Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 208: The Grave News

Chapter 208: The Grave News

Ave woke up alone in bed the next morning, and when she first opened her eyes, she turned to look at the side where Lucian slept and used her hand to trace the space and felt how cold it was; it was like he had been gone for a while. She hadn’t expected to wake up to find him beside her anyway, but recalling last night, she felt those bubbling emotions return to her chest and burn her eyes. She stared at the ceiling of the room with slightly blurry vision as she fought back her tears of resentment towards Selene and the third prince.

Not once had it bothered her that those two’s relationship before would come and affect her at the time where she wanted to have a normal married life with her husband. She had never considered marriage to be anything and never thought she would be one to be in one. She recalled in the past when she was in the future, where she’d see married women talking to each other about how their husbands were in bed and some crying at the fact that their husbands didn’t fancy them in bed. She would always roll her eyes when she overheard conversations like that among women she either shared bus rides with or came to eat in the restaurant while they talked.

Women like that had been viewed as weaklings by Ave in the past, as she believed they took the matters of their husbands way too much on their heads and cried about things unworthy of their tears. But now that she was faced with a situation similar to those of the women that had once irritated her, she felt the agony of it to her bones. She didn’t know how to fix it and make her husband make love to her. She wished she had someone experienced enough to advise her.

From how he’d put that distance between them last night before she forced herself to sleep, she knew he would never make another move to touch her again. She could feel it because she knew Lucian enough to predict some of his actions. Not unless she did something, he wouldn’t initiate sexual intimacy between them again.

Ave pushed herself up from the bed and began to angrily fix the bed. It was better she felt anger rather than be an emotional yo-yo crying over spilled milk instead of working on how to refill the bottle of milk. What could she do to make him interested again? If he was hesitating because he feared the thought of hurting her, then she had to assure him he had nothing to worry about because she wasn’t a fragile woman. She had the powers to heal. But if he wasn’t touching her for the reasons she suspected, that reason being what Selene had done, then she could do nothing about it but live a boring married life where the man she married would never touch her and would leave the bed early before she was awake—something she realized she didn’t like.

Done fixing the bed, Ave began to pace the chamber with one hand on her hip while she bit down on the finger of the other hand. Not able to come up with a solution, she went ahead and took her bath before she left the chamber after dressing up to see if she would be lucky enough to find Lucian in the doomed palace premises to talk to him.

She didn’t find Lucian, but she found Lydia and Zane outside the palace talking about something with a grave look in their eyes. Frowning, she walked up to them. She had realized on her way out most of the servants and guards had looked distressed and seemed to be whispering among each other about something, which she hadn’t bothered to pay attention to until she noticed Zane and Lydia looking grim.

"What’s going on?" she asked as she came to stand beside them, and they both looked towards her at the same time.

"My lady," Lydia greeted with a bow before she told her what was going on. "The Emperor is gravely ill. He couldn’t get out of bed this morning, and all the physicians summoned to treat him couldn’t diagnose what is wrong with him all of a sudden. Rumors are saying his last days are approaching, and once that happens, when another successor hasn’t been chosen... things might go wrong..."

A frown settled between Ave’s brows as she recalled the history books in the modern world had said Emperor Alaric had died from an unknown sickness. Was it that same sickness?

"What will happen if he dies without choosing the next in line to the throne?" Ave questioned in grim curiosity.

Zane was the one to answer her question. "The brothers will have to fight for the throne, and the last one alive will be crowned. However, now that the first prince is unwell and the second prince has been cut off the line, it will be between the other two princes," he explained to her when he noticed the disbelieving look in her blue eyes at the thought of brothers killing each other for the throne, he added,

"It had happened once before Emperor Alaric took the throne. His grandfather had killed all of his brothers to sit on the throne when the court members didn’t know who to crown. After their death, he had been crowned and had sent the rest of his father’s consorts away and gave his female siblings away to older men to gain more wealth and support from other lands."

Ave felt sick to her stomach at the thought of such a thing. She understood it when siblings didn’t get along with each other, but killing had gone out of the line. Not to mention, with the Empress alive, she would do anything in her powers to kill Alden and Orion just so her son could sit on the throne.

"Where is Lucian?" she asked, this time because she needed to know what his plans were. It was obvious who would win in this battle if the Emperor died without choosing his next in line. Orion was just nineteen with his mother not having connections; Alden was unconscious; Lucian was out of the line, which gave Caelan the opening his mother had made. And when that happened, they would all be doomed.

"His Highness has gone to the main palace. He was called there just now by the prince of Nazia. The guests are starting to depart after the news of the Emperor’s illness because they don’t want to get caught in the brothers’ fight," Zane informed her with a grave tone. The brothers would start gathering the men who would fight with them, but judging from how the two were weaklings with no battle skills, Zane was certain it was bound to be distasteful. He couldn’t imagine that talkative Prince Orion fighting in the frontline. The boy was just not meant to hold a sword.

Ave, who had thought her marriage was the most of her concern, was now faced with this news. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if the Empress put her son on the throne. Not just her and Lucian, but even the Pendragon Princesses wouldn’t have a home here anymore.

"When Lucian returns, tell him I need to speak with him urgently." She told Zane as she knew she couldn’t go in search of him when he was having a meeting with the prince of Nazia.

---

"Milady, you shouldn’t worry yourself too much about it. I am sure no harm will come to you as you are not part of the royals if the wrong person takes the throne," Lydia assured her mistress, who had looked deep in thought since she’d heard the news that had gotten everyone worried this morning as they sat under the oak tree to eat lunch with Princess Isolde, who had shown up here unexpectedly.

"Yes, I agree with your former maidservant, Selene. You have no reason to worry. If my brother takes the throne, nothing will happen to you, and if Brother Caelan takes the throne... I guess nothing should happen. Unlike us, who are his siblings, we will be given away like goods to any man who looks interested. You are no longer a part of the royals; you should be safe from the distaste..." She tried to make Ave feel better, but unknown to her, the words she spoke only added to her worry rather than relieved them.

"Easy for you to say, you don’t know the feeling of dreading being some asshole’s sex slave and the feeling of knowing that asshole’s enthronement will ruin this world," she muttered under her breath as she stuffed her mouth with snacks.

"Did you say something, Selene?" Isolde asked as she didn’t catch what she muttered.

Ave forced a smile. "Not at all. I was just admiring how cold it’s getting lately."

"Oh, I see," Isolde nodded before she fell silent.

The main palace was a chaotic place to be at this moment, and Isolde had even left with no one noticing as they were too worried about the Emperor to care about where she was going. Her mother had been pardoned and was sick with worry as she knew Orion had no chance against Caelan with the Empress’s backing, and once Caelan took the throne, she would be cast away from the palace. Now that they had no home as the kingdom their mother had come from was now ruled by her stepbrother after her father had died, she would have to live the life of a commoner or, even worse, be a servant in the palace where she had once been a consort.

It would be a lie if Isolde said she wasn’t worried about her family as well. Her mother might have been a controlling woman who didn’t see what her children really wanted and only tried to give them what, in her opinion, was good; she was still her mother. She had come here to see Harry to at least find comfort in his presence, but it was said he’d gone on an errand and would be back in a while, which was why she was sitting here with Selene, waiting for his return while they each were lost in their own silent worries.

Isolde lifted her cup of hot tea to her lips as the weather was becoming colder with each passing day when she heard Selene say, "Your boyfriend is back. Look there. He’s looking your way."

Isolde frowned before she asked, "My boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend," she said with a clueless look as she didn’t know what that word was supposed to mean until Ave sighed and rephrased her words. "Your ginger hair. I mean Harry."

Isolde’s blue eyes brightened up as she turned her head and noticed Harry standing beside a horse he’d ridden back, looking in her direction with a small smile on his tan, handsome face that always made butterflies flutter in the pit of her stomach. He waved his hand for her to come over, and without hesitation, she said to Ave while blushing shyly, "I will be right back. I need him to look at the horse in front of the royal carriage." She gave her excuse to go and meet Harry as she didn’t want Ave to tease her about it later.

Ave watched Isolde approach the boy in a hurried walk that seemed like a run, and she felt her heart go to Lucian and wondered what he was up to at this grave moment.

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