The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Head Sage Yue and Regent Prince Yuki frowned. Raven smiled slightly, and his rainbow eyes were filled with pride and admiration as he looked at Mana.

"This is indeed a problem," Regent Prince Yuki said. "Do you have a solution, Mana?"

Mana grinned. "Of course," she said. "That is exactly why I want to meet everyone before we leave. If Father and Cousin Yuki were to accompany us to the Obsidian Kingdom, I wouldn't be in such a hurry and we could have discussed it there, but since we won't have everyone there, it is best to finalise things here. Also, we may be able to turn this into an advantage for the Pearl Kingdom and diffuse the situation with the Amber Kingdom on the matter of encroachments in the border areas, actually."

Raven blinked. "Do you want to set up some sort of an international council to adjudicate upon the kind of disputes that involve parties from different kingdoms?" he asked curiously.

Mana beamed at him. "Exactly," she said. Once more, she marvelled at the brilliance of this young boy. In the modern world, this was perfectly normal, but here, in the ancient times, no one had even heard of such a thing, and yet Raven was able to think of it the moment Mana mentioned it! How impressive! Raven would indeed be a formidable emperor.

"I want to set up an international trade council, and this needs to have its offices somewhere, right? We have to have members from each of the five kingdoms on the council, and there will be not only judges, but also other staff members. We should also have some advisors who would help the parties present their cases before the judges, and we would also need to have an investigation department that would have to verify the truth being presented by the parties. We also need to have scribes and clerks…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "We will have to employ a lot of people for this. We will also have to draft the laws carefully for international trade, and we need to make sure that everyone is notified, so that no one can claim later that they were not aware of the laws of international trade. This is also one of the reasons why I need the decision makers of each kingdom here."

Head Sage Yue arched an eyebrow as his mind connected the dots. "Mana, are you saying that you would want to set up the offices of the international trade council in the Pearl Kingdom?" he asked excitedly. This would certainly be very beneficial for the Pearl Kingdom, and they would have a fair degree of protection as well. Lots of citizens of the Pearl Kingdom would be gainfully employed as well – especially for the lower level work! What an absolutely brilliant idea, he thought to himself.

Mana nodded. "Yes, and to be specific, I think it would be a great idea to set up the offices of the international trade council on the border lands that have been taken over by the Amber Kingdom," she said. "On paper, the lands still belong to the Pearl Kingdom, and the fact that these lands have been occupied forcibly by the Amber Kingdom is not widely known. So, when we have the agreement from all five countries about the international trade council and we declare that the offices would be constructed on the border lands between the Pearl Kingdom and the Amber Kingdom – and we will say that the Pearl Kingdom has already handed over these lands for the construction of the offices of the international trade council," she said with a mischievous glow in her emerald green eyes and looked at Raven. "Your Majesty King Raven of the Pearl Kingdom, do we have your agreement on this?"

Raven chuckled and reached out to caress Mana's face. "Of course you do," he said easily.

"But – wouldn't the Amber Kingdom object?" Regent Prince Yuki asked with a frown.

"If they object, we can tell them that the Pearl Kingdom has given these lands for the use of the international trade council for free, and if the Amber Kingdom wishes to do the same, then we can have the offices spanning the border areas of both the countries," Mana said with a smile. "We can offer special privileges to the Pearl Kingdom and the Amber Kingdom, too, if they actually agree to give us some land, which I think might be highly unlikely at this stage. In any case, we can say that the benefit that these two kingdoms will gain out of giving us their lands for our use would be that we would employ their citizens for the permanent jobs – and only the specialists and judges and expert level people will be a mix from all five kingdoms. The judges panel will definitely have to have representatives from all five kingdoms, so that there is no question of any partiality or miscarriage of justice, and decisions will be taken by majority vote. For the advisers or counsels, we could have a group with a few representatives from each of the five kingdoms, so that the parties have some confidence that their fellow countrymen will help them to the best of their ability. For the team that will draft the laws – again, we have to have representatives from all the five kingdoms, so that the laws are agreeable to everyone and no one comes later and says that their kingdom was not represented properly in the law making panel and therefore the laws are unpleasant and biased against them."

Mana looked at the shell shocked faces of Raven, Head Sage Yue and Regent Prince Yuki.

She smiled slightly and continued, "In short, if the Pearl Kingdom allocates the encroached lands to the international trade council, then we can justifiably bring in reinforcements from the Emerald Kingdom, the Sapphire Kingdom and the Obsidian Kingdom to these lands and drive away the Amber Kingdom – that is, if they don't back off on their own. Chances are, they will back out unless they are already ready to go to war with all the other four kingdoms at the same time."

Regent Prince Yuki stared at Mana for a long time and then he turned to Raven and grabbed his hands. "Cousin Raven, you must treat Mana really, really well and you must not stray from your relationship no matter what happens and no matter who tries to seduce you! You must never let her go and you have to be so good to her that she is never tempted by any other man ever! And you must make Mana the Queen of this country as soon as she is old enough! And keep her as the only queen – you must never give in to the temptation of raising an imperial harem!" he said in a very serious voice.

Raven was startled for a moment and then he smiled slightly, while Mana burst out laughing.

"Yes, my dear little fiancé," Mana said to Raven in a teasing voice. "You must never give in to the temptation of raising an imperial harem," she repeated Regent Prince Yuki's words and winked at Raven, her emerald eyes sparkling. "And if you get a harem for yourself, I will make one for myself, too!" she declared.

"I will help you make your harem, Mana!" Regent Prince Yuki promised. He was clearly a member of Mana's fan club by now.

Head Sage Yue frowned at Regent Prince Yuki. "Raven and Mana are very young right now and it is not appropriate for them to have discussions of this nature," he said in a reprimanding tone. He glanced at Mana and Raven. "However, Yuki is not incorrect. Raven, you should cherish Mana properly and be devoted to her. Don't make the mistakes that I made…" he said quietly.

Raven fixed his eyes on Head Sage Yue. "Yes, Father," he said in a soft voice. "I will not repeat the mistakes of the previous generation. In any case, Mana is the only one for me. There will never be anyone else." He took Mana's hand and laced his fingers through hers. "We are fated soulmates, after all," he added.

"You must also avoid falling into other people's traps, like King Jaren did," Head Sage Yue said with a sigh. "We all know that there is no man in this world who is as devoted to his wife as King Jaren was to Queen Dora – however, he still fell into a trap, and part of it was because the trap was laid by Queen Dora's own sister, and King Jaren was never wary of her, and was even very good to her because Queen Dora and her sister, the former Queen Sora, had always been on good terms.. So, it was completely unexpected that she would lay a trap for her own sister and brother in law. Unfortunately, there are sometimes people around us who we trust but who betray us…"