The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Princess Astra somehow managed to keep Crown Prince Mars occupied for the next two days. Perhaps the annoying young man had suffered a fright at Mana's hands, but in his eyes, his seemingly gentle fiancée suddenly appeared much more attractive and he was happy to spend his time with her. They caught up on their experiences since they had last met – Astra probably realised that Mars didn't really pay much attention to the long letters she painstakingly wrote to him every week, but she didn't create a fuss over it. Instead, she told him about all that had happened with her, including her mother's incarceration. Of course, in Astra's version, Sora and Astra were the innocent and unwitting victims of the grand conspiracy hatched by Mana, Jules and Raven, and King Jaren was too blinded by affection to see through their deception because of his overwhelming love for their late mother Queen Dora.

Mars only listened half-heartedly. A couple of days later, he was bored out of his mind in his fiancée's company, and Mana began to seem much more interesting than before, if even half the stories cooked up by Astra were true. If she could be so clever at the age of ten, how magnificent would she be when she grew up…?

Seeing Mars's attention wander yet again, Astra searched for a suitable topic of conversation and then suddenly came up with one.

"About Prince Liam's loss of magic – I heard Mana had something to do with it," Astra said quietly. "I don't know the details of the plan at the Verdant Hills, but Mother mentioned that Prince Liam and one other person – the two array masters who created the arrays that were placed at the Verdant Hills – both had all their magic sucked out. No one here seems to know the details, either – all everyone knows is that Mana and Raven stopped it."

Mars stared at her in shock. "How could that be possible?" he murmured. "Little Mana is only ten, and that stinky brat Raven is what? Eleven? Twelve?"

"Twelve," Astra replied promptly. "But he's very clever. I heard that he was the main brains behind the communication device that was said to be jointly developed at IMARI by five people. Maybe they're just using the others as shields for Raven to protect him!"

Mars shrugged nonchalantly. "Even if he did make the communication device by himself, what's that got to do with Liam?" he demanded.

"He could have modified the array to reflect the magic upon the array masters," Astra said. "Mother mentioned that it could be done, but it weakens the caster for several years as well."

Mars huffed angrily. "That brat isn't weak at all," he murmured, remembering how he had been soundly defeated every time he challenged Raven. It was extremely embarrassing!

"He could have secret techniques from the Obsidian Kingdom," Astra argued. "How else could Mana improve so quickly, otherwise?"

Mars tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm."

Having failed to garner the reaction she wanted, Astra was quite frustrated and tried to divert the topic to their outfits for the banquets instead. She had heard from the servants that Mana and Raven, as well as Jules and Bella were going to be wearing coordinated couple outfits, and she wanted to do the same, too.

But before she could broach the topic, Mars suddenly got up and left, leaving her angry and upset. For the first time, Astra wondered if she was doing the right thing by marrying Mars, who didn't even seem all that interested in her anymore. She remembered how harmonious Mana and Raven were, and jealousy loomed up in her heart. Why couldn't Mars be as nice to her as Raven was to Mana…?!

Mars, on the other hand, had shamelessly gone looking for Mana again. The moment Astra realised this, she broke her curfew again and ran after him.

Her suspicions proved to be right when she spotted Mars rushing to block Mana and Raven's path.

"Go back to Big Sister Astra," Mana hissed angrily as soon as she saw Mars. "She's the only one who cares about you or your opinion."

Astra felt a pang in her heart – a little twinge of guilt towards this little sister of hers. Astra had always taken advantage of Mana when she had been weak and frail, and she had even made several attempts to have her killed. Despite all this, Mana was still trying to send Mars back to Astra…

Astra promised to herself that she would try to treat Mana better in the future as long as she could get married to Mars properly.

Mars completely ignored Mana's furious words and instead, grinned at the two young children in front of him.

"I have an excellent proposal for both of you," he said cheerfully, as if he'd completely forgotten the humiliation he suffered at their hands just a couple of days ago.

"We don't want to know," Raven replied immediately. "Get out of our way."

"This is for both of you," Mars said. "I'm making a very generous offer, even overlooking your filthy bloodline and your gender, Raven. I will take both of you as my concubines! Male concubines aren't very popular in the Amber Kingdom, but I'll make an exception for you since you're so pretty and since Mana is so attached to you!"

Astra was so shocked that her knees gave out.

As for Mars – well, it was not surprising that Mana's magical vine burst out again and choked him half to death once more.

"Throw him back to his fiancée," Raven said, a disgusted expression on his face. "Really, how delusional can he be?"

Mana obeyed silently.

Astra stood up on shaky legs and returned to her rooms to find Mars pinned to her wall like an insect ready for dissection.

"Help me, Astra," he begged as soon as he saw her.

Astra went to help him, but before she could unpin him, Mars continued, "Ah, I really want both of them now, Astra. You can be my main wife, but I really want Mana and Raven both as my concubines! How great will it be if I had such beauty and brains in my harem…"

Astra turned around and left. Even though she usually had the patience of a saint when dealing with Mars – this was too much even for her! How dare Mars start making plans for his harem when he already had her?! Had she wasted all her love and devotion on him for nothing all these years?!

Just as Astra was about to march out of her gate in anger, she heard voices outside.

"Really? You got this from the great Poison Expert Naver?" Mana's excited voice floated into Astra's ears. "What does it do?"

"It's a love potion," Raven said softly. "It makes you fall in love with the first person you see."

"I wish we could give it to that stupid Crown Prince Mars and make him look at Big Sister Astra – then both of them can be happy together and he'll leave us in peace!" Mana grumbled. "Can you imagine – that idiot wanted to marry us both!"

Raven sighed loudly. "It would be nice if we could give it to Princess Astra and she feeds it to him – but she hates us, doesn't she? She'll probably not even believe us if we tell her about this love potion," he murmured.

Mana sighed as well. "Yes, you're right," she said. "It's such a pity."

"Can we send it to her anonymously?" Raven asked.

"Hey, she's not stupid, all right? Why would she trust an anonymous package?" Mana asked.

"But we don't really have another choice," Raven said.

"Can you check the instructions?" Mana asked. "Does it work if it is mixed with food? Maybe we can add it to something Mars eats."

"But what if Astra eats it instead?" Raven protested.

"Well, we'll put it in something she doesn't eat but he does," Mana said reasonably.

"That could possibly work," Raven said.

"We can put it in the wine!" Mana said. "Papa said no wine for us until we're eighteen, so she won't drink wine – but Mars does!"

"The instructions say that it mixes well with red wine," Raven said. "But it doesn't mix with white wine."

"Let's go and check if the imperial kitchen has any red wine that can be sent to Mars tonight," Mana said excitedly.

The voices of the two children faded away and Astra stood by her door, stunned.