My Choice: A War God vs A Fake Dragon Chapter 04
Chapter 4 The Scar That Exposed The Prince
Finishert
Cassian forced himself to his feet and looked up at the Dragon King. “Father, perhaps something went wrong. I’m willing to attempt it again.”
The Dragon King hesitated.
I let out a quiet sigh and spoke before he could answer.
“It’s useless. Stop struggling.”
Then I said it plainly.
“How could two impostors ever earn the recognition of God?”
The hall went dead still.
Only my voice echoed.
Kael lowered his gaze to me, surprise flickering there, but not suspicion.
Only confusion.
Cassian stared at me as though he wanted to set me ablaze. Beneath the fury, I saw the unmistakable glint of panic.
Selene wiped the blood from her lips.
Then she began to cry.
“It’s Mira. It has to be. She’s jealous because I’m about to become Dragon Queen, so now she’s deliberately slandering me.”
The Dragon King turned toward me, his expression severe. “Mira, I understand you bear resentment, but this is not the day for reckless insults. Your sister is the Crown Princess, and Caelan is the Crown Prince I appointed myself. How could they be impostors?”
The Dragon Queen, already furious, slammed a hand onto the arm of her chair. “Enough. Why waste words with her? Cassian married her, only to die in battle. And now Caelan’s succession has gone wrong the moment she showed up. She is misfortune incarnate. Throw her out.”
She ordered the guards forward.
Kael stepped in front of me at once, his gaze cutting like ice. “Who dares touch her?”
I closed my hand around his and looked straight at the Dragon King. “Your Majesty, do you remember the two conditions required for the succession rite?”
Though baffled, he still answered, “The Crown Prince must either be the heir formally recognized by the Dragon clan, or the Crown Princess must carry the royal bloodline. Meeting just one of those conditions is enough to satisfy God.”
Then he added, “But to preserve the purity of the bloodline, both conditions are usually fulfilled.”
At those words, both Cassian and Selene stiffened.
Finished
Cassian whipped around to stare at the Dragon King. “Father, why did you never tell me this?”
The Dragon King’s face darkened. “Never told you? When I invested you as Crown Prince, I explained every one of the clan’s sacred secrets in full. Caelan, you have always been careful and composed. How could you possibly have forgotten something this important?”
Cassian’s eyes darted wildly. “I… I…”
I answered for him. “Because he is not Crown Prince Caelan at all. He is the Second Prince-Cassian.”
An uproar broke out at once.
The Dragon King stared in disbelief.
The Dragon Queen leapt to her feet and pointed at me, shouting, “How dare you, Mira! How dare you spit such venom here? You already killed one of my sons. Is that not enough for you? Must you ruin the name of my other son as well?”
I stepped up onto the altar, my face calm.
Cassian, on the other hand, recoiled from me as if he were looking at a ghost.
He did not even spare Selene a glance now.
He just kept retreating.
“What… what are you doing?” he demanded.
I said softly, “Ten years ago, Cassian was injured saving me. The tears of a sea fiend burned through his chest and left a scar so deep it nearly cost him his life.”
I lifted my eyes to meet his.
“That mark was carved into his soul. No power in heaven or earth can erase it.”
That had been why he managed to deceive me in my previous life.
After all, who would ever believe that the man who once nearly died to save her would later have her hacked apart piece by piece?
I reached for the front of his robes.
He slapped my hand away.
He kept backing up, refusing to let even the terrified Selene approach him, and snarled, “Have you gone mad? I’m your brother-in-law.”
But by then, the Dragon King had already sensed the truth.
Ignoring Cassian’s resistance, he ordered two trusted attendants forward and had them tear open his robes.
The whole court inhaled sharply.
No matter how desperately Cassian tried to cover it, the mark was there.
A scar in the shape of a tear, pale against his skin and impossible to miss.
The truth was laid bare.
Finished
The Dragon Queen’s lips trembled. She pointed at Cassian for a long moment, but no words came. Then she clutched her chest and collapsed.
The Dragon King held himself upright for a few breaths before black blood spilled from his mouth.
He dropped to one knee, unable to rise.
“Your Majesty!”
The High Priest and the others rushed to support him.
Cassian saw that the lie had fully collapsed and still spared no glance for his father.
He looked only at me.
His voice shook with disbelief. “How did you know?”
Then, as if trying to convince himself, he muttered, “No. That makes no sense. I hid it perfectly. Everyone who knew was silenced.”
I bit down hard and forced back the tears stinging my eyes. “How could I not know?”
He had been my husband.
Cassian and I had known each other since childhood. Even the Dragon King had once laughed and said no one in all the realm knew Cassian better than I did.
That was why I had loved him without reservation.
He could hide it from everyone else.
Not from me.
With the lie exposed, the Dragon King was consumed by fury.
“Cassian, how could you impersonate your own brother? He was your brother.”
Cassian roared back, “So what? Ever since we were children, all any of you ever praised was him. His talent. His virtue. His worth.”
He looked around the hall, chest heaving, years of bitterness rising to the surface at last.
