this. “then, I'll make sure to tell yua the news, your majesty.” she spoke softly as she excused herself

“eric.” the emperor looked at the 12 year old boy who's also looking at him with no emotion. “yes father?” the emperor glared at him.

“make sure that you and valkyria are both in good terms as you do your journey in arlanta, you do know that we need her and without her, the empire won't be in good shape.” he spoke in a serious tone as the lad didn't have a choice but to just nodded in response as he also excuse himself now.

eric can't believe that his father is still trying to use his fiance because of her family's authority. knowing the elise family, they're not scared to draw blood to the realm. which made the others, even the royalties are terrified of them. for now, he'll make sure that his relationship with valkyria will be fix so that everything will go back to normal as what his father wants. then again, he won't get away from his father's grasp as he's the master and eric is nothing but a puppet to him.

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IT'S BEEN A WEEK since they've been in arlanta and he met a lot of people but not once he ever seen his fiancé in the academy as it seems like she was avoiding him at all cost. eric was a bit saddened by the actions of hers but he knows deep down that it's his fault after all and he has to pay the price for what happened to them. as he was pacing out, he bumped into someone.

“oh, i apologise.” eric spoke softly as he looked at the person he bumped into. the black-haired person looked at him up and down then started leaving without even speaking at him and which made the prince a bit taken aback.

“you seem a bit out of place, your highness.” a person behind him spoke which startled him. everything around him is getting too much fun at appearing out of nowhere.

“princess antanasia… was i being that obvious?” he spoke as the girl nodded. eric met the princess two days ago as they're in the same class and them being in a same rank and having a lot of commons, they immediately clicked and became friends.

“sort of? i mean, you've been circling around this area.” she said as she pointed the circle he made while pacing around it. he was a bit shocked that he didn't even notice it that his friend had to point it out. “i'm a bit shocked that you didn't even notice that.” the ten years old girl shrugs.

the lad sighed as he went to sit at the near bench. “i guess you could say that i'm just worried about my… friend.” antanasia also sat down as she looked at him confused.

“oh, you have a friend?” the girl looked at him surprised that he has friends and then eric felt like someone shooted an arrow at his heart.

“of course i do! do i look like someone who doesn't even have friends?” eric looked at her then she nodded in response which made the lad looked offended. antanasia chuckled as she apologised for being straight forward to him as eric accepted her apology.

“anyway, what's wrong about this friend of yours?” antanasia asked as she's a bit curious about his friend that he was talking about to her almost everytime they meet.

eric looked down as he sighed. “well, they have been avoiding me for quite a while now and that was my fault.” he scratched the back of his neck. “i said something that made them mad at me and now they won't even bother looking or talking to me.” he pouted as antanasia just listened to him.

“i wanted to apologise to her but she just kept ignoring me as if i'm just nothing to her!” he groaned as he hid his face with his hands. “so it's a girl then?” antanasia spoke which made eric shocked by this.

“how did you know?” he questioned the girl who looked at her as if he's dumb. “you kept saying her or she, stupid.” she rolled her eyes as eric blushed as he was embarrassed.

“oh…”

“oh indeed.”

eric then spoke. “yeah it's a girl but! she's my friend okay? don't think of anything.” antanasia just nodded lazily as she just let him talked everything he wants to say. eric kept ranting about what he wants to say as they didn't even notice that it was almost night time.

“oh, i didn't notice the time.” he spoke as he looked at the sunset. “i should escort you back to your dorm.” he looked at antanasia who didn't mind at his request and just let him escort her back. the two bid farewell as soon as he finally escorted her friend back as he also went to his dorm.

while he was walking, he caught a glimpse of his fiancé which he immediately ran towards her. “lady valkyria…” he grabbed her hand. the girl looked at him shocked then composed herself as she saw the face of her fiancé.

“your highness… is there something you want from me?” she spoke in a monotonous tone. eric was a bit taken aback but he immediately spoke. “why are you avoiding me?” he asked the girl who raised an eyebrow.

“avoiding you? i was just busy studying.” she avoids looking at his face. “while you were busy flirting around with girls.” eric was shocked at what she said as he would never flirt around to some girls while he's already engaged to someone.

“what? i would never do that and you know that.” eric spoke as valkyria rolled her eyes. “come on, your highness. i'm not that stupid than you think! seeing you with that girl disgust me. please, leave me alone for now.” she removed his hand as she went to leave immediately. eric went to follow her trying to convince him that everything was a misunderstanding and that antanasia was just a friend of him but it seems that valkyria doesn't even care about what he says.

eric has been called back at the palace as he had no other choice but to go back and leave immediately. and now, valkyria despise the girl named antanasia and finally knowing her background, she's more furious to know that girl is the crown princess of the obelian empire. seeing that princess makes valkyria more furious for she doesn't even know the reason at all at this point.

for years, she would always looked at the crown princess from the distance and somehow she felt a bit envious that antanasia was free to do everything, while valkyria was being treated like a puppet. when she finally had a chance to get close to the antanasia, she decided to be rude at her. valkyria doesn't even know why she decided to do that knowing that being rude to the crown princess of the obelian empire also feels like you're declaring a war. but that didn't stop her from being like that to antanasia and it looks like antanasia also doesn't mind it as she also went to argue around valkyria.

upon being close to antanasia, she felt a bit happier than she used to be. being with the crown princess feels like she's safe and free without worrying about her mother and about her engagement with eric. she wished to stay with antanasia so that she could at least taste the freedom even at short time and her perspective on antanasia changed when they got to know each other well. she got to know how to play around and even get to have fun while being with her now friends that she met in her journey in the academy and that's all because of antanasia.

so now, seeing antanasia in the ball while blood was in her hand made valkyria shocked as she doesn't even know what to do at this point and she was scared to move but she wanted to help her friend. her mind was a mess while thinking about what to do and all of that stopped when she saw royin running towards antanasia to catch her before she falls down at the floor and the others followed by but valkyria was still stucked standing where she was. she was scared, scared that people might accuse her because this was her engagement with eric and the people around them might pull some rumors that this was all planned.

valkyria never had a good reputation in the empire after all, and never she'll have one with all nobles being jealous about her golden spoon life. antanasia was now very important in her life and now she went shouting at the guards to help them and tell eric to send some healers as fast as possible. this time, she wanted to repay antanasia for making her life happy than ever and she hopes that she'll be alright and comes back arguing with her once again.

“please wake up, antanasia…”

━━━━━ • ஜ • ❈ • ஜ • ━━━━━

fun facts in my story

001. valkyria likes purple things.

002. antanasia loves to hide when she wants to be left alone.

003. akari was the one who said “i  don't want to be your friend anymore keiko… i would rather hang out with your step sisters because they are more beautiful than you.” to keiko/antanasia in their past life.

004. royin is a big softie when it comes to his friends.

005. yua wished that valkyria would look at her that way she looks at nas.

a/n : surprise! you finally
got to see the backstory of

our dear akari and valkyria.
anyway, stay tuned for the
new chapters that will be
posted very very soon!