Secret in the Ancient Volume

For five whole days continuously following the bloody banquet night at the Frost Grand Hall, the atmosphere encompassing the Ice Kingdom dynasty was no different from a harp string pulled tight to the point of waiting to snap apart. The old nobles panicked, the Church faction screamed demanding to eliminate the creature carrying the "demonic fire" and the pair of "purple dragon pupils", but Emperor Kieran used supreme authority to swipe everything aside. He confined the girl inside the Mirror God Tower, covered three thousand high defense magic arrays, summoned hundreds of Royal Black Guards to strictly keep watch, then personally submerged and disappeared beneath the Royal Underground Library — the place storing locked history records from half a millennium ago.

The space beneath the fifth underground level reeked heavily with the smell of old leather, mold, and dark time-dust. Kieran stood in silence amidst thousands of ceiling-touching stone bookshelves. His chest-slitted black robe swayed according to each calm breath bearing heavy dark pressure.

Around him, four veteran chief calligraphers and his most trusted spy-henchmen were kneeling collapsed on the bone-chilling stone floor. Their hands trembled carrying scattered series of manuscripts, drawings, and human-skin ancient volumes urgently collected from the most distant ancient lands in the North.

"Fifteen days have passed already..." Kieran rasped a deep voice, his cold sound tearing apart the ultimate solitude of the underground room.

"You all summoned dozens of spies, consumed how much royal financial resource, just to make me stand waiting amidst this pile of rotten books? Ultimately did you find the thing I need?"

An old chief calligrapher tremblingly crawled forward, two hands raising a dried human-skin bound book that had darkened with time. His whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind, his voice cracking due to tension:

"Report... Reporting to Your Majesty! I alongside the spies continuously cross-referenced all ancient book-records from the time-point when the siege battle of the Ancient Dragon Kingdom occurred five hundred years ago. These records were originally sealed by the Old Church through many generations... but we found the truth regarding the Queen of former years!"

"State it briefly." Kieran furrowed his brows, taking long strides forward decisively snatching the human-skin ancient volume.

"Reporting to Your Majesty..." The calligrapher knocked his head close to the stone floor, hastily explaining. "Royal and Church historical books recorded very clearly: Right in the brutal battle five hundred years ago, the legendary, illustrious Ancient Dragon Queen — the one possessing the white fire burning up heaven and earth — personally executed an Ancient Ritual to sacrifice her soul, self-detonating along with the entire royal palace when the kingdom fell. She... truly lost her life and completely vanished from half a millennium ago! This truth was recorded by the high priests of that time themselves!"

Kieran slowly flipped open each rotten book page that had turned yellow-stained. The dark magic stream transmitting from his fingertips made the blood-ink-colored ancient character lines glow dimly in the night.

He stopped at a page drawing the family tree of the Ancient Dragon lineage. On that paper page was the supreme symbol of the purest royal branch — the snow-white flame completely embracing the deep purple eyes with razor-sharp vertical pupils. Right beneath the royal crest were ancient character lines deeply carved with the official name of this bloodline.

Solaia Vraelyra.

Kieran narrowed his eyes. His lips moved slightly, uttering a voice reading slowly each syllable of that name, vibrating with bone-chilling magic trails:

"Solaia... Solaia Vraelyra..."

"Precisely so, Your Majesty!" The calligrapher knocked his head repeatedly, his voice seemingly relieved of a horrifying burden.

"Solaia Vraelyra is precisely the true name of the Ancient Dragon Royal Lineage branch! But please Your Majesty consider... The Queen of former years died in the self-detonation ritual five hundred years ago, that is an indisputable historical truth. As for the girl Your Majesty brought back from the Border... she is completely amnesiac, dazed, without half a point of memory or tyrant authority of an ancient monarch!"

A spy beside him also immediately bowed his head chiming in:

"I and the Mages held a serious discussion. We reached the conclusion: The person currently being confined at the Mirror God Tower absolutely cannot be the legendary Queen who died in former years. She is merely a surviving Descendant! A child carrying mixed blood or scattered blood of the Dragon species surviving through many generations in the remote border region only!"

Kieran stood dazed in the middle of the Underground Library. The human-skin ancient volume in his hand shook lightly.

That girl was not the tyrant monster from the past. She was merely a descendant child carrying Dragon blood, born in the border ash region, amnesiac and completely dazed before this world.

The initial panic of the dignitaries quickly subsided. If she was not the reincarnated Queen, then an amnesiac descendant child despite having random erupting magic power was merely a controllable existence.

"A descendant child..." Kieran muttered to himself.

His lip-corners slowly curved up into a deep and full-of-calculation smile. His initial instinct when dragging her back from the ash pile was merely curious inquisitiveness before a strange power, viewing her as a wild toy for entertainment and to warn the Church. But for the past five days, the silhouette of the girl standing on the banquet table, glaring her deep purple dragon pupils at him, had completely invaded the young Emperor's mind. He no longer wanted to view her as a filthy "beggar woman" or a low "tortured item" anymore.

He wanted to know her. He wanted to possess this descendant child, turning her into his own person.

"Reporting to Your Majesty..." The calligrapher cleared his throat speaking up, trying to probe the monarch's facial expression. "Even though she is merely a descendant, the dragon magic inside her person is still very dangerous if she goes wild. Regardless, she does not remember anything... How about Your Majesty continue confining her—"

"All of you get out outside." Kieran coldly interrupted, his voice containing not a bit of temperature.

"Your... Your Majesty?"

"I said get out." Kieran waved his hand, the dark magic stream swirling up driving away all spies and dignitaries out of the underground library.

In the dark space left alone with himself, Kieran stood quietly looking at the text line Solaia Vraelyra glowing dimly under the magic candlelight. His coarse finger slowly rubbed across each dried blood-ink line.

The group of spies and calligraphers thought she was merely a descendant child carrying mixed blood, dazed and harmless if one knew how to control her.

Recalling the moment in the Frost Grand Hall, when she was drained clean of the Ice Tear Poison bowl — the toxin that had burnt numerous supreme Mages. If she were merely a mixed-blood descendant, the magic-poison would have broken her soul-stem in the blink of an eye. But the white fire erupting from her body that night was not merely a passive self-defense flame; it carried royal pressure so pure it made his proud Dark Magic pause for a beat. Not to mention, the reflex of snapping the invisible assassin's neck in just a brief moment... that was not the skill of someone living wandering at the border, but a combat instinct ingrained deep into bone marrow from hundreds of years.

History books recorded the Queen of former years lost her life in the self-detonation ritual. But history was originally written by the winner, and the Church was always a master in weaving lies. Kieran did not completely believe the subordinates' words. He suspected her identity was much more complex and terrifying than the two words "descendant".

Precisely that unsolved question, coupled with the desire wanting to dig deep to the ultimate secret of this creature, completely extinguished the intention of eliminating her in the young Emperor's mind.

She did not remember who she was? Very good.

Precisely her blankness and amnesia granted him absolute advantage. If she was merely a wild descendant child abandoned at the border — as how the subordinates speculated — he would grant her an identity. He would no longer step onto the Mirror God Tower with a suppressing attitude or brutal iron chains anymore. He would give her a new name — Solaia.

Magic shackles could not bind a dragon. Wanting to bind her to serve his ambition and curiosity, he must use another chain — an invisible chain made of trust and dependence.

Kieran closed the ancient volume with a deep thump sound. He turned around, decisively stepping up the dark stone steps.

When stepping out of the underground level, the bone-chilling cold air of the Ice Kingdom winter night rushed into his chest. Winter snow began to fall lightly outside the gold-plated arch window frame, covering a thin white cotton layer onto the high tower roofs.

The young Emperor curled his lips, his eye-corners flashing the excitement of a patient predator. The initial ruthless curiosity now transformed into a deep desire for possession and stripping away.

"Solaia..."

Kieran whispered that name in his mouth. Its brilliant and proud cadence dissolved amidst the bone-chilling breath of winter.

"I am coming to meet you."