The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Mana and Bella went over to Bella's room and Mana looked around carefully, scanning the room with her eyes as well as her magic.

There was nothing amiss. Except the missing dress, everything else was in place exactly as it should be, and there was no trace of any foul play. Other than the traces of magic that were quickly identified by Bella as belonging to her maids who cleaned the room every day, there was nothing.

Mana narrowed her eyes. The magical traces of two of the maids were denser than the ones left by Mana and Vanilla last night – that could mean one of two things – either these two particular maids frequented Bella's room more often than the others, or they had been her after Mana and Vanilla had left for the night.

The fact that there was no trace of magic near the wardrobe was also suspicious by itself.

"Who is authorised to enter your room without permission in the night or early morning? Your maids must be coming in, right?" Mana asked.

Bella frowned. "I've instructed everyone not to enter my room without my express permission already – but sometimes one of my personal maids came in to open the curtains after sunrise, since I'd told them that I would be waking up early today," she replied. "No one woke me up, though, and the curtains were closed when I woke up by myself, so I didn't think anyone had come in. And as you can see, nothing in the room has been disturbed – it's only my dress which has gone missing…"

Bella burst into tears again.

Mana patted her back awkwardly. "Big Sister Bella, please don't cry," she said softly. "Don't ruin your beautiful face on this special day with your tears, all right? My Big Brother's heart will hurt terribly if he sees that you're so upset."

"I know," Bella murmured. "But that dress was so special and we worked so hard on it and it was perfect and I wanted to look my most beautiful tonight for Jules and I…" she trailed off.

Mana comforted her by rubbing her back in circles with gentle and soothing motions of her small hand.

"Have you noticed that there are no traces near the wardrobe at all?" Mana asked in a quiet voice.

Bella froze. Then she quickly wiped her face clean with her handkerchief. And then she cast her magic around the wardrobe again.

"You're right, Mana," Bella said. "This is highly suspicious."

"Exactly," Mana replied, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "There can't be no traces of any magic near the wardrobe. All three of us – you, me and Vanilla went there last evening – and since the magical traces of Vanilla and I are all over the room, it doesn't make sense that there's nothing near the wardrobe. Even if it can be argued that Vanilla and I were near the wardrobe for a very short time – that's not true for you. You went in and out of your dressing room several times last evening, and then you finally placed the dress there. There can't be no trace of your magic there, at the very least."

Bella nodded, her sharp brain coming to life, and all her tears and misery over the lost dress completely forgotten.

"I went to the wardrobe in the morning before going to you, too," Bella said. "But even that trace seems to have disappeared now!"

Bella's blue eyes glittered with anger and she clapped her hands, summoning two of her imperial shadow guards immediately.

"Who entered my room after I left in the morning?" she demanded.

The imperial shadow guards bowed respectfully.

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, only your two personal maids entered the room after you left in the morning," one of the masked imperial shadow guards said.

"And did anyone enter my room before that?" Bella asked.

The imperial shadow guards shook their heads.

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, no one entered your room in the morning before you woke up," one of the masked imperial shadow guards said.

"What about last night?" Mana asked.

The two imperial shadow guards looked at Bella, silently asking if they should answer this foreign princess's question or not.

"Answer Princess Mana's question, please," Bella ordered immediately.

"Answering Princess Mana of the Emerald Kingdom, only the two personal maids of our Crown Princess Bella entered the room after Princess Mana of the Emerald Kingdom and Lady Vanilla of the Emerald Kingdom left in the evening," the other one of the masked imperial shadow guards said. "The two maids cleared the plates and retreated. No one else entered the chambers of our Crown Princess Bella after that until the morning when Crown Princess Bella stepped out of the room herself."

"Were the two of you on joint guard duty last night and this morning?" Mana asked.

"Answering Princess Mana of the Emerald Kingdom, both Shadow Sixteen and myself, Shadow Nineteen were on guard duty last evening and this morning from midnight to noon," the first one of the masked imperial shadow guards said.

A deep furrow appeared on Bella's fair brow. "Who was on duty before midnight?" Bella asked with a frown.

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, Shadow Seventeen and Shadow Eighteen were on guard duty until midnight," the second one of the masked imperial shadow guards – the one called Shadow Sixteen – said.

"Guard duties are supposed to follow numerically," Bella said in a stern voice. "Why was the order jumbled?"

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, this lowly servant, Shadow Sixteen, was feeling unwell yesterday morning and requested for a shift in guard duties," the second one of the masked imperial shadow guards – Shadow Sixteen – said.

Bella's frown deepened. "Was this change conveyed to the Captain of the imperial shadow guards?" she demanded.

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, Shadow Sixteen informed the three of us, that is, Shadow Seventeen, Shadow Eighteen and Shadow Nineteen that he had already spoken to the Captain and that the Captain had approved of this change, and hence, we switched the guard duties of Shadow Sixteen and Shadow Eighteen, as requested by Shadow Sixteen," the first one of the masked imperial shadow guards – Shadow Nineteen – said.

Bella turned to the second imperial shadow guard, the one called Shadow Sixteen, and she asked him, "What happened to you? Why were you suddenly taken ill yesterday morning, and how are you feeling now?"

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, and thanking Crown Princess Isabel for her concern, this lowly one was suffering from indigestion yesterday morning, and this Shadow Sixteen has fully recovered as of last evening, so this Shadow Sixteen is fit for duty and there shall be no lapses in duty from this Shadow Sixteen's side," the second one of the masked imperial shadow guards, Shadow Sixteen, said confidently.

As soon as the man finished speaking, Mana threw a small orb at him, which exploded and a magical net made of sparkling green light imprisoned the man calling himself Shadow Sixteen.

Mana's reaction was only a second faster than the other imperial shadow guard, Shadow Nineteen, and Bella herself.

"Take off his mask," Bella ordered Shadow Nineteen, the other imperial shadow guard.

Shadow Nineteen obeyed silently.

"Answering the Crown Princess Isabel, this is indeed Shadow Sixteen," Shadow Nineteen said with a frown.

"He isn't," Mana said firmly. "Look carefully – that face is a skin mask. You'll be able to peel it off."

Both Bella and Shadow Nineteen looked at Mana in shock.

Mana sighed and wondered if skin masks were a completely unknown thing in this world.

On the other hand, the imperial shadow guard who was calling himself Shadow Sixteen, froze at Mana's words.

"What is a skin mask?" Bella asked curiously.

Mana waved her fingers, pointing them at the man imprisoned within her magical net. "I'll show you what it is right now, Big Sister Bella," she said.

As soon as the streak of magic from Mana's fingers hit the man who was pretending to be an imperial shadow guard, he screamed in terror and his face came off and fell to the floor – leaving a completely different and unknown face underneath!

Shadow Nineteen immediately drew his weapon and stepped protectively in front of Bella.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What have you done with Shadow Sixteen, and why have you approached our Crown Princess Isabel like this? What are your intentions?!"

The fake imperial shadow guard caught within Mana's magical net laughed and fixed his glittering, beady eyes at Mana. "How did you know I was not the real one, little princess?" he asked in a voice laced with humour.

Mana smiled slightly. "You did a rather sloppy job of copying an imperial shadow guard," she said. "Even if you were able to take on his appearance and his basic mannerisms, you messed up several times just now.. You called yourself a lowly servant, for one – which no one in the Sapphire Kingdom does, let alone an elite imperial shadow guard, and you referred to Big Sister Bella as Crown Princess Bella several times, which is not how the imperial shadow guards address her."