The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

It was almost an hour before King Jaren and Queen Dora (and the two little dragons, of course) were able to break away from the whole bunch of imperial guards, imperial chefs, imperial servants and other members of the imperial staff in the imperial palace of the Emerald Kingdom.

King Jaren's brow twitched when he found Jules, Mana, Bella, Raven, General Aquila, Queen Carolina and Rook sitting in the side room sipping tea and eating snacks in a leisurely manner.

He walked into the room, dragging Queen Dora with him, and the two little dragons naturally took up their favourite spots on each of King Jaren's shoulders.

Azar's eyes widened in delight as soon as he spotted the potato wafers in Mana's hands.

"Mommy! Azar wants potato wafers!" the little black dragon cried excitedly and flew off to her in a rush.

Mana chuckled and rubbed the baby dragon's small head affectionately. "All right," she said.

Before Mana could offer him one, however, Azar looked up at Alya, who was still sitting on King Jaren's shoulder with a confused expression on her pretty little face.

"Alya, come! Azar will show Alya some new delicious food!" the little black dragon said happily, clearly trying to show off to the other little dragon.

Alya's mismatched eyes of emerald green and sapphire blue gleamed with curiosity and then, the little white dragon flew to Mana as well.

"Auntie Mana, is it good?" little Alya asked in a sweet voice.

Mana smiled and rubbed the adorable little head of her royal dragon niece as well.

"Alya can try it and see if she likes it," Mana told her in an indulgent tone. "Our little Azar loves it."

Alya brightened and nodded, her small white head bobbing up and down.

Azar beamed at the other baby dragon. "Potato wafers are very good! Azar loves them!" he declared.

Mana offered one to Alya and the little white dragon bit into the potato wafer delicately.

Alya was born to be an elegant lady, Mana thought to herself.

Alya's big round eyes grew even bigger as she tasted the potato wafer. "Delicious!" the little white dragon chirped happily.

Raven quietly opened two new packets of potato wafers and emptied them on two plates.

"All yours, little ones," he said, indicating with a thumb that the two plates of potato wafers were all for Azar and Alya.

"Thank you, Daddy!" Azar said happily. He flew off from Mana's lap, nuzzled Raven's face for a moment, and then landed on the table next to one plate, claiming ownership of it.

To everyone's surprise, though, Azar didn't start eating immediately. Instead, he waiting until little Alya flew off from Mana's lap as well. Alya, as always, repeated Azar's actions. She nuzzled Raven's cheek as well, and said sweetly, "Thank you, Uncle Raven." Then she settled on the table next to Azar, claiming the second plate of potato wafers.

The two little dragons dived into their respective plates with great gusto, and everyone chuckled at the cute scene.

Meanwhile, Jules and Bella had poured out some tea for King Jaren and Queen Dora, and passed them a plate of potato wafers as well.

Queen Dora's eyes had widened in shock when she saw the potato wafers, and she cast a glance at Mana.

"Did our little Mana make this?" Queen Dora asked King Jaren quietly.

King Jaren nodded. "It is really delicious," he said. "You should try it."

Queen Dora was quite familiar with potato wafers – after all, she has accompanied Mana in the modern world for several years. Of course, not everyone knew that, and Queen Dora didn't want to talk about that right now anyway.

But she was certainly delighted with the fact that she could have this modern delicacy even back in her original home world, all thanks for little Mana!

Queen Dora dug into the plate of potato wafers with no less enthusiasm than the two little dragons, and King Jaren watched her with soft emerald eyes overflowing with love and affection and indulgence.

After some time, when the group had been fed and watered adequately, King Jaren stood up. "We should go to the sacred ancestral chamber now," he said.

No one disagreed with that, of course.

And thus, a few minutes later, the group of people made their way towards the sacred ancestral chamber.

Azar acted like a tour guide, giving a running commentary to Alya and showing her things around the imperial palace as they walked.

Alya was suitably impressed, and so were the others. Looked like Azar was not as silly as seemed to be at face value, for this part of the imperial palace was rarely visited by them, but he still remembered everything, even if he had seen it only once before.

Mana and Raven were especially satisfied with this observation!

When they reached the doors of the sacred ancestral chamber, General Aquila, Queen Carolina and Rook stopped outside. After all, they were not members of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom, and it would probably be disrespectful of them to barge into the sacred ancestral chamber of the imperial family of the Emerald Kingdom.

King Jaren stepped forward and fed a strand of his magic to the door to open it – this was something that only the reigning monarch of the Emerald Kingdom was entitled to do. The door would not open for anyone other than the reigning monarch of the Emerald Kingdom, and in an emergency where the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom sensed that the reigning monarch was in danger or incapacitated or unable to come to the sacred ancestral chamber but there was great need for something from the sacred ancestral chamber, the chosen crown prince or crown princess, whoever was the recognised heir to the throne of the Emerald Kingdom (which would be Jules, in the current situation) would be able to open the sacred ancestral chamber.

However, there was no taboo in bringing in people on the outside who were considered worthy by the reigning monarch, and the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom which resided in the sacred ancestral chamber would automatically filter out those with malicious intentions towards the reigning monarch. Perhaps this was the loophole that the former Queen Sora had exploited – after all, she held no malice towards King Jaren back then; she was in love and wanted to win his heart even if her methods to do so were rather vicious and evil. All of the former Queen Sora's malicious intentions were aimed at her sister Queen Dora and the children of Queen Dora, and not towards King Jaren himself – and thus, the formed Queen Sora was able to get a token – of course, it was not the token of a queen, but simply that of a concubine, much to her disappointment.

Jules led everyone into the sacred ancestral chamber after King Jaren opened it, with Azar still speaking non stop, and Alya still listening with her full attention. One by one, Queen Dora, Mana, Bella, Raven and the two little dragons entered the sacred ancestral chamber, while King Jaren waited by the door.

Seeing General Aquila, Queen Carolina and Rook hesitating, King Jaren smiled at them. "Come on in," he told them. "The three of you are already recognised as our family, so you can enter. And if a token pops up, please accept it."

Hearing that, Rook immediately rushed in after the rest of them, and General Aquila and Queen Carolina also smiled and entered. They couldn't deny that they were rather interested in the sacred ancestral chamber of the Emerald Kingdom themselves!

King Jaren entered and closed the door behind him.

Queen Dora was waiting for him just at the door on the inside, and the two of them walked into the room together.

It was a large circular chamber with huge circle at the centre that glowed as brightly as emeralds – the exact shade of emerald green that was shared between King Jaren, Jules, Mana, Azar and Alya. Well, both of King Jaren's eyes were this shade of emerald green, while for Jules and Alya, only one of their eyes had this particular colour. Mana and Azar, on the other hand, had this emerald green as the base colour of their irises, and then there were specks of amber and silver in their eyes.

As King Jaren and the others approached the centre, bright flames of emerald green shot upwards from the glowing circle in the centre.

Then there was a blinding flash of light, and a tiny pendant was spit out of the flames towards Alya.

Alya caught it smartly with her claw.

"Alya got a pendant like Azar!" she said happily.

"Of course, my dear," King Jaren said, patting her head. "You are the Royal Dragon Princess Alya of the Emerald Kingdom, after all. You are our royal family's precious grandchild, just like Azar."

Alya preened and nuzzled King Jaren's face with her small head.. "Thank you, Grandpapa," she said sweetly.