The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 19

Many of the knights vomited uncontrollably while some heaved, and ran out to get some water to rinse their mouths. The soldiers who were watching excitedly gasped in shock.

“Is the food poisoned?”

“Or maybe some food poisoning?”

“But none of the ingredients went bad! They were all new and fresh!”

“And it can’t be poison. We watched her cook the entire time!”

“So that must mean… it tastes like sh*t?!”

Sir Baufallo was one of the knights who threw up after taking a bite. With his hands shaking, he asked, “Did you do this on purpose?”

“No, Sir!”

She couldn’t feel any worse. With a trembling hand, Poliana took a bite herself. Everyone stared at her as she swallowed. Her eyes widened, she then looked around and announced, “This is perfectly edible.”

“What?”

Sir Baufallo took another bite and threw up immediately. Feeling confused, Poliana said to him earnestly, “Sir, this doesn’t have inedible components like bugs, dirt, rotten meat, corpse, or anything soiled. It is perfectly edible, and it won’t kill you.”

“But the goal of a meal isn’t to be just edible!”

Delicious food would increase their men’s morale significantly. Good quality food was just as important as plentiful supplies.

The knights who tried the food left in shock while the soldiers who were left behind to eat the stew remained in place angrily. Some soldiers tried it out of curiosity and had a similar reaction to the others who experienced it firsthand.

So in the end, Poliana offered to take responsibility.

“Sir, I will eat the whole thing.”

“Sir Poliana, did you lose your taste buds during your service? Are you unable to taste anything at all?”

“Not at all, sir!”

“Yet you are offering to eat that whole thing yourself?”

“I won’t throw it out. I will finish it.”

“… are you sure you will be ok?”

“I have eaten worse things, including a bread that was stepped on by others. I should be fine!”

“But you might get sick.”

“I will be ok!”

“Alright then. You can finish that pot of stew, Sir Poliana, and we will make a new pot for the soldiers. Donau!”

Donau came to his father quickly.

“Yes, sir!”

“You are the one who started this whole mess, so you will be the one who will fix it. Make everyone’s dinner, Donau, and you will also do the dishes yourself.”

“Father!?”

“You can use the spare pot. Let me know when it’s ready.”

Sir Baufallo grabbed some tea leaves and placed them in his mouth in an attempt to cleanse his tongue. The soldiers saw what had happened in the kitchen and left for now. They were upset that their dinner was going to be later than usual. Some, who were so hungry, tried a bite of Poliana’s stew and grimaced. They were so hungry, but they couldn’t stand her food.

The problem was that it had too much fat and spices. As soon as the dish hits their tongue, the oily taste of fat would spread throughout their mouth, only to be followed by the overwhelming taste of spices.

In the end, everyone left. Poliana was ready to keep her word. She poured a large bowl for herself while Donau glared at her. He filled the spare pot with water to boil. While waiting, he tried a spoonful of Poliana’s stew as well.

“How bad could it be… Blarrrggg.”

The stew smelled ok, so Donau took a bite but he ended up reacting the same way as his father did. He then yelled, “You made this? To eat?”

The pot containing the stew was made of thick metal. It would’ve hurt to kick it if one would have military boots, but Donau did it anyway. Poliana cracked her fingers when she saw this. Donau groaned as he held his foot in pain and on the other hand, Poliana wanted to push his head into the hot boiling stew and hold him down.

No matter how hard she thought, she knew that Donau has crossed the line. She decided to be patient just one last time where she warned him calmly, “This is the last time you will be allowed to disrespect me.”

“Ha! Like I would be scared of you! I can take you out easily. Let’s do this!”

“You are not a knight yet, which means that you have no right to fight me. But of course, I can teach you a lesson.”

“You aren’t a true knight either, b*tch!”

If this happened in Aehas, Poliana would have beat him up till all of his bones broke, but her current situation was a bit different. She was still new, and she didn’t want to cause any problems. This was especially important because she didn’t want her new emperor Lucius the First to be disappointed in her. This was the only reason she was being so unusually tolerant.

“Stop being stupid, Donau. I may not win against other knights, but I can certainly beat you up easily. I am an officer that was knighted personally by his highness. If you continue to show disrespect to me, I will have no choice but to punish you,” Poliana replied.

“I don’t believe you! I don’t believe his highness knighted you on purpose! You are lying about the whole thing or you did something strange to make it happen. You don’t look like a girl, so you probably hid your gender until you were knighted! Or maybe you begged like a coward until his highness felt sorry for you!”

“Do you think his highness knights everyone who begs for it?”

“The emperor would never do something like that, you b*tch!”

Poliana felt bored, so she began to eat her stew. It didn’t take her very long to empty her bowl and while watching her, Donau murmured, “You aren’t a girl. You are a pig! Blarrgg. I would never eat such garbage even if someone paid me to do it.”

The very first meal she received as a soldier, at the age of 14, was a piece of bread that had a clear footprint. At the time, the 14-year-old Poliana contemplated whether she should eat it or starve.

In the end, Poliana ate it. From then on, she had to eat much worse things. Food with dead bugs in it, water with some bastards’ spit, rotting meat and fruits, sour wine, and the list goes on. In fact, she drank some water recently that had Donau’s spit.

“I knew you threw some spit in my water,” Poliana said to him.

“Oh, now you are making stuff up to get me in trouble?”

“If you were so desperate to have me drink your fluids, then I guess I have nothing to say about it. But I will have to tell Sir Baufallo that his son has a strange fetish.”

Donau’s face crumpled into an ugly frown as Poliana continued, “Dirt, dust, bugs… I have eaten it all, you idiot. I don’t know if you have any hair down there yet but listen carefully Donau, I became a knight at the age of 14 and I have been in the army on active duty for the past 6 years. I may bleed between my legs as you said, but I still have more hair down there than you do.”

Donau turned red and screamed, “You B*TCH!!!”

He came after her, but before he could reach her, Donau fell to the ground. It was because a gauntlet hit him from behind.

“GYAAA!”

Donau shrieked in pain while Sir Baufallo came towards him and picked up the gauntlet. Sir Baufallo said to his son, “You will be responsible for everyone’s meal for a week. I apologize, Sir Poliana. I will make sure to teach him some manners.”

Only

Sir Baufallo kicked Donau, who yelped in pain. Poliana was no stranger to punching and kicking, and based on her observation, she knew that Sir Baufallo wasn’t putting too much force into his kicks.

“From now on, if your son causes any more problems, I would like to be the one who reprimands him, sir,” Poliana offered.

“Do not think of him as my son, Sir Poliana. He is a mere help, so you may do whatever you would like to him. Donau, listen carefully. Sir Poliana may be a woman, but she has been acknowledged by the emperor himself. What you just said and did to her was unacceptable.”

“If it wasn’t for this b*tch, I would’ve become a knight!” Donau argued.

“You idiot!”

Sir Baufallo began his lesson, and it was a lesson given by a father rather than a superior. Poliana knew when to butt out from family businesses, so she left quietly as she enjoyed Donau squealing in pain.

But before she left, she took a spoonful of Donau’s stew out of curiosity, and her eyes widened in shock.

It was delicious.