His son had now grown into an existence even stronger and more reliable than him. The only thing he could do was to give him some small help in politics.

However, upon hearing his explanation, Audrose didn't relax in the slightest, and even pursed his lips a bit deeper. The atmosphere in the training room didn't ease up at all.

His eldest son lowered his eyes, and after a long time, he met his gaze. "...I'm sorry, I can't take you to see him."

Looking at Audrose's eyes that seemed to contain deeply hidden pain and despair, the Emperor suddenly shivered.

He was very familiar with this look.

...During that period of time after Sefir's death, when he looked in the mirror every day, the self he saw in the mirror had this exact same look, exactly the same, without the slightest difference.

After a stiff silence for a while, the Emperor slowly asked, "Where is that slave? When you returned to the capital star... you didn't bring him back?"

"No." Audrose paused for a moment. His golden hair hung loosely on his cheeks, making him look a bit haggard. With a somewhat strange blank expression, he said, "Father, I lost him."

......

After returning from his eldest son's residence, the Emperor had been in a daze.

He was absent-minded in everything he did, even spilling water on himself while drinking.

"Your Majesty, are you feeling unwell? Do you need me to call a doctor?" the palace butler asked worriedly when the Emperor made a mistake due to being distracted for the sixth time.

"It's nothing." The Emperor shook his head. He turned off the screen of his personal terminal, giving up on continuing to work in this terrible state.

Leaning back with his spine against the back of the chair, the Emperor lowered his head and thought quietly for a while before raising his head and looking at the butler who had followed him for many years with slightly turbid eyes. "Tell me, am I a very bad father?"

The butler bowed slightly, not directly answering this question, only smiling and saying, "Your Majesty, a person's life is constantly growing."

The Emperor also smiled, but the smile contained a hint of undisguisable weariness.

He bore an inescapable responsibility for both Audrose's past and future.

If it weren't for Audrose not trusting him as a father and even being extra wary of him, he wouldn't have risked taking that slave to the border. That slave... also would never have been able to come back as a result.

And the root of everything, when traced to its source, was still that he didn't give his child a sufficient sense of dependability.

It was his fault.

His first half of life came to an abrupt end with his wife's passing, yet at the start of his second half, due to his own willfulness, he caused his son to lose what was perhaps the most precious thing in his life.

......

After all the more detailed examination items were completed, Audrose was finally declared completely healthy and normal, and could engage in activities with peace of mind.

He fastened the last button on his collar, wanting to leave the research institute, but Avid suddenly appeared and stopped him.

"Brother." Avid mysteriously tugged on his sleeve, "I need to discuss something with you."

"Hmm?" Audrose made a questioning sound.

Avid said, "Come with me."

So half an hour later, the two took a hovercraft and landed in a relatively quiet suburb. After winding around a bit, they finally arrived at an encrypted laboratory located underground.

Audrose looked around and asked, "This is your lab?"

Although this lab was not large, one could see that the instruments and equipment inside were all the most cutting-edge nowadays, each one worth a fortune, not much cheaper than a mech.

Avid proudly puffed out his chest, "That's right!"

Audrose: "No wonder you've always been so poor."

Avid: "..."

Doing research was indeed a very expensive thing, just like falling in love, which Avid, now basically penniless, deeply felt.

Lightly coughing twice, Avid emphasized, "None of that matters, come over here with me."

Avid had him sit at an experiment table, looking very serious. "First, I need to confess something to you and apologize."

Audrose: "Speak."

Avid said in a small voice, "I stole a lot of your tissue to analyze your genes."

Audrose: "..." Because he was not a medical professional, and he had some trust in his younger brother, he never considered conspiracy theories while undergoing various physical exams.

Now it seemed this younger brother was more capable than he imagined, able to do so many bad things right under his nose.

He seemed to be misjudging things a lot lately, whether it was the not-so-silly Avid, or Su Duan who could come find him piloting a mech--

Unconsciously his thoughts went there again, and Audrose's expression froze for a moment.

Feeling the pressure in the air growing again, Avid thought he was angry and immediately apologized in fright.

"..." Audrose paused, reining in his aura a bit. "It's fine, finish what you were saying."

Avid instantly perked up. "Brother, you're aware of your own emotional deficiency, right?"

Audrose nodded. "You're researching this?"

Of course he was well aware of his excessive emotional detachment, but since this condition did not affect his work, he was never very intent on curing it.

"It's not worth it," Audrose commented rationally.

Spending such a great cost to treat his condition was indeed a bit excessive. The monetary expense of the equipment was secondary; most importantly, it delayed the time and years Avid could devote to it.

Although researchers had good benefits nowadays, Avid could have originally achieved even greater accomplishments.

But Avid shook his head. "It's worth it. Brother, do you remember that rainy night when we were in Aegeanro?"

This was the second time he heard Avid mention that night. Even if Audrose was slow, he understood this was not just idle chatter. He asked bluntly, "Did something happen that night that I don't know about?"

Avid said, "Actually, that night, at first, I wasn't trapped in the shallows, but was swept into the deep waters by the tide."

Audrose frowned. "You never mentioned this."

"Yeah." Avid leaned his body forward, getting a bit closer to his older brother, saying very softly, "Because that night, it was brother's dragon that retrieved me from the deep waters, but when brother came the next morning, you had completely forgotten."

A hint of surprise appeared in Audrose's eyes. After pausing for a few seconds, he said definitively, "I have no memory of this matter."

He carefully searched through his memories, but indeed had no recollection of what Avid described.

Avid said, "It's like this. Brother's illness seems related to your spirit beast. I later observed that brother's dragon sometimes wanders off on its own. For example, one time when I snuck out of the palace late at night, I saw it rolling around in the iris flowers. This definitely wouldn't happen when brother is awake, right?"

Another thing he had no impression of, Audrose's expression turned serious.

Emotional deficiency was not a big problem, but a spirit beast wandering off alone was a huge hidden danger.

His spirit beast's energy was immense. If something went wrong while it was out of control...the consequences would be dire.

If he had known this information earlier, no matter what, he would not have taken on the position of Imperial Marshal while carrying such a big risk.

Avid spread his hands. "Someone as serious about work as brother, if you knew the spirit beast would sometimes lose control, you definitely would have resigned to be safe, right?"

Audrose honestly nodded. With his work principles, he indeed would not allow such a risk to exist.

Avid continued, "But in reality, I've observed that when brother's spirit beast wanders, it is only replicating emotions that brother cannot feel himself. It won't do anything harmful. On the contrary, when wandering, it appears very...benevolent."

Very clearly, the word "benevolent" had absolutely nothing to do with Audrose's normal state.