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

simply called himself A

Was it you?

Tarofu said. Though it was not a poem, it was simply a journal entry. The last one I made before I left to the

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voice colder than I intended. "You dreamed of

her. In the dream, it felt so 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 me without warning. And

question. I could see

silence was all the

wanted to stay with her. It felt... peaceful. I had not remembered how...

mix of disbelief and fear swirling

who 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

to stay

woke up. It had felt the way you would imagine death... We were back in that meadow we met as if we had all

woke up beside the casket. I woke up in the cavern, warm, with no knowledge of how long I had been down there, and the guilt hit me so hard

approaching

have failed you. For what I've allowed to happen. I've watched as my children. turn on one another... You had to kill two of your siblings, Tsuneo... I've made you 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

head. "I had never felt so inadequate as a

shook his head. "I have always taught you to face your failures,

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I... I was so prepared to run. To stay with her and drift into my next life... The shame for wanting to abandon you.

"Yet, you are here."

wanted to be," he

could have

toward me. My eyes stinging as I

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