Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 46: Clash between the princes
2nd Prince David followed closely behind Luciana, not understanding why she was still trying to keep a distance from him when he had told her he was her little friend, Talon from Serenevale. Was she that scared of people talking about him being close to her? Or could it be because of another reason?
He stared at her side profile as she conversed with her maids freely, not caring about the differences in their social standing, and stroking the cat in her arms with a gentle expression on her face, and he felt like hiding her away from the world. He wanted to be the only one who could see her beauty.
~~~
They arrived at the Pearl Auction House, and the gatekeeper greeted them.
"Welcome, 2nd Prince David, honorable guests," he said and bowed to them.
"Your room is ready; please allow the servant there to direct you to your private room," he added.
Luciana had never been to an auction house before, but she had a feeling the gatekeeper was treating her as if she had come together with Prince David and voiced her concerns.
"Sorry, but I’d like a separate private room," she said. The gatekeeper looked taken aback before bowing in regret.
"I’m sorry, my lady. Usually, the private rooms are booked in advance, and currently, all rooms have been booked; only a few seats are available in the popular stand," he said, knowing a noble lady like her would not want to sit in the popular stand area. He then turned to look at the 2nd Prince as if he had just realized something and said,
"My prince, it seems the two of you know each other; would you please consider sharing a room with her? The room you reserved is quite large and shouldn’t cause an inconvenience."
Luciana heard the man’s suggestion and stared at the 2nd Prince David and decided it would be a bad idea to be in the same room with him and refused.
"No need; I’ll just sit with everyone at the popular stand."
"I don’t mind; we can share the space," David also said at the same time, causing Luciana to look at him.
"You don’t need to worry about me; I’m fine with anything," she said.
"I insist," David said with a hint of finality in his voice, and Luciana could only nod. She didn’t want to overdo it and cause a scene, but she couldn’t help feeling she was making the wrong decision.
"Um, 2nd Prince David, can I also join you? You see, I also didn’t make any room reservations in advance," Evelyn’s demure voice rang out, and for the first time, Luciana was grateful for the presence of this ’annoying fly’ called Evelyn.
Prince David’s jaw clenched in anger. Why didn’t he think of what this annoying woman’s presence might cause to his plans? He had already allowed Luciana to share the room with him; it would raise eyebrows if he didn’t give the same opportunity to Lady Evelyn.
"You can come too," he reluctantly forced the words out of his mouth.
"Thank you, second prince," Evelyn happily said, and they all followed after the staff who directed them to the said room.
~~~
The atmosphere in the private room could best be described as awkward, to say the least. 2nd Prince David was inwardly fuming, but he could only act nonchalant. He focused his thoughts on devising a new plan that would make it possible for Luciana and him to have a conversation later.
Luciana could tell David was angry seeing the looming clouds above his head. She quietly sat in her seat and occasionally sipped the tea in front of her, and besides, she didn’t have anything to say to the man.
Among the three, only Lady Evelyn seemed to be in a good mood; she thought 2nd Prince David only cared about Luciana, but it seemed her charms hadn’t gone unnoticed by the 2nd Prince. She had just asked once, and he agreed to let them share the same space with him.
As she stared at the nonchalant and cold face of David, she couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was. His features weren’t like those out-of-this-world, take-your-breath-away kind of perfect features Prince Nicholas had, but he had his own charm.
’Come to think of it, he had no woman in his harem. What are the odds?! Could he be that ’one woman is enough’ kind of man? Imagine such a man falling in love with you. How nice would it be?’
As her thoughts began to wander, she let out a small giggle. In the silent room, that sound was particularly loud, causing both David and Luciana to turn and look at her.
"Are you alright?" Prince David asked, hoping Evelyn would say she was feeling uncomfortable. That would be his cue to arrange a room for her to rest in, citing her pregnancy as an excuse. He and Luciana would finally be left alone.
"No, second Prince, I’m fine. Thanks for asking," Evelyn said, her lashes shyly fluttering as she stared at David. Seeing how David immediately asked if she was alright as soon as she made that little sound, a thought crossed Evelyn’s mind.
’Could David be in love with her?’ She thought and inwardly smiled.
’Oh, Evelyn, how perfect are you? To think you’re still getting admirers even when you are married and pregnant.’ Evelyn felt like she had been dipped in honey; she continued to speculate in her mind, causing her thoughts to run wild.
The auction began about thirty minutes later, and the auctioneer began to introduce the first item.
"The first item to be sold today is a rare grade B jade necklace..." Luciana tuned out the man’s ramblings and tried to figure out what she was going to say if anyone later asked her the reason why she bought the soul-searching lamp when David’s words broke her out of her thoughts.
"Princess Consort, is there something you are interested in and came here to bid for?" David asked. Evelyn’s ears perked up, wanting to hear Luciana’s answer.
Luciana saw Evelyn’s eager and inquisitive gaze and decided to be mischievous.
"I just came to see if I’d find something nice for the empress Dowager’s birthday," she said.
David’s eyes flashed at her words. Did Luciana want to leave a good impression of herself in front of the empress dowager? But why must she care about the empress dowager? Wasn’t she just here in Gloryland to take revenge on Nicholas? Why must she care about making his relatives like her? Could it be that her feelings for Nicholas were already changing?
In his fury, he didn’t even know when his hold on the ceramic teacup tightened, clenching around the cup with such force that it caused the fragile cup to break.
"Crack!" The sound of something breaking filled the quiet room, and everyone turned to look at David, who came to his senses when he saw the women’s eyes trained on him.
"2nd Prince, are you alright?"
"2nd Prince, are you alright?"
Both women said at the same time. David opened his palms, and gruesome-looking cuts with shards sticking out of them and bright red liquid oozing out fell into their sight. The blood trickled down and began to fall like teardrops onto the white-marbled floor, the two colors creating a sharp contrast against each other.
"Princess Consort, can you please come with me and help me take care of this? I didn’t know the cup was so fragile and had mistakenly used too much strength; I’m sure we can get some medical supplies from the auction house," he said, his face looking like he was in immense pain, and he stood up, gesturing for Luciana to follow him.
At that moment, David didn’t even think about the pain he was feeling; all he could think of was how to use his wounds to his advantage so that he could be in the same place as Luciana, alone.
Luciana hesitated, but seeing the blood that continued to drop on the floor and David’s contorted face full of pain, she reluctantly decided to help him.
"Okay," she said and stood up.
~~~
Outside the Pearl Auction House, Nicholas’s horse came to an abrupt halt after spotting the familiar carriage. ’Why was the carriage from his manor here in the streets?’ Peter and Adam also came to a stop behind him when Dominic, who was outside the building of the auction house, saw the eldest prince and his men and hurriedly approached them.
"Greetings, Your Highness, welcome back," he said and bowed.
Nicholas’s eyes darkened when he saw Dominic in front of him alone. Looking at the familiar carriage, he had already figured out what must have happened, and his eyes darkened.
’Ha! He had only left the capital for a day, and she was out and about doing what she wanted. What was she doing at an auction house in the first place? Was she using it as a distraction to meet someone? This wasn’t the first time people had secret meetings in the private rooms of the auction house.’
"What are you doing here alone without the princess consort?" He asked, his tone sounding displeased. There was a brewing storm beneath that calm surface.
"Reporting to his highness, the princess consort is currently together with the second prince and Lady Evelyn in..." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Dominic had not yet finished speaking when a gust of cold air rushed past him as the figure of the eldest prince jumping off his horse, clothes loudly fluttering, swiftly passed by him like a vengeful spirit, making him pause in his words.
Adam and Peter gulped seeing the disappearing figure of their prince. They stared at each other with a solemn expression on their faces. They already knew what this meant. There was going to be a clash between the princes, all because of one woman.
