The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 288

Because Poliana was so busy since the first day she arrived at the Sitrin castle, her guards have been having a nice time off. The knight looked at her in disappointment, wanting to stay in Sitrin a while longer to enjoy himself, but Poliana waved him away. The knight bowed and left the room, feeling sad that he had to say goodbye to the wonderful hot springs.

Staring at the closed door blankly, Poliana thought to herself again, ‘When I return, I better tell Sir Deke to fire him from the Intelligence Unit.'

A few days later, the knights that accompanied Poliana left Sitrin to return to Yapa. Poliana continued to work hard as she survived on the dog stew three meals a day. The castle chef, who has been happy to have the Yapa knights enjoy his food, was the most disappointed now that the only guest left was Poliana, who insisted on eating only the awful food she made herself.

The chef thought that once the dog stew was gone, Poliana would search for a new kind of food. He secretly stole a little bit of stew at a time to give it to the stray dogs living outside the castle.

Everyone in the Sitrin castle, except the chef, was happy that the marquess was here. A castle without its owner always felt too empty. As long as the lord or the lady of the place wasn't too cruel, it was always better to have him or her present.

One day, Poliana finished most of her work for the day. She decided that this was the day for her to get things over with. She gathered the butler, the heads of the maids, and the vassal in her room. An unmarried woman getting pregnant was an embarrassing incident, but if she showed any remorse or guilt, people were going to take advantage of her. With a straight and confident face, Poliana announced, “I am pregnant.”

The vassals gaped in shock, but the butler and the head of the maids looked calm. This was not an unusual occurrence in a noble household. The butler and the head of the maids have seen it all. The only difference, in this case, was the fact that this was happening to a mistress rather than a master, but no one cared about it.

This situation was especially well accepted by the people of Sitrin because the mid-continent had a much more open culture than Acreia. Here, ladies and the noblemen were allowed to mingle and interact more freely. Cheating on spouses and having bastard children weren't very uncommon.

One of the vassals asked, “I…is that why you came here?”

“Yes.”

“What about marriage…”

The vassal couldn't seem to finish his sentence. The infamous Marquess Winter became pregnant and came to Sitrin without a marriage plan. It was obvious that her intention was to have the baby here in secret. There had to be a reason why Poliana couldn't get married.

Unlike the butler and the head of the maids who remained calm and quiet, the vassal continued to ask different questions. He asked how far along she was and how her health was. Poliana answered as politely as she could, but she preferred the nonchalant reactions of the butler and the head of the maids.

Poliana ordered, “For now, close down the inner castle so that no strangers can enter. Only those delivering food will be allowed to come and go. The number of people entering this city should also be limited…”

The butler offered before Poliana could finish her order, “My lady, instead of doing all that, have you considered staying in the country house?”

“The country house?”

“Yes, there is a villa that was built right where the original source of hot spring exists. The foreigners are forbidden to enter this place. Only the maids and the cook usually frequent this place. It is located in a rather remote area and there is only one way to get to this place. It is very easy to keep tight surveillance there, which was why many important figures used this place to rest and carry out private businesses.”

The head of the maids added quickly, “My lady, you came here for your vacation, which means that no one will question why you stay at the country house. The officials here won't complain because you will still be closer to Sitrin than when you lived in Yapa.”

While the vassal looked uncertain, the butler and the head of the maids seemed ready to take on this mission with efficiency and precision. They were clearly professionals in this field, and Poliana was impressed with them.

If you are sick, you should visit the doctor. If there is a war, you should call for the soldiers. If you need to have a bastard baby in secret, you should ask for help from the butler and the maids.

To the butler and the head of the maids, this was an easy task. Normally, something like this happened to the lady of the house, which meant that it was very difficult to hide things from the master of the house. In this case, Poliana was the owner of the castle and therefore, there was no need to keep this secret within the household.

When things were decided, the butler and the head of the maids left to get everything ready. The vassal, looking awkward and still shocked, was about to leave as well when Poliana stopped him.

“Stay a little while longer.”

“Yes, yes, my lady.”

Poliana discussed with him about forging the papers for herself. It wasn't a very difficult problem; the vassal reassured her not to worry about a thing. Falsifying documents was going to be easy. It was another matter that was going to be tricky. The vassal asked, “Mistress if it is a son, are you going to make him your heir?”

“I haven't decided yet.”

What will happen to the baby, whether it was a boy or a girl, was going to depend on how much the baby resembled the emperor. Poliana was not a fortune teller so she could not predict what her baby will look like. Even the best fortune-teller of the kingdom would find it hard to guess such a thing.

The vassal regained some of his calmness as they talked about paper works, which was his specialty. His eyes looked at Poliana intelligently as he suggested, “If you wish, you can have your baby be adopted by one of the vassals and make him your heir. This happens rather often, my lady. You can also have the baby be adopted by a noble family without its own heir. There are many options for you.”

Swallowing nervously, the vassal hesitated before asking a dreaded question, “And if the father isn't of blue blood…” He was risking his life by asking such a question, but there were going to be many things the vassal needed to take care of, which meant that he needed to know as much as possible about the situation.

“If the baby wasn't of blue blood, I would've never decided to keep it,” Poliana replied firmly.

In the kingdom, the high-born nobles were nicknamed the “blue blood.” This was because the nobles never worked outside, allowing their skin to remain pale and therefore making their veins look blue.

The truth was that everyone had red blood. It didn't matter if you were a commoner or a nobleman, and Poliana, as a knight, knew this very well.

Lucius the First liked the color red, but because it was considered the color of the commoners, he needed to come up with another color to represent him. Poliana believed that the color of the emperor's blood must be gold.

“Phew…”

The vassal sighed in relief at her answer, but Poliana certainly wasn't. If her baby wasn't of noble blood, she wouldn't have kept it. The problem here was, however, that the father of her child was too high born.

Chapter end