Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 106: The man she wants

Chapter 106: The man she wants

By the time the sun rose on the horizon and graced the huge palace grounds with its golden glow, almost half of the guests and servants stood outside watching in horror as the body of a woman hung from the wall by a rope, her neck cut and her eyes wide open. Some of the princes, who recognized the woman as a courtesan they had seen last night, gasped at the sight.

"Oh my Lord, what had she done to be killed in such a way?" muttered one of the guest princes, who was standing beside the fourth prince.

The fourth prince was aware that this same woman had been sent to his brother’s chamber yesterday as he’d seen when she made her way to his chamber, while another younger one was sent to his own room. He had forced the one sent to him to play board games with him throughout the night instead of what she had been sent to do. He had had so much fun until dawn, when they both fell asleep in front of the game board until he’d heard the loud scream of a woman when this body was discovered this morning.

"Tsk, she must have walked into the unwelcome territory of the second prince. I told you he doesn’t play around; look what she got herself into," Orion remarked, shaking his head. He didn’t know why he thought it served the courtesan right for thinking the second prince would let her off if she entered his chamber. Women, he shook his head like an elder who had had more experience with the opposite gender, are just plain stupid and completely senseless, he thought.

"So the rumors were true? He killed her because he didn’t like her!" a princess standing nearby the princes heard and gasped in fear. She had told her mother to introduce her to the second prince as she wanted to be his new bride, but after hearing and seeing this with her own eyes, she was starting to have a change of heart. What if he killed her as well?!

Similar thoughts like that went through many of the guest princesses, but a few of them found it more to their liking that he had killed a courtesan because she had entered his chamber without his permission. If they were to marry him, he would be loyal to them alone and wouldn’t go behind their backs to sleep with a courtesan.

At the top of a balcony, the Empress watched the hanging body with her brown eyes masked in fury. She couldn’t believe Lucian would kill the girl even before she had served her purpose for being here. It seemed Lucette had lied to them about sleeping with the prince and had ended up dead instead.

This was why she had chosen Selene; apart from her, he wouldn’t allow anyone close to him. But now that he had discarded Selene and Elara had no use for her anymore, she had thought Lucette would be her new puppet, but it had ended even before it started.

She would have killed Selene immediately for her failure to achieve anything worthwhile, but she didn’t want to break her son’s heart, who seemed eager to take the throne only because he wanted to make Selene his so badly. Elara had let the girl go for now, if only to motivate her son into doing anything to take the throne.

Now, looking down at the hanging body, her fingers that had grown into claw-like talons dug into the rails of the balcony. Her eyes glimmered between red and brown as rage coursed through her entire body, causing her true form to threaten to burst forth. She turned away from the balcony and walked back into her room.

Striding toward a drawer, she shakily pulled it open and retrieved a square brown box with a symbol of a cross on it. With trembling hands that were starting to darken, she shakily took off the necklace around her neck and used its pendant as a key to unlock the box.

Flipping the box open, she retrieved one of the four medium-sized bottles inside. Each bottle contained a thick red liquid, and uncapping one of them, she gulped it down her throat, which was already burning with thirst. She didn’t lower the bottle until it was empty, and she licked the corners of her lips to make sure she didn’t waste any of the valuable blood.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath that slowly made her claws revert to normal nails, and the savage look in her eyes returned to normal. Looking down at the remaining three bottles, she knew it was time she restocked them, but that could only happen after the war when the witches would be brought back to be killed. Only then could she take their blood.

However, before then, she really needed to stop allowing her rage to get the best of her, or she might end up revealing her true form in the palace. For years, she had succeeded in hiding it from everyone, but lately, many things had caused her to lose control. Thankfully, her son didn’t have to face all of this, as the Emperor’s human blood was stronger in his veins than hers.

If only she could find the Rosa witch, none of this would be happening to her or any of her clan members, who were waiting in the shadows until the day she would place her son on the throne and enslaved the witches for their meals. Without witch blood, they would be nothing but savages.

"I wish father were here to help me. It would have been easier to handle all these setbacks," she muttered to herself under her breath as she closed the box and placed it back in its place. As she watched the closed box, her brown eyes turned sad, reminding her of her father, who was now locked away in the shadows of slumber in his coffin along with the other elders of her clan, as their time had withered away because of the lack of witch blood years ago.

And now, if the Rosa witch wasn’t found, or if they didn’t get their hands on more witches, the rest of them might end up sleeping forever, which she couldn’t allow to happen. She needed to make sure the war to conquer Valarie would happen as soon as possible so they could bring back those sneaky witches.

---

Back on another balcony, where Princess Madeline watched the courtesan on the wall with a smile on her face, she turned back to her chamber, where her mother was choosing a dress for her to wear that day.

"Mother, I have decided who I want to marry," she said in a singsong voice as she went to sit on the edge of the bed while the maids fixed her bathwater with as many scented oils and candles as they were given.

Queen Katrina glanced up at her daughter’s excited face and smiled. "Haven’t we already talked about who you will be marrying? Isn’t it the third or fourth prince?" she questioned, as that had been their plan on their way to the imperial palace.

Madeline scrunched up her nose and waved her slender hand. "No. I don’t want either of those two. The third prince is not to my liking, while the fourth prince is my age mate. I want someone older and stronger. Someone like the second prince—he is the one I want!" she said, barely able to contain her excitement at the thought of marrying the man she had secretly admired all these years they came here to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday ceremony.

Queen Katrina’s face took on a displeased look, showing she was completely against that decision. "That young man is not someone worthy of you; he has been removed from the successors of the throne. What’s the use of marrying him if he won’t elevate your position?"

Madeline pouted as she glanced at her mother, her olive eyes glimmering with a hint of tears. "Who said he can’t be the Emperor if our kingdom supports him? With my marriage to him, you and father can help him take the throne. Besides, he’s the one I like, and I know father won’t say no to me when I tell him I’ve chosen him."

Queen Katrina knew her daughter was right. The King of Banzai would never refuse her anything. And though she didn’t like the second prince for her daughter, with all the rumors surrounding him—not to mention the body hanging outside the palace walls—she could tell he looked to be the most suitable match for her daughter, apart from the first prince, who wasn’t up for marriage yet.

If Madeline could win him over now that he had discarded his wife, everything would go fine for them once they supported his rise to the throne, just like the rumors had been going around about the Emperor considering whether to restore him to his former position.

Queen Katrina walked toward her daughter and stroked her cheek with a proud smile on her face. "Make our kingdom proud by becoming the next Empress of our Empire. Today, I will personally see to your makeup so he will notice you. Let me hurry to my room and get some jewelry for you." She beamed, then coldly ordered the maids to hurry up and finish preparing the bath for her daughter before she left the room.

Madeline grinned broadly as she marveled at the thought of marrying the second prince. But first, she needed to make sure that useless wife of his was completely out of the picture. She wouldn’t even want her as his concubine once their marriage was held, and thus, she turned to order one of the maids,

"Hey, you, go and call that head maid of the palace. Catherine, or whatever her name is, tell her I am ready to see her now." Saying that, she stood up. Last night, Catherine had come over to report something important concerning Selene, but Madeline hadn’t been in the mood as she was mad at Selene for petting Annala without being eaten. However, now she was in the mood to hear what Catherine had come to say last night and if it would benefit her in getting rid of that redheaded woman.