The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

The group rested for a while after the heavy meal. Azar showed Alya around and the two little dragons insisted on staying with their Grandpapa King Jaren and Grandma Queen Dora – it was a good thing for Queen Dora as well – like a trip down memory lane. Queen Dora was actually quite surprised about how familiar the imperial palace was to her even after ten years. King Jaren had clearly preserved all the changes that she had made and kept all the decorations that she had put up while they had been together. It look like Queen Sora's influence had been quite limited even after Queen Dora's passing.

Queen Dora shot King Jaren a strange glance. She knew that King Jaren had promised her at the time that even if he was forced to marry Sora, he would never lay a finger on her. The one time that King Jaren had been unfaithful to Queen Dora – even though he had felt terribly guilty about it – every one, including Queen Dora, knew that it was not his fault. He had been drugged and a forbidden spell had been cast on him at the time, and there was no way he could have done anything. The only possible fault on King Jaren's part was that he fell into a trap – no one had expected Sora to hatch such nefarious plans on the side and collude with enemies from another kingdom and plot against her own older sister and her brother in law. However, despite knowing that it was not King Jaren's fault at all, Queen Dora had been very hurt at the time. She had felt terribly betrayed – both by her husband and her own sister – and she would be lying if she denied that this incident played a large role in taking the decisions that she did later to take away Jules from the imperial palace and fake a miscarriage. She hadn't wanted to hurt King Jaren – but then, she had really been worried about her safety and the safety of her child – because Sora had clearly used forbidden magic to conceive a child at that one time when she had managed to get her hands on King Jaren. And Queen Dora couldn't trust her sister any more after that. Sora had set her eyes on King Jaren and managed to get married to him, even if it was a forced one and King Jaren had agreed to it only because of the damage that Queen Dora's family would have suffered.

And because Queen Dora had herself asked King Jaren to marry her sister. She had been very angry at the time – and King Jaren had been heart broken. It was not a good time for them to discuss anything at all – and the end result was that Sora had ended up being married to King Jaren. At the time, part of the pressure had also come from Queen Dora's mother – who had refused to believe that the plotting was done by Sora willingly, and she had put a lot of pressure on Queen Dora to request King Jaren to marry Sora and save her reputation, because she truly believed that Sora was as much a victim of the plot as King Jaren was. So, she coaxed and threatened her older daughter Queen Dora until she gave in and allowed King Jaren to take another wife. Without Queen Dora insisting on King Jaren getting married to her younger sister Sora, King Jaren would have died before agreeing to take another wife. However, Queen Dora ended up giving in to her mother's demands, and then told King Jaren to marry her sister to save her reputation.

So, King Jaren had done what his beloved Queen Dora had asked him to do and married the other woman – but he had never laid a finger on her in all these years. Queen Dora found it a little difficult to believe. She knew that King Jaren hadn't touched Sora while Queen Dora was still in the imperial palace – but to learn that he hadn't done so for an entire decade when everyone, including him, believed that she had already died – that was really quite something. Queen Dora wasn't sure if she was happy to learn this or sad on behalf of her devoted husband.

Meanwhile, in Mana's room, Raven was sitting with a long face in front of his young fiancée.

"You promised," Raven accused.

Mana sighed. "I know I did, but…" she trailed off. She had to think about how much she could tell him without arousing his suspicions. After all, Raven was far too clever to be fooled by a random lie off the top of her head, and Mana didn't want to lie to him to the extent possible. Best would be if she could stick to the truth as much as possible.

Ironical as it was, given the perception of lawyers as liars in the modern world that Mana had previously lived in – Mana was a rather truthful person. She didn't like to lie, and she always tried to stick to the truth as much as possible. Lying, she had always felt, was far too troublesome and she would have to remember a thousand extra things for one lie. Instead, it was easier to stick to the truth, because then there was nothing extra to remember.

Of course, that didn't mean that Mana didn't lie at all. Everyone lies, and so did Mana – mostly little white lies that wouldn't harm anyone, as and when required. But right now, she was in a dilemma. There was no way that she could tell Raven the truth about the ancient master's copy of 'The Legend of Mars' – and there was no way for her to tell him the truth without weaving in an entire web of lies.

Besides, Raven was the cleverest person in this world, and moreover, he was also the person who knew Mana the best. He would be able to detect a lie in an instant – so Mana had to keep it as truthful as possible.

"You don't want to tell me?" Raven asked in a small voice, and his voice wobbled at the end of his question.

Mana immediately felt a foreign sensation of grief, and knew right away that it had come from the boy sitting in front of her.

Mana's heart ached. She didn't want to hurt him.

"I can't tell you everything," she said truthfully. "It is related to the ancient master from that time in the Sapphire Kingdom, though. I'm sure there are things in his legacy to you that you wouldn't be able to tell me about, either, right?"

Raven's eyes widened in shock. "He left you a separate legacy?" he asked in a whisper.

Mana shrugged. "I wouldn't call it a legacy as such – it is more like a book, and the book doesn't open all its pages to me. Once in a while, a few pages open up, and then I get to learn something about some event that's happening or about to happen, or about a person we have met or are about to meet. It had nothing about Azar and Alya, for example – but it does occasionally mention things about some other people," she explained.

"Like a book of prophecies?" Raven asked with a frown.

"Not exactly," Mana replied, scratching her head. "It could possibly be our lives in a parallel world or another dimension or another time or another place – I don't exactly know what it is. But the thing is, I can't read the book all at once – all pages are not accessible. As I mentioned, some pages open up when triggered by something, and that's when I get to read them," she murmured.

Raven's frown deepened. "And you are not allowed to tell me anything more than this about the matter?" he asked.

Mana nodded and hung her head. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I don't want to lie to you – but I can't tell you everything…"

Raven sighed and rubbed his forehead. "How much can you tell me?" he asked.

Mana sighed. "I've pretty much said all I could say," she said softly. "I'm sorry, Raven…"

"You mentioned that you had found out about some danger that we may have to face," Raven said. "What was that about?"

Mana nodded. "Yes," she said. "I have to discuss it with you – suddenly, several pages of the book opened up today at lunch – that's why I fainted. Normally, only one or two pages open – so it doesn't make much difference to me. But today, a lot of them opened at once, and I couldn't read them at all. That was what gave me a headache – and I didn't realise that I had fainted until I woke up later and saw you looking so worried…"

Raven frowned again. "So…this doesn't happen every time new pages open in your mind?" he asked.

Mana shook her head. "Not at all," she said.. "Normally, it's just like reading an ordinary book, except that it's in my head."