Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 35: Meeting Dominic in this life
Ruth sneezed all of a sudden, and the ripple effect caused her body to ache all over. She stared at the rolled parchment beside her pillow, and a look of hatred flashed past her eyes.
’Since the princess consort wants her to suffer and be in pain, she would also make her suffer.’
She had picked up the rolled-up parchment from beside the princess consort’s bed this morning when she had gone in there to report to her that she had finished receiving her punishment.
It was a message from the prince to the princess to tell her he was going out of the capital and for her to meet him in the meadow behind the palace in two days. But she wouldn’t let the princess consort know about it.
It would be best to cause the prince to have a misunderstanding about the princess consort so that Lady Evelyn would reward her and not forget her promise to her. It wasn’t wrong to have a dream as a slave; she also wished to get married and be pampered by her husband so that she could leave behind her slave status.
~~~
Luciana had wanted to confront Ruth about the flower petals but decided against it after thinking about it for some time. She could already tell who was behind Ruth, Lady Evelyn. It seemed she had given the girl a lot of free time, so she was getting out of hand. She guessed it was time to pay Evelyn a visit.
"Help me get dressed and call Bella to style my hair for me; I want to look beautiful for my outing today," she told Dora, who happily obliged. In about 5 minutes, Dora had returned with Bella, and they got to work.
"My lady, everyone is talking about the empress dowager’s birthday banquet that is going to happen in two weeks. I heard everyone is preparing a gift that would make them receive recognition from the empress dowager. I think you should also start preparing a gift," Dora said, and a wicked smile fell on Luciana’s face.
She remembered that in her previous life, she had embarrassed herself when she had gifted the empress Dowager with the same gift as Lady Evelyn, except Evelyn’s gift was bigger and more beautiful than hers. At that time, even though she was still angry at Nicholas and the empress dowager.
She had at least wanted to make a good impression of herself in front of the woman after her rude behavior at their first meeting. So, she made a longevity scroll with the best calligraphy she could come up with on the finest paper. After that, she had wrapped it in the finest silk to present it to the empress dowager, only for Evelyn to show up with the same gift but better than hers.
Instead of calligraphy on paper, she had embroidered the symbols and characters with golden threads on a large silk parchment and had made her look like a joke.
"Oh, sorry, sister, I think both of us were thinking of the same thing and came up with the same idea," she said with a hint of nervousness as if she was afraid of Luciana, but Luciana knew she was just pretending.
And since she was a straightforward person who did not like beating around the bush, she had responded with,
"Lady Evelyn doesn’t need to pretend; you must have copied your idea from me to make me look bad. I hate fake people the most, and don’t call me sister; I’m not your sister."
The empress dowager had been angered by her ’lack of tact’ and had chided her for speaking out of turn when it was her birthday. This time she was going to play Evelyn at her own game. Since she liked to copy her, she was going to give her something nice to copy this time around.
"Tell the kitchen to prepare some snacks and tea to take along on my visit," Luciana said, and Dora immediately perked up.
"My lady, are you going to thank the prince for the maids and guards he brought you? I think it would be best if you did it yourself to show the prince your sincerity. He will be so happy when he finds out," Dora said.
Looking at how Dora was in a matchmaking mood, Luciana decided to burst her bubble.
"Who said I’m going to find the prince? I’m going to visit Lady Evelyn," Luciana said, and Dora looked at her in shock.
"My lady, why would you go and visit that wicked woman? She has been causing problems for you at any opportunity she gets; I think it would be good for you to stay away from her," Dora said.
But how could Luciana do that? Even if she decided to mind her own business and not seek Evelyn out, she would find ways to come and cause trouble for her. Why not seek her out first? It would teach her she wasn’t easy to mess with. She had already seen that Evelyn was her enemy from her first life.
She was sure that Evelyn’s entanglement with Prince David was what caused the first Princess Luciana to start noticing Nicholas. It was just a speculation, but she shouldn’t have betrayed her husband; she knew she was in the wrong. Ever since the beginning of time, men had the liberty of having several wives, and she should have understood that much, but love was a strange feeling; it broke boundaries and made people lose their senses.
She couldn’t judge the first Princess Luciana for her decision because she still didn’t know the whole story. She just hoped all the strange occurrences and the bad things she was told about would not start happening too soon.
Luciana looked at her reflection in the mirror and nodded her head.
"I like it; I will make sure to reward you when I return," Luciana told Bella. In order not to raise another snake like Ruth, it would be good to make the maids like her, and giving people gifts and money can buy their loyalty.
Even though Luciana knew buying people’s loyalty with money doesn’t usually last since they could switch sides when the highest bidder comes into the picture, she would begin with money and gifts now and later win their hearts.
Dora didn’t like that her lady was going to visit that woman, but she decided to follow her lady in case she decided to bully Luciana. She would shield her ’innocent lady’ from such a scheming woman. Luciana walked through the heavy doors of her quarters and didn’t even pay attention to her surroundings but froze when she saw who had come to stand before her.
"My lady, Dominic Baker at your service. The prince instructed me to guard you and keep you safe in his absence," Dominic said and bowed.
’What did Dominic just say? He was instructed to be her guard? But why? She didn’t try to escape this time, so why was he standing in front of her?’
Luciana’s knees nearly gave out beneath her, causing her to sway on her feet when all the memories from the past resurfaced.
"My lady, are you alright?" Dominic asked, his hands on her waist as he tried to steady her on her feet.
Feeling repulsed, Luciana swung her hand and slapped him when he held her. The loud slap reverberated in the courtyard, causing all eyes to move to them.
Dominic touched his cheek, caught off guard by the princess consort’s actions. He wished it were someone else; he would have sliced their hand off.
"Sorry, I was caught off guard when you helped me," she said in a fake apologetic voice, trying her best to control herself, and added in a rather stern voice.
"You are not allowed to get so close to me; I’ll forgive you for touching me today, but make sure you always keep a 10-meter distance between us. There shouldn’t be a next time."
Dominic didn’t understand why the princess consort was acting so hostile to him on their first meeting, but he realized it was inappropriate for a man to hold a married woman as he had done. The princess consort was just protecting her image and reputation, so he shouldn’t take it so badly.
"I will keep that in mind, my lady," he said.
"What did you say your role was?" Luciana asked again to be sure; she felt like she was in a dream. No, it wasn’t a dream; it was a nightmare.
"The eldest prince instructed me to be your personal guard and protect you in his absence. He left the capital with his men at dawn," Dominic said, and Luciana froze.
’Why did Nicholas leave the capital? What was he going to do? Is that why, even though she didn’t escape from him like her previous life, Dominic still became her guard? Why did it feel like she was forgetting something?’
