The sound of scratching noises filled the quiet room. A lamp on the bedside table being enough to provide the needed source of light for the child that hid under her blanket, quietly focusing on her task to not wake her sleeping brother in the bed beside hers.
"...Papa?"
The feather pen, that was busy writing, stopped.
"Papa!"
"Ack!" shuddering with wide eyes as she remembered the most embarrassing (and reckless) thing she has done, a groan escaped her lips as her forehead slammed against the book that sat under a piece of paper.
What the heck was that?! A waterfall of tears fell down from her eyes as she inwardly screamed and scolded herself. Did she seriously tried acting cutesy in front of mass murder, heartless, daughter-killer, tyrannical emperor Claude?!!!!
Her head lifted for a brief moment before she slammed it against the book she was using as a table once more. Eyes trailing at the words she wrote, the words Plan A Failed stood vividly against the parchment of paper.
Plan A: Not getting noticed by Claude and living inside Ruby Palace until she peacefully dies.
Tears stream down once more. Out of all the plans, this was what she had favored as she could simply eat, have fun, sleep with a roof above her head, and live a rich slacker life with her brother.
Athanasia sighed as she angrily scratched the words, she was too naïve. She honestly thought that everything would be fine as long as she's careful. 'It's not my fault though!' she scowled, 'how could a simple living palace be Claude's living space!'
The Ruby Palace was supposed to house the concubines and not the Empress. Pulling on her hair, she groaned, 'So why is it so close to the Emperor's Palace?!'
Her small hands crumpled the paper on her hand as blue jeweled eyes trailed down to the second written line: Plan B.
Plan B. Save enough money to escape the palace with Ardy before turning eighteen.
She stared at the paper with a frown on her lips. This plan was still within the realm of possibility. Although she met Claude four years earlier than the novel... it seemed strange that he didn't want to kill either her or her brother at this instant.
'Should I collect more of my pretties?' she wondered, toes wiggling anxiously, 'If Ardy and I were to leave the palace, I could dress up as a maid and Ardy as a worker boy and sneak out the doggy door.'
As much as leaving felt the best option, Athanasia was hesitant of bringing her brother along to a world where she's not even sure she can provide for him. Which leaves the final plan...
Her eyes glanced at the edge of the parchment that sat on her lap.
Plan C: Continue playing cute and steal Claude's heart
...
...Lord, why oh why did she had to reincarnate as a daughter of a trigger happy father?!
-♕5♕-
"Goodnight princess, may you be blessed with sweet dreams"
Smiling at the lady that had treated both her and her brother with the care and love of a mother, Athanasia replied a soft, "you too, Lily"
The door closing shut, Athanasia flipped to her stomach. It wasn't impossible to act like Jennette— sweet and cute, despite the embarrassment it was sure to bring.
Burring her face to her pillow, she silently approved of her (cringe-filled) plan. If it will keep both her and her brother alive, then it'll be okay.
The soft whine and whimpering sound took her away from her thoughts. Twinpathy tingling, she lifted her face off her pillow.
"Ardy?" she muttered in a mixture of confusion and surprise.
Turning to her back, she peeked at her brother's side of the room. Easily slipping off her bed, she scrambled to his side, frowning when she noticed his flushed face.
'Is he having nightmares again? Or is he sick?' worry ate on her like a pack of starving wolves.
Athanasia dearly loves her brother. Unlike her past life where she was alone from the start, she woke up in this world with a baby that had an uncanny resemblance to her. He could be a little lazy, and shy with others that weren't neither her or Lily. He could also be overbearing if she does something stupid, and also annoying like all siblings.
But he was her twin. Her brother.
And nothing could change how much she cared for him since day one.
Much more so, Ardy was a sickly child. As a baby, he would hardly sleep at night, and would sleep the whole day away, and not even asking for milk— this had greatly worried Lily and Athanasia (although the latter secretly, of course). They later found out that he would be calm if he was laid beside her throughout the night, and soon his sleep cycle turned to normal.
As toddlers, unlike Athanasia, Ardy wouldn't have the stamina to run around wildly. Once, after a sudden downpour while the twins were outside, Ardy caught a bad cold that had him bedridden for a week.
But, the worst was something that not even Lily or the other maids knew. Ardy, if he slept alone for the night, would suffer nightmares that would stress his body out so much that he often gets fevers. Athanasia found out that if she sleeps in the same room as her brother, the nightmares wouldn't be as bad, or would not happen at all.
Despite that, there would still be rare occasions where the nightmares still feast on her brother's mind, rendering him to a whimpering mess, face flushed from the onset of a fever.
'I guess he was too stressed out with today's event, despite looking calm through it all,' she thought with a frown, gently reaching out to touch her brother's sweaty face.
"Noo...na?" hazy blue jewel eyes fluttered open.
His soft mutter was responded by Athanasia's soft smile, "I'm here, Ardy"
"Don't leave," he croaked out, eyes seeing her but at the same time not, "please, don't leave me, Noona"
Her heart broke. It seemed that today were one of those rare days that not even her presence could fully Adrastos calm down.
It might have been strange for her baby brother who shouldn't fear these things to be haunted so vividly. But Athanasia was far from normal, hence, it didn't bother her as much.
All she could do was be beside her brother as much as she could.
Reaching out to grab his hand, she squeezed it gently, "Noona's not leaving, Ardy"
He gave a weak smile before his eyes fluttered shut, and Athanasia laid down beside her brother, leaning their foreheads together she softly hummed a lullaby as she kept her small hands wrapped around Ardy's own hands.
It scared her. If Ardy had existed in the novel, then where was he during the actual events of the story? Besides that one single exert of the secret room, there were no other hints.
And it scared her, deeply.
Because the implications were high, and she most probably knew why Ardy wasn't there in the story anymore. But she didn't want to think about it, no, she can't. Because this time, Ardy wouldn't disappear, not like the original. Besides, she already changed much of the story, right? Why couldn't she change this one fact too?
Her hands trembled at the one thing she can't do. Her eyes focused on her brother's flushed face that started to turn back to normal. Ardy was a sickly child.
And Athanasia can't do anything if Adrastos de Alger Obelia had succumbed to illness in the novel.