Athanasia

Arc 1: Her Origin (1)

"It all started when the King met her..."

——o0o——

In Llorieva, Capital City of the Kingdom of Venel...

In the Second District, a quaint little flower shop existed. It was called 'Blossoming Garden Shop', a small livelihood of a commoner family.

The family's only daughter takes care of the shop with her single mother and sometimes deliver the bouquet of flowers to their customers.

Although the shop is small, their business is booming only because several lower ranked aristocrats took notice of the daughter's beauty and was courting her by buying flowers and making her deliver them.

Indeed, the daughter is a youthful and delicate beauty, with bluish silver hair and pink orbs— a white lotus lady

One fateful day, on her way home from a delivery, she took a short cut route in an alleyway for it was getting dark. As if fate brought them together, she encountered a wounded middle-aged man passed out on the pavement near their house's back door.

As a kind and caring girl she was, she took him in and nursed him while he's unconscious. Her mother helped her bandage his wounds, as she was formerly a doctor's assistant and cared for him while she took care of the shop.

After two days, the man woke up while her mother was wiping his body and his eyes was revealed to be as pink as the daughter's. He was her father, apparently.

The daughter was shocked, until her mother confessed that she only adopted her from the orphanage as a babe.

The man is her biological father, the Earl of Lore, Gustav Lore.

And her? She's his long lost (illegitimate) daughter who was kidnapped (abandoned by his mistress) as a babe.

Her name is Gwenyth Lore.

———

The young miss of the Earl Lore House is rumored to be a kind and beautiful lady, and that caused the abundance of marriage proposals from other noble houses. However, the earl had never accepted any of them.

When Gwenyth was 19, she overheard her father discussing about her marriage to the Ducal Verose House. Upset because of her impending arranged betrothal, she sneaked out.

She was only planning on wandering around the city to cool off her irritation, but when she was on the way back, three thugs cornered her on a dark alleyway.

Unfortunately, her ankle was sprained and she can't run... But all of a sudden, a mysterious hooded man saved her and beaten up the thugs.

She only caught a glimpse of his bluish grey eyes when he carried her due to her sprained ankle.

(Those eyes are a symbol of the Guildrestein Royal Family, but as she was new to the upper society, she didn't know. Or so it seemed...)

After she was safely returned to their house, her father learned of the reason why she almost put herself to danger and decided not to continue the betrothal.

Later on, she attended the banquet for the king's birthday, and met her savior there.

He's apparently Keith Guildrestein, the king himself. And he's married.

However, that didn't stop the king from falling in love with her 'innocence' and 'naivety'. So he courted her openly, unafraid of the masses' dissatisfaction.

And abandoning his Queen in the process.

———

To make Gwenyth his official wife, he ruined his pregnant wife's reputation and then disposed of the Queen together with the baby, whom he suspected to be a bastard child. It was covered up with the excuse that she died due to an illness, but three months later he married Gwenyth.

The former Queen's family was furious and planned to revolt, but he used the (planted) evidence that the former Queen had attempted to assassinate the current Queen several times and even killed her baby to gain sympathy from him. The former Queen's family was convicted with treason and attempted murder on the current Queen, and was executed.

——o0o——

'Lies. It's all lies... It's nothing like that.'

The truth is nothing like that.

Keith Guildrestein did not care or love anything aside from himself. He only used Gwenyth to get rid of his Queen and her family because he feared that one day they would covet his throne.

The former Queen, Raskreia Athanasia li Esperez was once engaged to the former crown prince, his brother; Thaddeus Guildrestein. His brother whom he murdered in cold blood.

The Ducal li Esperez lineage had always produced excellent Queens like his brother's mother, Raskreia's Third Aunt. His mother had hated her very much and made him promise that he will one day destroy them, which he did.

But Raskreia's child is also his flesh and blood! And he killed him mercilessly!

As the former Queen lay dying, her body torn apart and her soul broken, her last thoughts was...

'Why me!? I never wanted to be the Queen! Why did he kill my baby!? Why!? Why...'