Transmigrated Into The Body Of The Cursed Prince Wife-Chapter 26: Poison

The main palace was a massive structure divided into several parts, each section belonging to one of the Emperor’s consorts, where they lived with their children.

Each part was as grand as a noble mansion, large enough to house hundreds of people. These sections were named after the respective consorts, and like every other consort, the late Consort Lyria—Lucian’s mother—had her own residence. His room had been located there, and it was where he had lived until he was exiled from the palace.

Consort Lyria’s residence boasted the most beautiful garden among all the consorts’ quarters, as she came from a kingdom where planting flowers and dancing were cultural pillars. Before she passed away, she spent most of her time tending to the garden, planting and watering flowers with her maidservant, while little Lucian watched in amusement as his mother seemed to make the flowers magically glow just by touching them.

Just like his mother, he had cherished spending time in that colorful garden, listening to the birds sing along with the wind. However, now he crouched in that same garden where everything his mother had ever planted had withered into nothingness, leaving the soil darkened and barren. Even the trees that once bloomed with fragrant flowers were dead, dried up, and devoid of life—just as he now suffered in silent agony.

The garden was eerily quiet and dark, the only light coming from the moon that bathed everything in a creamy glow. The only sound he could hear was his own ragged breathing as he tried to breathe through the unbearable pain in his chest.

He was crouched down in the middle of the withered flowers, his right hand clutching his chest and his other hand pressed flat against the rough ground. When he coughed, a drop of blood fell from his mouth to the ground, where he stared at it with a blurred vision.

He would have preferred death over enduring this excruciating pain. Apart from the torment he suffered every first and second day of full moon nights, Lucian had been enduring another kind of agony every night since the day he married Selene.

He might have kept wondering what was causing such intense pain in his chest if he hadn’t followed her to that inn and overheard everything she did with Caelan, and what they had discussed.

He was being poisoned. He had been poisoned before and survived with nothing more than a slight discomfort, but this time was different. The pain never left, no matter how hard he tried to endure it. It would come and go every night, tormenting him for hours.

His entire body felt like it was on fire, as though flames were consuming him from the inside out, melting his heart slowly with the heat of lava. The pain was so severe that he could barely breathe.

"Your Highness, I’ve got your medicine!" Zane’s voice rang out as he ran into the garden, clutching a small bottle of medicine in his hand.

When he reached Lucian, he hastily uncapped the bottle and handed it to the prince, who took it with shaky hands and gulped it down in one go.

They had tried to find a cure for the poison after discovering the source of his nightly suffering, but it was like searching for a needle in molten lava. None of the physicians knew what kind of poison he had been fed, and they had been unsuccessful in finding a cure. All they could provide was a painkiller that helped to dull the agonizing pain.

Lucian always made sure to take the medicine before the pain struck at night, but tonight had been different. The Emperor had forbidden them from returning to his palace until the investigation into his intentions for training his own soldiers was completed.

He couldn’t leave his mother’s part of the palace, as the Emperor had placed guards to keep watch over him. However, Zane had known he would need the medicine and had risked his life to sneak into the main palace where guards were stationed at every corner. Thank goodness Zane was skilled at blending into the night and had made it here without being seen.

Zane watched as Lucian’s body shook violently after taking the medication. It was as if the medicine was battling the poison within him, causing his body to convulse until he collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily, his shirt drenched in sweat.

After several minutes of silence, broken only by the distant sounds of crickets and night owls, Lucian weakly sat up, his head bowed low, his damp hair hanging over his face.

"Are you alright?" Zane asked with concern, kneeling in front of the prince out of respect as it would be disrespectful to stand over him while he was seated on the bare ground.

Lucian nodded, and after a moment of silence, he asked, "Are they still searching my palace?"

"Yes, they were still searching when I snuck out. Roland, the first prince’s guard, is in charge of questioning the guards in your palace," Zane informed him. "It’s a good thing you were smart enough to suggest we train the main soldiers you plan to use for the rebellion at a faraway camp. If we had trained them in the camp within your palace grounds, the Emperor would have found out by now."

Lucian was silent for a moment before he opened his mouth and replied calmly. "I knew there were spies among the people in my palace, apart from Selene, and today’s incident confirmed it. The spy reported my training of fifty soldiers in my palace to the Emperor," he said, rising to his feet as he felt a sliver of strength returning to his body.

If the Emperor or the Empress thought they could stop him from rebelling by keeping a close watch on his movements, they were gravely mistaken. Each one of them would pay for the pain they had caused his mother before her death, and for the way they had treated him until now.

He was going to become so powerful that no one could trample on him again. The entire Empire would pay dearly for his suffering. The palace would be his, and he would make them all watch as he took control of what they held most dear—their royal blood. He would make them all his slaves, especially those twin sisters, whom he planned to sell off to whoever was interested in them for their foul-mouth.

And Selene... She would be forced to watch the man she claimed to love bow down to him. He had kept her alive for one reason—to watch him take the throne she had tried to kill him for. Once he became the almighty Emperor, she would no longer be of any use to him.

"I saw her with him again when I was coming here," Zane reported, even though Lucian hadn’t asked. He didn’t have to mention names because he knew the prince knew exactly who he was referring to—Selene.

Zane had passed through the corridor where he had seen Princess Selene and a maid standing with the third prince. He had watched the prince pull her into a nearby room before locking the door. If it were up to Zane, he would have killed the princess long ago for what she had done to the second prince, but because he cared enough for the second prince who was more like his friend, he hadn’t done anything to her, yet.

Upon hearing this, Lucian showed no visible reaction, but his teeth clenched tightly. Of course, he wasn’t surprised. Tonight was the perfect opportunity for her to meet with her lover and enjoy his company behind closed doors while Lucian suffered through the poison she had fed him.

Just as he had suspected, her strange behavior of suddenly supporting him in the dining hall had been nothing more than a façade, another ploy she had concocted to deceive him.

Though he hated to admit it, for a brief moment in the dining hall, he had thought Selene might have genuinely meant to side with him. The way she had talked back to the Empress and even glared at Caelan—when in the past, she would have blushed while stealing glances at him—had made him believe, if only for a fleeting moment, that she had turned over a new leaf after her accident.

But he had been wrong. And even if she did change now, it was too late. She had become one of his enemies, and she would suffer like the rest when the time came.

Lucian looked up at the full moon with a bitter expression on his face. "She has chosen her path, and it is a path that diverges from mine. Let her enjoy her time with her lover while it lasts because these days will be the ones she looks back on with regret or longing when I took everything away," he said before turning his gaze from the moon to Zane.

"I’ll head back to my chamber. Since she’s with her lover, I’ll sleep in the chamber until tomorrow," he said, patting Zane’s shoulder. "You should head back before you get in trouble for being here." He then walked back inside the palace, leaving the barren garden behind, with Zane watching his retreating figure, wishing there was a way he could make Selene suffer more for the pain she had caused the prince.

Lucian walked down the familiar darkened corridors of Consort Lyria’s residence which had once been a bright paradise when his mother was alive. She had hated darkness and ensured that every corner of her residence was lit with candles and cleaned spotless, but now, everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. The only light came from the moon spilling through the windows and balconies.

Despite his will, he recalled the days when he would take Selene on a stroll around the garden, following the same path he was now walking, her giggles filling the air. She would carry a small basket, plucking flowers and weaving them into crowns. Since she had come from the Gina kingdom, just like his mother, she had loved flowers, and he had loved her for that.

But that same flowery girl had turned into someone he barely recognized now, with a soul so tainted it was beyond redemption. She hadn’t just betrayed him by sleeping with his brother behind his back, but she had gotten pregnant with Caelan’s child and then killed it before it ever had a chance to come into the world.

Every time he thought about that, his hatred for her grew deeper, and his disgust became more intense. The knowledge that she was probably basking in Caelan’s arms at that very moment filled him with such anger that he hated himself for still being affected by it.

He wished he could escape to the forest and run in his beast form until he could no longer think of her betrayal or her existence. But he was trapped within the palace, and the only escape left was to force himself to sleep, hoping to shut out the painful memories.

However, the moment he entered the room, expecting to find it empty as Zane had said Selene was with Caelan, he was taken aback, shock rendering him momentarily motionless. There she was, in the room.

But it wasn’t just the fact that she was there that startled him—it was the sight of her standing on the window frame in nothing but her chemise, arms spread wide as if she were ready to fall face-first to the ground below.

Lucian’s legs moved before he could even think, driven by pure instinct, as he watched her throw herself out of the window.