itbomm

chapter 1: a goal in mind

The day was unremarkable like any other day for a baby, with his newly acquired sister scheming to gather as much treasure as possible for their future funds. Meanwhile, he was simply just enjoying his carefree life as much as he possibly could — happily dozing off as much as he could without a care in the world.

It was rather boring, though, even if he occasionally indulged their nanny by playing with her and Athy from time to time. He made sure to giggle and smile here and there, tried to charm the maids a bit.

Well, it didn't seem to be effective, but it was a work in progress.

Simply put — unlike his overly ambitious sister, he just wanted to live in a laid back manner. At least, until he'll be old enough to wield a sword. He always thought that the knights in stories were always the best, if not a little too pretentious or uptight. Maybe he could consider pulling off what Prince Cesar from Survive as the Hero's Wife did — sneak out of the palace grounds and learn swordsmanship from a mercenary company.

Maybe once he had a mental map of the palace's layout, it'll be doable, but in his previous life he always had difficulties with memorization. He could always draw out buildings — it'll be easy to disguise it as a treasure map. Maybe he should ask Lily to read him stories about adventures and finding treasures and run all over the place with paper and crayons, once he was old enough, just to cover some ground.

It'll be just like when he was a kid, when he would dig up holes in the backyard and run around without a care in the world.

That would be pretty fun.

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He was starting to feel drowsy from listening to Lily's calming voice as she read them a story about some wizard and his tower — he couldn't help it. Everything was making him sleepy — the warm sunlight, Lily's gentle voice, the sound of pages flipping...

His eyes closed, slowly slipping away.

And he was back to the Before, in a library as pages were turned — a place of safety and comfort. A laptop hums, a warm caress to his cheek as he slumps over it, with an essay left unfinished. Whispers of quiet voices, the haphazard sounds of fingers dancing across keyboards from the computer section. And everything in the world halts, but it is never silenced.

It was ironic — a place intended for readers and hard workers was a place he felt safest to sleep the afternoon away.

He feels a light thump against his head, and he grimaces at a laughing voice.

"Come on, [][][][][][][][], the library isn't a place for sleeping!" the person teased, and he's slightly irritable from a disturbed nap, but he's not angry. Rather, he's somewhat... fond of this person. And exasperated.

"Why can't you just let me sleep?" he groaned, pressing his cheek against his warm laptop. He glances up, all he can see is a mouth smiling and opening wide, as if they were about to let out a laugh and cheerily go—

'WHAT?!'

Athanase jolts awake, wincing at the bright yet warm sun shining down against him from his place on Lily's lap. He could feel a trail of drool running and clumsily wiped it against his sleeve as he pouted at his interrupted nap. He didn't even remember anything, but it felt like such a nice dream, too!

'That damn bloke who left his wife and child and is out there doing god knows what?' Athanasia had angrily thought as she enthusiastically smacked at the pages in the book Lily held.