Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 194: Self-defense act

Chapter 194: Self-defense act

Ave remained kneeling on the ground of the garden where Lyria had switched the two souls and was now trying to console the crying baby in her arms. Ave was too shocked to move; she was dazed and in disbelief.

Her breathing felt heavy as something constricted her throat. Her whole life she’d lived in the future flashed before her eyes.

All this while, she had lived a life that was never hers. For twenty-four years, she had wondered why she never found contentment and real happiness in whatever she did in her life. It turned out she didn’t even belong there to begin with. Her life was supposed to be lived in the past, but she had been sent to live the future...

Ave didn’t know what to feel about all this. She was having mixed feelings about the revelation. She had been doing everything in her power to go back to her world, only to find she was there already. She couldn’t believe everything she had suffered to achieve in the future was never meant for her. Was that why her father always called her a bastard and said she was not of his own blood? Did he feel that she wasn’t his?

In the blink of an eye, everything she had lived and believed in turned out to be one big lie. Her parents were here; her family was here. And this body she was currently possessing...was truly hers. Selene had been plunged into the world that wasn’t hers; she was the real daughter of the Eamon. Was that why she wrote what she wrote in her diary? About trying to belong?

Ave was finding it hard to believe everything, most importantly because she didn’t want to believe that Lucian’s mother was the selfish heart Heaven had spoken of. She hadn’t only used some spell to give Anne’s unborn child the powers of Rosa, she had gone ahead and played with time and messed up the lives of two girls. Her life in the future as a child hadn’t been any better, and she knew neither was Selene’s.

However, no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t hate Lyria for it. She did everything for the sake of her son. Though Ave still didn’t understand that part of the curse they spoke of and why he needed a woman with the power of Rosa, she couldn’t blame the mother. If she didn’t love Lucian herself and know how she would sacrifice anything for him, she would have poured all the blame of her misfortune onto his mother.

Ave wanted to resent the woman for what she made her go through, but the feeling of resentment didn’t come as she stared at Lucian’s mother cradling the baby to her chest and apologizing to her. She also didn’t like what she did; Ave could see that from the way she was asking for forgiveness.

At this moment, Ave wanted nothing more than to go back to her room and digest everything she had just discovered until she could accept the fact that she had no home in the future anymore, no place to return to if Selene had gone back to her real body. She wanted to sit in silence and come to terms with everything, but whatever had brought her here wasn’t ready to let her go.

She was forced to watch as Selene grew into a toddler and was loved by both her parents, despite the fact that Anne knew it wasn’t her child’s soul. She showered Selene with a motherly love that pricked at Ave’s heart as she watched. She had never known what it was like to be loved by one’s mother, and knowing that this redheaded woman was her real mother, Ave wished with everything in her that she could reach out just for once and hug her.

Even Kori loved the girl, and Ave watched how that became the main reason Catherine hated her as she lurked in the corner to watch their father play with Selene and Rylan, who seemed to be a very protective brother to his little sister. He piggybacked her and even fed her; it was a heartwarming sight that made Ave bite down hard on her lips to stop herself from crying. They were her real family...

She was still there when Anne received a letter from Lyria saying the Emperor had sent men to Gina to conquer it. Ave watched as the joy turned into terror and fear in the house of Glynn. Kori did his best to take his entire family to safety, but before he could take them out of the land, the Pendragon soldiers had attacked.

There was fire burning everywhere, children screaming, and parents crying. Ave stood in the middle of the chaos as the men ruthlessly dragged people from their houses and brought them down on their knees.

Right before her eyes, she watched as men and women were dragged into a room for the witch test. And right before her eyes, she watched Kori get beheaded when his eyes changed color and his skin glowed white after the test. Ave let out a scream as his head rolled to the ground and his body fell limp. The same happened to Anne, her mother, and when the man raised his sword, Ave ran forward in an attempt to stop him, but she couldn’t do anything; her hand passed through his as he brought down the sword, she froze in place as it landed on Anne’s neck. Time seemed to freeze as she watched her head get severed.

Rylan cried and yelled as he tried to fight the men holding him back as he watched his parents’ bodies. He kicked and scratched, and through all that, the boy began muttering a spell. He turned the men holding him down into liquid, grabbed his sister’s hand, picked her up swiftly, and began to run into the bushes. He was no more than twelve or thirteen years old but he fought the men with his spell, and Ave watched, stupefied as he took Selene away.

However, the men were quick on his tail. They went after him with swords and arrows. When they came out of the bushes Rylan had run into with his sister, they were dragging little Selene with them with the boy’s head dangling in their hands. And a miserable cry tore out of Ave’s throat as she clutched at her chest, remaining kneeling on the bloody ground, crying and breathing with difficulty at the death of the family she didn’t know before but felt the pain of their loss deep in her heart. Her parents, her brother...

Ave watched as the terrified children were tied and pushed into wagons, loaded up like animals. Jasmine was just an infant, but she wasn’t spared from the ropes. Selene clutched the infant as she cried beside Lydia and Catherine, whose eyes stared blankly at their parents’ bodies and other siblings.

Ave’s entire blood had gone cold as she trembled on the ground and watched as all the children were taken away. Everything became so silent that not a single bird flew overhead; only the dark, ominous smoke of the burning houses and lands filled the place.

Ave didn’t know how long she sat there, unmoving and numb to the core, but she stirred back to reality when she realized a portal-like opening to the room she had seen a mirror in had opened in front of her. When she stood up, she swayed on her feet as a rush of dizziness washed over her, but she controlled herself and blankly walked toward the opening.

But before she could step into it, she turned back to glance at the once-beautiful land that had turned to a world of ruin in the blink of an eye. Apart from the thick smoke, nothing else was left. Swallowing down her resentment toward the Emperor and Empress, Ave went into the opening and found herself outside the mirror inside the room.

Ave raised her hands and frantically wiped away the tears on her cheeks, trying to compose herself by breathing in and out. Nonetheless, the moment she raised her eyes to the mirror’s level, they narrowed slightly as she caught the reflection of Madeline standing behind her in the room. Madeline was staring with wide eyes, but when she realized Ave had seen her, she gasped and turned to run away.

Ave didn’t know how she did it, but when she turned to look at the door, it magically slammed shut before Madeline could run out of the room. She didn’t know how long she had been in the mirror and what else Madeline had witnessed, but whatever it was, she needed to know what Madeline saw and why she looked terrified. The last thing she needed was for the girl to get her into trouble before Ave could finally digest everything she had seen and witnessed in the mirror to decide her next move.

"Your Highness, what are you doing in this room?" Ave asked politely as she approached the princess, who was trying to open the door that wouldn’t budge no matter how much she turned the knob.

"Let me out of this room, you witch!" Madeline snarled angrily as she turned to glare at Ave. She had seen how she went through the mirror and came out of it in a second before she could run away and report it to the Emperor. Selene was a witch, and Madeline would make sure the entire palace heard about it today.

Ave had gotten her answer; the girl had seen enough to get her into trouble, but she tried to play it cool. Frowning, she said with feigned cluelessness, "What are you talking about, Your Highness? I am not holding you in the room; why is the door not opening?"

"Don’t try to act clueless, witch. I saw you go through the mirror and come out. You are a witch, and if you don’t open this door, I will scream for the guards to come here." She warned threateningly, pressing her back against the door and glaring at Ave, who was now approaching her.

"Listen to me, Madeline. Whatever you saw, it’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t do anything; the mirror opened by itself, and I walked into it. It’s not my doing, and I—" Ave stopped when Madeline suddenly pulled out her long hairpin and pointed it toward her.

"Don’t come any closer, or I will stab you with this," she warned, her voice trembling just like the hand holding the hairpin.

Biting the inside of her cheek as she tried to think of a way to shut the princess up from ever uttering this to anyone. She knew Madeline disliked her and would grab any opportunity to get rid of her, most importantly since she didn’t seem to like her being with Lucian. If only Ave knew how to use her powers, she would have wiped her memories or done something to make her forget, but she didn’t even know how the powers worked to be able to use them.

Ave was still trying to think about what to do when Madeline began to scream at the top of her lungs, pounding on the door for someone to help her.

"Help! Help me! I am trapped with a witch in the__"

Ave panicked and acted impulsively, moving forward, intending to cover her mouth, but Madeline swirled around and stabbed her in the side of her stomach with the pin. Ave groaned in pain as she stepped back from the princess, blood already staining her dress, with vicious eyes Madeline seemed ready to stab her again when Ave instinctively reached out for a heavy vase on the table close to the door. She raised it up and slammed it with force against Madeline’s head.

When the vase struck Madeline’s head, it collided with the door before her skull split, and she fell limp to the ground, unmoving, her eyes wide open as she stared lifelessly up at the ceiling with blood pooling around her body.

All color drained from Ave’s face as she realized what she’d done.