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

Irion wore a thin red vest, with silver button and white shirt underneath it. He cuffed his sleeve few times. He saw his reflection in the mirror and he looked gallant. He had well-built frame because he was a palace knight for one year before he resigned because his master wanted him to do other things.

Irion's lips perked up few times because he was excited with this meeting. Finally, after months of separation, he could finally see his master again. Irion's eyes glimmered with hope, because according to Jain, Young Lord had become unrealistically gorgeous.

'As expected from my master!' Irion said proudly.

He could feel that someone approached him from his left, his eyes darted immediately to the left and saw that it was Jain with his shadow step. Jain stopped in front of Irion and said, "Irion, Young Lord is waiting for you in his balcony."

Irion chuckled ironically, "Are you getting dull? I could see your shadow step from afar."

Jain frowned, "I should be utilizing my skill soon, this place is volatile."

"If you cannot protect Young Lord, I should be the one taking your position," Irion said enviously. It was obvious that he disliked this task because it demanded him to be separated from Young Lord.

Jain ignored him and said, "Go now, Young Lord is waiting."

Irion walked through the corridor and stopped in front of a big door, one week before Young Lord arrived in Lantern Castle, he had inspected everything in this place with Jain in case of dangerous traps that would harm Young Lord. Thus, he remembered the layout of this castle.

Irion knocked slowly, but the before he opened the door himself, the door was opened from the inside.

'Young Lord is with someone?' Irion became alerted. Young Lord had never been to be close to many people, nor that there was any information about new subordinate.

Irion stepped inside and his eyes immediately searched around and noticed that Young Lord was sitting on a chair in the balcony. Nothing changed much about him, but he had the aura of maturity around him.

Young Lord's eyes stared at him and Irion's leg trembled. He was trembling because Young Lord suddenly had this aura that made him tremble and wanted to voluntarily kneel in front of him.

Irion walked slowly, and every step he took, his leg lowered slightly more and more until he kneeled instantly in front of Young Lord. His eyes looked up to meet with Young Lord's golden circle.

"Young Lord, this subordinate kneels in front of your greatness…" Irion said.

Aster chuckled, "Few months outside and you are already a smooth talker, did you find a mate outside?"

Irion raised his head anxiously, "How could I! Young Lord, you are the only one in my mind and heart!"

"Okay, I believe you," Aster couldn't hold his laugh. Whenever he saw Irion, what he saw was a big dog who sniffed him around and looked at him with his sparkly eyes. It was really cute.

Such thing made him also wanted to treat this knight like a dog. Aster ruffled Irion's head and Irion immediately showed a bright smile, "Young Lord, I'm here to report about my mission progress."

"Hm, I wonder about that too. Why do you think that Dionde has the best potential for your recruits? This city is the city of trade, I tasked you to recruit skilled soldiers, not merchants."

"I found that there are many mercenaries from other countries who came to Dionde as escort or hired guards to protect the noble family who hired them," Irion said, "That's why I'm going to recruit those as my people, and in the end, we are all Young Lord's subordinate."

"So, you want them to be my subordinates too?"

"No!" Irion chimed in, "I mean, Young Lord, they are my subordinates, but I'm your subordinate! No one is allowed to be your subordinate other than me!"

"Hahaha, so... you are my big dog and they are your packs?" Aster laughed. Irion didn't like to be called a big dog, of course, but when he saw Young Lord was laughing heartily, he had sense of accomplishment in his heart.

"Well, it's… similar to that…" Irion said sheepishly.

Aster stopped laughing and asked Irion seriously, "They are foreigners, you do know that it is very risky to recruit them, right? You should know that in one of Golden Camellia law, it is stated that we cannot take foreigner as a soldier."

"I already read the book that Young Lord gave to me, while we cannot take foreigner as solider, but we can hire them as mercenary, and then after one year of integrating, if they contributed enough in one noble house, they are able to gain citizenship in Golden Camellia Empire."

"Oh, you actually read the book I gave you. Then, you are going to take them under your barony?"

"Yes, Young Lord."

"A baron house has limit of how much you could accommodate foreigners, take half of them as shadow guards, since shadow guards is not considered as registered citizen. No matter the process, you must be able to make them a shadow guard, understand?" Aster instructed.

Irion nodded and his eyes sparkled with admiration, "Young Lord is very smart, I didn't even know about that law."

"Because what I gave you is the first and second part of Golden Camellia law and administration, that law is on the third amendment of citizenship law only owned by high ranked nobles," Aster said. He rubbed Irion's head softly, "Still, it is amazing that you manage to read those two books. People found all these books a bothersome book."

"Honestly, it's really hard to memorize everything, but, it's Young Lord's order! So, I worked hard for it!" Irion said enthusiastically.

Aster was honestly impressed with Irion's dedication, to be able to read such tedious books and remembered everything even though he was not a scholar, must had taken enormous effort. He was given a difficult mission too. His mission was to recruit soldiers and shadow guards in the name of his own baron house. Since his barony was still technically assigned as military house by the emperor.

Aster observed Irion's appearance now. He looked handsome and gallant, he still had his trimmed stubble, his deep eye and his overall aura exuded the sign of a strong knight. But in front of Aster, he acted like a big dog.

"You do good, continue your work," Aster ordered. He patted Irion's head again.

However, Irion didn't seem to be satisfied, "Young Lord, please give this subordinate more reward."

Aster sighed, "Fine. I will count depends on how many recruits you have since you entered this city."

Irion nodded enthusiastically, he took off his belt and gave it to Aster. The belt was metal belt, thus, it would be painful if it was used to whip someone, "Young Lord, this… um… this dog has recruited fifteen people in one week!"

Aster tightened his grip on the belt and sighed again. This subordinate of his had this kind of weird hobby. Aster raised the belt and whipped Irion's back as strong as possible.

"Only fifteen? What a stupid dog! I expected you to do more!" Aster scolded harshly. Of course, he wasn't serious about it, but Irion very much enjoyed this kind of reward. He didn't even want other kind of reward, not even gold.

"Y—Yes! This dog is useless! Young Lord, please punish this stupid mutt!" Irion said as he wretched in pain. However, his face didn't show any sign of pain, in fact, all the sign of pain turned into obvious ecstasy for him.

After fifteen harsh whips, Irion fell on the floor. His breath was heavy, but his face was delighted. His crotch bulged terribly.

Aster wiped his sweat with handkerchief. He never liked to do this, but as long as Irion was happy.

Irion got up and kneeled, "T—Thanking Young Lord…"

"Good. You may leave now," Aster ordered. But Irion didn't leave. He stared at Ramuja who looked like he got struck by thunder after he saw the scene.

"Young Lord, who is this… person?"

"Ah, this is my personal servant, his name is Ramuja. He is also my subordinate like you two," Aster introduced Ramuja in a lighter tone, as if his mood was alleviated just by talking about this servant who was obviously a sex slave.

Irion fell into long silence and staring intently at Ramuja who started to feel even more uncomfortable.

"This subordinate will leave first, Young Lord, please take care." Irion bowed his head and left the room.

'Turns out Irion isn't as problematic as Jain. That is a relief that he can accept Ramuja easily,' Aster thought. He was relieved that he didn't need to defend Ramuja once.

***

Irion was greeted by the sight of Jain who leaned against the wall with his hands crossed. "Did you see that sex slave?"

Irion's eyes immediately showed murderous intent, "Yes, that sex slave, he dares being aroused while gazing at Young Lord who was giving me my reward."

Jain chuckled mirthlessly, "Well, you and him are both sick bastards. But I need to get rid of that slave before he ruins Young Lord."

Irion knew that he didn't have the right to intervene with Young Lord's personal life, because that was the job of Jain. But seeing Young Lord took another dog while he had him already, made Irion mad.

"If you can get rid of him, then, take it as my debt to you," Irion said coldly.