Gardenia of Blooming Desire

Aster and Ramuja were rescued not long after Ramuja fainted. They returned to Miriam Coast, but Ramuja hadn't woken up since then. The old doctor said that Crown Prince Rama had fainted due to exhaustion, and it might take him a few days to regain his consciousness.

"Do you have any way to make him recover faster?" Aster asked the doctor. But the old doctor from Sun Kingdom shook his head, "Milord, Sun King is a legendary entity. Crown Prince Rama is new to this sun king state, it would take him a few days to recover naturally. But he will be okay. Also, you told me before that Crown Prince Rama and you kissed, and you recover all your wounds, right?"

"Yes."

The old doctor sighed, "Sun king has natural regenerative capability. Crown Prince Rama has had this since his childhood, that is also the reason why he can survive being a slave and tortured for so long without losing any limbs or dying out of pain. Once the Crown Prince was in his sun king state, his regeneration would be enhanced tremendously. In my deduction, it seems that Sun King can share his regenerative capability to his loved one too, but this is the first time such a thing has ever happened."

"First time?" Aster frowned, "The previous sun kings never have this?"

"We don't know about that, because Crown Prince Rama is the first Sun King who fell in love with a human. Previously, Sun King would be subjected to various methods so he would fall in love with his country, and would protect his country in a battle, he would grow stronger as long as the people cheered on him."

The old doctor tapped Aster's shoulder like an elder giving advice to the young ones, "Milord, naturally, Crown Prince Rama will grow stronger as long as you give him encouragement. The next time Crown Prince's Sun King berserk state triggers, please encourage him."

The old doctor left the room after that. Aster was left with Ramuja who was still sleeping soundly. He bit his lips, he wanted to wait until Ramuja woke up. But if he took more than a few days, he couldn't afford losing momentum by staying in Miriam Coast.

Aster glanced at the sleeping Ramuja again and landed a kiss on his lips, "Ramuja, this time, I will lead the war. Wake up soon, my hero. I want you to show how gallant you are."

Aster opened the door and headed to the ship's meeting room. There were plenty of people inside, most of them were Ramuja's direct general from Sun Kingdom, and he had few shadow guards who were waiting for his order.

The generals naturally know the identity of their soon-to-be Sun Queen. They bowed respectfully, and one of the generals asked, "How is Our Prince? We are waiting for his command."

Aster took Ramuja's Sun King order crest and then put it on the table, "My husband is recovering, he is yet to awaken. I will be the one in charge."

"How can this be?!" one general rebuked immediately. Although he didn't hate Aster, he didn't want to be ordered by someone from Golden Camellia, let alone the golden blood identity that Aster held.

"I will not let you command me!" the general harshly rejected. Which was followed by another general. Facing rejections, Aster didn't change his countenance at all. He calmly scanned through the generals' faces and then replied;

"Emperor Charles is probably on his way back to Golden Camellia. If we don't move fast, then he will catch us off guard and everything will be in vain. Even worse, he might recover from the invasion and then attack the Sun Kingdom. I am doing this for our survivability. Once you enter the fray, there is no way to escape."

There was a long silence in the room, until half of the generals finally conceded. But the other half was still headstrong.

Aster knew that there was not much time left, Charles must be on his way back now, he couldn't waste anymore time. He closed his eyes and then reopened it. His golden eyes shone bright and hypnotized the people inside, "I am Crown Prince Rama's spouse, I am as powerful as him. Follow my lead just like how you follow his lead."

The generals finally nodded in unison, Aster smiled as he was satisfied, he pointed his finger at a region in the map, "We are going to attack Duchy of Silvorè next, this duchy is my duchy's old friend, but surprisingly take side with the Emperor. We need to attack Silvorè, and then Leinbell region. Silvorè and Leinbell are the big region of the north, alongside Roagelt the capital city and North Fort. But Esther should've taken care of the north fort, the defenses around Silvorè and Leinbell must be lenient right now, because the soldiers would focus more on trying to repel the north barbarian from attacking the smaller towns around these four regions."

"Understand," the generals said in unison again.

"Good," Aster nodded and continued, "Head to Silvorè now, the uprising within the city must've started after the execution of Gaum Cresthold two days ago."

Aster turned his back and left the room. The generals snapped out of their daze, but they felt that they were in unison, they thought the same thing. Thus, the Sun Kingdom army headed to Duchy of Silvorè.

***

Aster saw the Silvorè city had burned down to the ground from afar. He was satisfied with the damage the riot had done to the city. Duchy of Silvorè was led by Lady Lily Berzhenia, Duchess of Silvorè. She was Aster's mother's good friend before Aster was even born, but Lady Berzhenia actually sided with the Emperor in this war.

As soon as the Sun Kingdom's soldiers approached the gate, the Emperor soldiers were already too tired, because they fought against the terrible uprising inside the city. The uprising was incredibly tough that the Emperor soldiers already lost almost seventy percent of their soldiers because of it.

Now the barbarians had successfully entered North Fort, many smaller towns in Silvorè were attacked. Thus, the commander decided to dispatch almost all his remaining soldiers to help the small towns. Since there was nothing left inside Silvorè City other than the Duchess' mansion.

When the commander saw the Sun Kingdom's huge rally. He knew that he was already hopeless. Thus, he stood alone in front of the Sun Kingdom soldiers and bowed his head once he saw Aster Di Arlingdon come out of the carriage.

"Milord Aster, begging you to give this commander a clean, quick death," the commander begged.

Aster nodded and ordered his men to kill the commander quickly.

Aster entered the Silvorè City that had been desecrated to the ground, he frowned slightly, 'I don't think I have enough manpower to create this much mess. Silvorè City has basically destroyed to ashes. There must be someone behind this other than my people who staged the uprising.'

Aster entered the open gate of Duchess Palace. There were not many guards and servants, once they saw the rally of the soldiers that was led by Aster, they tried to hide, fearing for their lives.

Aster frowned even, 'Even the guards are this scared, what is happening.'

Aster ordered his soldiers to stay put as he entered the main palace with few shadow guards. He walked and saw that all the servants avoided him like he was some sort of monster.

Aster caught an old maid who shrieked and begged for her life, "B—Benevolent Milord! Please spare me! Please spare me! I have a young grandkid that needs me!"

"I will not hurt you," Aster said gently, "I want you to escort me to Lady Berzhenia, she is inside this palace, right?"

The maid nodded vigorously and then escorted Aster to a door at the end of the corridor. Aster's anxiety was exploding at this point. Everything in Silvorè city was very strange.

Aster pushed the door, and he saw Lady Lily Berzhenia who sat on the sofa weakly, she looked outside the big window, which she directly saw countless corpses of soldiers in her garden and she could see the city got burned to the ground from afar. When their eyes met, Lady Berzhenia chuckled and looked outside again.

"Lady Berzhenia, I suppose you know my intention here," Aster said.

"Yes, and you won. If you need to kill me now, just kill me directly. I am tired of your family shit. That woman already destroyed everything before you came anyway."

"A Woman? Who is she?" Aster asked. He felt that this woman's identity must not be simple, to be able to destroy Silvorè and destroy all the fighting spirit of the people here.

Lady Berzhenia laughed mirthlessly, then she looked at Aster with her cold gaze, "That woman is your vile mother, she destroyed everything and terrorized Silvorè for days. My soldiers slowly succumbed to their death because of fear."

Aster's gaze stilled, he replied, "My mother is dead. You are making things up."

Lady Berzhenia glared at Aster and then rebutted, "Her body might be buried under the ground. But she has so many devoted followers everywhere. She planned to destroy my duchy for so long… I guess she really succeeded now, ahahahaha!"

Lady berzhenia pointed at the burned down city and continued, "I know that you staged the uprising, so I prepared my guards combined with Emperor's soldiers to defend the city. I didn't expect that your dead mother has prepared for everything to avenge my betrayal to her. She actually tripled, no, quadrupled the threat that you've set. Everything… she killed and destroyed everything. There is nothing left…"

There was a deep terror inside Lady Berzhenia's eyes. Aster was silent the whole moment, he only ordered the shadow guard to give Lady Berzhenia a quick death.

Once Lady Berzhenia was killed, Aster stood still, looking at her corpse. It took awhile for Aster to process everything. He didn't expect that his mother would still have plans to help him even though she was already dead.

He thought that defeating Lady Berzhenia would be a hard task to do, but turned out, his late mother had prepared everything for him.

'Mother, I don't know whether I should be happy or terrified right now. But… thank you for helping me again and again. I will not disappoint…'