Gardenia of Blooming Desire - Chapter 278: The Winter War VIII

The war broke in front of the Roagelt wall. Sun Kingdom cavalries marched with the frontline soldiers and attacked the Golden Camellia cavalries and frontline soldiers. It seemed that the war was evenly matched, which was surprising, considering that Golden Camellia was in its strongest base, but didn’t have the innate advantage.

Aster frowned when he saw this, he expected the Golden Camellia soldiers to be much more menacing, but it seemed that they were at the same level as the Sun Kingdom.

Aster glanced at Ramuja and asked, “What did you do to your soldiers? I see that Sun Kingdom soldiers have extremely high morale here.”

Ramuja smiled and replied, “I just told them the truth about my life in Golden Camellia. I hide nothing, including all my past experience as sex slave, and I also told them about the hardship we faced until we can be together. Naturally, my soldiers will be moved, they missed the figure of Sun King for so long, now when the Sun King told them about his painful experience as a sex slave, of course it will incite their anger.”

Aster was silent, he stared at Ramuja deeply and then said, “Ramuja, I’m glad that you are by my side. You are… good.”

Ramuja was giddy all over when his wife praised him. Aster rarely praised him, in fact, he rarely praised anyone, “Wife, do you think I can be a competent ruler?”

“… perhaps.”

“Do you think I can also be a great general too? I mean, I can command the soldiers! I can fight too!” Ramuja puffed up his chest.

“… I believe you can be a great general, probably the best,” Aster said truthfully. He never praised or flattered anyone, not even his parents. But Ramuja looked very happy, thus he complied and told Ramuja the truth, “Husband, you are… talented.”

Getting Aster’s approval made Ramuja jubilant, he rose from his seat and prepared his sword, “Ramuja, where are you going?”

“I’m going to war! I want you to look at the majestic me!” Ramuja said impulsively. There was a visible orange aura around Ramuja’s body. He hopped to his horse and said enthusiastically, “Watch me defeat them!”

Aster was left jaw-dropped while watching Ramuja rushing to the battlefield with his steed. The generals who were attentively waiting for the chance to strike were stunned when they saw a familiar figure rushed to the battlefield, he didn’t even wear his helmet. However, he entered the fray valiantly.

“P—PRINCE RAMA! COME BACK!” one general reacted and immediately yelled at his prince to return, but Prince Rama didn’t seem to listen at all. He rushed and swung his sword and struck the enemy soldiers.

The commanders from Golden Camellia were surprised with the sudden interference of Prince Rama. Seizing the good chance, the commander immediately ordered, “Focus your attack on Prince Rama! Once he is dead, victory is ours!”

The archers and soldiers immediately focused their attack at Prince Rama. However, Prince Rama didn’t falter at all, in fact, he grew excited, imagining his wife watching over him with his worry, yet hopeful eyes.

The warm orange aura around Prince Rama started radiating bright glow and heat, like a sun, he confidently faced the arrows from the archers and deflected the ones who were aimed at him. Once he saw his steed got hurt, Prince Rama jumped from the horse and swung his sword, immediately decapitating the lines of the enemy in front of him.

“MY SOLDIERS! I WILL BE YOUR SUN, FOLLOW ME!” Prince Rama’s war cry ignited the fighting spirit of the soldiers, they became fiercer and attacked with all their might, being led by their Sun King made them feel that they were being led by their god.

Soon, the commanders from the Golden Camellia side realized that it was a big mistake to focus on Prince Rama. This guy… was a monster. He got attacked by the soldiers, but he was still unscathed. Somehow, the commanders had an illusion that Prince Rama did get hurt, but his wound magically closed, as if the wound never existed in the first place. It was simply illogical.

‘This is just an illusion, right? How could we win if he can’t get hurt at all!’ the commanders thought.

The generals from the Sun Kingdom side prepared their battle steed and rushed to aid their prince. All the plans they had before were out of the picture now, because Prince Rama led the battle and the soldiers got an incredible morale boost.

“Milord, don’t go anywhere! We are going to help Prince Rama!” one general said. Aster was still speechless, he had planned many things and thought about many scenarios in case something bad happened during the war. But Ramuja just threw it all into the garbage bin and charged without any preparation.

Aster gritted his teeth, he yelled as loud as he could, “RAMUJA, YOU BETTER WIN OR I WILL KILL YOU, DUMBASS!”

Ramuja could hear Aster’s words clearly, even though they were far, he could hear that clearly and it made him even more joyful, ‘Watch me, Aster.’

Prince Rama’s bright yellow aura actually made the Golden Camellia’s soldiers dazed. Their body started sweating horribly and the heat made them uncomfortable even in this cold winter. As if, Prince Rama’s aura was similar to the sun.

“Sir, this is illogical! We can’t win this!” one commander said to his senior who was watching from afar. The senior commander was an old veteran, he had heard about the legend of Sun King. It was an old legend, that each sun king had the power to obliterate one country alone. But he never saw that old King Chandra ever turned into something like his son.

King Chandra was a legit Sun King, but his strength was nowhere near Prince Rama even during his prime. The senior commander witnessed how Prince Rama didn’t get hurt at all after countless attacks. He was invincible.

“We need Emperor Charles now!” one commander said.

However, the senior commander sighed and said, “Even with the Emperor here, we cannot do anything against that Prince from the Sun Kingdom. He is not human, at least right now, he is not human at all.”

Prince Rama completely dominated the war and the supposedly one day war turned into a three hours war. Sun Kingdom barely suffered any casualties, but on the Golden Camellia side, the number of casualties were uncountable at this point.

Golden Camellia’s remaining soldier stood outside the gate, trying to defend the city with their last breath, but Prince Rama laughed and ordered his soldier to destroy the gate, because he wanted to meet his beloved wife again.

Prince Rama returned valiantly to Aster side, he was glorious and majestic, like the sun. His white gold armor was bloody, but the soldiers and generals only looked at him in awe. Those who never witnessed the power of Sun King finally discerned how blessed their kingdom truly was.

Aster didn’t smile at all, he folded his hands in dissatisfaction. Ramuja grinned and said, “Wife, I’ve returned. Do I look cool to you?”

Instead of showering Ramuja with praises and worship like the soldiers did, Aster pulled Ramuja’s ears and pulled him inside their tent. The soldiers and generals had grown accustomed to their powerful prince’s submissive behavior to his wife, but the discrepancy between Prince Rama who led them to battle and the henpecked Prince Rama still shocked them.

‘Truly, even the strongest man in the Sun Kingdom bows down to his wife…’

After Aster and Ramuja entered the tent, Ramuja complained slightly, “I expect you to kiss me in front of my soldiers…”

Aster didn’t answer, he turned his back and after a while, Ramuja heard a sob from Aster. Ramuja panicked and checked on Aster, “A—Aster, are you alright?”

Aster wiped his tears and scolded Ramuja, “You are charging into the battlefield like an idiot! At that moment, I thought I would lose you forever, you dumbass!”

Ramuja saw Aster’s tears and felt slightly guilty, “A—At least, I return victorious…”

“Don’t ever risk your life like that!”

“… I’m sorry,” Ramuja lowered his head. He just wanted to woo Aster, he didn’t know that Aster would take it like this, “I just think that you’ll be happy if—”

Ramuja paused as he felt a gentle kiss on his lips. Aster turned his back again, dared not facing Ramuja, “T—That kiss is for your victory. You did great… husband.”

***

Rosalie was eight months pregnant, her belly was really big and she couldn’t move around much nowadays. She was inside her room in Golden Palace. As she heard about their loss because of the inhumanely powerful Prince Rama, Rosalie had a shallow smile on her face.

She caressed her belly gently and besides her, Florentino Viete was feeding her with fruits. She smiled gently at her husband and said, “Floren, my brother has lost. Aster will be the new Emperor, I might be exiled soon, but fear not, he sent me a letter before the war and promised me one thing in exchange for my support.”

“Our baby, he will protect our baby. If it’s a boy, he said that our son will be the next Emperor after him, and if it’s a girl, she will be a golden princess.”

“Floren, I know you might not desire me much. But I’m glad that you stay with me.”