Same World, Same Princess, Different Path [WMMAP]

Chapter 15 - The Hunting Season Part.1

The image on the top is Harrison Alpinus at 19 y/o. Isn't he so hot?? 😭😗

'Athanasia is like me?' Calliope couldn't believe what she heard. Yet she did. During the three consecutive months that Jeanette was there, Athanasia had never reported any incidents with her. At first she thought she was dreaming, that maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. And yet, it was enough to look at Athanasia's eyes to see a hatred that couldn't be less than three months old.

This hatred looked so deep, so dark... An anger that was patiently waiting to emerge, an anger that had surely grown over the years.

Calliope remembered Athanasia's death very clearly. The poor woman who had been executed for a crime she had not committed. She also remembered the disasters that occurred after that. Calliope turned 17, one year after Athanasia's death, Anastacius de Alger Obelia took power by force and the Emperor died. She remembered her father very well as well as many other soldiers who tried to regain the upper hand over him. And it was a lost cause.

Actually, many came back alive, many, except her father. She tried to find out what had happened, why her father was missing if everyone else was doing so well. But no one answered her. They even ended up accusing her of orchestrating the whole thing in order to get his property back. And it didn't end there.

The mysterious death of her brothers soon followed her father's, so that she was soon alone with her sick and dying mother. When she died, Calliope really lost everything. A civil war had broken out outside and the sound of bombs and people's screams could be heard from her window. But she couldn't feel sorry for herself. She had to live as they had told her to, as her nanny had told her to.

It was the next day that she found herself there, in front of the graves of her family members - empty for her father and Lucius whose bodies had not been found - that she began to sing. She sang over and over again, her voice going wild. She wanted to get all that pain out of her heart, all her feelings, she felt so empty... And then a voice called out to her. The voice of a woman.

"What a beautiful song." Calliope turned to the woman who had just appeared before her like a divine spirit. She didn't even have the strength to be shocked anymore and she just watched her walk towards her with teary eyes. She didn't know who that woman was. Was she a god?

"I shall give you a gift, so sing a little more for me. You shall change." She didn't understand what she meant, but let her put her hands on her face. She closed her eyes with fatigue and before she knew it, she was a baby again and all her loved ones were by her side.

'If what I think is true, then Athanasia must have a purpose in mind, right?' Calliope's purpose was to protect her family and to find out who was behind the death of her father and brothers, because she was sure of it, there were nobles involved in this chaos and she had to know who. But Athanasia hated Claude and Jeanette. So, apart from wanting to take the place that Jeanette had, the only other idea that went through her mind was...

Revenge.

And she liked it even more. Their way of thinking wasn't so different after all and they both wanted the same thing. And they were going to do everything to get it.

. . .

After the incident at the gathering, that was all people talked about. Athanasia had become an even more interesting topic than before. She had just proved to everyone what she was capable of and had even gone so far as to insult Claude and Jeanette openly without any consequences falling on her. She still had her head on her shoulders and her tongue in her mouth. Quite the opposite of the young girls who had insulted her. Indeed, barely a day later, their tongues were cut out and their families lost their titles. The reason was obvious: blasphemy towards a member of the royal family. Athanasia didn't execute them so that these girls could suffer for the rest of their lives over their foolish decisions and be a symbol of warning to others.