Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 86: Flashback: An intruder

Nicholas kept pacing back and forth in his room as everything he had realized kept replaying in his mind. He needed to see Luciana tonight...but how?

Apart from the increased security around the crown princess’ estate, he had realized throughout the one week after his return that David always spends the night at Luciana’s estate and had not once visited his other two concubines.

As he was in deep concentration, his gaze moved to the girl who was on her knees and cleaning the dusty corners in his chambers. He had not decided what to do with her yet since his thoughts had been on Luciana lately.

She was beautiful, not like Luciana’s alluring beauty, but with the right grooming, she was sure to turn heads. Maybe he should try it out?

"Evelyn, stop doing that and come over here," Nicholas said to the girl, and she hurriedly got on her feet and bowed.

"Does my Lord need help with something?" Evelyn asked, lowering her head. After hearing no response from her master, she lifted her head in confusion and blushed when she saw how the prince’s hawk-like eyes were scanning her from hair to toe.

Ever since she had arrived with the prince, she could tell how the other maids in his residence looked at her with envy and jealousy because the prince didn’t make her wear a maid’s uniform like them.

Even though he had no official title apart from being the eldest prince, Evelyn couldn’t help but be infatuated with the handsome man.

She had begun to think that he kept her around because he treasured her. Maybe the prince even wanted her to become his woman.

These kinds of thoughts had been running through Evelyn’s head these past few days, and her infatuation only grew.

It wasn’t a surprise she blushed after noticing how Nicholas was scanning her from head to toe.

’Could it be that he was finally going to make a move on her?’ Evelyn thought, her imagination running wild.

"I think you will do," Nicholas said, voicing out his thoughts.

"Evelyn, I want you to do something for me. You can tell me if you don’t want to do it; I won’t force you..."

"My life belongs to the eldest prince; command me as you wish, and I’ll willingly do as you say." Evelyn interrupted Nicholas, her heart full of excitement, but on her face was a demure and obedient look as if she was willing to die for him.

Nicholas’ eyes flashed perceptibly at her words; it was not easy to come by people who are so loyal and willing to go the extra mile just to please someone else. He was touched by her sincerity.

"What I’m about to make you do is very important; you must do it with the utmost seriousness. A single mistake can make you lose your life," he said, and Evelyn’s heart skipped a beat.

’Why did it seem like this was going to be a thriller instead of the romance she had been anticipating?’ But even though she thought so, she kept her expression neutral.

"I’m at your service, my Lord," she said and bowed. Nicholas nodded and began to explain what she needed to do.

"You will be replacing an inner chambermaid at the crown prince’s mansion tonight. Your task is quite simple: try and stay in his presence for at least 30 minutes while you serve him... Try and get as close to him as possible; try to be the one to help him undress and comb his hair. The closer you are to him, the better."

Nicholas walked towards a door by the side of his inner chambers and came back a few moments later holding a perfume in one hand and a bottle containing pills in another one.

"This perfume has a very fragrant scent that helps to induce sleep in people. You will spray them on your clothes and try to get as close to the crown prince as much as possible. The more he inhales it, the sleepier he will become, and when he goes into deep sleep, you can leave from there," he said and held up the little bottle containing pills.

"This will help you to not be affected by the perfume. The effects only last for an hour, so make sure you don’t stay with the prince for more than necessary," Nicholas added. Evelyn nodded and bowed.

"I’ll pay attention to what my Lord instructs. There will be no mistakes."

"Good," Nicholas said and added, "Go and make preparations; you’re going to switch places with the maid tonight."

~~~

Nicholas had wanted to bribe the head maid and ask for her help to do the switch, but he realized it would be best if few people knew about his plans.

Instead, he stole the register that recorded the daily activities of the maids inside the crown prince’s mansion and made a gamble between the three inner chamber maids that took turns to serve the crown prince.

The one who was most likely to be summoned to help his second brother undress. He picked a possible candidate between them and had knocked her out.

’David should blame himself for not being able to do a simple task like dressing or undressing on his own.’

When the maid was knocked out, Evelyn, who was already wearing a maid uniform in the same color as the maids in the crown prince’s mansion, went ahead to replace the girl by imitating her hairstyle and learning her name from the register.

Fortunately, their efforts paid off when Evelyn was chosen to be the maid to serve the crown prince tonight.

~~~

Nicholas, who had been spying on the crown prince’s mansion through a telescope, saw Evelyn enter through the main entrance and saw it as his cue to execute his plans.

~~~

Luciana lay in bed dreading how David would arrive anytime soon. She thought about the past. Would things be different if she had been brave enough to follow her heart that fateful night? Two years had long passed, but her people were still being oppressed in these lands.

Her sacrifice of having to be married to the crown prince had not yielded much. To make matters worse, David’s controlling actions had begun to suffocate her.

He would force her to use her abilities to his advantage. One example was how he had told her to manipulate those assassins to listen to his every instruction.

She had cast the spell to make them be in a trance-like state as if being hypnotized to help David compel them. Unsurprisingly, David had told her to leave the room just when he was about to give out the instructions to the men.

It didn’t sit well with her that he was going to use the fact that those men were practically puppets who were going to act according to his every word to his advantage.

Later that day, even though he had told her he was doing everything for the greater good because he was going to assassinate a man who was using dark magic to cause destruction in one of the villages, she still felt that wasn’t the whole truth and that he was hiding something from her.

After all those uses, anytime he stared at her, his gaze was full of suspicion and distrust. It was as if the previous gentle prince she knew was just a facade, a distant memory.

He didn’t abuse her or anything, but his actions had made her begin to question if she had made a wrong choice. It was as if he only needed her because of her abilities.

But the truth was that she knew it herself; she couldn’t be the cause of a bloodbath. She had seen it in her vision, blood and destruction everywhere, David and Nicholas battling to the death, and she didn’t need to be told that something like that would only happen because of her.

These few months, she had been giving him different reasons to not be intimate with him because if they were going to make love with only their bodies without their souls, she didn’t want any part in it.

She had already seen how the man had an emotionless gaze anytime he had sex with her. Yes, what happened between David and her wasn’t lovemaking; it was just carnal sex, and the thought of giving him another excuse tonight after he had been gracing her chambers for the past week caused her to have a headache.

She didn’t know how he was going to react to that. Would he agree to leave her alone tonight also? The fact that she was still not pregnant after two years of marriage was also raising concerns.

’Maybe she could pretend she was sleeping... Yes, if David arrives and finds that she was already asleep, he wouldn’t wake her, right?’ Luciana thought and pretended to sleep.

She had just closed her eyes when she tensed up; the hairs on the back of her neck were already standing on end before the intruder’s hands clamped over her mouth to prevent any scream from coming out.

He had climbed into her bed and was hovering over her... He was on top of her.

Her heart thumped erratically in her chest as she wondered who would dare do this. She tried to lift her waist and forcefully overthrow the person, but his knees and weight made her attempt futile.

Her eyes flew open and she froze... "Nicholas?"