Gardenia of Blooming Desire

Chapter 147: To Ruin an Incompetent King IV

Three days after that chain of events, there was a slight change in the Kingdom of Rhea. The officials were not happy with how their king arrived late every day and didn't seem to care about the kingdom affairs at all. He always gave a half assed answer that didn't help.

Meanwhile, Second Prince Gaum started to aggressively kick all the officials who worked as treasury officials. Because he was the chief treasurer, he added his own men as the new officials for the treasury and budgeting. This move was an obvious display of disrespect towards his brother, King Gamasiel.

Because all the previous officials inside the treasury and budgeting were his men. They've worked tirelessly so the kingdom would stay afloat. Thus, when Gamasiel heard this, he flew into scorching fury and slammed Gaum's office.

"Gaum! What did you do?!"

Gaum was sitting on his chair while signing some documents, this was to legalize the new officials who were his own men. He kept signing the documents, he opened his mouth but didn't even bother to look at his brother. He replied nonchalantly, "I need to work with people I can trust."

"People you can trust? They are all trustworthy!" 

"I don't even trust you, how could I trust your men?" Gaum finally glanced at Gamasiel once and continued reading the documents. Gamasiel had never seen blatant disrespect and that disrespect came from the little brother he protected since he was a baby.

Gamasiel strode towards Gaum's desk and slammed it with his hand.

BAM!

The stacked documents fell and scattered around. Gaum finally stood from the chair and glared at his brother, "Leave before I call the guards." Gaum said in a low threatening voice. But Gamasiel felt insulted instead. Because Gaum never dared to tell him to leave.

"You dare to threaten me? Your king and brother?" Gamasiel asked. Gaum sneered instead, he took a document from the desk drawer and handed it on Gamasiel's face.

"This is the record of Kingdom Rhea's budget for two years before I took the position as chief treasurer and see how useless you and your men really were."

Gamasiel didn't read the documents that were shoved to him, because he knew that it was indeed a terrible record. Kingdom Rhea almost got ruined because the economy was crumbling.

The reason was because of the failed engagement of King Gamasiel and Miss Claudia, the daughter of the richest merchant in Golden Camellia. Because the financial support her family had given were enormous, it rooted deep inside Rhea and when it was cancelled, the entire economy almost collapsed.

"I will not see your stupid data! But you cannot fire all of them! Take them back to your office!"

"I will not do that," Gaum said, "You should know that you are not a good king."

"What did you say?!" Gamasiel pulled Gaum's collar, but there was no trace of panic in Gaum's eyes. He laughed instead, "Do you think I will be scared if you hit me?"

Gamasiel raised his hand, but when he was going to hit Gaum, he remembered this guy when he was a baby, continuously followed him everywhere and always saw him in that starry eyes, like a boy meeting his idol. Now all that had turned into this.

'How could I hit my only sibling'

Gamasiel sighed, he lowered his hand again and released Gaum. Gaum sneered and said, "I'm much more important than what you made me be."

"Stop this, just return everything back to normal," Gamasiel said. He tried to cool down, because he got carried away before. However, Gaum's smile turned into a smirk and he laughed.

"Rather than returning everything back to normal, I would rather make a new one. You are incompetent, brother," Gaum gave smug grin to Gamasiel. Which finally broke the straw of the camel's back, Gamasiel landed a hard punch on Gaum's cheek.

Gaum was punched and his body flew to the bookshelf, he slumped to the ground. He felt his cheek was so painful that it almost numb. Gamasiel stepped towards Gaum and kicked his stomach.

"Urk!" Gaum groaned in pain.

"I've worked tirelessly for Rhea! I went to many wars and campaigns so Rhea could have a better future! I was going to marry a woman that I hated because her wealthy father would supply Rhea! And you are telling me that I'm incompetent?! You are a useless kid!"

After Gamasiel's anger subsided, he saw a beaten Gaum laying on the ground. He immediately carried him and brought him to the palace doctor. His wounds got treated, but when the doctor asked what happened, Gamasiel said nothing and left with guilt in his heart.

***

"This is the correct information about what happened yesterday, right?" Aster asked Irion.

"Yes, Young Lord."

"Then, summon around seven shadow guards now," Aster ordered. Irion nodded and opened the window. He threw a bell to the ground and not long after, seven shadow guards came from the window. Aster noticed that their movements were not as agile as Jain. Because he could see their physiques entering the room, while he could only see Jain's shadow when he entered the room.

'Jain'

There was a trace of sadness in Aster's face, but he tried to conceal it, because there were seven shadow guards kneeling in front of him, waiting for his command.

"Raise your head," Aster commanded. The shadow guards raised their heads, and some of them actually gasped while the others were just stunned silly. They never saw their real master up until now. But Sir Irion always said that their real master, Aster Di Arlingdon, is a mesmerizing master, physically and intellectually.

Aster chuckled lightly, "What's with your expression? Do I look weird?"

One shadow guard couldn't help but replied, "No, master, it's just I thought I saw a moon goddess tonight'

Aster was used to this kind of compliment, but it was funny because it came from the mouth of a shadow guard. He usually saw highly experienced shadow guards, not a trainee like these.

"My name is Aster di Arlingdon, I am your master and I shall bring glory to all of you as long as you follow me," Aster declared with confidence. The shadow guards were staring in awe.

Most of them were either runaway or abandoned by their family and society. Thus, when they were approached by Sir Irion, they were given food, shelter, and purpose. They were treated well, with the cost of their loyalty to their true master, Aster di Arlingdon.

"Yes, master!"

Aster smiled. He didn't want to harm any of them, and he didn't want to give them a harsh task, because they were not proficient yet.

"I will give all of you a simple task. Kingdom Rhea has five districts and two of them are the main cities. I will order two shadow guards in the main city and two others in another city, then the rest will be evenly spread out on the smaller districts."

"Your task is to spread a rumor around, go to the bar, the park, anywhere, and spread the rumor that King Gamasiel and Prince Gaum were in terrible fights and the state might be in danger, tell them that King Gamasiel was enamored with a fox man, so he forget about his king duty."

"You can also add the rumor that Prince Gaum was trying to save the kingdom and confronted his older brother, but King Gamasiel beat him until he was unconscious."

The shadow guards listened to their master giving them their first task. They knew that being a shadow guard was never an honorable job, but they were usually provided with enormous wealth and protection from their master.

"Understand?" Aster asked.

"Yes, master!"

"Good, now, all of you will start this mission tomorrow morning, keep spreading the rumor from one mouth to another, so it will be big news."

After he gave the order, the shadow guards disappeared from the room, but to Aster's surprise, they actually disappeared like Jain. Although they were still not as proficient as Jain. But the way they entered the room and when they exited the room were obviously different.

"Irion, care to explain?"

Irion was seriously furious at these shadow guards. He already instructed them to hide their current training from Young Lord, but it seemed they forgot.

"This subordinate told them that they shouldn't show Jain's technique in front of you, Young Lord."

"Jain's technique? You mean, the way they exited by just simply disappearing?"

"Yes."

"Who taught them this? And why do you need to hide it from me?"

"Before his death, Jain sent some of his disciples to train the new shadow guards, Young Lord. He said he wants to be useful for you even after his death. The reason why I hide it is maybe Young Lord would rewardI mean, punish me because I couldn't train them properly. So, you would hit me with a belt or something"

Aster facepalmed hard, he forgot that Irion had strange pleasure whenever Aster hit him and verbally insulted him, "Fine, take off your belt."

Irion's face lit up, he immediately took off his metal belt and handed it to Aster. He kneeled in front of Aster while waiting for his punishment eagerly.

Aster circled around kneeling Irion, he raised the belt and lashed Irion on his back as hard as he could. Irion groaned, but he groaned in pleasure. His body winced, but he winced out of excitement.

"Trash guard! You can't even train them properly! And you call yourself a knight?!" Aster lashed Irion on his waist, then his thigh, even his hand. There were obvious red marks on Irion's body, but he didn't seem to be in pain.

"Master! Please punish this useless guard! I'm sorry I've failed you! I deserve this!" Irion said while his face was in trance.

After half an hour of this kind of play, Irion finally fell to the ground with his mouth drooling with pleasure. It didn't fit his usual royal guard poise at all. After a while, Irion finally recovered from his extreme pleasure and thanked Young Lord before leaving the room because it was already late at night.

Aster sighed, Irion had a really strange pleasure, at least to Aster, it was really strange. Sometimes he felt uncomfortable doing it, because he was afraid that Irion might die from it.

'It's okay though, as long as he didn't teach Ramuja about his preference.'

Aster suddenly had a bit of doubt in his heart, with Irion training Ramuja, that meant Irion and Ramuja were almost always together.

'He didn't, did he?'