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.

grew 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 the most part, I raised

her head. "We'll get into how I

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

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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

for me, and I had been very forward in how much I had no plans to participate in their plans... That's how I ended in the

up

gathering herbs in the meadow beneath the mountain, not far from the gate that led to the Celestial Realm. I need medicine. I was planning to 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 king you know today. He was younger, quieter, still learning what it meant to be a crown prince under his father, but he was just as kind then as he is now." Her eyes glossed over. "He saw me-this girl, barely out of childhood, lost

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

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

right up and-hurried through it, calling for a physician

crazy, and suddenly, I'd gone from an injured orphan to a completely healed wife to the crown

blinked. "Just like

laugh, but it was filled with irony. "Yep. The way I understand

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 from a place of care. It had hardly even been a Trial for

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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 ended up here due to Goro and Adele's machinations. It was nothing like Haruka's almost

why she was

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

"And... you adjusted?"

my greatest defender and apologetic while I got through all the classes,

a merchant's daughter, so your path to figuring out how to keep the palace afloat and the kingdom in possession of money, probably won't