The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

The teachers were all very impressed with their new crown prince, especially since he was so good-tempered and modest, and had even taken the entrance test anonymously to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on his examiners – after all, King Jaren was the only one with the founder's privilege of nominating people directly to IMARI! Even though King Jaren had the right to nominate four people each year, he used it very sparingly, and only when he came across an outstanding talent that he was determined to recruit. Fox was only the sixth person in over two decades who had been nominated! Each of these nominated people had been unparalleled geniuses, and three of them had stayed back to teach at IMARI as well as continue their research projects.

Headmistress Ana, too, had been nominated by King Jaren many years ago. She was originally from the Pearl Kingdom and had been an orphaned refugee fleeing from a tyrant in her hometown who had already wiped out her entire family in the name of the Moon Temple. A court clerk posted near the border had found her and taking pity on the young child, adopted her as his own. She had been about Mana's age at the time. She was a very intelligent young girl, and moreover, she possessed rare dual elemental magic of water and earth. Her adoptive father sent her to school, and in no time at all, she was doing spectacularly well in academics. The court clerk had been very proud and wanted to enhance his adoptive daughter's education prospects, hoping she could study at the capital city. So, he had spoken to his boss, a minister, about his brilliant daughter, and soon enough, word of this clever, scholarly girl had reached the royal court. IMARI had been in its teething stage at the time, when the eighteen-year-old Crown Prince Jaren had used his founder's privilege for the first time and nominated the twenty-year-old Ana. She had stayed at IMARI ever since, and within a few short years, she had become famous as the top researcher across kingdoms. At the age of twenty-five, she had taken over as the Headmistress of IMARI, and that had been start of the golden days of IMARI. It was also Headmistress Ana who had devised the notoriously difficult entrance test, and till date, Queen Dora was the only one with a perfect score on it.

Jules's score of 98.7% beat the previous second spot-holder's score by two decimal points, surprising everyone. Since Jules had used a pseudonym to appear for the test, no one knew it was the Crown Prince who had gotten such impressive results – the faculty simply wanted to keep this talented young chap. And now that they had learnt Jules's true identity, everyone was amazed and their opinion of Crown Prince Jules sky rocketed immediately. If only all the high-ranking people could be so decent! And he'd not even showed off to his own family although he'd scored so highly!

Headmistress Ana and the other teachers at IMARI were quite used to tantrums of elite people who had failed the entrance test and were still desperate to get in. Some people regularly tried to offer tributes and great wealth to buy their way into IMARI. Some approached King Jaren himself and requested a nomination. However, their efforts were in vain. All of them were always turned down.

The IMARI entrance test was a nightmare for a lot of aspiring students – especially high-born ones, because it looked at sheer skill and nothing else. This is why the test was open and available at all times. Anyone could walk in and ask for it. And the ranking system was unique as well – the scores weren't annual; they were of all time. The highest score record held by the late Queen Dora had not been broken yet…but now an excellent successor, her own son, had turned up and gained the second highest!

Mana hadn't known until now what a big deal IMARI's entrance test was, and getting such an impressive score practically made Jules an international celebrity. Raven and Fox were aware, of course, but Jules had simply said he'd passed – he'd never said he'd performed so well!

Fox had heard a few days ago about a young boy with the second highest score of all time – but he had no idea that this person was actually his friend Jules!

"You…why on earth didn't you tell me that it was you?!" Fox demanded, rounding on Jules. "And to think I was telling you about yourself last evening!"

Jules scratched his head sheepishly.

"Big Brother, modesty is as much a deviation from facts as exaggeration," Mana said with a straight face.

Jules chuckled. "It's not really that big an achievement. I've dreamt of coming to IMARI for a long time, and I've studied a lot accordingly," he said. It went unsaid that Jules had no idea that he was the only son of the king of the Emerald Kingdom and would be the heir to the throne one day. As such, he had hoped to get into IMARI and build a career for himself.

Mana and Raven understood that, naturally. Mana eyed Raven speculatively, and wondered if he, too, had aspired to join IMARI someday. Raven rarely expressed his own preferences or made any demands, so she had been quite surprised when he had actually asked to visit the institute. Even though he'd said he didn't really want to study here…Mana had her doubts. She remembered the yearning on Raven's little face last night and she was reasonably sure that he really wanted to be here.

"Do you want to try the entrance test, too?" she asked Raven.

Raven bit his lip, hesitating.

Jules patted the younger boy's head. "Go on, try it if you want," he said encouragingly.

Azar raised his head from King Jaren's arms. "Daddy, no fear," he murmured sleepily and promptly went back to sleep.

"Go ahead, son. I'd wanted to nominate you for years anyway," King Jaren said cheerfully. "If you hadn't come to us and become part of our family, I'd planned to request King Corvus to send you to IMARI to study when you turned fifteen."

Raven flushed. "I don't think I can do as well as Big Brother," he murmured.

"If you'd studied as much as I have, I think you'd have gotten a perfect score," Jules told him. "Despite that, I don't think your score will be very different from mine. In terms of raw talent, none of us can compare with you."

"It's not like you'd lose anything if you don't get a perfect score," Mana pointed out. "You just need to get over ninety to get in – and even if you don't, Papa will still nominate you anyway."

Jules burst out laughing and Raven resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. Hadn't he helped Mana tease Jules like this recently…? And now it was his turn.

"Mana, do you want to try as well?" Fox asked. "I think you're smart enough."

Mana shrugged. "I'm happier using the backdoor and get in with Papa's nomination. I doubt if I'll be able to score even ninety," she muttered and looked up at King Jaren. "Papa, will you still nominate me if I fail the entrance test?"

"Of course," King Jaren replied promptly. "I think you're underestimating yourself, though, little Mana."

Mana rolled her eyes. "In this case, I think Big Brother inherited all the talent from mother," she said. "I just want to be here to hang out with Raven and Big Brother, and to get Fox to make more cool stuff for me."

Fox nodded enthusiastically. "I've prepared a couple of blueprints already for the communication device we discussed. I'll come to you when I have a rudimentary working model," he said, his eyes shining fervently. "You have some fantastic ideas in your little head!"

Headmistress Ana clapped her hands. "All right, then," she said. "So, Prince Raven and Princess Mana – both of you will take the entrance test, yes? There's no need to worry about your young age; one of our best researchers was only seven years old when she passed the entrance test and joined us. You'll meet her later. She's fifteen now and one of your instructors."

"Ah, yes, Princess Isabel from the Sapphire Kingdom. Brilliant child, that one!" King Jaren remarked.

"Her mother is the reigning monarch of the Sapphire Kingdom, but Professor Bella is very down-to-earth," Fox added.

"Indeed," Headmistress Ana said with a fond smile. "In fact, Princess Bella held the second spot until Crown Prince Jules came along."

Mana suddenly noticed that tips of her Big Brother's ears were red, but before she could comment on it and find out more, she was pulled away to take the test.

Raven ended up scoring 98.5%, tying for the third spot with the deposed former second-spot holder, Professor Bella. Mana scored 93.2%, which was fairly average for IMARI (and better than what Mana had expected).

King Jaren was over the moon and immediately wanted to throw an imperial banquet to celebrate the children's achievements. Fortunately, Headmistress Ana intervened, and the royal group ended up at a nice restaurant instead, along with a bunch of teachers from IMARI.

That didn't stop King Jaren from showing off his children's success at court the next day, and within a couple of days, the news had spread far and wide, making Jules even more popular than before. With Raven's reputation as the 'child with the intelligence of ten grown men', his high score was more or less expected, but the people of the Emerald Kingdom were thrilled that their Crown Prince Jules had actually scored even higher! What an amazing crown prince!