My Choice: A War God vs A Fake Dragon Chapter 02
Chapter 2 The Bride Who Chose Again
Finished
1
The Dragon Queen glared at me with naked hatred. “If Cassian hadn’t insisted on marrying you, I would never have allowed a vicious woman like you into this family.”
I answered evenly. “If he truly loved me so deeply, then he would never want me to spend a hundred years in widowhood.”
Then I repeated, clearly this time, “I will remarry.”
Cassian opened his mouth. “You—”
The Dragon King cut him off. “Enough. If Mira has made up her mind, then that is the end of it.”
Then he added, “But the Dragon and Phoenix clans agreed long ago. You may remarry if you wish, Mira, but only to a man of the Dragon clan.”
I turned toward the sea of faces and asked, “Then who among you is willing to marry me?”
No one stepped forward.
Some looked like they wanted to, only to be pulled back by their families.
Others avoided my gaze as if I carried a curse.
I almost laughed at the irony.
The heavens had only given me two roads: widowhood or remarriage.
Was fate really so impossible to break?
Seeing the silence stretch on, Cassian could not resist twisting the knife. “No one would dare take a woman as cold and shameless as you. You’d better accept widowhood and stop humiliating yourself.”
The certainty in his voice made me feel sick.
Then suddenly, a figure descended from above.
“I will.”
I looked up.
It was Kael, the war god of the Dragon clan.
He had a fearsome reputation, a man whose name alone had frightened enemies into retreat. Yet now he knelt before the Dragon King and spoke with complete sincerity. “Your Majesty, I am willing to marry Mira.”
Cassian immediately lost his composure. “Kael, this has nothing to do with you. Let me give you some advice. My brother died, and his widow is already desperate to marry again. You really want a woman like that in your house? Aren’t you afraid she’ll bring you the same fate?”
Kael stepped in front of me. “Your Highness, she was your brother’s wife. Instead of thinking of her future, you stand here pinning disgrace on her.”
Cassian scoffed. “I’m only telling the truth.”
Kael ignored him and turned to me instead. “Mira, would you marry me?”
His gaze never wavered.
“I will be loyal to you across every lifetime and remain by your side.”
Fitushed
Then he lifted his head and declared, “Let God bear witness. If I ever betray this vow, may my soul be destroyed.”
My heart jolted.
There was only certainty in his eyes.
So I nodded. “Yes.”
At that point, Cassian had no way to object.
Kael and I sealed our marriage bond in front of the entire court.
Seeing the matter settled, the Dragon King lifted one weary hand. “Go.”
Then he turned to the gathered nobles and announced, “I am old. I have now lost a son, and I no longer have the strength to remain on this throne.”
“In three days, I will pass the crown to Caelan.”
Caelan had been the Crown Prince’s name.
Now, Cassian was wearing it like stolen skin.
I turned the thought over in silence.
In my previous life, the Dragon King had never passed him the throne-not even before Cassian framed me and had me killed.
So why had it happened sooner now?
Before I could think it through, Cassian brushed past me with the crowd, leaving the hall.
Under his breath, he said clearly enough for me alone to hear, “Whore. You’ll regret this.”
That night, I moved out of Cassian’s palace and into Kael’s domain.
The servants began whispering the moment I arrived.
“The war god has everything except good judgment.”
“The Second Prince’s body has barely been laid to rest, and Mira was already rushing to remarry. How could a woman like that ever be a worthy match?”
“Didn’t the Dragon Queen say she carries a husband-killing fate? I’m honestly afraid she’ll get the war god
killed too.”
I listened to the gossip outside the window and smiled faintly. Then I tilted my chin toward Kael and said with dry amusement, “There goes your glorious reputation. Ruined because of me.”
He frowned at once. “Don’t say that.”
After a brief pause, he added, “Give me half a day. I won’t let you hear people speak of you that way again.
I sighed. “The truth is, I don’t care.”
Compared to my previous life-living as a widow in all but name, suffering every humiliation imaginable, and finally being hacked apart before a crowd-this was already a life beyond anything I had hoped for.
Everything Kael prepared for me, from food to clothing to the smallest comforts, was the very best. Ever the royal family could not have done more.
I was already satisfied.
Before the lights were put out, I heard him murmur quietly to himself, “A damaged reputation is nothing. If it means I get to marry you, then I’d take it every time.”
I did not sleep at all that night.
Not long after, my sister sent for me.
She was about to become the next Dragon Queen, and her attendants were laying out one magnificent ceremonial robe after another for her.
She kept lifting the crown to her head, then turning to inspect herself from another angle before finally asking, “Mira, tell me honestly. In this outfit, who looks better-me or the current Dragon Queen?”
I stayed silent.
She never needed my answer to keep talking.
“Sometimes people need to accept their lot in life,” she said lightly. “What if you were always the more gifted one? In the end, I’m still the one who’ll become Dragon Queen.”
She had always been like that.
Ever since childhood, she could not bear to stand under me.
My gaze drifted over the cluttered table.
Then it stopped on the water crystal Cassian had given her.
A thought flashed through me like lightning.
When we were little, my sister had once nearly drowned after a water wraith dragged her beneath the sea during training.
Ever since then, she had hated water crystals.
My brother-in-law had been meticulous. He would have remembered that.
Finished
After a long silence, I finally asked, my voice rougher than I expected, “Did you really never realize that man wasn’t your husband?”
Her hand stopped midair.
And in that single instant, I had my answer.
In my previous life, no matter what happened, I had never once doubted my sister.
