Chapter 8

We looked at each other with shaking eyes.

“I’ll have to have some tea with the guest.”

And Claude’s words came as a great shock to me.

***

What kind of situation was this?

My back was wet from all the sweat. Was I really in a closed off room having teatime with Claude? With this guy who was gonna kill me in the future?

Shoot. I made eye contact with him.

I quickly cast my eyes down because I thought he might kill me if I didn’t.

Claude was the only one who seemed perfectly fine with this situation. The knight oppa [1] shifted his feet and didn’t know where to look.

“I hadn’t heard you were deaf.”

As Claude lifted the cup from the table, I hiccuped from his words.

“It’s not fun because you’re too quiet.”

I thought it would be fun but it’s not, so now I’ll kill you. Is that what he was trying to say?

I didn’t expect a warm welcome, but he regarded me like I was some kind of object.

Yup. I was drinking tea with him right now, but I could be killed any moment.

“Have you always been deaf?”

“Ati can talk.”

Hehe.

I tried to fix a smile on my face.

What could I do? I had to do whatever he asked of me. He wasn’t making any notions to kill me, but I was scared from all the stories the maids had told about him.

“Now you speak. Why did you not open your mouth until now?”

He kept on asking these questions like a 5 year old was supposed to answer them. What was I supposed to say, that I couldn’t talk because I was scared?

The knight oppa saved me from replying.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I heard children of that age are shy.”

“Really?”

Yeah! What reason needed to exist for a child to be shy! Also, children and adults alike would both be speechless in front of you!

But when our eyes met again, I pretended like I didn’t know anything and just laughed. Just send me back please.

Claude leaned back in the chair with his eyes still on my face. He looked like a lion taking a break.

In front of him, I was easily-captured prey. Like a bunny or some other helpless animal.

“Felix.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Leave.”

“…..”

The knight was forced out of the room. It seemed like Claude didn’t like how he answered for me.

Wait, oppa, you’re leaving me in here like that?

But what kind of power would the knight have. Despite my desperate eyes, he just looked at me pitifully before leaving. ]

“Seems like Ati is a nickname.”

I didn’t even know what I said earlier, but I guessed I had spoken out of habit the way I converse with the maids.

“Athanasia. Athanasia.”

I became nervous again when he mumbled my name.

“Do you know what your name means?

It wasn’t a good sign that Claude was entered in my name. The fact that he had saved me because of my name was a double edged sword that might cut me

The fact that he would let me live twice because of my name was unimaginable. Because even Claude himself didn’t have the name of an Emperor.

That was because Claude wasn’t next in line to be Emperor.He was only Emperor by killing his father and brother.

The past emperor’s name was Aaeboom, and the crown prince was Anastasious.They both had meanings of immortality. The first Queen of obelia, ‘Ambrose’ also had that name.

Putting it bluntly, Claude was the only ruler in history to not have the special name.

Hopefully Claude didn’t think that my name was uncomfortable and tried to kill me. I tried to make an innocent and helpless face.

I am not harmful to you. I don’t want to be a ruler. I just want to live quietly and die quietly, that’s my goal in life.

My name was overly extravagant, but in reality, I am just a leech mooching off of you.

“What are you doing? Go ahead and eat.”

Claude didn’t seem to want to kill me just yet. But he probably wasn’t going to send me back to the Euby Palace that easily. I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing.

But his next words made me realize this was a bad thing.

“I intentionally asked them to bring food that children like. If you don’t eat, I have no choice but to punish those you brought these.”

“Thank you, I’ll eat it well.”

This rude bastard just threatened me, didn’t he?

I held a fork in my trembling hands. The table was full of delicious looking foods, but I lost the will to eat.

Rather, I felt like I was gonna to throw up. But I couldn’t not eat it because then the servants would be killed, like the massacre that happened at the Ruby Palace. And on the list of people that were killed, my name was probably on it too.

“Tastes good.”

I could tell my face was pale, even without looking in a mirror, but I forced myself to eat.

I didn’t even know what was happening anymore.

“Who taught you manners?”

“Lili taught me.”

I was faithfully answering Claude’s questions despite the immense fear I felt. As Claude answered after thinking for a while, I was surprised.

“You must be meaning Lilian Yorke.”

I just said Lili, but how did he know?

“I guess that fearless maid who tried to block me 5 years ago is still by your side.”

Lili had that kind of a past? When was 5 years ago? Was it when she met Athanasia? But what did blocking Claude mean?”

“I first heard your name through that maid.”

What? Then the person who saved Athanasia was Lili? Since he had only let her live after hearing her name.

Wow, Lili was my favorite character in this damned book

“She and your mother are probably the only people to block me and not have been killed by me.”

I think I’m going to die. He was definitely speaking in a calm voice but I don’t know why I was still cold.

He quietly looked at me eat the cake

“Do you know who I am?”

The moment I heard that I dropped my fork on my plate.

If I wasn’t sitting, I might’ve fallen down. My dry mouth was shaking as I met his eyes again. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t.

This was a test.

He didn’t bring me here out of goodwill. I had thought it was weird that he brought me here. This situation was just a simple change. It was a chance given for amusing him

He was going to decide again today if I lived or not. Did Athanasia from the novel go through the same thing, even if it wasn’t written in the novel?

His blue eyes peered inside me. And there was an elevated boredom in them.