The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

"Are you sure?" Raven asked Queen Carolina. "I think I can manage…"

Queen Carolina shook her head. "I don't want any of you straining yourself – as it is, I don't like the idea of putting you and Mana at risk for something like this. It's not your responsibility that a cursed living ghost corpse has somehow turned up in the Sapphire Kingdom, but since you two are also the only ones who can help me and my people at this point in time – I can't even bring myself to refuse the help that you have offered so generously…" she murmured.

"We're family," King Jaren said. "Of course we'll help. Didn't you just say that Mana and Raven are acknowledged and recognised as family members and are magically deemed to be a part of the royal family of the Sapphire Kingdom?" he asked.

Queen Carolina nodded. "Yes, they are, but I don't like putting any of the children in harm's way…" she said.

"Neither do I," King Jaren confessed in a candid manner. "But in the past few months, Mana and Raven and Jules and Bella and Azar have taught me very clearly that there are times that we need to rely on this specific bunch of extraordinary children – and they are clearly capable of a lot of things that we grown ups would fail miserably at. And they can do things that we can't even dream of or imagine in our wildest flights of fancy," he said.

Queen Carolina nodded. "I can't disagree with that. The communication device – that is something no one but these children could have come up with…" she said. A determined look flashed across her lovely face and her blue eyes, so similar to Bella's, glowed with power. She turned to Raven and Mana and inclined her head slightly. "Then, Prince Raven of the Obsidian Kingdom and Princess Mana of the Emerald Kingdom – please permit me to ask for your assistance in dealing with the cursed living ghost corpse who seeks to harm the Sapphire Kingdom and in particular, seems to target the royal family of the Sapphire Kingdom. Princess Mana of the Emerald Kingdom, please also request your grandfather and your grandmother to help us with this matter," she said formally.

"We accept," Mana said quickly, seeing that Raven was utterly stunned.

"Pretty Grandmother Carolina, Azar will help you too!" the little dragon wasn't far behind Mana is speaking up.

Queen Carolina smiled at the two children and the little dragon. "Thank you," she said gratefully.

King Corvus narrowed his eyes at Queen Carolina. "Does the cursed living ghost corpse possess a special identity? Something that would be very troublesome if others were to learn of it?" he asked. There was a shrewd light in his liquid, dark eyes.

"How is that even relevant?" Head Sage Yue demanded. "No matter who the cursed living ghost corpse used to be in his previous and original life – once he became a cursed living ghost corpse, he became an unnatural, abominable existence, and we need to exterminate him as soon as possible!" He raised his eyebrows mockingly at King Corvus. "Or, if you want to keep the cursed living ghost corpse alive – well, whatever cursed half life he has anyway – and take him back to the Obsidian Kingdom to conduct experiments or whatever other dark, nefarious activities you all like to indulge in – I don't think Queen Carolina will have any objections as long as you can take the cursed living ghost corpse out of the Sapphire Kingdom and keep it contained!" he said in a mocking tone, clearly taunting the man who had, at one point of time in his life in the past, been his father in law.

King Corvus smirked idly at Head Sage Yue. "There's no need to worry your pretty little head over such complex matters, Head Sage Yue. I do realise that there isn't adequate grey matter in that pretty little head of yours – and we wouldn't want you to waste any of your precious resources over matters that are far behind your comprehension and make the lack of the said matter into a complete absence of it as a consequence of this activity," he said mildly.

As far as insults went, Mana had to admit that this was one of the most creative and high handed ones she'd ever heard in both her lives. She had to give King Corvus full marks for creativity for this one – it really was quite ingenious. She wondered idly if Raven, too, would shoot insults like this when he grew up a little more – she was sure that Raven's insults would be far more subtle and most of the time, the person being insulted would probably not even get to know that they have been insulted! Knowing Raven, this would most likely be the case, Mana thought to herself. And she also realised that she herself was starting to develop a small soft spot for this acerbic and sarcastic but quite clever grandfather of Raven's. If nothing else, Mana would probably be agreeable to admitting that Raven did seem to have inherited his intelligence from this sly old man, exactly as he claimed (it was just that Raven was a gentle and polite and an overall nice person with his heart and brains and guts and everything else in the right place – well, except may be his tendency to sacrifice himself for those he loved at the drop of a hat and a general carelessness and callousness towards his own self – but that was something Mana and King Jaren and Azar and Jules were working on quite regularly, and there was hope along the horizon since Raven was already faring much better than before). After all, neither Head Sage Yue nor Crown Princess Pica would ever be considered the brightest bulb in the pack! And yet, here was Raven, with an IQ that would be off the charts if there was any way to measure it in this world – sometimes, Mana found herself wishing that she could take Raven for an outing to her modern world, and show him the things there and see how he would enjoy all of that.

What face would Raven make when she took him to an amusement park and he saw all the different kinds of rides there? How would Raven react when she took him on a trip and he got into the modern transportation vehicles? How would he like to ride on a car, or travel in a train, or fly in an aircraft, or sail on a luxury cruise? Would Raven enjoy the huge libraries of the big, modern cities? How would he tackle a laptop or a tablet or a smart phone or a console – and how would he react when he found e-books and the unlimited access to millions and billions of books and pages and information and everything that the internet had brought along? What face would he make when she took him to different restaurants and made him sample everything from street food to gourmet cuisines and even weird combinations that modern humans came up with? How would he react to the modern constructions – the skyscrapers, the high risers? And what about artificial intelligence, and things like advanced medicine, and genetics and nanotechnology and things that people in this world couldn't even think of in their wildest flights of fantasy, as King Jaren had pointed out earlier? What about movies and modern fun activities like escape rooms or houses of horror and things…although, given Raven's past experience, Mana wouldn't want to take him to any confined places, actually. But movies, open air theatres, musical performances, ballroom dancing, concerts, various sports events, jungle safaris – these things would be very enjoyable for Raven, too, right? Before her accident made her confined to the hospital bed for several years in her past life – Mana had been an almost compulsive traveller – be it for work or leisure. In fact, her parents and especially her big brother often used to tease her that if she didn't take at least four flights a week, she would probably fall sick because of travel withdrawal symptoms! Back then, Mana hadn't realised it, but after the accident, when she couldn't even move, let alone travel – she had realised how addicted to travelling she had been.

Seeing Mana in a daze, Raven gave her a gentle nudge. Mana blinked rapidly, gathering her thoughts and focussing her attention back to this world that had now become her own, and the family that had now become her own as well, and this darling little boy of a fiancé that she had somehow managed to acquire for herself, and who was peering at her with hie rainbow eyes almost overflowing with concern.

"What's wrong?" Raven whispered quietly.

Mana smiled at him warmly, her own eyes full of affection, and the specks of amber and silver appearing like sharp specks of light within the glowing bright emerald.. She knew how to reassure him, of course.