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 Husband

Was it you?

last one I made before I left to the

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my voice colder than I intended. "You dreamed

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

could see it

all

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

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

to stay if given the

you would imagine death... We were back in that meadow we met as if we had all the

of how long

asked, approaching

"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 what would

never felt so inadequate as a father until

"I have always taught you to

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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."

because I wanted to be," he

could have ended

went still and turned slowly toward me. My eyes stinging as I looked

that you had a million plans to make it happen... I knew that the only reason you