The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Mana heaved a sigh of relief when Raven calmed down, and she was too relieved to notice the dark and dangerous look in Raven's eyes that were, for the first time, tinged with ruthlessness.

Raven quickly suppressed that emotion, of course – he didn't want Mana to be frightened by the bloodthirsty feeling that was rising up within him.

Far away in the Amber Kingdom, Prince Liam, who had been reduced to a waste by now, felt a terrible chill run down his spine, as if someone was waiting eagerly to kill him! He looked around, trembling in fear, and called the guards to investigate – but naturally, nothing would be found. The holder of this bloodlust was sitting in the imperial palace of the Sapphire Kingdom, pretending to be an innocent little rabbit in front of his fiancée.

"Are you all right now?" Mana asked, her voice dripping with tender care and concern.

Raven managed a small smile for her – but even Mana could see that his smile was terribly forced.

"I'm sorry," Mana said. "I should have explained things properly instead of just springing it upon you like that," she apologised. She gave Raven another hug and poured some more of her warm and comfortable magic into him.

Raven did feel much better now, and being engulfed in Mana's comforting magic once more made him completely stable. Even the bloodlust and the killing intent that had risen up within him subsided completely – but Raven knew that the next time he saw Prince Liam of the Amber Kingdom, he would not be able to hold back his anger and his hatred and his bloodlust for the other man. And, to be honest, Raven didn't even want to. Eliminating a potential threat to Mana was more important to him than anything else.

The only thing was that he would have to hide these dark feelings deep down in his heart so that Mana would not be able to sense them – and Raven desperately wanted to keep Mana from learning about these dark feelings of his. First, he was afraid that she would be frightened or disgusted by him, and second, he was worried that she may actually try to protect Liam from Raven's clutches. He knew very well that right now, Mana saw Raven as her real fiancé and that she was very, very fond of him – but he had only known her for a few months. But, in her other life in another world – Mana had known and loved Liam for many, many years – would it be so easy to let go of that affection? What if Mana thought that this Liam was different from the one in the other world that had killed her, and she remembered all his good points and forgot all about the bad ones – and then fell in love with him again…? What would Raven do then?

Mana would have whacked Raven on the head if she knew that he was actually entertaining thoughts like these – and she would have probably gone to kill off Liam with her own hands to reassure Raven that she had absolutely no lingering feelings other than disgust for Liam, and any affection that she may have had for the man in her other life had been long wiped out. However, she was blissfully unaware of her young fiancé's dangerous thoughts at the moment.

"Don't tell Papa or Big Brother about how I died in the other world," Mana told Raven instead. "They will probably murder Liam and start a war – and this is not a good time to start a war. I want our engagement celebrations to be properly celebrated across all the kingdoms happily – and then we will figure out what to do with the Amber Kingdom."

Raven froze and quickly looked away from Mana, since he could feel his eyes turning dark again. "What if Liam targets you again?" he asked.

Mana scoffed. "I'd like to see him try," she said with a smirk. "May be I'll be the one to slit his neck in this life!" she said viciously. Of course, it was a completely different matter altogether that Mana would never resort to something as violently gory and messy as slitting someone's throat. There were much cleaner ways to get rid of people!

That was actually quite reassuring for Raven to hear, though. If Mana herself was entertaining thoughts about killing the scumbag Prince Liam – then, probably, she wouldn't think that Raven was an evil creature if he ended up killing the scumbag before Mana got to him, right?

Thus reassured, Raven was finally able to smile properly at his fiancée.

Mana was greatly relieved to see Raven finally relax properly. She couldn't help but lean forward and press a soft kiss to his cheek (which turned red immediately).

"Thank you," Mana said gratefully. "I don't know what I'd do without you. Thank you for being by my side, Raven."

Raven, in turn, kissed Mana on the forehead. "I will always be by your side," he promised.

And then, feeling a bit bold, he added, "And you have to promise to be by my side, too."

"Of course," Mana made the promise without any hesitation at all. "We will stick together for the rest of our lives."

Raven beamed at her, and Mana grinned back.

"You can't have affairs when you grow up," Mana warned him. "I won't share my fiancé with other people!"

Raven laughed. "Why would I have an affair with anyone else? You are all I will ever need, Mana," he said in an amused voice, but there was an underlying seriousness in his tone that no one could miss.

Mana blushed. "Well, you are so pretty and so talented, there will be people throwing themselves at you all the time and all over - left and right and centre and back!" she said with a pout.

Raven laughed and pinched Mana's cheeks playfully, like she often did to him, and realised that this was actually quite fun, especially when she was pouting like this!

"Well, then you can have my back, and we'll deal with the left and the right together, and I'll eviscerate anyone in the centre," Raven said with a smile. "And you have to promise to do the same as well. I won't share my fiancée with anyone, either."

Mana nodded, satisfied. "Yes, we'll do that, then!" she said happily.

And then she noticed the time and panicked immediately!

"We have to start getting ready now or we'll be late for the banquet! Oh no, I don't have enough time to fix my hair properly! What will I do?!" Mana cried, leaping up from her seat and rushing about.

Raven watched her with great amusement for a moment and then caught her arm. "I'll help you with your hair," he said. "Just get dressed. I'll be back in ten minutes and then I'll help you with your hair and your accessories, all right?"

Mana looked like she had seen her saviour. She immediately gave Raven a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, my darling!" she cried happily. "You are really, really the best fiancé ever!"

With a red face, Raven withdrew and went off to his own room to get dressed. Then he picked up the accessories he was supposed to wear and returned to Mana's room. If he was helping Mana with her hair and her accessories, she could help him with his, right? It was only fair, Raven thought – and he really wanted to act a little spoilt with Mana today and have her pamper him a little as well.

Mana had put on her dress already when Raven appeared, and she was just laying out all the accessories on the table that she was going to wear.

She looked up when the door opened, and then she saw Raven in his gorgeous outfit and holding all his accessories in his hands. She beamed at him and waved her arms.

"Come on, sit here," she said, pulling up a chair next to the one that was already there for her to sit on. "I'll introduce you to a wonderful thing today – it will help you relax and it will also make your already beautiful face glow even more!" she announced.

Now, Raven was not really a vain creature in general, but then, who could possibly dislike it when their fiancée found them to be really beautiful and admitted it out loud fairly often? Besides, Raven was quite happy that he was better looking than that scumbag Liam any day!

And he was a bit curious about what Mana was up to. Wasn't she complaining just a few minutes ago that there wasn't enough time for her to get ready? How did it suddenly become that she decided that they had enough time to relax?

Mana's secret to making their faces glow was something that was quite common in the modern world, and which she had managed to replicate recently – sheet masks!

Raven watched in fascination as Mana held up a strange thing and stuck it to his face, and then put one on her own face as well.