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.

remember them. They died when I

how

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

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CH117

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

forward in their plans for me, and I had been very forward in how much I

up

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

a flicker of something deeper passing

know that 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

did. Scooped me right up and-hurried through it,

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

blinked. "Just like

a soft laugh, but it was filled with irony. "Yep. The way I understand it... your entry into the realm was filled with a

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 from

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

why she

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 the same

"And... you adjusted?"

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

keep the palace