For The Forever Lost Souls

Dinner with a Madman

"This, what, wait..." Athy looked shocked and tried to push the door open, but she was too weak to open it.

The twins, on the other hand, just accepted their fate and explored the room.

"Fel...!" Athy stopped herself as she realised that she would wake Claude up if she screamed now. 'Felix, you terrible knight!'

Then Athy also accepted her fate and decided to look around the room. The room was silent, so silent that you would be able to hear a pin drop.

Is this really the emperor's room? Why is it so simple? Athy thought while looking at the things in the room. Weird.

The room was so empty that Athy was able to spot the bed right away, though she couldn't see inside because of the long curtains.

Athy turned away from the bed and saw the twins looking at the map on the wall. The map was somehow very attention-grabbing, even to Athy.

She slowly moved to join the twins in inspecting the map.

"Gasp!"

Athy brought her hands up to her mouth to muffle the sound. She realised that what had caught her attention was the gold frame around the map. The entire frame was made of thick gold!

Now that she realised what had drawn her attention, she couldn't help but wonder what about the map had captivated the twins. Was it also the gold frame? No way, right? What she didn't know was that the twins had been talking to each other the whole time about how much the frame would cost if they sold it.

*How about we just steal this frame and sell it? * Ambrose asked.

*Well... I wouldn't necessarily say 'steal.' I prefer to say... permanently borrowing it. * Azrael responded in an all too smug tone.

*So it's a yes? *

*Not right now, but later. It would be too noticeable to do it right this moment. *

*Alright. * Ambrose said and gave a thumbs up to his twin, which did in fact go unnoticed by Athy.

And while they had that entire conversation, Athy ran across the carpet to the other side. She gathered that Claude must have had a thing for collecting artwork because the room contained no decorations besides framed paintings.

There were paintings of very pretty sisters with angels, and they seemed to depict memorable moments.

Anyway, all the artwork was framed in gold! Even the broken one in the corner was framed in gold! Athy walked closer to the broken frame, wondering why Claude hadn't simply thrown this one away.

Oh? It was a portrait of a woman. The face was not the prettiest, but it was still beautiful and charming. She looked like the type to dress herself prettily, she had lots of accessories from top to bottom.

From that portrait alone, one might assume that she was an empress. Her brown hair was tied up and her eyes were a light green. Athy recognised the woman.

"Penelope Judith." Athy jumped, startled by Ambrose's sudden input. She hadn't realised it before, but now she noticed the twins standing behind her. They, too, were looking at the portrait. She continued staring at the portrait, dissatisfaction bubbling up within her. She felt like she had seen something she wasn't supposed to see.

Athy looked towards the twins and saw they wore bored expressions. They didn't seem to care much about the painting.

Since the twins didn't care much about the portrait, she decided to act like she hadn't seen it. She shook her head and moved away.