Gardenia of Blooming Desire - Chapter 251: A Ruthless Talent

“Lord Harion, the people in Dionde City had been protesting nonstop for the whole summer. There were at least three protests in one week for the whole season. We cannot let turn blind eyes over this forever.”

“I know,” Grand Duke Harion said. He sighed, he sipped his coffee as he watched over the beautiful garden designed by his son.

‘Aster has a talent as a garden planner, maybe if he is not born in this house, he will be a successful garden planner. He will be able to live free with someone he loved without so much pain like this…’

Grand Duke Harion glanced at his minister and then said, “You should leave, I will take care of it later.”

“But Milord, the people are dissatisfied with Emperor Audric V. Especially since Grand Duke Aster has been missing for more than eight months. The people are on our side, but if Emperor Audric V feels that the crowd is bugging him, he can sentence those people with treason and order execution for many people in Dionde. We don’t want another massacre to happen…”

“I have another thing in my mind, I will solve this soon. Don’t worry, you can leave now,” Lord Harion said. The minister was also dissatisfied with Grand Duke Harion’s answer, but there was no room for discussion here. He left the room.

‘Irion said that Aster ordered them to stay put. Let the dissatisfaction rise, they said there have been many smaller cities who grow dissatisfied with Charles. He is indeed a strong emperor, more than his father. But he is a warmonger. He waged war, conquered and colonized many smaller countries, but it took years for the colony to stabilize in a new land.’

‘Meanwhile, the country is weakening for those first few years, because Golden Camellia depleted many soldiers that got killed during the campaign.’

‘And also… about Empress. Charles should marry someone as soon as possible, or the Empress seat will be his downfall. Because Empress has the power to manage the politics of smaller houses. Without an Empress, those smaller houses have the power to scheme, bully the peasants and many more without any repercussion.’

Grand Duke Harion knew exactly what was in his son’s mind, it was indeed a despicable plan, at least based on his pure image, this was definitely evil enough, ‘Aster is planning to overthrow Emperor Charles by torturing his heart and sanity.’

Grand Duke gazed at the beautiful garden under him again, ‘I know that you have your mother’s talent. But my son, sometimes, I wished that you weren’t born from us, I can’t bear seeing you playing this ruthless game like your mother did…’

‘I’m sorry I can’t protect you well enough.’

***

Charles was sitting alone in his room. His breath was heavy, he drank the medicine that the palace doctor prescribed for him. Charles was in no way ill, he was perfectly healthy physically. It was just, the mental torture Aster had put into him started to corrode his sanity slowly.

After drinking the medicine, Charles calmed down a bit, but the pain in his heart was still quite prominent. He put his hand on his heart and then said, “Aster, I know that you hate me so much, but… can you please help me for a minute?”

Charles gazed at the big painting of Aster in his room, “Please save me, my heart is hurting, I can barely control my breath and I can’t sleep. I just want to see you once.”

“Is this how you want to torture me? You want me to be driven mad by your disappearance, and then kill myself because of the excruciating pain? Aster, I thought I am the evil one here…” Charles said. His eyes had turned golden, but his tears flowed freely. He didn’t sob, he didn’t whimper weakly, but his tears dropped to the ground, there was pain deeper, indescribable by just sobbing and whimpering.

“Aster, don’t blame me when I kill everyone who tries to hide you. You know our golden curse, Aster. You want me to die because of our bloodline curse, right?” Charles gritted his teeth, “I will, but after I killed you too. Don’t blame me when I set the whole world on fire, I will kill everyone who tries to protect you, then we can die together.”

Charles felt that his sanity was slipping every day. He didn’t even care about the country administration anymore. He conquered many smaller countries to satiate his craving for that slave’s death for a few moments before he had to conquer another place and enslave most of the people again and again.

“I will rule the people justly when you are by my side, Aster. I know that you love you Dionde so much, this might be the only way for you to return back.”

Charles had ordered his minister to announce that the government would execute anyone who dared to protest against the Emperor, including those in Dionde City, “When the winter starts, I will massacre your city again Aster. I will not stop unless you return, you love your people so much, right?”

***

Irion checked on Prince Rama’s condition. He was still asleep after he searched far and wide around Golden Camellia’s mountains and jungles to find a Gardenia of Blooming Desire.

The flower was indeed extremely rare, and it wilted within only a day after blooming if not picked and preserved immediately. It didn’t have any specific season to bloom, it just bloomed beautifully and wilted within the same day. It was more of a luck rather than hard work for someone to find a Gardenia of Blooming Desire himself.

‘Well, he is extremely lucky, to find Gardenia of Blooming Desire by himself,’ Tuskan saw the Gardenia of Blooming Desire Prince Rama found before he gave it to his spy. Prince Rama’s Gardenia of Blooming Desire was pink and white on the edges. It was fresh and beautiful, which was rare. Irion recalled the nobles who had eternal Gardenia of Blooming Desire, there are some of the flowers who would stay fresh forever without any method of preservation, it had a specific characteristic, a golden pistil and three golden anthers.

‘Let’s see… Emperor Charles, Prince Rama, and uh… Great King Tuskan? I remembered reading in a book that his father had a Gardenia of Blooming Desire, and it was passed down on him. But he is an Arctyrian, the flower doesn’t have deep meaning there, it was simply an extremely rare flower.’

There were only three men with Eternal Gardenia of Blooming Desire, but Prince Rama’s flower was even better than Charles and Tuskan’s because of one trait;

‘Should I tell Prince Rama that his flower is the legendary Gardenia of Blooming Desire? His flower is self-preserving, and it has a golden pistil and four golden anthers instead of three. Hm…’

Golden Pistil and four golden anthers in the flower were like four leaf clovers, ‘The legend said that anyone with four anthers eternal Gardenia of Blooming Desire have the power to marry anyone without rejection. The person who proposed with this flower cannot be rejected, and his proposal will topple those of the kings. Even if he is a slave, he will be able to marry a queen of a country.’

‘I mean, I’m positive that Prince Rama’s Gardenia of Blooming Desire is that legendary flower, but if I tell him now, he will definitely march to Great Arctyr and marry Milord immediately, knowing how careless and emotional he is, he will definitely ruin our plan. Best to keep it a secret for now…’

Irion subordinate appeared in front of him and asked, “Sir, the protests have been quite effective to destabilize the country. The peasants grow dissatisfied because the local landlords and nobles pressure them without any repercussion, and the Golden Palace turns blind eyes about this. The people in Dionde City have been completely losing their trust to Emperor Charles.

“Good, did the protests in Dionde City was driven by Milord Aster’s disappearance?”

“Yes, it is the main problem. They really resented Emperor Charles after what he did during Winter Feast, and Grand Duchy Stormhill had lost their best Grand Duke due to the Emperor’s insanity,” the subordinate reported.

“Good, keep a good watch over the situation, Milord Aster says that we will execute our next plan when the harsh winter starts,” Irion commanded. The subordinate nodded and then disappeared.

“Well, there is something that we can do soon, we can help King Gaum Cresthold to realize that he is not a good ruler… Milord already suggested this for a while, but I think next autumn will be the best time to do this,” Irion checked the document in his table. It was a letter prepared by Milord before the winter massacre, it was about Gaum and Gamasiel Cresthold.

I already planted a mole disguised as Vassal Kingdom Rhea’s new economy minister. He will be destroying Rhea’s unstable economy once Gaum dares to betray me. Once the economy is unstable again, frame Gaum by killing the comatose Gamasiel. – Aster

Irion nodded, he gulped because he was nervous after reading this, “Milord, is much more capable and ruthless than I expected. But it is bound to happen, I just discovered that Gaum was already colluding with Emperor Charles. Gaum was the one who secretly ordered his men to participate in the Winter Massacre of Dionde City, his shadow guards were the one who doubled the casualty of the people.”

Irion sighed, “Maybe he already found out about the death of the late Empress Beatrice that was caused by Milord Aster. This might be his way to avenge Empress Beatrice’s death, by doubling the casualty of the people ruled by Aster.”

“Well, since he dug his own grave, don’t blame me for being ruthless. I am just following Milord’s order.”