How I Accidentally Built a Kingdom

You know that saying about nothing being as bad as a woman scorned?

Well whoever thought about that had never tasted the vengeance of a jealous woman who believed her husband had cheated.

And he... or she, whoever, had never, and I mean never, met a clearly very angry Julia.

You know those military instructors you always see yelling at their cadets to move faster, telling them how pathetic they are, and that they are worthless.

Telling them that they should just quit.

Well those people could learn a thing or two from my beautiful wife.

She didn’t yell.

She didn’t tell me to go faster.

She didn’t tell me that I’m pathetic.

All she did was look at me, and I’m telling you this right now, any man, no matter who he is, would give his absolute best if he got that look.

The pure... malice held in that gaze would make any man run as if his life depended on it.

I guess in my case my life might have depended on it.

It had been hours.

I had completely lost count of the number of times I had run to the village and back, or the amount of times I had lost some of my stomach contents along the way.

Disgusting you say?

You try sprinting hundreds of meters continuously with only short breaks after each pass.

And by short breaks I mean they were only long enough for me to receive another menacing glare from Julia.

I had thought that after about a couple of minutes of this.

And with enough suffering on my part, she might finally give in, forgive me, maybe even give me a nice long kiss, and then we could call it a day.

But that definitely didn’t happen.

Finally my body couldn’t handle it anymore.

With a final gasp for air I collapsed.

I hadn’t even come halfway back from the village on that run.

But my legs had felt like jelly, my lungs were nonexistent, and I had started to see stars in the middle of the day.

So I decided that maybe it was time to play the one card I hadn’t played yet.

I always tell you guys about my magnificent charm, and the sheer amount of charisma that I possess, but there is one thing that I haven’t told you about.

A skill so magnificent that it could blind most people.

A skill that could lead to forgiveness for most crimes.

A skill called... groveling.

I heard Julia’s steps approach me as I lay there on the ground trying to get air back into my nonexistent lungs.

"I guess you can have a few moments of rest before we start again." She said, in that same cold and distant tone of voice.

Now I might joke about how that was the worst part of my morning, but it really was.

The thought of her leaving me, or staying angry with me, or using that tone for the rest of our lives, scared the hell out of me.

"Honey... I’m... sorry" I finally got out between ragged breaths, looking up at those beautiful cold eyes.

She stayed silent for a while longer, just long enough for me to finally be able to get out full sentences at a time.

"I know I was wrong to look at her the way I did," I said.

"I know that I’m a complete idiot to even think about looking at anyone else but you."

"You know that I love you."

"I would never leave you for anything, or anyone."

"Only death would be able to take me from you, and I’d still put up one hell of a fight to be able to stay behind."

I kept rambling off apologies and telling her about my feelings for her, basically just telling her the truth about how I felt.

You see the most important thing about groveling, just like most things in a relationship, is complete sincerity.

As I was rambling on, and on, I could see the ice in those eyes slowly start to melt away.

"I’m sorry that I hurt you, I never again want to see the pain and sadness in your eyes that I’ve seen today." I finally finished off.

And finally, the warmth in the eyes of the woman I love came back.

Only then did that beautiful smile show up on her face again.

"Was that so hard?" She asked.

"Huh?" I couldn’t understand what she meant, did she only want me to beg?

"All I wanted you to do was apologise."

I was stunned by those words.

"I haven’t apologised?"

The smile on her face brightened up even more as she shook her head.

"Listen, I know that eventually I won’t be enough for you anymore but at least do your best not to bring any bitch into our family." She said, and once again I was flabbergasted

"How can you ever not be enough for me?"

"Because every man that reaches a certain status in this world tends to have more than one wife."

"Status? I’m not going to have any status, I’m just a bartender, and I’m perfectly happy with that," I said as I got up from the ground and walked up to her. "And I’m extremely happy to have you in my life."

I pulled her into my arms, at that moment I hadn’t even thought of how much I probably reeked.

I just wanted to feel her in my arms.

I held her for minutes, getting completely lost in the warmth of her in my arms, in the sweet scent of her hair.

That lasted until she stepped back from me, her previously warm smile turning a bit wicked and slightly... mischievous.

"Now don’t think just because I’ve forgiven you your training for the day is done."

"You mean that wasn’t all?" I asked, hoping beyond hope that she was only joking.

"That was only the warmup," She smirked.

I swear that in that very moment I almost dropped to my knees and cried like a baby.