The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

There were no more strange incidents during the night, and the group resumed their journey the next morning again.

Grandpa, Grandma and King Corvus started sticking a bit closer to Mana and Raven, though.

"Grandfather, do you know what that array was in which Mana and I got caught?" Raven asked curiously, feeling a little strange. This was perhaps the first time in his short life that he had seen his fearsome grandfather take up a protective stance for his sake – in fact, if someone had mentioned that this could possibly occur last year, Raven would have thought that they had lost their mind.

King Corvus nodded, his face grim. "Little Raven, you and Mana were very fortunate to have escaped from the array," he murmured. "Perhaps the person who set it up make a mistake while creating it – if not, it is one of the most dangerous arrays to get caught in, and there have been instances where people have been trapped in such an array for decades…"

Raven couldn't tell King Corvus that they had escaped because the two little dragons had eaten the array, but he did ask a few more questions – but it seemed that King Corvus had no intention of saying anything more on the topic. He was probably worried that the details of the array were a little too gruesome for the children to know.

Mana, too, was trying to get some information out of Grandpa and Grandma, but they took the same stand as King Corvus, so she couldn't find out anything more than that, either.

The two children could only reluctantly give up on the matter.

"How much longer do we have to travel, Ducky?" King Corvus asked Grandpa.

Grandpa looked a bit troubled. "We should be able to reach the imperial capital city by tomorrow afternoon," he murmured. "If nothing else goes wrong…" he added with a sigh.

"We will be careful," Grandma said. "At least we are not passing through full fledged deserts anymore, right?"

Grandpa nodded. They were indeed passing through small towns and cities now – so the good thing was that a danger at the scale of an ancient array like the wheel of dust and shadow would not be able to appear to target their group. If they kept their eyes and ears open, they may actually reach the imperial capital city of the Amber Kingdom without any further trouble.

Of course, they had no such luck, and they had underestimated the shamelessness of the royal family of the Amber Kingdom.

They were attacked by bandits in the afternoon when they stopped for lunch at a small inn outside a small town.

And that was not even the worst thing. The worst thing was that the food had been drugged.

And half of their group had already started eating without realising that something was wrong with the food before the sharp noses of Mana, Raven and Vanilla caught a whiff of something foreign and malignant in the food that they were being served.

"Everyone stop eating!" Raven cried loudly, jumping up as soon as he realised something was wrong.

Mana and Vanilla, too, jumped up with a shout, and immediately pulled away the tablecloth on the table they were sitting at, causing all the food to fall to the ground.

"The food is drugged!" Mana shouted.

Everyone stopped eating immediately, and some people, who had yet to swallow the food in their mouth, spit it out. Some people, who had already eaten, tried to vomit out whatever they had eaten – but it was too late. Everyone who had eaten the drugged food fainted soon enough.

And then the bandits appeared.

And although they were dressed like bandits, from the way they fought, it could be seen that they were trained fighters, and Grandpa immediately realised that these were soldiers of the Amber Kingdom pretending to be bandits.

Grandpa and King Corvus exchanged a meaningful glance, and the two of them got together to fight as a unit. Grandma, with her water magic, created a misty veil around the two men, that not only provided a protective shield for Grandpa and King Corvus, but also helped to lead the enemies astray.

General Aquila and Crown Princess Pica also got together to fight, and they fought in beautiful coordinated movements that looked wonderfully synchronised and choreographed. Mana was quite impressed, and decided to put more effort into learning to fight in the future, if that meant that she and Raven could fight together like that.

Jules and Bella had teamed up as well, and so had King Jaren and Queen Carolina.

Azar and Alya wanted to make an appearance, but King Jaren, for the first time, used a strict tone on his precious little grand babies and told them to stay safely in the space.

Rook and Enca had teamed up with Fox and Vanilla, and Dawe found a safe corner to hide in, knowing that his battle prowess was terrible.

Fox and Vanilla weren't great fighters, either, but Fox had many tricks up his sleeves and nifty little gadgets that came in very handy. Vanilla, too, was quite innovative and crafty when it came to fighting, and teaming up with Rook, who was an amazing fighter, and Enca, who was very good for her age as well, the four of them could hold their ground nicely.

As for Mana and Raven – they seemed to be at the centre of the conflict, with the most powerful enemies making a beeline for them. Initially, Raven was the one doing most of the fighting, and trying to protect Mana, since she was not even half as good at combat as Raven and the others – but then, an arrow grazed Raven's cheek, leaving a bloody scratch, and Mana went berserk. Her magical aura surged up, and glowing green arrows of light crystallised around her. Her eyes glowed like bulbs, and the pendant that had been given to Mana by the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom glowed brightly as well.

For an instant, it seemed as if time had stopped and the entire world had stopped moving. Raven stared at Mana, mesmerised – and so did everyone else. No one had seen such a spectacle before.

Then the glowing arrows of green light shot forth and pierced through the fake bandits that had surrounded Mana and Raven. Miserable cries rang out one after the other as the arrows found their marks unerringly, and soon after, Mana and Raven were surrounded by fallen bodies of the fake bandits, more than half of whom were crying miserably with a glowing green arrow of light stuck in their body.

It was only when the several feet around the two of them were cleared of any threats that Mana regained her composure. She touched Raven's cheek with gentle fingers and sent a quick strand of healing energy into him, healing the scratch on his cheek.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asked softly, although, through the bond they shared with each other, Mana knew that Raven was not hurt.

Raven shook his head, and his rainbow eyes glowed with admiration and affection as he gazed at his young fiancée. "You were amazing, Mana," he said proudly.

Mana shook her head. She knew that her magic had been fuelled by her rage because Raven had been hurt. Seeing his blood had made her lose control, and her magic had burst forth from her in a desperate attempt to protect Raven. Even Mana herself had no idea what magic she had cast now, or how she had done it. All she knew was that her mind had gone blank except for the thought that Raven had been hurt and that she needed to protect him, no matter what. She didn't know what she had done – she had simply acted on sheer instinct.

After Mana's sudden magical outburst, the rest of the fake bandits had been so terrified that it became ridiculously easy for the others to capture them.

However, even after all the fake bandits were rounded up and tied up and dumped into a pile by the side, none of them dared to make any sounds. 

"Who sent you to attack us?" Crown Princess Pica asked, her dark eyes shining with a fiery glow. A powerful aura radiated off her, and Mana remembered suddenly that Crown Princess Pica was also known to be one of the most powerful warriors of their generation – at par with her own Papa and Queen Carolina, at least, if not General Aquila.

The fake bandits trembled in fear, but didn't reply. They were clearly more afraid of their master than of their enemies.

"What was your objective in attacking us?" Queen Carolina asked, her blue eyes glowing fiercely as well. Coldness radiated from her.

"If you simply wanted to kill us, you would have poisoned our food instead of drugging us," General Aquila pointed out. "So, what is your objective?"

"We – we are just bandits!" one man cried tearfully, terrified by General Aquila's powerful aura.