Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife
Chapter 88: "Because it makes me want to do wicked things to you."

Chapter 88: "Because it makes me want to do wicked things to you."

Lucian couldn’t say anything even after he was dragged by Ave to sit around the bonfire like everyone else who had come to join them. He didn’t know how he felt about everything that was happening at this moment, but he sat down on the rock by the burning fire, watching as the kids played around it, singing a song he faintly remembered hearing other kids sing in his childhood but had never joined in to sing as he was an outcast in his own home and land.

Lucian’s eyes moved to the burning wood in the fire that sparked and glowed as the wood burned into hot coals. He stared at one particular coal in the fire that glowed deep red before it burst into sparks, and then his eyes moved across from him where Ave was laughing hard at something Hugo’s wife must have whispered to her.

Lucian couldn’t believe how she could sit there and mingle around people she barely knew. She was talking to every one of them like she’d known them before, and it made him wonder how she could do that—not to mention the fact that she kept eating anything given to her. Wasn’t she afraid to be poisoned?

He stared at her, and the more he looked at her, the more he felt like he didn’t want to look away. Her light blue eyes were the brightest color in the dark tonight, and when she parted her lips to bite into a roasted potato, he caught sight of her pink tongue and how she licked her lips as if she was eating the most delicious thing in the world. He was still staring when he felt a small hesitant pat on his shoulder and snapped his head away from her to the person standing behind him.

His brows drew together as his eyes fell on a little girl with large brown eyes that almost took up her whole small face. She was one of Hugo’s children, and in her small hands, she held a roasted potato out to him. "Her Highness said to give this to you..." she muttered in a fearfully small voice that made Lucian blink before he looked back at Ave, who was now jerking her head indicating for him to take the potato from the girl.

Lucian held out his hand, and the girl flinched back for a moment as if she feared he wanted to hurt her, but when she saw that he had only held out his hand, she hesitantly reached out and dropped the potato in his large palm, then ran off back toward Ave.

"Emily," Hugo called out to the girl, who was running back to Ave to tell her that she had delivered the potato to the scary man sitting there. But when she heard her father call her name, Emily stopped and turned to him.

"Come and take these potatoes and add them to the fire. Her Highness seems to like them a lot." Hugo said, beaming and eager to please Ave, as she had not only saved him but had given him a job of a stable man in the second prince’s palace.

"Yes Papa!" The girl ran back to the small cage where the potatoes were stored. She crouched down and began to place them in the bowl her father had handed to her, but as she was packing them, she was completely unaware of a black baby snake that crawled out from beneath the cage and onto her dress.

Emily finished packing the potatoes and carried the bowl back to where her mother was beside Ave. She set the bowl down and then ran back to Ave’s side, sitting beside her.

"I gave him the potato, Your Highness!" She grinned up at Ave, and Ave tenderly patted her hair and smiled. "Good girl," she said before she looked up toward Lucian, who still hadn’t eaten the potato and only held it in his hand, staring at it with a blank expression as if deciding weather to eat it or not.

"He doesn’t get along with people," came Hugo’s wife’s voice from the side as she followed Ave’s line of sight to the prince. "I understand. After all, we’ve all been forced to believe he was a devil and the cause of our misfortunes. It is a surprise he sat with us after what we’ve done." She said, her voice laced with remorse. "I still can’t believe we are having dinner with the second prince who we’ve cursed many times."

Ave looked away from Lucian and back at the woman, whose name was Savanna, and asked, "How did those rumors about the second prince start?" She had heard from Thalia that it was when a flood had happened on the day of Lucian’s birth, but what had made them believe he was the cause of it was what she wanted to know.

Savanna looked thoughtful for a while before she said, "I almost can’t seem to remember how it all started, Your Highness. But I do remember a few saying that it first started from within the palace walls, then it spread out to the lands, and we all believed it and made requests for the second prince’s execution..." She paused for a moment, her brown eyes filled with remorse.

"The Emperor assured the people of Pendragon not to worry because the second prince would never take the throne and would remain exiled. That was the only time the Emperor answered the commoners’ requests for something. We were assured and felt happy that we would never be ruled by a cursed prince. However, our lives never got better, and we kept on hearing that it was because the second prince was still alive, and so many were set on killing him..."

Ave listened to Savanna’s words silently. She didn’t even have to wonder who had been behind all those rumors—it was none other than Elara, that heartless Empress. She hadn’t just caused Lucian’s exile but had also made sure the people hated him and blamed him for everything.

"Your Highness?" Savanna called, as if to gain her full attention, before she looked down at her hands wringing in her lap. "Is His Highness really going to make a change to our lands if he were to take the throne?" She looked up to meet Ave’s eyes.

Ave didn’t want to make false promises, but she could feel deep in her heart that Lucian was going to be better than the current Emperor or anyone else to come. She glanced toward him, where he took a hesitant bite of the potato while his eyes were now on Hugo’s two teenage boys sitting beside him and trying to arm wrestle. As if feeling her eyes on him, he turned to her, and Ave felt her heart skip a beat.

"He will," she answered Savanna’s question with firm certainty in her voice. "But only if you all are willing to make the same request you made years ago for him to be removed from the successors—but this time, request for his return." She said as she turned her gaze back to the woman. Then she reached out her hand and placed it on hers.

"I give you my word on this if you and Hugo can convince the rest to support Lucian." Ave said to the woman, who didn’t even hesitate to nod her head in agreement. Savanna couldn’t ask for anything more than a better world and her husband having a job.

"I will do whatever I can to help His Highness," she said.

Ave smiled. "Thank you. However, there is one more thing I need from you. Can you make sure that no one knows that His Highness and I were here or that we gave you anything?" She asked. The last thing Ave wanted was for the Empress to know what they were up to and ruin everything for them again.

Savanna didn’t see anything wrong with that request and immediately nodded again. "I will let everyone know to keep it secret. This is the least we can do to repay His Highness and you for your kindness."

As Ave continued to speak with Savanna, the baby snake that had crawled onto Emily’s dress now slithered back down and slowly made its way up Ave’s dress that was spread around her. It slithered up her dress and disappeared into her dress pocket.

Ave ate another potato handed to her by little Emily and smiled at the girl, who seemed eager to peel them for her before handing them to her. She could barely make room for more in her stomach, but she kept eating. The more she ate, the more she could feel the welcoming atmosphere around the people.

The villagers could barely believe they were sitting with the royals around the bonfire. And as they watched Ave eat their food without showing any signs of disgust, they all began to draw close to her. When she was eating the potato and choked, everyone was quick to stand up and get her water.

However, when they noticed Lucian’s approaching figure, even though they believed he no longer meant them harm, old habits die hard, and they all ran back in fear and scattered away from Ave.

Lucian didn’t pay attention to any of them and walked up to the coughing woman. He took the small gourd of water he always carried around his waist and opened it before he handed it to her while he crouched down beside her.

"You kept stuffing your small mouth with such huge bites like the food is running away. Drink," he said, putting the water close to her mouth when she couldn’t take it as she was busy hitting her chest and trying to calm down her cough.

He watched her open her mouth and drink the water from his hand. However, he felt his lower abdomen tighten as he realized he had just drunk from the water a while ago, and her lips were now on the same place his own mouth had been. As she gulped down the water, a few drops slid down the side of her mouth. Before it could slide down her chin, Lucian reached out his other hand and used his finger to wipe it off, causing Ave to jump at the feel of his sudden touch. She choked on the water this time around.

Ave coughed hard as water came out of her nose. She hadn’t expected him to touch the side of her lips while she drank water.

Lucian put away the water gourd and gently began to pat her back to try to calm her down. It took a while before her cough subsided, and when she looked up at him with a glare, her eyes looked teary and red.

"You don’t touch people like that. You startled me," she muttered, her voice sounding hoarse from the coughing.

"I didn’t mean to startle you. You were drinking the water inappropriately," he said indifferently as he removed his hand from her back and sat down in the spot Savanna had been sitting a while ago.

Ave scoffed. "There is no right or wrong way to do things as long as you get it done. I needed water, and I drank it. How is that inappropriate?" she questioned, wiping away the tears that had slid down her cheeks.

"When a lady drinks water, it’s not supposed to slide down her mouth, nor should her tongue peek out of her lips," he said, turning his head to look at her. His eyes automatically fell on her lips just as she peeked her tongue out to wet them, but quickly put it back in upon hearing his words and feeling his eyes.

"How is that inappropriate?" Ave grumbled. "Nobody cares how I drink water or lick my lips. It’s a natural human instinct that can’t be helped, and I do it subconsciously."

"Then try not to do it in my presence or any other man’s," came his deep authoritative voice that made her glance at him with a frown. "Why?"

Ave watched as his eyes flickered between dark and amber before he said, with a straight face, "Because it makes me want to do wicked things to you."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.