The Dragon King's Substitute Bride

Chapter 110

CHIIO

Tsuneo

I couldn't believe it. My own father, the king of the Dragon Empire, a king of the Celestial Realm, had been hiding.

Hiding from what?

"Why?" I asked, my voice filled with a mixture of confusion and anger.

My father took a deep breath, his eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and resignation.

"I... Shame, honestly."

"What?"

He didn't answer at first, as if he hadn't heard me. But then, slowly, he glanced at me, his eyes distant, unfocused. There was a sadness there, one that I hadn't seen before. It was unsettling.

I studied his face for a moment, the lines deeper than I remembered. His eyes, once so sharp and

calculating, seemed guilty.

He looked away, his gaze drifting back to the Pool. For a long moment, he said nothing, just staring into the water as if searching for answers. Finally, he spoke, his voice heavy with. something I hadn't expected-guilt.. "I dreamed of your mother."

The words hit me like a stone to the chest. It was as if I already knew what he was going to say. My mother was his phoenix, his equal in every sense. Her presence still lingered in this palace, in every room, in every corner of our lives, but I'd known when I first woke up and found out that she was considered dead that the only thing holding him on this plane was duty.

Duty did not make the heartbeat.

It was a line from a poem that he read to me often as a child. It was a poem about grief, written by an ancestor who

called himself A Husband Without A

Was it you?

a poem, it was simply a journal entry. The last one I

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voice colder than I intended. "You dreamed

real, as if no time had passed. We were... together again. I could feel her, hear her voice. For a moment, I thought I was dead. I thought I had finally gone to her." I clenched my fists, the anger rising in

wasn't a question. I could see it in

silence was all the confirmation I

his voice barely above a whisper. "I wanted to stay with her. It felt... peaceful. I had not remembered how... blissful it was to be with

a mix of disbelief and fear swirling in my chest. This was

had taught me to be strong, to fight for what was ours. And yet here he was, that he had wanted to abandon us all. He had never admitted it

going to stay

"For a dream..." His voice cracked. "I had thought I was dead until I woke up. It had felt the way you would imagine death... We were back in that meadow we met

up beside the casket. I woke up in the cavern, warm, with no knowledge of

asked, approaching

my heir though you are the youngest... Of all my wrongdoings and misteps... it was the knowledge of what would have happened to you in taking my seat that hurt the most... I couldn't bear it... I couldn't bear to face you as if nothing had happened, as if all I could think of in that moment hadn't been how easy it

never felt

head. "I have always taught you to face your

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run. To stay with her and drift into my

"Yet, you are here."

because I wanted to be," he

You could have ended

turned slowly toward me. My eyes

it, that you had a million plans to make it happen... I knew