The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 315

The original story of Lucius the First and Poliana was already fascinating, but the bards and the poets apparently added even more interesting and false details to the tale. The people of Yapa were captivated by it.

Poliana gritted her teeth. “F*ck! What is going on here?!”

She could now understand why the guard at the gate acted so shyly around her. He was covering his mouth the entire time, and she thought that either he was honored to meet the powerful marquess or he was hiding his bad breath, but it seemed that she was wrong; he was obviously trying to hide his smile.

‘Is that why none of the knights came to greet me even when they must’ve heard the report of my arrival?’

She has been absent for a long time. She expected either Sir Wook or Sir Jainno to come down and see her in person, but no one showed up. At the time, she assumed that they were all very busy.

Obviously, she was wrong.

Sir Donau asked, “Sis, what will you do? I think you have been ambushed.”

“I know… I underestimated the emperor.”

Whoever made the first move, especially if it was a surprise one, often had the greatest chance of winning the battle. It seemed that the emperor took advantage of this tactic. Sir Donau and Poliana, who came storming into Yapa, were both impressed by the emperor and disappointed at themselves.

Poliana’s original plan was to enter Yapa confidently and request to meet the emperor without giving him any notice or warning. She was going to surprise him, but her plan was now useless. The emperor clearly made his first move and now, Poliana needed time to come up with a new strategy.

For now, she decided to head towards her own home in Yapa. Poliana had always hated to go into a battle without as much information about it as possible. This unfamiliar and unexpected scenario was quickly making her angry and violent. Before she lost her calm, Poliana needed to gather as much information as possible.

‘Dammit… His highness probably already knows that I am here.’

The butler greeted his mistress happily when she arrived. He acted much more formally than usual as if he was greeting the empress of this kingdom.

“Mistress, you should’ve sent a message to let us know of your arrival so we could…”

“I saw a theater in the city center on my way here.”

The butler abruptly turned towards Donau. “Sir Donau! You are here as well! How nice! I will get your room ready immediately.”

Poliana yelled, “Don’t change the subject!”

She knew she was in trouble by watching how her butler acted. ‘Dammit! This is bad.’ She was also angry at him. There was no way the butler did not know about the story that was going around in Yapa. He should’ve sent her a message to let her know what was happening!

Poliana was about to blame him, but she stopped herself. The butler was introduced to her by the emperor; therefore, he was indebted to Lucius the First for this honorable position in the marquess’s household. It was no wonder that the butler’s first loyalty went to the emperor.

In addition, Poliana hid the existence of Gerald from her butler. She didn’t trust her own butler to tell him the truth, so how could she blame him? Besides, the butler probably thought this situation was a great thing for her. In fact, everyone in Yapa was probably envious of her.

Poliana could feel that she was in the enemy’s territory because she wasn’t comfortable even in her own home.

“Dammit!”

She slapped her forehead loudly in frustration before urging her butler to tell her everything.

What did happen since the emperor’s return to Yapa?

The first thing people thought of whenever they discussed their emperor was his beauty. Lucius the First of Acreia was considered the greatest beauty of the century.

The next thing about the emperor was his luck with the talented people around him. If Lucius the First was considered the greatest beauty, his closest friend Sir Ainno was called the greatest genius of the kingdom. Some even believed that Sir Ainno was the main reason why the emperor was able to unite the kingdom so quickly and efficiently. In addition to Sir Ainno, the emperor had many other gifted loyal men around him. They flocked to him like moths to a flame.

The third most well-known fact about the emperor was his incredible ability to gather information. During the conquest, although the Acreian army was considered politically and culturally unsophisticated, no one could deny its ability to collect and use information. With it, Lucius the First was able to come up with extraordinary battle strategies.

Spreading false rumors based on what he knew was the emperor’s specialty. In fact, this tactic helped greatly when conquering the mid-continent region. Because he knew very well the power of information, Lucius the First was very interested in the rumors among the locals.

Poliana knew the emperor’s methods very well because she was by his side for 10 years and witnessed them all. And it seemed that Lucius the First used his old tactic to make his move. He was clearly the one who began spreading the “fictional” story about an emperor and a knightess. It was a smart move because it succeeded in surprising her.

It seemed that the story was widespread even before the emperor arrived at Yapa. A few popular bards sang about it not long after the emperor left Sitrin.

There were already many romantic stories involving a knightess, but this particular one became a sensation. It was because the characters in the story clearly reminded people of the real people.

The most beautiful emperor and his loyal knightess.

It was clearly about Lucius the First and Marquess Poliana Winter, and this fact made people crazy about the story.

Whether the stories and songs the bards sang were true or not didn’t really matter to people. What mattered to them was the fact that their emperor was now single, and the “unknown” knightess was also very single. People’s imagination went wild with excitement.

The story was a typical one. A knightess, who led a harsh life, overcomes her difficult situation and ends up in a romantic relationship with the gorgeous emperor.

It was a simple but perfect story.

And what did the people want?

Happy ending!

H! A! P! P! Y! E! N! D! I! N! G!

What do we want? Only

Happy ending!

Romantic stories with sad endings were not the trend nowadays. It hasn’t been very long since the war ended, and the kingdom was finally finding its peace. It was time for stability and celebration, and the people demanded a happy ending for this popular story.

Luckily, the bards were only too happy to oblige.

So the emperor and the knightess fell in love with each other and lived happily ever after!

Love forever!

Although the beginning and the ending of the story was the same, there were many slightly different versions of it in the capital city. One of them involved the knightess running away after finding out that she was pregnant with the emperor’s child.

When Poliana heard this version, she flinched. Her arms became covered in goosebumps. She asked the butler, “Could it be that someone has been spying on me? Or did the emperor spread this version on purpose…?”