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This short story is a version of another dimension after Athanasia's death, where there is still someone who loves her, where she also loves him. As they exchanged feelings, death separated them.
Athanasia de Alger Obelia, former princess of Obelian Empire has died leaving nothing behind as evidence of her existence, other than for a man from legend.
The moment he returned from his journey, the man felt his world was shattered, his beautiful future was snatched away, hurt, betrayed, oxygen is taken from him forcibly, the fact of it making him crushed to the lowest point of his life. Never once, even when his teacher left him he was never this enraged. He wanted to destroy everything, everything that made his lover die. He was just about to burn everything, but the faint, sweet voice of his late lover made him stop.
His memory returned to the time when they kissed for the first time under the soft moonlight. Athanasia smiled as she stroked his cheek affectionately, "If this destiny allow me, I want to live with you forever. But if fate says otherwise I hope you don't destroy my homeland, despite all the things they did to hurt me. Can you promise me?"
"I shouldn't have promised you. I shouldn't have complied with your wish. I... should have done whatever I wanted just for your survival. Look now, you are gone and left me alone. This void is suffocating me. What does it mean in this world without you with me."
...
One day when he was walking aimlessly, he felt someone's presence. Someone who is one of the reasons for Athanasia's demise. The source of all her tribulations.
"Sir Magician!" The sound of gold jewelery, diamonds, emeralds and others rubbing against the fancy beautiful dress.
A girl's voice that disgusted him. No, that thing isn't even a normal human in the first place.
"Sir Magician! Fancy to see you here," her voice was sickening to Lucas.
Lucas didn't intend to return the greeting at all. His head is filled with flashes of all the times when his lover was abused where the perpetrators were people who liked the brunette.
"Sir Magician, can you escort me to meet my father for tea? Ah! Of course I will invite you too, surely my father will agree." She did not even once see the change in the expression of Lucas in the mage robe before her. Lucas face turned red, he was ready to explode at any moment because of the nonsense of the beloved Obelia princess.
"Sir Magician?"
Still no answer.
"... Lucas?"
That's it.
Lucas's patience was completely gone. It was only the second day after Athanasia's death, but the empire assumed nothing had happened at all. Athanasia's existence seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, where since the beginning everyone had never known the figure of the first princess Obelia at all.
How dare that damned thing say his name. A name that could only be called by his lover who had left him forever.
Instantly the trees dried up and all the flowers and green things wilted around Jennette, startling her.
"Oh my God! What happened ?!" she screamed.
Lucas deliberately messed up the flow of black mana on Jennette's body. Jennette, who was afraid, immediately jumped up and lifted her dress and tried to reach Lucas to lean back for help, but she bounced off like a barrier blocking her movement. "Sir Magician! Help me! Someone's trying to hurt me!”
“Princess!”
“Your Highness!”
A crowd of servants and knights came over to Jennette, as they approached everyone held up as if their feet were stuck on a barren ground.
"Help me! All of you!"
Jennette again asked Lucas who was silent without doing anything, just staring at her blankly. "Sir Lucas! Help me! Your princess!"
Her sentence made him snort, a smirk rising on his handsome face.
"My princess? How dare you say such disgusting things. As long as I know the only person I allow to say my name was the one who became a victim of your existence. The one who have died because of you!"
“Who—” she gasped, her eyes widened as the image of a blonde-haired girl with the same eyes as her hung above the podium lifelessly.
She trembled, "W-What's your relationship with her."
“My relationship?”
Jennette was even more terrified to see Lucas's ruby eyes resembling blood glaring at her. "She is my empress. My only love. My salvation. My world. My breath. My heart. My everything. And you are her killer."
Lucas used his magic to choke Jennette without touching her, he thought his hands would get dirty if he touched it even the slightest bit.
Suddenly a golden blonde haired man who was the father of his late lover arrived with all his pride and glory.
"Let her go!" he yelled.
But did Lucas care? No and never will.
"Don't you hear me, warlock?! Release her right away!" Claude's arrogant attitude added to Jennette's pain.
“F-Father!”
“Jennette.”
“Disgusting. A limp and a chimera. What a pair you two are.” Lucas smirked, he used his magic to float in the air. "I wonder what should I do to you. You destroy my calmness today. Ah... no, you destroy my patience and the other side of me that was kept tight after meeting my love has reappeared."
His blood-red eyes were filled with bloodlust, his was heating up, his blood was boiling, the desire to destroy everything arose. He didn't want to be alone, but these fools destroyed everything, sending him back into the sickening sea of solitude.
"What do you want?! Treasure?! Throne?! Woman?! I'll give it to you! Let her go! Let go of my daughter!"
At Claude’s declaration, all of Lucas's self-control had completely disappeared. He stared with hatred and disdain at the man with the title wise emperor Obelia. A saint emperor? Bullshit.
The air grew cold, the atmosphere tense, the shaking of the ground made it difficult for everyone to stand on their own two feet, they knelt and crawled like dogs.
"Have you ever thought of just once to say that to the right person. Have you ever said that to a girl who is your true flesh and blood. Have you ever asked forgiveness for your only dead daughter? Didn't you ever think about what her fate would be after 18 years of living in this rotten world, forced to endure insults even under your leadership?! You! You only see your inhabitants, but never once bat your fucking eyes to your own daughter! You don't deserve to be called a father by her! She doesn't deserve all this misery!"
"I don't know what you mean, warlock."
He scoffed, "You don't understand?" Lucas then snapped his fingers. He smirked and was ready to spit out all the facts of the day.
"Think of it as a welcome gift to the hell to all of you."
A beautiful diamond embedded in a shining silver ring, everyone saw a flashback of the life of a blonde girl whom they recognized as the outcast princess of Obelia, the first princess who owned nothing but a nanny and lover.
Stupidly, Jennette for a moment forgot her pain and was stunned to see the beauty of the diamond. She wants it. Not knowing that this beautiful stone would be the reason for her destruction.
With their own eyes, all the humans there saw their beloved second princess, whom they thought was very kind and innocent, bright like the sun harboring a detestable nature.
They clearly saw how the brunette was happily destroying a room in the Ruby Palace, which was the room of the first princess. How do they find out who owns it? Well, they saw a worn out picture frame that lost its color with a blonde girl with imperial jewel-blue eyes smiling happily with a woman with brown hair in a bun with aqua blue eyes sitting in the grass together.
They saw how Jennette used scissors to cut curtains, blanket, mattress, pillows to make messy the contents. She also cut out dresses that were barely valuable for an imperial princess to wear brutally. A smirk cracked across her lips, she was happy she could ruin what her sister had. She didn't look sorry about doing it at all.
Lucas changed the image to when Jennette poured a cup of hot tea with the steam still visible downwards, more precisely over the blonde head of someone who was looking down, didn't dare to look up, didn't dare to scream in pain, didn't dare to ask for help— no, she didn't even dare. thought someone would help her.
There was the sound of many people gasping at it.
How can someone be that cruel! Above all, a wicked girl who they thought was an angel all along.
Walking into her second wickedness, Jennette's face turned pale, she wanted to escape the clutches of Lucas's magic. She wants to stop it! Stop everything! Don't let them see it!
“Stop—!”Suddenly her voice disappeared, no matter how hard she tried, it still didn't work. Lucas laughed sarcastically at the sight, "Let's play a new game. Every time we see your wicked side, I'll make you feel what she feels." He spoke at once pointing at the pitiful blonde haired girl.
"We'll continue."
Various images resurfaced.
When Jennette yanked her beautiful blonde hair, Lucas would yank her brown hair roughly.
When Jennette grabbed the flower necklace from the girl's neck, Lucas would force the earring on her ear without care tearing Jennette's earlobe.
When Jennette kicked the girl's leg, Lucas would kick her whole body and even her face.
"Her pain was rewarded with pain thousands of times for you."
Mercilessly, Lucas would punish Jennette for all her behavior so far to the real late princess of Obelia.
Until finally arrived at the final one.
"Hey, sister."
Jennette stood in front of her sister, smiling sarcastically with a hand fan hiding half of her face.
"Do you want to know a truth?"
The poor girl in front of her silently grimaced in pain from behind the dirty iron bars which had been her temporary residence for the two days before her execution.
"Hehe... you must be surprised by all this, right? Ah... my pitiful sister. Or... should I call you cousin?"
Everyone's eyes widened, unable to believe what they just heard. Claude was silent from the start, he stared intensely at everything, his heart ached when that poor girl was always hurt by his beloved daughter.
"Ah... my pitiful cousin... my pitiful Athanasia..." she giggled.
"It's in vain for your mother to die leaving you alone without feeling the slightest bit of happiness. You know why she is more pitiful than you? Because she gave birth to a useless child like you."
"Also... do you know why you never even got into father's sight?"
"Because even if he forgets your mother his heart will always look for her. Rotten dancer. Damn dancer. A slut. A bitch. And then... why doesn't he ever give you affection? Because you're the reason for her death. You're her demise."
“He hates you.”
Claude was silent, his lips quivering and his pupils shrinking, fear haunted him. "No... it's not that."
"It would be foolish for my uncle to accept a girl like me, who comes from a woman who takes love from his brother and throws him away and pushes away his only salvation."
"Look here, dear Athanasia. I am Jennette de Alger Obelia, daughter of Anastacius de Alger Obelia and late Penelope Judith, ex-fiancée of Claude, the limp one."
The fact has been revealed, there is no reason for everyone not to hate Jennette for all her rotten behavior.
The look of hatred pierced all sides of her, Jennette trembled with fear, she who was raised with affection and was always spoiled couldn't possibly accept the cynicism of others. She who always gets whatever she wants, is afraid of losing everything, she will do anything for her own happiness, even if it is necessary to sacrifice the happiness of others.
Tears streamed from her eyes, she snapped her head to Claude, just to find his murderous glare to her only.
"You're that bitch's daughter. You're the cause of all this?!" he cried out.
"Uh-huh..." Lucas interrupted at once, he scanned the two people. "She is not the daughter of either person, Your Majesty."
"Then who?!
"She... ah, I should refer her as it? It is an artificial creature. It is not a human at all."
"What..." Claude was speechless. The person whom he gave the opportunity to enter into his life was not only a sinner, nor was a human.
Claude fell to his knees and looked back at the girl... his real daughter... his Athanasia.
His hands were shaking trying to reach the girl who was crying alone, her fragile body and her soul that was on the verge of collapse didn't help at all. How foolish he was to be consumed by his enemy's tricks and turned hostile to his only family. His remaining light.
He wasted his last chance. He didn't believe his foolishness.
"Not you... it’s not you who is useless... but I... Athanasia, daddy is guilty... daddy is blind to reality... daddy is a coward... not you... my daughter."
Lucas stared sarcastically at the embarrassing man below him, "You still have the nerve to call yourself a father after all that happened? Where were you when she was first born in this world. Where were you when she needed you before I even met her. Where were you when she's almost tainted by that ignorant bastard nobleman— Tsk! YOU'RE NOT WORTH!" Lucas then looked at Jennette, "Ah I forgot your whereabouts. So? Let's think what to do next. Cut you? Mutilate you? Make you face the worst nightmare?
He glanced to the others, "What do you all think? What should I do?" he asked grinning.
"Kill her!"
"Burn her!"
"Cut her limbs!"
All the palace dwellers shouted out their pleas, voicing revenge for their princess.
Claude was silent, he was still broken by the reality in front of him.
"Shut up."
Lucas looked down on all of them. "You still have the courage to take revenge, even though you are not even on her side, help her, save her. You have never been with her, so why am I on your side?"
They finally realized the end of their life. Everything they do will be retaliated. This is their sin.
In an instant Lucas saw everyone kneeling and bowing their heads. "Please, do as you wish. As long as we can atone for our sins to Her Highness, the princess. We realized after all, we are not worthy to just say her holy name. May you give a punishment to us."
Wordlessly, Lucas used his magic to surround the people inside a transparent barrier. "She once said that you are innocent and will always forgive you even at the time of her death." Lucas left those who were crying in tears behind.
Suddenly he felt a weak flow of magic, he stared flatly at Claude who brought out a sword in his hand. The sword was ready to penetrate his heart, "I will return to you. I will make up for everything. I want to ask your forgiveness. I miss both of you."
He stabbed his chest swiftly, tears streaming down the corners of his closed eyes. The emperor Obelia chose to end his life in order to reunite with his lover and their daughter. Leaving everything.
Meanwhile, Lucas goes back to torturing Jennette, who even though her voice has returned, she can't say anything. Her pain made her numb and she was also shocked when she discovered the fact that she was not an ordinary human. Just an experiment.
Jennette felt tired, her sickening attitude started it all.
"Villains are meant to be hated."
- Johanna Lindsey
Maybe that's true, she's not a protagonist. All this time she thought she was the core of the story, but in reality she was the villainess where she took everyone's rights, took everyone's life forcibly, cheated everyone and deceived herself.
“I’m sorry,” was her last word after holding up all pain. Now she wondered how Athanasia had endured all of it all these years, when she could not endure this pain in just a few minutes.
She’s strong, inside and outside.
She is compassionate, patient, kind, beautiful, a true angel.
She deserve the world, but the world doesn't deserve her.
Lucas saw the end of Claude and Jennette's life, the main reason of his lover's demise.
"I am not happy. Losing their lives did not return her. I am not happy that you are no longer by my side. What is the use of this place now. Coup will happen, war between empires will arrive and Obelia's destruction is destined. Let everyone feel how misery meets them. I won't intervene again. It's useless."
Then the mighty Black Tower Magician left there, returned to his tower thousands of years in solitude no matter the war that killed how many lives. He only reminisced about the moments with his beloved blonde.
He is ready to leave this world and hopes to meet his lover again one day.
“I love you.”