Chapter 187: 187 – King Jaren’s Cry

"So – it really is the late Queen Dora's pendant?" Queen Carolina murmured.

King Jaren held out his hand and the queen pendant broke through the glass cage and headed towards his outstretched palm, startling the Captain of the imperial shadow guards and the Imperial Supreme Mage of the Sapphire Kingdom.

"Papa, be careful!" Mana cried, shooting a jet of water immediately, and the pendant was washed clean of any glass shards before it could hit King Jaren's skin.

At the same time, both Azar and Alya cried, "Grandpapa, big bad magic!"

There was a brilliant flash of gold and the pendant shone brightly for an instant just after it was washed by Mana's water magic, and then it finally landed in middle of King Jaren's outstretched palm.

It wasn't very noticeable to everyone – but Azar and Alya grew a little bigger in the aftermath of the golden flash of magical energy.

King Jaren examined the pendant carefully, tears streaming down his handsome face. It was a heart breaking sight.

"It really is Dora's pendant," he said in a trembling voice after some time. "I know this pendant as well as I know my own king pendant – this is my Dora's queen pendant…"

Everyone was stunned – even though they all had gauged that this was likely to be the original queen pendant of the late Queen Dora from the earlier reaction of King Jaren.

"But – but – how is this possible?" Jules whispered. "Doesn't a royal pendant break and dissipate the moment it's owner dies…?"

No one had a response to that.

"Could this – could this mean that – that Queen Dora – that she may still be – be alive?" Bella asked in a stuttering voice. After all, she was the biggest fan of Queen Dora – and if there was even the slightest chance that the legendary Queen Dora was still alive – Bella would do every single thing she could to help find her and bring her back to her loving family.

"I wish…" King Jaren murmured, wiping his tears. "If only my Dora could still be alive…"

"Grandpapa," Azar said softly, nuzzling his small head against King Jaren's face. "Don't cry, Grandpapa."

Alya copied Azar's actions immediately, and repeated, "Don't cry, Grandpapa."

With two adorable little dragon grand babies nuzzling his face from either side – King Jaren managed to gather himself in a few short moments.

"My apologies for the unseemly display," he murmured, wiping his face with a handkerchief.

Mana and Jules immediately hugged their beloved Papa.

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"There is no need for you to apologise, King Jaren," Queen Carolina said quietly. "We are all family here, and I am aware of how highly you regarded Queen Dora."

"It was my high regard that made her the target of nefarious plans," King Jaren said bitterly. "If my Dora had fallen in love with an ordinary scholar or nobleman – wouldn't she have lived a long, wonderful life? She would have had so many achievements by now…"

"But then you would not have these two beautiful children Jules and Mana, would you?" Queen Carolina pointed out.

King Jaren's arms tightened around Jules and Mana, who were hugging him at the moment.

"That's true," he murmured. "And I wouldn't give up my children for anything in the world…"

"And we wouldn't give up our Papa for anything in the world, either," Jules said fiercely.

"Yes, exactly – Big Brother is right," Mana piped up.

"I agree with Big Brother and Mana," Raven chipped in.

"And I agree with Jules, Mana and Raven as well," Bella spoke up. "Papa, you are the first proper father figure I have known, and I wouldn't change it for the world."

"Absolutely," Raven said. "I didn't even know what parental affection was until you took me in, Papa."

King Jaren stared at the four children who loved him as much as he loved them, and a warm current surged in his heart. Even if his Dora was gone, hadn't she left these beautiful children for him to look after?

But then again, if Dora was gone, why was her pendant still here? It was impossible for the queen pendant to exist without the queen, and King Jaren knew that Queen Sora had not been granted a queen pendant by the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom. He had thought at the time that this was because Sora was not recognised by the innate magic of the Emerald Kingdom and the ancestral spirits as the rightful queen of the Emerald Kingdom, and that was why she got an ordinary royal family's imperial concubine pendant instead of the queen pendant even after Dora's death when Sora had insisted on going to the ancestral chamber to get a new pendant. Both times, the same pendant was issued to Sora, and that's why she designed a clever cover for it, claiming that the pendant was precious and she didn't want to be scratched of to gather dust and all.

King Jaren honestly couldn't care less. The late Queen Dora had been his one and only love, and the whole incident with Sora was the result of a nefarious scheme and a trap that he had unwittingly fallen into and become a prey to. King Jaren would never forgive himself for that, and he knew that even though his Queen Dora had not directly blamed him for the incident, she had been deeply hurt by it. Back then, they had no choice but to bring Sora into the family as a second wife – but without being drugged out of his mind, King Jaren would never touch Sora – and thus their marriage was something only on paper and to give Astra a legitimate identity.

But when Queen Dora had died, King Jaren had realised what a fatal mistake it had been on his part to bring Sora into the imperial palace. He had suspected at the time that Dora's death had something to do with Sora, but he never had concrete evidence – and he had been too heart broken for several months to care about what was happening.

However, when they found Jules – or, to be factually correct, when Mana found Jules and the truth came to light, King Jaren realised that his beloved Dora – his clever, clever Dora – had already figured out what schemes were being plotted against her, and she had taken steps to safeguard both her children. She had sent Jules away with her own parents and faked the deaths of all three of them. She had probably hoped that she would be able to weed out the conspiracy in a few years and then have them return to their rightful place – but then, when Mana was conceived, Dora had probably realised that she was not in a position to expose her sister's evil schemes. And even to this day, King Jaren rued the fact that Dora had chosen not to confide and discuss about her suspicions with him – if he had known that Dora was facing this kind of danger, then, no matter what, he would not have tolerated the presence of Sora and her child in the imperial palace, no matter how much he adored little Astra. But then, Dora had probably seen how much King Jaren loved his little princess, and decided not to do anything that would end up with King Jaren being separated from his young daughter.

And thus, she had taken steps of her own to make sure that her new child would be born safely – but even then, she had been unable to gauge the viciousness and the cruelty of the villains who were aiming to harm her and all the children of her blood. Thus, at the last minute, cornered without any hope of survival, she had split little Mana's soul as soon as she was born to safeguard her and to give her a chance of a life in another world, and for her soul to be consolidated at an appropriate time. And she had ended up sacrificing her own life for this.

But now – since the queen pendant was here – could it be that his beloved Dora was not actually dead? Could it be that she was still alive? But if she was still alive, where had she been all these years? King Jaren had seen the queen pendant dissipate in front of his own eyes back then. He had held the lifeless and cold body of his beloved wife and cried and cried for hours. Ultimately, he had fainted and it was then that the others had taken the chance to pry him away from Dora's lifeless body and conduct the funeral rites. King Jaren was in a coma for several days, and when he woke up, the funeral rites of his beloved Queen Dora was already done and over with, and Queen Dora's most trusted maid had been hiding away in a secret room in Queen Dora's chamber with the new born little Mana, together with Imperial Physician Kale, who had been looking after the weak and sickly infant.

It was only when King Jaren had woken up that Imperial Physician Kale and the maid had come out of hiding and put little Mana, who was already showing a resemblance to her late mother, in his arms.

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