ATHANASIA POV
Dad and everyone were looking through the texts that could have any information about the memory magic but there was not much information in the libraries.
Furthermore, only the registered magicians were permitted access to the high class grimoires, Dad had gotten those texts but the fact that we were still unable to do something was making me worry.
In the midst of that I was only being given a little strength by the letters that I was receiving from Jeanette. I hadn't told her anything about what happened to Ara but since she was there when the incident took place and had seen everything she was greatly worried.
I opened her recent letter and started reading it.
"How are you, Your Highness? I heard from Ijekiel that Her Highness Amara was fine, he said she even danced with you.
I couldn't help but feel jealous because I wasn't there to see it, it must have been such a beautiful sight. Ijekiel told me that Her Highness had used magic again for the dance!
Oh, how I wish I was there!
To be honest, I was really worried when you said that Princess Amara hadn't recovered well after that incident, so I had been hoping to hear some good news about her health and when Ijekiel told me that she seemed fine and in good health I was really relieved.
I wanted to congratulate Her Highness Amara for becoming the Crown Princess but it seems like my letters couldn't get through to her. So, may I place this request with you?
I hope I'll get to see yourself and Her Highness Amara soon, if it's not too troublesome.
PS. The festival is coming soon, so, I hoped if I could go with the Princesses. I know it is next to impossible but, I just had to mention this wish to you.
Please take care of yourself and Her Highness."
Most of her letters have the mention of Amara. After the incident, Amara's letters were just with me, most of them were invitations that I'd written rejection replies for and some of them were even proposal letters which Dad burned himself.
"Lily, can you bring me some pretty stationary?" I asked and Lily smiled.
"Sure, Princess."
After a while I sat at my desk and started writing a reply to Jeanette.
"A festival?" I mumbled.
There was no way that Dad would let us go anywhere away from his sight, and since Ara had mentioned the assassination attempt he had increased the security around the palace.
I could still recall the time when Ara had spotted the blue ribbon in my hair which I'd worn the day when I went to convince her to attend Dad's birthday banquet.
She scowled at me which made me scared and then she turned me around making me even more confused.
"This ribbon." She growled and got it off my hair.
With her tone and her reaction I thought she'd rip it off my hair but she was surprisingly gentle when she got it off me.
"It has Athernitas' mana on it." She said and I looked at the blue ribbon with wide eyes.
What?!
"Where did you get this?"
"I-It was a gift." I admitted and recalled the day when Ara had asked for this ribbon before the tea party, she had asked Lucas to put some spell on it but he couldn't do it.
I should have realized that something was wrong that day itself.
"A gift, you say? Who gave it to you?" Her tone made it obvious that she would hurt the one who gave it to me and I was sure Jeanette hadn't done this purposely.
"Wait, calm down. It's possible that the one who gave this to me was merely used as a deliverer." I spoke up and she stared at me for a moment before looking down at the ribbon.
"That's possible." She mumbled before sighing deeply.
"This ensures that Athernitas is still around and he was involved in that incident, he was the mastermind behind this. But wh-" she suddenly stopped and then frowned.
It was really something shocking to know that the person who'd died 200 years ago had suddenly tried to kill me and Ara. But, why?
"Does he want the throne? But... then he..." She shook her head.
"Doesn't make any sense." She sighed as she held her head in her hands.
"Is it something related to black magic?" She muttered and I couldn't help but recall that Jeanette was made with black magic.
I couldn't suppress the shiver as I thought of something dangerous that might happen to Jeanette.
"What is it?" Ara asked as if sensing my tension.
How was she so perceptive?!
"C-Could it be possible for a child to be made by black magic?" I asked and she stared at me for a moment before turning away.
"Yes, but a life made from black magic requires a sacrifice. Someone must have lost their life for that child to be born."
I couldn't help but recall Penelope Judith, Jeanette's mother, the one who got used by Anastacius for his plan. It was said that he delved in black magic, he wanted to make a child which would be even stronger than Dad but Jeanette turned out to be an ordinary child except for her jeweled eyes.
"Is there such a child?" Ara asked and I looked at her.
She needed to know, if she ran into Jeanette without this knowledge then, she might end up killing her because of misunderstanding.
"Yes," I said, "there is."
I explained her everything about Dad, his brother and Jeanette's birth.
She chuckled bitterly as I was done explaining.
"Bastards, just for their greed they end up ruining the lives of innocent people. Cla- Dad must have suffered a lot because of that scumbag." She muttered.
She still had a habit of calling Dad by his name, I was just hoping she would open up to him once again.
"I'll need to get rid of that child." She suddenly said and my eyes widened.
"What?!"
"Being cursed with black magic will only make her life worse than hell. She shouldn't suffer like this."
"B-But there should be some other way, Jeanette is innocent, she hasn't done anything!"
"I can understand your concern for her, child. But that girl will only be used for the plans for Athernitas. If I'm not wrong then I can see what he is planning to do. Living for 200 years is impossible for him, he must be lurking around in the form of a spirit and she must either be under his possession already or is his target to get to the throne."
I couldn't believe what Ara was saying, Athernitas wasn't satisfied with killing his own sister that now he was back in a spirit form to take over the throne again by ruining our lives?!
"Athernitas' greed knows no bounds, child. I need to finish that g–"
"Can't you protect her instead?" I shouted and she looked at me.
"Je-Jeanette thinks of us as her family, she sees us as her sisters, please... there must be some other way to save her, right?" I asked and her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
"Y-You are an extremely strong Mage so, you should be able to protect Jeanette from Athernitas' plan, right?"
I can't let Ara kill Jeanette, Jeanette had suffered all her life too, she wasn't even aware of what all things are happening around us!
"Please, Ara?" I held her hand and she looked at me for a few moments before she sighed.
"Fine, I'll look for some other way. But I'll be honest with you, that child will be used again to try and harm us."
"I'm not scared of that, I'll protect you this time." I said and a smile formed on her lips before she placed her finger on my forehead.
"You will?" I nodded suddenly feeling lighter.
"How? You can't even use magic yet."
"Then, teach me."
She frowned slightly as I said that and she seemed like she was contemplating that.
"Fine." She said and I grinned at her.
"Thank you, Ara!" I hugged her.
Maybe it was because I told her about Dad's past that she felt something for him. She must have seen herself when I'd told her how Dad's brother had betrayed him in the worst way possible and then had ended up dying at Dad's hands.
Maybe that's why, she decided to come at Dad's birthday banquet.
"But I really wanted to see it once." I mumbled.
"See what?" I almost jumped out of my skin as I heard another voice and saw Ara in my room sitting on the couch staring at the paintings of us and mom.
"When did you get here?"
"When you were busy thinking about something. Besides, what is it that you wanted to see?" She asked looking at me and I smiled.
"The festival."
"Festival?"
"Yes, up till now, I've only went out once and you, you were sickly or busy so you always stayed at the palace. Even the tea parties were held inside the palace and since I... never saw a festival so, I thought maybe someday we could visit this festival." I admitted and Ara looked at the blue bird which was in the cage and then back at me.
"I'll take you there." She said and my eyes widened.
"Really?!"
"Yes, if you want to go so badly then, sure." She said and I ran up to her and hugged her.
"Oh, thank you, Ara! Thank you, thank you, thank you, you're the best!"
She simply patted my back gently before I pulled back, "Dad would never allow us to go out though... I mean, after that assassination attempt and all."
"You don't need to worry about that, I'll take care of it so that he doesn't know."
I grinned as she said that and then thought of something.
"Can we take one another person?" She tilted her head slightly before shrugging her shoulders.
"Sure, take whoever you want."
"Thank you, Ara!" I hugged her again.
After three days, I and Ara were in her room.
"I'd told the maids that I'll be teaching you magic and it could be dangerous so nobody should enter here. But just in case, I'll leave our replicas here." She said and snapped her fingers.
I jumped as two girls materialised looking exactly like me and Ara, I stared at them with wide eyes.
"W-Wow! They look exactly like us!" I said and then looked at Ara.
"Come on, we should get going now." She said and I gave her the location to where we were supposed to go.
Within a second, we landed in a room which was filled with a lot of soft toys and a sweet scent.
"Ahhh!" I heard a shout and then looked at Jeanette who was sitting on her bed with a book staring at us with wide eyes.
Ara snapped her fingers again as the door opened and a maid walked inside.
"My Lady, is everything alright?" The maid asked Jeanette.
"Ah, yes, everything is alright. You could go now and don't disturb me for a while." She said before hurriedly shooing the maid away and then looking around the room.
"P-Princess Athanasia? Princess Amara?" She called in a low voice and Ara snapped her fingers again making us visible.
Jeanette gasped once as she looked at us.
"I-Is it really you, Princesses?" She asked and I smiled.
"Yes, it is us."
Ara was quiet beside me as she stared at Jeanette who looked up at her with a smile.
"How are you feeling now, Princess? I was really worried about you, I even wrote you letters..."
"I'm sorry but I don't remember." Ara said and I looked at her.
"P-Pardon?"
"After that incident, I am having slight issues with my memory so, please don't mind me being a little clueless about some things." Ara said and Jeanette stared at her with wide concerned eyes.
"I-Is that so? Then, you should be resting, Your Highness-"
"Resting won't bring back anything... that's why I'm out looking for answers." Ara said and Jeanette still looked concerned.
"You don't need to look at me with those eyes, child. I'm stronger than you think." She said and I could see her hand lifting.
Was she going to pat Jeanette's head?
But somehow that hand rested on my head making me gasp lightly.
"My sister told me that you'd been writing her letters and were quite worried about me, so, I thought I'd come here with her to put an end to your worries." Ara said and Jeanette looked at me with a smile.
"And, she also wanted to take you along us to see the festival so, we came right here." Ara added making Jeanette's eyes go wide.
"Re-Really?"
"Yes, but if you're busy we cou-"
"No, I'd love to go with you!" Jeanette said as she held Ara's hand in both of hers as she smiled brightly at Ara.
"Okay, I'll change our appearances then, couldn't let people recognize us." Ara said.
"You can keep mine the same, Princesses are most likely to get recognized." Jeanette said and Ara looked at me before she flicked her wrist and suddenly my and her appearances changed.
Jeanette's clothes changed leaving behind her usual facial features and, I looked at myself and noticed how my blonde hair was gone leaving behind brown hair and deep blue eyes.
"W-We look like twins." Jeanette giggled as she stood beside me studying her appearance. We both were wearing simple dresses that would make us look like commoners.
Ara purposely made us look alike, didn't she?
I turned to look at Ara who now stood taller than us looking like a boy wearing a white shirt and brown trousers with black boots. She had changed her hair to black and eyes red, eerily, she looked like Lucas. She really did like his appearance, didn't she?
"Ca-Can you change your appearance a little?" I said, I didn't want to see Lucas in her and she looked at me before closing her eyes and opened them revealing ashy black eyes and her hair changed from black to red.
"Is this fine?" Even her voice changed to the rather deep tone matching her appearance.
"Wow, Princess Amara looks so handsome like this!" Jeanette spoke as she stared at Ara with twinkling eyes.
I could only imagine how the ladies from the tea party would react to see Ara like this. She already has the title of being the Majestic Tiger, after all.
"Should we get going now?" Ara said and we nodded.
"Oh, before that." Ara snapped her fingers and a replica of Jeanette appeared making her gasp and hold onto me.
"Don't worry, it's just your replica. She'll stay here while we're gone so that no one would notice that you aren't here." I explained and she looked at me before looking at Ara.
"Okay, let's go have some fun then." Ara said as she smiled and I swear I could fall for the look she gave us.
***
Konnichiwa Minna!
Okay, it's Japanese greeting today.
Are there any anime fans here? Let me know.
How are you guys? I'm doing good these days just the usual laziness and procrastination following me around... Ahem...
Anyways, I know a lot of people would know this guy above, well, instead of him I was going to put this guy.
Ahem, if anyone here is BL fan then they might know who the latter two guys are. I swear I love their stories. 😆😆😆
Ahem... *tucking away the fangirl*
But yeah, it's up to you, if you want to imagine our Cale then that's fine or these guys then that's fine as well.
Anyways, let me know how you find this chapter and also the names of these boys of you know. 😉
Have a great day!