Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 81: The hate they gave

Chapter 81: The hate they gave

"I thought you could ride a horse?" came Lucian’s question when she was now gripping his forearm tightly instead of the saddle horn, and they’d ridden out of the main palace gates after riding for some time. As if just realizing what she had been doing, Ave quickly put her hands back on the saddle horn and away from his since he’d slowed down a bit after they left the palace walls.

Clearing her throat, she said defensively, "Of course, I can ride a horse. It’s just that I have never ridden one sitting in such a position before, and you were speeding like we were being chased." She didn’t even ask him before she moved her leg and straddled the horse while it was still moving, catching Lucian by surprise.

"Give me the reins and see," she said, taking the reins from his hands and he gave them to her without a word. She continued to control the horse in a way no royal woman was supposed to even know how to. Even though his mother had owned a horse, she wasn’t good at riding it as it was rare to find a woman who could, unless a commoner.

"Were you a commoner in your time?" Lucian asked, his voice holding his curiosity as she controlled the horse with ease. He heard her laugh at his question as if she found it funny.

"I was far from being a commoner; I was a celebrity with over 50 million followers on Instagram and 76 million on TikTok. I was on the path to making more than that when I was thrust into this world. We do not ride horses and carriages anymore in the future," she said with a small smile. She had learned to ride horses when she was still a stunt double, and when she became an actress, it had come in good use.

Even though Lucian had no idea what Instagram and TikTok were, he couldn’t help but ask what caught his interest the most. "What do they ride in the future if not horses and carriages?" he asked. Do people walk then?

"We use cars and motorcycles, buses, and many more means of transportation, but no carriages or horses. The world has advanced in ways you can’t imagine. There are many things invented that would blow your mind," she said, eager to tell him things he would not live to see. Even if she were to succeed in helping him in this era, 2024 was too far ahead for any of the people here to live to see everything she had.

Lucian’s hands wrapped around her waist as she was now the one controlling the reins, but she didn’t seem to notice as he distracted her with another question. "What are cars and everything you mentioned like? Are they anywhere as good as the royal carriages?" he asked out of curiosity, despite himself. He couldn’t help but get more curious about the world she came from.

"Well, they’re way more comfortable than anything here. How about this: once we get back to the palace later, I’ll draw what cars and everything I mentioned look like. I was once a good artist in high school, perhaps it’s time I found my talent again," Ave said, unable to mask her excitement to share her knowledge with him, especially when he seemed so eager to learn. As expected, he asked again,

"What is high school?"

Ave was going to answer when she noticed they were getting closer to the villages after a long ride from the palace walls. She slowed the horse so she could look around. "When we go back, I’ll tell you everything about my time. How about that?" she negotiated as she began to notice everyone around the village pausing to look toward them.

She heard Lucian hum in response to her words before she felt his hands, which she had just noticed were around her waist all along, take the reins from her. "You shouldn’t have slowed down," she heard him whisper, and before she could ask why, she witnessed it with her own eyes.

"IT’S THE CURSED PRINCE!!!" yelled a man at the top of his lungs upon noticing his eyes, even from a distance. At his exclamation, the children, who Ave had noticed were playing and running around the village while the women paused to look at them in wonderment, all panicked. Fear in their eyes, they gathered their children and began to run back into their mud houses, locking their doors, while the men braved up and picked up any weapons they could find.

"Stone the devil and gain the blessings of the Heavens!" yelled another man to the rest, who had grabbed anything they could find, but before any of them could throw anything at them, Lucian had taken full control of the reins and snapped them, making the horse gallop away. But not fast enough before a stone hit him squarely on the back of his head.

Despite the stone breaking his skin, he didn’t flinch nor stop the horse until he was away from the village. He stopped the horse when they reached a part where everywhere was surrounded by trees and bushes.

Ave couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed. The village didn’t only look so poor, with dirty living conditions, but with cruel people who had dared treat a prince in such a way. She didn’t say anything until the horse came to a stop and she saw Lucian dismount.

Ave looked down at him just in time to notice the blood at the back of his head. Without thinking, she dismounted and hurried to inspect his head by pulling the back of his shirt and trying to get him to bend down. "Oh my God, you’re bleeding!" she exclaimed, horrified and feeling sick that the people had dared to throw the stone.

She was trying to get him to bend down only to stop when she felt the anger emitting from him, and when he looked at her, his eyes were burning furiously, his face hardened like stone. The dark look he shot her way made her automatically step back.

"Lucian..." she muttered as his eyes burned with anger and another emotion she had once noticed in his eyes that night he’d pulled her back from falling off the window. Hatred and darkness, but she could tell this time it wasn’t directed at her but toward the people who had just stoned him and called him a devil.

"I’ll soon burn down every single one of the villages in the Pendragon Empire!" he gritted through clenched teeth as he dragged his gaze away from her, looking toward the direction they had left from. The first thing he was going to do once he became the Emperor would be getting rid of all the villagers.

Ave had heard the reasons the people hated him, but she couldn’t entirely blame them when it seemed like someone else was adding fuel to the flames of hatred toward the second prince. People blamed him for everything that had happened to them from the start, and neither the Emperor nor anyone else tried to clarify it for them or let the people of Pendragon acknowledge Lucian for the man he was and the hero who had fought for their lands in battles.

He wasn’t even given a title on the battlefield, let alone earn respect. And with all this hatred directed at him, it would be no wonder he would choose to take the throne for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps this was what that shadow woman wanted her to do: make him see the good in people and try to understand why they do what they do.

If he were to take the throne with such hatred toward the people of the land, the world would indeed be built on hate and create many more monsters. She had been wondering all this while what she could do to help Lucian, more so her quest would be completed. She had thought of a way now.

Ave stared at him as he tried to calm the storm rising in his heart by taking deep breaths, his hands balled at his sides with his eyes closed. And once he opened them, the burning flames had subsided, but his expression had turned emotionless.

"There is nothing more for you to see in a rotten land like this. Let’s go back to the palace," he said, already intending to mount his horse, but Ave was quick to reach out and pull at his shirt to stop him. He paused and turned to glare at her hand that held his shirt, then at her face.

"Let go," he said calmly, and she quickly let go of his shirt, as the air now surrounding him let her know he wasn’t in the mood to allow her to disrespect him as she’d been doing before.

Though he warned her to let go, he didn’t mount the horse and turned to her, as if knowing she wanted to speak. Ave cleared her throat. "I thought you wanted to do some work in town? We can proceed, and I will—"

"There’s no need for the work anymore. It’s of no use," he cut her off grimly, his features hardening. Last night, in the courtesan’s house, when he’d read the news parchment about a village driven by poverty to the point the people were eating each other, he’d intended to go and take a look. But after this, he had lost interest. Whatever happened to these people, they deserve it, and more shall come their way once he takes the throne.

"All right then, take me to look around," Ave said, trying her luck, and when she saw he was about to refuse, she quickly added, "Let’s look around in disguise. Let’s do something about your eyes since they only recognize you because of them. I promise you are not going to regret this. Please," she pleaded.

Lucian remained silent for some time, looking at her with an unreadable expression before he curtly nodded his head in agreement to take her around.

Ave was going to ask how they could hide his eyes when she watched in astonishment as they slowly began to change colors from amber to midnight black that mirrored her shocked expression.

"What the hell!" she muttered in disbelief. "You could do that all along, but yet you came out with your infamous eyes and risked getting hit by those animals? Are you kidding me?!" She slapped his shoulder impulsively before she could stop herself, as the thought of the pain from the hit made her pity him and also made her feel the urge to go back and look for the bastard who had thrown the stone and deal with him with her own hands.

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