Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 85: Flashback: Meeting Evelyn

"How dare you glare at me, you thief!" The abuser spat loudly and raised his hand to strike her hard across the face when he heard a thunderous "Stop!"

The voice sounded as if it was coming from the deep recesses of hell, and when the man turned towards the direction of the sound, he gulped, his eyes widening.

When he saw the prince, who had just descended from his horse and was hurriedly approaching him like an angel of darkness, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

’Isn’t this the eldest prince? The man who crushes his enemies under his foot like mere ants? Did he know this woman?’ he thought, panicking.

"Yo...your Highness, please spare..." The man was offering his greetings to the prince, but he ignored her and scrunched down to the woman’s level.

Nicholas didn’t even bother with the man, and his hand went below her chin to lift up her face, which had been lowered again after the man’s words, but the light in his eyes dimmed when he saw her face—she wasn’t Luciana.

He must be going crazy from thinking about Luciana and missing her every second of the day that he was seeing her everywhere.

"What is going on here?" Nicholas asked the man who had begun to shake in his boots when his furious gaze fell upon him.

"Your Highness," the man dramatically called out and fell on his knees in a very sorry state.

"She is my wife; I was only disciplining her for her disobedience," he yelled again, trying not to look guilty.

"I’m not his wife," a quiet voice said, and Nicholas turned to look at the girl who seemed to be about 16 summers old.

"What happened? Why is he beating you?" Nicholas asked.

"My family took money from him and was unable to pay it back because the interest kept increasing each month. Just this morning, he came to our house and told my parents he wanted to take me as compensation for his loan, and he tried to force himself on me in the carriage. I ran away from him, and when he caught me, he started to physically assault me," the girl said through sniffs and tears.

"How much does her family owe you?" Nicholas asked.

"A hundred silver coins," the man said.

Nicholas brought out a pouch and threw it to the man; this has more than triple the amount they owe you. Listen, everyone, this man no longer owns the girl; she is free from him," he said, and the man’s eyes gleamed.

He was getting triple what those peasants owed him. As he was happily jubilating in his heart, the next words of the prince caused him to nearly vomit blood.

"City guards! What were you doing when a citizen was being beaten in the streets? Come and drag this filth away to the prison for forcing this girl to be his slave," he commanded.

The city guards came to drag the man away who was begging for mercy and screaming at the top of his voice, but Prince Nicholas didn’t even turn to look at him even once.

Nicholas and James continued on their way to the palace, their horses walking at a leisurely pace when they saw the girl following after them.

At first, Nicholas wanted to ignore her, but when he realized they were almost at the palace gates and she was still following them, he stopped the horse and looked behind him, causing the girl to stop too.

She fidgeted with her fingers and lowered her gaze. She looked as if she was afraid.

"Why are you following me?" He asked, irritation lacing his voice. The girl kept quiet and didn’t answer his question.

"What is your name?" He asked, trying to tone down the harshness in his voice only to hear her finally speak again.

"My Lord, my name is Evelyn, Evelyn Carter," she said.

"Alright, Evelyn, why are you following me?" He asked again.

"Since you paid the debt my family owed to the man, I’m now yours, my Lord. I promise I’m not lazy; you will not have any complaints about me. I can cook, wash, sew, and clean, and I’m also very strong," Evelyn said.

"Evelyn, I didn’t pay that money because I want you to become my slave. So you don’t need to follow me; you can go back to your parents house," Nicholas explained, feeling a little sorry for her.

’She must have led a tough life to say all those things. Most of the maids didn’t even do everything she just said, but they looked tired all the time,’ he thought, feeling sorry for her.

"I no longer have a home; my parents told me to never return to the house again. They don’t need me, so please keep me; I can be your maid. I can work in the stables, so please take me with you. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do," Evelyn pleaded.

Nicholas was reluctant, but he couldn’t leave a vulnerable girl wandering outside on the streets just like that. So he decided to take her with him and give her a position as a maid.

"Don’t forget what you just said; I don’t give second chances," he warned before adding in his usual cold voice.

"You can come with us."

Nicholas didn’t know his decision today was the beginning of all his problems throughout his lifetime.

~~~

One week passed by just like that, and Nicholas’ attempts to get Luciana alone to have a talk proved difficult. Because Luciana was officially the crown princess, she was staying in the crown princess estate, and it was an extension of the crown prince’s mansion.

Another thing Nicholas realized was that there seemed to be increased security around the crown princess estate. When everything continued to slip out of his control after one week, Nicholas realized something.

Once or twice might be a coincidence, but after several failed attempts, there was only one plausible explanation: Someone was getting in the way of his meeting Luciana.

’It was David.’

He began to recall the first time he realized David was acting strangely around him, and then his eyes narrowed.

It was nighttime, just a day after Luciana’s arrival, about 24 hours after his visit to her chambers. Earlier that day he had heard that the impatient David had not listened to his advice and had gone to visit Luciana.

That night, he had been absent-minded, but he remembered the question David had asked because it was a strange question.

"Do you think there are mosquitoes in the crown princess consort’s chambers?" David had asked.

"Why would there be mosquitoes in her chambers? All the rooms have been washed with insecticides, and the process is repeated every week or so," he had answered absentmindedly.

"I thought so too, but why does it seem like there are bite marks on her ears? The funny thing is that it resembles a human tooth," David had mumbled under his breath.

"What has a human tooth done?" Nicholas had asked back, coming to his senses and catching the latter part of David’s sentence.

"Nothing, don’t pay attention to me... How strange; both you and Princess Consort seemed to have your head in the clouds today," David had added before leaving him alone.

As those sentences from the past replayed in Nicholas’ mind, clearly this time around with no fog in his mind, his eyes widened as he put all the missing dots together.

"David knows... If he knows, then what has he been doing to Luciana all these years?" He mumbled under his breath, his eyes blazing.

Luciana was in danger!