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.

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,

into how I

had a similar story. She never spoke about her past much. Any time I'd asked her, she glossed over it

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CH117

to visit them soon. In those days, there were only two paths for 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

her 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 ended in the

up

was 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

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

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

"He did. Scooped me right up and-hurried through it, calling for

got 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

"Just

way I understand it... your

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 had started from a

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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

why she

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

"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 just made to make things more difficult I nodded.

so your path to figuring out how to keep the palace afloat and the kingdom in