'Athena' looked down and avoided his gaze. After coughing, she slightly nodded, her lips pursed.
Her actions only confused Kaine more. Athena was never the person to act shyly in front of him. In all honesty, she was even the person always initiating the conversation. Nevertheless, since she said that she's not feeling well, so he led her away from the dance and sat her in one of the chairs on the corner of the room.
"Where do you not feel well? Do you need a physician?" Kaine asked.
Instead of answering, 'Athena' shook her head and smiled. "No, it's nothing. I'm only slightly dizzy from dancing." 'Athena' took a quick glance of the ballroom to watch out for Irene and when she couldn't find her, she somehow felt relief. "I'll be fine here, K...Kaine, please don't mind me and enjoy yourself."
Kaine furrowed his brows but stayed sitting beside her without any response. Sitting together, there was an awkward atmosphere. Kaine expected the lady beside him to start up the conversation but his expectation was ignored. 'Athena' didn't strike up a conversation. Instead, she kept her eyes towards the dancing nobles, looking for Irene. She became somewhat worried. This is the day Irene and Kaine are supposed to meet and start to develop some feelings but now, it seems her mistake in dancing had changed the course of the event.
Meanwhile, standing behind 'Athena' is the real Athena, glaring at her fiancee intensely. "I'm so disappointed. Nobody... Not a single one of you really care about me... That's..."
She smiled and sat down on the floor, her back against 'Athena' a chair. Since nobody could see her, what's the point of keeping up her tough act. She doesn't even need to keep chattering to make a better atmosphere between her and Kaine. It's not her problem now. What a nice free time. She asked herself what to do now. During the whole night, they stayed in that same corner, the three of them. There were a few people who came to greet them and Athena's two friends also came but were invited to dance by the young gentlemen. It was all the same, nobody thought her behaviour as a strange thing. They must've thought that it was due to her being 'not well'.
Athena made a decision to leave the picture.
'Athena' and the Marquess left the palace right after Kaine informed the Marquess of Athena.
That night, not a trace of Irene was seen by 'Athena'. That is of course because of the change in the story. Kaine wasn't able to dance Irene and prolong Irene's stay. After Irene and her father greeted the King, Irene walked around in the room for a while before feeling weak. Since there was a room prepared for her in case she needs rest, she decided to take it and stayed there until she was informed that they are leaving. She never had a dance that night.
A day later, 'Athena' received a letter from Kaine inquiring about her health. 'Athena' had a bit of trouble sending him a letter. Although she has a few of the real Athena's memories, it was only bits and pieces and was not very helpful. Marian originally is only average in all of her classes and forcing her to write a very formal letter with hard vocabulary is too much. Nevertheless, she still sent a short answer.
"Athena, do you know why Kaine sent some flowers? Have the two of you finally start to have romantic feelings for each other?" The marchioness asked her daughter with interest.
'Athena' just shook her head with a smile. "Mother! It's only because he is worried about me due to feeling unwell from yesterday. It's nothing more than courtesy." She quickly brushed off her mother's weird thoughts. Although, her mom truly did look happy.
Reana as well is smirking. Very naughty! Reana secretly sent a letter to her future brother-in-law and started to exchange letters with him as well.
Living in the capital was not easy. Ladies like Athena have to attend tea parties and parties they are invited to form connections. It is also a way to exchange gossips and any news they could get so Athena always did her best to attend them. 'Athena' and Athena's two best friends got along well in the first few meetings but later on, their relationship started to grow weak.
'Athena' disliked how the two would gossip and talk bad about a few people and she has also noticed that they had the habit to harshly comment and answer on the other noble ladies in the tea parties.
In one of the tea parties, 'Athena' felt that the two has already crossed the line when Dali and Bethanie slapped the face of a baron's daughter. Both hit and the two sides of the baron's daughter turned pink. 'Athena' pulled both towards the garden and raised ger voice. "What did you think you did?!"
She pointed at Bethanie. "Do you think that what you did is right?" She then glared at Dalia. "How dare both of you to slap her for a simple spill on your dresses. It's just clothes! You could've just changed it!" She screamed.
She turned around and walked away as fast as she could but before she could go far, she stopped and without even glancing at the two's direction, spat out the words that caused their friendship to weaken tremendously. "Don't you ever talk to me if you won't change our attitudes."
After she left, the two dumbstruck people locked eyes and in unison, whispered. "She'd changed."