The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

Harold tried his best not to glance at the empty seat beside him or show the others around the table that he was concerned by the absence of his bride as he joined the rest of the family for breakfast that morning. Breakfast hardly felt like breakfast anymore whenever she wasn't there to cause trouble.

He distractedly listened to the chattering going on at the table as they all ate, but he barely touched his meal as he waited for the chattering to stop and for the king and queen to leave so that he could do the same. He needed to know what the royal physician had to say about Alicia's health. He was feeling very worried about it.

"Did something happen yesterday?" The king asked, since, like everyone else, he had also heard about how Harold had carried his wife to her bedroom, and now she was absent from the breakfast table.

Harold almost scoffed at the question. Hadn't the king been the same person who said that nothing concerning his son happened without his knowledge? How come he didn't know that he had been attacked?

Harold's gaze moved to the Queen, and then to Ivan, before shaking his head, "Nothing noteworthy happened," Harold assured the king.

He knew that both the queen and Ivan were probably expecting him to mention the attack that was made on his life, but he had no intention of doing so. He wanted them to keep trying to guess what had happened.

"So why is your bride not here? Did she decide to sleep in because she was too tired from the trip?" The king asked again.

"No. She is absent because she isn't feeling well," Harold supplied flatly, beginning to feel annoyed by the interrogation.

"I guess leaving the palace didn't help her health improve after all," the King said thoughtfully, while the others remained silent.

The Queen cleared her throat and spoke up. "Has the royal physician gone to attend to her to find out what is wrong?" The Queen asked no one in particular as she tried to look concerned.

"Yes, mother. I sent for him before coming for breakfast," Tyra answered in a timid voice.

Her mother spared her a glance before nodding in approval.

"Good. I suppose you have seen her? How bad is the illness?" The Queen asked curiously since Beth had reported to her the last time while being scolded that Princess Amber was faking her illness just so that she could skip her classes.

Beth had wanted to keep that from the queen, but seeing how Harold, whom she had reported to, did nothing about it, she decided she needed a better ally. Besides, she could not get over the fact that these princesses were treating her like she was trash. The good thing was that it seemed the queen believed her. Even if the queen didn't take any action, she had at least sown a seed of doubt in the queen's mind against Princess Amber.

"According to her maid, she has been sleeping since she returned last night. And even while I was there with Susan, she was unconscious and we caught Beth trying to drag her off the bed," Tyra informed her mother, making Harold's blood boil in anger, but he tried to hide it as he looked in the direction Beth usually stood. She wasn't there today.

How dare the slave girl try to put her hands on his bride despite all his warnings? She tried to drag her off the bed while she was feeling ill? He understood that she probably assumed that his bride was pretending to be ill once again since she had caught her the first time, but that gave her no right to disrespect his bride in that manner. Even if they saw his bride running around and she told them she was sick, then she was sick!

She doubted Beth would do something like that to Luciana, Tyra, or even Susan, so to whom did the arrogant maid think she was doing it?

"What? Why would Beth do something like that to her? Does Beth not realize who she is?" Luciana asked with a frown.

"She seems to think that Princess Amber is pretending to be ill," Tyra explained.

"Beth never treats her with respect," Susan added with a scowl. "She also tried to drag her out the other day when she skipped breakfast, despite how obvious it was that she was sick. If we hadn't shown up, we don't know what she would have done."

The queen stole a glance at the king and noticed he didn't like this kind of news.

"I will see to it that Beth is punished for this," the Queen said in a slightly pissed-off tone.

Why did Beth have to keep doing the things that she wasn't asked to do? Her only duty was to keep an eye on Harold's bride and tell them whatever was going on between the bride and the prince. But thus far, Beth seemed useless to her. She needed to be taught a lesson unless she wanted to make things difficult for herself.

The King's gaze moved to Harold, and he could tell that Harold was barely trying to control his temper, even though he was trying to conceal it. He was an alpha, after all. Any little change could be easily felt.

"Why don't you leave the punishment to Harold? After all, she is his bride, and it would be best if he used Beth as a scapegoat so that everyone else would think twice before disrespecting her. Or anyone else," the King suggested, and the Queen looked from him to Harold with uncertainty.

No matter what Beth did, she was still the daughter of her loyal servant. She couldn't trust Harold not to kill Beth.

"Your majesty—"

"I will take care of it," Harold said in an eerily quiet voice, interrupting the queen who was about to speak.

The queen looked at her son, Prince Ivan, who had been unusually quiet throughout the breakfast. He seemed to not like this idea either. Beth was their person.

As if sensing their mood, Harold promised. "I won't kill her."

That even made the queen and prince Ivan even more nervous on the girl's behalf.

"Good. Then we will leave it to you." The king said before he stood up and left the table with the queen behind him. This time, Prince Ivan stood up immediately, leaving before Harold even stood from his seat.

Ignoring all of them, Harold went to work.

That morning, everyone gathered around the windows, peeping at what was happening outside. No one could describe the kind of joy most of the maids and servants felt when they saw Beth in that position. It was no news that Harold was ruthless, but watching him watch the scene while sitting on a high chair and eating a black fruit that looked like an apple made him seem like an evil overlord.

Beth was tied around a pillar with a grapefruit on top of her head and her shoulders. Those fruits were the targets the new guards were supposed to strike with their arrowheads. The worst part was that the arrowheads had been coated with wolfsbane. That was to say if it succeeded in touching her, the pain was not going to be like other normal pains. It was going to be excruciating and take days to heal up. And if it touched any of her vital organs, she was going to die.

If she survived this session, she would have to graduate to the next punishment. If she survived the next, she would move on to the next until Harold was satisfied. She was probably going to die from high blood pressure before they were done.

Beth, as usual, kept a stony face. This just made her hate not just Amber, but everyone fond of that witch. She didn't cry or beg. She only promised to survive this because she was the one destined to kill Amber with her hands. When her gaze fell on the evil overlord, i.e. Harold, it softened. She wondered why he couldn't see how they were perfect for each other. She promised herself that one day, she was going to make him see it.

Seeing how she was staring at Harold, Alvin cleared his throat and informed his friend slash boss.

"She is... looking at you with love eyes." He whispered like a love guru, making Harold frown angrily as he raised his hands, letting the trainers start shooting one after the other.

Even though the slaves and maids disliked Beth with great passion, their hearts beat faster with every arrow that flew towards her whenever new fruits were placed on her head or shoulders.

By the time they were halfway through this round, Beth was crying from pain, and they could all see how fast her chest was heaving because, with every arrow flying towards her, she thought she was going to die. She couldn't keep up her strong woman persona as tears streamed down her cheeks. Never had she been subjected to this kind of humiliation before. No matter what, she was never going to let Alicia off. Not after such a public humiliation.