Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 144: Ave’s dance

It was revealing, yet it wasn’t. Many looked on in surprise and in wonder of where it had been made, and some tried to hide their envy and jealousy by bad-mouthing the wearer of the attire, many of them being Princess Madeline’s friends.

"They might be wearing such alluring attire, but just wait until Selene starts dancing those predictable steps we have all seen more than once; you’ll lose interest in everything," sneered one of the guests as they watched the four ladies now standing on the platform on full display for the guests.

"Certainly, I don’t even want to waste my time watching those boring steps we’ve been forced to see every year. Shall we resume our initial conversation before their appearance?"

Many resumed what they were doing after admiring the gorgeous attires, as they believed Selene was going to perform her butterfly dance, which many didn’t find entertaining after they had watched it more than twice. The hall was filled with laughter and chatter, with many not looking at the four young women on the platform while they mingled and drank their wine.

Ave, who was now standing on the platform, couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous, something she rarely felt when it came to performing before people, but she was feeling it now when they had all turned away from them like they weren’t interested. She turned to look at the three girls behind her, who were now hugging their arms around themselves as their eyes drifted around the hall in nervousness.

It had taken Ave so much time to even talk them into dressing and coming out here because Celeste had been hellbent on not stepping out and remaining in her chamber to avoid embarrassing herself. To Ave, after what Madeline did and said, she wanted to prove to Lucian, even though she didn’t know why it mattered so much to her, that she could be a better performer than the woman he kept by his side.

Now, however, with how the guests weren’t watching, she couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious. What was the use of performing when the audience didn’t look interested? When it came to anything like this, one has to first draw the audience’s attention before one could feel confident. The fact that only the princes were watching—and they were watching because of the attires they wore and not because they wanted to see them perform—made Ave purse her lips and put her hands on her hips.

Well, it seemed she would have to make them watch whether they liked it or not, and she would have to make the girls behind her move freely without stumbling over themselves. And what other ways could she achieve that? Ave smirked as the idea flowed into her mind.

The few people watching the women on the stage saw Ave run away from there, leaving behind the three Princesses who looked as frightened as rats in front of a predatory cat. Many couldn’t help but laugh as they believed Selene had run away at the last minute to probably save herself from another embarrassment.

Madeline smiled in satisfaction as she saw how Selene had fled the platform; it seemed she had finally heeded her advice after all. What a shame that she didn’t give Madeline the satisfaction of watching her embarrass...

Madeline’s thought trailed off when the chandeliers lighting the hall were suddenly beginning to extinguish as someone blew into the pipe attached to the chandeliers to blow out the candles. Before anyone could react, only one chandelier was left on, but it wasn’t bright enough to brighten everywhere in the large hall and made it dim, with only the platform lights being the brightest. That forced everyone to look around in confusion about what was going on and who would dare plunge them into darkness when they needed the light to see each other’s faces to communicate.

Before the Empress or any of the Pendragon princes could order the guards to bring the maids to turn the chandeliers back on and look for the audacious fool who had dared plunged them all into darkness, they heard a weird beat coming from the platform that drew everyone’s attention to it, where Ave had returned, panting as if she’d run a marathon.

The beat started off slowly, and it was something so foreign and new to them that they stopped whatever they were doing to watch what was about to happen on the platform in dread, the beat somehow sounded like the calls of the mythical demons told to them in their childhood and not like the butterfly dance rhythm everyone was familiar with.

In this era, where there was no form of entertainment but gossip and bragging about one’s powers, it was unexpected and astonishing when they heard the beat blow out in all its rhythm and filled the hall, the sound seemed to draw everyone out of the boredom they were used to, making their eyes stay glued nowhere else but on the platform.

The woman on the platform exuded an innate confidence that made everyone curious despite the fact that they’d never taken Selene’s dance seriously before, this time, they all genuinely wanted to watch.

They stared in shock and disbelief as Ave began to move to it in a way they never expected it was possible for one’s body to move like that.

Her elegance flowed through her bones with each movement of her body. Sensuality merged with flawless grace as if her body was made to flow with the music.

It astonished the onlookers.

The original butterfly dance was both elegant and sensual, but this had taken the dance to a completely unexpected level.

"Princess Selene changed her dance? This... I’ve never seen anything like this before." Someone exclaimed among the crowd.

Many eyes rounded and many jaws fell slack as they couldn’t believe their eyes. At first, only Selene was dancing and moving to the beat with her legs and hips moving in an astonishingly flexible way, her arms seemed to mimick the grace of the known butterfly dance, but her whole body flowed like water. The more one looked, the more one wondered what her next move would be.

The Princesses behind her hesitantly stepped forward and began to follow suit. The four of them moved in practiced way that left everyone staring as they had never expected this outcome.

"Oh my Lord. Where has such a dance originated from? I have never heard such a beat before nor seen this dance before. How are they able to move like that?" remarked an elder guest to no one in particular, despite her age, she couldn’t help but want to move with the beat. It was like the enchanting whispers of the devil one can never resist when it hit you, and many among the guests found themselves trying to unknowingly imitate what they were watching on the platform.

Their rhythmic, bold movements, the way they smoothly moved to the beat seemed almost magical. They’d never seen anything as entertaining or half as fascinating as what was happening now. Even the Empress, who had expected the old butterfly dance from them, watched in disbelief and in wonderment of how on earth they had learned such a dance and where the musicians could play such hypnotizing beat that made even the Emperor sitting next to her tap his fingers against his armchair to the beat as he also watched with rounded eyes just like every single one of the guests.

"I never thought one could use their body in dancing like that. Goodness gracious, before I leave the imperial palace, it seems I will have to talk my parents into allowing me to take Selene as my concubine just so she can do this dance for me when we are alone..." muttered one of the princes at the table Lucian was sitting at.

Despite the loud sound of the beat, Lucian, who was watching Ave while maintaining his trademark blank expression as he had expected her to do something completely out of their world and unexpected, heard his words, and his fists clenched subconsciously under his table, his eyes narrowing toward the person briefly before they went back to the stage.

Though this would come as a surprise to everyone, not to Lucian, who had come to know Ave and knew that she had come from a world and time different from theirs. She was bolder and more daring than any woman of their time, and her dancing such a dance while making sure she made it look like it was from their era, not the future was fascinating, however Lucian had concluded one thing about the future, the future was a world with loose rules and completely shameless and senseless people.

Nonetheless, the fact that none of the guests looked as though she had done something disrespectful told him she wouldn’t get in trouble for this. No woman could be like her, and though at first her daring behavior and carefree attitude were annoying to him, they were what he admired the most about her now, because it was what set her apart from Selene, whom he despised with every fiber of his being and silently prayed and hoped whatever powers had made her soul disappear would never bring it back and would allow Ave to remain.

’I want that too. I hate Selene and her scent is nauseating; I’ve always hated her since the day you married her, and I’ve told you she isn’t the one for us,’ came the voice of his beast in his head. ’She has no pleasant scent, and you were a fool to have_’

’Go back inside and let me enjoy her performance!’ Lucian growled inside his head and then shut the connection with his beast and concentrated on Ave and his half-siblings, who surprisingly were dancing just as well as she was and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Madeline, on the other hand, was a fuming volcano as she fought the urge to allow herself to enjoy their dance. She hated that everyone seemed mesmerized and curious about what Selene was doing right now; she hated that every single person in the hall was watching them, some attempting to even imitate their dance and follow the beat—not to mention that Lucian’s attention was completely and totally on the platform.

Madeline felt like screaming in frustration from the anger and jealousy that bit through her heart and made her dislike towards Selene intensify to a mountain. How did the wench learn such a bold dance when she was a coward? Something didn’t seem right to Madeline about the woman on the stage and what she was doing. She had pretended just yesterday to be terrified, but now she stole everyone’s attention while she moved with confidence and even had a beaming smile on her face.

’It seems whatever that stupid Catherine had warned me about is true. There is something fishy about this wrench and I will stop at nothing until I know what it is.’ Thought Madeline as she glared daggers towards the platform and at Ave from where she sat, her fingers biting deeply into her palms.

Not long after, the beat came to an end, and they made a pose to end their dance, the twin Princesses crouching down at the front with Ave and Thalia standing above them with their arms opened wide as they heaved for breath and looked toward their audience, where the hall was so dim and the stage was brightened that they couldn’t make out anyone in the darkness. That had helped the Princesses to dance freely as it gave them the illusion that no one was watching and it was just them in the hall.

But when a loud round of applause broke out from the guests, the three princesses almost lost their footing at the sound until they saw Ave bow, and then they followed suit and hurried away from the platform with the guests clapping, some subconsciously and others deliberately.

Even the Emperor himself was clapping, and the Empress couldn’t help but smirk in satisfaction that Madeline would obviously not be taking the rewards this time around for daring to choose the Cursed Prince over her son. Who knows, she could manipulate Selene into making a request in favor of her son. After all, the stupid girl loved Caelan more than anything, and it would be easy to make her request for something on his behalf. But first, she had to make sure the girl served her purpose tonight with the ambassador who was evidently drooling over her as he watched her dance.