Gardenia Of Blooming D.e.s.i.r.e

Low knocks made Grand Duke stopped his eyes from skimming the documents and glanced at the door.

"Who?" he asked.

"Milord, Young Lord Aster's slave is here," his servant reported from outside. Grand Duke raised his eyebrows, he had a deal with this slave, but he wouldn't force him to submit to the deal unless this slave was the one who initiated it.

"Let him in," Grand Duke ordered. The door opened slowly and this slave entered the room. Grand Duke's eyes leered at this slave. Honestly, he was used to see this slave as one of his workers in his logging business, a tall, bronze skinned, muscular worker. But now he was wearing a shirt given by his son, it was really strange to see.

'Aster really dressed this servant with such expensive garment,' Grand Duke pondered in his mind. This was the first time Aster really gave garments to a slave.

'Does Aster treat this slave as a pet or a human?'

Grand Duke cleared his throat, he put his document down and asked Ramuja, "What is your concern to meet me?"

Ramuja kneeled in front of Grand Duke and replied, "Milord, this subordinate has a request."

"What is it?"

"This... this subordinate has already decided that he will give Milord the information about Young Lord Aster and following Milord's orders, in exchange for gold coins..."

"Hm? I thought you said a week ago that you're not interested," Grand Duke scorned, "Your fickle stance would ruin your credibility in front of me, you know."

"This subordinate is not fickle, Milord. What this subordinate said before is also true, but..." Ramuja gritted his teeth silently. He remembered the moment of Young Lord and Gaum yesterday and he was furious and grieving at the same time.

"What do you need the gold coin for? So you can marry that girl you live with for the past two years?"

"N--No! It's not about that, this subordinate..." Ramuja lowered his head, "This subordinate wants to be free."

"What?!" Grand Duke was taken aback. "Why do you want freedom? Has my son abused you too much, so that you want to be free?"

"No! Y--Young Lord is very kind and generous to this subordinate," Ramuja prostrated in fear of Grand Duke's anger. "This subordinate just wants Young Lord to see this subordinate as a human being too."

'See him as human being? So my guess is correct, Aster took this slave as a pet to dress up.'

'But that means Aster wouldn't hand that thing to a pet,' Grand Duke shook his head slowly. Maybe he already overestimated this slave's worth to his son. Maybe it would take a year until Aster got bored of him and executed this slave.

'So I have to buy a new slave for him,' Grand Duke already had the new list of better slave for Aster. He just hadn't talked to Aster as he was waiting to measure this slave's worth. But it seemed that this slave's life wasn't worth a glance.

"With what you just said, I assume that your worth isn't as good as I expected," Grand Duke said coldly. "Let's just say I made a bad purchase, you can leave now."

Ramuja raised his head immediately. He was shocked with Grand Duke's cold sentence and his decision to suddenly kicked him out. "B--But, Milord, you said that you would need me to watch over Young Lord and provide information..."

"My son is not stupid. He may be inexperienced, but he wont let a pet slave to know about his private matters." Grand Duke looked down on him with his unfeeling gaze. All his previous mirth and smile disappeared, he turned so cold in Ramuja's eyes.

"A pet... slave?" Ramuja seemed to be stunned with the term that his body turned rigid on the spot.

"Back then, I also had plenty of pet slaves. We dressed them nice and showcased them around, there is still a popular event of pet slave," Grand Duke explained. "Many nobles have pet slaves, but it's different than your status as sex slave before."

Ramuja was speechless, something hit him really hard in his consciousness as he felt like his body starting to get lighter.

"Pet slave is not for physical pleasure, they are to be adored, sometimes we trade our pet slaves to each other, sometimes we asked them to do a competition or just doing ridiculous thing for entertainment," Grand Duke explained lightly, as if all those actions were normal.

"If--if the pet slave is disobedient..."

"Just like animal pet, if they are disobedient, the owner would punish them. If the pet is beyond help, we just execute that pet. Getting a pet slave is cheaper than buying some exotic animal pet in Golden Camellia."

"Does Young Lord really treat me as a pet slave?" Ramuja mumbled.

Grand Duke sighed, "You can go now, you are wasting my time."

"M--Milord, please give this subordinate a chance!" Ramuja smashed his head to the ground in prostrating position again.

"What chance? I'm here to do a trade with you, but you are unable to provide me with the thing I need. My son would probably sell you in a year," Grand Duke sneered.

"This subordinate has Young Lord's personal pin!" Ramuja tried to reason again.

"I admit that I was impressed before, Aster only gave his personal pin to me, my wife, and the third one is you," Grand Duke started reading the documents on the table again. Deeming this slave wasn't worth his time, "But brass pin is common, maybe my son already gave his brass pin to others. Now leave until you can prove that you own my son's important pin."

"This subordinate has Young Lord's important pin, Milord." Ramuja replied.

Grand Duke stopped reading again, his interest finally sparked, "Do you know what I'm referring to?"

Ramuja rose from his position and put the pin he had been holding this whole time on the table, directly in front of Grand Duke.

Pin shaped like a string less harp with the letter 'A' in the middle of it. It was the same shape, but it glinted beautifully as it was made with fine silver metal. Grand Duke's eyes widened, his hand trembled and hurriedly reached the silver pin. He inspected it in case if it was a fake.

'It really is Aster's silver pin.' Grand Duke's eyes gazed sharply to Ramuja, "How did you get this?"

"Young Lord gave it to this subordinate after this subordinate protected him during Spring Festival."

Grand Duke was stupefied. He knew that his son was attacked during Spring Festival, but he didn't know that the one who protected his son was this slave. Grand Duke caressed the silver pin, if that was true, then his son had changed.

'That means Aster knows how to thank someone, even if that person is just a slave.'

'With this silver pin, I can finally confirm this slave's position.'

Grand Duke's mood reversed instantly, his smile reappeared and he looked jubilant. He returned the silver pin and said, "Keep it, silver pin is really important, that means my son has already trusted you."

"Y--Yes, Milord. That um... about the deal..."

"Yes, I will give you one gold coin each time you tell me important matters about my son, and two gold coins each time you executed my order. Also, I shall take back my word, you are not a pet slave."

Ramuja's gloomy face also brightened, "Thanking Milord's generosity!"

"You can leave now, I will summon you whenever I need " Grand Duke ordered lightly.

Ramuja excused himself and left the room. His steps were lighter, he was so happy that, at least, Young Lord didn't see him as a pet.

However, at the same time, he felt something was poking his guilt. Young Lord trusted him, but if he shared all of it to Grand Duke, then he had betrayed Young Lord's trust.

If one thing was so sacred that he wouldn't touch it, it was Young Lord's trust. It was extremely important. Ramuja lowered his head. He did everything up to this moment by impulse.

'Does that mean, I'm really selling Young Lord's information to Grand Duke?'

'No, Grand Duke is his father. He wouldn't do anything dangerous to his own son, right?'

Ramuja remembered about how crazy Grand Duchess is, now his heart was filled with even more doubt. He headed to Aster's room carrying a heavy guilt in his heart.