After thinking for a bit, Audrose replied concisely: Growing potatoes, reading poetry.

[Avid]: ???

[Avid]: Bro, what happened to you??

[Avid]: Bro, calm down!

[Avid]: Bro!!!!

[Audrose]: Don't overthink it, nothing happened, I'm living very well now.

[Avid]: Bro, your artistic side scares me QAQ But what's with growing potatoes... Growing your own vegetables to eat?

[Audrose]: Something like that... The drug's effect was very good, my memory has been fully restored, but there were no side effects.

[Avid]: Oh oh oh is that so? Well, maybe your self-healing ability increased after your genes mutated, I can't be sure, let's do a gene analysis when you come back... Speaking of which, when are you coming back?

[Avid]: ...I miss you, and Father misses you too.

[Audrose]: I may not be back for a long time, prepare for your succession.

[Avid]: ??? No no no the plot shouldn't develop like this! I really think the researcher job suits me!

[Avid]: Bro--!

[Avid]: You... don't... ignore... me...

However, no matter how much he bombarded, Audrose no longer responded to him.

Avid put down his personal terminal somewhat dumbfounded, his heart filled with melancholy.

-- How could he explain to make his elder brother believe that he truly, from the bottom of his heart, did not want to inherit the throne?

Although his initial intention in entering the research institute was indeed to cure his elder brother's illness, after working for a long time, he had become accustomed to and even loved this job.

He had no interest in politics at all!

The emperor beside him frowned and looked at him, "Your brother... still refuses to come back?"

Avid scratched his cheek, "Yeah, he said it might be a long time before he comes back."

The light in the emperor's eyes dimmed for a moment, and he said hoarsely, "It's my fault, when you have time, talk to him more."

As family members, his younger son had even opened a lab to help treat Audrose's illness, while he, as the father who should have been responsible, had been watching coldly from the sidelines for so many years, and now he really had no face to face Audrose.

"Mm-hmm... Actually, I think big brother is in a pretty good state right now." Avid mumbled.

When chatting with him, Audrose spoke a lot more. Based on his years of observation and understanding of his elder brother, he felt that his elder brother's mood was not bad now.

Immersed in his own emotions, not having heard his younger son's mumbling clearly, the emperor lowered his eyes and pondered for a while, then suddenly spoke hesitantly, "Avid, you are closer to your brother. Is there anything I can do now to... make it up to him a little?"

Avid thought for a bit, his eyes slowly lighting up. He pulled out an endlessly long bill from his personal terminal and carefully handed it to the emperor, "Dad, this is the cash flow of my lab over the years, can you... reimburse some of it? You see, rounding up, it's equivalent to you having half the credit for this lab."

As a high-paid researcher and prince, he was so poor it was a disgrace to his ancestors.

Emperor: "..."

Under his younger son's hopeful gaze, he silently checked "Pay in full" and connected his own personal terminal.

With a whoosh, Avid seemed to hear the wonderful sound of himself being knocked out by money.

......

Time passed quickly. Audrose kept his word. Having said he wouldn't come back, he really didn't return to the capital star for a full ten years.

In these ten years, the emperor showed extraordinary toughness in reforming the slave system. Despite strong pushback from the great nobles, and even deploying the military several times, he finally put an end to the barbaric slave system in the Empire's history at the tail end of the tenth year.

However, Audrose still had no intention of returning. On his rarely updated personal platform, comments requesting his return to the capital star flooded in.

But he was obviously not someone to be swayed by outside opinions, and continued to grow potatoes on Reunion at his own unhurried pace.

Compared to the current human lifespan of around three hundred years, ten years was not long, but not short either.

During these ten years, Audrose lived a very simple life, conducting regular mech training, growing potatoes, and reading.

He built a simple yet sturdy wooden house here. The strange plant that looked like a sooty black potato with leaves, which was dug out by his spirit from the flower field that day, was finally excavated by him and brought home to be planted in a pot.

He searched through all the plant data in the Empire but could not find any information about this plant, so all the care could only be tried through trial and error.

Fortunately, this black potato seemed to have particularly tenacious vitality. Even under his cautious approach of not daring to use any fertilizer and only watering it, it still grew vigorously.

Although it didn't grow much in ten years, at least the small leaves were always standing up energetically, trembling shyly when rubbed by his fingertips.

The copy of the Divine Comedy was brought from home and slowly read in his spare time.

But even if read slowly, as ten years passed, he had already read this book no less than ten times.

This was the eleventh time he read this book.

When he sat at the desk and started reading, a small dragon the size of a palm appeared silently at some point. It crawled along the edge of the flower pot, wrapping its slender body around the entire black potato, squinting its icy blue beast pupils, raising its head and gently rubbing against the surface, sometimes extending its long neck to lick the small leaves.

— Since his spirit learned to change its form, it seemed to treat that flower pot as its own nest, hugging the plant inside to sleep all day.

From time to time, Audrose would reach out and touch the little potato beside him. He quietly read for an entire afternoon until the sun was about to set before going out to cook.

On the page he turned to on the wide desk, it was written:

"I come from there where I most long to return. Love prompted me, that Love which makes me speak."

......

Audrose spent fifteen minutes in the kitchen making a simple dish of asparagus stir-fried with Gulu beast meat, put it in a thermal container, and walked towards the wooden house.

He purchased some plant-based staple ingredients and their seeds through stores wandering in the universe and reclaimed a piece of land to grow them. Combined with some small animals on this planet, he could make many delicious dishes.

He had learned to cook, so that when the person he was waiting for came back, he could cook for him to eat.

Gently pushing open the door of the wooden house, the thermal container in Audrose's hand fell to the ground with a piercing sound.

But he had no time to care—

On the desk that only had a book and a flower pot fifteen minutes ago, a somewhat slender figure appeared at some unknown time.

He had soft black hair and equally dark eyes. Completely naked, his fair and delicate skin was coated with a layer of soft golden hue by the setting sun's afterglow pouring in from the window. He was sitting on the desk with his knees open and arms propped up, looking a bit helpless. When his gaze met Audrose's, his eyes sparkled like they had been washed with water, but his body curled up shyly.