Real
They are going to paint him as trying to protect them from outside threats or being considerate in a way noone asked him to be. As if he always cared but is bad at showing it. Here is my thought though, if you really cared wouldn't you have protected them inside the castle as well? Just assigning one spy/secret guard would have stopped the tutor's abuse sooner. I would much prefer for him to be like the Emperor in "In This Life, I Will Raise You Well, Your Majesty!". That emperor was a good ruler but a tool...(sociopath?) Basically he only cared about what was useful and owned it. The empress even explained to the baby that it wasn't that he wasn't good enough it is that his majesty has personality issues (to which the first prince who was listening burst out laughing)
can we skip the husband romancing her and just go back to the mother son bonding