Located within the Emerald Palace.
One of the Jaxith family's royal knights ran through the palace corridors as she barged into the room at the end of the hallway.
"Princess Athena!"
The knight opened the door in a fluster as though she had ran here as fast as she could the moment she was given her order. She had also completely forgotten to knock, nor wait outside until permitted to enter.
Normally, this would've been a punishable offense.
However, her lack of manners was not a result of disrespect but instead implied something had happened which flustered her to the extent of forgoing her training and duties as a royal knight.
Athena could easily understand what had happened. However, in front of the palace workers including the maids, Athena did not display her usual charisma as she choose to display the attitude of a spoilt and pampered princess with the lowest magic potential in the family.
Someone that they would deem unfit to be served by nobles such as themselves.
As the royal knights and maids were all sons and daughters from high-ranking landed noble families within the Floato Region, someone like her, a spoiled brat that was only the 7th in line for the throne, with no real power nor potential, would not be truly respected and would be looked down upon and underestimated. Allowing Athena to remain under the radar and operate seamlessly in the shadows.
As some of the knights and maids even had higher magic potentials than she did, it made her the target of mockery for the prideful maids who had no choice but to serve her due to her bloodline.
The fact that her personal guard was only a commoner despite him possessing higher potential than they did, was deemed to be completely atrocious, knowing he was ranked higher than them.
For some reason, Athena seems to enjoy the chaos and treats it like another form of entertainment.
Comments like; "Is she truly a pureblooded descendant of the Jaxith family or did her Grace pick her up from the gutters."
"Did she really bring her boy toy into the palace just to mess around with a street rat? What nonsense."
"I can't believe I have to serve such an obnoxious brat every day. My father would be livid when he hears about this."
Most of that time, they didn't even bother to hide their disdain and the appearance of someone they considered trash like Bam, their agitation had only gotten worse.
Thanks to that, the maids showed little respect for Athena and tend to gossip casually around her thanks to her splendid performance as a clueless and spoilt princess, giving them the leeway to talk about their family's deepest secrets, which naturally provided Athena with valuable information.
As a lowly princess with little to no real power or authority, this was the only way she could think of to gain a thorough understanding of the activities of the nobles outside the Emerald Palace, allowing her to gather information and gain enough dirt on the nobles to develop her plans without having to leave the castle.
With that, Athena closed the book she was reading and asked nonchalantly.
"What's going on?"
The knight's eye twitched, most likely due to a wave of subconscious anger that suddenly bubbled within her. Seeing Athena, who sat leisurely by her tea table reading a book with her legs crossed.
Her outfit was designed in such a way that it exposed most of her cleavage from above, and the slit of her gown was as high as her waist, every time she dropped a leg to cross the other one, it revealed the lines of her lower region, making it seem as though she wasn't wearing any underwear.
With the street rat that called himself a knight standing behind her with a direct line of sight to everything, the maid could easily guess the sick show this princess was putting on for her knight and felt disgusted. It didn't matter if she was only teasing him, exposing yourself to a mere commoner was the most degrading thing she could think of.
Athena saw the change in expression in the knight and a faint smile adorned her pretty face as she took a sip from the tea on her cup and lazily placed it on its saucer.
The sound of doing so seemed to jolt the knight back to reality, and she hastily sprang into action.
"A-a-about that―"
"It's okay, It'll be fine, Calm down, take a deep breath."
The knight did as she was told, taking several deep breaths to regulate her panting. After regaining a measure of calmness, Athena asked,
"What happened? Is it monsters? Or are we being attacked?"
"N-no, none of that. The Darknar family's emissary insisted you partake in the diplomatic negotiations!"
"Really, Is it a lady?"
"Yes, a very beautiful lady! A Dark elf."
Athena's question should have been strange because there was only one woman among the envoys from the Darknar region and she had been present during their introduction to the nobles and had even exchanged a word of greeting with her. If someone pressed the point, they might wonder what she was on about. However, the knight was currently confused and answered in earnest.
Athena on the other hand, did not mind such lapses. Not being taken so seriously by the maids allowed her to access a vast array of information she could use so this was fine.
Bam had been standing by her side. His armor clattered in response.
He must not have been able to follow what was going on. Nor did he understand why anything that was said was of any concern to make the knight so worked up over Athena's attendance or not.
His adorable actions, like an innocent puppy, filled Athena's heart with a surge of tenderness. However, she could not allow herself to indulge in her desires just yet and had to remain patient.
Athena enjoyed the company of the clueless Bam more than she should, perhaps it was because he was in love with her and completely failed to notice her faults that she grew attached to him.
As Athena had known since an early age that no knight of noble heritage would willingly serve under a princess with no authority like her, she had decided to create one for herself.
A knight that would meet the requirements of her desires, just like the romantic books she once read. Of course, sending orphans to their death was not part of the kooks but who cares, after the fourth one, she successfully created a strong enough knight with a cute face and adoring eyes.
He was also innocent enough to get flushed at the slightest touch or any exposure to skin and Athena couldn't get enough of that reaction. She could probably tease him forever but now was not the time as she had been so rudely interrupted by the knight.
Even though the knight's reasons were important, Athena could not just simply forgive her for interrupting her fun so she needed to be extra annoying right now.
"Why exactly would Lady Rain want me there? I wonder..."
Tilting her delicate little head was very important. Doing so would induce a negative reaction in the worried party. Its effectiveness had been proven over and over again. After all, the diplomatic negotiations were of the utmost importance to the family.
And sure enough, weak flames flickered in the maid's pupils. They were flames of anger. At the same moment, Bam's armor clattered softly.
He must have sensed that knight's feelings and thought of something. But the sound soon stopped, and he returned to his upright and locked position.
How cute.
His restraint and self-control despite his anger sipping through as he struggled to maintain his composure were simply adorable. If he wanted to, he could easily kill this knight with a single strike but he knew that would only cause problems for his mistress so he was trying desperately to restrain himself.
He was probably crying inside since he believed so much in Athena. If only he wasn't a commoner, this sort of thing would not be happening.
Athena could feel herself getting aroused as she desperately resisted the desire to turn to look at Bam, who was standing behind her. This was because the interfering knight opened her mouth to speak:
"I do not know the reason, only that she had insisted on your presence when the meeting was about to start."
"Is that so… I wonder what she would like me to talk about during the meeting. Perhaps she only wanted another lady there with her, do you think that's it? I noticed she wasn't wearing much makeup yet she radiated so brightly, I wonder if I can ask her to teach me her skincare routine."
"I don't know about that. The meeting is scheduled to start in 2 hours, would you be honoring her request? "
"Of course, I would! Please inform Mother that I would be participating in the diplomatic negotiations with the Darknar representatives."
After she replied with feigned delight, Athena turned to look at Bam.
"Hmmm~ Bam, I would need some time to prepare myself, could you step out of the room for a while?"
"Understood."
After his response, Bam exited her room with the maid, leaving Athena as the only person in the room. Athena did not require Bam to exit the room simply to get dressed as there was already a large changing room adjacent to hers so all she needed to do was summon her dressing maid.
However, Athena needed the room completely empty for a reason. It was kind of a shame, but that could not be helped either. Bam did not need to know about bothersome things that may alter his feelings towards her, especially with the presence of her new visitor.
The moment the room was emptied, a slender figure suddenly appeared by the curtains to the open window. This room was on the 5th floor of the Emerald Palace, as such it was nearly impossible for one to scale its walls to the open balcony so it was a wonder how this person had entered the room undetected.
The figure strode across the room and took a seat without waiting for the owner of the room to give her permission.
Then, she looked to the girl who was genuflecting before her with her head lowered, and chuckled.
"Common, there's no need to be so stiff in front of me~ Common, take a sit, let's chat."
"―Yes."
The girl called Athena — the 5th daughter of the Jaxith family — obediently lifted her face.
"Nice job. You have done an excellent job so far~"
"Thank you very much, Lady Citrus."
Athena sat down with a smile.
"Hmm~"
Citrus seemed quite interested in Athena's reaction, which was completely unlike what she had shown thus far. A cold smile the likes of which would send shivers down the backs of even Demon Lords was plastered on her face.
To Athena, she had not betrayed her family, making a deal with Citrus was only a means to achieve her desires, something any true demon would understand.
Whether the consequences of her actions benefited the Jaxith family or destroys it, that was not her problem as there wasn't really much that mattered to Athena except her enjoyment and desires. It wasn't a different motive than the noble she had selected for the next phase of her plans.
Looking at her expression right now, one could almost call her, a devil.
????????
On one of Athena's trips abroad as a child, specifically on a vacation trip to Sun City. She had met a young boy with an extremely cute appearance walking hand in hand with his two loving parents.
He was a commoner of lower birth than hers but his eyes were different from hers which were devoid of any positive emotions. Born into a family that was destined to use her as a political tool. With her low potential, she was guaranteed to be viewed as nothing more than a womb to carry the future of the Jaxith family.
Hence Athena could only see the world in black and white as her cold eyes gazed through the carriage window at the pawns walking cluelessly on the streets.
However, her eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of Bam. A boy not born into a rich household yet his eyes shone brightly with a beauty that was incomprehensible to her.
Her heart was Captivated, as she felt it beat for the first time.
Although Athena had no idea what that meant, she felt it was the best way to describe how she had felt at the time. Utterly captivated by those pure eyes that saw the world in an assortment of colors.
Unfortunately, he was not from her city and Athena could not resort to kidnapping in another family's City. Especially not in a city belonging to one of the Great Five.
However, perhaps she had been manipulated into meeting her but a fortunate encounter with Citrus had changed everything.
In exchange for her betraying her family in the future, Citrus had orchestrated the death of Bam's entire bloodline. A thorough cleansing that wiped out anyone that was even remotely related to him and sent him to the slumps of Radiance City after altering his memories to make him believe he was from there.
The rest was simple for Athena to handle as she made sure Bam would not lose the colors in his eyes by secretly providing him with enough assistance to prevent complete despair on the battlefield.
She had even gone as far as experimenting with other orphans to make sure she would get the balance just right to make him stronger without letting him become truly traumatized.
Manipulating everything until he became completely enamored by her. Everything had gone as she had planned and that was all thanks to Citrus.
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