Chapter 154 - My Last Oath for You

"Well, there is some change in the plan, but we can still get the essence. Aster will be my perfect child."

Grand Duke was suspicious, he just got the information that Aster was traumatized by Grand Duchess in order for him to forget something. It was such a risky practice, because Aster had been traumatized once when Camille beat his puppy to death, doing it twice could really make Aster go insane.

His wife was always a risk taker, but she usually knew when to stop when the situation wasn't favoring her. But this one, driving out Aster from his own home, was far too much.

"No matter what plan you have in your head now, I do not accept it," Grand Duke rebuked. He shook his head and crossed his hand on his c.h.e.s.t, "Camille, let that boy grow by himself. You don't need to control everything in his life."

"Well, nevertheless, I will tell you and continue my plan," Grand Duchess smiled, "You remember that a golden blood needs psychological trauma to forget something, experiencing a close one's death to ruin his useless compassion, and killing a close one in order to be ruthless to the bone."

Grand Duchess giggled lightly, as if there was nothing wrong in her words, "Well, I'm planning to do all three together and make Aster my perfect child, a perfect ruler. He will have no useless emotion, and will be ruthless to people who dare to hurt him. With that, he will be able to stand toes to toes with all the monsters in the Empire."

Grand Duke was speechless. He knew the forbidden secret of the golden bloods, because he was part of the elite who would prevent the fall of the empire in case the emperor or empress went crazy because of their hereditary traits.

But he'd never guess that Camille would really want to do this to Aster. This was simply insanity.

"Camille, stop this," Grand Duke said in low tones, he was holding his anger, "Nothing good will come out of this."

"Oh, it will come out good," Grand Duchess put out a mysterious smile, and said, "You know, Harion, I've always loved our family, that's why I want the best for my son. I want him to be better and better, to lead and climb to the top. I know Aster has the capability to do that, he just needs a little push…"

"CAMILLE!" Grand Duke slammed the glass table and the glass shattered to pieces, shocking everyone on the scene.

Grand Duke pointed his fingers at his wife and mercilessly rebuked her, "You are breaking him! Do you know how crazy you sound just now?! I will give an order for all the guards to stop this madness of yours!"

Grand Duke turned his back and walked out, he was planning to gather all the guard commanders to stop any war advance and just yield against Aster, then after everything cooled down, he would persuade Aster to return back to Grand Duchy peacefully.

Grand Duchess sneered, "You think your order matters? Don't you remember that I control everything here? You may control the whole economy of the duchy, but for everything else, I am in charge."

Grand Duke halted his step. What his wife said was true, he didn't have power in anything except for the economy in Grand Duchy. Even if he could stop the fund for the duchy for a while, he couldn't do it abruptly like this, and this situation was too dangerous.

There was a moment of silence until Grand Duke opened his mouth, "Then I shall go to Kingdom Rhea and persuade Aster myself. Camille, after this mess had been cleared out, I will limit all your movement. You are too reckless."

Grand Duchess grinned maliciously, "There is no tomorrow, my darling."

Grand Duchess signaled his men to reprimand Grand Duke. The guards blocked the door and the shadow guards caught Grand Duke's hand and reprimanded him. Grand Duke's men immediately appeared to help their master, but they were severely outnumbered.

"Camille! You dare reprimand me like this?!" Grand Duke struggled with all his might. He could break free once, but two more shadow guards appeared and reprimanded him, there were currently four people reprimanding him.

Grand Duchess walked to her husband and then kissed his lips gently, "This is for our greater good. Also, please remember that kiss. It might be the last one I can give."

Grand Duke felt his heart was stuffy, had he known that everything would come to this, he would've stopped her since the first time. But his wife had suffered so many things, that it was impossible to stop her in the end.

"Camille, please reconsider this, we still have the chance to turn back. You don't need to make Aster like this, he will survive even without his golden blood trait!"

Grand Duchess smiled bitterly, "You know that there is no other way, my emperor brother had been constantly trying to ruin our duchy because of my existence, and Charles power is just too much for me to handle."

Grand Duchess' eyes started getting wet and pool of tears dropped to the ground, "Harion, I'm a bit scared. But I must do this, or else, our beloved grand duchy will be destroyed after Aster takes control of it."

Grand Duke understood that there would be time for this. He also had been in trouble because Charles' growing power and popularity was way out of control. Probably because he had awakened his golden blood trait for a long time.

He even started branching out his power to the economy sector of the empire. If Charles decided to attack grand duchy… Aster had no chance to survive.

'And his crazy obsession with Aster…'

Logically, Aster really needed this golden blood trait that had been hidden for a long time for him to fight toe to toe with Charles and other enemies. But… everything came at a cost.

'We've had our agreement that our child shall not suffer the same fate like us, but this… this is too painful…'

Grand Duchess wiped her tears and smiled, "I will lock you inside the tower with maximum security, so you won't get hurt when the Aster invades our grand duchy."

Grand Duke was tongue-tied, he let the shadow guards drag him to the tower. He just watched the family he loved about to get ruined. Before he exited the door, he called his wife again, "Camille."

"Yes, husband?"

"I… I love you, with all my heart. My oath of gardenia is only for you."

Grand Duchess realized that the end was near, her maliciousness seemed to disappear in this moment, witnessed by the guards and servants in this room. Grand Duke and Duchess recited the oath of gardenia together.

Hold me tight until I lost my sanity,

Only with you I could be happy

Only to you, I swore my fidelity. --

After they recited it, Grand Duchess gave her last pure smile to her husband, Grand Duke finally saw the same smile his wife had when she was still a pure maiden in her youthful days. Grand Duke forced out a smile, because this might be the last.

With that, the guards finally escorted Grand Duke to the isolated tower.

Grand Duchess' smile disappeared, she sat on the sofa and asked the shadow guard, "How long will it take for my son to invade Lantern Palace?"

"Approximately four days from now, they will arrive at the gate, Milady."

"Then, one day before they invade, evacuate the citizens near the city gate, and lower the fortification on that day."

The shadow guard was surprised, "But, Milady, that would make us…"

"Do you think I have the intention to hurt my son physically? Just do what I said."

The guard shut his mouth after that. He nodded and disappeared. Grand Duchess took the unfinished knitwork, she intended to make a sweater just like when Aster was a child.

'Four days, huh? I suppose I can finish the sweater by then.'

She smiled as her fingers skillfully crocheted the yarn.

***

Aster finally finished all the preparation for the invasion, they would depart the day after tomorrow and presumably would reach Lantern Palace two days later, in total, it would take four days for them to reach Dionde City.

Turned out, Gaum had plenty of gold reserves to fund the invasion, probably because Aster kept supplying his kingdom with gold before.

'It doesn't matter, it's still my pocket money in the end.'

Aster left the king chamber and went inside his room. Ramuja fainted yesterday and had been unconscious since then, the palace doctor said that he was extremely exhausted, but there was no damage in his body. He only needed plenty of rest and food. Which was a relief.

'But that means, he will not join me…'

There was a trace of sadness in his heart, but Ramuja's recovery was the utmost important. He opened his room to check on Ramuja.

"Sixty one… sixty two… sixty three…"

Aster jolted, because he was greeted by the sight of Ramuja doing push up, he was topless and his body was sweaty all over, "Ramuja! What are you—how can you— why—why are you doing push up now?!"

Ramuja finally realized that his master was inside the room. He stopped his exercise and kneeled in front of his master. His face was fresh and healthy, unlike what happened yesterday.

"How can you… doctor said that you would be unconscious for one week or more! How did you suddenly…"

Ramuja showed a wide grin to his master and replied, "This servant had a very beautiful dream yesterday, so I got my spirit back after that."

"Beautiful dream?" Aster wondered, "What kind of dream would be able to restore a dying man back to life?"

Ramuja blushed instantly, he lowered his gaze, "This servant does not remember the content of the dream, it's just so beautiful."

'Yes, everything about you in and out is so beautiful, perfect,' Ramuja said in his heart.

"Well, that is good. But you should rest, I will give you a week of rest then you can train again if you want," Aster said.

Ramuja shook his head and said, "Young Lord, I'm ready for the war. I am your sword."