The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

To no one's surprise, Alya and Azar were a big hit in the court of the Sapphire Kingdom – especially Alya, who was introduced as the dragon child of Crown Princess Isabel of the Sapphire Kingdom and Crown Prince Jules of the Emerald Kingdom. The appearance of the two little dragons enhanced the reputation of the young couple even more, and the goodwill of the entire court towards the Emerald Kingdom soared to even greater heights than ever before, and everyone became convinced that the fiancé of their beautiful Crown Princess Isabel, Crown Prince Jules of the Emerald Kingdom, was the harbinger of great fortune for the Sapphire Kingdom, for sure! Not only had the economy and prosperity of the Sapphire Kingdom improved enormously since Crown Prince Jules had entered the life of their Crown Princess Isabel, but now, the Sapphire Kingdom had even gained a beautiful little Royal Dragon Princess Alya of their own – and everyone who had been jealous of the Emerald Kingdom until then for having little Royal Dragon Prince Azar, could now be pacified and celebrate with the young couple whole heartedly. If not a blessing from the heavens, how else could the lovely little white dragon turn up just after the engagement of Crown Princess Isabel and Crown Prince Jules? Wasn't this a sign from the heavens that this couple was blessed by the heavens and fated to be together? Wasn't this a sign of greater things to come?

Azar and Alya enjoyed the attention very much – especially Alya, since it was her first time interacting with people outside of her immediate family, while Azar was quite jaded about the admiring glances he garnered from people on the outside by now, since he had become quite accustomed to it. However, he kept a close eye on little Alya today, his natural protectiveness rising up to the full towards this lovely little white dragon – naturally, Azar would learn from his Daddy Raven and his Uncle Jules about being protective and taking care of his fiancée! King Jaren noticed this, of course, and was caught between pride and amusement as he watched little Azar channel both Raven and Jules and behave how Raven did when taking care of Mana or how Jules did when protecting Bella!

As for Queen Carolina, she was naturally on top of the world with the two baby dragons in court, and her beautiful little baby dragon granddaughter Alya sitting on her shoulder the entire time. And seeing their monarch in such a great mood, even the courtiers were affected, and a lot of work got done really smoothly on this day! By the time Alya and Azar declared that they were hungry and looked pitifully at Queen Carolina, not only one day's – but almost three days' worth of work had already been done and over with!

And thus, the moment Alya said, "Grandmother, Alya is hungry now," and Azar immediately followed up with, "Grandmother Carolina, Alya and Azar are hungry now." – Queen Carolina didn't even waste a single moment in dismissing the court for the day and strode out of the hall with King Jaren and the two little dragons!

And as the courtiers of the Sapphire Kingdom watched the retreating backs of the two monarchs, their only thought was this – I wish the two little dragons would be in court again tomorrow! 

When Queen Carolina and King Jaren reached the dining hall, lunch had already been laid out on the table, and Jules, Bella, Mana and Raven were waiting for them. General Aquila and Rook had gone off to King Corvus and Crown Princess Pica and the twins Prince Dawe and Princess Enca for lunch as usual.

Azar immediately flew into Mana's arms and whined, "Mommy! Azar is hungry!"

Mana laughed and stuffed a meat dumpling into his little mouth.

Alya, naturally, wouldn't be far behind Azar, since she seemed to be copying everything that the older dragon did! So, Alya launched herself at Jules, and said, "Dad! Alya is hungry, too!"

Jules practically melted into a puddle in front of everyone's eyes. He cuddled his cute little dragon daughter and pulled several plates of food in front of him, letting her sniff at each one.

"Which one does my beautiful daughter want to eat?" he asked, rubbing the little white dragon's head.

Alya pointed at a few dishes, and Jules fed her small portions of each one by one, completely forgetting that he, too was supposed to be eating lunch himself!

Finally, Bella couldn't stand it anymore and started stuffing food into her fiancé's mouth – and Jules was so preoccupied with feeding the baby dragon that he barely noticed that Bella was feeding him as he fed little Alya!

King Jaren and Queen Carolina watched this sight for several minutes with a straight face, and tried their best to hold back their laughter. Then, the two of them happened to glance at each other and couldn't resist their urge to laugh anymore – and the two monarchs, one of the Sapphire Kingdom and one of the Emerald Kingdom – burst out laughing! Queen Carolina laughed so hard that tears pooled in her sapphire blue eyes, while King Jaren nearly fell off his chair.

Mana and Raven, who were taking turns feeding their baby dragon, were quite amused as well – but they didn't laugh as hard as the two adults – perhaps because half their attention was taken away by the rather demanding little baby dragon Azar.

Since Azar and Alya had eaten two breakfasts – neither baby dragon could eat too much for lunch. Pretty soon, the two of them yawned sleepily and flew to King Jaren. Azar curled up on King Jaren's right shoulder and fell asleep immediately, and similarly, Alya settled on her Grandpapa's left shoulder and fell asleep.

King Jaren chuckled indulgently and rubbed the smooth scales of his two dragon grandchildren. Then he stood up and announced that he, too, would go to his room and enjoy an afternoon siesta.

No one stopped him, naturally. They had all finished their meal anyway, and everyone returned to their rooms.

Jules and Bella were feeling quite refreshed by now, and the two of them also had to get dressed in the most elaborate manner for the banquet in the evening, so they decided to start getting ready after a short rest.

Mana and Raven actually wanted to go and check on the cursed living ghost corpse, but they didn't want to ruin anyone's mood yet – so they decided to put it off for now. In any case, today was the third and last banquet of the Sapphire Kingdom, so it was perfectly fine if they brought up the matter of the cursed living ghost corpse tomorrow instead of today, instead od bringing up the matter right now and causing unnecessary distress to everyone. Besides, both of them already knew that the magic net was perfectly secure for the moment, and thanks to the addition of Azar's powerful dragon magic to the mix, the magic net would probably not be broken any time soon, even if they didn't check up on it. It would be more useful for them to do some research instead and look through the materials left behind by the ancient master to see if they could find something useful in those. And Mana also wanted to check on the book in her head – a few pages had been shining brightly for several days now, but they had not yet opened. Mana was reasonably sure that some major event was going to happen soon, and that the was perhaps the trigger that would lead to opening of these new pages that had been bothering her in the past few days. Which, coupled with Azar's (and now Alya's as well) stickiness with King Jaren, made Mana suspect that her beloved Papa was going to be deeply involved in whatever nefarious plans had been brewing in the heads of their enemies. The only thing she was not sure about was whether the cursed living ghost corpse and the evil forces behind him were primarily the enemies of King Jaren and Big Brother Jules and the Emerald Kingdom, or they were primarily the enemies of the Sapphire Kingdom and out to get Queen Carolina and Big Sister Bella instead. In any case, they needed to be dealt with, because no matter whether they were enemies of the Sapphire Kingdom or the Emerald Kingdom – targeting any one of them meant targeting the other one as well, and they would work together to destroy whatever evil forces raised their arms against either the Emerald Kingdom or the Sapphire Kingdom.

Mana also had a sneaking suspicion that the Amber Kingdom was on the other side of these plans, and that when Head Sage Yue went back to the Pearl Kingdom and conducted his own investigations, a lot of issues would be revealed, and it would definitely shed light on the situation that had happened here in the Sapphire Kingdom. Perhaps, in the end, the four kingdoms – the Emerald Kingdom, the Sapphire Kingdom, the Obsidian Kingdom and the Pearl Kingdom would have to work together and take a united stand against the Amber Kingdom.

So, Mana and Raven decided to sit together in Mana's room and discuss.