The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Mana's worst fears came true when she was woken up at sunrise next morning by a bright eyed and bushy tailed Raven practically bouncing on the floor next to her bed.

Mana groaned.

"Mana! Wake up! We have to go for a morning jog!" Raven said with a big grin. "Father Aqi is waiting for us!"

Mana groaned again, turned over and buried her head in her pillow. "Don't wanna," she mumbled sleepily. She pulled up the covers over her head to emphasise her intention of not getting out of bed, too!

However, Raven ruthlessly pulled off the covers and snatched her pillow from under her head.

"Wake up, lazybones! Even Big Brother Jules and Big Sister Bella are joining us today. Rook is also coming with us, and so are Papa and Azar. You can't be the only last one!" Raven said cheerfully.

Mana groaned again. "Too tired," she murmured.

If it had been a few days ago, Raven would have immediately been very worried and would have let her sleep in – however, now that Raven knew that the two of them were connected with each other and that if Mana really was feeling unwell, Raven would be able to sense it, he could definitely tell when Mana was being just lazy and when she was actually feeling a bit under the weather. It was quite handy for Raven, he thought to himself with a smile – now he wouldn't have to worry about Mana so much!

"I'd sense it if you were really too tired," Raven said. "Come on, Mana, let's go!"

Mana groaned yet again. "Lemme sleep," she mumbled.

Raven decided to use the most powerful weapon in his arsenal – the absolutely infallible weapon when it came to Mana (or King Jaren or Big Brother Jules or even little Azar, for that matter) – he gave Mana a pitiful, puppy-eyed look and asked in a small, miserable voice, "Mana, you don't want to spend time with me?" Raven even let his voice wobble a bit towards the end.

Mana's eyes snapped open and she saw Raven looking rather miserable and pitiful and staring at her with his rainbow eyes covered with a suspicious sheen.

"Of course I want to spend time with you," Mana said immediately. "I was just being lazy. Give me ten minutes to wash up and get ready, and I'll join you, all right?"

Raven smiled happily and nodded. "I'll wait for you," he declared.

Mana could only smile back helplessly. She knew that she had been manipulated by this devious little boy, but she couldn't really bring herself to complain about it. Who asked Raven to be so adorable? And who asked her to have such a giant soft spot for him? Besides, if a small thing like this could make him smile so brightly and happily early in the morning – it was all right for her to sacrifice some sleep…well, at least for now. Later, she'd figure out another way around it. Also, it wasn't a bad thing at all to wake up to Raven's beautiful smiling face every morning, was it? Made the entire day look much better, from Mana's perspective!

Mana was as good as her word. Within ten minutes, she washed up and got appropriately dressed for her morning exercises. Raven silently handed her a bottle of milkshake to sip on as the two of them made their way to the training grounds General Aquila had somehow managed to get permission to use from Queen Carolina.

Mana took a sip of the milkshake and her eyes went wide in wonder. She turned to Raven. "You made this?" she asked.

Raven nodded, looking a bit nervous. "Is it bad?" he asked anxiously. "I was trying different flavours -and it thought that this one tasted the best – the imperial kitchen staff of the Sapphire Kingdom were kind enough to give me some roasted beans which they use to make the beverage they will be serving at breakfast today – I really liked the smell and I thought I'll try it for our milkshake and it turned out quite well…"

Mana gave Raven a big hug. "Oh, you darling boy!" she said enthusiastically. "You found coffee beans for me! What do they call this thing here?" she asked.

For it was coffee indeed – and Raven had made her a coffee milkshake – her absolute favourite thing of all time – and besides, as long as you gave Mana a shot of coffee in the mornings, she'd be good to go and take over the world any day!

"They called it brown beans and they serve brown brew – the concoction made from it – for breakfast quite often. Queen Carolina likes it very much, but Big Sister Bella isn't too fond of it, she prefers tea or juice instead," Raven replied, stunned and a bit pleased with Mana's enthusiastic reaction. "You like it, then?" he asked.

"I love it!" Mana said, and kissed Raven's cheek. "Thank you! Now that we have coffee, I'll make tiramisu for you one of these days – you'll love it!"

Raven beamed at her, as bright as the sun itself. "As long as you like it, I'll make you a glass of coffee milkshake every morning," he promised.

Mana hugged him again. "Thank you!" she said gratefully.

Then she narrowed her eyes. "You – did you just say that you were trying out different flavours in the imperial kitchen of the Sapphire Kingdom?" she demanded.

Raven nodded.

"How long have you been up?" Mana asked archly. "It's barely sunrise now!"

Raven thought for a moment and then said, "A couple of hours or so, I guess?" he said vaguely.

"Why?" Mana demanded. "You're supposed to be getting enough rest for yourself!"

Raven flushed. "I wanted to make something nice for you," he murmured.

Mana stared at him helplessly, unable to hold on to her anger in the face of Raven's beautiful and utterly adorable appearance.

So she simply settled for hugging him again. "Oh, you," she said with a sigh. "What am I supposed to do with you? How can you be so cute and adorable and amazing?"

Raven flushed as red as a tomato.

"But don't do this again – you're forbidden from depriving yourself of proper rest from now on without good reason, and when there's good reason, you need to get some rest later on to make up for it!" Mana said firmly.

Raven simply smiled indulgently in response, neither accepting nor denying Mana – and very cleverly, to avoid giving her a proper response, he called out loudly, "Father Aqi! Mana and I are here!"

General Aquila and the others clearly had been waiting for them for some time – Jules and Bella were already practising hand to hand combat with each other, while King Jaren, Azar and Rook were practising with their swords under General Aquila's instructions.

General Aquila looked up at the two children who had just arrived.

"Oh, you're here, good," he said. "Raven, you practice with your Papa and Azar and Rook – and little Mana, you come here – I'll teach you how to use a soft sword."

For the next one hour, under General Aquila's training, everyone learnt silently and diligently, even Mana.

Finally, when Mana looked like she was about to faint, Raven stepped in between his fiancée and his Father Aqi.

"That should be enough for today, right, Father Aqi? I don't think Mana can practise any more today," Raven said quietly.

Mana dropped the soft sword immediately and flopped to the ground, throwing Raven a look full of gratitude and pleading.

General Aquila looked at Mana and frowned. "Are you feeling thoroughly drained?" he asked, looking at her pale face and the tension on Raven's face.

Mana nodded.

General Aquila's frown deepened. "You were poisoned with the Shadow Poison earlier, right?" he asked Mana.

Mana nodded.

King Jaren came over as well. "But that's gone now," he said. "Poison Expert Naver and our little Raven figured it out. There isn't a single trace of the poison in Mana's body any more – isn't that right, Raven?"

Raven nodded. "Yes," he said. "Mana is completely free from the Shadow Poison now. Every last bit has been removed."

"She's still too weak, though," General Aquila said. "A healthy child of ten should definitely have more stamina than this."

This made King Jaren frowned as well. "Since Mana has been sickly since she was born – we never made her take part in physical exercises or any martial arts – could that be the reason for her weakness now?" he asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

General Aquila nodded. "It is possible – and there is a big gap between her magical powers and her physical strength, too," he murmured. "We need to build up little Mana's physical strength soon, or her little body won't be able to take the load of her very powerful magic for too long." He stared at Mana. "Do you feel strange when you use strong magic? And then do you feel sick afterwards?" he asked.

Mana frowned in response.. "I'm not sure," she said. "I haven't really used any powerful magic yet, have I?"