Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 63: A real piece of work

Seeing that the princess was ready, Dora called in the other maidens to help get her ready. They rinsed her mouth, helped her brush her teeth, and bathed her afterward. Expensive and very fragrant body oils were rubbed into her skin. Her ears were cleaned, and they began doing her hair and makeup.

The next on the list was getting her in her white and yellow attire, which had a phoenix embroidered on it, inlaid with pearls, and more golden threads were intricately embroidered onto it.

When they finished getting her together, she looked breathtaking. She looked like a true queen in every sense of the word.

"The procedure is quite simple," the eunuch said to her.

"His Majesty and Her Grace will ride a carriage together through the streets; you can wave at the people through the window if you please, or you can ignore them. Lastly, when you get to the main palace, you will walk together with his imperial majesty on the stairs leading to the throne room," he added.

Luciana nodded absentmindedly, feeling nervous; she never knew the first thing she was going to do as soon as she woke up in this timeline was to be showcased through the town. She had witnessed ceremonies like this before; there would be people lining the streets with all eyes on you.

She felt she wouldn’t be able to get used to this kind of high-profile attention. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Luciana walked towards the man standing in front of her with his back facing her and froze briefly before going forward. When he turned to look at her with his piercing gaze, her heart skipped a beat, accompanied by a painful sensation filling her chest all of a sudden.

Luciana realized she was feeling the emotions of the body she was inhabiting. This was what the soon-to-be queen was feeling.

It was a bittersweet feeling. Soon-to-be queen Luciana was happy to finally be so close to him, but she also knew he was just keeping up appearances because of the ceremony, and the thought that they would go back to being strangers after today caused her immense sadness.

Luciana of Gloryland, on the other hand, felt like slapping this version of Nicholas across the face hard. ’He was a real piece of work,’ she thought, fuming. ’This is not your Nicholas; don’t do anything stupid,’ an inner voice said within her.

"Are you feeling nervous?" he asked, and Luciana’s heart skipped a beat. ’Damn beating heart! Why was this version of her such a lovesick fool? He had ignored her for months, but he just said four words, and her heart was already thumping so wildly, he might even hear the erratic beating of her heart at this rate.’

"A little," she said, blushing and lowering her gaze.

"You can hold onto my hand; I’ll take every step together with you," he said, stretching his hands towards her. She gently placed her hand into his, a subtle smile gracing her features.

Luciana from Gloryland nearly rolled her eyes; she realized even though she was inhabiting the body of the soon-to-be queen Luciana of this timeline, she had no control over the body’s actions.

For instance, she had wanted to ignore the soon-to-be king Nicholas, but instead, the words tumbled out of her mouth without her control, and her hand had also moved on its own and had been placed onto his outstretched palm even though that wasn’t what she wanted to do.

It seems she could only watch as everything unfolded without being able to interfere. If that was so, then why was she here in this body in the first place? What about her own body? Did their souls swap?

No, that was not right; even though the soul inside this body she was inhabiting was quite weak, she could tell it was still present. So did she die? The more Luciana thought about it, the more her expressions changed.

The soon-to-be king Nicholas saw the expressions that switched faster than clockwork on his soon-to-be queen’s face and was inwardly worried. Was something wrong with her? She looked worried, scared, confused, and out of sorts. But he attributed it to the upcoming ceremony and didn’t ask.

"It will be over soon," he said and gently tugged her hands towards the red carriage.

She shakily nodded, and they boarded the carriage.

~~~

"Here comes His Imperial Majesty and Her Grace!"

"Hurray to the King and Queen!!"

"Love live to the King and Queen! We wish you a century of life and a century of good fortune!!!"

The announcement rang out, and cheers and noise filled the streets. The streets were packed with people giving the king and queen their blessings.

Feeling his fingers intertwined with hers as they journeyed through the crowd helped the princess feel at ease, and before she knew it, she had stuck her head out and begun to wave at the people.

"Look! It’s her royal majesty," one man shouted, and the cheers became louder as people began to bow and kneel, with others kowtowing after seeing the new mother of the nation.

~~~

Finally, they climbed the daunting stairs leading to the imperial throne room and began their coronation, the cheers never stopping even when they were out of sight.

"Greetings to His Imperial Majesty and her benevolent grace!" The announcer thundered through the throne room after the coronation was done.

"Greetings to His Imperial Majesty and her benevolent grace," the people chorused, accompanied by cheers.

~~~

Until the coronation ended, and after greeting the dignitaries and ministers, King Nicholas acted like the perfect husband, always beside his new queen, Luciana. She felt happy, thinking it was a new beginning in their lives.

Unexpectedly, he became his aloof and cold self again when they were about to retire into their rooms.

"It’s late, I’m tired, and it’s almost sunset; we should retire to our rooms," he said.

Thinking of how gentle and accommodating he had been with her the entire day, she felt she should be bold and voice her complaints.

"Your Highness...cou... could you spend the night with me today? You see, we still haven’t consummated," she said shyly, her lashes fluttering and her cheeks growing hot under his intense gaze, causing her to lower her gaze.

"I’m sorry, I already promised to spend the night with Evelyn. After spending the whole day with you, you understand me, right?" He said, and tears involuntarily stung the queen’s eyes at his words.

He was always with Evelyn. How come he couldn’t even spare her a single day?

"Why?" She choked, causing the king to look at her in confusion.

"Why do you hate me? Why does my presence repulse you? Did I do something wrong to you?" She cried, tears were streaming down her face at this point.

He looked surprised and caught off guard by her sudden outburst, but it was only for a brief moment before he chastised her.

"You are the queen; you should learn what you should do and not do. You have an image to uphold. I will not hold it against you because this is your first time. It shouldn’t repeat itself."

He turned and walked away, leaving the crying woman all alone without comfort.

Queen Luciana stared at the disappearing figure that didn’t turn to glance back at her even for a second, and her knees buckled. She squatted on her floor, and tears fell in large drops.

However, she didn’t notice the hands of the man whose hands were clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white as he walked away.