Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 60: Mistake

Chapter 60: Mistake

Time seemed to freeze as Ave stared down at the dagger embedded stuck in the side of his stomach while she held the tip of it. Blood slowly oozed out, staining his off-white shirt and touching her fingers wrapped around the dagger. She hadn’t meant to stab or hurt him; she’d just picked the dagger up to scare him off. But now that she saw how deep it was in his side, she panicked and glanced up at his face.

"I... I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to. Let me remove it," she said, panicking, and before Lucian could stop her from pulling out the dagger as it would expand the cut if not careful, Ave hurriedly pulled it out, causing Lucian to groan as more blood began to ooze out. She flung the dagger away and gasped in horror as the bleeding continued.

"I am really sorry. Oh my God, what have I done?" Ave said shakily as she tried to stop the bleeding by covering it with her hand, but Lucian pushed her away from him as she was making it worst, looking at her in pained annoyance. He hadn’t expected her to stab him that deep, to the point where he’d actually feel the pain, which was strange, considering he was used to getting injured on the battlefield and would barely feel the pain as the wound would begin to heal itself immediately.

Ave’s expression filled with remorse as she glanced at him. Though she’d seen blood and even watched a girl get beheaded before her eyes, she’d never felt this panicked and sickened before as she’d never physically hurt someone with her own hands until today. Hitting a person was one thing, but stabbing was something she’d never done—especially not stabbing a man who could get her killed by revealing to the rest that she was an imposter but had kept her alive.

He only wanted to take his mother’s dress back, but she’d stabbed him. "I am really, really sorry..." she muttered as she tried to step forward to help him, but Lucian held up his hand to stop her. And without another word, he turned on his heels and left the room in hurried footsteps, disappearing down the corridors by the time she ran after him.

Ave stood outside her room, watching the corridor where he must have disappeared, her bloody hands held up in front of her, trembling slightly from shock. Should she go after him to make sure he would be fine? She thought, but knowing she wouldn’t be allowed into his chamber, she stood where she was.

He would be fine. She tried to assure herself to stop the guilt. He had been fine this morning when he got pierced with a sword—he should be fine. After all, he seemed to have fast healing abilities. She had nothing to worry about; she would apologize to him properly tomorrow by giving him back the dress.

It wasn’t hers anyway, Ave thought, even though she was reluctant to part with it now that she’d only just discovered its value and what it held. Staring at the dim corridor one last time, she turned back and entered her room closing the door behind her, failing to see a person hiding in the shadows, watching from the corner where Lucian had disappeared.

Back inside Ave’s room, she stared at the bloodstain on the floor and on her hand and quickly looked for something to clean it up. Once she was done cleaning, she hurriedly took off the dress and went into the bathing room where her bath was already prepared, wondering where Lydia was.

Normally, Lydia would have arrived to help her prepare for the night, but perhaps she had come and left after hearing Lucian’s voice in the room as Ave had noticed the maid was terrified of the prince just like everyone else.

Thinking of the prince, she kept recalling how she’d mistakenly stabbed him, but then she quickly reassured herself with the thought that he would heal before tomorrow.

Ave finished her bath and put the dress back on one last time, as she’d already decided to give it back to Lucian tomorrow. She thought about her favorite comfortable pajamas, and the dress transformed into them, causing a small smile to grace her face before she climbed into bed and pulled the blanket over her body.

However, it was like sleep had deserted her completely. She couldn’t sleep as she kept worrying about a certain someone and how she’d stabbed him. When she finally got to sleep, she had a terrible nightmare where Lucian had died before morning from the stab wound, and she was beheaded by the Empress, just like Jasmine, after completing her so-called mission of killing the second prince.

Ave woke up the next morning with heavy eyes, feeling tired and drained, while also assuring herself that Lucian wouldn’t die from that stab. After taking her morning bath, Lydia was helping her dress up when Ave asked,

"Did you see Lucian this morning?"

Lydia pursed her lips before she shook her head. "No. I didn’t see him. Why are you asking about His Highness, Your Highness?"

Ave’s expression looked lost for a moment before she said cheerfully, "Nothing. I was asking because the dressmaker and the musicians will come to the Doomed Palace today. I wouldn’t want them running away when they see him." She said a half-lie. It was true that the dressmaker would be coming, and the musicians, who she’d heard from Thaila that Selene always chose the theme of songs for her butterfly dance steps. Since they’d be performing something new, Ave would need to make arrangements for the songs, but that wasn’t why she’d asked for Lucian.

She’d asked because she wouldn’t want her nightmare coming true—his death would be her damnation and everyone else’s, as the Empress could never be allowed to take the throne. She had yet to even make him fall in love with her and had been doing a terrible job instead. Stabbing him would make him hate her, if he hadn’t already before.

"Oh," Lydia said in reply to her mistress’s words before she added with a smile, "I heard the kitchen staff were told to resume the regular meals again."

Ave’s eyes immediately brightened up. "Really?!" And that was all it took to remove all of her worries. This meant Lucian was fine and must have ordered this. She had nothing to worry about and would enjoy a good meal this morning after eating that bland grain last night.

By the time Ave was done with breakfast, the Princesses, their maidservants, and Catherine had arrived along with the dressmaker and the man in charge of the music, and Ave welcomed them in from the entrance.

With Lucian’s thoughts out of her mind, she sat in the parlor room with the princesses and the dressmaker, who was a middle-aged woman with a stern demeanor and seemed not to like Selene with how she’d been looking at Ave.

Since Ave had promised to return the dress, she didn’t wear it and had to describe to the woman what sort of dress she would be making for them to wear for the dance on the banquet day. From Lucian’s reaction to her outfit last night, she’d come to realize they couldn’t wear anything too revealing and went for something that has a modern and ancient touch to it; a long fishtail skirt with a slit and a designer top from her time.

She’d worn something similar when she made the Water dance challenge on Tiktok.

Ave described it while the royal dressmaker’s assistant drew it on a parchment paper. Once the drawing of all the dresses and a few of the clothes the princesses had said they wanted, including the jogger pants, was done, the dressmaker frowned down at the drawing.

"Damnation, what sort of nonsense clothes are these, Your Highness?" she asked, as she’d been the one to always make the butterfly dance attire every year, and none of them were like these outrageous things the princess, known to everyone outside the palace walls as the Slave Princess, had made her assistant draw.

Rumors had spread that she was beginning to lose her mind, and if the way she’d greeted the princesses at the entrance by hugging each one of them hadn’t proved it, then her description of the attire was definitely proof.

Before Ave could reply, Celeste said, "Since when were you given permission to question an order? Your job is to make the dresses and not ask questions." She clicked her tongue as her eyes briefly wandered to Catherine and back to the dressmaker.

"It seems servants these days like to do more than their jobs." She hated it when people beneath the royals tried to disrespect someone higher than them, just like Catherine this morning when the Empress had warned them not to send her out when she was here as their guardian.

And because of that, Catherine had thought she could order them around and even make them sit with her in the royal carriage.

Catherine caught the look the princess gave her and thought to side with the dressmaker, leaning in to take a look at the drawing.

"Madam Felisha is right," Catherine interjected, referring to the dressmaker. "These are not dresses from our culture, and I don’t think Princess Selene should make changes to something that has been done for years. The butterfly dance should—"

"And who asked for your opinion or permitted you to speak here?" Ave cut her off with a displeased frown. Yesterday, she had managed to keep the bitch away from the palace, all thanks to Isolde, who had sent her out, but today she’d entered as the princesses had been ordered by the Empress. However, since Ave wasn’t the one ordered, she wasn’t going to take any nonsense from this Catherine.

Catherine had the Empress’s backing and wasn’t afraid to speak today. Smirking, she said, "I don’t need anyone’s permission to speak when I have been given full orders by the Empress to be the princesses’ guardian until the dance practice is completed." She said as she came to stand in front of the princesses. "And as their guardian, I don’t approve of this outrageous attire being made."

Normally, a guardian was someone who would stand in as a parent figure, and a guardian had always been someone elderly. But the Empress had not only assigned a young maid who was just a few years older than them, but had also given her the permission to act her part today.

Ave stood up from her seating position to face the maid, "You know what, Catty? You are that one annoying girl who thinks she’s mighty because she has someone powerful backing her up, but in truth, you’re a pathetic piece of shit who no one gives a damn about. And let me tell you something: we are not in the main palace, and even if we were, I wouldn’t tolerate that nonsense from you. These dresses will be made as I’ve ordered, and you’ll do nothing about it. Understood?" Ave said firmly and authoritatively.