The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

In the presence of Grandma and Grandpa, who had been old friends of Physician Kale, the elderly physician was a completely different person from the staid gentleman Mana had come to know in the capital city. She found his excitable, dramatic side rather funny and things in the summer palace got much livelier thanks to his arrival.

Physician Kale doted on Jules as if he was his own long-lost grandson, much to Jules's amusement. Naver, on the other hand, completely stupefied the elderly physician with his knowledge and insight. If their ages weren't so disparate, Physician Kale's behaviour around Naver would easily lead on to believe that Naver was his master and Physician Kale was his disciple.

Naver himself was rather confounded and bewildered at the elderly man's attitude. He enjoyed discussing poisons and medicinal plants and the like with Physician Kale, but the old man's worshipful attitude made him rather uncomfortable. Worse still, Junior Physician Vale, who followed pretty much everything Physician Kale did, had started to follow Naver around like a lost puppy.

"Want me to do something about it?" Mana asked Naver a few days later, when the boy rushed into her room just after lunch and scurried under the bed for the nth time to hide from Physician Kale and Junior Physician Vale. The two physicians came knocking at Mana's door soon after, but she sent them away with an excuse.

Mana locked the door behind her and posed the question to Naver.

Naver pulled himself out of his hiding place. "Please," he begged tearfully. "It is very flattering that they hold me in such high regard…but…"

"They're annoying you to death," Mana completed his sentence teasingly.

Naver hesitated, but nodded finally. "Please," he repeated.

"I'll help you get them off your back and stop stalking you," Mana said. "But you'll still have to schedule an hour or so for them anyway to discuss my Shadow Poison." She shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that bit – we really need you to sort out my issue; I'd like to live longer than five years!"

"Of course," Naver nodded. "That was never an option. I promise that I will remove the Shadow Poison from you, no matter what."

Mana smiled at him. "Thanks," she said. "So you'll still have to see them, but we can appoint a fixed time for it, and I can keep you company to ensure that they don't go overboard with pestering you. That should be acceptable, yes?"

Naver flushed slightly. "That…that would be lovely," he said softly.

Mana clapped her hands in delight. "Excellent!" she said. "That's what we'll do, then." She grinned at him cheekily. "Now, I don't mind you barging into my room and hiding under my bed every day…but my Big Brother and my Papa may not take a very kind view of it!"

Naver turned as red as a tomato. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't think…it's just that those two wouldn't barge into your room carelessly…"

Mana giggled and patted the boy's shoulder in a friendly manner. "No need to be so serious," she said. "I was just joking." She narrowed her eyes mischievously. "If you're still barging into my room five years later, though, you'll have to take responsibility for soiling a young lady's reputation and ask Papa for my hand in marriage!"

Naver froze. "Don't joke about that," he said sternly. "I'm not even fit to marry a commoner, let alone a cherished princess like you."

"What nonsense," Mana snapped. "Haven't Big Brother and I lectured you enough? For someone so smart, you're somehow incredibly stupid about your own self."

Naver remained stubbornly silent.

Mana huffed. "All right, let's make a deal," she told him. "If you haven't found yourself a proper sweetheart that I can approve of by the time I'm fifteen and the Shadow Poison is gone, I'll ask Papa to send your family a betrothal proposal for you and me."

"You don't even know who my family are," Naver retorted.

"Actually, I do," Mana said. "Or, at least I can make an educated guess."

"Then, pray tell me who do you think I am," Naver challenged.

Mana smirked. "So I get a reward if I get it right?"

"What reward could I possibly give you?" Naver asked.

Mana rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "How about…granting me a favour?"

"All right, if it's in my capacity to do so," Naver agreed.

"Deal," Mana said promptly and held out her hand.

Naver gave her an uncomprehending look.

"We shake hands as a sign of our agreement to the deal. If I get your identity right, you will owe me a favour which is within your abilities to perform," Mana explained.

"Oh," Naver said, having never seen such a bizarre custom, but nonetheless, he grasped her hand and shook it in a solemn manner.

"Is this how a deal is finalised in the Emerald Kingdom?" he asked curiously.

Mana shook her head. "It's just something I came up with," she said carelessly.

Naver nearly spluttered in annoyance. At that moment, the two children didn't know that shaking hands to seal a deal would become a custom in both their countries in the future.

Naver took a deep breath to calm himself and told Mana, "Go ahead."

Mana smiled slightly. "If I'm not wrong, you should be Prince Raven of the Obsidian Kingdom, son of Head Sage Yue of the Moon Temple of the Pearl Kingdom, and Crown Princess Pica of the Obsidian Kingdom."

Naver turned impossibly pale, as if all the blood had been sucked out of his body. He stepped back quickly, swayed for a moment and then fell to the floor with a soft thump. Thankfully, there was a thick carpet, so he wasn't hurt.

Mana rushed to his side. "Naver? Naver! Are you all right?" she cried anxiously.

Naver sat up in a daze. "How…how long have you known…?"

Mana shook her head. "I didn't know for sure. I made an educated guess, that's it."

"How…?" he asked.

"Well…I'm not sure exactly when…but probably around the time you revealed your all-encompassing magic. I couldn't think of anyone other than Prince Raven who would have the required bloodline to awaken all five magic attributes," Mana told him in a soft voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. And I promise that I'll keep your secret…although Big Brother may also have similar suspicions about your identity."

Naver laughed bitterly, the unpleasant sound tinged with hysteria. "And here I thought I was doing a good job of hiding it," he muttered in a self-deprecating manner.

"You have definitely hidden yourself well," Mana told him. "I think your disguise is perfect, and you're absolutely amazing to have built yourself a famous and established alter ego of Naver, the poison expert."

"I couldn't even deceive a ten-year-old sheltered princess," Naver mocked.

Mana flicked him on the forehead. "Stop that," she chided. "Your disguise is perfect, and no one would ever suspect that Naver and Prince Raven are the same person – besides, you rarely show yourself when you deal with people as Naver, so most people are under the impression that Naver is some elderly guy with a long grey beard like Physician Kale," she told him.

Naver remained silent.

"As for me," Mana said haughtily. "I'm special, too. You may be the cleverest person in the world, but I'm reasonably sure that I'd be among the top ten, too!"

Naver stared at her for a long time. His pale pupils suddenly burst with the colours of the rainbow, making Mana gasp in astonishment.

"How pretty!" Mana cried out in excitement, leaning close to him so that their noses were almost touching. "I've never, ever seen such beautiful rainbow eyes! This is truly magical! Is that the true appearance of your eyes?" she asked curiously.

Naver was taken aback. "My eyes…changed…?" he asked, blinking in confusion.

Mana grabbed his arm and dragged him to the large mirror in her room. "Take a look yourself," she said breathlessly. "Your eyes are absolutely gorgeous!"

Her delight made Naver smile and he turned to look at his reflection in the mirror. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel bad when he looked at himself and he didn't feel ashamed of his existence.

His rainbow coloured pupils stunned him. He had heard from his parents that his eyes had been rainbow hued at birth, but then faded into the light silver that he usually had. It was these multi-coloured eyes that had earned him the title of the "evil cursed prince"…but now, he'd met a young girl who thought they were beautiful…and somehow, Naver didn't find them repulsive, either.

"I'd never seen the true appearance of my eyes before," Naver told Mana. "I was born with it and the Moon Temple called me evil and cursed, and then they faded into the silver that you normally see."

Mana grabbed his hands. "Does that mean that your magic just got stronger?" she asked excitedly. "My eyes got amber and silver flecks when my fire and water magic awakened."

Naver closed his eyes and felt the magic within him. "You're right," he said, his voice laced with surprise. "It did get stronger."

"Quick, see if you can control it," Mana urged.

Naver looked at her happy face and a warm feeling flooded his chest. "All right," he said softly. "Let's run some experiments."