Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 189: Restless

Chapter 189: Restless

Weeks passed by in a flash with no letters nor word from the soldiers who had gone to fight the battle against Valarie. Many of the guests who were still staying in the palace became worried as no word had come. However, most of their worries weren’t because of the soldiers nor the princes; it was for their own safety, as they knew if they failed to emerge victorious in this war, the witches would take over the Empire and turn them into their slaves as humans had been to them for all these years. They feared for their own lives and worried that the wealth they had grown up in would be snatched away.

And the fact that two good weeks had passed by like minutes without a reply to the message the Emperor had sent out to the soldiers’ camps only meant that something wasn’t right. The tension about the war’s outcome made the palace become more tense and awkward, as no one seemed to talk in the dining hall when they sat for meals; everyone was mostly deep in their thoughts.

While everyone was growing worried, the Empress was overjoyed at the outcome of everything. If something were to happen to the princes in the war, this might be her greatest opportunity to start her plans of putting Caelan on the throne. She had not gone to see her uncle in the spell barrier that separated their world from each other because she didn’t want him to talk down at her or say anything about her lack of progress in putting her son on the throne.

He had requested her presence with the words that he had something important to tell her about how he had mysteriously woken up all of a sudden while the rest were still sleeping in their caskets, but she had a feeling he wanted to lure her there to scold and look down on her for being a woman and in charge of everything while he was locked in the barrier.

She would prefer he stayed there for now until she had succeeded at least in achieving a little from the night creatures’ goals of controlling the humans and keeping the witches as their food sources. Though it would pain her if the other soldiers didn’t bring back some of the captured witches so they could get more blood from those executed, she knew how to get more of them after she put her son on the throne.

Elara was still grinning and thinking all this to herself in her garden as she sipped her afternoon tea when her brother came running to her with a grave look. "Sister, I have good and bad news for you!" he announced the moment he came to stand before her and sent the servants around them away with his eyes so he could speak to her privately.

"What is wrong? Why are you panicking like a goat on the slaughter stage?" Elara glared at her brother as she put down her tea cup. She was in a good mood and didn’t want anything to ruin it for her, especially knowing her brother was good at doing that whenever he looked like that. The fool had been overjoyed about their uncle’s awakening that she rarely set eyes on him lately, as he spent most of his time searching for ways to break the spell barrier in the night creatures’ world to bring their uncle out.

Edward began to pace the pavilion his sister was sitting on as he told her, "I was with the Emperor just now when a letter arrived from the camp," he declared as he stopped his pacing and glanced at her grimly. "They have conquered Valarie." He dropped the bomb, and Elara leapt off her chair as she gritted her teeth. "Damn it. What about the princes?" she asked, as those two were her problem and not the conquering.

"One of the princes was hit by a witch and has been unconscious for a week since they left. The letter didn’t say which of them, but the cloth used to write the letter belonged to Alden. And if I am correct by the handwriting in the letter, it seems the second prince was the one who was hit." He told her as he dropped onto the chair opposite from hers and poured himself tea as he said, "I don’t want to get our hopes up yet, but if that is the case, then it seems we have rid ourselves of a troublesome man without even having to lift a finger. And on their way back, if Alden gets assassinated, we will not only have the witches they are bringing back to execute as ours but the chance to make Caelan Emperor."

That was good news that overshadowed the bad one, and Elara sat back in her chair with a smile playing on her red lips. "This calls for a celebration." She clinked her cup with her brother’s, and they drank at the same time with eyes glimmering with victory.

Meanwhile, in the doomed palace where Ave had spent her days feeling restless and worried, she sat before the window of Lucian’s room as she glanced blankly out the window at the view of the palace gate, as if expecting Lucian to walk in through the gate. It had become a habit of hers in the past few days now; she spent most of her time before his window because it offered the view of the gate, while she also slept in his room, as it was the only way she didn’t have nightmares. Whenever she was surrounded by his scent, it was like he was there as well.

There had been no news of him since the day he had left. She had constantly asked Zane, whom she had realized on the third day she slept in Lucian’s chamber had been the one to fill the bath with hot water for her and turn on the lamps in the evening before she came in. He had said Lucian had ordered him to do it, and she had become emotional when he told her that Lucian had thought she would prefer to sleep in his room while he was away. Her emotions had been so raw at that time that she had cried like a baby in front of Zane, who looked helplessly around for ways to run away, as he had no idea how to console her. She had wondered why she was so emotional until she saw her period that same night and realized why.

The strange thing was that when she calculated her last cycle in the modern world, it had been accurate. Her period had come on time when she had expected it to go according to Selene’s body. Her worries for Lucian had consumed most of her thoughts that she had not overreacted at the fact that Lydia had folded white fabrics and gave her some to wear.

Lately, Zane seemed to be avoiding her as he feared she might ask him about Lucian, even though he also had no news of him. He feared she might end up being emotional, thus he changed his route whenever he noticed her coming.

Whenever she asked him about Lucian, he would always say, "Don’t worry, My lady. His Highness will be back in no time. It’s a war against witches, not humans; it takes longer than normal." But she could see in his eyes that he also didn’t believe the words he told her. She could see the worry in his hazel eyes and how he avoided eye contact when he spoke.

Who was he trying to deceive? She wasn’t so naive as not to notice when someone was hiding something from her or lying. She could see in his eyes that he was lying to her. He had said those words to keep her mind at rest, but what he didn’t know was that those words did nothing to alleviate her fears of the worst. She was only in this world for Lucian’s sake, and if something were to happen to him, she had no reason to keep staying here. She couldn’t even imagine something happening to him, and whenever she thought of the possibilities, it always knotted her chest and twisted her stomach.

She had only just decided to accept her fate and help Lucian with all of her heart because she indeed cared and... probably loved him. She wanted him to sit on the throne and bring down those who had brought him pain in all the years he was growing up. If she couldn’t take revenge on her own family, he should succeed in his and bring down those who would be the root of planting the seeds of hate in the world and ruining it before it reached the future she knew of. The Empress deserved to be brought down along with her entire helpers before she could ruin the world by putting her stupid son on the throne.

She couldn’t possibly accept that something bad would happen to Lucian before they could achieve this goal together. She couldn’t do any of this without him; she desperately needed him to come back to her. She missed him terribly, and it hurt her not to know the condition he was in at the moment. She hadn’t been able to eat well because of her fears and worries, and just like always, the food Lydia had brought for this afternoon was sitting beside her on the desk, cold and neglected. She had no appetite, and if she were to force herself to eat it, she might end up vomiting.

Ave was still lost in her thoughts with her eyes glued to the gates when she overheard the voices of the men guarding them. Though on a normal day, it would be impossible for her to hear their words as they stood at a distance away from her, but ever since that night she had encountered that night creature, her hearing had become surprisingly sharper.

"...Did they say what the letter was about?" asked one of the guards to the other, who told him a letter had arrived at the main palace earlier from the camp.

"I don’t know. Only the royals in the palace know about it, it arrived while they were having lunch. I just heard it from Jamie when he went there to talk to his brother, who was on duty with the inside guards."

Ave didn’t wait to hear whatever they were saying after that as she leapt off her sitting position and ran out of the chamber. Lucian had warned her not to go to the main palace, but she couldn’t sit here in suspense when the news was going there and not coming here. She hadn’t seen the Pendragon Royals again after that day they cooked in the kitchen, and she had spent most of her time doing nothing but overthinking.

She would risk her life if it meant she would hear about what the letter said about the war. The fact that no letter had come here despite Lucian knowing there were people worried about him in his palace meant something wasn’t right, and the only way she could find out was by knowing what the letter sent to the Emperor held.