Early the next morning after the banquet, the Emperor personally came to Prince Audrose's residence.

After clearly seeing his face, the butler was stunned for a moment before hurriedly bowing.

Why did the Emperor suddenly appear here? And without bringing any guards! You should know that since His Highness the Prince built this residence, the Emperor had never come.

The Emperor got off the hovercraft and waved his hand, indicating that he need not stand on ceremony: "Is the Prince at home?"

The butler said, "Yes, yes he is. I will contact His Highness the Prince now."

The Emperor stopped him, "No need to notify the Prince in advance, where is he now? I will go find him myself."

The butler thought for a moment and respectfully replied, "His Highness the Prince just finished breakfast ten minutes ago, he should be in the study or the mech training ground now... Shall I take you to find him now, Your Majesty?"

The Emperor nodded, "No rush, I'm just here to see him."

The two walked slowly on the path.

Along the way, the Emperor's gaze kept sliding left and right in the courtyard, observing every detail here.

He had never been here before, and every inch of the plants was unfamiliar to him.

Since sending his eldest son out of the palace without a second thought, unless it was military affairs, he rarely communicated with Audrose, let alone visit. In the past three years, he didn't even know what his eldest son's home looked like.

Before coming, he originally thought that based on Audrose's personality, the courtyard should be arranged in a very cold and uninteresting way. But to his surprise, the layout of this courtyard could actually be considered thoughtful.

Many trees and flowers were planted in the courtyard. Now that the flowering period was about to pass, the slightly withered but not yet obvious flower branches dotted the entire courtyard, making it look softer.

Although he had never been here, looking at these flowers and plants, the Emperor vaguely felt a sense of familiarity.

He carefully searched his memory and finally remembered that all these types of flowers and plants were also planted in the palace garden.

...So it was modeled after the palace layout.

Lowering his eyes, the Emperor was stunned for a moment, then naturally walked forward again.

Turning a corner, his eyes swept over a garden of pale purple flowers and he suddenly stopped.

It was a small and exquisite iris garden, much smaller and more delicate compared to the other gardens in the courtyard.

Although this garden was small and delicate, in fact, the flowers planted inside were much more precious than those flowers.

It was an improved and optimized variety of iris. The flowers were relatively small and the color was slightly lighter than the original species. The petals had beautifully shaped patterns. The yield was very low and currently only produced in small quantities at a plant breeding research institute, so the price was quite high.

Empress Sefir loved irises all her life, especially this improved variety of iris. Even now, the palace still regularly purchases these flowers from the research institute every year, as if the Empress was still there, letting them bloom vibrantly in the garden all year round.

He didn't expect...to see these flowers at Audrose's place.

--It turned out that he was not the only one who remembered.

Noticing his pause, the butler turned his head and asked, "Your Majesty, do you have any orders?"

Only then did the Emperor come back to his senses. He moved his gaze away from the patch of irises and asked with some difficulty, "When did you start planting that patch of irises?"

The butler answered truthfully, "Since His Highness the Prince came here, Your Majesty."

The Emperor closed his eyes, finally took another look at the densely blooming iris bushes, and said, "Let's go."

His son may not have learned how to express closeness, but memories don't lie.

When he defined Audrose as a cold and heartless monster, perhaps this child was commemorating the people and things he was unwilling to forget in his own way.

After searching the study and living room, the Emperor finally found his eldest son in the mech training ground.

Prince Audrose originally had the toughest private training ground in the entire empire, but now, this training ground had become unrecognizable, making it impossible to see its original appearance.

The walls were all dented from various violent impacts, interspersed with some inexplicable gashes. Looking at these terrifying gashes, the Emperor paused, glanced to the side, and sure enough, saw that the mech placed aside was also badly damaged, with even its limbs askew.

That was a high-level mech...

Thinking of Audrose's physical examination assessment report, the Emperor couldn't help but frown imperceptibly.

It seemed that the strength of the current mechs could no longer meet Audrose's training needs.

Audrose stood quietly beside the mech, not knowing what he was thinking. His head was slightly lowered, his golden long hair was a bit messy, hanging on his forehead and cheeks, covering some of the expressions on his face.

When the Emperor approached, he tilted his head slightly, his ice-blue eyes filled with extreme calmness and indifference, like a shattered ice layer, and asked his father, "Your Majesty, do you have any orders for your visit?"

Facing his son's inquiry, the Emperor was silent for a few seconds before finally moving his lips and slowly said, "I...I just came to see you."

Perhaps because he rarely said such caring words to his son and felt a bit uncomfortable, his tone was very stiff, not like someone who cared, but more like a boss sternly asking a subordinate about work.

Audrose didn't mind these minor tone issues - or rather, he was used to the Emperor's attitude. He bowed slightly and said, "All is well, Your Majesty."

The Emperor was still a little uneasy. As usual, he first fell silent for a moment, as if trying hard to organize his words, and asked word by word, "I heard that - when you were rescued, your spiritual domain was severely injured. Are you sure it has fully healed?"

In some ways, the spiritual domain could be said to be an extremely fragile part. Once damaged, it was very difficult not to leave sequelae.

Even though the test results from the front showed that Audrose's spiritual domain not only had no traces of damage, but had also become more tenacious, the Emperor was still not at ease.

Upon hearing the Emperor mention that injury, Audrose's body stiffened imperceptibly for a moment. His hand hanging on the other side clenched instantly, and after releasing, he placed it on the forearm of the mech in front of him that had already reached the scrap standard due to overuse, gently stroking it.

"...When the spiritual power was upgraded, it automatically repaired the scars in the spiritual domain, so it is indeed no longer an issue."

"That's good." After stiffly expressing concern for his somewhat estranged eldest son, the Emperor really couldn't think of any other topics to discuss. Audrose, like him, had a personality that wouldn't utter a word even if beaten, and wouldn't speak proactively unless asked. Thus, the atmosphere fell into a stagnant state for a while.

After both of them had been silent for a full half minute, the Emperor suddenly spoke, "Come, Audrose, let's have a match."

As he spoke, he took out his own mech from the space button.

Audrose: "Are you serious, Your Majesty?"

Emperor: "Yes, you should have spare mechs in your training room, right?"

Audrose nodded and flipped a switch. A storage box popped out from the wall of the training ground that had almost no flat spots left, with buttons for three spare mechs inside.

Audrose randomly took one out.

In the mech training ground that had already suffered many hardships, the two engaged in a brief duel.

This duel undoubtedly ended with the Emperor's defeat. Ever since Audrose became the Marshal and took full control of military affairs, he actually hadn't been on the battlefield for a long time. Although he also did regular training, staying away from the battlefield for a long time had weakened the ferocious part of his attacks.

A few years ago, he already had a premonition that he would probably find it very difficult to defeat Audrose in mech duels.

Not to mention, not long ago, Audrose's spiritual power had evolved.

Audrose still held back his strength against his father. Although the Emperor lost, he wasn't as miserable as Avid back then who could only crawl out of the mech. At the very least... he could still get off the mech in a normal posture.

The Emperor panted slightly, wiping away the fine beads of sweat that had broken out on his forehead. Looking at his son in front of him whose breath was not the slightest bit disordered, he said sincerely, "You have completely grown up."

Audrose was obviously a bit unaccustomed to this sudden sigh. He paused for a moment and said, "Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty."

The Emperor shook his head, wanting to say that wasn't what he meant, but due to his lack of communication skills, he couldn't find the right words for a while. So after a moment of silence, he forcibly started another topic.

"By the way," he said, "where is your slave?"

It seemed not to be his illusion. After he said this sentence, Audrose's body suddenly tensed up as if a reverse scale had been touched, and his eyes instantly sank.

The atmosphere in the training room suddenly condensed. Audrose's aura instantly spread out without any restraint. It was a kind of chilling sensation like a cold, sharp blade, making people feel an irresistible chill starting from their spine. Even the Emperor standing at the top of this empire felt his heart jump when he suddenly felt this imposing manner, giving rise to some hostility.

"Don't be nervous," controlling his impulse to respond with a show of force to his son who was recklessly releasing his aura, the Emperor felt a bit awkward, realizing that perhaps it was his previous attitude that made Audrose somewhat wary of him. He explained with difficulty, "I have no intention of harming him... I just want to meet that child. I heard he has black hair?"

He already regretted his provocative remarks that day, and had already decided to do his best to promote the abolition of the slave system. Even if it couldn't be completely abolished, at least the law that "slaves cannot marry nobles" had to be abolished, so that Audrose could successfully marry his beloved before ascending the throne.

—This was probably the only compensation he could give Audrose.