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

himself A Husband Without A

Was it you?

was not a poem, it was simply a journal entry. The last one I made before I left to the sacred lands and our

1/4

CHO

I asked, my voice colder than I intended. "You

nodded, a faint, bitter smile pulling at his lips. was with 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

wasn't a question. I could see it

was all

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

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

to fight for what was ours. And yet here he was, that he

stay if given the

said, his voice croaking. "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 as if we had all the time in the world. There was no guilt. No grief..." He shuddered and

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

approaching him. "Guilt

said, his voice cracking. "For Haruka's death. For the way I've failed the kingdom. The way I 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

had never felt

have always taught you to face your

2/4

CHIO

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

"Yet, you are here."

to

You could have ended

me. My eyes

that mother was gone that... that you thought of it, that you had a million plans to make it happen... I knew that the only