The faint chirping of birds, the golden rays of the sunrise, and the dewdrops on the green grass announced a new day. Luciana was finally catching some sleep after staying up all night.
Anytime she closed her eyes, she would see the lifeless body of her little prince, Authur, and Lady Evelyn's smiling face looking down at her as she twisted in pain and, finally, the palace of Serenevale up in flames that fateful day she had returned from the neighboring village. The day she became an orphan.
She tossed and turned and finally had some sleep when it was almost morning. She had not slept for even an hour before Dora came to wake her to soak in hot water for a while so that she could start preparing her to go and greet the elders. She had been sleepy, but as soon as she heard about greeting the elders, she became wide awake.
In her previous life, she was angry with Prince Nicholas; after everything she found out the previous night, she decided to do everything in her power to make the prince let her go.
With her hatred at its peak, she had refused to go and greet the elders, and Prince Nicholas had barged into her room, and they had an argument.
But since he was used to having his way, he had ordered the maids to prepare her, and she had been literally dragged to the palace very late and in a bad mood.
Due to her bad mood, she had said something out of line, and the Empress Dowager was very dissatisfied with her, especially with Evelyn intentionally fanning the flames. She was to be punished by receiving 30 lashes, and Prince Nicholas had pleaded to take the lashes on her behalf, but the Empress Dowager and the emperor, who had arrived just in time to witness everything, refused; Nicholas was the proud son of heaven. But her actions that day had inevitably harmed the prince in one way or the other.
It was Dora who had finally taken 50 lashes on her behalf instead of the 30. Luciana was incensed. Since then, she had harbored resentment against the Empress Dowager, and Lady Evelyn, with her fake, gentle, and respectful demeanor, had worn the old empress over.
But later, she realized that apart from Noble Consort Margaret, 2nd Prince David Hunt's mother, who was currently the emperor's favorite and held some amount of power in the palace, the Empress Dowager was the real deal. The emperor even had to give her face sometimes and would reluctantly agree to her requests even if she was out of line.
As for Noble Consort Margaret, because Nicholas's mother was sick since he was young for reasons Luciana had no idea about, she had raised Prince Nicholas as her son alongside Prince David, but Luciana had never paid attention to the fact that the relationship between Noble Consort Margaret and Nicholas was superficial.
Luciana didn't know all that and became chummy with Noble Consort Margaret in her past life, treating her as a mother-in-law. After all, who would benefit greatly if the firstborn son of the emperor and empress was out of the way?
These people had all used her as a pawn in their schemes against Prince Nicholas, and she had allowed herself to be used. So today, her first task was to win the Empress Dowager over.
"Gasp!"
"Your highness, there's blood on the sheets. Is it that time of the month? The prince had been in Lady Evelyn's courtyard since dawn. It couldn't be that the prince really..." Ruth, a maid who had been assigned to Luciana when she had arrived in Gloryland, said, intentionally leaving her words hanging in people's imaginations.
Princess Luciana had arrived in Gloryland 3 days before her wedding, but she wasn't allowed to stay with Prince Nicholas' manor since they were still unmarried. The head maid, Samira, had introduced her to two other maids, Ruth and Esther, to attend to her. Within these 4 days, Luciana had treated them like how she treated Dora, and Ruth was a very outspoken person.
After Luciana reminisced, she remembered why she felt as if she had forgotten something: Ruth was Lady Evelyn's spy in her last life; she was the one always talking about the affection between Prince Nicholas and Lady Evelyn in front of her at any chance she got and had caused her to believe Prince Nicholas had never really loved her.
She had also said something similar in her past life. She was part of the reason why her mood had been so bad that day; she had hinted at Prince Nicholas visiting Lady Evelyn's courtyard after he had abandoned her alone in her room with guards at her door.
"Are you stupid? That is proof that yesterday was Her Highness' first time," Dora said, glaring at Ruth; she didn't know why, but she immensely disliked Ruth.
As soon as Dora had finished speaking, the court ladies from the palace arrived and collected the sheets off the bed.
"Congratulations, your Highness, you have passed the virginity test," the court ladies said and bowed before retreating.
Luciana looked at everything in a daze; where had the blood come from? This scene didn't happen in her previous life; could it be that Prince Nicholas was giving her face and had arranged everything without her knowledge? She must properly thank him later.
"Hurry and get me ready; I don't want to be late," Luciana said, and the maids got to work.
~~~
Nicholas came out of his chambers, dressed in purple robes and giving an aura of a celestial being.
"Your highness, it's essential to proceed to the princess' courtyard now; it would be bad to keep the elders waiting," the eunuch said.
"I know, let's just wait a little longer; it's still quite early," Prince Nicholas said. The eunuch bowed, realizing that it was indeed very early.
Nicholas was ready to go to the palace with the princess, but he felt inexplicably uneasy. She had said she was going to accept her fate. 'But did she really mean it? Was she up to something? Her reaction yesterday was too suspicious,' he thought.
Maybe he should go and greet the elders alone and find an excuse for the princess.
And that is when a thought crossed his mind: her name. He didn't even know her name. Her name must have been mentioned during the wedding ceremony, but he had not attended.
Every time they met, she would tell him to keep count and that she would tell him her name when they met seven times; seven was her lucky number, she said, but she was just a liar. After their sixth meeting, he had never seen her again.
By the time he realized he had left the eunuch and his right-hand man, Peter, and was walking towards the princess's courtyard.
Panting and struggling to match the prince's brisk pace, Eunuch Paul felt like a fish out of the water as he finally caught up. Just as he was about to announce the prince's arrival, the prince waved him off with a dismissive gesture. In a commanding tone, he turned to the servants bustling around the princess and ordered,
"Leave us!"