The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

King Corvus raised his arm, as if to slap Raven.

Instantly, a blue ball of fire hit him squarely in the chest. He fell to the floor, clutching his chest.

Azar hadn't sent a fatal attack. His fireball didn't even burn King Corvus much.

"Don't touch my Daddy with bad intent," the little dragon warned.

King Corvus chuckled in response and stood up slowly. "Well, at least you've got yourself a powerful team of protectors, kid," he told Raven.

Raven didn't bother replying to that.

Crown Princess Pica had finally calmed down after seeing Azar's attack. She looked utterly miserable now. She stared at Raven with unblinking eyes for a while and then bowed abruptly.

"Raven," she said softly. "I've wronged you terribly. I know it's not forgivable, so I won't ask you to forgive me, but I will beg you to let me have a chance to make it up you slowly….if you'd be willing to." She remaining in a bowing position without looking up at Raven.

Raven stood frozen in shock for a while.

King Corvus, too, was stunned. He had never seen his proud and haughty and arrogant daughter plead like this in her entire life! Even when she was giving birth to Raven in the Pearl Kingdom and her identity as the Crown Princess of the Obsidian Kingdom was revealed and those hypocrites from the Moon Temple – including her own first husband Head Sage Yue were all after her and the new born Raven's life – she hadn't begged for mercy. Clutching her just delivered baby boy, she had picked up her sword and fought her way out. Fortunately, Yue's mother had arrived just in time and managed to bring Pica to General Aquila and his team, who had been sent by King Corvus to bring Crown Princess Pica back to the Obsidian Kingdom. Pica had fallen terribly ill and was in a coma for a long time. When she finally woke up, the first thing she had done was to send a divorce decree to Head Sage Yue. After that, King Corvus had never seen his daughter any interest in this eldest son of hers until recently. If anything, she always seemed to be annoyed with him, and her punishments had always been especially harsh for Raven – much more so in comparison to his half siblings.

But now, it seemed that a mother's heart still resided somewhere deeply in Crown Princess Pica's body. King Corvus hadn't expected that she would get so worked up over the Shadow Poison bit.

He felt a twinge of remorse as he watched his daughter's bowed back for the first time. Then, with a sigh, he bowed as well.

"I'd also like to apologise for my conduct earlier," King Corvus said. "Prince Raven and Princess Mana, I've been terribly rude to you. My apologies to both of you, and to Prince Azar as well. As compensation, I would like to give you the county of Sable Island."

That stunned everyone – even King Jaren and Jules and Bella, who had been planning to extract some stuff from King Corvus for Raven. It was utterly unexpected that this cunning old king of the Obsidian Kingdom would actually offer Obsidian Kingdom's most prosperous island to Raven!

Raven was in a daze for a long time until Mana nudged him gently with her elbow. He turned to look at her helplessly and she gave him an encouraging smile.

Raven turned back to face his bowing Mother and Grandfather – two people he never would have imagined in such a situation. They actually apologised to him! And his Mother…

"All right, Mother," Raven whispered softly. Then he wobbled unsteadily.

Alarmed, Mana immediately supported him and Azar hovered in the air, his little dragon face twisted with worry.

"What's wrong?" Mana asked in a rush.

"I don't feel too well," Raven said. "It's like…"

Halfway through the sentence, he went limp.

Jules immediately picked up the younger boy in his arms. "Let's go to Imperial Physician Kale right away!" he cried anxiously. "Didn't he say that Raven had recovered completely? Why did he faint now?!"

Mana was equally panicky. "Raven…?" she called in a lost voice.

Crown Princess Pica was also lost and teary eyed. "What happened to Raven…?" she asked.

King Corvus stood up straight. "Let me take a look," he said.

When no one replied, he explained patiently. "Raven may be experiencing the same symptoms that I did after my first magic surge – Pica told me that he already had his first magic surge a few months ago. Is that correct?" he asked.

King Jaren nodded with a frown. "He didn't experience any discomfort during his surge except that it lasted really long and he needed to eat a lot to keep up," he muttered.

King Corvus nodded. "Yes, his magic is very powerful indeed," he said. "I know that now."

Mana looked up at Raven's grandfather, who, until then, had been an enemy in her head. "Can you really help Raven? Do you really know what's wrong with him?" she asked in a trembling voice.

King Corvus nodded. "I believe so. As I said, I had the same symptoms after my first magic surge," he said. "I had expected this to happen with Raven and Rook as well – both are quite powerful for their age."

"You didn't even think Raven was powerful until now," Bella snapped, ever the voice of reason. "How could you have expected it?"

"Raven is the fated child of the Obsidian Kingdom. No matter how much of a coward and a weakling he is as a child, he would grow into his power sooner or later anyway," King Corvus said lightly. "And whenever that happened, I would expect something like this to happen as well. Almost all of the powerful men in the Obsidian Kingdom's royal family have this phase. If I'm not mistaken, he has collapsed earlier, too – perhaps after experiencing an emotional upheaval?" He looked straight at Mana, knowing that she would be the ultimate decision maker in anything related to Raven.

Mana nodded.

"He will keep having these problems sporadically until the second magic surge occurs. This was one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to connect with the Poison Expert Naver," King Corvus said ruefully.

"How can you help him?" Mana asked.

"We can try the same treatment that was given to me," he said. "I used to be thrown into a cold pool for twelve hours or until my magic settled, whichever was earlier."

Mana looked up at the little dragon perched on his Uncle Jules's shoulder and peering anxiously at Raven.

"Azar, is he speaking the truth?" she asked.

The little dragon narrowed his eyes at King Corvus and nodded. Then he turned to Mana and said, "Elf buddy sent medicine, Mommy."

Mana heaved a sigh of relief. "Then let's fetch it right away," she said.. "I don't want Raven being thrown into a cold pool for even a minute."