Gardenia of Blooming Desire

Chapter 160: Eulogy of the Prince 25

"Do I look fine with this?" Milord Aster asked me.

"Yes, Milord, you look good with it" I said truthfully, but he pouted instead.

"This is the twentieth garment that I tried and you keep saying the same thing!" Aster snorted, "Hmph! You are no help at all."

I chuckled, "This servant said the truth, you do look good with everything."

"You are blind! You're just biased because because!"

"Because?" I grinned mischievously.

"Ugh! Go train with Irion!" Milord pouted and took the twenty first garment he needed to try. Tomorrow would be the winter feast for Grand Duchy Stormhill. Usually, public winter feast was held on December 25th. But because of the sudden change in grand duchy, the feast was pushed back to January 15th.

I laughed and bowed my head politely, "This servant shall train with Irion."

I left Milord's room and walked in the corridor, but before I went to the training ground, I went inside Lord Harion's office first. He was not the Grand Duke now, So, people referred to him as Lord Harion instead.

I knocked on the door and opened it slowly. Lord Harion was drinking a coffee while gazing at the scenery outside. It was such a rare moment, because Lord Harion was always busy before, now he only had one business to control and naturally had a lot of free time.

I kneeled in front of him, "This servant is present in front of Lord Harion."

"How is my son?" Lord Harion asked immediately.

"He is busy fitting his winter feast dress, does Lord Harion have any mission for me?" I asked politely.

Lord Harion put down his coffee and opened his drawer. He took a small box and threw it to me.

I caught it and asked, "Milord, what is this?" 

"There is gold and my silver pin inside," he explained lightly, "I can't do much for you, because I already gave everything I have to my son. But I need to give you a reward for your perseverance, you stayed with my son for so long.

I went silent, and then took out the sword shaped silver pin and returned the box full of gold to Lord Harion.

"Milord, this servant would like to stay thank you, because you entrusted me with your silver pin. But I don't need the gold."

"Aren't you the one who said you want to be free? Do you want me to free you instead? I still have some power to free you from the slave contract," Grand Duke frowned.

"No, Milord. But only Grand Duke Aster owns me, and he is the only one that can free me from the contract if he wants to," I said.

"So, you are okay to be a slave forever?"

" if Grand Duke Aster said so, then so be it. I've sworn with my life that I will follow him forever."

Lord Harion sipped his coffee again, he turned his back, "Go then, I shall free you from your status as my subordinate."

"Thank you for your generosity, Milord."

"Also, forgive my wife. She hated you, I know that, but she loved Aster so much. She is gone now, but I hope you can forgive her wrongdoings."

I lowered my head. Of course, there was this bitter feeling in my heart. She tortured me so much, she also tortured Milord Aster, "This servant will forgive Grand Duchess, but only because she is Grand Duke Aster's mother."

Lord Harion nodded, "Acceptable. Don't disappoint my son. You are his golden circle."

"Milord, may I know what the golden circle is?" Ramuja had a hunch that Milord Aster had something with his eyes. His eye colors could change and his golden circle would expand sometimes.

"You are his life, so, don't disappoint him. Now go," Lord Harion said, he didn't want to explain more, thus, I nodded and excused myself.

'I am his life?'

'Does it mean, he will love no one but me? That would be pleasant.'

I did love Milord Aster so much. When I knew that he had the same feeling as me, I felt like I could burst anytime. But of course, there was something deep inside my heart, something that made me uncomfortable.

Maybe it was insecurity, but I had the fear that Milord will change. Maybe if he found a man or woman that is much more powerful and undeniably beautiful from a foreign land.

'He can grow bored. When we are older, he can easily find another man that is much younger or when he decided to have a wife. So he could continue his bloodline.'

This feeling couldn't be helped. Because when I was a child, I remembered that my father had two more wives, second mama and third mama. They were kind to me, but they fought a lot with my real mother.

It was not illegal to have more than one spouse in Golden Camellia too, as long as you have enough wealth to provide for both. It honestly scared me, because I couldn't imagine Milord kissing another man or woman.

'Milord, I want to be selfish. I want you for myself'

I reached the training ground and met Irion who trained with his special armor.

I called it special armor because it was designed by Irion himself and there was a dent on the chest that he treasured so much. He kept the dent.

"Oh, Ramuja, you are here," Irion smiled. The cold didn't seem to bother him. He pointed at the second armor laying on the ground, "Take off your shirt and start training!" Irion said excitedly.

I nodded. I took off my shirt and started wearing the cold armor. I shivered a little when the cold armor touched my skin. Then, Irion helped me to prepare for my training.

This armor had its weird features, first, the chest area had two clips. I took both clips and pinched my nipples with it. I winced, not because of pain, but because it felt weird.

Then, the waist area had added weight. Four medium sized steel balls, with Milord's name in it. And third, I had to use a barbed collar around my neck area, similar to a dog collar, but the barbs were pointing up. So, if I dared to lower my neck, my neck would be pierced by the collar.

Irion said, these strange tools could increase my endurance, pain tolerance, and discipline.

'Well, it does help me anyway,' Although it felt weird. But I comply because it did have a significant impact on my endurance.

Irion shouted excitedly, "Let's train! Imagine Milord Aster's face when you are training, imagine him when you got hurt! Do you want to stand back again after that?! Do you feel a surge of happiness when you imagine him? This is the right step!"

"YES! FOR MILORD!"

I trained as usual. But whenever I trained, I've always had this weird pleasure whenever I connected the physical pain with Milord Aster. I shook my head, because I felt ashamed.

'HHow can I think something perverted when I'm training? Focus Ramuja!'

***

The winter feast was held in Dionde City Main square from around four pm until midnight. The city was packed with people and there were foods in almost every corner. It would be restocked every minute, so people could eat any kind of food without having to worry.

This showed the incredible wealth of Grand Duchy Stormhill, especially the ruler, Grand Duke Aster. The said Grand Duke was sitting on the throne in the middle of city square. The throne was silver and gold plated, Grand Duke Aster was sitting wearing white and gold tunic with a silver robe.

He looked modest with his clothing, unlike other rulers that would flash out their wealth. Grand Duke had the aura of cold and untouchable. But, the image shattered whenever a kid looked at him, Grand Duke would smile and said hi.

It was such a great impression to the people, because they thought their new ruler would be arrogant and ruthless.

A minister approached Grand Duke and whispered something. Grand Duke nodded and the minister announced, "His Highness Grand Duke Aster would like to announce something!"

The people stopped their activities and stared at their duke, Aster smiled and started his speech, "My beloved citizens, to commemorate my coronation, I, Grand Duke Aster, after certain consideration, would free every citizen in Grand Duchy Stormhill region from tax until the end of Summer!"

The people were shocked, they gasped and looked at their Grand Duke with disbelief. Because no tax meant the duchy wouldn't get any income. But it seemed what the rumor said was true, Grand Duchy Stormhill was incredibly rich that they could do ridiculous things like this without any risk.

The people clapped and the loud cheer during the winter feast were heard across Dionde City, "Long Live Grand Duke Aster! Long Live Grand Duke Aster!"

Aster sat calmly on his throne, the edge of his lips perked up.

'Ramuja, I will try to get the greatest approval a ruler could ever have from his people. So, when we are married, no one would oppose us.'

Aster looked at Ramuja who was standing beside him as guard with Irion. Their eyes met and Ramuja winked at him.

From afar, a girl around Aster's age was staring at the throne hatefully. Her dark long hair was braided. She looked cute and soft, but when one approached her, they could feel a vengeful aura in her.

She stared at the throne and her heart was burning with hellfire, especially when Grand Duke Aster was smiling at Ramuja.

"I swear, I will not let you be happy with anyone, especially with Grand Duke!"