The Emperor and the Knightess

After the bath, he was treated to a feast. Sir Donau was thankful for such luxurious treatment, but he could not stop thinking, ‘What was it that she needed help with? It doesn’t look like anything big happened recently…’

Poliana wasn’t the type that would exaggerate or overreact. If she sent a message asking for help, she most likely really needed help. The letter sounded like an emergency and Donau was supposed to leave his home immediately.

But just before he was about to leave, Vanessa fell ill with a fever. It was possible that there may be an epidemic going around, which forced Sir Donau to stay home. Thankfully, Vanessa got better, and the doctor announced that it wasn’t an epidemic.

Just like when he rode to Yapa to rescue Poliana from the gold digger, Sir Donau rode as hard as he could without making a stop, but when he arrived at Sitrin, the place seemed quiet and calm. Everyone working in the castle and the country house looked relaxed. Even Poliana herself, who asked for help, looked fine.

‘What happened?’

Sir Donau ate alone in the dining room. He expected Poliana to be dining with him, or at least be in the room if she already ate, but there was no sign of her. He thought she might drink with him afterward, but Poliana never showed up even when his meal was over.

Sir Donau became confused.

‘Just what is going on?’

Did she send that message from the shock of what happened with Frau?

But that happened months ago…

After the Frau incident, and when Poliana arrived at Sitrin, she stopped communicating with anyone. She stopped sending any messages after the last one, in which she stated that she wanted to rest quietly. No one thought this was odd since Poliana deserved to take a vacation. Everyone assumed that she needed time to recover from the shock and humiliation of what happened with Frau Sneke.

Sir Donau’s curiosity was satisfied when he was escorted to a room by a maid. The room he entered felt familiar; his own wife and child had a similar one. In the south, the baby rooms were designed to have plenty of windows to keep it cool. In Sitrin, where it was much cooler, the windows were shut tight to keep the cold wind from entering.

The sweet scent of a newborn baby… No one could forget it after experiencing it once. It was such a comforting and wonderful scent…

‘This is a…. baby room?’

Poliana was sitting on a chair and reading by a crib. When Sir Donau entered the room, Poliana looked up.

“There you are.”

“Sis, what is this…?”

Hesitantly, Sir Donau walked up to the crib. He was shocked and confused, and so many thoughts crossed his mind. The mistress of Sitrin was Poliana. So if a baby room was created in her personal home, the baby had to belong to the lady of the land, which was Poliana. It was still unknown who the father might be, but Poliana had to be the mother.

‘C-could it be that she had that gold digger’s baby? No, that can’t be! My sis isn’t like that…’

Donau shivered in fear as he walked up to check on the baby. When he looked inside the crib, the baby’s face wasn’t what he expected at all. Donau was anticipating seeing a small baby that resembled either Poliana, Frau, or an unknown person, but instead, the baby’s face looked just like someone else he knew very well.

Not Poliana and not Frau. It was…

“His highness?”

Inside the crib, a miniature version of Lucius the First was sleeping soundly. Sir Donau couldn’t have been more shocked. There was no doubt that the baby belonged to the emperor. This was clearly a royal prince, so why was such an important baby here and not in Yapa? And if the emperor had a son, this would’ve been the biggest news of the kingdom, so why haven’t Donau heard about it earlier?

“Sis, w-what is going on here?”

The first scenario Donau thought of was the fantasy story the knights talked about sometimes. The emperor goes on a picnic and ends up sleeping with a beautiful and mysterious woman. The emperor forgets about the incident, but the knight who accompanied the emperor remembers. The woman becomes pregnant and the knight takes care of the lady. The older knights sometimes dreamt of becoming such a loyal and gentle hero.

The Poliana Donau knew would be willing to do such a thing. Was this what happened? Was this why Poliana asked for his help?

Sir Donau looked at Poliana questioningly. They have known each other for a very long time. They were close enough to each other that when Poliana looked at Donau with a subtle shake, Donau stammered. “T-that can’t be…”

Donau tried to deny it. “Sis, tell me it isn’t so! What happened!”

“This is your nephew, say hello to Gerald.”

“Gyaa!”

Sir Donau began to pull his hair out. Thankfully, he still had enough sense in him to keep his scream quiet since there was a sleeping baby in the room. What Poliana was telling him… It was such a scary thought that Donau didn’t know how to digest the news. He desperately wanted Poliana to tell him she was just kidding.

Donau looked at her with despair, but Poliana just shook her head mercilessly.

No one else was in the room, yet Donau whispered the question, “What happened?!” Poliana remembered the fateful night with the emperor with a sigh and regret.

“I got drunk and made a mistake.”

“With his highness?”

When Poliana nodded, Sir Donau suddenly slapped her back hard.

Slap!

It hurt so much that her eyes widened. She knew she deserved it, but it still hurt too much.

“Hey!”

“You need to be punished, this can’t be happening.”

Sir Donau continued to slap her back loudly. Poliana let him do what he wished for a while before getting angry. Again, she knew she deserved it, but getting punished by her younger brother was too humiliating. Donau wasn’t putting all of his strength into the slaps, but he was still a muscular man and her back was on fire now.

“Stop hitting me!”

“You know you deserve this, right?!”

Only

“That’s why I let you slap me a few times. That’s enough now, so stop!”

Sir Donau began to breathe heavily, trying to calm himself down. After a few seconds, he asked the very important question, “Does his highness know about this?”

“He didn’t.”

She said it in the past tense. Sir Donau quickly realized what his late arrival must’ve caused. Poliana obviously asked for his help with hiding her baby and Sir Donau was too late to do anything. The emperor already knew everything now.

“So, I was really too late. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok. Vanessa was sick, so it couldn’t be helped. Besides, it’s all over now.”

Poliana acted like her life was over. Sir Donau looked at her in frustration and pity. “So when’s the wedding?”