The Second... Second Chance?

Chapter 2: Unexpected

Hi! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter :>

Just a reminder that you're amazing! Ily~
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Athanasia jolted awake from the sounds outside her nursery. Looking over, she can see the maids all gathering around the door, peeking out a small crack. It seems like they don't want to be seen by whoever was behind that door, but who could it be?

(Un) Fortunately, her question was about to be answered.

"Let me see her. She is my daughter." She heard Claude say, his voice so cold that the maids all froze at his words. Uh oh. This can't be good.

"I apologize, your Majesty, but I cannot permit that." Felix replied. The maids gasped. Felix? The man who is most loyal to the emperor, denying him of his wishes? Did he want to get killed?

"Robane. Get out of my way. I will not ask again." Claude replied. Athanasia wondered if Felix was going to be okay. She hopes that he would just let him pass, afterall, blocking him will just make Claude angry and put him at risk of being fired or even executed.

He never hurt her as a baby anyway. Now that she thought about it, he never visited either. Both in the novel and in her past life, Claude never cared about her until she was at least 4, which is when she had met him in her last life. But now she's a baby yet he's visiting her?

How different is this life going to be? Will everything even go the way she planned?

"No, your majes-" But before Felix could even finish his sentence, Claude has pushed past him and entered the nursery. All the maids rushed to stand at the sides, bowing and greeting his royal highness. But his eyes only focused on Athanasia.

"Athanasia.." The emperor whispered, quickly moving to stand besider her crib, reaching downwards to pat her head. But to the princess, all she could see was the man who had taken her life, who had destroyed all her hopes of a happy ending.

Unable to restrain herself, Athanasia felt her eyes tear up, before she broke into sobs. Claude looks startled, his hand still a mere few inches above her head. "Athanasia.. it's me. I'm your father, I won't hurt you."

'Liar!' She screamed in her head, tears still freely flowing down her cheeks. 'You forgot about me! You killed me!'

"It seems like she's scared of you, Your Majesty." Felix said, walking up beside Claude. "She doesn't want you to touch her."

The blonde haired man grit his teeth as he pulled his hand away and instead put it on the crib rail. He glared at the knight, "And what do you know about /my/ daughter?"

Felix was about to retort when Athanasia decided to step in and do something to stop the man from losing his job (or his life) completely. She screamed as loud as she can, alerting both men and all the maids in the room.

She looked straight at Felix as she did this, silently begging with her eyes, 'Don't do this. You need to be here if you want to protect me!'

She's not sure if the red haired man understood her, but he didn't say anything afterwards so she was glad for that.

She needed to be nice to Claude for now. Felix was still angry, so he would definitely not play nice with the emperor, meaning she was the one that had to. If she seemed at all unhappy, Felix would try to protect her from Claude, putting himself at risk.

She inwardly sighed, she has to keep her father in a good mood or else both of them are in trouble, or at least Felix would be.

'Only until I can run away.' She reminded herself. 'Then I can get away from him once and for all.'

So she reached up with her small hands, "A! A!!" She whined. Claude turned to look at her, then carefully reached his hand into her crib. She let out happy gurgles, pulling his hand closer towards her until it was on her head.

Claude's eyes widened for a moment, before softening. He patted her head carefully, his movements slow, as if he was scared of hurting her.

"My daughter.." He mumbled. Athanasia can only stare at him in shock. Why was he calling her his daughter in such a loving voice? And was he smiling? Why was he being so considerate?

'Could... Could he have gone back in time too?!' Athanasia screamed in her head, 'No, no! If he had his old memories, then he would still be hating me right now. He killed me! This has to be a hallucination. I'm just imagining things.'

The princess was sure. There was absolutely no way Claude cared about her. He was just... being nice... for some reason. No matter what, she will not trust him again.

'But for now.. I think I can enjoy this moment.' She thought. Afterall, she still loved her father from when he was kind to her in her past life. She missed their tea time, their boat rides, all of it. She longed to have Claude love her again, but she can't hope for that anymore. Not when he had still executed her even when she tried to win his heart.

His love is for Jeanette. Not Athanasia.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Despite what the princess thought, Claude continued to visit her whenever he could, which was basically all the time. Despite having piles of work, he would still go and visit her each day.

By the second month, Felix had basically given up on trying to block Claude from entering her room. No matter what he did, the man would just push him aside and go in anyway, so he opted to staying in the room with them whenever possible.

This was her father's third visit to her room today. This time he only bought some tea for himself, which was much more normal than when he had brought her a new golden rattle and a giant stuffed bear on his first two visits.

"Your majesty, I do wish that you would go back to work.." Felix sighed. The paperwork that Claude was meant to do had been gathering dust on his desk for months. He would refuse to do it no matter what, instead choosing to visit the princess. "The council has been pressing for you to finish them. The kingdom needs you as well."

"Work isn't as important as Athanasia." He answered simply, continuing to shake her new rattle in front of her face.

"I agree, but still-"

"That's enough, Felix. Leave us be." He cut him off, voice as sharp as a blade. It was obvious that Claude wanted him to shut up and leave the room, but Felix wasn't backing down that easily anymore. He had to get the emperor away from Athanasia, he can't trust him after what he did.

"Your majesty, you need to do your duties to the empire. The princess will be well taken care of. She will be fine."

"And how do you know that?"

"The maids love her and she has knights surrounding her room. She will be safe." Felix replied easily. Why did his majesty have to be so stubborn?

"She is safest with me. How can I know that she will be alright without me?"

Felix was about to reply once again when a new voice spoke up from the doorway.

"I think I can help with that."