Wife of The Demon Prince
Chapter 165: Battling with the heart and mind

Chapter 165: Battling with the heart and mind

Ara knew it wasn’t Hamon’s fault if he decided to take another woman as his second wife. Just like her, Hamon also agreed to the contract terms out of necessity, and he had been faithfully fulfilling his terms. It was her fault that her heart was uncertain. They were married before she realized that she liked him, and now that she was slowly opening up to these new feelings towards him, he was welcoming another wife before she could express her feelings to him properly.

’I don’t want him to remarry, I hate the idea of it...’

She’d been trying to cool her nerves countless times, she didn’t want to share Hamon with anyone. Her greed to keep him for herself had suddenly crept up unexpectedly, and she had not taken it to account when she first listed the contract terms. Her mission was to only protect her family and help him become king instead of Cornell, but now...

’Does that mean he will never be mine alone?’

A king had to secure his positon with many allies, which naturally led to marrying more than one wife. It was unheard of for a king to marry only one woman, unless in other cases when the woman had enough power to secure his position. Just like the current king, Frederick.

Ara wrestled with the idea of wanting Hamon to be the king, and also keeping him as her husband alone. However, no matter how much her heart protested the idea of a second wife, there was no way she could stop that. It was important for him to be king, and he needed more allies to reach to the throne. She just needed some more time to get rid of these feelings of wanting to keep him as her husband alone, and curb the desire of not wanting to share him with anyone else.

As Ara didn’t reply to Hamon’s earlier question and only spaced out in front of him, he glanced at her worriedly, "If there’s anything bothering you, just tell me."

"N-nothing, I am fine..." she couldn’t bring herself to confess that she feared him marrying another woman. What would he do or say if she told him that? He might take her as a selfish woman. She wasn’t powerful enough to help him, and she wouldn’t allow him marry another person who could help him. Of course, he’d think of her as a selfish woman.

A bitter smile spread on her face as she thought of it. Hamon’s eyebrows furrowed at her expression, he then gently stroked her chin with his thumb. She glanced at him startled by his sudden touch, "Hmm."

Hamon took in her troubled expression. He didn’t know what was bothering her, if there was one thing he knew about her so much; she liked to keep things to herself, she had never been open enough to tell him about her troubles, unless she was drunk. He spoke in a low voice, "Do you want a drink? We can drink together."

Ever since Ara drunkenly kissed Hamon and even asked him to sleep beside her, she’d been avoiding to drink again. And now that her feelings were all over the place, she wouldn’t want to do something stupid again.

"I am fine. I’m not distressed enough to need a drink today."

Hamon gave a nod of his head’ "Alright, but whenever you feel like drinking, you can call me at anytime, I’ll be your drinking friend." He’d let her drink only if he would be by her side, partly because he wouldn’t want a scenario where she would get drunk and lose control of herself, especially if she would be around someone else.

"Thank you for that." Ara said as she tossed her sword aside, then picked up small daggers and stood in front of a target. She knew how to use a sword and a crossbow even with her eyes closed, but she hadn’t mastered throwing daggers, she needed to do something to distract her from her thoughts.

Ara picked up a dagger, she made a target and threw the sharp dagger, it landed dead in the middle of the board. Each one she threw had the same results. She released her anger on the target board, while she also imagined the target to be her enemies. Cornell, Merona, Claire. She threw all the daggers until there was no room on the boards.

Hamon stood on one side with his hands behind his back in a tall and dignified posture as he quietly observed her. He could see she was releasing her anger on the boards. Moreover, he’d taught her how to use different weapons, but not how to throw daggers this good, he watched her with an interested expression.

Ara moved to the other side and picked a crossbow, she pulled the arrow in the string, but her worries about Hamon taking another wife suddenly came back to her mind, her focus got distracted. She wasn’t supposed to worry about him, she didn’t need to keep worrying about such matters.

As Ara was in her head instead of focusing on the crossbow. She pulled the string incorrectly, and it almost whipped into her face, but in a flash of speed, Hamon’s hand shot to cover her face with his palm, preventing the string from hitting her face, "H-Hamon!" she glanced up at him surprised, however he gave her a scowled look, "What is on that mind of yours? Look, you almost got hurt in the face."

Ara didn’t answer but quickly took his hand, "Is it hurting?" she inspected his hand. Though the spot that was hit had turned red, but the injury was not deep enough to bleed or cut through the bone. She looked up at Hamon in relief, "I am sorry, I wasn’t focusing when I drew the string."

"What? You are being careless, your beautiful face would have been bruised. Just like yesterday, you hit your head on the wall, you really seem to make me worry a lot these days, wife. What have you been thinking?"

Ara had hit her forehead on the wall yesterday, because she was staring at Hamon and was lost in thoughts, and even that minor hit was treated with so much care yesterday, but if she’d been cut by the crossbow string this time, the injury would have been serious. She couldn’t believe how she let herself make such clumsy errors these days.

"I didn’t realize it will shoot back at my face, it was a mistake."

"I am aware." Hamon remarked as he looked back at the daggers on the boards. He knew she rarely made mistakes when it came to targeting or weapons, "I know you normally don’t make such careless mistakes, even monkeys fall from the tree at times, don’t you think?" Ara nodded then said, "I am sorry about your hand."

Hamon saw no need for her to keep apologizing, he gently stroked her hair and spoke in a softened voice, "Whatever it is that is worrying you lately, let it go. And if you can’t do that, talk to me about it, I will take it away and give you the outcome you want."

Ara gave him an involuntary smile, if only he knew he was the main reason of her worries. However, one thing was more clear to her now, she was selfish, and was incapable of throwing away her greed that filled her heart. She wanted him so much, she wanted to keep him so badly.

Ara carefully took Hamon’s injured hand and bent on her knees in a gesture made when people formally gave their vows to their lords or king. Although as the crown princess, she needn’t perform such formality to the prince. She pressed her lips on his injured hand, then lifted her head and looked straight at him, her green eyes fixed on his without so much as a flinch,

"I won’t allow you get hurt because of me again, I will not let you worry again. I will avoid it at all costs." She vowed, her feelings for him would never change, even if he took in other wives. So she had to make a concession, she would help him become the king and be with him until he didn’t want her anymore. She didn’t know how long it will last for, but as long as he looked at her with such kind and warm gaze like he did now, and continued to be nice towards her, she’d live on with those memories. She would protect her family and also stand by his side regardless of whatever they would have to face in the future.

For a moment Hamon was frozen at her vow and gesture. However, he leaned down as if he could no longer endure her kneeling, he also went on his knees and hugged her, embracing her small body into his arms.

"Hamon...?!"

Despite Ara’s stunned exclamation and tensed body, Hamon did not move, but squeezed her tightly before speaking in a hoarse voice, "Why are you so sweet, wife?"

"It’s not supposed to come out sweet..." she muttered.

"Well, it sounded sweet to my ears, your words are so easy to fall for, but you are too difficult. It makes me wonder if you’d ever notice how much I feel for you."

"What?" Despite Ara’s curiousity, Hamon didn’t intend to explain and instead squeezed her body to his. Ara couldn’t help but speak up, "Hamon, please release me." If he didn’t move away, he would surely feel her rapidly beating heart. Even just by looking into his eyes would cause her heart to go crazy.

As Ara was about to push away from his tight hug, Hamon hissed, "Ow!"

"What’s wrong, Hamon. Are you hurt?" she asked worriedly.

"The hand that was hit by the crossbow earlier hurts so much now."

"Huh? It hurts? Release me so I can take a proper look at it."

"I would release you, but I can’t move at the moment." Despite his complaint of pain, he hugged her even tighter, "let’s stay this way until I can move my hand, wait a little longer."

Without another word of protest, Ara stayed still, she secretly inhaled his scent and simply relaxed into his arms. His solid chest and firm arms seemed to perfectly secure her. She could hear her blood pounding loudly in her ears as she carefully leaned her reddened face against his shoulders. Hamon’s hand carefully stroked her hair as she closed her eyes to relax. That small gesture was enough to make her feel like she had everything with Hamon by her side.