The Prince (WMMAP FanFic)

Ch 71 : Birthdays

It was now December, and that meant Athanasia's birthday. Claude had never celebrated his children's birthday's before, but this year was different.

In the morning of her birthday, Athanasia woke up without too much thought of the date. Lily wished her and dressed her up for tea time with her father in the morning and the princess was soon at the table in the garden.

Arius was already there, and so was Claude.

After greeting each other and sitting down together, Arius pushed forward a wooden box, with delicate carvings towards Athanasia.

"What's this?" Athanasia asked.

Arius smiled. "Happy Birthday."

Athanasia looked at him with surprise, before enthusiastically opening the box.

And within it was a pocket watch. A silver pocket watch with green gemstones and a leafless tree at the centre of the cover.

Athanasia gave Arius a knowing smile. "Thank you."

Claude cleared his throat, catching the two's attention. "Right, Dad has a gift to give you as well."

Athanasia raised her eyebrows as she smiled in anticipation.

Claude placed two keys in front of Athanasia.

A key to one of the Treasury, and another key to a personal library for the princess.

Athanasia jumped on Claude and gave him a kiss on the cheek before she hugged him tightly. "Thank you Dad! I love it!"

Claude returned the hug and mumbled, "I'm glad."

The rest of the day was filled with joy for the little princess. It truly was one heck of a birthday for her.

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Time passed mercilessly, soon Arius's ninth birthday arrived. It was the same setting as Athanasia's birthday.

Tea time in the garden. And Athanasia presented her gift for him.

A sword.

Not a fancy one. Athanasia knew Arius's taste well to know he liked less fancy ones. A silver metal scabbard with delicate carvings. The hilt was also silver with a smooth grip. The blade was light but sharp, and on it was inscribed some symbols.

난 항상 당신을 위해 여기 있어요.

Is this Japanese? No wait, Korean?

Arius looked at Athanasia who looked anxious.

"It's a really awesome gift, Athy. Which language are these symbols? What do they mean?" Arius asked.

"You have to guess it.

Arius smiled at the challenge.

Did I mention Arius had started sword training? Well, I did now. He started it as soon as the Villareals left, and let's say in the highly unlikely possibility of him actually being good with the sword, it actually came true.

Arius was a natural with a sword. Felix would constantly praise him saying he was a prodigy.

Arius had always wanted to learn swordsmanship, both in his previous world and this world.

"Bro." Athanasia whispered to Arius as she signaled towards Claude.

Ah, right.

Arius broke out of his trance of staring at the sword and looked at his father.

"Felix." Claude ordered, and the red-head had immediately brought forth something covered beneath a cloth. He placed it in front of Arius.

Arius looked at Claude with an excited look.

"You may take it off."

Arius slowly took off the cloth, only to reveal a birdcage with an eagle sitting in it.

Arius had a little flashback of the time they went to the market. His eyes lit up.

"You can touch it, and take it out. It's a tamed eagle, from the Elbet Mountains."

Arius smiled happily and carefully opened the cage, so as to not frighten the creature within. Slowly opening the cage, to allow the eagle to exit, which it did, obediently.

It slowly made it's way out and onto Arius's shoulder, stretching its wings a bit before leaning its head on Arius's head.

Athanasia asked if she could touch it, which Arius allowed of course.

"The speciality of these eagles is that they can also deliver letters from one place to another. . . Lately you sent a letter to Feradona through the carrier pigeons of the Palace. Those pigeons land at the common base. This eagle will fly directly at the office of the Governess. " Arius's eyes sparkled with excitement as he petted the eagle.

Claude slowly slid a key towards Arius. The key to another treasury.

Arius looked at the presents he'd recieved and smiled. A genuine smile of happiness. He looked at his father, and spoke slowly. "Thank you dad."

His words were dripped with sincerity and affection. Claude returned his words with, "Your welcome."

_____________

Now that Arius had a treasury all to himself, he began his first move.

Finding a new home for his friends.

The place they lived at right now was too vulnerable since the Lennox knew about it. So Arius asked the twins to find a new area and building which they would be comfortable to settle in.

In less than two months, this issue was resolved. The orphans moved into a mini mansion of sorts. It was bigger than their original residence.

Arius had to ask Felix for help during the whole work to buy the mansion. Arius lightly mentioned to Claude about what he was doing during tea time. Claude didn't stop him from doing as he wished and simply instructed Felix to assist him if he needed.

With the residential problem solved, Arius moved onto the second one.

Jennette Margarita.

In this case he did something similar to what happened in the original story, he asked Lucas to teleport them to the Alpheus residency in secret, to spy on Jennette's current well being.

And as much as Arius didn't like it, he found no evidence of abuse. Jennette was mostly in the west wing of the mansion, far from the main area, where the Duke would be.

And since Ijekiel was gone, Jennette would have her meals in her room and avoid the Duke as much as she could.

Likewise the Duke had work as well, so he didn't go searching for Jennette.

At this point, what Jennete was currently facing wasn't abuse, but loneliness. And so Arius decided to find a solution.

It wasn't the best thing he could think, but he discussed it with the twins and his knights, and reached one solution: Send Lifa to Jennette.

Lifa decided to become a working maid in the Alpheus mansion. And after working her way through a few weeks she would've volunteered to become Jennette's personal maid.

Arius told her she didn't need to do it, but Lifa insisted she wanted to. Mostly because she wanted to be by Jennette's side if the Duke ever stepped out of line.

This way she could report to Arius of everything that happened within the mansion, become a friend for Jennette and capture evidence for abuse for when the time came to use it against the Duke.

Everything was going well.

He heard from Felix that the lilacs would be staying in the east for a while now. He didn't mention why, and Arius didn't bother asking.

Time flew by, with Arius learning swordsmanship and spending time leisurely with his family.

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