1 Prologue: A Scrap From My Diary

[Athena]

'Athena Monroe,' that's my name.

I'm an ordinary, ignoramus, and lazy engineering student who is in my sophomore year. I do not have many talents or achievements which I could list here to introduce myself. If there are any, maybe I'll find them later. In such instances, I'll let you know too.

My parents are living abroad with my elder sister Diana, a successful doctor. Since I'm stupid when it comes to my education, I am an outcast in my family. From what I saw these days on social media, my family is doing fine and doesn't miss me at all. But that doesn't bother me either. As a girl who had spent my teens in a boarding school and has been spending my university days in a dorm, I am perfectly fine alone. I am used to it. These days, life seems customary. Neither auspicious nor suspicious.

Tomorrow, I'm going to visit the newly opened Universo mall. It was opened recently in the city centre. They had been inviting celebrities to promote the place. Tomorrow is going to be my special day since the one who's going to participate in the book signing is my absolute favourite, Venus Veronica. She is the author of my favourite novel, 'Romance, please!'

'Romance, please!'

Indeed... sounds weird. Most of my friends (I call people who sit beside me 'friends' since I have no friends in real), used to tease me because of this weird title. Yet the romance this novel portrays is a classic. It has everything that I am lacking in my life.

The unrealistic plot, a lot of damsel-in-distress episodes, super-fast romantic development, intriguing jealous moments, unrealistic super gorgeous characters and the most interesting one of all, the stupendous love triangle. A love triangle that includes Flora, Victor, and my favourite Edward.

I have to say a few more words about this fabulous love triangle. It was not just a love triangle. As the story progressed, this cute little love triangle developed into a perfectly fine pentagram!

Complicated, isn't it? Don't ask me how... It just happened.

Every eligible bachelor and elegant maiden in the story fell head over heels for those three charming leads as the story progressed. That's how awesome they are.

While these imaginary people were capable enough to have love triangles, love quadrilaterals, pentagons and pentagrams in their lives, I am sitting alone in my room, writing my diary on this beautiful night, incapable of even making a straight line.

Apart from the pentagram, there were so many interesting facts about the characters. Venus Veronica once said that she derived these characters from Roman mythology. As a child, I used to read a lot of stories about these Greek and Roman deities. So, it is not a surprise that I love this book.

Though the characters were similar to Roman deities to some extent, they were not the same as those Roman gods and goddesses. Also, their relationships didn't align with that of these Roman mythologies. Thus it was a bit difficult for us to guess which character was derived from which god.

Thus, Venus had given us a quest to find out which character was derived from which Roman god in her last interview. After reading the book for the ninety-eighth time, I have an answer to her question.

Flora, the MC resembles Flora, the Roman goddess of spring and flowering plant. Her Greek parallel would be Chloris. She is someone who is naive and beautiful just like the flowers that bloom in the spring.

Edward, the ML with the golden hair... He resembles Apollo, the Roman god of music, oracles, archery, medicine and the sun. Apollo had always been my favourite and it's the same for Edward. He is my favourite in that entire universe. 

Then, Victor. The smoking hot villain... the duke of an enemy kingdom: Dagresh, who resembles Mars, the god of war and also an agricultural guardian. Well, he was the war god in the novel too. He was the driving force of all the wars. That interesting yet morally grey character with a tragic past in every novel... yeah that's him, here.

Olivia, the Queen of Astrana and Edward's mother is based on Juno, the queen of all the goddesses, the goddess of marriage and childbirth. It is just a pity that she is so against the marriage of Edward and Flora throughout the story. 

Hector, the King of Astrana and Edward's father, is based on Jupiter, the king of all the gods. He is the same as Edward... Intelligent, talented and powerful. He can be called the older version of Edward.

Evelyn, the villainess is based on Fortuna, the goddess of fortune and fate. Well, she is responsible for many sudden ends of the fates in the book. Usually, romance novels have this unreasonable immature girl who would be pining for the ML and would even kill for him. In 'Romance, please!' it is her. 

Lucas, the king of Dagresh was based on Pluto, the god of the underworld. A manipulator and a womaniser.

That sums up the most important of them all. 

Tomorrow is the day I have been waiting for, for more than a month. Within a few hours, I'm going to meet the goddess of romance novels, Venus Veronica and I'm about to show my answer to her.

Well, I'd also add something. 

Venus Veronica is exactly like the Roman goddess, Venus. She is the love goddess. On the contrary, I am exactly like Minerva, a virgin deity for life.

Oh yeah, you're right! Athena is the Greek mythological parallel of Minerva. So that explains my name. Given that, Athena is also the goddess of wisdom and warfare.

Wisdom... I'm not sure my Grade Point Average is enough for me to talk about wisdom. In a world where GPAs decide knowledge, I'm pretty dumb. 

Warfare... I see no use in it in my current field of study, mechanical engineering. And fortunately, I'm living in the 21st century where both the world wars had ended a long time ago. 

Back to Venus...

The point is... Venus's books are the only fillers that I, Athena could use to fill the void in my heart. They are the oasis of my desert-like love life. I'm grateful to her!

P.S. I hope, the bus would arrive on time tomorrow. So that, I can meet my favourite author on time.