The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Queen Carolina also decided to tag along for the short trip to the Emerald Kingdom – and the group decided that they would have lunch in the Emerald Kingdom and then come back.

Thus, King Jaren, Queen Dora, Jules, Bella, Mana, Raven, Queen Carolina, General Aquila, Rook, Azar and Alya – four adults, five children and two baby dragons – used the privileged royal array of the Sapphire Kingdom and went to the Emerald Kingdom immediately.

Azar proudly showed off the things in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom to little Alya as the group stepped out of the secret royal chamber where the special array connecting with the Sapphire Kingdom had been set up and walked along the corridors towards the sacred ancestral chamber.

However, they had barely walked across one corridor when they met with a group of imperial staff members and imperial servants who were out working on morning cleaning duty and the like.

The imperial staff members and the imperial servants were surprised to see their monarch return so suddenly, but then they caught sight of Queen Dora and little Alya.

The younger and newer servants, who didn't know about Queen Dora, immediately squealed in delight at the sight of the beautiful little white dragon.

Azar noticed this and his emerald eyes sparkled like gemstones. He stepped forward and immediately took the initiative to introduce little Alya to everyone.

"Alya is Azar's fiancée and the Royal Dragon Princess Alya of the Emerald Kingdom and the Sapphire Kingdom," Azar announced proudly. "Alya has chosen Uncle Jules and Auntie Bella as her human parents!"

Then he turned to Alya and told her, "These are the good people in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom and they work for Grandpapa and Uncle Jules and Mommy and Azar!"

Alya was also impressed. She smiled beautifully at the members of the imperial staff and the imperial servants and greeted them sweetly, saying, "Hello, good people in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom who work for Grandpapa and Dad and Auntie Mana and Azar! Alya is happy to meet you!"

All the young and new staff members and servants were suitably impressed and fawned over the new royal dragon grandchild! It was easy to see the hearts and bubbles all around them – in fact, one could actually see their irises turning heart shaped at how adorable Alya was. Azar was already the most beloved member of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom in the imperial palace these days, and now, with another adorable little dragon, the humans lost whatever little chance they may have had to be counted as the top favourite.

And the double cuteness attack from the happily grinning little black dragon and little white dragon was actually a bit too much to take – several people thought that they would just die from the cuteness overload!

However, for, perhaps the first and the last time in the life of the two little dragons, not all eyes around them were fixed on the two little dragons. Several people in the crowd in front of them were distract and their attention was stuck elsewhere.

These were the older imperial servants and members of the imperial staff who had worked in the imperial palace for more than ten years. Or had at least been around in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom for more than ten years. Some were, after all, second or third or even later generations of families that had traditionally served the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom, and they had grown up in the imperial palace since they were born. So, while they may not have been old enough to work ten years ago, they had still been living in the imperial palace and were familiar with the people of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom since they were small children.

The old members of the imperial palace staff and the older imperial servants who had known Queen Dora before, on the other hand, were frozen in shock when they saw her.

King Jaren laughed and put his arm around Queen Dora's shoulders. "Yes, my Dora is alive and well, and she has just been returned to us by heaven's grace," he boomed, with a wide smile on his handsome face, looking even more dashing than ever before without the clouds of loneliness that had almost permanently surrounded him for the last ten years.

Many of the staff members and servants burst into tears of joy, and some of them even danced around like raving lunatics.

Queen Dora let out a merry laugh at the sight of all these familiar people looking so happy to see her alive.

King Jaren, too, was quite pleased with the reaction.

And the newer and younger staff members and servants, who had been fawning over little Alya, were also stunned. After all, even if they had never seen her before, Queen Dora had been a legendary figure in the Emerald Kingdom for years – and there was no one who did not know what an extraordinary queen she had been and her achievements at IMARI and how much King Jaren doted on her.

And now, seeing King Jaren, Queen Dora, Crown Prince Jules and Princess Mana standing together – all of them had to admit that this was the prefect royal family in their eyes.

Queen Dora was welcomed warmly, and she responded with great affection as well. She remembered all the older members of the staff and the imperial servants who had been around when she was still the queen, and she greeted them by name one by one, making the staff members and servants feel overwhelmed.

There was a lot of happy crying and crazy joyful dances after the impromptu meet and greet was over. Soon a bunch of imperial chefs turned up to greet Queen Dora and welcome little Alya into the family, and then this extended to the imperial guards – and in less than half an hour, pretty much everyone in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom had turned up to greet Queen Dora and little Alya.

"Ma is very popular in the imperial palace, it seems," Jules murmured quietly to Mana and Bella and Raven.

Mana nodded. "Looks like it," she said, completely agreeing with Jules. "I have never seen them so happy and enthusiastic – Aunt Sora most definitely never received so much love and respect from the members of the imperial staff or the imperial servants or the imperial guards or the imperial chefs at all!"

"She didn't deserve it anyway," Bella said with a frown.

"I have to agree with Big Sister Bella," Raven added.

"We all agree with Big Sister Bella," Mana said. "Don't we, Big Brother?"

"Of course," Jules said immediately. "Bella is right."

Mana laughed. "I don't think I have ever heard you say that Big Sister Bella is wrong, Big Brother," she teased, mischief pooling in her speckled emerald eyes.

Jules flushed a little and said shyly, "Well, Bella is usually right, so it's not very surprising, is it?" There was a distinct note of pride in his voice that even the deaf would be able to hear!

Bella flushed in response and looped her arm around Jules's arm.

On the other side, King Jaren, Queen Dora, Azar and Alya were swamped with the tearful and overly happy members of the imperial staff and the imperial servants and the imperial guards and the imperial chefs, and King Jaren and Queen Dora were pacifying all of them and trying to calm them down while Azar and Alya were showing off their cuteness and happily adding to the chaos (and enjoying it very much).

Queen Carolina, General Aquila and Rook looked rather lost at the commotion around them. Finally, after some time, when the chaos showed no signs of diminishing around King Jaren, Queen Dora, little Azar and little Alya, Mana and Jules decided to rescue the hapless people from the Obsidian Kingdom and the Sapphire Kingdom, and thus, Queen Carolina, General Aquila, Rook, Jules, Bella, Raven and Mana were soon seated in a comfortable room and watching the commotion outside while sipping on some excellent tea and snacking on some cookies and potato wafers that had been introduced by Mana some time earlier and had become very, very popular since they could be stored for a long time. And Mana was very thankful right now that they had these things – otherwise, given the current state of the imperial chefs bawling like five year old children in front of King Jaren and Queen Dora right now – there would be no chance of them being able to get a single plate of any snacks!

"We should have expected this, actually," Jules murmured. "After all, Ma has been gone for ten years…"

Mana nodded.

Raven spoke up hesitantly, "Do Grandpa and Grandma know about Ma's return…?"

Mana and Jules exchanged a horrified glance. They had completely forgotten to inform Grandpa and Grandma! Or even Fox and Vaniila!

There was definitely going to be a lot of drama on that front…