Gardenia of Blooming Desire

On the early dawn, Irion had prepared the legendary soldiers, they were all lined up, ready for instruction from Sir Irion. Irion checked the legendary soldiers' steed, after he found that most of them were in great shape, he nodded and then stood in front of the legendary soldiers.

"My fellow soldiers, today, we are going to a big fight. We are going to fight for the freedom of our master, Aster Di Arlingdon, his freedom is also our freedom. My fellow soldiers, we are going to a bloody war soon, if you are afraid of death, then I urge you to step aside and return to your home now. Milord Aster does not tolerate cowardice!"

Irion gave the last warning to the soldiers, then he paused for almost thirty minutes, waiting for any soldier to step aside and left. But after thirty minutes, nobody moved at all, their determination was solid and they were even more fired up after Sir Irion reminded them about the massacre in Dionde City. How Milord Aster got humiliated by the Emperor, and how their beloved Mistress, Lady Merse Thana decided to commit suicide rather than kneel to that mad emperor.

Most of the legendary soldiers were also present during that eventful day, and Lady Merse ordered them to protect the citizens, but there were just too many soldiers in Emperor Charles' hand. Although they could repel at least fifty percent of them, they were powerless when the rest massacred the people.

Legendary soldiers never treated their failure lightly, they carved it in their bones. And this was the right time for them to avenge their failure.

"My fellow soldiers, our total soldiers might consist of less than a hundred soldiers. But all of us are legendary soldiers, we are born to fight! We are born to protect our master! Trust our master, he will give us handsome reward when we can carry his name to glory!"

"YES SIR!"

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAND DUKE!"

"FOR THE GLORY OF GRAND DUKE!"

Irion was satisfied with the fighting spirit of the soldiers. When his shadow guard reported that the poisonous bread sent by the duchy last night had taken effect as many of the soldiers got sick and felt weak and feverish, Irion realized that this was the best time to attack. He got on his horse and commanded, "RALLY, MY FELLOW SOLDIERS!"

***

"Sir, there are a lot of soldiers that got sick today. We don���t know what causes it, but it may come from the bread that was given by the Grand Duchy last night," one of the soldiers reported to the commander.

The commander saw how many soldiers had been affected by the poison. Most of them suddenly fell ill and had a high fever, though it was not enough to kill them. In fact, most of them would be able to recover after two or three days of rest.

'But the war is coming soon, it will be hard if they are not ready.'

'That goddamn duke must've poisoned the bread, I was too naïve,' the commander cursed on himself for not being aware enough. Maybe the cold winter night made his mind groggy, but it was too late anyway, all he could do right now was to immediately treat the ill and be prepared for war.

"Go treat the ill and—"

"C—Commander! Commander! They are coming!" the soldier said while pointing on the road.

"WHAT?!" the commander looked at the direction and saw a cavalry full of legendary soldiers with their silver gold armor. They were wielding their weapon and they were led by Irion Swordheart, the knight prodigy.

'I—Irion?!' the commander who had just been stationed far from the capital didn't know what happened to his fellow soldier. Him and Irion trained in the same place together, but they were separated by their talent. He was actually quite talented, but Irion was on the whole another level. All about him screamed prodigious and he was indeed talented, everyone admitted that.

However, once they graduated from the knight training, Irion refused to be titled as commander or stationed far with all the facility from the empire, instead, he wanted to be a regular palace guard in Golden Palace.

Who would've expected that the same man actually led the legendary soldiers to rebel against the Emperor? Irion led the soldiers fiercely and the commander could only grit his teeth and commanded, "Prepare yourself, we are going to a tough war."

The soldiers prepared themselves, they got on their horse and lined up together. The disparity between Irion's soldiers and the Emperor's soldiers were really obvious, but Irion didn't quiver at all, he was sure that he would win today.

Meanwhile, the soldiers in the commander side were afraid. Because they had never fought the full force of fierce legendary soldiers. They were afraid of death and almost half of them were ill because of the poison.

Irion opened the conversation first, "We are going to take over Dionde City, surrender now or you'll face death," Irion said calmly.

The commander shook his head firmly and replied, "Our order from the Emperor is to protect Dionde City, we shall not surrender!"

Irion unsheathed his sword and pointed the end at the commander, "We shall end you here, my fellow soldiers, ATTACK!"

The war cry of legendary soldiers was heard throughout the battlefield, and the people inside Dioned City also heard the war cry. Their fighting spirit lit up again, and they came out of their house and gathered in front of the gate of Lantern Palace.

Surprisingly, Grand Duke Harion already stood in front of the gate with the palace guards. They were already prepared to help the soldiers. Grand Duke Harion were surprised with the sudden wave of civilians with their weapon, ready to war.

"Why are all of you here? Didn't I order you to stay inside your house?" Grand Duke Harion asked.

The representative of the civilian came forward and said, "Milord, we are here to help! We are going to war against the Emperor's soldiers. We are ready to avenge Milord Aster and our family!"

"YES!"

Grand Duke frowned, "It is really dangerous, you might die, it's best for you to stay inside."

"Milord Harion, let us help! We Diondians owed Milord Aster, because he had worked tirelessly for our wellbeing. This time, we will help him!"

Harion were appalled by the crowd, never in his life, he saw the regular citizens would voluntarily help their ruler like this. Aster was obviously bearing so many responsibilities on his shoulder, but he never complained.

'It all pays off, Aster.'

"If you insist, then let us fight together. For my son, Aster Di Arlingdon, and our land! We will not let Emperor Charles do as he wished, we will fight until the end!"

The citizen's warcry filled the air with courage, Grand Duke Harion led the citizen to the battlefield and when he opened the gate, the legendary soldiers, led by Irion, were fighting courageously against the huge number of Emperor's soldiers.

The Emperor soldiers were handful fighting against those powerful legendary soldiers, they didn't tire at all, in fact, the longer the fight dragged on, the legendary soldiers seemed to get fiercer.

"ATTACK!" Grand Duke Harion ordered the citizens to attack from behind, most of them were fighting against the weakened soldiers on the backline. There were young men, young ladies, mothers and even the elderly joined the war. They used their sharpest weapon on their shed to attack.

Emperor soldiers were caught off guard by the surprise attack from behind, they were surrounded by the legendary soldiers and the angry citizens from Dionde City.

"Sir, we need to retreat!" the soldier said to the commander.

"We cannot retreat! Dionde City is important, don't let it fall to the rebel's hands!" the commander stubbornly defended the city. But soon, he finally faced the fact that his impending doom was near. Because the legendary soldiers were indeed fierce and amazing in battle, and the angry mobs were also fierce. No matter how they defended against these regular citizens, they feared nothing.

All of the anger was probably accumulated from the massacre that the Emperor did a year ago. Because what the Emperor did was indeed cruel and mad. He killed many innocent civilians without mercy.

The commander gazed at the falling soldiers that had died brutally. Some of them even showed a shameful display of getting killed by an old grandma or a little boy.

"This…" before the commander could even say anything more, Irion charged towards him and slashed his neck clean with one swipe. The commander head fell off and Irion caught it with his hand. He raised the commander's head to the masses and said, "I'VE GOT YOUR COMMANDER'S HEAD, RETREAT NOW OR YOU ALL WILL DIE RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

The last remaining Emperor soldiers were speechless by the speed of the war. Almost seventy five percent of their initial soldiers were killed. They could only retreat in a hurry, trying to return back to their base in another region.

After Irion saw the Emperor soldiers had retreated, he announced to the masses, "MY FELLOW SOLDIERS, WE'VE WON! DIONDE CITY IS OURS! LONG LIVE MILORD ASTER! LONG LIVE GRAND DUCHY STORMHILL!"

"LONG LIVE MILORD ASTER! LONG LIVE GRAND DUCHY STORMHILL!" the cry sounded across the city once more. The people had avenged many of their relatives, they were satisfied and with this, the war in Dionde City was over. Although Milord Aster's battle was yet to finish.

Grand Duke Harion watched the masses in awe, he could only sighed and a small smile pasted on his face, 'Camille, our son is truly well loved, the people love him so much.'