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Chapter 11
Translated by WuXing
Edited by WuXing
The train accident involving the death of Helios’ parents had no suspicious elements involved. The investigation found that the train driver was not familiar with the controls and caused the train to derail.
As Helios flipped through the last page of the investigation report, his beautiful purple eyes became cloudier.
The result was what he should expect. Reality would not change no matter how many times he flipped through the papers. He then turned his attention toward the other documents.
All the remaining documents on the desk were related to Rosé and Ferre, they were not that much different from each other. The burden and stress continued to pile up in his heart as he read through them one by one.
[For the past two months, the maids in Her Highness Rosaline and His Highness Ferreritan’s palace had changed four times. The position of housekeeper had not been filled and is still open for application. The previous housekeeper is now considered to have deserted her post.]
[All the knights in charge of Her Highness Rosaline and His Highness Ferreritan’s safety had filed  their applications for transfer.]
[After the ‘incident’ with the palace, the workload for the gardeners had significantly increased. They had filed an application to go on strike.]
[Marquis John Dewey had turned down the offer to become Her Highness Rosaline and His Highness Ferreritan’s tutor, he had cited ill-health. So far, he is the 15th person who has refused to be their tutor
]
“Sigh
.”
They were all complicated issues he had to solve. Helios buried his face into his hands and rubbed his face.
The backlash caused by the twins’ actions this time was significantly worse than before. It had heavily affected the morale of Palace staff.
The numerous pranks and mischief by the twins prior to this incident were minor and can even be considered cute. Whether it was putting frogs into the pockets of the maids, or flooding the Palace Bath with bubbles. These pranks could all be easily brushed off as small mischief.
However, it was different this time. The day the Royal Palace was trashed had become the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The anger and resentment that were bottled up among the Palace staff had exploded at RosĂ© and Ferre.
Though the twins were his dongsaeng and cute to look at, he could not let this incident pass. His beautiful purple eyes which were once clear like the dark night sky became further muddled as he dwelled on the issue.
Raphael carefully called out to Helios breaking his moody chains of thoughts.
“Your Majesty, Marquis Bennett wishes to hand in the 10 budget proposals submitted by the council of nobility.”
“Oh, is it that time already?”
After looking at his watch, Helios stood up from his desk and walked to the door with heavy footsteps.
* * *
Though Helios was extremely concerned about the issues surrounding his siblings’ actions, he meticulously checked through the budget proposals brought in by Marquis Bennett. Preparing the annual budget was the utmost important task for the Emperor. After reading the budget for a couple more times, he noted that there weren’t much differences from the initial budget he proposed, other than a few minor changes.
“The budget your Majesty had prepared is excellent, most of the nobles agreed to it immediately. Duke Kraus had complained that the budget for magic education and training had been reduced, but maybe it was due to Your Majesty, he agreed to pass the budget in the end.”
“As much as the Duke wished to complain, he had never declared the intricate details of the spendings involved. I suppose, since it was allowed all these time, he had most likely chosen to stay silent on this matter. Am I right, my dear Marquis?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. However, I think that it is already a significant change when you reduce the budget given to the Duke’s family. Though the number of magicians sent to the Imperial Knights has remained the same all these years, the cost of training magicians had gradually increased because they had steadily increased the costs.” Marquis Bennett said with an excited voice.
“It’s difficult to fix it all at once. We should be satisfied with the changes for now.” Helios responded briefly and stamped the Royal Seal on top of the budget.
“Marquis, you looked unusually happy today. Was there any good news?”
Helios was very curious about why Marquis Bennett raised his voice all of a sudden. He remembered a few weeks ago, the same Marquis Bennett had looked extremely tired and lifeless.
“Your Majesty. If you don’t mind, may I tell you the story about my son?” Marquis Bennett’s face lit up brightly with his eyes glistening eagerly as if he was ‘desperate to tell everyone about the news’.
Helios had known Marquis Bennett for a long time. After all he was Marquis Bennett’s pupil since the time when he was still the Crown Prince. It had been a long time since he had seen the Marquis so happy and energetic. He was curious about Edward as well so he decided to play along with Marquis Bennett.
“Were you referring to your son Edward? I still remember you talked about him some time ago.”
“I remembered you mentioned that he was around the same age as the royal twins, and that he was such a troublemaker that you had to change his tutors more than 10 times.”
“That
That is correct, Your Majesty. As you may already know, Edward’s conduct has been a long-term problem for both me and my wife. However, recently he has started to change and resemble me more and more. Ha ha ha, I’m finally able to feel at ease.”
Marquis Bennett laughed out joyfully at the thought of his son. His eyes looked alive, unlike Helios’ who had been dealing with the twin’s mayhem for the past few weeks. His fair complexion and radiant skin reflects how well the Marquis’ life had been recently.
“How can I be like you, my dear Marquis?”
The Marquis smiled as if he had ascended in joy.
“Oh
 Edward had been studying the Adelio language, learning how to sing, sitting with the right posture, eating properly without being told by mummy or daddy, reading two books a day with mummy and daddy, playing the piano, practicing magic, and practicing his swordsmanship
.” The Marquis’ cheeks flushed in excitement as he spurted out his affection toward his son’s recent development.
“Your Highness, isn’t he just like me? Ha ha ha ha.”
Due to the lack of oxygen, the Marquis’ face had turned bright red. He was so happy that he could not close his mouth properly while smiling.
Helios tilted his head. That troublemaker Edward had changed? Was there a secret behind this?
“Marquis, if you have such a trick up your sleeves, you must let me know. Are you really going to keep it to yourself?”
Marquis Bennett suddenly became conscious of his hysterical behaviour in front of the Emperor. He also remembered that the Emperor had been suffering from twin troublemakers just like how he had suffered from his own son. He felt ashamed. Wasn’t the Emperor his comrade? The one whom he had shared similar pain for the past three months?
“Ah, I’ve been too loud and inconsiderate.”
“No. I’m happy to see that you’re happy, my dear Marquis. How did you manage to reform your son?”
Marquis Bennett started to become wary if he had offended the Emperor. Was the Emperor being cynical to him with this question?
“I’ve asked because I’m curious.” said Helios with a gentle smile and Marquis Bennett felt relieved.
Helios was not the type of person who would talk cynically. He had always been friendly and sincere to everyone since his time as the Crown Prince.
Even when he was still young, he had shown kindness and a wise demeanour to his subjects, earning him the love and respect of all the citizens of the Empire, no matter the status whether it be noblemen or commoners. Marquis Bennett was one of the many people who viewed Helios fondly with respect.
‘Our Crown Prince would never change even after he becomes Emperor.’
Marquis Bennett clicked his tongue brushing away any doubts he had.
“To be honest, my wife had brought in a new tutor. Her name is Sera Popo and it was all thanks to her that my son had a 180 degrees change.”
“Sera Popo
 I’ve heard of the family name called Popo, but I’m not familiar with it. Is she a foreign aristocrat?”
It had an unusual pronunciation, so Helios definitely recalled hearing it from somewhere, but none of the main noble families in the Empire had the surname “Popo”. Helios thought to himself, if the foreign tutor was indeed that great, he would hire her no matter what was the cost.
“Well
 you’re correct when you said she’s a noble, but she was from a fallen Viscount family in the countryside that had fallen from grace some years ago. She’s still very young.” The Marquis spoke cautiously.
“Still young
 So how old is she?”