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

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

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CH117

adoptive family, of course. Mostly other orphans. We worked together to survive more or less." She chuckled. I'll have 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.

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

up

a moment. "He wasn't the king you know today. He was younger, quieter, still

around the cup, a flicker of something

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 the son of a former concubine as is customary." "You... He just

me right up and-hurried through it,

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

blinked. "Just like

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

was hard not to compare her story to

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

why she was Hayato's

way it had been with me. I don't know how I would

"And... you adjusted?"

got through all the classes,

daughter, so your path to figuring out how to keep the palace afloat and the kingdom in possession of