Wife of The Demon Prince
Chapter 276: Lonely days

Chapter 276: Lonely days

The next time Ara opened her eyes again after the beating she received from Cornell, she found herself in a gloomy dungeon with only a small window, that was up high close to the ceiling, where the small ray of light illuminating the place was coming from. The dungeon had no iron bars, but a completely closed off solid rusty metal door.

Ara pushed her upper body off the cold stoned floor and sat upright. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she pressed her hand to it.

"...baby are you still there?" She murmured despite the soreness in her dry throat, which made her voice sound hoarse. She had not been given any food nor water ever since she was brought here, and because she was badly beaten by Cornell, she was still in a lot of pain, all the muscles in her body ached badly, especially her head where Cornell had pushed her against the pillar. And the way he had beaten her, it made her fear a potential miscarriage.

Fortunately, she did not find any trace of blood on her lower part, but of course, she could not confirm that her baby was alright based on this alone, but she felt instinctively that her child was still alive.

"You are just as strong as your mama and papa, my child. You endured the harsh beating, you did well my baby. You did well..." tears formed in Ara’s eyes as she cradled her stomach. She wished she could see her baby so that she could shower it with praises and kisses, but there was no other way to express her feelings.

If she were alone, she would have taken all the torture without any fear, but now, she wasn’t. Even if she faced the most severe torture, she had to endure it all and protect her child as much as possible.

Ara’s eyes suddenly fell on a bowl sitting in front of the tightly closed iron doors. "Ahh." She pushed herself up from the ground, but let out an involuntary pained cry as her body ached like hell. Thus, she crawled on her hands and knees to the bowl of thick porridge instead. There was no warm steam coming from it and seemed to have been kept here for a long time, however, that did not matter to her at the moment.

Ara picked up the bowl with shaky hands and hungrily began to eat the thick cold porridge. Only after she had eaten half of it, did it occur to her that the food might have been poisoned. But then she thought, Cornell would never kill her by poison, since it seemed he still needed her for whatever plans he had. Thus, she picked up the bowl again and tried to eat more, but swallowing it seemed more difficult now. Her stomach seemed unused to taking in much food after a long time of starvation.

Ara decided to keep the food for later, as she needed food to survive as well. Long time starvation during pregnancy was dangerous, and if the chance to escape arose, she had to be physically strong to be able to do so.

Ara sat back down and leaned her back against the cold wall, but suddenly her stomach turned and a wave of nausea rushed over her, and she quickly clapped one hand over her mouth. She could not afford to show any signs of pregnancy to Cornell, if he came to know about it, she did not know what might happen.

Hamon was the king now, and his child would continue his bloodline on the throne. Cornell might use their child to his own advantage if he found out about her pregnancy, thus she had to try her possible best to hide any signs while she was still locked here.

Ara set aside the half eaten porridge bowl to it’s original place, and slowly lay down on the stone cold floor, using her hands to support her head. She curled her body in a ball as the cold in the dungeon was starting to feel unbearable. She could feel it in her bones. She might not know for how long she had been in the dungeon, but she could tell it was morning from the sounds of the birds and also the biting cold.

Memories of her last life began to flash to her mind. The times when she had no place to go to and would sleep on the cold street, somehow this moment felt just like those days in her past life when she was deeply lonely.

Even the past several peaceful days at the palace felt like some distant memories. Her loneliness gnawed at her heart, and all her happy days with Hamon after her marriage, and also the days with her family before her marriage felt like a dream from a long time ago as she lay down in the dungeon.

At this situation now when the stone could take back what it gave after it dies, everything started to scare her. All she ever wanted was to keep her family safe, but now everything seemed to be going wrong.

Ara smiled bitterly as she imagined a rosy future, where she lived happily with Hamon and their child by their side. Before, as long as her family were going to be safe, she would easily throw away her life...

But now, she couldn’t do that, the thought of dying alone, made her heart heavy with bitterness, she was afraid that she would never see Hamon again.

"...I shouldn’t have allowed him go to Bredon." At least if she had stopped him from going, they would have spent all these days together before her time comes. Or she should have made him send an envoy instead of going himself, now remorse and regret filled her heart.

She missed him so much, she missed the affectionate gaze that he drifted only to her, and also the whispers of love he would press gently to her ears, his smile, his hold, even his kisses, and the warmth that comes from his embrace. She missed everything about him.

"Hamon, where are you? Do you know I’m waiting for you to come and bring me out of this lonely dungeon, it’s cold and lonely...Hamon." Ara drew her knees up to her chest, as tears streamed down her eyes uncontrollably as she sobbed silently in the dungeon.

--

Meanwhile, back in the palace inside Hamon’s study room, after he learned about his wife not being in Findara anymore, he began to smash down every single item in the study room. All the furniture were scattered around, and some were even broken.

"hhaa!" He angrily flung away the book stand, he did not stop until everything was in a bad shape. However, this had happened last night when he returned from his search for his wife and did not find her, he had scattered their chamber as well, so the people inside the palace were no longer surprised to hear the loud noise of items falling and clashing in the study room.

After he was done scattering all the items, he ran his clawed hands into his hair in frustration, before he sucked in a rough breath to calm himself. Ever since Ara’s disappearance, he hadn’t been able to transform back to his human self, it was only a small demonstration of how deep his anger was, and without calming down, he wouldn’t be able to turn back.

Oliver, who was reporting to Hamon stood tensed the whole time he was destroying the items. He cleared his throat to resume with his report, "...there’s one more thing, your majesty." He said, but Hamon did not speak, so Oliver continued, "Her majesty is carrying a child, it was confirmed by the royal physician the day we went to Bredon..."

Hamon stood frozen after hearing that. He did not move nor speak for some time as if to take in the information. "She is pregnant...?" He murmured. His deep red eyes blazing with fury earlier turned downcast, as pain and defeat slumped his shoulders. He had been worried sick about what condition she might be in, and now knowing she was pregnant...

Although, he felt concerned for their unborn child, but he was more worried about his wife’s condition than anything else. If he was forced to choose between the two, he would pick his wife without hesitation. But now that Ara and their child’s life were linked together, the thought was even more painful. He could not imagine what she must be going through at the moment.

How was she coping with the pregnancy? What if she was being tortured? Her whereabout was still unknown. And It was obvious that whoever took his wife wanted to get to him. But then, he had trained Ara in a way he had never trained any of his soldiers before. She was strong and brave and wouldn’t allow herself to be captured so easily...

She was someone who wouldn’t be taken so easily, and the fact that she was captured only meant the people who took her were powerful.

Hamon slowly lifted his head and glanced towards Oliver, "My wife has been missing for days now, and we don’t have any clue which kingdom she was taken to...I can’t stay back in Findara any longer."

He did not want to think about it, but what if his wife had been killed? But then, even if she was still alive, what kind of treatment was she receiving? Surely hostages were ment to be tortured...And with her condition, what if she lost the child? That would only worsen her health!

Hamon’s red eyes blazed murderously, "Gather all the forces of Findara, we shall go in search of that bastard Cornell, if we don’t find him...I will kill every single one of his family members in Zari until I find my wife!"