The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Head Sage Yue started the ceremony for choosing the new monarch and invoked the ancestral spirits. He had been taught the ritual by his father when he was young, and he had also seen his father perform it when his cousin Min had been chosen to be the king of the Pearl Kingdom. At that time, Head Sage Yue's father had used his own magic to create a soft glow around cousin Min, and then declared him to be the King of the Pearl Kingdom.

Head Sage Yue, too, was prepared to do the same thing. He had chosen a decent young prince in the end, who had mostly been brought up in the countryside by his mother. It was only two years ago that his mother had passed away and revealed his identity as a son of King Min with her dying breath. All the evidence had been there, and the young teenager had come to the Moon Temple to meet Head Sage Yue and show him the evidence. Head Sage Yue took one look at the boy and knew that he was of royal blood, and he had gotten King Min to recognise the boy as an official prince. The boy was honest, clever and hard working, and he attended his classes seriously and had learnt a lot in the last two years. This made him much better and much more responsible than the other children in the royal family, most of whom were utterly useless and knew nothing other than eating and sleeping and having fun, not to mention that some of them were criminally dumb.

This boy was actually one of the rare good seedlings in the royal blood line of the Pearl Kingdom. When Head Sage Yue had decided to accept and acknowledge Raven as his own son, he had also thought that perhaps this boy, named Yuki, would be a good cousin and friend to Raven. Yuki was the same age as Jules and Bella now.

Having decided to make Yuki the next king of the Pearl Kingdom, Head Sage Yue continued the ceremony until it was time for him to use his own magic to create a soft glow around Yuki.

However, before he could do so, waves of pale blue light burst from all corners of the Moon Temple and converged upon Raven, who was standing right next to him.

Raven was enveloped in a pillar of blue light once again, and this time, there were sparkling star-like objects whizzing around him, and faint voices could be heard.

Only Head Sage Yue was close enough to Raven to be able to hear the ancient spirits talking to Raven, and he could hear them trying to coax and cajole the boy into accepting the position of the new monarch of the Pearl Kingdom, while Raven bluntly refused to do so, saying that he wanted to go home with his little fiancée and his new family.

After about five minutes of arguments, the ancestral spirits finally caved in and offered to appoint a regent for the Pearl Kingdom – so that Raven wouldn't have to stay here all the time. The regent would take care of most of the work, and Raven could simply drop in once in a while and communicate long distance – and then they kept on offering a lot of things to Raven, including benefits for his fiancée – and ultimately, Raven relented and accepted.

No one other than Head Sage Yue was able to witness this, of course. The others simply thought that the ancestral spirits were so pleased with Raven being the master of the Holy Sceptre that they got really excited and wanted to communicate with him. It didn't occur to anyone other than Raven's family members that Raven wouldn't want to be the king of the Pearl Kingdom!

Finally, when the ancestral spirits caved in, they asked Raven, "Do you have a candidate in mind for the position of the Regent of the Pearl Kingdom?"

Raven glanced at Head Sage Yue. "Father will give the name of the Regent," he said firmly.

Head Sage Yue smiled slightly and pointed at Yuki.

Two beams of light shot forth to envelope the teenager standing amongst the candidates, and he was brought to the podium as well.

Head Sage Yue prepared to make the announcement, but the ancestral spirits beat him to it. A thunderous voice suddenly boomed all around, and it seemed as if many powerful voices were talking together!

"We have chosen young Prince Raven to be the King of the Pearl Kingdom as of this moment!" the powerful collection of voices boomed, and all the common people of the Pearl Kingdom jumped up from their seats excitedly, clapping their hands loudly. As soon as the existence of the Holy Sceptre and Raven's identity as the master of the Holy Sceptre had been revealed, the perception of Prince Raven amongst the crowd had completely changed. Now, they were all prepared to worship him and follow him obediently!

"However, since King Raven is still very young and unfamiliar with the workings of the Pearl Kingdom and because King Raven cannot live in the Pearl Kingdom most of the time, we have also chosen a Regent to support him, and the new Regent shall be Prince Yuki of the Pearl Kingdom! Regent Prince Yuki shall work together with King Raven to bring the Pearl Kingdom to great heights of glory!" the ancestral spirits continued.

Everyone was stunned. This was the first time that they had heard of a King *not* living in their own kingdom most of the time – but then again, King Raven was a special case, wasn't he? He was also a Prince of the Obsidian Kingdom, and he was the son in law of the Emerald Kingdom, and he was currently studying at the famous IMARI in the Emerald Kingdom as well.

And he was only twelve years old, after all.

This was also the first time that a Regent had been appointed in the Pearl Kingdom, but no one objected to this, and the commoners were actually quite pleased with the choice of Prince Yuki as the Regent – Prince Yuki had always been different from the other royals, and he had never been condescending towards the people; perhaps it came from his upbringing outside of the royal palace.

Head Sage Yue, too, was quite satisfied with this arrangement.

As for Raven, he was fine with everything as long as it didn't require him to be separate from Mana and his family in the Emerald Kingdom.

Having made their announcements, the ancestral spirits buzzed around excitedly around Raven for a few moments and then the traditional crown of the monarch of the Pearl Kingdom, that was kept on a table in front of Head Sage Yue, shook and rose up in the air, giving off a silvery blue glow. The crown shook for some time, and then split into two, with one part of the crown changing its shape to match the design of the Holy Sceptre in Raven's hand with one large magical crystal glowing in the middle and surrounded by diamonds and sapphires, and its size shrunk to match the current size of Raven's head, while the other part remodelled itself into a simple crown set with alternate diamonds and sapphires and became the size that would fit Yuki's head.

Then the ancestral spirits buzzed around Raven once again – and this time, even Yuki was able to hear their faint whispering voices and their delight at finding Raven. After that, the ancestral spirits disappeared.

Raven and Yuki looked at each other. Yuki was about the same height as Jules, and his eyes were a pale silvery blue and his hair was a shade of platinum blonde that shimmered like silver in the sunlight. He had olive, sun kissed skin, which contrasted nicely with his hair and eyes, giving him a rather exotic appearance, which was quite attractive. His facial features were somewhat similar to King Min, Head Sage Yue and even Raven – and he didn't have the effeminate, androgynous looks that King Min did. Instead, Yuki was a robust, tall teenager, with rippling muscles that showed that he was capable of and used to working. He looked like a capable fellow, and Raven liked him at first glance.

Yuki smiled warmly at Raven.

"Cousin Raven, congratulations," Yuki said to Raven, and his voice, too, was pleasant to hear. He held out his hand for Raven to shake.

Raven shook hands with Yuki and replied with a smile, "Thank you, Cousin Yuki, and congratulations to you, too. I am afraid that you would have to do most of the work around here, though…"

Yuki chuckled. "That's all right – I have heard how clever you are, I have no doubt that we can work well together!" he said happily. "I will work hard to make sure that we can improve the Pearl Kingdom together!"

Head Sage Yue stepped forward and placed the two crowns on the heads of Raven and Yuki one by one.