itbomm

chapter 2: aiming towards the future

There was something about being a five-year-old kid that made chocolate so goddamn appealing. It had to be the sugar rush, even though the additional compliments was a nice ego boost. He was pretty good about having sweets in moderation, but he would never say no to extra sweets. In fact, he was fairly certain that Lily was grateful that he didn't indulge in chocolates as much as Athanasia did.

Then again, she probably wouldn't even notice the few times that he's used Athy's cutesy tricks on his own. While Athy projected herself as the sociable twin who was always enthusiastic, he made sure to act the part as the shy and quiet twin. Whenever he passed by a maid or whoever else, he made it a point to notice them, hide his face behind his papers, peek over his papers, and shyly wave his hand at them in greeting. He wasn't too shy around Lily, she's been their nanny since birth after all, but he would always cling to her skirt and look up at people with wide eyes.

He was a decent actor — he practised a lot when they were finally coherent enough, and Athy would always nod like an annoyingly proud older sister when she approved of his shy act. Still, he also felt a bit proud of Athanasia for being able to effortlessly charm the maids. There were a few times when he could blatantly feel her embarrassment at having to act like such a kid.

Normally, they were never far apart — it was something like a routine of sorts, to establish how they're always together, and that one is never far from the other. He made sure to declare to Lily that he was going to explore the palace the next day and try to find the perfect place to hide treasure for his sister to find. Naturally, Lily would inform the palace staff to maintain their distance so that they wouldn't overwhelm him too much before the next day happened.

It was also the perfect excuse to find hiding places for their future funds. He'll make a few hiding places obvious, and he'll ensure that the other hiding spots would only be found by Athy.

So with a bundle of papers in hand, and a crayon in hand, he began to wander the familiar halls of the Ruby Palace, doing his best to draw the scenes and map out the entire place. Asides for the blatant decor that marked the Ruby Palace as the palace for concubines, it was all pretty fancy looking.

If you ignored some dusty spots here and there and the cracks in the older parts of the palace.

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He got carried away, but then again, so did Athy.

While Athy was drawing the usual flowers, she ended up writing down his and Lily's name. Meanwhile, he was drawing his maps and decided to write "treasure map for Athy" (he was fairly certain that he misspelled two of those words), but it was enough for everyone to declare him and Athy to be geniuses. For him, he was praised for his artistic talents, while Athy was praised for her literary understanding.

It wasn't easy for him to learn the language, but Athy seemed to take to it like a fish in water.

His drawing of the castle layout was also praised so much that it practically became this world's equivalent of a fire escape map. Multiple copies were made, for the few maids both old and new who occasionally got lost in the Ruby Palace.

And so, their education began, and he was once again tormented by classwork.

'Hurry, hurry!' Athanasia seemed to rush, causing him to blink as he looks up from his book to see her quickly gathering her treasure. She then proceeded to... tie the bags to her legs.

'Athy, you don't have to go that far just to hide your treasure. We could literally ask Lily if we could turn one of the unused rooms into a treasure room from all of our little 'treasure hunts', you know.'