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.

but clear, "on the edge of the Celestial Range, where the mountains met the sky. My parents... well, I barely remember them. They died when I was young, leaving me an orphan. The village wasn't kind to children without families, and for the most part, I raised myself. It didn't help that I was a foreign orphan in a

"We'll get into how I came to

my lip, wondering, for a moment, if Adele had a similar story. She never spoke about her past much. Any time I'd asked her, she glossed over it stating that it didn't matter. Haruka's eyes flickered with old memories-some painful, some

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CH117

paths for someone like me," she continued, leaning back in her chair, "marry a lord or spend the rest of your

had been very forward in how much I had no plans to participate in their plans... That's how I ended in the meadow where

up

smiled softly, her eyes brightening for a moment. "He wasn't the

tightening around the cup, a flicker of something deeper passing

the gate he'd come through was the 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

right up and-hurried through it,

palace went crazy, and suddenly, I'd gone from an injured orphan to a completely healed

blinked. "Just

way I understand it... your

her story to mine. There had been

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knot of resentment twisting in my chest. My own trial had been so much more dramatic, traumatic, and complicated. I was still dealing with the effects of how I'd

was why

it was... comforting to know that it hadn't always been the way it had been with me. I don't know how I would have felt to know for sure that Haruka had gone through

"And... you adjusted?"

was insistent that he court me. He was my greatest defender and apologetic while I got through all the classes, the endless education, and nonsense that I was certain was

the palace afloat and