Gardenia of Blooming Desire

Chapter 242: Uniting

Ramuja came out of his room with his deep gaze screening around the Swordheart mansion, he was thinking about his now-in-hiding soldiers and shadow assassins. He saw Irion was still standing near the training ground, watching over the new trainees, but his solemn expression told Ramuja that he was not happy with how things went.

Ramuja sighed and then approached Irion, he said in a low voice, "I want to relocate my people here, but I need your help for it."

Irion finally turned his head, he thought that this guy would still wail over meaningless things for days, but he had surprisingly recovered and when their eyes met, Irion was a bit startled with Ramuja's deep gaze. The servant Ramuja was never this serious, he always had that meek expression in him, but the person in front of him right now was a completely different person.

"Who are you?" Irion asked. Ramuja pulled Irion to the side and then replied;

"I am Prince Rama of the Sun Kingdom, I thought you knew that already."

"I do, but I didn't know that Prince Rama and Ramuja are two completely different people," Irion frowned, "Is this really Prince Rama, or you are just Ramuja acting majestic? I won't believe that you can act regal so suddenly after leaving Golden Camellia for a couple of months.

Ramuja scratched his head, he didn't understand why did Irion make this trivial thing a problem? He was both Ramuja and Prince Rama, it was just he didn't want to act like Ramuja in front of anyone anymore.

"I'm only Ramuja in front of Milord, I don't want to scare him," Ramuja replied, "So, from now on, please address me as Prince Rama or just Rama. Only Milord is allowed to call me Ramuja."

Irion's lips twitched, he really couldn't understand the dynamic between his master and this guy in front of him. They were so bizarre, Milord was prideful to the bone, but fragile on the inside. And the Ramuja looked meek and humble on the outside, but he definitely didn't take anyone in his eyes as Prince Rama. Yet, they fit each other like two puzzle pieces.

Irion sighed, "Well, it can't be helped. Fine then, Prince Rama, if you want to relocate your men here, then you cannot just search for them. Because we are a high class fugitive in Golden Camellia. You must play it safe by signalling them in a big event, so they could gather in one place without alerting the Emperor, come, I will tell you my plan," Irion walked to his room and Ramuja followed him.

Irion locked the door and then immediately took the letter from the drawer and put it on the desk, "It is fortunate that Milord's command is exactly the same as what I have in mind. Milord told me once, if something happened to him and the morale of the people in Dionde City was low, we should hold a charity event in Dionde City. But don't forget to put the slogan 'A life worth cherishing' for the event."

"Is that the code for Milord's allies?"

"Indeed. I already sent my subordinate to deliver the copy of this letter to Grand Duke Harion. We should get the news soon," Irion seemed to ponder for a second, "Do you have a code to gather your soldiers?"

"Yes, our code is light. So, if it's possible, I would like you to put the code 'sun' for the event," Ramuja said.

Irion hummed for a moment, and then said, "Light for the people, A life worth cherishing. I think that is a good name for the supposed event."

"Perfect," Ramuja nodded, "That is good enough, we can attract Milord's allies and my men to the event. But, would Emperor Charles allow the event to take place in Dionde City? Knowing that he was still searching for Milord, it will look too suspicious for him."

"Milord has already cut ties with the royal family long ago, Grand Duchy Stormhill is already autonomous. Besides, this is a charity event for the one in need, if the Emperor wants to forbid it for some ridiculous reason, he would only anger the people even more. Everything has been pre-planned by Milord."

Ramuja lowered his head in shame, while Milord had been working day and night to prepare for the worst, he was busy dealing with his endless insecurities. Ramuja clenched his fist, 'I should've been more useful, things may not end up like this if I know my priority.'

"We will need to wait for the response from Lord Harion about this. He is in so much pressure right now, especially because his son was nowhere to be found and the Emperor was trying to suppress him," Irion looked outside, the view of the abandoned courtyard also hurt him. Because he grew up in this mansion, "Don't worry, we all take part in this. Milord willingly helped my stubborn family, they didn't want to submit to Emperor Ludwig, let alone the cruel Charles. They would be executed by Charles sooner or later, since he was much more unforgiving than Emperor Ludwig. Thus, Milord relocated all of them and gave them a nice life on a smaller island. I am also indebted to Milord."

***

Grand Duke Harion read the letter from Irion just now. He was in so much stress for months after he resumed the position as Grand Duke in Grand Duchy Stormhill. He thought that he could live a retiree life, living by only managing one company. But the sudden invasion from Charles instantly swept everything, including his son.

He still didn't know where Aster was right now, because Irion kept it a secret even to him. Irion was too afraid to tell anyone, because the safety of his son was the utmost priority, which Duke Harion agreed.

'I didn't know that Aster bears this much responsibility and stress every day. It must have been really tiring for him. Before Camille's death, she was the one who managed the politics of Grand Duchy, while I managed the economy, thus, the workload wasn't as big. But Aster handled everything by himself and said nothing.'

'This charity event, I've read about it from Aster's note. He said that he has many connections that he built over the past two years. But he didn't want to tell me which houses he was allied to, only Duchy of Arion was blatantly siding with him.'

'I still believe in him, I know that my son can handle this. He might be in a bad position right now, but he knows how to find a way to return back. I just need to support him while he's gone. Besides Prince Rama from the Sun Kingdom must've been training with Irion right now, I hope he can save his lover from Charles.'

Harion glanced at another copy of the letter that he had kept inside the drawer and secured it tightly. He opened it briefly and sighed, "I guess, telling King Chandra about his son wasn't a bad idea. Took me a couple of years to trace Prince Rama's background back to his original."

"It might be stupid coming from my mouth, but I believe the fairy tale about golden blood from hundred years ago," Harion said to himself, "When the golden eyes meet the golden sun, they will be unbeatable"

Harion was silent for a moment, and then chuckled. He wrote another letter to let his ministers prepare the event as soon as possible, "Under the name of Grand Duke Harion, he would not let anyone disrupt this event."

***

After a month of preparation, the people in Dionde City had a pleasant surprise coming from their beloved Grand Duke, there was a charity event called 'Light for the people, A life worth cherishing'. The event was open for public feasting in the spring. The main event was to collect donations for the poor people around the country, and Grand Duke Harion would also donate large sums of money for the people who had been affected by the massacre during the previous Winter Feast.

The massacre had deeply scarred the people of Dionde City, they always had this resentment towards the new emperor, but he was way too powerful to fight. Their hatred only doubled since the disappearance of their beloved Grand Duke Aster.

Aster's disappearance only ignited even more hatred and displeasure towards Emperor Charles. Because Aster was a prominent figure who could magically improve the life quality of the residents inside the Grand Duchy Stormhill area. He was also graceful with a kind heart.

They didn't expect that Emperor Charles' jealousy and obsession to Grand Duke Aster could be this extreme to the point that he could massacre many innocent lives. However, since they were unable to fight, these kinds of events could help them show off their wealth to the people outside of Grand Duchy Stormhill.

It was the only way for Diondians to show that their Grand Duke Aster was brilliant enough to increase the living standard for the majority of the Diondians.

Ramuja was hiding in a dark alley during the event. His figure was too striking, he was afraid that Charles' soldiers could notice him.

Meanwhile, Irion was trying to check which one of the attending nobles were Milord's allies.

Ramuja waited for hours until a man around his thirty turned to the dark alleyway and then kneeled in front of him, "My Prince, I'm glad that you are safe. We are at your command."