Chapter 261: 260 – Real Issues

The guests were all shown to their rooms in the guest house prepared for them.

Once everyone was settled in, Mana took Raven to speak with King Jaren, Jules, Bella and Queen Carolina. She explained briefly what had happened with King Min and the reactions of Head Sage Yue and Crown Princess Pica.

King Jaren was furious, naturally. Queen Carolina became like a glacier, too.

Raven scratched his head sheepishly. "Er – aren't we all overreacting a bit?" he murmured.

"Of course not," Queen Carolina said. She looked at King Jaren. "Should we leave?" she asked. "I don't want any of our children near such people."

"His target seems to be Raven only," Bella murmured. "We will stick to Raven all the time, and we won't show mercy to anyone who tries to lay a finger on him."

Jules tapped his chin thoughtfully. "There may be a possibility that King Min was doing it to gauge the reactions of Head Sage Yue," he said. "The balance of power in the Pearl Kingdom is really skewed, isn't it? King Min – even though he is the monarch of the Pearl Kingdom – has barely any power, while Head Sage Yue and Moon Temple are the ones with the real power in the Pearl Kingdom. No matter how cowardly one is, at some point or the other, it would pinch you if someone else held all the power in your kingdom even though you were the monarch, right? But Head Sage Yue had never had any weaknesses before – the only person he ever married, his ex-wife, is the Crown Princess of the Obsidian Kingdom and not someone King Min would dare to touch, even if they had contact. And the only off spring of Head Sage Yue was, until recently, an abandoned prince of the Obsidian Kingdom and Head Sage Yue honestly couldn't care less about his biological son. So, Head Sage Yue had no weaknesses that King Min could take advantage of – until now."

Mana's eyes glowed. Why hadn't she thought of this? After all, if King Min was such a dimwit, would he have survived this long? Besides, she had heard before that Head Sage Yue's father, who had been the previous Head Sage of the Moon Temple and a man obsessed with power, had even planned to convert the Pearl Kingdom officially into a religious country run by the Moon Temple and abolish monarchy altogether. But then, he had died at the peak of his power from a sudden illness. Wasn't it suspicious? Head Sage Yue, for all his faults, was not a greedy man, nor was he interested in taking over the entire Pearl Kingdom. Even if he was a sanctimonious git, annoyingly self-righteous and prejudiced, and a bit of an idiot when it came to trusting people and taking decisions – Mana had already realised that deep down, Head Sage Yue was not a malicious person. She would not forgive him for his treatment of Raven in the past, but she was not so blind that she could not see that Head Sage Yue had genuinely become fond of Raven now, and he really did want to protect his only child.

So, there was a high probability that Big Brother Jules was actually right. Raven was Head Sage Yue's weakness, because he cared. Earlier, Head Sage Yue didn't care about anyone, especially not Raven – but now that he did, that could be used as leverage by his enemies.

And knowing Head Sage Yue, Mana could easily see that he had no impression of his cousin King Min except for the fact that the latter was a promiscuous, cowardly dimwit. King Min could have been hiding his claws, but Head Sage Yue would never be able to see it.

And if Jules was right, then that meant that King Min was actually scheming something, and that the past events of the Pearl Kingdom were not as simple as they had seemed to be. And that it was Head Sage Yue who had been so busy being self-righteous and sanctimonious in the past that he had been the real dimwit and the real naïve little idiot! The man may be powerful in the Pearl Kingdom, but he had not even caught on to the nefarious schemes of the Amber Kingdom taking over their territory by encroachment so easily until now – and as for the Amber Kingdom, would it be so easy for them to do this even if they had some spies and found some traitors in the Pearl Kingdom? Naturally, they needed to have traitors in high places – and, perhaps, even in the royal family itself. Was it possible that King Min himself was involved with this scheme? Could he have been promised benefits by the Amber Kingdom in exchange for control over the Pearl Kingdom? Mana couldn't imagine that a monarch would abandon his own country for profits, but then, if it was a puppet monarch who had no real power at all – like a paper tiger with rubber teeth – then, would that monarch even possess any feelings of responsibility or duty of care towards his kingdom and his citizens?

Mana sighed. Things were clearly not as simple as they appeared to be, and it seemed that they would all have to be very, very careful. If King Min was actually in cahoots with the Amber Kingdom, then he had even more reason to target Raven…

"Mana? What are you thinking?" Raven asked quietly.

Mana shook herself and found that it was not only Raven, but even King Jaren, Jules, Bella and Queen Carolina – all of them were looking at her curiously.

"I was just thinking that what Big Brother said just now makes a lot of sense," she murmured. "It is all conjecture at the moment and we definitely need more date and solid evidence before we decide to take any action – but it is not impossible for this to be actually true." Then she went on to explain to the others what she had been thinking just now.

Everyone's expressions turned from thoughtful to shocked and then back to thoughtful again.

"This conjecture does have merit," Queen Carolina said finally. "Mana and Jules, I have a feeling that both of you are probably right on this one. We do need to find out more about what happened in the past and what is happening right now, otherwise we may end up with a war on our hands and we would not even know where we stand…"

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King Jaren nodded. "Mana, Jules, well done," he said proudly.

Bella nodded as well. "So – what should we do now?" she asked. "Should we ask Grandpa and Raven's grandfather to set up a defensive array in Raven's room like they did for Mana in the Amber Kingdom earlier? And Mana and Raven can stay together in Mana's room?"

"Makes sense," Jules said. "Let's do that. It will be good if nothing happens, but we may as well take precautions now that we know that something is wrong."

The group went to find Grandpa first – and found, much to their surprise, that Grandpa, Grandma and King Corvus were sitting together, chatting and sipping tea amicably.

"Is something the matter?" Grandpa asked, when he saw all of them coming over.

"Jaren, I need to speak to you about something as well," King Corvus spoke up. This was perhaps the first time that he had addressed King Jaren in such a familial manner, perhaps due to the influence of Grandpa and Grandma.

King Jaren didn't mind. He nodded.

"I was just telling Ducky and Ai about what happened in the morning with King Min and Yue," King Corvus said. "I am sure that little Mana and little Raven would have already told you about it."

King Jaren nodded again. She shot Grandma a look, and saw that she was perfectly fine being addressed by her nickname by King Corvus.

"Corvy suggested that we set up a defensive array in young Raven's room, and have him stay with Mana, like we did in the Amber Kingdom," Grandma said. "I think that is a good idea. We must not take risks when it concerns the safety of our grandchildren."

King Jaren smiled and nodded. "Bella suggested the same thing, actually," he said. "That's why we came here to request you to set up the array."

"Good, good," Grandpa said, very satisfied with the smart and beautiful future grand daughter in law that Jules had brought in for him. "Bella is an excellent child. Good thinking, Bella!" he praised.

Bella smiled shyly. "Actually, it was Jules and Mana who thought of the real issues; I was simply making a suggestion based on what they said," she said modestly.

Grandpa and Grandma exchanged a pleased glance.

King Corvus raised an eyebrow. "Real issues?" he asked curiously. "Why don't one of you tell us what you all have been discussing?"

Grandpa and Grandma poured out tea for everyone and King Corvus helped them pass on the tea cups to everyone as they started talking.

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