The carriage stopped at the foot of the mountain which was a few kilometres away from the mine's entrance.
"This place?" The Duke said as we all got down.
"We have come here for the past two days but we couldn't find anything, Young Miss." The Captain of Knights Rudyard said.
I had only allowed a handful of people to tag along as I couldn't let them all figure out that I had discovered and got ownership of the Dragon's lair.
"Let's try one more time." I said as I started walking.
The party that I brought along included myself, Rune, Duke Aurelius, Sir Rudyard and a few knights.
We soon reached the entrance of the cave after a short walk and I told the knights to stay at the entrance while I led Rune, Duke and Sir Rudyard inside.
"Princess, do you think it is a good idea to leave them back? What if we get lost again? It could be dangerous."
"We won't get lost, Sir Rudyard." I assured him.
"But, we haven't been successful in locating the cave that Young Master was talking about."
"We will find it this time."
"But-"
"Be quiet and come along." I snapped as he kept repeating the same thing.
He fell silent and I kept walking after a few minutes of walking I heard Rune's gasp along with the reactions of the Duke and Sir Rudyard as we saw the glow of the magic stones lighting the dark cave.
"Thi-This is real!" Sir Rudyard gasped.
"We didn't get lost this time!" Rune cheered.
"Reina, how did you..."
"Told you I'll find it." I spoke as I walked ahead and the air around me swirled.
"What are you doing?" I asked and they all looked at me.
"We-We can't move." Sir Rudyard said and I frowned.
[Without the permission of the owner nobody could locate or enter the Dragon's lair.]
The system notification answered I was impressed, quite a convenient thing.
"Come along." I called but they still stayed there.
[Goddess of Wisdom asks you to spell out the permission with the authority of the owner of the cave.]
"What?"
I sighed and then looked at the three figures standing clueless before speaking out.
"I, as the owner and the Supreme Dragon's Scion allow them to enter my lair."
The three were stunned as they heard me but their shock hit the roof when they were able to enter the space.
"Yo-Young Miss!"
"Reina, what was that?"
"You are the owner of this place?"
"Yes," I said as lying at this point would be useless.
"But this lair belongs to the evil Dragon who murdered countless people if it weren't for the first King His Majesty Rudolph then-"
"Watch your mouth, Sir Rudyard. If you don't know the whole truth then I'll suggest you not utter another word." I snapped staring coldly at him.
"Reina, what's going on?" The Duke asked.
"It's as you heard, I am now the owner of this lair and without my permission, nobody could locate or enter this place." I explained.
"That's why we got lost every time I brought them here?" Rune gasped.
"But how... and why?" The Duke asked.
I walked further inside with the three following me, "I and Rune were injured, his condition was serious because he protected me. I had no choice but to ask for the Dragon's help.
Though it had died centuries ago yet, its mana was still trapped here. I helped it be free and it granted me this lair and its remaining power."
I explained as we kept walking and I came to a stop as I saw the huge space in front of me filled with mountains of jewels of different kinds and gold.
"What..."
The plus point of owning a Dragon's lair was its unsurmountable amount of treasure.
"Reina, this..."
The three were speechless and I turned to look at them. Apart from the treasure here, there were tonnes of magic stones which had grown because of the Dragon's mana.
"Will this be enough to pay the debt, Father?" I asked and the Duke looked at me with wide eyes.
We returned to the Duke's mansion and the three seemed to be too stunned to speak so, I let them be before I returned to my room.
I checked my stats again and was surprised to see the additions that were made to it.
[Name: Reina Minerva Aurelius.
Age: 10.
Specie: Human (Mage).
Magic: Frost (locked), Supreme Aqua Dragon's Magic (locked), Mana Control (unlocked)
Class: Novice.]
[Skills achieved: Supreme Healing, Dragon's Presence.
Title achieved: Supreme Dragon's Scion.]
I sighed a breath of relief as I saw the new magic, the fact that I had gotten Supreme Healing skill must be the reason why my and Rune's wounds were healed. Besides, the Dragon's Presence seemed like an intimidation spell to scare others when activated.
I wondered if the Dragon passed on properly, he made me his successor of sorts but I wondered if it was a good thing or bad.
The people had the prejudice that the Dragon was evil and once they come to know that there was someone who was that dragon's successor then that hatred would break out to me as well.
The rest of the day passed by without any other event but the next day, the Duke came to my room with a solemn expression on his face and something like a long staff wrapped in the cloth in his hand.
"What's wrong?"
"I want to talk to you about something."
We sat down in my room and he placed the wrapped staff in front of me.
"What is this?" I asked.
He didn't say anything but just unwrapped the cloth and my eyebrows twitched as I saw the sword that now lay before me. The same sword that I pulled out of the Dragon's heart.
"You... were holding this sword when you and Rune were found." He told me and I reached out to touch the large sword.
"Did you know that this sword belongs to the first King of this kingdom, the one who laid down the foundation of Sestia after defeating the Evil Dragon?" He asked and I nodded.
"Then... can you tell me in detail as to why... you are the owner of that lair?"
"I did tell you yesterday."
"Did the dragon do something to you? Like... force you to take up his place?"
"I haven't taken his place or anything... and..." I licked my lips.
"He was not evil."
I told the Duke about the story that I saw through the Dragon's eyes and he was silent for a while before releasing a deep sigh.
"Why do you have to risk your life like this? Even though what you did was a noble deed, this world sees that Dragon as an embodiment of evil and if they came to know that you have his lair and his power then..." He ran a hand through his face.
"Then the world doesn't have to know that." I said and he looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
"The world doesn't need to know about the existence of that lair or that I am the Dragon's successor."
"But how..."
"As for the magic stones and their mining then, I think we should worry about that. Nobody except for those who will be keeping this a secret will be allowed in that lair."
"It will still be hard to maintain complete secrecy."
I pursed my lips at that and picked up the heave looking sword, I could use this in future when I select a candidate to make the King.
"For the time being the existence of this sword should also be a secret. It should be stored somewhere safe."
The Duke nodded and I sighed, "But without being able to mine those magic stones they will just be useless."
The Duke was quiet for a moment, he rubbed his hands together before he started speaking.
"I have someone in mind who could keep it a secret and also efficiently make use of the magic stones."
"Who?" I asked and he pursed his lips looking tensed.
"Are you not on good terms with them?" I asked.
"That... well... I haven't contacted them for years and... they don't usually respond to any requests. But, I'll still send them a message and see what they say."
"All right, I'll leave that to you then."
I thought he would leave after that but he stayed back still looking stressed.
"Is there something else?"
"Are you mad at me?" He asked suddenly making me frown.
"What do you mean?"
"Like... Have I done something to anger you, Reina? You don't seem to talk to me as much as you did before. It's almost as if... you don't like me anymore."
He noticed.
"If it's about me hiding the things about the debt from you then, I'm sorry, Reina. Please forgive me."
His words acted like a punch in the gut.
Duke Arthur Aurelius was innocent. He had nothing to do with the trauma caused by my trash of a father from the past life and I knew it. Yet, I couldn't shake off the feeling of unease.
"Please forgive me, Reina. I will never hide things from you from now on. And I'll listen to whatever you say. So, please..." His amber eyes resembled molten gold and my guilt hammered my conscience mercilessly.
"It's not you," I muttered looking down at my hands, "The problem is with me."
"What?"
"Please... give me some time." I whispered.
I was too ashamed to face him. I wanted to tell him that his daughter was dead and I was just a replacement here but I couldn't.
"All right," He said making me look at him, "I'll wait as long as you want me to."
His face grew radiant as he smiled and my guilt grew even more. Why was he so nice?
I had no idea how to deal with good people, I never had experience with many good people, all I had seen were greedy and self-conceited people in my past life.
"Okay." I replied and he stood up patting my head gently before he left taking the sword with him.
I couldn't help but just sit in silence as the horrible memories of my past life returned to me and I stared at the flawless skin on my arms and legs recalling the scars that had decorated them in my past life.
Life and body may transition but a scarred mind was difficult to redeem.