The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

With five legendary young minds of Raven, Mana, Jules, Bella and Fox – the famous and most brilliant children in the world working together, the air conditioning spell was invented and launched quickly enough. It was a bit of a drain to keep the spell up constantly, however – and that's when a minister of the Pearl Kingdom, who was representing the royal family of the Pearl Kingdom as well as Head Sage Yue of the Moon Temple from the Pearl Kingdom, came up to Raven with a solution.

"Prince Raven, if you would like, you could use this," the minister said, offering a large pearl about the size of a football to Raven.

This particular minister had received repeated instructions from Head Sage Yue that he was to offer whatever help he could to Raven and try and generate as much goodwill for the Pearl Kingdom as he could. All the people from the Pearl Kingdom who had attended the banquet in the Emerald Kingdom as well as the Sapphire Kingdom had realised by now how valuable Prince Raven was, and how highly regarded he was in both of these powerful and prosperous kingdoms. They had to get into his good books, and get him to develop some sentiment for the blood of the Pearl Kingdom that flowed in his veins. Without Prince Raven's support in the future, the Pearl Kingdom would have very difficult times ahead, especially with the dirty dealings of the Amber Kingdom that Head Sage Yue had gone back to investigate!

Raven was surprised, but he was a polite person in general, so he asked the minister what the object was.

"It is a natural magical pearl that can only be found in the imperial lake of the Pearl Kingdom," the minister replied enthusiastically. "It can amplify any magical spell that passes through it up to a maximum of a hundred times."

Raven tapped his chin thoughtfully, intrigued. "Can it handle complex compound spells as well?" he asked. "What we are going to use now is a compound spell that is made up of several spells and several magical elements. Can it handle those, or does the pearl only work with magical spells that are based on the element of water?"

The minister was taken aback and then looked a little embarrassed. "I am not sure," he said, lowering his head. "As you know, in the Pearl Kingdom, we only have water magic, so it has never been tried whether the pearl can channel the other elements as well…" Then he brightened. "But it can handle complex spells, definitely! We have records of a prince of the Pearl Kingdom who used a similar pearl about a century ago in battle to amplify the most complex spell that has ever been used in the Pearl Kingdom and caused a tsunami!" he said excitedly.

Mana took Raven's hand. "Why don't we take a look at the pearl first? We will be able to figure out if it can take and amplify multiple elements, can't we? And even if it doesn't, we could modify our air conditioning spell a little. It won't be as effective without the additional magical elements, but it is primarily water based, anyway, isn't it?" she suggested.

Raven nodded in agreement and took the pearl in his hands. The pearl immediately glowed with a bright light and some glowing letters appeared on it.

The minister let out a cry of surprise and all the people from the Pearl Kingdom immediately rushed to where he and Raven were chatting.

"Is that – is that the crown prince's seal?!" one man, a deputy minister that worked with Head Sage Yue, cried out loud, shock and disbelief dripping from his voice.

"It is, isn't it? Could it be that the imperial pearl has recognised Prince Raven as the heir to the Pearl Kingdom already?!" another woman, also a deputy minister who worked with Head Sage Yue, cried in a shrill voice.

"How is this possible?!" a third man cried. "Isn't Prince Raven the one that was defamed by the Moon Temple when he was born as the child that would bring disaster to the Pearl Kingdom? And he is not even a member of the imperial family, is he? How can he be recognised as the heir to the throne?!"

Someone smacked the third man on the head. It was a tall and elegant looking woman. "Under what far away rock have you been living, you idiot? Don't you know that Prince Raven is the biological son of Head Sage Yue and that Head Sage Yue is the cousin of our current king? Prince Raven is most definitely a prince of the Pearl Kingdom by blood!" she scolded him.

Another man came up as well. "And don't you remember that Head Sage Yue issued an edict that the prophecy was false and even released evidence of it? The true prophecy was that the child would bring great change to the Pearl Kingdom, and not disaster! And look at how much change Prince Raven has brought to the world already – wouldn't it be great if he would come to the Pearl Kingdom and bring in similar changes there as well?!" the man said loudly.

Almost everyone from the Pearl Kingdom spoke up in Raven's support, eagerly waiting for him to acknowledge the position of the heir to the throne of the Pearl Kingdom.

Raven remain silent, and eyed the words 'imperial heir' on the large pearl warily.

The crowd, however, clamoured for him to accept it.

"Who says anything about our Raven being the heir to the throne of the Pearl Kingdom?!" King Corvus said loudly. "Raven is the future king of the Obsidian Kingdom – why in the world would he want to be the imperial heir to the useless throne of the Pearl Kingdom?!"

Crown Princess Pica and General Aquila flanked King Corvus, completely supporting his words. Rook, too, stood by General Aquila's side, ready to fight for his big brother's sake. Enca, who had more or less realised by now that her Grandfather and Mother had already chosen Big Brother Raven as their heir, stood by Crown Princess Pica's side to support her as well. Only Dawe, who had not expected this at all, went very pale at the public acknowledgement. He had noticed the same thing that Enca had, but he had hoped in his heart that until a formal announcement was made, he would still have a chance to turn the tide against Raven – but now that Grandfather and everyone else in the family were standing up to support Raven's position as the heir to the throne of the Obsidian Kingdom, Dawe had no idea what to do or say. He could only stand rooted to the spot in dismay.

"Nonsense! How can Prince Raven want to be the King of a dark place like the Obsidian Kingdom?!" someone cried. "Prince Raven, you must come to the Pearl Kingdom!"

"Ha! Why would our Prince Raven want to go to a poor country that has nothing to offer him?! And on top of that, haven't you people from the Pearl Kingdom been wanting to kill our Prince Raven ever since he was born? Prince Raven grew up in the Obsidian Kingdom, and he is our prince! We won't simply stand by and let you claim him randomly!" someone from the Obsidian Kingdom retorted angrily.

"Yes, Prince Raven is a prince of the Obsidian Kingdom! We won't give him up!" cried several people from the Obsidian Kingdom, gathering behind King Corvus and his family.

Raven rubbed his temples and Mana moved close to him, slipping her arm around his waist in a protective manner. Jules and Bella also moved close to Mana and Raven, their movements protective. Fox and Vanilla, too, took up their positions, and King Jaren and Queen Carolina made their way over as well.

The arguments between the people of the Pearl Kingdom and the people of the Obsidian Kingdom continued for quite some time.

On the other hand, the people from the Emerald Kingdom and the Sapphire Kingdom gathered behind their respective monarchs, ready to leap into action to protect the royal children as required.

Finally, Raven clapped his hands loudly and shouted, "Enough!"

Immediately, everyone fell silent and turned to look at him.

"Raven will decide what position he wants to take up as and when he wants to," Mana declared loudly. "No one can force Raven to do anything, and, besides, this is neither the time nor the place on argue about these things! Look around you! Look where you are! Are the outskirts of the Amber Kingdom really the place where you want to have a discussion – or a fight – over this subject?!" she scolded.

General Aquila burst out laughing, while everyone else was stunned.

"Little Mana is right," General Aquila said. "This is neither the time nor the place for this discussion, and our Raven has the full right and the freedom to choose for himself.. Raven, son – your Father Aqi will support you whole heartedly, no matter what you choose."