The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 277

This went on day after day. Poliana participated in the intense daily training of the first division and ate plenty to keep up. When she returned home, she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep immediately.

It was a common knowledge that a good and plentiful rest was necessary for physical training to be most effective. Poliana, however, wasn’t after physical improvement. She was training to strengthen her mind and so far, she didn’t think she was doing enough.

The maids of the marquess’ household were concerned for their mistress. Even though Poliana was eating just as much as any male knights, Marquess Winter remained skinny. She just won’t put on any weight. When the maids shared their worry, Poliana reassured them that she was perfectly fine. She was gaining a lot of muscles, so it is likely that Poliana weighed quite a bit. But what the maids wanted was for Poliana to get a little of fat on her, not more muscles.

Poliana wrote a daily log of her training and the result. She was happy to see that she was making progress. For the first few days of her training, Poliana had to be helped to return home by Sir Beke or other knights because she could not walk on her own. But since yesterday, Poliana was able to ride the horse back home all by herself!

She felt like she could do anything in the world! Poliana was feeling great when Sir Ainno said to her, “If you keep doing this, you will die.” Sir Ainno didn’t really care about what happened to her, but if she fell ill or hurt herself while going through his training regimen, Sir Ainno knew Lucius the First would be nagging him to no end. Sir Ainno said to Poliana, “From now on, you are banned from participating in the First Division’s training program, Marquess Winter.”

His voice, his tone, and the way he spoke… He was such a jerk, but Sir Mahogal, who recently returned from his vacation, kindly explained to her the reasoning behind Sir Ainno’s words.

There was no argument that Poliana’s body was different from that of the other male guards. The difference was especially great when compared to the knights of the First Division, who were the best of the best in the kingdom. If Poliana continued to try keeping up with these exceptional men, she really might end up hurting herself badly. It might look like she’s making some progress for now, but in reality, her body was most likely to being damaged.

Poliana nodded in understanding, so she decided that she would take a break today. And starting tomorrow, she would begin a different type of training.

‘Tomorrow… I should drop by to check on my men in the Second Division, and… Huh?’

She was going through her schedule when she noticed a red mark on the day before yesterday. Poliana wondered why she marked this day with red ink, which was the most expensive colored ink.

‘Did someone die on this date? No, that’s not it… Is it someone’s birthday…? No, that’s not it either… Wait! Oh! I remember.’

After thinking for a while, Poliana finally remembered. Yes, it made sense. It was about this time last month when she had her last period. Yet… This month, it hasn’t begun yet.

When Poliana was examined at Nanaba castle, the royal doctor told her she will most likely get her periods regularly now. He was right because when she returned to Yapa, she did have her periods consistently. This was why she marked the calendar, so she would not have an unfortunate and unexpected accident.

But this month… She was a few days late already. Poliana wasn’t worried, however, because there was a simple and logical explanation for it.

‘Well, I have been training extremely hard lately, so…’

Poliana has been training hard like a woman on a death mission. She, in fact, trained harder than when she was in the war, so it made sense that her period stopped. If her doctor found out, he would nag her that she should take better care of herself, but Poliana didn’t care. Why? Because she was a bad patient!

But as long as she lived as a good knight and good subject to the emperor, it was all good, right! Of course, it was!

Nodding vigorously, Poliana threw the calendar on her desk.

‘Who cares if I don’t get my periods back? It’s not like I plan on having kids or something.’

Poliana laid down on her bed feeling justified. All she had to do was to sleep, but for some reason… Her body felt different. Something wasn’t right.

‘Hmm… I wonder…’

She has never had a regular period in her life. She had more months of no periods than the ones with menstruation. It was a normal occurrence for her not to have periods, which meant that she shouldn’t have been bothered by this situation. Yet… She kept thinking…

‘Why am I bothered? Is it because I was thinking about having kids only a little while ago?’

It was a short-lived dream for her. There were days when she grinned about creating a family with Frau and perhaps even having kids of her own… OF course, the result of her dream was a tragedy in the end.

Poliana ended up taking advantage of the emperor.

‘Gyaaa!’

Poliana left her bed suddenly and punched the wall loudly.

“Gyaaa!”

Her room was soundproofed, but the entire household heard Poliana’s scream. Her butler, shocked to hear his mistress, ran to her room.

“Mistress! Marquess!”

“Arrggghh!”

When he entered the room, Poliana was assaulting the wall and the furniture. Her butler was well aware of the marquess’s strange method of relieving stress, so he quietly closed the door behind her. When the other servants and the maid gathered around outside her room, the butler explained to them what was happening and ordered them to keep quiet about it. Only

“But shouldn’t we stop her?”

“She will stop when she is done.”

She was a very important woman. Her health and well being should’ve been her priority, so Poliana’s staff assumed she would stop soon. However… They were wrong. Poliana’s stress-relieving habit continued intensely.

She kicked the wall so much that her silk wallpaper was ripped. At first, the butler replaced the entire wall with new wallpaper, but soon, the butler realized that it was no use. Poliana kept doing it over and over again, and in the end, he decided to patch it up by cutting a flower-shaped piece of silk and gluing it on. He, unfortunately, had to do this frequently. It was an annoying job, but this was his responsibility, not Poliana’s.

Marquess Winter had other matters to worry about.

‘Dammit! Have I lost my mind? Why can’t I stop thinking about his highness?! What is wrong with me?’

It was the job of a good knight to think about his emperor day and night, but Poliana’s thoughts were going in the wrong direction. Ever since Sir Batre “spared” her marriage prospect by sodomizing her, Poliana learned to hate the feeling of men breathing down on her. It was okay for her to feel her colleagues’ heavy breaths while they worked out together, but if a man intentionally blew warm breath at her… Poliana flinched in disgust.