less sense of existence were completely befuddled. They all came from upperclass families in the Capital, they didn’t even know that manure was used in the crop fields, let alone everything else!

“—Let me clarify, this ‘nitrogen’ is the single most important additive to crop fields?” Rian asked. “What do you mean by ‘nitrogen’?”

Ren Xiyang made a little chemical-elements-unknown-in-this-world note in his heart. “The air around us is made of multiple components. For example, water is suspended in the air, which ice and water mages can draw from. Nitrogen is the largest component of the air, however, cereal plants cannot use it. Instead, we need to fix it into the soil somehow. One way is to plant nitrogen-fixing plants, which is why cover crops of legumes are very important. Does his Highness now want to see the farmers planting the fields?”

Rian nodded. “Since Master Rosewood has offered, I won’t decline.” He followed Ayden Rosewood, listening as Ayden explained the four-field crop rotation system, listed the best nitrogen fixing plants, and described the various combinations of plants that could be intercropped…

As Ayden talked, Rian could imagine how cereal and vegetable production increasing, grain stores filling up, and famines becoming a thing of the distant past.

His thoughts towards Ayden Rosewood changed again.

Where did Ayden Rosewood acquire this knowledge? Had Ayden Rosewood been sent to another country to learn this? Why hadn’t Ayden Rosewood appeared in Rian’s past life?

And importantly, if Ayden Rosewood was correct, this kind of fertilisation processing methods and four-field system should be implemented across the kingdom!

The completely-ignored Royal Guards all glanced at each other as the young prince and the young Rosewood conversed. Did normal twelve year olds sound like this? They didn’t think so…but then again, they weren’t usually around other twelve year olds, so maybe it was just them being clueless?

 

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Ren Xiyang led the prince (and the Royal Guards) on a round tour of the farmland and finished back by the fertiliser pit.

Rian genuinely thanked Ayden Rosewood. “Your knowledge is invaluable, I’ll have to speak to you again in the future on this.”

“You’ll need to prepare the consultant fee then,” Ren Xiyang said. Scientific outreach was one thing, consultation was another. Importantly, he was poor.

Rian blinked. He had never received such a direct request for money from a noble before. But then again, Ayden Rosewood was a powerful old (young) grouchy noble. He smiled slightly. “Understood, you’d be paid appropriately for your time and expertise.”

After polite farewells, Rian and his Royal Guards returned to the Rosewood manor. Count Aegean was waiting at the door, and he nearly had a heart attack seeing the prince.

Rian’s white clothes—especially his boots and the bottom of his trousers—were now covered with dirt and mud! This was unbearable! Terrible! How could the prince look like this in public!

“Prince Rian Azure, what were you doing? Head inside and bathe quickly!”

“Yes, Count Aegean,” Rian said readily. He walked directly to his suite.

Behind him, Count Aegean beckoned one of the Royal Guards. “Where have you all been?” he questioned.

The Royal Guard answered truthfully about the Prince visiting the Rosewood farmlands and Ayden Rosewood leading them around through said farmlands.

As Count Aegean listened, his impression of Ayden Rosewood plummeted. It was bad enough that Ayden Rosewood—purportedly a noble—would dirty his hands farming. But now he was even dragging the prince into the mud too.

Count Aegean increasingly felt that this trip was a bad idea.

 

 

 

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Rian: OwO For some reason, it’s nice to hear Ayden talk? Okay, let this become a farming novel now.

Count Aegean: NO!

 

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