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.

up in a small village," she said, her voice soft 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

how I came to

she glossed over it stating that it didn't matter. Haruka's eyes flickered with

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CH117

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,

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

up

leave the village and just chance my luck in the forests. He just... appeared seemingly." She smiled softly, her eyes brightening for a moment. "He wasn't the

paused, her fingers tightening around the cup, a flicker of

bring me to the doctor. At the time,

me right up and-hurried through it, calling for

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

"Just like

The way I understand it... your entry into the realm

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 had started

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much more dramatic, traumatic, and complicated. I was still

was why she

it hadn't always been the way it had been with me. I don't

"And... you adjusted?"

while I got through all the classes, the endless education, and nonsense that

your path to figuring out how to keep the palace afloat