The Emperor and the Knightess - Chapter 16
Chapter 16
The Acreian emperor’s official conquest team has been re-established with its war supply department lead by Sir Baufallo and his aide, Sir Poliana Winter.
Poliana touched her new uniform. Her name and her rank were sewed onto it. Some claimed that they could tell how talented the seamstress was just by touching the seams, but Poliana’s fingers were so rough and scarred to the point that she could barely feel anything with her fingertips.
She was wearing a brand-new uniform. The military ranking system was different in the Acreian army, but still, Poliana understood how significant her position was. She was the First Sergeant’s aide, which was higher than her previous rank. She no longer had the duties of leading soldiers, but still, what she ended up was a promotion. She always expected that she’ll be forever chained down as a platoon leader, so this ended up becoming a nice surprise.
‘And being a viceroy would be too scary.’
The position of a viceroy would’ve been a much greater position, but Poliana preferred her current role. Being a viceroy was too high of a rank that she couldn’t even imagine becoming one.
A while back, Lucius the First promised her a set of armor, but since she was assigned to the supply unit, it never happened. It would have looked odd for an aide of the supply unit’s first sergeant to wear armor as she would overshadow her superior. At least, wearing her new Acreian uniform made Poliana finally feel like she belonged somewhere.
“Good morning, Sir Poliana.”
“Good morning to you too.”
Poliana bowed lightly to Sir Howe who greeted her. Sir Howe was originally Sir Baufallo’s aide before Poliana. He was only 20 years old, and thanks to Poliana taking over his position, Sir Howe was finally able to leave the supply department. He seemed very happy about it. Luckily for Poliana, he seemed very eager to help her learn about her new position. He was very cordial and if Poliana had to choose the friendliest person to her in the army, it would’ve been him and probably Sir Baufallo right after.
“You are a very fast learner. You will do a better job than I ever did,” Sir Howe praised her.
“Not at all. You are too kind.”
A barely 20-year-old boy vs a knight with 6 years of military experience? Of course, it made sense that Poliana did a much better job. Sir Howe seemed to be oblivious of the importance of the supply unit. All he felt was a great relief to leave this department.
“Bring me some water,” Sir Howe ordered Donau, Sir Baufallo’s personal help.
Donau kicked a chair in annoyance and replied, “I’m not YOUR help!”
Sir Howe was clearly higher in terms of rank than Donau, so this interaction was a shock to Poliana. She even flinched in surprise, but she didn’t say anything. Normally, she would’ve kicked Donau for his insolence, but she knew what was going on here.
Donau and Sir Howe were brothers, and Sir Baufallo was their father.
The first-born, Sir Howe Ribo, and the second son, Donau Ribo.
Sir Howe was newly knighted, and it meant that he had no personal help assigned to him at this point. The Ribo family also was not very wealthy, so it makes sense that he couldn’t even afford to have a personal servant. This was why Sir Howe treated his younger brother as his own help just as he probably did at home. And of course, the younger brother felt frustrated at being treated like a servant both by his older brother and his father.
“How dare you treat a proper knight this way? There is another knight present here as well! Do you have any manners at all?” Sir Howe yelled at him.
“Another knight? What are you babbling about? I don’t see any other knight in this room other than you.”
Donau screamed in his still-high-pitched voice and ran out. He was trying to leave quickly, obviously trying to avoid being beaten but Sir Howe was even quicker. He grabbed his gauntlet from the table and threw it at his younger brother. It hit Donau right in the back of his head and made him squeal.
Sir Howe turned to Poliana and apologized, “He is still so young and stupid…”
“It’s alright.” Poliana didn’t care.
Sir Howe was enthusiastic about teaching her but the process was long. There was no official manual or guidelines for this position, and Poliana blamed it on the fact that this seemed like a group ran by a single household.
Because Sir Howe was Sir Baufallo’s son first rather than his aide, it seemed that a lot of things were carried out without official documents and records. It was also apparent that Donau was involved in certain tasks like delivering some official military documents when he was only supposed to be a personal help.
This kind of behavior was bad enough for Sir Howe to be arrested. Military records were needed to be kept safe, and a mere help was NOT allowed to even look at these documents. She was shocked when she found about it.
Sir Howe begged her to keep it a secret. Poliana, who was very new to this army, didn’t want to create trouble so she agreed to keep it to herself. But because any shreds of evidence of these deeds were needed to be cleaned up first before Poliana could take over, it would take a long while even before she could assume her position.
‘So much work to do…. It’s endless!’
Poliana felt frustrated and confused as well. It seemed that Donau, in fact, produced better and neater records and paperwork than Sir Howe. Because Sir Howe hasn’t been working for very long as the aide, no obvious problem has occurred, but if this continues, Poliana knew that it was going to lead to a major issue. It was a good thing that she was taking over right now.
‘It’s not that Sir Howe is stupid or slow…’ She wondered.
When she glared at him suspiciously, Sir Howe begged her again to keep quiet. She knew then what kind of a man he was.
A typical lazy self-entitled knight.
“My father told me to use my little brother as needed. Hahaha. Donau is actually quite smart.” Sir Howe tried to make an excuse for himself.
‘Idiot.’
“Even so, it was very unprofessional of you to have someone help you do your own work,” Poliana replied.
“Well, the thing was, it was only me who was supposed to be assigned to this conquest. But then, both my father AND my younger brother were assigned to it as well. All of the men in our family were sent to war, and my mother got so worried because of it. She begged that all of us get should get assigned to the same unit so that we could keep each other safe…”
So that was why the entire family was assigned to the war supply department. Originally, Lucius the First’s cousin, Duke Luzo, was responsible for this division. But when the emperor decided to leave for war, the kingdom needed an acting leader on his behalf. This was especially important since Lucius the First did not have an heir yet. It was then decided that Duke Luzo needed to stay behind with Sir Baufallo taking his position.
Giving your cousin the kingdom while you go into war? It was a perfect coup scenario. Even if they were the best of friends, one could never know what the future holds.
Poliana thought to herself, ‘I mean, who knew I would end up pledging my loyalty to a whole different country?’
But Poliana didn’t doubt Lucius the First’s decision. No one knew what the future holds, but the emperor must’ve given that responsibility to his cousin for a good sound reason. She didn’t trust Duke Luzo, but she trusted her emperor.
Sir Baufallo’s works and recordkeeping were excellent, but Sir Howe’s works were problematic. He originally wanted to belong to Sir Rabi’s team, but when he didn’t get what he wanted, Sir Howe lost all interest in his work.
The funny thing was, Donau was indeed rather excellent at this work, especially considering his young age. That must’ve been why Sir Howe continued to dump his own work on his younger brother.
And meanwhile, Donau was feeling proud of himself for doing a knight’s work.
Donau returned to the room again and without even acknowledging her, he threw the documents at her and left. She remained quiet for now but some time soon, she knew that she needed to teach him a lesson.