Rebirth: The unfavored Princess is the Tyrant King's favorite

Nick?!" She yelled in a high-pitched voice, trying to sound surprised. But Prince Nicholas, who had already seen through her act and saw she was feigning surprise, began to laugh maniacally. 

"I'm not even surprised," he said. 

"You truly couldn't wait to kill me!" he added. Luciana realized everything was still playing out like her past life and realized there was no way to change his misconception on the first day. 

Besides, in her previous life, where she had been truly oblivious to his real identity for reasons unknown, Prince Nicholas was certain she was faking it, so she could only follow the script for today. 

After all, no matter what she said, a paranoid man like Prince Nicholas would never believe her anyway. 'But she must at least try. Maybe this time around, he might believe her, and this first misunderstanding could be prevented.'

"Why are you here? How did you know I was here?" She asked breathlessly, looking confused. This was exactly what she had said in her previous life. She had been surprised to find Nick in front of her.

Prince Nicholas, on the other hand, looked at her appearance and nearly believed her but had a reality check. 

'This liar,' he thought. 'She was still pretending.' He stared at her unconvinced and retorted, 

"You drugged the wine and wanted to kill me! What are you pretending for? Is it because I saw through your plans? Do you take me for a fool?" 

Luciana looked at him as if he had two heads. What was he talking about? And then she remembered; she had indeed drugged the wine. At that time, her thoughts were like, 'If the prince took a sip and was poisoned beforehand, her work would be even easier.' 

Also, at that time, all she was thinking about was killing the murderer of her parents, and she didn't even know the ordinary soldier Nick and the ruthless Prince Nicholas were one and the same. 

"You are the prince? You killed my parents and brother?" Luciana asked with tears in her eyes, following the same pattern in her previous life; this was the exact moment she realized the real identity of ordinary soldier Nick. 

"Stop pretending; you already knew everything!" He growled.

And from his actions, he knew she was a princess. When she realized that Nick knew she was the Princess of Serenevale and had still killed her parents, her anger and hatred were at an all-time high at that time. 

In her past life, she had been flustered with the mix of emotions running through her: anger, betrayal, hurt, love, and hatred. She had only realized his robes were royal robes after his words. 

She tried to show emotions according to the situation from that day; tears were falling down her face, which was full of anger and heartache. Except that the tears she was currently shedding were tears of joy. The joy that she was given a chance to change it all and the angry and fierce look in her eyes were a result of remembering everything that witch Lady Evelyn told her before she died. She was going to repay Lady Evelyn a hundredfold for every pain she had caused her.

"You wanted to kill me just a few seconds ago," Prince Nicholas said, his tone full of hostility and pointing to the dagger that was lying on the floor.

"It's because you killed my parents; you took away the life I was used to and my family from me! What did you expect?" She yelled. 

"I thought you loved me. Why did you do it?" She muttered, feeling sad and disappointed. This time she wasn't pretending.

'If he had not killed her parents, she wouldn't have hated him so much that she wouldn't even realize people were plotting against them. The thought of another woman raising her child and even killing him eventually caused her immense pain.' 

When Luciana had embarked on the journey to kill her parents' murderer, she had planned that after she succeeded in killing the prince, she would find Nick and marry him. The both of them could live simple and carefree lives in a small village somewhere where no one would know their identity. But it turned out that fate was so cruel.'

Nicholas' heart ached to see her broken and sad like this. She looked like someone who had suffered greatly, and he wanted to hold her and comfort her, but who knew if this was one of her tricks? She was a pretender and was using his emotions against him. 

"Don't think I will fall for your innocent act and forget what you just did. You tried to kill a royal, and you know the punishment for that, but since you dared to do it, don't blame me for being ruthless. I will make sure you are punished." 

Luciana looked at him in feigned surprise, acting scared. She already knew that he was bluffing; he had just wanted to scare her. But in her previous life, she had been outraged, thinking she was the one who was supposed to be angry and not the other way around; she felt indignant! He was the one who caused everything in the first place.

It was true she had gone to great lengths to kill him. She had traveled to Florendel and had bargained and sweet-talked the King of Florendel to adopt her and make her marry the prince in her daughter's stead. She had even gifted the king of Florendel a precious family heirloom just so he would agree for her to take the princess' place. 

It was ridiculous, however, because she later found out the king had swindled her; his daughter, Princess Genevieve, was never in agreement with the marriage. 

She was scared of marrying the ruthless prince everyone feared, so she cried to her father to cancel the wedding. 

However, the king was reluctant because he didn't want to provoke the Emperor of Gloryland, the biggest country, which had a lot of soldiers and large army supplies. He didn't want to go to war with a country like that; he was surely going to lose. So in a way, Luciana helped him out of something unpleasant. 

Luciana had gone through a lot of plans and had successfully married the prince, planning to kill him with the dagger that had been hidden in the large sleeves of her wedding gown when he was going to remove her veil. She was sure the prince had never met Princess Genevieve; she just needed him to be at a close enough range to stab him to death.

But surprisingly, Prince Nicholas didn't even give the emperor any face and had been absent from their wedding ceremony. She could only push her assassination plan to when he came into her chambers to consummate the marriage that night. But she realized belatedly that none of her elaborate plans could cause the prince any real harm. Her strength was like a mere ant compared to his unimaginable strength. 

In her previous life, she had become enraged, cursing at him and creating a ruckus when he said he would punish her, and implored him to let her go since she couldn't complete her task. Her exact words were, 

"No! You can't punish me; you must let me go! I deserve this much after you killed my parents!" 

But Nick had smirked, staring at her fearful face, and had asked her coldly, 

"Are you scared now?" 

There was a dark look on his face as he gazed at her with a menacing gaze and a wicked smile on his lips before adding,

"I would never let you go, and since you want to be my wife so badly, prepare to perform your duties as my wife." 

He declared tyrannically and had wanted to force himself on her to consummate their marriage, but she vehemently refused, hitting his nose with her forehead and causing him to bleed from his nose. 

Feeling angry, he got off the bed, walked towards the door, and snarled. 

"Guards!" some guards appeared and bowed 

"Your Highness," Prince Nicholas looked at Luciana, enunciating each word with full authority. 

"Guard the door and make sure the princess never leaves this room." He ordered and banged the door and left her alone. 

As Luciana was recalling those scenes from the past, she heard him repeating the same thing from her memory again.

"Are you scared now? I would never let you go, and since you want to be my wife so badly, prepare to perform your duties as my wife."