The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Since King Jaren was rather reluctant to let Mana, Jules and Raven stay at IMARI full time, Headmistress Ana was kind enough to let the three of them become day scholars, like several other students who were originally from the capital city. An exclusive transportation array was also set up from Mana's side room in the imperial palace to a small room next to Headmistress Ana's office at IMARI, and it was coded to King Jaren, Jules, Raven, Mana and Fox. Arrays posed no barrier to Azar anyway – not to mention, he was wont to riding on the shoulders or in the arms of one of his human family members!

"If required, we can always add more people to the permission code for the array," Headmistress Ana said.

King Jaren pursed his lips. "Perhaps," he murmured. "Ana, don't add anyone unless I tell you so in person."

Headmistress Ana looked at the king, surprised, but was diplomatic enough not to raise any questions. She was vaguely aware of what had happened with Sora and Astra, and she wasn't too surprised. Headmistress Ana had been close friends with the late Queen Dora, and she had never liked Sora much anyway, and after the whole incident fifteen years ago, she had neither met nor spoken to Sora, despite Sora's numerous attempts to get Headmistress Ana on her side. However, Headmistress Ana was famously stubborn and unyielding – plus, her status in King Jaren's eyes was unshakeable – so Sora had given up eventually.

As for Astra, Headmistress Ana was not concerned about her unless she managed to pass the entrance test and qualify for IMARI.

Azar had been rather lethargic since he'd soaked in the love soup, and he'd become clingier than ever before. He'd snooze all day, mostly in King Jaren's lap, claiming it was the most comfortable and rarely woke up unless it was to demand particular types of food. Mana and Raven were very worried that the soup had made the little dragon sick, but no one knew anything about dragons or whether dragons got sick after eating soup…so they were quite helpless.

King Jaren found that the little dragon had grown considerably heavier in the past few days, even though his size hadn't increased too much. Azar's temperature was also running higher than usual – and perhaps this was why he was sticking to King Jaren instead of the three children who had fire magic. The ministers and court officials were all used to Azar's presence by now. The first time King Jaren had taken the little dragon to court, he had simply announced, "This is Azar, my grandson." Many people had been curious, especially when the little dragon was heard referring to Crown Prince Jules as "uncle" – but everyone knew King Jaren was unlikely to explain.

Quite a few courtiers had promptly visited the imperial library after that and looked up books on fantastic creatures, and someone finally found out that Azar was a dragon. Since no one had seen a live dragon for hundreds of years, there wasn't much information available, but everyone unanimously agreed that a dragon was a mysterious creature and it was wonderful that their royal family had been blessed with one! Azar's existence gave a huge boost to the reputations of Mana and Raven as well, and Prince Raven of the Obsidian Kingdom became a favourite future royal son-in-law of the Emerald Kingdom, and the courtiers and citizens mostly regarded him with the same affection they showed to Mana.

It was only several months later that Raven learnt how several merchants and other people from the Pearl Kingdom had been either deported or denied entry to the Emerald Kingdom simply because they had badmouthed Raven and called him a cursed child of misfortune. The people of the Emerald Kingdom were notoriously protective of their own, and they had taken Prince Raven as theirs to protect from the moment King Jaren had released the information that Raven had saved Mana. That he was Crown Prince Jules's friend and Princess Mana's fiancé as well the Daddy of the blessed little dragon Azar…these were simply additional feathers in his cap.

Currently, however, this national favourite son-in-law was fussing over his little dragon child. "It looks like he's running a fever," he told Mana, wringing his hands nervously.

Mana was equally anxious. "Papa, Physician Kale…what's wrong with Azar…?" she asked tearfully. It wasn't that Mana wanted to cry, but her body was only ten years old, after all, and she hadn't been able to master her lachrymal glands fully yet. Besides, she was too worried about her baby dragon to care about her own appearance at the moment.

Physician Kale sighed helplessly. He didn't know any more about dragons than the rest of them!

"Mommy, Daddy, no worry," Azar murmured, half-opening one of his eyes.

King Jaren, who was holding the little dragon, stroked his scales comfortingly. "Are you feeling unwell, little one? Tell Grandpapa what you need, ok?" he said gently.

Azar blinked sleepily, and exhaustion painted his little face. "Azar tired," he muttered. His eyes drooped. "Azar want cold milkshake, Grandpapa."

"I'll make him a bottle," Mana said immediately and ran out of the room.

"I'll go and help her," Raven said and ran after her.

"Does he have any other symptoms except lethargy and a higher temperature than usual?" Physician Kale asked King Jaren and Jules.

"He's gotten a lot heavier," King Jaren said.

Jules frowned. "He doesn't seem much bigger, though."

"It is possible that he's experiencing either a growth spurt a magic surge," Physician Kale said cautiously. "I can't be sure, though."

Both King Jaren and Jules stared at him in shock.

"He's a *baby*," King Jaren pointed out. "He's barely two months old…how can he have a magic surge at this age?!" he demanded.

Jules was quite sceptical as well. "His appetite is the same as ever, and neither Raven nor I were sick like this when we had our surge," he remarked.

Physician Kale shrugged. "As I said, I'm not sure," he told them. "We hardly know anything about dragons…it is possible that dragons age differently from humans, and it is quite likely that their magic works very differently from ours." He shook his head ruefully. "I can only make reasonable guesses, I'm afraid. If little Azar was a human baby, I'd have been able to find out what's wrong with him right away and then cure him…"

There was a blinding flash of rainbow light and a loud sound like a thunderclap. When the light faded, King Jaren, Jules and Physician Kale had to blink several times before the dark spots in their fields of vision disappeared.

And then they blinked again, wondering if they were hallucinating.

For, instead of the little black dragon that had been dozing on King Jaren's lap, there was now a human infant with inky black hair which fell around his face in adorable curls, just like Raven and large, luminous emerald eyes with specks of amber and silver, just like Mana. The baby looked to be about a couple of months old, and was quite chubby and adorable.

Jules rubbed his eyes. "I must be seeing things," he murmured to himself.

Physician Kale and King Jaren stared at the baby, who blinked slowly at them, his eyes filled with innocence.

"Azar…?" King Jaren whispered hoarsely. "Are you our little Azar…?"

The baby gurgled and nodded, giving him a happy toothless smile.

"This…" Physician Kale was frozen with shock.

Jules nudged the elderly doctor. "You just said that you could treat him right away if he was a human baby," he said. "Please do so now."

Physician Kale stretched out a shaky hand and examined the infant without moving him from King Jaren's lap. Then his hand steadied and he frowned, and then checked Azar once again.

"What's wrong?" King Jaren asked anxiously.

Physician Kale leaned back in his seat and stroked his long beard. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with him," he declared. "He's one of the healthiest babies I've ever seen!"

Azar the baby gurgled happily and tugged at one of the large gold buttons on his Grandpapa's jacket.

"But…why did he suddenly change into a human baby…?" Jules asked.

Physician Kale shrugged. "It is probably safe to say that his magic has become more powerful," he said.

Jules opened his mouth to ask more questions, but was interrupted since Mana and Raven chose that moment to return. They held two big bottles of milkshake, one vanilla and one chocolate.

Raven was the first one to notice the human baby on King Jaren's lap. "Who's that?" he asked. "Where's Azar?"

Mana thrust the bottle she was holding into Raven's hands and rushed to King Jaren. She squinted at the human baby. "Azar…? Is that you?" she asked softly.

The baby gurgled happily and held out his arms.

Mana picked him up obediently and kissed his cheek. "How did you transform into a human child, Azar?" she asked.

The baby gurgled in response.

Raven walked over to them, unable to believe his eyes. But the doting expressions of the royal family of the Emerald Kingdom, plus the familiar eyes on the face of the baby pretty much confirmed his identity.

Azar spotted the milkshakes in Raven's hands turned back into a dragon immediately.

"Daddy! Give me!" he demanded, pointing at the chocolate one.

It turned out that Physician Kale's hypothesis had some value. Azar didn't turn into a human baby again for a long time, but he had fully recovered his vigour and cheer, thankfully!