The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Just as Queen Carolina had predicted, soon after the Emerald Kingdom and the Sapphire Kingdom made a preliminary announcement of the festivities spanning from the winter solstice to the new year, emissaries from the Amber Kingdom arrived promptly with a formal proposal for Princess Astra of the Emerald Kingdom and Crown Prince Mars of the Amber Kingdom, with follow-on celebrations in the Amber Kingdom after the winter solstice banquet in the Emerald Kingdom and the new year banquet in the Sapphire Kingdom. The suggested time was three days after the celebrations in the Sapphire Kingdom.

King Jaren went to meet Astra for the first time since she had been grounded and confined to her rooms. She had been behaving herself and had not tried to break out or created a ruckus after the first week, realising the futility of it.

"Papa?!" Astra cried in surprise as soon as she saw him. "You…you're here to visit me?"

Her pretty face was lit up with hope.

King Jaren sighed. No matter what, she was still his daughter. He had raised her with his own hands. He looked at her carefully. She had lost a little weight, but looked fine overall. Since she had not caused trouble for a long time, King Jaren's heart softened. He smiled at her and patted her hair gently.

Feeling the affection from her Papa after such a long time, Astra burst into tears and threw her arms around him. King Jaren rubbed her back comfortingly for a while.

"Come now, stop crying. I've got good news for you," he said to her.

Astra quickly let go of him and wiped her face. "Good news?" she asked eagerly, her green eyes shining brightly.

"The Amber Kingdom sent a formal marriage proposal," he told her. "Do you still like that Mars boy?"

Astra nodded shyly, her cheeks flushed. "I do, Papa."

"Then…should I accept their proposal for you?" he asked. "We'll have the engagement banquet here in the Emerald Kingdom during winter solstice, then we're going to the Sapphire Kingdom for the new year banquet, and then we'll go to the Amber Kingdom for you. They also want you to stay back in the Amber Kingdom for some time. This is what they have proposed – is that fine with you?"

Astra frowned. "Why are we going to the Sapphire Kingdom first?" she asked curiously.

"For your brother's engagement," King Jaren said, frowning. "I sent someone to inform you a few days ago, didn't they tell you?"

Astra looked away awkwardly. The moment the messenger had said that he had news about Jules and Mana, she had shut the door on his face and asked her servants to throw him out. Of course, she couldn't tell her Papa about that, not when he was finally showing her affection. "Jules…he's marrying someone from the Sapphire Kingdom…?" she asked.

"Crown Princess Isabel of the Sapphire Kingdom," King Jaren told her. "I met Queen Carolina a few days ago to finalise the plans."

Envy reared up in Astra's heart. Wasn't this cheap big brother of hers appear from nowhere suddenly and stole everything that should have belonged to her? At least she was still getting engaged to Mars, she thought, comforting herself, and they were going to the Amber Kingdom as proposed by King Orion himself…so it should be fine.

"And…what about Mana?" Astra asked.

King Jaren smiled happily. "The Emerald Kingdom's banquet is for all of you. Jules is engaged to Bella, you're engaged to Mars, and Mana is engaged to Raven."

Astra frowned. "Won't the Obsidian Kingdom also want to host a celebration?"

"Even if they do, it'll be after yours," King Jaren said. "Mana is the youngest, after all. Besides, the ways of the Obsidian Kingdom are rather mysterious."

That cheered Astra up. At least she had fared better than her little sister. Her fiancé was the Crown Prince of the Amber Kingdom, while Mana's fiancé was an unfavoured and abandoned prince of the filthy Obsidian Kingdom who no one cared about. And since Mana had her own fiancé now, she wouldn't have any time to look at Mars!

It was a bit of a pity, though, because Liam, the younger brother of Mars, had taken an interest in Mana earlier, and Astra had considered bringing it up with Papa. However, it was probably better this way. If Mana stayed in the vicinity of Mars due to Liam, who knows if her affections for Mars would return? Also, with Liam's magic gone, Papa would never agree to let Mana marry a waste.

"The Amber Kingdom has sent some gifts for you," King Jaren said. "I'll also send your dressmakers and jewellers over to you to design your outfit as you want it to be. You'll be the prettiest girl in the Amber Kingdom when you go there!"

Astra preened and hugged him again. "Thank you, Papa!"

King Jaren laughed and stroked her hair. "I hope you can forget about the past and make efforts to reconcile with your siblings, Astra," he said quietly. "I want all my children to be happy."

Astra took a deep breath to calm herself. "I'll try, Papa," she said. She could pretend for a bit, for sure. Once she was in the Amber Kingdom with her beloved Mars, they would figure out what to do! The Sapphire Kingdom was a powerful ally for Jules, and Astra, at present, was not in a position to do anything. She may as well wait and watch. There would be plenty of time later to get revenge for herself and her mother!

King Jaren had no idea that Astra was making nefarious schemes again in her pretty little head. He was quite relieved that she was behaving properly now, and considered letting her out after discussing with the other children. Bella should meet her other sister-in-law, too, after all.

King Jaren took his leave and Astra busied herself with preparations for her engagement with Mars. Along with the gifts from the Amber Kingdom, there was a personal letter from Mars, too, which made her very happy. Mars had written that he missed her very much and couldn't wait to be together with her again and get engaged to her! In fact, if not for King Jaren's overprotectiveness and insistence that none of his children would marry before they turned eighteen, Mars would marry Astra right away! There were plenty of fifteen year old brides in the Amber Kingdom!

Astra laughed as she pictured Mars's face when he was writing this. She appreciated the thought, but she was also happy that Papa wasn't marrying her off immediately. It meant that Papa still cared for her, and they had some time to make plans for the downfall of Jules and Mana. And the two filthy creatures Mana had picked up heaven knows where – a mongrel of the Obsidian Kingdom and Pearl Kingdom, and a reptile of unknown origins claiming to be a dragon!

After speaking with Astra and seeing her obedient behaviour, King Jaren was very happy. He called Mana, Jules and Raven and told them about the Amber Kingdom's proposal and Astra's acquiescence.

"Oh, good," Mana said. "It'll be good for Big Sister to stay in the Amber Kingdom for a while."

With Astra out of the way, their lives in the imperial palace would certainly be easier. And if Astra dared to plot against Big Brother or Papa again…well, Mana was ready.

After the success of the communication device, the super team of five brilliant youngsters had been working on creating a long-distance listening device. It took them some time to get it to work properly, but they had perfected the design by now and already tested it on King Jaren and Queen Carolina. The device looked like an elegant brooch. King Jaren's brooch was embedded with a large square-cut emerald matching his eyes set in gold. Queen Carolina's was a brilliant cut sapphire set in platinum. Both brooches had a danger sensor, and the listening function would be automatically activated if there was any danger to King Jaren, Jules, Bella, Mana, Raven, Fox, Azar, Grandpa, Grandma and Queen Carolina. Both brooches also had a powerful protection magic wrapped in the stone.

King Jaren and Queen Carolina had sensed the powerful protection magic imbued the brooches the children had presented to them, and they were quite pleased. Both wore their brooch proudly.

Fox, Grandpa and Grandma also wore similar brooches, the gemstones matching the colour of their eyes. Azar had a nice little magical collar which would grow with him. His collar had three stones – a bloodstone like Mana, an opal like Raven and a black diamond in the middle, which Azar himself had picked up in the shop when they had gone shopping for precious stones. Since the little dragon took a fancy to the stone, Mana had immediately bought it for him. To her surprise, however, when Azar had flung the black diamond into their secret shared space, it had glowed with powerful magic.

Raven, too, had been surprised. "Our little Azar is very smart," he praised.

Mana and Raven, as well as Jules and Bella, hadn't made brooches for themselves.. Instead, they had imbued the protection magic and the danger sensor in their engagement rings.