The Emperor and the Knightess

‘Perfect!’

Sir Mahogal excitedly asked Master Chail, “Is his highness inside?”

Master Chail shook his head without a word, which was an unusually rude behavior for him. When Sir Mahogal looked at him in confusion, Master Chail shook his head again and waved his hand. “You can just go inside, Sir Mahogal.”

Still confused, Sir Mahogal did as he was told. He walked into the room, and as soon as he did, he realized why Master Chail was acting strangely. Lucius the First’s reception room was filled with knights who were in shock from the same news. They were telling what they saw and heard to the emperor. It looked like most of the knights inside Yapa were all gathered here. Sir Mahogal realized that he was too late to the party.

Most of them were the knights who were part of the conquest. The scene reminded Sir Mahogal of the strategy meetings they used to have during the war. The knights were talking earnestly to the emperor, who was sitting there with a serious face.

When the knights spotted Sir Mahogal, they all spoke at once.

“Oh, Sir Mahogal, you’re here too!”

“Come, come! You’re late!”

“Sir Mahogal, what did you see? Tell his highness what you saw!”

“Did you know what I saw? I saw Sir Poliana smelling a flower, a flower! Sir Poliana did!”

“That’s nothing! I saw something worse! I saw Sir Poliana humming! She was humming, I tell you!”

“I even saw her hiding her scars with makeup! I thought I was going to faint!”

The men were busy sharing what they witnessed. Sir Mahogal didn’t know how to join in, so he found an empty chair and sat down. The knights continued to talk loudly for a while longer but slowly, they began to calm down. And thankfully, the men began to accept the situation.

“Well… It’s not that she put the flower in her hair, so I guess it’s alright.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“Sir Poliana is still doing an excellent job leading her guards, so I guess we can let her do what she wants. Her own men seemed shocked to see the changes, but I think they’ve already accepted them. She also still has a very firm grip on her unit too.”

“I guess it’s okay for her to put on some perfume. It isn’t like it’s hurting anyone, right?”

“That’s right. I mean, if she is going to get married, it makes sense that she wants to improve her skin. Marquess Winter’s skin is so awful that she will probably need a year to improve it.”

In the end, the men decided that there was nothing wrong with their Poliana Winter. For some reason, their frustration changed its direction towards Frau.

This was all Frau Sneke’s fault. It had to be!”

“Frau Sneke is no good! He just doesn’t suit Sir Poliana, don’t you agree?”

“If he wasn’t kicked out from the Sneke family, perhaps he would’ve been an alright choice, but he was abandoned by his own family, abandoned! If he doesn’t belong to a noble family, doesn’t that pretty much mean that he’s a commoner?”

“Absolutely, so how dare he propose to the marquess?”

“He has no money or status. He has no land, and he was kicked out of his family. He is also old, and he isn’t even a knight! He’s just a doctor! I am against this marriage!”

Lucius the First, who was holding his forehead with his hand as if he was having a headache, flinched. The knights, however, were too busy talking that they didn’t notice.

The men continued, “I am against this marriage too! I heard he even said that he was doing this for her money! He’s a gold digger!”

“I went to have a look at him, and he was also ugly too!”

“Yes! That’s right, he’s ugly too; an ugly gold digger like that needs to be destroyed!”

The emperor’s ears were clearly very much focused on the men’s conversation, but the knights were still unaware.

One of the knights suddenly disagreed, “Actually, I am ok with this marriage. Frau is indeed unmanly and weak, but this means that he will treat Marquess Winter with the greatest respect. He will do as he is told and they might just have a quiet marriage.”

Lucius the First slowly looked up to see the man who thought positively of Poliana’s upcoming marriage. The knight, unaware of the hatred in the emperor’s eyes towards him, continued, “I mean, think about it. Any man who marries Marquess Winter will have to give up his family name and take hers. If she wasn’t rich, what man would be willing to do that?”

“Well… I guess…”

The other knights agreed reluctantly, “It’s true that I would never give up my family name. I would never take a woman’s name as mine.”

“Me too, no amount of money would make me do something like that.”

“That’s right, my name was a gift from my ancestors, so how could I ever sell it?”

Any man who married Marquess Winter had to take her last name. On top of that, Poliana was barren, which meant that they would have no heir. Some of the knights nodded in agreement, but those who disagreed argued, “But Marquess Winter’s name was given by his highness himself! It won’t be such a sad thing to take an honorable name like Winter. Besides, Sir Poliana would be able to make even the most vicious man obedient! She doesn’t need a weak doctor like that! She can do so much better!”

“But what can we do? It’s not like we chose him, the marquess did!”

“I had no idea that Sir Poliana had such a low standard.”

“That can’t be! Everyone knows how much Sir Pol cares about people’s looks.”

Only

“So why would she decide on such an ugly man?!”

“Well, she apparently said that she didn’t want a much younger man.”

“So what are your thoughts on this, Sir Mahogal?”

Sir Mahogal, who was sitting quietly, flinched when his name was called. He sat up straight and faced the men. The reason why the men turned to Sir Mahogal was that they were talking about good looking men.

The most handsome man in the room was without a doubt Lucius the First, but it was a well-known fact that Poliana did not see the emperor as a man. The next in line for the list of handsome men were Sir Mahogal.

Indeed, people witnessed Poliana blushing from time to time in front of Sir Mahogal, who was a very handsome man. He was also from a good family and his manner was excellent. If he wasn’t married, Poliana would have been very interested in him.

After some careful thought, Sir Mahogal replied, “For someone important like Sir Pol… I do think she needs a man who is at least as good looking as me.”