The Dragon King's Substitute Bride (Morgan and Tsuneo)
Chapter 106

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Tsuneo

His eyes lit up and he threw his arms around my legs, squeezing tight. I pat his head.

I'll be the best little brother," he said soft and carnest.

"Of that, I have no doubt."

He looked up. "Are you going to be there for dinner too? You have lots of work to do, right?"

""I'll do my best."

He nodded. "Do you have to stay in the palace all day? Or do you get to go outside sometimes?"

"Sometimes.

That sounds boring," he remarked with a small pout. "I bet I could help. I'm really good at organizing things."

A faint smirk tugged at the corner of my lips. "Is that so?"

"Yup!" Kai said proudly. "Just you wait until I can read and right. I'll be the best helper ever."

Better than Lady Morgan?"

de flushed. "I don't know about that."

chuckled, squeezing him to my side as we reached the room.

You're a smart man."

knocked on the door. His tutor, an elderly man with a stern expression, opened the dor. He was ew and a bit unfamiliar to me, but Tarofu gave me his name. Master Neo," I nodded. "Thank you for educating him."

laster Neo's sternness faltered for a moment, warming as he bowed his head.

le is a great student." He looked down at Kai. "Are you ready to continue?"

i nodded let go of my hand. Kai followed the man inside. The boy glanced back at me, waving

e last time before disappearing into the room.

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As soon as the door closed, the silence returned, wapping around me like a familiar shroud, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Even Tarofu seemed a little more at ease. What was that?

Loyalty starts small, Tarofu said. Much like respect... my Pyrn taught me that. Something as simple as acknowledging someone by name is the first brick for a strong foundation. I chuckled. Your wife is quite wise.

I have found that those with a sense of time, understand the value of using that time to better

themselves.

I froze at that, trying to get over in my mind. Was that the secret to my father's wisdom? I couldn't say that the humans were very wise in general, but I could see his point.

If one knew that they were always running out of time, they would naturally want to conserve as much of it as possible. Repeating the same battles, the same struggles, never trying to make things better would indeed be miserable. It seems that

I will learn a lot more from my wife's human experience than I ever imagined.

Tarofu laughed. Look forward to it, and the day that you will teach her something that she will desperately need.

I turned and made my way to my father's office. The office was dimly lit, the shelves stacked high with ledgers, records, and scrolls that held the history and affairs of the palace. The door to the left led into my own office. I wondered, for a moment, how often he'd walked into my office... taken the portal that led to my mother's office.

or

I sat behind his wide wooden desk, flipping open the latest report from the treasury. My fingers traced the lines of figures, just checking to make sure that things were in order, but there was something wrong.

The palace's ledgers were meticulously kept-or they were supposed to be. But as I scanned the most recent entries, I noticed several inconsistencies. There were several large sums of money that had vanished it seemed. Not all at once, but in little increments that wouldn't have seemed strange at the first glance. I couldn't take the time to trace all of the amounts at the moment, but I could see enough to understand. Someone was siphoning money, and they were doing it well enough to avoid detection-until now.

I leaned back in the chair, flipping through the documents to get a better sense of things and how much money was truly missing. This wasn't the first time I'd found errors like this. The last time I

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had been just a child, sitting with mother, going over the books, learning to read them.

If I recalled, my mother had sussed out the issue fairly quickly and taken care of it. This felt like the same pattern as then too, so it was likely the same person.

I wasn't sure who was bold enough to steal from the palace again using the same techniques, but I could bet they weren't a servant.

They ha

had to be a member of the royal family, but who had my father given access to the accounts

over the years?

deer with a

I closed the snap and stood, my mind already working through the possibilities. This would require more than a casual investigation, and I wasn't sure if we had the time to do it before the Convening, but I could at least get started.

I stared at the closed ledger for a long moment. After everything that had happened recently, it was unlikely that it had started recently. I opened it again, flipping to where the funds should have been allocated for Morgan's trips to the human realm for those trapped on the other side

and nodded.

There was money a supplies missing from there, too, so someone among the Elders had to be involved, too. A dead one? One still alive? I wouldn't know until I caught them for sure.

The thought amused me. Whoever it was must have thought they could get away with it or thought it wasn't an act that would get them exiled.

It would.

Tarofu cheered. Do you think we could replace them before they wake up? My Pyra would never let me exile a traitor over money..

I laughed. I think Morgan would.

I slipped the ledger under my arm and walked out of the office. The halls of the palace were empty and quiet, save for the occasional servant who bowed as I passed, I nodded at them all and made a note to check in on Anya as soon as possible.

My first stop was the treasury office. If funds were missing, that was where the trail would begin. The man in charge of the records there, an older official named Renji, had been around for centuries-loyal to the family, or so he claimed. But loyalty was a fragile thing, and money had a of breaking even the most steadfast bonds.

way

When I arrived at the office, Renji was seated at his desk, scribbling notes in

a ledger of his own.

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His brow was furrowed in concentration. He flipped back to another document and then murmured to himself.

"... that doesn't seem right..."

"It probably isn't."

He looked up as I entered, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before he stood and bowed deeply.

"Your Highness, he greeted, his voice steady but wary. "What brings you here today?"

I dropped the ledger onto his desk with a thud, watching as his eyes flicked down to the cover. He frowned down at it.

"There's a problem with the records," I said, my voice calm and measured. "Funds have gone missing.