The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 130

“Oh, you’re finally awake, Sir Donau!”

“We were so worried, Sir Donau!”

“Sir Howe! Your brother is awake! Come!”

Donau looked at the twins in surprise. He murmured, “How… How did you ladies come here…?”

Donau could feel Vaxi and Vanessa holding his hands. This was definitely not a dream. He saw his older brother appear as well.

Sir Howe wanted to punch his younger brother, but he was in the presence of two important ladies. He controlled himself and asked Donau in his fake worried tone, “Are you ok, my brother?”

Donau felt nauseous listening to his brother’s fake gentlemanly behavior. The twins, however, didn’t notice anything. They said anxiously, “Maybe we need to get the healer.”

“You don’t look so good, Sir Donau!”

Sir Howe jumped and announced, “I will go get a healer right away, my ladies!” He obviously was still doing his best to make a good impression on the girls. Donau was impressed at what kind of effect the ladies had on his older brother. Sir Howe and Donau shared the same look since they were brothers, but their personalities were very different. Sir Howe was sneaky and lazy without appearing so. He knew how to get out of work he didn’t want to do and yet, in front of these ladies, Sir Howe seemed eager to work.

Donau always was annoyed at his brother’s cunning mind, and he was always envious of how talented Sir Howe was with his sword. What annoyed Donau the most, however, was how he could never hate his older brother because no matter how much Sir Howe teased and bullied him, he was also the one who supported him the most.

Initially, Sir Baufallo was not planning to take Donau as his personal help to the war. The Ribo family was not wealthy, so it was going to be very hard to support both of their sons to become knights. On top of that, Donau did not show as much talent as his older brother with his sword. Donau was more suited to become an administrator, so his father suggested that he should give up becoming a knight.

It was Sir Howe who came to Donau’s rescue. Sir Howe convinced his father that they should do whatever it took to make Donau’s dream come true, even if they went into debt. Sir Howe promised that he would make it big and pay back everything for their family.

The twins offered Donau a drink. “Please drink this, we brought it for you.”

Vaxi watered down the wine a little and gave the cup to Donau while Vanessa wiped Donau’s face with a wet cloth. Donau knew that these ladies shouldn’t be here. They weren’t allowed in here. He then asked, “How were you able to get here?”

This question had two meanings. One was the fact that high born ladies weren’t allowed in such a place. Secondly, the marriage arrangement wasn’t complete yet. It wasn’t even official, which meant that the ladies should not be visiting a random young knight like this. It was especially the case because even unofficially, the marriage was being planned only between Sir Howe and one of the twins.

Unmarried ladies visiting young men in a jail cell… This could damage their reputations.

Vaxi and Vanessa smiled prettily and replied, “We heard Sir Howe planned to visit you today, so we begged him to let us go with him.”

“This was our only chance to ever see the underground jail cell, so we insisted on coming!”

Most ladies would never want to visit a place like this. The underground jail was filthy. The edges of their long dresses were already soiled, and the place was crawling with cockroaches and other bugs. Even Donau sometimes retched at the smell, but it seemed that the twins didn’t even notice it.

Donau decided that perhaps he had been wrong about these girls. They were definitely not like the other ladies he knew. He said to them, “Your dresses are getting ruined. Thank you so much for visiting me, and now, I think it’s time for you to leave…”

“It’s fine, we can wash them later.”

“And if they still smell after being laundered, we can just throw them away.”

The twins were here for a reason. They both grabbed Donau’s dirty hands and whispered, “We heard why you were imprisoned.”

“We heard you proposed to Sir Poliana!”

“Oh…”

Donau finally realized what was going on. He had to apologize to them. Feeling a bit awkward, he tried to pull his hands out from their grasps but for some reason, he couldn’t.

‘Huh?’

Donau was surprised, but he tried to calm down. Perhaps he must’ve been much more tired than he thought. Why else would he not be able to escape the twin’s holds?

Donau asked for another sip of water and Vaxi quickly offered him a bottle. After a big gulp, Donau said to them, “I apologize, my ladies.”

The marriage talk wasn’t official yet, but still, both parties were aware of it. The fact that Donau proposed to another woman when he fully knew about the talk between Sir Rabi and his father, was unforgivable. He was being disrespectful to his potential future wife, who was standing right in front of him.

But Vaxi and Vanessa shook their heads eagerly. It seemed that they didn’t care at all about what he did.

“Not at all, Sir Donau. We understand why you did it.”

“No one thinks badly of you, Sir Donau.”

“In fact, everyone is very proud of you. We are all impressed.”

“Even our grandfather praised you.”

This made sense. Everyone, especially the elderly, liked to hear about upstanding loyal young men. Donau’s proposal was considered a refreshing and wonderful story and everyone was talking about it. Sir Rabi laughed and said he understood why Donau did it because he knew how men talked inappropriately about women. Lady Bika also didn’t think much of it, saying that a young man could be rash sometimes.

Vaxi and Vanessa, on the other hand, were very curious.

“So she refused you?”

“Oh, no! But you meant well!”

“Why couldn’t you say you liked her when she asked you?”

“I know! Even if it was a lie, you should’ve said yes.”

Donau contemplated deeply. He knew the right answer would’ve been to tell Poliana that he liked her, even if it was a lie, but he didn’t say anything, he couldn’t.

When he looked pensive, the twins asked, “Is it because you hate Sir Poliana?”

“You hate her so much that you couldn’t even lie?”

Sir Donau immediately rejected that idea.

“That’s not it at all. Why would I hate my adopted sister?!”

The girls then asked, “Then why couldn’t you answer her?”

“That’s right! Why couldn’t you answer her?”

“Well, even if you tell us, Sir Donau, it’s too late.”

“That’s right, Sir Donau. Even if you tell us, it’s too late for us to relay the message to Sir Poliana.”

Donau decided to tell them the truth. He explained that he did like Poliana, but only as an adopted sister and as his superior. He couldn’t answer Poliana at the time because he didn’t like her as a woman.

The twins had strange expressions on their faces. Donau asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Only

“Do men usually propose to a woman they don’t even like just because she was insulted?”

“Do men get angry when a woman they don’t even like get insulted?”

Donau replied quickly, “As I said before, I only like Sir Poliana as a superior. I respect her, and that is all.”

“Sir Donau… I don’t know how to tell you this…”

“That’s right… Sir Donau… This is awkward, but we think that you are very confused about your own feelings.”

“Based on your behavior, it is very clear that you are in love with Sir Poliana, Sir Donau.”

“That’s right… You love Sir Poliana, didn’t you know that?”