The Dragon King's Substitute Bride

Chapter 117

CH117 Morgan

She sounded so unsure but I smiled.

""I'm sure."

She nodded. "Then... if you think it best." She chuckled. "I lean on your judgement, though I have to say that the heavens really have brought an amazing young woman into my son's life."

She smiled, her eyes misty. "I can not think of a bride who would forgo her own honeymoon for

another."

I scoffed. "Given the circumstances, I'm not sure why it's such a surprise."

Haruka blinked and then she burst into laughter..

"I really shouldn't laugh!" She cried. "It's been so long since I remembered the fact of how I got to be here..." She shook her head. "And I imagine that your circumstances are not quite the same.

I frowned at that. "What do you mean by that?"

I thought the Trial was pretty much the same throughout time.

She sighed and looked off into the distant, as if she were looking back through the years. She looked utterly blissful and in love. Anya sat beside me, looking just as curious as I felt.

Her fingers traced the edge of her teacup absentmindedly, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips before she finally began.

them. They died when

"We'll get into how I came to be

asked her, she glossed over it stating that it didn't matter. Haruka's eyes flickered with old memories-some painful, some bittersweet.

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CH117

someone like me," she continued, leaning back in her chair, "marry a lord or spend the rest of your life scraping by as a servant. Marriage was considered a way to better your position, but it wasn't what I wanted. Not to the men that were in the village or anyone who might have wanted me. I was little more than a possession to most of them, and

eyes. "Some of them had been more forward in their plans for me, and I had been very forward in how much I had no plans to participate in their plans... That's how I

up

the forests. He just... appeared seemingly." She smiled softly, her eyes brightening for a moment. "He wasn't the

fingers tightening around the cup, a flicker of something deeper passing over her

Trial Gates," she said quietly. My jaw dropped. She shrugged. "I was injured. He wanted to bring me to the doctor. At the time, the veil was open. There hadn't been a queen in a long time. Hayato is actually the son of a former concubine as is customary." "You... He

right up and-hurried

through the gate. The gong sounded, the whole palace went crazy, and suddenly, I'd gone from an injured orphan to a completely healed wife to the

blinked. "Just

with irony. "Yep. The way I understand it... your entry into

couldn't help but feel a pang of something bitter in the back of my mind. It wasn't envy-not exactly-but it was hard not to compare her story to mine. There had been no fear for her. Her and Hayato's relationship

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so much more dramatic, traumatic, and complicated. I was still dealing with the

why she was

had been with me. I don't know how I would have felt to know for sure that Haruka had gone through the

"And... you adjusted?"

was my greatest defender and apologetic while I got through all the classes, the endless education, and nonsense that I was

the palace afloat and the kingdom