Ave's stomach growled loudly as she paced around the room, clutching her abdomen while waiting for Lydia, who had left almost twenty minutes ago to get her dinner but with no sign of her return.
She was never the kind to hold off hunger; one could call her a foodie who loved delicious meals and ate as much as she could find. She was the type to eat and never gain weight.
What sort of a princess wasn't served a meal after going through a near death experience? Selene had been unconscious for two days and yet when she woke up, no one had brought her anything to eat nor were there any family members to visit her.
What kind of a princess was Selene?
The thought of eating alone at this moment made Ave's stomach growl even louder.
"Great. I've landed in an ancient hell, and now I'm being starved to death." She scoffed as she was about to go out and see what was taking Lydia so long to bring her food.
But before she could reach the door, Lydia entered the room in a hurry, looking worried and slightly out of breath.
Ave looked from her empty hands to her concerned face, and then she ran towards the door and looked left and right down the chamber hallway. Seeing that there were no signs of the other maids carrying trays of several delicacies as she'd envisioned while waiting for Lydia, she began to laugh manically as it seemed like she might commit murder before she got back to 2024.
"Are...are you all right, Your Highness?" Lydia asked in concern as her mistress had never laughed in such an ill-mannered way before.
Ave's laughter ceased immediately. "Where is my food, Lydia?" She asked calmly, looking at the concerned maid with a smile that looked forced out of a starving woman.
'You better tell me it's on the way here, because I might end up eating everyone alive here,' Ave thought.
"Your Highness... There is no food in the palace..." Lydia said nervously.
Ave didn't say anything for a whole second as she thought she'd heared wrong before she chuckled again. "What do you mean there is no food in the palace? There's got to be something for a princess to eat. Take me to the kitchen so—"
"The prince has forbidden the kitchen staff to cook for the next two days, Your Highness," Lydia announced, falling to her knees again with her head bowed.
Ave's eyes widened in horror. "Two days?! Who does that? Who forbids food?"
"The second prince, Your Highness. He ordered it..."
'Wonderful. Just perfect. I end up in a weird ancient world with the face of the woman I hate the most, and now I'm being starved by a man who looks like he could kill me with a glare. Fantastic.'
Whatever was going on in this palace, she didn't want to be a part of it. The prince seemed ready and determined to punish his wife by starving her to death, but Ave wasn't going to take a punishment meant for Victoria's ancestor, and she definitely wasn't going to stay another day in this era to suffer when she could eat whatever she desired at home.
She'd wanted to have a taste of the food here so she could have something to talk about once she went back home, but it seemed that wouldn't be possible now that the husband had forbidden his wife.
Poor thing would have to starve for two whole days. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
"Alright, I've had enough of this ancient bullshit. Come take me to this window I fell off of, it's time to get some magic happening!"
Lydia's eyes widened in horror, and she hurriedly stood up and closed the entrance door. "Your Highness, we can't use magic, it's forbidden. We will be beheaded if anyone hears you," she whispered softly, looking around to see if there were any other maids around to report the princess's words.
Ave scoffed unconcernedly, "Why are you looking around when it's just us in the room? Relax, I didn't mean literal magic, and besides if I had magic, I wouldn't—"
"Your Highness, you can't say the word!" Lydia panicked in fear of her mistress's words getting to the wrong person. Though her mistress wasn't always nice to her, she wasn't that bad to her, and she would never wish her harm in any way.
"Why?" Ave raised a brow.
"It's forbidden. If anyone hears you, you will be in trouble."
"Even though I'm the princess?" She asked, not taking the maid's words seriously.
Lydia nodded and explained the consequences to her mistress, who had seemed to forget a lot of things due to her accident.
Magic, even just the word, was forbidden to say not to mention performing it. It was believed that only witches were associated with that word, and if you were caught saying it or using it, you'd be killed along with your entire family and bloodline.
"That's some kind of messed up shit," Ave muttered to herself. Then sighing loudly, she shrugged, "But then it's none of my business." Then she jerked her head to the door. "Take me to the window. I need to go home and eat."
"You can't step out of the second prince's palace, Your Highness..."
"Why?"
"His Highness has forbidden you from stepping out and there are guards outside the entrance to stop you..."
"Oh no, he didn't!" Ave said, already running out of the chamber. Nobody stops Aveline Eamon from doing what she wants, and not even some cursed prince can do that!
Well, he sure did. Because a few minutes later, Ave was back in her chamber after being threatened by bulky soldiers with long, heavy, sharp swords that glimmered under the lamps.
Ave couldn't believe her misfortune. She'd thought it would be easy to escape this nightmare now that she'd figured out a way out, but it turned out to be getting worse with each passing second.
Not to mention she was starving. She wouldn't be able to think properly without eating.
What kind of life was this ancient Victoria living? Wasn't she a princess and had the right to order all the guards and servants around? But why does it seem the other way around?
Unable to hold her hunger any longer, Ave started to search the room for anything edible, opening drawers, cabinets, and even checking behind curtains.
"There's got to be something. Anything! I'd even eat a crumb from the floor at this point."
Ave's stomach growled again, louder this time.
Cursing under her breath, she gave up her search and placed her hands against her hips looking around her nightmare.
"If I ever get out of this nightmare, the first thing I'm doing is eating a whole pizza by myself. This is a cruel and unusual punishment. Does he think he could get away with this if I were his real wife?" She let out a scoff.
Lydia had left the chamber a few minutes ago promising to find her something to eat, and as promised, the girl sneakily returned. She looked around nervously, then quickly pulled a small piece of bread from her dress front pocket.
Ave's eyes widened at the sight of the unenticing bread, but because she was starving, she rushed forward to it as Lydia whispered,
"Your Highness, here. It's not much, but it's all I could manage to sneak."
However, before Ave could take it, the door burst open and a tall, imposing man in an attire that looked different from the rest of the royal guards Ave had seen so far, walked in. Though he wasn't as scary as the second prince, his presence also screamed authority and his hazel eyes were as hard as stone. When he looked from the bread suspended in Lydia's hands to Ave's, and then glared at her, she felt a nervous shiver down her spine.
But then she wouldn't be Aveline Eamon, aka Emon, who feared no man in the modern day if she allowed herself to get intimidated by men in an ancient era.
She could already anticipate his next movement, thus, before he could move forward to grab the bread, Ave had moved to take it toward her mouth, but she wasn't fast enough because he grabbed it before it could reach her mouth.
He jerked the bread to pull it away from her, but Ave tightened her hold on it and met his glaring hazel eyes in challenge as she jerked it back.
"Are you dense? Who the hell are you to even dare grab my bread?!" She questioned defiantly.
Her actions and words made Lydia and the rest of the maids crowding the entrance gasp in disbelief and shock. She hadn't just challenged the all-feared Zane, who was known to be as terrifying as the second prince, but had even called him dense!
Didn't she know he could rip her head off and the prince would say nothing about it?!
Zane was taken aback, but he didn't show his surprise in his expression as he tightened his hold on the bread. He wasn't just surprised that Princess Selene, who had once told Prince Lucian to get rid of him because his mere presence terrified her and made her feel uneasy, was now dragging bread with him.
She had never had the courage to speak to him but would say all sorts of things to the second prince behind his back just so Zane would be banished from the palace. But now she seemed to have the courage to challenge him and even look him in the eyes with a daring glare.
"I cannot let you eat anything under my watch, Your Highness. Let the bread go," Zane said calmly, not wanting to disrespect the princess despite his strong dislike towards her.
Rolling her eyes, Ave scoffed. "Really? You're guarding the bread now? You must be kidding me." She said, tightening her hold on the only food she knew if she were to let it go, she'd have to starve until she found her way back home. "The only way you can snatch this piece of bread from me is by using that sword of yours!"
"As you wish, Your Highness," he said, and to her surprise, he used his free hand to pull out his sword. In a blink of an eye, where he'd taken Ave by surprise and she'd let her grip on the bread loosen due to shock, he'd snatched it away from her hand and flung it up, and before she could react, he'd swiftly cut the bread into tiny little pieces with his sword even before it touched the floor.
If it were under normal circumstances, Ave would have been awed by his swordsmanship skills, but her last hope of food was cut into pieces!
"YOU ARE DEAD MEAT!!" She pounced at him before he saw it coming.