Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite-Chapter 25: Bane of her existence

The first one to arrive on the scene was Adam; he fixed Luciana with a condescending gaze, his displeasure evident. His gaze was filled with disdain, disgust, and suspicion as he stared at the visibly frightened Luciana.

He didn’t know why the prince was hellbent on keeping this suspicious princess close to him. After what happened in the empress’ courtyard today, he wished the prince would just keep this woman at arm’s length. Look at her; instead of staying put and not causing more trouble, here she was, messing around with Tiger.

Figures, since she was so stupid that her ploy to harm the empress’ was uncovered within a short time, why won’t she ignorantly go around and play with the beast? She was the true definition of ignorance is bliss; certain courage does come with ignorance.

Luciana felt like throwing up after seeing the mangled human-like meat in front of her and the bloody mouth and whiskers of the big cat as it bared its teeth at her.

She knew she had spent a lot of time in Nicholas’ presence today and that Tiger might have pounced towards her because she had Nicholas’ scent on her. Thankfully she had realized this in her previous life. Even though Tiger was violent, he treated Nicholas like a god, so if Nicholas’ scent was on you, Tiger wouldn’t harm you. Tiger even understood Nicholas’ commands and acted like a harmless kitten around him.

But who in their right mind raised a carnivorous beast as a pet? The people calling Nicholas ruthless and evil was an understatement; in her previous life, the first time she had seen the tiger, Nicholas had instructed it to attack a male servant who had been caught carrying a small bottle containing poison.

He tried to poison the prince, and he had been caught in the act, and he foolishly attempted to run. Luciana didn’t even know where the large orange furry beast came from; it pounced at the man, knocked him down, and instantly sank its teeth into the man’s neck, tearing a large chunk of flesh with blood spurting everywhere.

That day, Luciana had come face to face with Lucifer himself. She had called him a ’devil,’ and she had also foolishly tried to run away from there, but he would have none of it, and he caught her and dragged her back.

She had begged him to let her go. However, he never let go. When she continued to insist, he made her witness another bloody scene where he killed someone, in his fury, and her stomach churned so badly at the cruel scene that she fainted.

When she woke up, she was running a fever, and Dora was the one who had taken care of her, but he never came to check on her and also didn’t let her go no matter what. After seeing his cruel side so many times in her past life, how could she love him? He was the very bane of her existence.

As all those dark memories from her previous life began to flash through her mind, she felt like it was only yesterday. Luckily, it only lasted for a few seconds before she came back to her senses.

She tried to get up on her own and looked up only to lock eyes with a pair of cold eyes that sent chills down her spine. Nicholas stood in front of her in his signature black robes and slightly damp hair. His gaze became increasingly gloomy as he walked towards her like the king of hell about to cause destruction on earth.

Peter, who had also arrived at the scene, speechlessly stared at the princess consort; how did she end up on this side of the courtyard? He was so dead!

’Prince Nicholas was surely going to blame him for not watching over the princess consort, allowing her to wander to this part of the courtyard when it was Tiger’s feeding time. Who even names his tiger pet Tiger in the first place? Peter Focus, that is not the most important part; you are in hot soup!’ Peter inwardly chided himself.

Luciana tried to calm her racing heart and looked up at Nicholas with an aggrieved look on her face as if she had just survived a zombie attack. In a whiny voice like that of a neglected wife, she raised her hands toward him and cried pitifully,

"Carry me...sniff...I was very hungry and went out in search of food and got lost. I nearly fainted from hunger right now; are you planning to starve me?"

Peter: "..."

Adam’s eyes had never moved from the princess, who had been on the floor ever since he arrived. There was a tiger just a few inches away from her, but she was still thinking about food. How stupid was she?

Nicholas’ gaze deepened seeing how she looked scared but was still trying to act brave. But he realized even though she was scared, her reaction to meeting Tiger was far better than he thought. Was she that good at concealing her emotions? He thought and helped her get onto her feet and asked,

"Aren’t you scared of Tiger?"

"His name is Tiger?" Luciana asked back; it was as if she had no idea.

"Did you run out of names for it, or are you just not creative when it comes to naming your pet?" She asked, and Nicholas’ eyes flashed at the underlying meaning behind her words. Was she saying he wasn’t intelligent enough?

"Tiger, come over here," he said, and the beast obeyed, lazily walking towards him and yawning. Seeing it open its wide mouth as it approached. Luciana jumped onto Nicholas, hugging him for dear life. Even though she knew it wouldn’t harm her, knowing it and seeing one’s life flash before your eyes were two different things. She had seen how it effortlessly tore the flesh of its prey and crushed their bones several times; she instinctively feared the animal.

Nicholas’ lips twitched at seeing how she was now shamelessly throwing herself at him. A wicked smile graced his lips as he tried to pry her off him, but she held him tighter, her body trembling against him.

"Get him away from me," she cried.

Nicholas acted nonchalant and held her fingers, bringing them closer to Tiger’s nose to sniff.

"Nick, please don’t do this," she begged, trying to pull her hands away from his grasp. She nearly fainted as her knees gave out beneath her. He held her waist tighter to prevent her from moving and said,

"Stop moving. I just want him to smell you."

Tiger licked Luciana’s fingers, smelling the scent of his master on her. Luciana’s thumping heart gradually calmed down seeing how harmless Tiger was acting, but her fear of the beast still lingered.

When Nicholas realized she was calmer now, he patted Tiger’s head and said,

"Good boy."

Tiger became happy seeing his master was in a good mood and began to rub himself against his legs and licked his fingers.

"Let’s get you something to eat," he said and carried her away.

That was when Luciana realized they had an audience: Adam, Peter, and even Paul. She felt like disappearing from there, seeing how she had embarrassed herself a moment ago. She saw Adam for the first time after her rebirth, and she saw the same look in his eyes.

She didn’t know why, until his death, Adam had never liked her. He felt she was not good enough for the prince and never hid his disdain for her. He was a very skilled swordsman and had saved Nicholas with his own life during an ambush. Seeing how loyal he was to Nicholas, she planned on getting on his good side in this life, but that wouldn’t be before angering him to death for looking down on her in her past life.

~~~

Nicholas placed Luciana on a chair in the dining room, and the maids began to serve the meal. The scent of the food wafted through the air, causing Luciana to swallow her saliva. She was waiting for Nicholas to have a seat so that they could begin to eat when he asked her a question out of the blue.

"Why did you go to that side of the manor? What were you looking for?" Luciana saw his questioning gaze, and her heart skipped a beat.

’Why did it sound like he was interrogating her?’