The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 114. Forgive me... Again

Chapter 114: 114. Forgive me... Again

"Apparently, a part of your kingdom was being attacked by goblins."

"What! Goblins?! That is impossible. We have not had a goblin invasion or attack for over five centuries." Neriah said with her eyes wide open.

"That much is true, but it seemed the goblins had found a certain way of countering the magic powers of the elves. So they no longer feared death and were invading the small villages and communities."

"W_what?! How come I never heard of such before now?" She looked mortified and he could understand the expression on her face too. The goblins were known to be ruthless uglies who plundered kingdoms, raided small villages and communities, killing me and capturing the women to their goblin king. They were known for rape and massive murders. If she had heard about the goblins, then he was certain that she would hate them as much as she hated him and his people. Wait... Maybe even more.

"I cannot answer that. But as far as I know, you had not been attending to matters of the court because you were not of the right age yet. And I believe your father and mother did not want their princess to hear of such horrors, so they must have restricted the kind of information that would go around you and the people around you."

She was silent for a while, like she was thinking of a thousand things all at once. He wondered what those things were. If only he could get her to say the words, not just let them run around in her head.

"So, how did you help?" Her eyes had dropped yet again, much to his disappointment.

"Your father knew that the tragonians had a secret weapon that had kept the goblins away from our territory for a long time, so he asked that we give him that weapon in exchange for the Avelian secret cure to the plague."

"Let me guess, because both kingdoms were giving away secrets to help each other, our marriage was to strengthen the bond between the kingdoms? A way to show that both kingdoms will keep being in close relation together, helping each other when necessary? Is that it?" She was smart, he always knew that fact, it was not surprising that she had realized the conclusion to everything.

"Aye." He nodded.

"I did not know about all this." She muttered and her brows furrowed, her hands crossed over her chest and her fingers were starting to pinch her arms. She was doing it again. Barak had noticed, whenever his wife was troubled, or nervous in any way, she began to pinch herself. It was a bad habit that needed to be broken. He didn’t like her hurting herself.

"You must have found me very annoying, considering that you were willing to do something important like taking such a big step into marriage for the sake of your entire kingdom, while I threw a tantrum because of my personal feelings." Her fingers pinching her arm were digging deeper and deeper into her arm that he had no idea when he reached for her hand, only to halt as she suddenly jolted and screamed.

He could not take it anymore.

He did not withdraw his hand this time around, instead he held both her hands in his.

"Please, don’t." She was begging when he wasn’t even doing anything to her. Lords! He hated himself. He always thought she was brave and unshakable. Who would have thought that he barbaric launch at her would turn her into such a shivering mess.

He always wanted to break her, her pride, her lying tongue, her sense of always being right, he wanted to break her completely... But he never meant to hurt her.

He suddenly pulled her into his arms, hugging her, burying his head into her neck. "Neriah, about that night..." He paused and sighed deeply, "Forgive me." He finally said it. He just could not take seeing her like that. He’d rather she returned to the crazy woman who was always screaming back at him, arguing with him. Not a scared shadow of her usual self.

Gently he broke the hug and held her shoulders, a soft almost nonexistent smile curled up his lips as he stared at her and saw she was staring back at him.

"I did not mean to behave that way with you. I know I have no excuse for what I did and all I can do is shamelessly ask for your forgiveness. But Neriah, please... Forgive me. I was wrongly blinded by anger, I treated you like I was some sort of possessed animal, and I almost forcefully and roughly did that with you. I was stupid. Forgive me...Please."

He could suddenly feel her shoulders trembling and he thought she was building up a strong mighty bawl and he had no idea what to do. How was he supposed to stop her if she started crying? What was he supposed to do?

He was about to pull her into a hug when his eyes suddenly caught something like a smile growing bigger and bigger on her lips, until it erupted into a loud cachination.

What was going on?

"Neriah? A_are you sane?" He had to ask but her laughter only grew louder and louder to the point that there were tears falling out of her eyes. She laughed and slapped her hands on her thighs like a mad woman and his hands slowly fell off her shoulders.

"Oh dear goddess forgive me, but I cannot help it." She said between laughs. What was really wrong with her? Had his wife actually, truthfully gone mad?!

She rose to her feet and walked a little distance away from him, while still trying to quell her laughter, "Oh dear husband," She smiled and although it was a beautiful smile, Barak could see the wickedness in them and his head was already starting to readjust the bits and pieces and his lips were falling open as he was starting to realize—

"I knew I could make you beg for my forgiveness."

He had been conned!!!