The slashes of bright red embarrassment and the deeper red of nascent anger fade from Shen Wei's aura, and he sits back on his heels again, his shoulders loosening.

"The king has very little actual power, he's mostly an administrative drudge as well as a figurehead," he adds, faint hints of purple and green twisting amongst the sparking flashes of white and blue in his aura. "I never saw any indication the Regent was connected to the Throne in any way." Which doesn't mean it's impossible.

He looks back at the book and sighs quietly again. "I think there were children's books when we were very small." At a time when books were almost completely unknown to the world, but then, they hadn't been of the world, and he has vague memories of technological marvels that Earth has yet to begin to equal in the ten thousand years since the meteor had destroyed Dixing and its remnants of an advanced, spacefaring people. "They would be easier to teach from... but we will make do with what we have." And he reaches for his own tea cup, cradling it in his hands and inhaling the fragrant steam