The Emperor and the Knightess

Story 5: Initiation

Chapter 38

The Acreian army continued on strong.

The enemy military focused on defending its northern border, but it was clear that the Bebero officials were in a state of panic. When they had the Koemong River protecting their border, they felt comfortable.

But not anymore.

Bebero was defeated much more easily than Aehas and Kukda. Lucius the First demanded its king to surrender and it was given immediately. Finally, Lucius the First became the ruler of the entire northern region.

Poliana still belonged to the supply division. She was responsible for organizing the supplies, keeping counts of everything, and ordering it. She was kept very busy; she barely had time to eat lunch every day.

Before crossing the river and conquering Bebero, it was easy to receive some supplies from Acreia. Whatever they needed more of could be brought from Aehas and Kukda easily by land.

But from Bebero, it was more difficult because of the Koemong River. Transporting the supplies by ships was costly, both in manpower and time. This was going to get worse as they moved further down south, which meant that they needed to stock Bebero with resources very well.

Luckily, Bebero was a wealthier kingdom than Aehas and Kukda. They had plenty of food and supplies that were needed on a daily basis. But this plentifulness also meant that Poliana and Sir Baufallo were busier than ever. They needed to count and record everything.

Poliana felt nauseous from the nonstop work. She had to stack everything in an organized manner and to get it done on time, she had to work through the night. Her eyes were getting so tired that they became blurry. She didn’t even notice the other knights gathering around her.

The knights have been ignoring her all this time, but now, they were waiting for her to turn towards them. When one of them coughed to get her attention, she finally looked up and greeted tiredly, “Hello there.”

Her voice was faint and weak, but ignoring it, the knights suddenly grabbed her arm. This finally got her attention.

Poliana’s eyes widened as she screamed, “What do you think you are doing?!”

Before she could stop them, they began to drag her away.

She was being kidnapped.

The knights grabbed all of her limbs and began to walk. Poliana was about to fight back when suddenly, she noticed Sir Donau being taken away nearby in the same manner.

The knights took Poliana and Sir Donau to a random room in the Bebero castle.

Donau’s mouth was gagged, and when the cloth was removed and he was able to speak, Sir Donau screamed, “Why are you doing this to us?” Suddenly, one of the knights grabbed his hair and pulled his head back roughly. Before Donau could even attempt to fight back, a gush of alcohol rushed into his mouth.

“Hahaha!”

“Hehehe! YES!”

A torrent of evil laughs filled the dim room. Sir Donau, now covered in alcohol, shook his body to get away from it. Most of the alcohol ended up in his nose rather than down his throat. His nose turned bright red.

Sir Donau coughed and yelled, “ARRGG! W-what are you d-doing?!”

Suddenly, the room became bright and Poliana saw that there were even more knights present than she had expected. It appeared that most of them were waiting here for her and Sir Donau. They were all smiling evilly, looking like immoral pirates.

What the knights wanted wasn’t money or Poliana and Donau’s lives. They wanted to “welcome” the new knights into the group.

It’s their initiation ritual.

One of the knights chuckled and explained, “Welcome, hahaha! I suppose you guys have never been initiated yet?”

“We are in the middle of a war! Don’t you see how inappropriate and wasteful this is?!” Donau argued.

“Hahaha, it can’t be helped. You must go through this.”

Donau continued to protest. These were his brother’s and his father’s friends, colleagues and acquaintances. He believed that he could convince them otherwise. Poliana thought about saying something herself, but she decided against it. She knew it wasn’t going to change anything. If she remained quiet, perhaps they would focus more on Donau.

The knights laughed at Sir Donau. With a knowing grin, one of them replied, “His highness has given us permission already! He is fine with it!”

“Let’s get more alcohol and get them to chug it! Chug, chug!”

Donau couldn’t believe what he just heard. He then insisted, “You are lying! His highness would never allow something like this!”

Donau, still in disbelief, attempted to escape, but he was caught and brought back quickly. As a bonus, he was kicked a few times to teach him a lesson.

Just then, someone familiar stepped forward.

“Hmm.”

To Poliana’s surprise, it was Sir Bentier! Donau saw him as well, and his eyes were filled with relief. Poliana felt the same way. They both thought that Sir Bentier was here to stop this shenanigan.

But Sir Bentier pointed at hopeful Donau and ordered, “Tie him up so he can’t escape again.”

‘Dammit!’

Poliana swore silently. Sir Bentier has been acting all high and mighty, but it seemed that he was in on this stupid ritual as well. She knew there was nothing she could do to stop this, so she gave up escaping altogether. If Sir Bentier was here, it must’ve been true that Lucius the First allowed this.

While Donau was being tied up, the knights brought a military boot filled with alcohol to Poliana. The boot looked disgustingly dirty and Poliana contemplated with a frown. Knowing there was no other way, she began to drink from it and thought to herself, ‘Alcohol is basically a disinfectant so it’s going to be ok.’ She kept repeating this thought inside of her head as if to brainwash herself. Fighting intense nausea, she continued to drink. The men around her cheered loudly.

“Chug, chug, chug!”

The hard liquor burned her nose, mouth, and throat. When she finished it like she was drinking water, her insides began to burn as well. She hasn’t had much sleep well, so with so much alcohol in her system, she couldn’t think clearly. Her body didn’t feel like it was her own.

The knights brought her a plate of some food. They clapped her shoulder familiarly and explained, “We should have done this for you when you first became an Acreian knight, but it never happened. So we thought we should make it up to you and do it now since we have to do it for Sir Donau too.”

“Thank you,” Poliana replied weakly.

One positive thing was that Donau was treated worse than her. He was only a personal help before recently becoming a knight, so the men must’ve felt more comfortable bullying him than her. The worst of them was unsurprisingly Sir Howe, Donau’s older brother. He brought a funnel from somewhere and continued to force Donau to drink.

Poliana was becoming worried. ‘This could kill him…’

She has witnessed many times in the past where soldiers died from alcohol poisoning. She was about to ask the men to stop when suddenly, Sir Rabi noticed her and yelled, “Get us another funnel!”

Poliana knew that she should keep her mouth shut. She probably was going to need more help than Donau at this point. After all, Sir Howe was present and was never going to let his own brother die.

Sir Rabi filled another boot with liquor and handed it to her.

“Here you go, Sir Poliana! Special drink just for you!”

“Chug! Chug! Chug!”

The knights cheered loudly again, and weakly, Poliana emptied it.

“WAAA!”

She couldn’t tell what was in the drink, but whatever it was, it tasted horrible. To stop herself from vomiting, she began to eat the food placed in front of her.

When another bootful of alcohol was given to Donau, he screamed, “I can’t drink anymore!”

“Then you must sing!”

“That’s right! Sing! Sing! Sing!”

Poliana suddenly remembered the time when Donau didn’t want his wine to be watered. He must be missing that moment right now.

Sir Donau, looking dreadful, was forced to stand in front of everyone. To avoid drinking, he began to sing. Unfortunately, he was going through his puberty, and the voice that came out of him was ghastly. When he was done, he was punished with more drinks.

Only

Now, it was Poliana’s turn. The knights threatened her that if she didn’t sing, she was never going to leave this place. When she explained that she didn’t know any songs, the men argued, “Liar! You are lying! Drink! Drink!”

“I really don’t know! The only song I know is the Aehas military song!”

“Hmmm…”

For Poliana, the knights began to sing the Acreian military songs. They sang the marching song and the victory song. They were all horrible singers, but when they were done, Poliana clapped.

To her, Sir Rabi grinned and handed her another drink.

“Sir Poliana, I am afraid that these songs aren’t free. You must pay by drinking this.”

“…”

She wondered if she would be able to survive this night.