The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 218

To Poliana, belonging to a unit was very important. Once she was part of a group, that group became her life. It was true that she didn’t feel any loyalty to her group when she was in the Aehasian military, but that was because it was such a horrible unorganized unit. The Acreian army was very different. The reason why she still showed great respect to Sir Baufallo, Sir Rabi, and Sir Mahogal was that she felt like she belonged with them. Her need to belong made sense since she spent her childhood and teenage years alone; no one cared for her at the time.

Lucius the First accepted her, and in turn, the other knights and armies acknowledged her as their own. As time passed, Poliana’s obsession to belong became even stronger.

And for the first time in her life, she was going to have her own family.

Her own family, which she chose herself!

Until now, the Acreian military was like her family. But once the war was over, her close friends moved away to different parts of the kingdom. This was why Poliana has been so lonely, and the only way to fix this problem was to create her own family.

Her need to belong made her feel affection towards Frau, which was a very unfortunate thing for the emperor.

Lucius the First asked Poliana, “Sir Pol… Did you put on perfume?”

“Yes, the ladies put it on me!”

“You look very happy.”

“Hahaha… Is that so?”

Lucius the First looked down because he found Poliana’s smile too bright. The heartache he felt for his unrequited love… The jealousy he felt towards Frau… He needed to let these feelings go now. The emperor knew what he had to do.

“Yes… It’s ok if he is not a good man, Sir Pol. If you are happy, that is all I need.”

To pray for her happiness… This was what he needed to do. If he truly loved her, Lucius the First knew it was the right thing to do.

The emperor smiled sadly. Unaware of his true feelings, Poliana smiled happily. Lucius the First had to keep reminding himself that if Poliana was happy, he needed to feel happy for her too.

***

Poliana continued to smile widely as she roamed around the castle. The rumor was that Poliana remained home for a month as a punishment for disobedience. There were only a very few people who knew exactly what happened that night, but because everyone knew how close Poliana was to Lady Rebecca, people understood why Poliana must’ve felt emotional at the time.

Some men even claimed, “Well, Marquess Winter is still a woman, after all. It makes sense that she is emotional.”

Young lower-ranking knights who said things like this out loud were dragged away by others loyal to Poliana to be beaten. Any older knights who said such things were subtly ridiculed for being old-fashioned.

It seemed that the way people thought about Poliana was slowly but surely changing. It was especially a surprise since there were days when Poliana was hated for just being a woman.

When Poliana spotted her fiancé, she called out his name, “Frau!”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Did you bring what I asked you? The paperwork?”

“Yes, I certainly did!”

Frau, when he heard his name, jumped readily. Because it was almost at the end of his work hour, Frau and Poliana walked out together from the doctors’ office. After they left, the other royal doctors, who were shocked to see what happened, began to gossip, “What did Marquess Winter want with Mr. Frau?”

“What paperwork? What was she talking about?”

“Do you think Doctor Sneke is being hired as her personal doctor?”

“Wow, he has been following around the marquess so diligently, and I guess it paid off. He has done well for himself, what a promotion.”

No one could even imagine that Frau was becoming Poliana’s husband. They all assumed that he was being hired as Marquess Winter’s personal physician, so they began to discuss what kind of salary he might receive.

Meanwhile, Poliana carefully read over the documents Frau brought for her.

“Hmm…”

Poliana checked his birth certificate that shows his birthdate and proves his nobility. She also checked the document that shows his family history, his tax reports from the year before that shows his wealth, a document that indicates his current address and place of work, and finally, a health certificate that lists his current medical conditions, including any history of his family’s illnesses.

These were all the necessary things that needed to be studied thoroughly before any noble marriages. The most important thing to make sure was his identity. In this case, there wasn’t any problem since Poliana already knew Frau and his acquaintances.

Frau read over the documents Poliana brought for him as well. He didn’t take as long, however, to examine them. Everything she read was what she expected, but his financial state was much worse than she anticipated.

‘Does he like to gamble or something?’

He wasn’t one of the official royal doctors, but since he was a student of one and worked in the castle, Poliana suspected that he received a decent salary, but for some reason, Frau had no money at all. Many men were bad at saving money, but it was still no excuse for Frau to have nothing. Besides, there were plenty of men in the kingdom who were savvy and frugal. For example, there was Momo, who saved enough money to buy a house in Nanaba.

Poliana thought sadly, ‘Of course, as soon as he bought one, the capital was moved to Yapa and he lost a lot of money from it.’

When Momo found out about the move of the capital city, he cried in front of Poliana and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me the capital was being moved?!” Feeling bad, Poliana gave him an interest-free loan so he could purchase another house in Yapa.

Based on her understanding, Frau led a boring life. He didn’t enjoy drinking and she hasn’t heard any rumors that he was into gambling. This could mean only one thing; Frau was just horrible at managing money.

‘I guess he has a bad spending habit. Oh well.’

Only

As long as he didn’t become addicted to gambling, it was going to be ok. Poliana was ready to accept his flaws. Other than his lack of wealth, there wasn’t anything else that concerned her. Then suddenly, Poliana remembered something. She asked, “Oh, now that I think about it…”

“Yes!”

“I heard that there was a woman you loved so much that you abandoned your family. What happened there? Did you break up with her?”

When Poliana first heard this story, she thought Frau was used by a gold digger. But when she heard more about it, Poliana thought that perhaps it could’ve been a genuine love story.

Well, at least on Frau’s part.

Before, Poliana didn’t care about this, but now that they were going to be married, Poliana felt that it was necessary to know exactly what happened.

Frau’s face darkened immediately before becoming pale. Poliana asked, “Is it something you can’t answer, or is it that you’re still with her?”