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.

"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, I raised myself. It didn't help that I was a

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

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 must have been: determined, proud,

1/4

CH117

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. Marriage was considered a way to better your position, but it wasn't what I wanted.

in how much I had no plans to participate in their plans... That's

up

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 is now." Her eyes glossed over. "He saw me-this girl, barely out of childhood, lost and alone-and he

cup, a flicker of something deeper passing

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

right up and-hurried through it, calling

whole palace went crazy, and suddenly, I'd gone from an

"Just

filled with irony. "Yep. The way I understand it... your

It wasn't envy-not exactly-but it was hard not to compare her story to mine.

2/4

familiar 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 to Goro and Adele's machinations. It was nothing like Haruka's almost graceful ascent to her

was why

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

"And... you adjusted?"

defender and apologetic while I got through all the classes, the endless education,

a merchant's daughter, so your path to figuring out how to keep the palace afloat