Chapter 220: 220 – You’re Worrying Me.

Mana and Raven fell asleep soon enough, and when they woke up a few hours later, Raven's magic was not only fully restored, but it had actually increased!

Mana could barely believe what she was witnessing. She checked three times just to make sure that what she was seeing was correct, and then grinned broadly at her fiancé.

"This is so cool!" Mana said happily. "You're seriously amazing, Raven!"

Raven smiled shyly. "It's not like I knew that my magic would be enhanced if I performed the soul searching magic," he murmured.

"No one knew that," Mana said. "That's why you are amazing!"

Raven felt like Mana gave him more credit than he was due – but then, he decided that he was quite happy as long as her attention was focussed on him and not other people. While a part of him that could still think reasonably and objectively told him that he was probably being a bit not good here, Raven found that he couldn't really help himself. He found himself wanting to monopolise more and more of Mana's time and attention and affection to the exclusion of other people. He felt inexplicably annoyed when Mana focussed her attention on someone else or interacted with other people for too long without including him. He did feel that it was not really what he should be aiming at. But he couldn't help himself. Although he did worry that Mana may think that he was a psycho and run away screaming – and that was the last thing Raven wanted. His life had changed since the day he had met Mana – well, to be more accurate, his life had started changing the day Big Brother Jules saved his life and decided to let an unknown kid tag along with him, which led to Raven meeting Mana, and then Mana just bowled over anything and everything that had held Raven back. Raven knew that all his growth and achievements in the last few months were attributable to Mana. Without her, he would still be a weak little boy with lots of brains but too weak to do anything with his incomplete dark magic – and universally despised by everyone.

And now there were so many people vying for his attention. Raven didn't want to let Mana know about this, but several noblemen from various kingdoms (although, thankfully, not the Emerald Kingdom, where monogamy was more common than anywhere else) had already approached Raven on the sly and offered him their daughters or female relatives from their family (usually aged between ten and twenty, but sometimes even older, and in one case, over fifty) as his concubines, with the understanding that Mana would remain his main wife even later when they were old enough to be married. Some had even offered him boys and men of various ages.

Of course, Raven had turned all of them down. Other than Mana, the very thought of being close to anyone else made him want to vomit!

And Raven was sure that if even he was being approached by so many people, Mana, too, would be getting offers from all over the place. What if she got tempted by someone else? What if that horrible Liam turned over a new leaf and Mana found that she still had a soft corner left for him from her life in her previous world? What if Mana was tempted into accepting Liam (or someone else, for that matter) as a second husband? Or a third or a fourth? There were no rules prohibiting anyone from having multiple partners…

But Raven couldn't bear the thought of Mana's affection being shared with anyone else. Big Brother Jules and Papa King Jaren and their little Azar were fine – that was family, and the relationship was different. But in terms of being a partner, a fiancé, and later, a lover and a husband – Raven wanted to be the only one. He knew that he would go berserk if Mana brought someone else home.

Seeing Raven frown furiously, Mana was a bit curious and a bit concerned.

"What happened? What's bugging you now?" she asked Raven, caressing his face with gentle fingers.

Raven turned his eyes upon her, and to her dismay, Mana found that his eyes were brimming with unshed tears.

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"What's wrong, Raven?" Mana asked anxiously, cupping the boy's face with both of her hands and peering at him.

"I – I –" Raven stopped suddenly, hesitating to answer the question that was plaguing him at the moment. Should he even demand something like this from Mana? Did he have any right to do so? Was he in a position to do so? What if Mana refused? She was very fond of him and she was definitely very protective of him – but did that affection extend to his unreasonable demand for exclusivity? Raven was very worried.

But then again, Raven thought, wasn't King Jaren the best example of dedication? Even though he had been drugged and duped into taking a second wife by nefarious means and 'big bad magic' as Azar would call it – had he still not remained true to his Queen Dora despite her death – the death that was now found to be mere disappearance? If King Jaren was inherently monogamous, then did it not stand to reason that Mana, who resembled King Jaren in her temperament much more than her Big Brother Jules – would also be the type to believe in one true love? And in that case, if Mana admitted that Raven was her one true love, then wouldn't it mean that Mana wouldn't even bother to look at any other man in a romantic light for the rest of her life?

However, the question still remained – would Mana feel that Raven was her one true love? Would she be happy with having only Raven by her side for the rest of her life? She had said so earlier – but then, she had never promised that she would never take a second or a third or a fourth husband or a consort or a male concubine, had she? What if she decided to do so later? How would Raven be able to live with that? Wouldn't he go crazy with rage?

The tears that had already pooled in Raven's beautiful rainbow eyes rolled down his cheeks like pearls.

Mana was almost panicking by now. What had suddenly happened to upset Raven this much? He was a stoic little boy even at the worst of times (and that was part of the reason why Mana often found herself worried to death about this little fiancé of hers – he really had no regard for himself or his own welfare) – and for him to cry helplessly like this – there had to be something majorly wrong! What had changed in the few hours that Mana had been asleep? Hadn't Raven been right next to her? Did he suffer from a nightmare while she blissfully and peacefully slept by his side, completely oblivious to this precious boy suffering in silence by her side? A wave of guilt washed over Mana right away. How could she have been so oblivious and so callous to not even realise that something was wrong with Raven? And just, she had actually been feeling so happy simply because his magic had increased! Was an increase in his magic worth causing Raven pain? Absolutely not! Nothing was more important than Raven himself – and whether he had more magic or not, Mana didn't care. He was already smart enough and talented enough and powerful enough. Whatever Raven lacked, Mana would help him build up with her knowledge of the modern world and a genius friend like Fox who could actually create magical machines using Mana's concepts that were far superior to those Mana had seen and used in the modern world!

"Tell me, my darling," Mana coaxed, caressing his fair cheeks. "You know it upsets me when you are upset – so isn't it better if you tell me what's wrong and then we discuss it and figure out a solution together?" she asked in a soothing voice.

"I – I'm afraid that you will be angry with me," Raven murmured.

Mana froze. "What did you do?" she demanded immediately, grabbing his arm and sending a diagnostic spell laced with her own magic into Raven's body to check on him. "Does it hurt anywhere? Are you feeling ill?" she asked in a rush.

Raven's heart felt warm at her concern. Since she cared for him so much, perhaps – perhaps she would agree to it if he asked, he told himself.

"Raven? Darling? You are worrying me now," Mana said, her face so close to Raven's now that their noses were almost touching each other. "Please tell me what's wrong."

The diagnostic spell told her that there was nothing wrong with him per se – which could only mean that he was worrying about something and this was causing him distress. And the thing that unsettled Mana the most was Raven being in distress!

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