STOIC

🌻 BEGONIA (1)

The word stupefied is rather an understatement for the feeling the people who saw what had transpired on the lake is. They are beyond what the word meant, and the endless mantra ran through their minds for the safety of the scarred lilly.

" What have you become?" the scarred lilly question.

And for the first time since they have met at the garden, the scarred lilly raised her head to meet the void blue jeweled orbs she once adored.

Claude who stood unfaze from the hit, stared at the orbs in front of him. And for the first time in years, his face showed an emotion other than his stoic, apathetic expression.

Shock.

He expected to see rage and disdain on the orbs he's currently staring at. However, what greeted him is an orb that held immense pain and grief. Pain that only a person who experienced the cruelty of the world first hand could have. Grief that have emerged from countless battles without feat; and agony that only a person who continously lift such heavy weights could have.

" Y-your Majesty. P-please pardon Lady y/n!" Pleads of Lillian and the other maids could be heard in the now tense atmosphere.

" Your Majesty, I'm sure Lady y/n did n-" Felix trailed yet cut off from the ominous aura the Emperor emits.

Shadowed by his soft blonde locks, Claude stayed silent as if contemplating on his next action. The lady in front of him has the audacity to commit such act knowing who he is.

' Is the child worthy to trade for her life?'

He questioned his mind as he allowed his orbs to settle once more at the one's in front of him. The lady should have feared for her life yet look at her, she stood her ground for the child's sake.

Before he could utter a word, a child-like voice beat him to it.

" Mama..."

In repeat, the Emperor's orbs widen as the word register to his mind. Everyone gasps except for Lillian York and Felix Robane, who knew the person the princess called.

In a beat, the lady in front of him paced towards the trembling figure of a child who happens to be his daughter.

" Hey, it's quiet alright. Mama's here. You're safe, okay? You're safe." the scarred lilly muttered as she tightly hugged the trembling figure of Athanasia who sobbed.

It broke the scarred lilly's heart to view the distraught figure of the child she had grown to love. The child whose future is beaded with struggles and death just like hers. She had vowed to herself to protect this child even with her life on the line.

The child became her light when she was continously drowned in the pits of darkness. Darkness that shackles her from obtaining happiness whilst her past lives that chain her from moving forward. The ghost of her past continously hunt her and it is with this child, the child of the person who repeatedly killed her, that she found serenity in the cruel life she needs to live in.

Having enough of the drama, the scarred lilly picked her daughter and turned herself to leave, Lillian beside them.

" Don't think you'll go unscathed from what you just pulled." the dangerously low voice of Claude rang into the scarred lilly's ears yet she did not even flinch.

With that, the lake incident came into a wrap as both parties exited the arena.

Y/N brought Athanasia back to her room with Lillian who panicked when Athanasia caught a cold from the freezing cold underwater. It did not eased once she remembered what happened at the lake and all she could do was to hug the scarred lilly in comfort.