The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Raven shot an uncomprehending look at King Jaren. He didn't understand. Why would his life and soul be tied with Mana's? What did that even mean? Would Mana be affected, too, if something went wrong with him? Of course, Raven knew that Mana cared for him a lot and she would definitely be sad if he got injured severely or lost his life…

"King Jaren is right," Head Sage Yue said. "That is the blessing as well as the curse of fated soul mates. You not only share your joys and sorrows like ordinary couples, you also enjoy a deeper and more intense bond with your soul mates – but that goes for ordinary soul mates, too. Fated soul mates, on the other hand, is even beyond that. You share your life force and your soul spirit as well as your destiny. Killing one of you means killing you both – and conversely, because the two of you work as one unit, your power is doubled, too."

All colour left Raven's face and he immediately looked to King Jaren for confirmation.

The monarch of the Emerald Kingdom nodded. After several discussions with King Corvus and Head Sage Yue (separately, of course, otherwise who knows how many imperial meeting rooms would have been destroyed by these two contradictory forces clashing with each other in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom) – and a fair bit of research from his own side as well, King Jaren had come to understand that this whole business of 'fated soul mates' was quite troublesome. And since then, he had become even more protective of both Mana and Raven.

Upon receiving the dreaded confirmation from King Jaren, Raven could feel himself start trembling again. General Aquila, who was still holding him like a small child, frowned immediately.

"Raven? Son? What's wrong?" he asked urgently.

Raven shook his head and tried his very best to bring his rapidly destabilising magic under control. But his emotions had gone out of hand by now.

The next moment, the door was thrown open and Mana ran in.

"Raven? Raven!" she cried anxiously as she rushed towards General Aquila.

General Aquila knew that the little Princess Mana was probably the only one in the world who could help Raven at the moment. So he gently put Raven down, and without wasting a single moment, Mana wrapped her arms around the boy's trembling form.

General Aquila looked almost as distressed as Raven himself.

"What's happening with Raven?" Crown Princess Pica asked.

King Corvus sighed. "His powers have exceeded his ability to control them," he murmured. "How fast the child grows…"

"Raven's magic – it has grown that much?" Head Sage Yue wondered out loud, his pale eyes nearly popping out of his head in shock.

King Corvus and Crown Princess Pica, naturally, ignored him completely.

"Will Raven be all right?" Queen Carolina asked worriedly. She eyed the two children hugging each other.

King Jaren nodded. "Mana is here. He will be fine," he muttered, and then added under his breath, "He has to be…"

Mana completely tuned out the conversation of the adults. It didn't matter to her anyway – her only priority right now was Raven. She had no idea what had set him off this time – and she would definitely have a bone to pick with the adults in the room later once Raven calmed down and his magic settled down and stabilised again. Then she would investigate and find out exactly what they had said to set off her young fiancé like this!

Raven dipped his head and rested his forehead on Mana's shoulder, breathing deeply. The faintly citrusy fragrance that always clung to Mana entered his nose, and he could feel his own raging magic starting to subside as he breathed in that familiar fragrance even before Mana sent a strand of her own magic into him.

"I'm all right," Raven whispered in Mana's ear. Just like she could feel his instability, he could feel her concern, too. And just having her close by was good enough for his rampaging magic to begin to be soothed.

"You will be," Mana replied in a soft voice. "That's what I'm here for, right? You keep me all right and I keep you all right and then both of us are all right."

A warm feeling gushed through Raven and his magic settled immediately. Mana didn't let go of him, though.

General Aquila let out a surprised whistle. "Wow," he muttered, staring at the two children with surprise, pride and admiration written all over his face.

General Aquila's reaction alerted everyone else to the fact that Raven was all right now. Reluctantly, Mana released him, but as soon as she let him go and stepped back, Raven reached out and caught her wrist and slipped his slightly bigger hand into her smaller, more delicate one, and not satisfied with simply holding Mana's hand, he even interlaced their fingers.

King Jaren chuckled, a fond expression on his face. "Better?" he asked.

Raven nodded. "Yes, Papa," he said in his usual sweet and obedient voice.

King Jaren smiled slightly and patted both children on their heads. "Good," he said.

"So, what happened here? Raven was perfectly fine when I left – what could possibly have happened here in these few minutes for him to lose control of his magic again?" Mana asked, glaring up at all the adults. She was like a fierce little tiger cub, valiantly defending her equally young fiancé. She looked utterly adorable – but everyone in the room knew how deadly Mana could be when her loved ones were threatened. She seemed to be the one child of King Jaren who had inherited all his overprotective tendencies – and probably even enhanced these overprotective tendencies by herself, even!

By Mana's side, Raven couldn't help his merry giggle. He loved it when Mana was like this – and it made him want to see her at the top of the world, standing above and beyond everyone (with Raven ever-present by her side, of course) and then ordering people about just like this. How magnificent his dear little Mana was!

The warm affection that flooded Raven's heart surprised General Aquila. He had learnt in the last few days when he had spent his time within the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom and had interacted closely with the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom – well, actually, it was just King Jaren, Princess Mana and Royal Dragon Prince Azar – but it was more than enough for General Aquila to know how deeply these three people cared for Raven – and he also knew how utterly devoted Raven was to his beloved Papa, his fiancée Mana and his dragon child Azar.

And, in General Aquila's opinion, this genuine and deep regard was nothing less than what Raven fully deserved. In this, he was whole heartedly and firmly with the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom (except Princess Astra, of course).

Seeing that no one was speaking up, King Jaren sighed and explained the situation to Mana briefly.

Mana immediately glared at Raven. "Why are you acting like a moron again?" she demanded angrily.

Raven hung his head down like a chastised puppy. One could almost see the drooping tail behind him – and the most powerful figures of four kingdoms couldn't help but be amused at the situation.

Raven had more or less expected this to happen when Mana had burst through the door earlier – he knew how annoyed Mana got when he risked himself – and he suddenly wondered if that was because Mana had already known that their lives and their souls and their destinies were already linked with each other. But if she knew – why hadn't she said anything about it yet? Raven always thought that they were honest with each other – but then, since Raven himself kept a few secrets of his own – how could he possibly have any ground to blame Mana and ask her not to keep any secrets from him?

Seeing his mood plummeting, Mana sighed. "Is that such a bad thing? To share our lives?" she asked.

"No!" Raven cried immediately. "I just don't want to drag you down. I don't want you to be hurt…"

Mana raised an eyebrow. "Then you know exactly what you need to do, don't you?" she asked archly.

Raven looked at her blankly – and with a hint of fear in his rainbow eyes.

Mana shook her head in exasperation and poked his forehead with a slim finger. "If you don't want me to be hurt, you protect yourself as strongly as you protect me. It's such a simple thing, you silly boy. Can't you do even this much for your beloved fiancée?" she challenged.

"Mana is right," General Aquila and King Jaren spoke up at the same time.

"Mommy is smart and Daddy is silly now," Azar chipped in. "Silly, silly, Daddy, you have to listen to Mommy now. Be a good boy, Daddy. Be a good boy like Azar!"

Mana chuckled. "Yes, exactly, silly Raven. Be a good boy like Azar!"

The little dragon preened.