Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 103: Flashback: Death and Betrayal

The atmosphere was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Nicholas rushed toward Luciana and hugged her to protect her from the debris and little pieces of concrete that filled the air.

Dust filled the atmosphere as everything came tumbling down with thunder echoing through the sky as if it was about to rain. Luciana stared into Nicholas’s eyes with a gaze full of worry and fear.

"What David said..."

"It is never going to happen," Nicholas said, cutting her off.

"Don’t take a dying man’s words too seriously," Nicholas added.

Luciana weakly nodded, but Nicholas’ gaze was locked onto the priest, who was watching them with a solemn expression on his face. It was as if he felt sorry for them, but Nicholas ignored him. He firmly believed David was just speaking nonsense.

Lancelot also saw there was nothing more to do there and didn’t try to fight Nicholas. He turned to leave, but before that, he turned to Luciana and said.

"You brought it upon yourself. You should pay for your sins; Zubrekacadesh no longer has a princess like you."

"Oh, is that so? Then my wife has no brother like you. The people of Zubrekacadesh would no longer be friends with Gloryland; all ties are severed between us."

"Nicholas, please, don’t say that. They are my family," Luciana said, gently placing her hand over his large one to calm him down, but Nicholas didn’t agree with her.

"They don’t see you as their family," he said; his words had a hint of finality in them.

Nicholas had no idea that his careless words would set off a chain reaction, plunging the people of Zubrekacadesh into deeper stigmatization. What began as a simple conversation would spark hostility that would ripple through time, leaving scars that would fester and grow over the next two millennia. As the years passed, the weight of his words would shape how people viewed the people of Zubrekacadesh.

~~~

A week later, every trace of the attack on the palace was erased, and Nicholas was crowned as the emperor. Luciana naturally became his empress, and they ruled the country together.

They were each other’s strength, and they relied on each other, treating each other with love and care. Even though at first their union sparked rumors, eventually they were the topic of discussion between the maids and servants who always gushed about the love between their emperor and empress.

For the first two years of their reign, things were moving in the right direction, and all the subjects loved their new emperor and empress.

But not everyone was happy; Evelyn, in particular, hated the fact that they were so happy and in love. She hated the perfect family picture they painted and decided to destroy their happiness.

She had been three months pregnant when Nicholas found her after the invasion. He had pardoned her due to her pregnancy, especially when she said she had nowhere to go. She was pregnant, after all, and Nicholas couldn’t bring himself to harm a pregnant woman.

Luciana, being the kind empress she was, had pity on her and even took her in, treating her as a sister, and decided to raise their children side by side. But unfortunately, Evelyn miscarried, causing her hatred for Luciana to deepen.

Luciana was oblivious and tried all she could to console her, making their relationship even closer; she even officially adopted her as a sister. Unknown to her, Evelyn only viewed her as a foe.

Instead of reflecting on herself and making the most of the second chance given to her, Evelyn decided to make her pay. To Evelyn, everything was Luciana’s fault because if it wasn’t for her seduction, David wouldn’t be so obsessed with her, and perhaps she would have been the one to birth the firstborn of the crown prince.

So she promised to make Luciana pay for "leading David on" and leading him to his death.

And she found the perfect opportunity when disaster struck: little Prince Authur became so sick before his third birthday, and all efforts to cure him failed.

Word was sent across the lands to find experts who would cure him. A reward would be given to anyone who would heal the prince, all to no avail.

One night, the little prince died, and Luciana was inconsolable.

It was during this time that the chief priest came to see the emperor.

"Your Majesty, the star’s alignment and the negative energy in the palace must be lifted; otherwise, any new heir born to you and the empress would die in childhood," the priest said.

Nicholas’s gaze was furious and filled with a murderous aura as he stared at the priest. He already had an idea of what he wanted to say since the man had made it his mission to always make him question his love for Luciana.

"Do you want me to kill you for saying such ominous words?" He snarled, but the priest was calm as ever.

"Your majesty can kill the messenger, but the truth remains: the union between the sovereign and the empress is cursed, and the deities will strike the fruit of your union with death," the priest said solemnly.

"You’re saying I, the sovereign, the son of heaven, am cursed? Who dares to curse me? Who dares to curse my empress?" Nicholas thundered.

"You should know who cursed you, your majesty; you took your brother’s wife; it’s an abomination and the deities..."

Nicholas walked towards James, who was standing at the side, pulled his sword from the sheath, and stabbed the priest to shut him up.

"Your majesty!" The eunuch and James called out in shock at the actions of their emperor.

"Your majesty, please calm your anger." The ministers cried, their words echoing through the large hall. All the ministers, servants, and guards who were present tried to cover their fear after seeing the gruesome sight, but most of them were failing miserably.

"Find me a new priest!" Nicholas barked, not sparing them a glance before he added as an afterthought.

"If the empress finds out about what happened today, that person’s head would not belong to them again," he warned.

Nicholas was already angry because Luciana was depressed, and he didn’t know how to make her happy.

She was still in mourning and hardly ate anything because of the death of their son, and it was already putting a strain on their relationship, but for the priest to tell him he and Luciana were not meant to be was the last straw.

He had already killed those who spread such rumors about him and Luciana, and that had made those idle gossips stop whispering about his and Luciana’s ill-fated relationship, but the priest insisted on testing his patience.

After that night, strange things begin to happen to Nicholas soon after. And when people started to whisper that it was the gods punishing his abomination of a union with Luciana, Nicholas’s bloodlust became even stronger.

The palace became a burial ground for those who dared to whisper anything about the emperor and the empress’ union.

A year after little Prince Arthur’s death, good news filled the palace once again.

Empress Luciana was with child. After Nicholas heard the news, he was so happy that he made a banquet to celebrate with his officials.

It was just that due to his happiness, he had drunk himself to a stupor, and Evelyn, who had been waiting for an opportunity to hurt Luciana in the worst possible way, saw this and sneakily entered the emperor’s bed.

She put on Luciana’s favorite clothes and her perfume, and the overly happy and drunk Nicholas had his way with her, thinking she was Luciana.

Luciana had excused herself from the banquet ahead of time and had mistakenly fallen asleep in her chambers.

She woke up and realized the banquet must be over now and decided to go see Nicholas in his chambers, already knowing he would want to spend time with her in his drunken state since he had been drinking a lot earlier, refusing to slow down even at her request.

Nicholas knew no woman would dare enter his bed, so he thought he was with Luciana until he heard someone yelling.

"What is the meaning of this!"

All the drunkenness disappeared at Luciana’s voice. It was only then Nicholas sobered up and saw what was happening. He hurriedly got away from Evelyn, his movements unorganized, and approached Luciana.

"Luciana, my love, please, I can explain. I thought it was you," he said and held her, only for her to yank her hand away from his grip.

"Don’t touch me with those same hands you used to touch her."