The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Once he started channelling his magic through the magic wand, Raven's control improved rapidly. Mana, on the other hand, continued to fuss over him. She would keep her eyes fixed on him at all times, and she strictly monitored everything he ate or did, especially his magic practice, and even kept peeping into his bedroom at night to check on him repeatedly, until Raven got worried about Mana's own lack of sleep and suggested they simply sleep together like they did when he had nightmares. Azar, naturally, snuggled in comfortably in between his beloved Mommy and Daddy.

Strangely enough, though, Raven wasn't annoyed at all by Mana's fussing. On the contrary, he was quite pleased about it. No one had cared enough to fuss over him like this before, and this was the first time he felt like he was the most important person in Mana's eyes. Even when the others teased the two of them, and Jules quietly pulled Raven aside and asked him secretly if he was getting annoyed with Mana's fussing and if Jules should have a chat with Mana about it – Raven rejected the offer without hesitation. He fully understood that she had been scared by what happened with him earlier, and that it would take her some time to be assured that he was safe and sound and that there was no need to worry anymore.

In fact, Raven himself was quite apologetic about the whole incident. Even Raven didn't understand why he suddenly lost control of his emotions like that, but he agreed with Jules and King Jaren's theory that it was because Mana was threatened.

Finally, three weeks later, when Raven had shown no signs of being ill or losing control, and his eyes sparkled brightly with the vigour of life and his cheeks were flushed with the pink of health, did Mana ultimately relax. She was still more sticky with Raven than she used to be, though.

Raven, naturally, was more than happy to cater to his fiancée.

"I'll show you a cool thing," Raven told Mana. "I remembered something from the ancient master's repository last night, and I thought we can try it out today."

Mana wriggled her eyebrows, making Raven and Azar laugh.

"Mommy funny!" Azar giggled.

Mana captured the baby dragon in her arms and tickled him until he shook her off and went to hide behind Raven.

"Daddy! Help me!" Azar complained.

"Don't tease the baby, Mana," Raven said mildly.

Mana playfully stuck out her tongue at the two of them.

Raven chuckled and patted the little dragon. Then he whispered in his ear, "Next time Mommy tickles you, you can tickle her, too." He showed Azar a few spots where Mana was particularly ticklish.

Azar's gemstone like eyes gleamed mischievously and a big grin appeared on his face – he was clearly planning his revenge already!

Mana narrowed her eyes at her two favourite boys. "What are you plotting?" she asked dangerously.

"Nothing at all," Raven said with a sweet smile, and Azar simply copied his Daddy, making himself look like a super good boy.

Mana wasn't fooled by their innocent façade – it was always suspicious when someone looked a little too innocent! However, she was curious about what cool thing Raven had discovered and wanted to see it. Besides, since she was the one who started tickling little Azar in the first place, she could afford to be generous and let them go – just this once!

"So…what's the cool thing you were telling me about just now?" she asked instead.

Raven brightened immediately and Azar looked visibly relieved at the change in the topic of their conversation.

Raven took out his magic wand. They were all quite familiar with the tool by now – it was made of gold and set with gemstones, and the design matched Mana's crown and the hilt of Azar's sword.

"Look here," Raven pointed out to the top of the wand, which was broader than the base, which had a hilt similar to that of a sword to make it easier to hold. "You can see that the design here is very similar to your crown, right?"

Mana nodded. She already knew this.

"And this part," Raven pointed to the bottom. "This is similar to the hilt of Azar's sword, right?"

Mana and Azar both nodded vigorously at this.

"But look carefully here and here and here," Raven said, pointing at several places, some at the top and some at the bottom. "You can see very faint lines of the grooves if you look really closely."

Mana and Azar followed his finger with their eyes, and to their surprise, they saw that there were indeed several grooves – but there seemed no button or mechanism to activate the thing – or to pry the grooves open! What could possibly be the purpose for these, then?

"I've been wondering what these are for," Raven said, mirroring Mana's thoughts. "Last night, I remembered some stuff. I should have remembered it earlier, actually – but it didn't occur to me to correlate this magic wand with the holy sceptre before."

Mana nearly fell off her chair. "The holy sceptre?!" she cried. "You mean…you mean this magic wand that Azar's Elf Buddy from another world sent you – that's actually the holy sceptre of the Pearl Kingdom which was lost over a thousand years ago?!"

Raven smiled at her. "I'm not completely sure, but I think that there's a good chance of it being the very same sceptre," he said. "What I remembered last night was actually the way to activate the holy sceptre."

Mana's eyes turned as round as Azar's. "Show me!" she demanded imperiously.

"Show, Daddy!" Azar echoed his Mommy.

Raven chuckled at the two eager faces staring at him in wonder, with identically coloured pairs of eyes that held the same spark and vivacity. He felt warm all over. This was what he wanted to see every day for the rest of his life.

"I need your help to activate it," he told his fiancé and his dragon son.

"What do you need?" Mana asked immediately.

"Azar help Daddy!" the little dragon chipped in almost at the same time as Mana.

"I need you two to bring out your crown and your sword first," Raven said.

Mana pulled out her crown and Azar pulled out his sword.

Raven brought their hands together, so that the three magical tools were touching each other.

"Pour your magic into your crown, Mana. Azar, pour your magic into your sword," Raven instructed. Then he hurriedly added. "Not too much, just a little will be good enough!"

The three of them let a little bit of their magic flow into their respective magical equipment. There was a blinding flash of light, and the wand, the crown and the sword merged together to form a sceptre that was as tall as King Jaren! Then the crown and the sword separated from the sceptre and returned to Mana and Azar respectively, but the sceptre remained tall and glowing with power in Raven's hand.

"Brilliant!" Mana cried.

"Daddy cool!" Azar chirped.

Raven grinned at the two of them and tapped the sceptre. It shrunk to Raven's height.

"It is activated now," he said. "It really is a very power magical object! I can feel the magic running through my veins."

Mana eyed him worriedly. She immediately started firing anxious questions at him in a rapid fire style. "Do you feel all right? Is there any discomfort? Is the magic too much? Do you want to…"

Raven pulled Mana into a hug, effectively shutting her up. "Don't worry so much," he whispered softly in her ear. "I'm perfectly all right, you can check for yourself."

Mana blushed and nodded.

Raven released her, and Mana immediately took his wrist, sending a strand of magic into him to check his condition. She had especially learnt this diagnostic magic from Imperial Physician Kale and Junior Imperial Physician Vale, and she had been using it to check on Raven several times a day ever since his collapse.

Raven was perfectly fine – in fact, perhaps due to the successful activation of the holy sceptre, he was better than ever before! His magic coursed through his body unimpeded and impossibly powerful, and his body seemed to have received a health boost as well!

Mana was relieved and rewarded Raven with a big smile.

Azar, who was feeling a bit left out, charged towards his two favourite humans, getting them to hug him.