Since Rudy is such a prodigy, this may be one of the first times Paul has had to actually 'dad' on his son. He has almost no experience with Rudy being disagreeable or disobedient; he never even left the house/yard before, much less cause anyone (serious) problems. Like he (Paul) said, he was a little excited that the boy finally got in trouble- like there was some rascal in him yet. I liken it to buying a tool box of wonderful implements, only to have them sit around for years, and the twisted delight at finally getting to use them once something needs fixing. As a man (and a noble), his duty is to guide and correct his son into a proper adult. Paul just had no way of knowing his otherwise normal looking son was already halfway there (at least counting the development of cynicism), so he jumped the gun a bit in 'laying down the law'. A rookie mistake by a rookie dad. It takes a big man to control the frustration of being called out on your mistake by someone with no power over you. I can respect Paul for that.

About Sylfie... I think it is fair to assume Rudeus hasn't been around someone child aged for about 30 years at this point, so I can forgive not being wise to the little ball of cooties, even if that scene was a bit contrived to obviously facilitate another perv moment. But it was used well in the following scenes.

Did you notice that Paul said both that 'infidelity runs in the family', and for him to bring home a 'girlfriend or two'? Paul has his own set of priorities, and that makes him more of a character.