The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Mana's magic surge lasted for exactly fifteen days, just as Imperial Physician Kale had predicted. She didn't feel a dramatic rise in her magic as Jules and Raven had done, but her magic power did increase, and she could probably be considered one of the most powerful ten-year-olds across the five kingdoms at the moment.

Once her surge was over, Mana threw herself whole heartedly into preparing for the upcoming banquets. Bella and Jules had come up with the idea of coordinated outfits for the couples, and Mana and Raven had immediately agreed. Vanilla was also quite interested in the idea, so Fox naturally complied. And thus began their shopping and designing and preparations.

While Mana hadn't been an avid fashion enthusiast in her original world, she had always been one of the best-dressed persons – be it an ordinary office day or a casual picnic or a social event or a black tie event or a super formal business meeting or a highbrow party. Keeping the styles of this world in world in mind, she sketched a few outfits (well, she described them and Bella sketched them) and some jewellery (which Raven drew and even improvised) which she deemed suitable for each of them, and then the six of them sat together and brainstormed on the matching accessories, the colour schemes, the functionalities (Fox insisted on carrying some devices and Jules took his copy machine which he used as a camera everywhere) and pretty much everything.

Vanilla proved herself to be an expert seamstress, and her embroidery was even better than some of the imperial seamstresses. One by one, the outfits started materialising, and the youngsters were quite satisfied with the lot. Everything was nicely themed and well-prepared.

Plus, between Mana and Raven, they managed to coordinate the clothes with the jewellery and accessories perfectly, and for each matched set for Mana and Raven, there were matching outfits for Azar as well, because the little dragon insisted that he wanted to wear clothes now to match with his Mommy and Daddy.

No one had any complaints about that – they all adored Azar, and so did the citizens of the Emerald Kingdom. The little dragon had become something a mascot for the Emerald Kingdom, especially since King Jaren often in court with his dragon grandchild in his arms, and wearing matching expressions. In fact, King Jaren was currently wondering if they should redesign the national flag of the Emerald Kingdom and introduce the silhouette of a dragon in it.

Mana, Raven, Jules and Bella were all for it, but, to their surprise, Azar was the one who refused.

"Azar not big and handsome yet," he stated his reason plainly.

"You are very pretty," Mana told him. "You are the prettiest of us all."

The little dragon shook his head stubbornly. "Azar very small and not very powerful now," he said.

King Jaren and the four youngsters were stunned.

Recalling how Azar easily ate up those vicious arrays back in the Verdant Hills and even ate up the two array masters' magic, Raven murmured, "You are already quite powerful, Azar."

"No, Daddy," the little dragon said, stamping his foot impatiently. "When Azar grow up, Azar bigger than Grandpapa's palace, and Azar have big, big, big magic! Real big, big, magic, not like small big magic Azar ate earlier."

King Jaren chuckled, thinking his imperial array masters would burst into tears if they heard the little dragon just now. He had just eaten a fifty year old array they had discovered at the border between the Amber Kingdom and the Emerald Kingdom. It was a rather vicious one, and one of the soldiers from the border patrol had accidentally stumbled upon it and nearly lost a leg. Fortunately, she had excellent reflexes and a quick brain, and she had immediately called over her colleagues and superiors. They had packed up the array and sent it to the capital city to be examined.

It had become a standard operating procedure in the Emerald Kingdom to send over to the imperial palace any magical arrays they found which could be detrimental for the Emerald Kingdom or its citizens, instead of destroying these arrays as they used to do earlier. This was, naturally, because of little Azar. While Azar was as much a foodie as his Mommy and loved to eat human food, he also needed a regular supply of magic to eat. Raven had meticulously recorded Azar's data from the day they had found the baby dragon, and he had done all sorts of calculations and projections and complicated stuff which no one other than Raven could understand, and then Raven had deduced the optimal required daily intake of magic for his little dragon child. Once these figures were determined and they started feeding Azar what he called 'small big magic' on a regular basis, they realised that the little dragon was healthier and livelier than before, and his growth started following a regular pattern rather than a sudden increase – like that one time in the past when Azar had gotten sick and everyone had panicked.

So now the royal family made sure that Azar got to eat his daily fill of magic along with the other nutrients that Raven had determined. Not everything Raven put on the list matched Azar's taste, and the little dragon would often throw a tantrum about eating them. Carrots, for example – Azar considered carrots to be his mortal enemies after his first bite of one. After that, no matter how anyone persuaded him, he just wouldn't touch a carrot, and if either Mana or Raven tried to be strict and threatened to withhold a treat unless he finished his carrots, Azar would leap into King Jaren's arms, his big, round eyes brimming with tears, and beg, "Grandpapa, Azar hate carrots! Azar won't eat carrots!"

King Jaren would cave in, naturally – often in less than five seconds. No one could bear to see Azar cry, his adoring Grandpapa least of all.

However, Mana and Raven were growing increasingly worried about Azar's intake of the required nutrients (Raven had made a number of copies of the nutritional chart and all of them kept a copy handy) when no amount of cajoling would induce him to touch certain things. In the end, Grandma stepped in and pulled Mana and Raven away.

"Make something he likes to eat with the ingredients he doesn't like to eat, and adjust the flavour so that he can't immediately figure out that you've added them in," she said to them. "I used to do it all the time with your mother – and I sometimes still do it for your Grandpa."

Mana and Raven exchanged a glance and then their faces lit up.

"Let's make carrot cake today," Mana said. "No one will know what goes into it, and we'll call it something else."

"If we put whipped cream on it, even the colour won't be too apparent," Raven said, tapping his chin.

Grandma smiled at the two children. "Go ahead," she said, patting both of them on the head. "And don't tell Grandpa about this. He still doesn't know that I've made him eat quite a few things he absolutely detests for over forty years now."

Mana and Raven grinned at her, and then Mana made a zipping motion across her lips.

Satisfied with the promise of confidentiality, Grandma shooed them away, reminding them to disguise the flavours.

Raven stopped at the door and turned around. "Grandma, could you keep everyone – especially Azar – occupied while we work on the cake?" he asked softly.

Azar often wandered into the kitchen when Mana and Raven were cooking – and it'd be disastrous if he saw them grating carrots to feed him the detestable vegetable without his knowledge!

"Of course my dear," Grandma said, patting his hair. "You two go ahead – I'll keep everyone else away from the kitchen until you're done."

Grandma kept her word; no one disturbed Mana and Raven during their carrot cake making process.

And that's how their famous "special sunshine cake for Azar" for born, and the little dragon loved it so much that he gobbled up an entire plate and went to beg for more!