The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

"Fox! Don't say nonsense!" the woman scolded. "Greet our royal guests properly first."

"Hello, I'm Fox," the young man said perfunctorily.

Mana smiled and waved back. "Hi, I'm Mana," she said. She'd always had a soft corner for eccentric people, and she instinctively liked this Fox fellow. This device of his was indeed similar to the fax machines of her world, and she wondered if this guy would, if given a push in the right direction, be able to develop something like mobile phones, too. Even a rudimentary mobile phone without a video call option would be a blessing at this time!

Fox raised an eyebrow. "Mana as in Princess Mana, the younger daughter of King Jaren of the Emerald Kingdom?" he asked curiously.

"The very same," Mana replied with a grin.

"Aren't you supposed to be sickly and dying?" Fox asked bluntly.

His mother immediately started to berate him, grabbed his arm and started to drag him backwards, while spouting apologies to Mana.

Mana held up a hand to stop her. "I don't mind," she said with a shrug. "It was true, after all. I was sickly and dying until a few weeks ago."

Fox wrenched his arm from his mother's grasp. "You don't look sick or dying at all," he told Mana, his blue eyes trying to bore a hole into her head.

"That's because I'm not dying anymore," Mana told him, smiling brightly. She tugged at Raven's arm. "He saved me."

For narrowed his eyes at Raven. "And who are you?"

Taking Mana's lead, Raven, too, greeted the young man politely. "I'm Raven," he said.

Fox brightened in an instant. "Prince Raven of the Obsidian Kingdom? The smart one?"

Raven nodded shyly.

Fox held out his hand. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Prince Raven," he said happily.

Taken aback, Raven extended his hand and shook hands with the eccentric young man.

Mana decided she liked this young fellow who treated Raven so warmly and recognised his talent! There weren't too many people like that, and she was determined to find as many of them as she could – especially from different kingdoms (since he was quite well-regarded in the Emerald Kingdom anyway, thanks to their culture of respecting talented people and King Jaren's predisposition to encourage meritocracy rather than heredity), so that when they travelled later, Raven would be used to other people giving him the respect and appreciation he deserved! Perhaps, little by little, word of his excellence would spread across all the kingdoms. Mana had no doubt that Raven was destined for great things, but she didn't want this adorable little angel she knew to be known as the evil, cursed, half-demon emperor. She wanted him to be known as the best emperor across kingdoms. In the future, when he annexed the Pearl Kingdom to the Obsidian Kingdom and rehauled their entire structure and shape it into a prosperous place, everyone should call him the saviour of the Pearl Kingdom instead of a half-demon!

By now, Mana had realised that the "Legend of Mars" was only reliable for the general outline and broad events and not an accurate source of information as far as the true nature of the main characters were concerned. She had met Mars and found him to be obnoxious, while her supposedly virtuous sister sent her spidey senses tingling. The epic was clearly an attempt to ingratiate the author to the winning King Mars and Queen Astra. Mana wondered how much of the conflict between Mars and Raven over Astra was actual and how much of it was fabricated!

She returned her attention to the present.

Fox was speaking excitedly with (or rather, *at*) Raven. "Do you want to see my workshop? It's right around the corner. Are you staying in the Emerald Kingdom for long? Mum just bought me the workshop a couple of days ago, and I'm planning to stay here in Verdant Hills for a while and work on some new devices! Come and see it, there are some concepts I want to discuss with you – maybe we can work on something together and develop something really, really cool!" he spoke in a rush. He'd still not let go of Raven's hand.

Classic fan behaviour towards a celebrity they admire deeply, Mana thought wryly.

Raven looked rather helplessly at the enthusiastic young man clutching his hand. "Perhaps another day," he said mildly.

"Tomorrow?" Fox asked eagerly.

Raven looked at Mana.

"Sure, why not?" Mana replied. "We can come over after breakfast."

"Excellent!" Fox cried excitedly. "Mum, help me clean my workshop today evening!"

Seeing that the two royal members hadn't taken offence at her son's lack of manners, the shopkeeper was quite relieved. And seeing her son so happily chatting with other people and wasn't rejected when he asked them to visit, she was even happier. Fox had always been very eccentric and foolish when it came to everyday things and on top of that, he was very blunt and had no sense of delicacy or a shred of diplomacy. It was no wonder that he had never managed to make any friends. Their Sapphire Kingdom was very strict on social etiquette and courtesy, and Fox was incapable of both. In the traditional milieu of the Sapphire Kingdom where everything followed orthodox rules and methodology, Fox was an oddball with strange new ideas that often challenged their perspectives and perception. Most people laughed at his ideas and inventions. This time, her husband had suggested bringing him to the Emerald Kingdom and letting him stay here and work on his devices for a while. They had always heard that the people of the Emerald Kingdom were rather open-minded and enjoyed seeing and learning about new things, so perhaps Fox could find someone like-minded here.

"Shouldn't you explain how your device works?" she nudged her son gently.

It was beyond her expectations that Fox would run into a prince and a princess and even be able to speak with them!

"This is called the Fox Letter Machine," the young man told Mana and Raven. He frowned. "Is blood magic prohibited in the Emerald Kingdom?"

"Some of it is," Mana said frankly. "Depends on what you want to use it for." Pearl Kingdom and Amber Kingdom prohibited all forms of blood magic, while the Sapphire Kingdom permitted limited uses, and the Obsidian Kingdom had no restrictions.

Raven frowned. "Whose blood do you need for this machine? Why do you need blood?"

"As an identifier, of course," Fox replied in a matter-of-fact voice. "My Fox Letter Machine isn't universal. It needs a bond of blood or love for the two people who want to use it, and each machine is exclusive for one person. You drip a few drops of your blood in it and it starts working."

"It comes in a pair, right?" Raven asked.

Fox nodded.

"Is it only sender-specific, or is it recipient-specific as well?" Mana asked eagerly.

Fox's face displayed a hint of surprise and elation at her question. "It is reciprocal and comes in pairs. Mum has one machine and Dad has another. They can write to each other only. You put in a couple of the sender's blood and a drop of the recipient's blood as well as a strand of your magic in it for it to work."

"Brilliant," Raven murmured reverently. "What an amazing concept!"

Fox preened proudly and grinned at Raven, making his mother almost faint from shock. Had anyone ever called her eldest son brilliant? He had always been ridiculed as a fool. And here he was, being praised by Prince Raven, who himself was known to be a young boy with the intelligence of ten grown men! Could it be that her son was a hidden genius, an unpolished diamond, and they had been too blind to see it because they simply weren't smart enough? It takes one to know one, maybe, she thought to herself. She would definitely write about this to her husband later today.

"Is it possible to create a multiple set? Say, for four or five members?" Mana asked. "Where you can choose to send a message to either one person, or to all of them at once?"

"It will take too much magical power, and the device will become too big to carry normally," Fox said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I tried to make one for our family and it turned out to be as big as a grand piano. I'm working on making a smaller device – but it'll take time."

Mana was disappointed. "So, if I want to speak to Raven, Papa and Big Brother, I'll have to carry three of these devices?"

Fox nodded absently. "Unless…" He grabbed a sheet of paper, which happened to be the invoice his mother was preparing for Mana, and started scribbling on it madly. Clearly, he just had an idea. He rushed out of the stall and ran towards his workshop. He stopped halfway, then ran back. "Remember to come tomorrow! I'll be waiting for you!" he shouted and then ran off again.

The shopkeeper apologised quickly for her son's abrupt actions and wrote out another invoice.

Mana and Raven exchanged a look and burst out laughing.

"It's fine," Mana said. "Your son is a rare talent; it's usual for such brilliant people to be a little eccentric. I bet he even forgets to eat or drink when he's working."

The shopkeeper was surprised at Mana's insight. "He does," she told her. "My husband and I are very worried about him. He's already old enough to be married, and all he does his tinker with machinery all day – and not even the traditional machinery of our Sapphire Kingdom…"

"He's an inventor," Mana told her. "You should be proud. He doesn't need tradition – what he needs is freedom to work on his new ideas."

The shopkeeper stared at Mana in shock and Raven, too, gave her a strange look.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Raven told the shopkeeper and dragged Mana away.