Let's start over, Your Majesty.

Chapter 82 The Patriarch's Troubles

But Caesar seemed oblivious to her hint, and leaned forward to pick up a delicate little teacup from the coffee table, pouring himself a pot of hot tea.

“Yumeria is doing well, and so am I. We moved to the capital a month ago and will be staying there for a long time.”

He took a sip of tea, glanced at Ita's expectant eyes, and smiled slightly:
"It's been so long, you've gained quite a bit of weight, Ita."

"Well"

Ita immediately pouted, like a pufferfish that had been poked.

"Where?! I'm still working out and doing yoga all the time! Caesar, feel it if you don't believe me!"

“Alright, alright,” Caesar patted her head. “I mean you’ve grown up and are more like an adult now. In just six years, you’ve changed a lot.”

Ita is only eleven or twelve years old, but she already has the physical characteristics of a woman, like a budding flower. She develops faster than ordinary human females, which is also a racial advantage of the dragon race.

However, as dragons are long-lived creatures, their physiological development differs from that of ordinary humans. Their growth is not uniform; instead, they stop growing at each stage until the age of the next growth stage arrives.

For example, a dragon only needs fifteen years to grow from infancy to adolescence, but it will stop growing at the age of fifteen and will not turn from adolescence to youth until it is fifty or even eighty years old.

In other words, although Ita is developing faster than the average human, she may have to maintain this appearance for a long time after a few more years of development.

As an elf, Yumilia also follows this same logic of growth.

Ita raised her chin, looking quite smug.

"After all, I have always kept my promise to Caesar and have been working hard to become a qualified head of the family. Now the entire family is under my control. As long as I stand there, no one will dare to disobey me."

"Yes, I could tell the moment I saw you. You exude an aura of dominance that's more than just a little bit overwhelming," Caesar joked.

“That is…” Ita blushed instantly and lowered her head in shame.
"There's nothing I can do about it. The family is often in turmoil. I only managed to secure my position at the beginning because of the inheritance left by my parents. My dragon bloodline is just a facade. If I don't have some strength, if I'm not ruthless, if I don't have some tough methods, and if I don't have the authority of the family head, I simply can't beat them."

As Ita spoke, he became helpless: "Sometimes people from different branches of the family always cause trouble. Even if I know they are trying to make things difficult for me, I just can't do anything about them. I can't find any fault with them, and when something happens, I have to appease them."

"Sigh, the thought that these people will keep causing trouble and there's no way to deal with them gives me a headache."

Ita completely shed his previous dignified demeanor as the head of the family, and seemed like a child who had encountered something frustrating at school, pouring out all the pent-up grievances he had been holding in to Caesar.

Caesar took another sip of tea and said casually to Ita, "Is there any high-risk project in the family that no one dares to take on?"

"Hmm?" Ita didn't know why Caesar suddenly asked this, but after thinking for a moment, he said:

“There are quite a few, such as the Fanos Forest development project and the reconstruction of factories in the Ham Industrial Zone. These are not only high-risk, but some are simply messes that no one in the family wants to deal with. Oh, does Caesar mean to assign these projects to them and punish them if they fail?” Ita shook his head and said.

"No, no one wants to deal with this mess. Even if I'm the head of the family, I can't just hand over the project to someone and then punish them when they mess it up. That's too obviously ulterior motive."

“No, these are just the trigger. What you need to do is use them to create conflict between them,” Caesar said calmly, setting down his teacup.

“What you need to do is delegate enough power to this project, then select a few people you trust to join and compete for the project's agency rights. When they see you doing this, they'll definitely think you're trying to expand your own power, and they'll inevitably try to get involved. The more disobedient branches participate, the better. What you need to do next is to steer your conflict towards their own internal conflicts, using the power of these branches to create a power struggle. Then, you need to escalate this conflict, ideally triggering some clashes. When the time is right, you should step in as the head of the family, dispatching investigators to conduct searches on them using legitimate reasons. Anyone who dares to refuse will be going against the entire family.” After listening, Ita's pretty face froze slightly. After a few seconds, she said blankly, “What if... what if they don't find anything?”

Caesar shook his head and smiled: "Whether they can find out anything is not up to them, but up to you."
Some things weigh less than two ounces on the scale, but once they are, it's hard to say what they'll actually be like.

"Oh"

Ita's eyes flickered, and she blinked, as if she had already figured something out.

"Caesar's move was ruthless!"

Caesar simply shrugged and smiled nonchalantly.

These were originally methods he used to discipline his ministers, but now that he no longer needs them, he can use them to teach Ita.

After explaining everything, they stopped talking about these troublesome things and reminisced about the past, then discussed their current situations.

"Oh, right! I haven't congratulated Caesar on getting into St. Yaro Academy yet. Caesar is so amazing, he's bound to become a big shot in the future!" Ita said with a smile.

"Thank you. Wait, how did you know I got into St. Illusion?" Caesar suddenly sensed something was wrong and raised an eyebrow at Ita.

He's only been in the capital for a little over a month, and hasn't corresponded with Ita during that time, so she wouldn't know that he's been accepted into St. Yaro.

“This…” Ita shrank back, “I saw it in the newspaper.”

"You secretly sent someone to investigate me, didn't you? Hmm?" Caesar pinched Ita's soft cheek.

"Well, I was just concerned about Caesar, but I was afraid of bothering you," Ita said quickly, her face pinched so tightly that she could barely speak.

"Why can't you just write a letter? You could write to me or Yumilia. Who taught you to use such methods against your own family?" Caesar scolded.

"I was wrong, I won't do it again," Ita pleaded.

However, she also felt a strange sense of excitement from secretly observing Caesar's daily life.

Ita covered her aching face and said somewhat aggrievedly, "I also wanted to see Caesar because we've been apart for so long, but I was afraid that Caesar wouldn't be happy with me like this."

"Where did you get this set of rules from?" Caesar laughed and ruffled her hair. "Alright, I know you're here. I'll come see you again when I have time. You can also come to the capital if you're free. You probably already know the address, right?"

Ita nodded, then looked at Caesar with a hint of melancholy: "Caesar, are you leaving?"

“Well, it’s getting late, and if we don’t leave now, we’ll miss the last bus,” Caesar said.

"Why don't you stay here tonight and go back tomorrow?" Ita asked tentatively. "I have so much to say to Caesar if I stay one night."

(End of this chapter)