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.

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

shook her head. "We'll get into how I came to be there some other

if Adele 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 painful, some bittersweet. For a moment, I saw the girl she

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CH117

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 were in the village or anyone who might have wanted me. I was little more than a possession to most of them,

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

up

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

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

the doctor. At the time, the veil was open. There hadn't been a queen in a long time. Hayato is actually the

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

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 healed wife to the

blinked. "Just

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

envy-not exactly-but it was hard not to compare her story to mine. There

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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

suppose that was why

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

"And... you adjusted?"

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

out how to keep the palace afloat and the kingdom