The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

"Mana! I need your help!" Bella cried, bursting into Mana's room on the morning of the first banquet of the Sapphire Kingdom.

Mana, who was fast asleep, murmured a lazy, "Lemme sleep" and turned around in her bed.

Bella, however, was not to be underestimated. She jumped on to the bed and pulled away the covers, making Mana open her eyes unhappily.

"Lemme sleep," Mana murmured, still not fully awake.

"You can't sleep! You'll lose your sister in law if you continue sleeping! It's an emergency!" Bella cried anxiously.

The word "emergency" finally drove most of the sleepiness from Mana's mind. She sat up and blinked, and then rubbed her eyes, only to see Bella looming in front of her with anxiety written all over her stunningly beautiful face.

"Big Sister Bella?" Mana asked, her voice still heavy with sleep, but at least eighty percent awake now. "What is the matter?"

"Are you awake now?" Bella demanded.

"Almost," Mana replied. "What happened?"

"My dress!" Bella cried. "My dress for tonight is missing!"

That drove even the remaining twenty percent of the sleepiness out of her mind, and she immediately sprung into action.

Mana leaped out of her bed, threw on a dressing gown and turned to Bella. "Let's go to your room. Isn't that where you kept the dress?"

Bella nodded. The previous evening, Mana, Bella and Vanilla had all gathered in Bella's room to have a girls' chat about their outfits and coordination and other things (mostly complaints about their respective boys). It had been a very pleasant evening, and the three girls had enjoyed themselves very much, especially with the exquisite signature dishes of the Sapphire Kingdom that were as much a feast for the eyes as they were for the tongue. Mana loved two of the dishes so much that she immediately wanted to launch those in all the pastry shops of the chain they were running, and Vanilla and Bella were completely on board with the idea. They even decided to name the series "Royal treats from the Sapphire Kingdom" – which led to yet another business idea in Mana's head – they could launch a similar series for the Emerald Kingdom as well as the Obsidian Kingdom in all their pastry shops! Royal treats from the Emerald Kingdom wouldn't be a problem at all, since they were under Mana's control anyway – and as far as the Obsidian Kingdom was concerned, Mana didn't think that would be a problem, either, since Crown Princess Pica was a stakeholder in the business, and anything which made tons of profit would be very welcome to her as well. And also, Raven himself would be able to help out to some extent, and even if he couldn't they still had General Aquila and Rook, both of whom were staying back in the Emerald Kingdom with Mana and Raven after all the banquets in all the five kingdoms were over.

And thus, the business idea which would earn chain record breaking amounts of profits in the coming months for the pastry shop (much to the delight of King Jaren, Queen Carolina and Crown Princess Pica), was born from a casual conversation between three young girls amidst discussions of their outfits and accessories and their respective boys! Who could have expected that these young girls would come up with something so innovative and profitable in a simple conversation among friends? In fact, it wasn't just a profitable project – it was profitable to the extent that every single coin of the investments made by King Jaren, Queen Carolina and Crown Princess Pica was returned two fold to them as profits within six months. As for the three young couples who had stakes in the pastry shop chain business – Jules and Bella, Mana and Raven, as well as Fox and Vanilla – they became independently wealthy to the extent of being at par with the monarchs or high born nobility! Naturally, this was just the start of many good things for the young group of friends, and several years later, there would be no one who could rival them at all in terms of business or wealth or new innovations. But that would be a story for later.

Coming back to Bella's outfit – the girls were especially proud of this particular dress of Bella's, and it had been prepared with infinite care by all three of them. After all, Bella would be the highlight of the banquet tonight, and everything about her dress and her accessories and her make up, all the way down to the last thread and the last hair, had to be absolutely perfect. So the three girls had spent a long time admiring their handiwork and all three of them were anticipating Bella's ethereally beautiful appearance the next day.

Jules's outfit matched Bella's, of course, and while Jules had taken a casual look at Bella's outfit, he hadn't seen her wearing it, unlike Mana and Vanilla. Mana knew how devastatingly gorgeous Bella looked when she wore the dress along with all the accessories they had prepared – and she couldn't wait to see her Big Brother's reaction! She was absolutely certain that Jules would be stunned – and so would most people. Bella was naturally beautiful to an almost unbelievable level, and with the perfect dress and the perfect accessories that complimented her every attribute and that accentuated and enhanced every one of her beautiful features – there was no doubt that Bella would leave a lot of jaws on the floor when she walked into the banquet hall tonight on Jules's arm, and Jules himself would draw the envy of countless admirers of Crown Princess Bella!

Not that her Big Brother Jules was any less handsome – in fact, Jules looked as stunning as Bella in the matching outfit prepared for him – just the right combination of magnificence, elegance, charm and majesty. The young couple was definitely going to win all awards for the best looking couple in this world that would ever be organised!

And now, from what Mana understood, the iconic dress for the evening was missing?! How could that be possible? The three of them had seen the dress last night, and then Bella had put it away in her wardrobe in her room. Who could possibly sneak into Bella's room at night and steal her dress away? How did they by pass the security? And why would they steal the dress, of all things?

With her brows furrowed into a deep frown, Mana asked Bella, "Is it only the dress that is missing? Or are the accessories gone as well?"

Bella burst into tears. "Only the dress," she cried. "Everything else is still there, even the shoes." She looked at Mana with her lovely face filled with distress. "Why would anyone take only the dress, Mana? The accessories – the jewellery – those are far more valuable than the dress itself!"

Mana tapped her chin thoughtfully. Bella's point was valid. If the thief's intention was to steal to make money and earn a quick buck, it would definitely be much easier to simply pick up the small jewellery that was laid out next to the dress. But instead, they only took the dress, which was not only bulkier, but also unusable! After all, if anyone dared to wear Bella's dress and turn up for the banquet, Mana and Bella and Vanilla (not to mention their boys and their overprotective parents King Jaren and Queen Carolina) would eviscerate the offender then and there.

So that option was out.

What remained was – malicious intent. Someone clearly didn't want Bella to wear that dress tonight – or, perhaps, someone wanted to fiddle with the dress so that something would go wrong with Bella's outfit tonight – and this someone had the gall to walk into Bella's dressing room, which was directly connected to her bedroom, and take out her precious dress from there without alerting anyone at all! This was very worrying – not just because the dress was gone, but also from a larger perspective of security! This time they took a dress away – next time, what if they did something to Bella? Or what if they placed something harmful in Bella's room?

And the biggest issue was – how did the thief pass undetected?! Not only were there special magical wards around the imperial palace of the Sapphire Kingdom, but there were also guards stationed outside of Bella's rooms. Besides, the imperial shadow guards were always around their beloved Crown Princess Bella, protecting her from their place in the shadows and in the dark. How could someone simply walk into Bella's room at night and steal her big dress away without alerting anyone? And if they were able to do that, then why hadn't the guards noticed anything, especially the imperial shadow guards, who were even able to detect a small tremor a hundred metres away?!

Mana's head was in a whirl, but looking at Bella's beautiful face full of tears, Mana could only calm herself down first, and then attend to Bella. Jules would murder a lot of people if his precious fiancée turned up with red rimmed eyes in the banquet – not to mention Queen Carolina and King Jaren.

First, they needed to fix the outfit problem for Bella.