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.

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

into how I

I'd asked her, she glossed over it stating that it didn't matter. Haruka's eyes flickered

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CH117

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, and I knew

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

up

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

around the cup, a flicker of something deeper passing over

was injured. He wanted to bring me to the doctor. At the time, the veil was open. There hadn't been

me right up and-hurried through it,

suddenly, I'd gone from an

"Just

it was filled with irony. "Yep. The way I understand it... your entry into the realm was filled with a lot

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 place of care. It had hardly even been a Trial

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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 ended up here due

why she

me. I don't know how I would have felt to know for

"And... you adjusted?"

through all the classes, the endless education, and

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