Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 118: An intruder

"Do you think I don’t know you were the one that awakened the darkness within the princess two millennia ago? It was you who made her so vengeful that she became just like you. An emotionless person without any heart. She lost her humanity because of you!" King Emric thundered.

"That was because your good son made her like that; she was broken beyond repair. I needed to do something to keep her sane. She was my daughter; I’m the one who wanted her to be happy the most," Harriet barked, her voice filled with equal intensity.

"As if you can love someone else apart from yourself. Does such a pure emotion like love flow in those cold-hearted veins of yours?" King Emric said.

"It’s been 2000 years, two millennia, and every shadow of her that is born goes through countless hurt and heartache, but you just watched everything unfold without lifting a finger. Did you think I’d believe your pretentious words even for a second?"

"I was grieving the loss of my daughter. Even her soul refused to live on. She begged to be let go. I tried everything in my power, but she refused to be with him again, and you know her refusal gave the curse more power."

"Her soul became so faint that another soul is currently living as her. Do you think it makes me happy? She was a victim of the curse and she agreed that they shouldn’t be together again. What did you want me to do?" Harriet snapped.

"You say one thing but do something else behind closed doors. Even with everything you just said, I know you made it so that the red string of the princess’ fate was tied to the prince’s pinky finger."

"Anytime a shadow of the prince came into existence, the princess’ shadow would naturally be born so that their cursed intertwined fates would begin again. But tell me, what have you done for her?" King Emric asked and added after a beat,

"For thousands of years, the shadow of the princess kept being reincarnated; what did you do to change the course of her fate? If I didn’t interfere this time and repeated the timeline and made her remember and have a rebirth, would you come and see me in the first place?"

"She doesn’t need me. We don’t need each other. She doesn’t even know I’m her mother, and besides, after being reincarnated several times, isn’t it natural that I gave up on her? I can’t waste my love on every single version of my daughter every time she is born again, right?" Harriet heartlessly said.

King Emric shook his head and ignored her. ’What had he expected from this stone-cold-hearted woman?’

"I was informed that my daughter’s soul is with you. I think I should be the one to punish that woman for forcefully inhabiting my daughter’s soul. So I’ve come to collect it," Harriet said, stating her reason for being there.

King Emric nodded and said, "Very well."

He wasn’t in the mood to have another fight with this unreasonable woman. He raised his hands, and the large glass jar that had the soul in it appeared.

"Here it is; do as you wish with it. I want to be alone," he said and transformed back into his dragon form.

Harriet’s lips looked thin as she stared at the dragon in anger.

’Must he always get on her last nerve?’

She glared at him and touched the glass and disappeared out of sight with it.

~~~

Four days later,

In the eldest prince’s estate in the main palace of Gloryland, Luciana weakly lay in bed feeling drained of all energy thanks to her and Nicholas’ vigorous activities the previous night.

Nicholas had kept his promise, and except for the two days earlier when they had moved from his manor to the main palace, and she was tired, and he let her off, he was always finding every opportunity to make love to her.

It was the empress dowager’s birthday banquet today, and Luciana had less than six hours to prepare, but she felt weak and tired all over.

Nicholas was such an insatiable beast. But she didn’t blame him; he had told her he was going to leave tomorrow after the empress dowager’s birthday banquet, and Luciana had already started to miss him when he had not even left yet.

She wished she would go with him, but he refused. But since she would be taking care of the empress’ health, Luciana was hoping she would have something to take her mind off him and not miss him too much.

Nicholas has agreed for her to heal his mother, and she has already come up with a treatment plan for the empress. With her skills, the empress should be healthy in no time so that she could help Nicholas answer some pressing issues about his birth. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Checking the time, she was sure it was about 6:30 am.

Nicholas said he was going to check through some documents in his study and told her to rest more, so she lazily closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

~~~

Luciana didn’t know for how long she slept when she felt someone gently tapping her.

"Nick..." she sleepily called out and turned herself to the side, exposing her half-naked skin full of purplish bruises. Some looked new, and some looked like they were old and fading.

Luciana was fully naked under the sheets, with the sheets only covering a part of her chest and reaching just above her thigh.

"Luciana, it’s me..." the voice said, and Luciana’s grogginess immediately disappeared as soon as she realized the voice wasn’t the one she was used to.

In her panic she didn’t even watch the person carefully and screamed in horror, her fingers inching towards the pillow to find anything she could find to defend herself.

She knew Nicholas usually slept with a dagger underneath his pillow.

"Luciana, it’s me, Talon; it’s me, David," David said.

Luciana came to her senses, but at the same time, she heard incessant knocks at the door.

"Your Highness, are you alright?"

"Your Highness, can we come in?"

The guards outside the door called out, their voices full of panic; amongst them, Amirion’s and Desmond’s voices were higher.

Luciana stared at David warily and pulled the sheets to cover up her body properly.

"You...W...Why are you here?" Luciana asked, her eyes flickering between the door and David’s face.

"Take this: I can’t stay long because of the guards; follow the map and come to the spot marked red; I’ll be waiting for you. I’ll help you escape from Gloryland," David said and stuffed a rolled-up parchment into her hand.

"Escape...?" Luciana asked in confusion, but David had already gone out through the window.

The next moment, the door burst open, and Nicholas, who was already holding his sword in an aggressive stance, entered the room.

"Where’s the intruder?!" He asked, his voice sounding like he wanted to spill someone’s blood.