The Evil Emperor’s Fragile Heart - Chapter 258

The exit of the foreign dignitaries from the Amber Kingdom was quite swift. This was because the Pearl Kingdom had set up an array at the destination – that was the capital city of the Pearl Kingdom, and the array could be activated from anywhere since the destination was already set.

This was quite a contrast from the arduous journey that the group had to undertake to reach the imperial capital city of the Amber Kingdom.

As it turned out, only the group of people from the Pearl Kingdom, the Emerald Kingdom, the Sapphire Kingdom and the Obsidian Kingdom were the ones who were able to use this array. This was because the people of the Amber Kingdom were too haughty to ask for access to the array, and they also didn’t want to travel with the people from the other kingdoms. And the dignitaries of the Pearl Kingdom had no desire to cater to the people from the Amber Kingdom any more. After being attacked several times and then being looked down upon, they were fed up with the people from the Amber Kingdom. And in sharp contrast, the people from the Emerald Kingdom, the Sapphire Kingdom and even the people from the Obsidian Kingdom – all of them had treated them so well, and even the infamous King Corvus, who was widely rumoured to be a nasty monster, had stepped up to protect them!

The worldview of the people from the Pearl Kingdom had undergone a thorough change after this journey. Now, they no longer viewed the Obsidian Kingdom as their mortal enemies – that status had been shifted to the Amber Kingdom now!

Head Sage Yue and the King of the Pearl Kingdom (who was the cousin of Head Sage Yue) were waiting to receive the contingent of guests.

When the two men saw that there was no one from the Amber Kingdom that had come with the others, they were surprised and relieved at the same time, if slightly offended.

“Welcome to the Pearl Kingdom,” Head Sage Yue greeted everyone.

“Welcome to the Pearl Kingdom,” the King of the Pearl Kingdom, who was called Min, repeated Head Sage Yue’s words.

The arriving contingent also greeted them, and courteous words were exchanged for some time.

“The guests from the Amber Kingdom didn’t come with you?” Head Sage Yue pulled a minister aside and asked him in a quiet voice. It was the same person who had been interacting with Mana and Raven and the others regularly in the absence of Head Sage Yue.

The minister quickly explained the situation to Head Sage Yue, and also briefed him about what had happened in their journey to the imperial capital city of the Amber Kingdom.

Head Sage Yue was utterly appalled. “They actually laid traps for their own guests?!” he hissed angrily.

It was a good thing that they had set up a privacy barrier, or everyone would have been able to see how angry he was.

Head Sage Yue had also investigated the situation at the borders of the Pearl Kingdom which were shared with the Amber Kingdom, and he had realised that the Amber Kingdom had shamelessly encroached on the lands of the Pearl Kingdom and claimed those for themselves! How shameless was that! King Jaren and the Emerald Kingdom, to which the Pearl Kingdom had sold land quite a few times, had never even taken an extra inch beyond what they had paid for – while the shameless villains of the Amber Kingdom had encroached and stolen away lands at the borders of the Pearl Kingdom and were refusing to give it back!

And the Pearl Kingdom was not in a position to launch a war against the Amber Kingdom at all – if they did that, it would be the Pearl Kingdom whose existence would be wiped out completely. They were not a powerful nation in terms of warcraft anyway, while the Amber Kingdom was known to have the most powerful army ever. It was not known whether even the Obsidian Kingdom, which was so mysterious that no one knew their real strength, would be a match for the Amber Kingdom. The Emerald Kingdom didn’t have an army at all and relied completely on mercenaries – which the Pearl Kingdom couldn’t afford. And the Sapphire Kingdom had such a powerful barrier for border control (which they had all seen during their visit to the Sapphire Kingdom recently) and a rumoured legendary mechanical army (which no one had ever seen) that even the Amber Kingdom would think twice before attacking them.

So, if the Amber Kingdom did want to take over the other four kingdoms, it stood to reason that they would pick the low hanging fruit – which was the Pearl Kingdom.

And this meant that Head Sage Yue and King Min immediately needed to establish solid collaboration with the other three nations – the Emerald Kingdom, the Sapphire Kingdom and the Obsidian Kingdom – so that they could at least have some amount of protection from the Amber Kingdom.

And, to be honest, if the Pearl Kingdom had to merge with any of the other kingdoms and cede control, then Head Sage Yue and King Min would hand it over to any of the other three kingdoms instead of the Amber Kingdom!

Head Sage Yue forced himself to calm down and went back to join the others, and saw that King Min was chatting excitedly with Raven, and was proudly calling him ‘Nephew Raven’ over and over!

A strange feeling crept over Head Sage Yue and his footsteps slowed automatically and involuntarily as he watched King Min interacting with Raven. The boy showed none of the wariness that he usually had when he was speaking to Head Sage Yue, his biological father! He looked completely free and happy when he was speaking to King Min, and the boy had never even met King Min before! What was with this scene?!

King Min was a bit of a naïve idiot and Head Sage Yue suspected that his father had put King Min on the throne simply because he was somewhat of a dimwit, and would easily agree to whatever Head Sage Yue’s father, the previous Head Sage of the Moon Temple, would say. Certainly, Head Sage Yue had never had any trouble with King Min in the obedience department – he really did agree to whatever Head Sage Yue suggested, and if anyone else suggested something or asked King Min to take a decision, he would immediately come to his cousin, Head Sage Yue, and then go with whatever was decided by Head Sage Yue.

And this was despite the fact that Head Sage Yue was almost a decade younger than King Min, who was the son of Head Sage Yue’s father’s older brother, the former king of the Pearl Kingdom.

King Min mostly whiled away his time with his numerous concubines, and if there was one thing he was good at, that was procreation. There were a lot of members in the royal family of the Pearl Kingdom. It wasn’t just King Min, either – he had siblings who were equally promiscuous.

And when Head Sage Yue saw King Min touch his son’s shoulder and call him ‘Nephew Raven’ so lovingly, he didn’t like it at all. He remembered suddenly that one of King Min’s concubines had been about Raven’s age when she had been brought to the imperial palace of the Pearl Kingdom – and that the child had jumped to her death from the tower meant for watching performances on her third day within the imperial palace of the Pearl Kingdom.

And Raven was a very beautiful child, even Head Sage Yue could see that. The boy had inherited the best features from both his biological father Head Sage Yue of the Moon Temple of the Pearl Kingdom as well as his biological mother Crown Princess Pica of the Obsidian Kingdom. And the boy seemed to have grown taller and healthier, making him even more attractive. In a few years, Raven would definitely grow up to be one of the most handsome young men across the five kingdoms – there was no doubt about this.

Head Sage Yue suddenly hurried forward and pulled Raven away from under King Min’s hand. Even if it had been only an innocent pat on the shoulder right now, who knew when King Min’s mind would change and he would start eyeing his child, Head Sage Yue thought furiously.

King Min seemed to wither at the sight of his younger cousin who held more authority than him within the Pearl Kingdom.

Raven looked up at Head Sage Yue with wariness filling his rainbow eyes.

“Are you all right?” Head Sage Yue asked in a low voice.

Raven raised his eyebrows enquiringly, and Mana, who had been standing by Raven’s side quietly this entire time, also moved closer to Raven and Head Sage Yue.

King Min shot Head Sage Yue a fearful glance and turned away to speak to some other people from the Pearl Kingdom.