It was already early evening when Eli managed to get back to her home in the cottage.
When Eli teleported into the living room, the first thing she saw was Leon, with Little Han sitting obediently on his lap. Two adorable pairs of crystal blue eyes kept staring at Eli intensely.
"Welcome home…" Leon greeted with an eerie calm expression, "Seems like you have too much in your hands today, doesn't it?"
Eli froze upon seeing the gaze of the father and son, they must have been waiting for her for a long time already.
Feeling a little bit guilty, she raised the boxes of desserts she managed to get and briefly explained that in the process of getting the desserts, she happened to be caught in the middle of taste testing and so she had no choice but to oblige.
"Alright…" Leon replied with a little bit of a pout as Little Han also looked at her aggrievedly. Eli almost lost it when the two looked similar to each other, even in the way they looked an accusing look at Eli with their sulky pouty expression.
"I'll head over to prepare dinner, you can take time to freshen up first." Leon stood up and let Little Han on the plushie playground, to which the little one happily rolled over. Then he took the boxes from Eli to take to the kitchen.
Shortly after, everyone gathered and had dinner. Although Eli was a little bit full, she still ate with them and enjoyed everyone's company.
Little Han's body was also growing well and steady. Following his latest achievement of walking, he can now properly hold his spoon and eat his meal without spilling the contents.
With his cute bib with a bear print nicely placed on his chest, he could even use it to clumsily wipe the mess in his mouth.
Eli, Leon, and the rest were delighted to see that Little Han was already doing so well in his locomotor skills despite the fact that he was just a year old.
But then a part of Eli and Leon was anxious about how extraordinary Little Han was. His growth and intelligence are already far from what any other one-year-old could do, and so they felt like they had to guide their son well to manage the disparity in the future.
For Eli, she knew how easily such intelligence and gifts could backfire on a child's upbringing. It doesn't only happen in novels and books but in real life.
Early indulgence in achievements and too much exposure to the feeling of winning may jeopardize the development of a child's emotional intelligence. And so, most of them during their older years, could not take failure or life challenges that well.
Leon, on the other hand, was not worried about this area, instead, he was worried about how he could protect his son from being a target of society's pressure and expectation. If he could only let Little Han stay hidden until he came of age, he would do so. For he does not know how society would view his son in the future.
The son of an S-class, Open Path Mage, and a genius inventor… apart from that he is of royal blood.
Concerns such as this, the thousands of fears and doubts on whether their parenting would be the best for Little Han lingered in their minds. Even so, as the two of them shared each other's thoughts during bedtime, they prayed to the heavens that their ways were right.
–
The next morning, Leon attended the morning council as usual.
With the help of Kazimir and Antoine, the daily concerns of the Empire were easily taken care of. Although most of the rebuilding concerns were already in the final stage, a month was not enough to completely heal the foundations of the Empire's strength.
As painful as it was to admit, the Vesalas and their accomplices were still a significant loss to the balance of power and authority in the Empire.
Once their jurisdiction was cleaned out, many opportunistic nobles and middlemen vied to take the loot, waiting for their moment to be granted a higher status in the Empire.
What's more, there's still the concern of how the traitors would be punished.
If it was only a matter of rebellion, the Seirende Empire could have full control over how they would handle the punishment.
But the matter escalated beyond the Empire's jurisdiction due to the heavy involvement of sinister magic and angel spirit fragments and so, whether the Empire liked it or not, the Main Temple stepped up and involved themselves.
"The Main Temple has now officially sent a notification to our Seirende Temple. They will be sending the envoys to take over the case of the curses and decide their punishment…" Leon revealed to the men.
Antoine and the rest of the noblemen went silent as they looked subtly at Kazimir's reaction.
"... and thus we are forbidden to do anything to the perpetrators until they come…" Leon continued as he looked at Kazimir calmly. He used the words 'perpetrators' instead of 'traitor' as a sign of respect for Kazimir, whom he will never intentionally harm.
"Sigh… in a span of six months… isn't the Grand Tournament also happening in six months?" Marquis Astaze worriedly expressed his concern. No matter how they look at it, receiving multiple delegates from all parts of Prasinos six months after just recovering from the war was not something they could achieve at the moment.
"We still have not even figured out how to detect and prevent cursed users from entering the Empire, and yet we are forced by the entire world to open our gates to everyone. Isn't that the same as destroying our homeland?" Another noble from the council said.
"Let's not focus on what's far ahead but on what we can do today. What the Empire needed the most were bright minds and new talents. We need loyal and intelligent subjects to join the ranks in finding a solution for the problems we are seeing right now." Kazimir seemed to have totally calmed down these days, as he expressed his opinion.
"Pardon, Your Highness, but six months to seek and train these talents would still not be enough." The nobles worriedly replied.
"I agree with the First Prince, even if it was troublesome and the duration was too short, we still need to fill in new people. Only then will we, the veterans, be able to focus on the things that mattered in the coming months."
"I object…" Still, for the nobles, it was a little bit unacceptable to recruit new people in the ranks.
Why so? Because most of the nobles were already in office and a significant number of them were already jailed. Now, this proposal means only one thing - they have to take in commoners who will take the same work as they, the aristocrats do.
And so a fiery debate ensued during the morning council, much to the three princes' dismay.
Leon stayed silent and took the salient points that each of the sides raised. He planned to summarize it and report to their father later when the three of them would visit. After that, he immediately raised his hands to signal them to stop.
"Since we are yet to come to an agreement, let us set aside the matters first. Besides, we do not have any representatives from the north, and so the concerns and opinions raised might not be reflective of their side. Let's give everyone a chance to be heard."
"Now that His Highness mentioned it…" Upon hearing the name of the North, everyone settled down. Although the North rarely involve themselves in gatherings like this, the matter this time needs their consensus.
Leon only managed to visit the barracks after all his princely duties in the afternoon. As he teleported into the Crimson Blades' base, he immediately rounded up the knights and asked them to report their progress for the assignment at hand.
But as he was listening to the report, Leon could feel the restrained atmosphere around the knights. Looking at their eyes which seemed to be wavering, he raised his brows and asked.
"Men, I order you to tell me what's the problem…" He looked at them with a frigid expression and demanded an answer. He did not like his men distracted when they were on official duty.
But the blades did not answer immediately. Instead, they looked at each other and then pointed out who would relay the concern.
In the end, everyone looked at the two vice-captains, who were now stiffly standing with the back of their uniforms sweating profusely.
Leon also looked at Olivier and Blaze as he commanded coldly, "You too… are you going to tell me or I'll have to punish everyone heavily for violating the rules?"
"Errr…" The two scratched their head.
Seeing their expression, Leon immediately took a thick wooden pole as his weapon of punishment.
In the end, it was Blaze who took a deep breath and spilled everything in one breath. "Master… it seems like the Madam was involved in a particular gossip in the Capital… with another man!"
Blagg!!!
Upon hearing the news, the large wooden pole heavily fell to the ground.
