Gardenia of Blooming Desire

The summer had ended and the chill of autumn came instantly, sending shivers down to the skin. The temperature dropped easily on this hill, which was Aster's favorite time of the year. The leaves around the garden started showing yellow-greyish color and some of them started falling.

Some flowers wilted. Fortunately, the duchy had planted a few flowers in pots and placed it inside the mansion. Thus, Aster could still enjoy some of his favorite flowers even during autumn and winter.

It was around nine o'clock in the morning, Aster strolled around the garden as he waited for his mother to rest. She had to attend a tea party held by the Duchess of Silvore the night before. Since Grand Duchess was an honorable guest, she had the obligation to come. Or else, the Empress would scorn her by missing out on this tea party and she would refer to the Grand Duchess as an arrogant woman.

'I wonder, why does Aunty have enmity to my mother?'

Aster vaguely remembered Aunt Beatrice. She was Empress of the Golden Camellia Empire and Princess of Lassland, a kingdom under the empire. She had long auburn hair, slightly droopy eyes, short dainty nose and round face. She was the same age as his mother, 38 years old. But she had applied thick powder around her face and neck to cover her wrinkles while mother almost never applied any of those powders or make up.

Aster pondered about the empress, mother was obviously significantly superior in terms of appearance, but was that enough reason to create enmity between them? Since Charles and Rosalie were on good terms with him.

The Empress had always treated him lukewarm, but she was vicious to mother, always trying to ruin her reputation whenever she had the chance. She never succeeded though.

'Well, at least she never directly hurt us.'

"Young Lord…" Aster heard a voice from behind. It was his servant who lowered his head. He averted his eyes whenever their eyes met. Aster still hadn't understood this servant's behavior, but he looked adorable sometimes, especially when he was caught daydreaming or when he was caught red-handed staring at Aster.

'Wait, adorable? No!'

Aster coughed, he felt ridiculous for having such silly thoughts.

"Young Lord, are you cold?" his servant asked. He seemed concerned, "Shall this servant bring you a wool coat?"

"No need," Aster replied while fixing his posture, "Hadn't I told you to wait in front of my room? What brings you here?" he asked.

"This servant needs to deliver a message from Grand Duchess' maid to Young Lord. Grand Duchess wanted to see you, she waits for you in her room."

Aster nodded. He stared at his servant and said: "You, follow me."

His servant jolted, but said nothing. Aster realized that his servant looked uncomfortable, probably because he was intimidated by his mother, "Grand Duchess will not do anything to you, just follow me," said Aster.

"Yes, Young Lord."

Aster headed to Grand Duchess' room in the back east tower. The maids in front of the room curtseyed to him and opened the door.

Aster saw his mother sitting quietly, watching the leaves fall to the ground from the balcony. She let her long-wavy hair loose, and her slim figure looked soft with a simple purple dress. Aster sighed, his mother was indeed beautiful, but as a man, it was regretful that he took his mother's gene way too much.

"Mothe-- Mom, I'm here," Aster said. He drew near the balcony and sat on the chair opposite to her mother.

Grand Duchess smiled at her son, but her smile vanished, replaced with a condescending gaze when she saw her son bringing that slave. She sipped her tea, then said: "This relaxing moment would be true without any interference, don't you think so, dear son?"

Aster stared at his mother meaningfully, he seemed to get the intention of his mother, but somehow, he felt displeased and decided to quibble around.

"Indeed. But I need an attendant in case I need something," Aster smiled, "Mom, you have your attendants behind you, wouldn't it be fair if I have one too?"

"That is reasonable, dear son," Grand Duchess replied, "We need to make it fair, I will let my servants out, but you shall follow me. Let's make it private."

Aster sighed. Once again, his mother made her unable to reject her request. He still needed to learn more.

Aster looked at his servant and said: "You, wait for me outside."

"Yes, Young Lord."

After there was no one but Grand Duchess and Aster inside the room, Grand Duchess finally showed her smile. It was not a pretended smile, which she showed regularly, but a full-bloomed smile with a slight tint of blush on her cheeks.

"Dear son, finally we can have tea time together. I'm sorry, I was busy during summer," Grand Duchess said. She giggled, and the golden ring around her pupil started to dilate.

Aster curled his lips up, "Of course mom, I missed talking with you."

"How is your study? Any difficulty? If Old Douglass dared to bully you, I can pull his brain out and replace him immediately," mother asked and giggled again.

"No, it's been going well," Aster replied, he sipped his tea and stared at the Southeast garden under the balcony. "Everything is well, mom."

"If everything is well, then I suppose I can rest," Grand Duchess said.

They went silent until Aster spoke, "How about dad? Is he busier than usual? It's been a while since the last time we had dinner together."

Grand Duchess sighed, she stared at her cup, and said: "He is still a businessman in his heart. Recently, he is into a new gemstone business. I am happy that we are prosperous, but the grand duchy responsibility naturally fell to me because he was always unavailable."

Aster saw his mother looked hurt, her finger circling around the teacup. Aster held his mother's hand and smiled, "Don't worry mom, I will help you when I became a Grand Duke."

Grand Duchess took a deep breath and patted her son's hair, "I know that, dear son. But to become a ruler, you cannot be softhearted. You are still very forgiving, especially to the lower class."

Aster's brows wrinkled. He never thought that he was forgiving, he just followed what he felt necessary to deal with peasants and serfs. He remembered when he needed to bestow punishment to slaves who got caught stealing few harvested crops for their family. Aster gave them ten lashes that were excruciating, but not enough to kill them. And it was just one, he still had many records of treating lower class people with proper justice.

"I do not remember treating the peasants and slaves amiably, mother. I just do what is necessary."

Grand Duchess stopped patting Aster's head. The golden circle around her pupil shrank and her affection vanished.

"You're still treating your slave with too much kindness, he will bite you later," Grand Duchess said.

Aster finally understood that his mother was talking about his servant. Again, he felt displeased. He had already forgotten the status of his servant as a slave. As the matter of fact, he had considered lifting his servant's status from slave to regular servant. His servant would be pleased and might be devoted to him because of his kindness.

"I had considered erasing his slave status and made him a regular servant, mother."

Grand Duchess gazed at his son, not with a condescending gaze, but there was obvious anger inside her eyes. She took a deep breath and drank her tea.

"I will not allow such move until you give me a logical reason," Grand Duchess said, she leered at the door separating the servants with them, "And I will not accept emotional reason."

Aster went silent after his mother sealed his reason. Because he knew well that it was bonded with his emotion.

"Dear son, you shall realize that, even though a slave is subhuman, they still have emotion, they might lie, beguile, or covet your belonging. You ought to stay vigilant. I'm worried that you will get hurt, my dear son."

"… Yes, mom. Understood."

Aster became unfocused about this teatime with his mother. His mind pondered again and again about what his mother just said.

'He is just a slave. There is no point in beguiling me. Isn't it?"

'But mother said, they still have emotion. Did I ever hurt him? I think I never treated him badly, I never hurt him at all.'

'Then, I see no reason for him trying to hurt me. But…'

Aster didn't listen to his mother talking about anything. He nodded whenever his mother spoke, but ignored all her words.

Grand Duchess finally finished her teatime and let Aster leave her room. Aster thanked his mother and when the maids opened the door, Aster saw his servant quietly waiting for him in front of the door. His gaze grew complicated, as he was unsure about his servant's intention. Thus, he left without saying a word.

****

Grand Duchess Camellia looked satisfied, she drank the last of her tea and gazed at the scenery below the balcony. The autumn had started, and her plan progressed.

"My dear son, it is only the beginning, I still have a lot to show you."