The Emperor and the Knightess

Chapter 6

Poliana’s base was surrounded by what appeared to be Acreian soldiers. Some Aehas soldiers were able to escape.

A military corps was a single unit, and in battles, the size of a corps was proportional to its power. Mid-sized corps were stronger than those who were small, and a large unit was obviously more powerful than the two. A complete mid-sized corps was stronger than a large but dispersed corps.

When she realized her base was under a sudden attack, she immediately ordered the soldiers under her command to retreat. She has done this before when she sensed that they would be defeated, so she chose to act quickly to save herself and her men.

Thanks to her quick decision, only her soldiers were the ones who were able to escape. Including herself, there were about 20 of them.

In 6 years, Poliana and her men survived many times because of her tactics, but this time, it didn’t end as well as she had hoped. There were too many of her enemies and they had no allies nearby who could come to their rescue. In fact, Poliana suspected most, if not all of the other Aehas bases must’ve been captured as well by now.

Probably Kukda’s military bases too.

“Ha! I told you so.”

It seemed that Acreia was smart in waiting for Aehas and Kukda to be weakened from a useless war. Now, it was going to be easy for Acreia to conquer two nations. Poliana knew that her country had no future, but she didn’t expect it to be destroyed like this.

She sighed and scratched her head when suddenly, one of her soldiers came to her and asked, “Boss, what should we do now?”

She looked at him and the other soldiers in surprise. It felt strange for these men, who have clearly despised her for so many years, to suddenly look up to her as their leader. It was strange that they followed her orders to retreat despite the fact that she was recently demoted. She no longer had the right to command these men and yet, they followed her anyway. She felt thankful for it for some reason.

Her superiors saw her escape, and so, he ordered her to help him escape by contacting the headquarters but that was not possible anymore. She had no doubt that all Aehas and Kukda bases were in same situation.

Poliana now had to figure out what to do for herself and her men. They escaped to the forest, and the only way for them to survive was to move deeper into the grove. If they continued to run, they will tire themselves out soon and they would either be captured or die fighting for their freedom. Even if for some odd luck they avoided their enemies, they were in the middle of winter and it was clear that they would eventually freeze to death if they didn’t do anything.

Poliana looked at his men. Some were older and some were much younger than her.

She had seen many soldiers in her time. Men who sneaked into her tent in an attempt to rape her, men who refused to take her order because she was a woman, some who urinated in front of her to embarrass her and some men who dared her to pee in front of them as a condition for their obedience.

And many men who watched all these things happen to her and didn’t do anything about it.

These were horrible men, but somehow, six years of time have created an odd understanding between these men and Poliana. In fact, there were occasions when new recruits disrespected her and some of these men stopped it out of strange loyalty to her as their leader. An unwanted leader, of course, but she’s still their boss.

Her men were often the subjects of other soldiers’ ridicules because they were taking orders from a woman and Poliana knew about this.

Poliana realized that despite everything, she cared about them.

“I will become the bait and give you a chance to escape. Go out of this forest and pass through the enemy soldiers and head towards the capital,” she blurted out.

“No, we can’t let you do that!”

“Boss, there must be another way!”

Poliana took a deep breath and continued, “I know this area better than any of you, and besides, I am of noble birth. They will be more interested in capturing me than trying to get you guys. They will capture me so they can get a ransom. I’m sure that they won’t kill me right away.”

“But you are different than the other knights,” one soldier pointed out the obvious and she became irritated because of it.

“I’m sure that these knights will be honorable and chivalrous towards a defenseless captive. Besides, who would want me as a woman? I mean, look at me.”

“Oh, that’s true,”

SLAP!

Poliana took care of the rude soldier and ordered her men to run. The simple and stupid ones all believed her words and they ran towards the direction she suggested.

Once she was sure that they left, Poliana sat down weakly.

‘Idiots. Do they really think I would be safe?’

If she was captured at the time of their attack, perhaps she may have been spared, but she wasn’t, and in fact, she escaped them a few times as they ran. Their enemies knew this and of course, she knew that they would make an example out of her.

If she was a high-ranking noble or even a high-ranking officer, she would’ve had a better chance, but Poliana was a nobody. In fact, she didn’t plan to ask someone for a ransom.

The only thing Poliana depended on at this point was her appearance. Unless someone forced her to take her armor off, no one would be able to tell that she was a woman. Her hair was still very short, and although her voice and face looked feminine, they would assume that she was just a delicate-looking man. No one would think about a woman taking command while carrying her sword and armor.

She knew that she would be executed, but as long as her enemies didn’t realize her gender, they won’t rape her and shame her any further. She knew that they were going to find out once she died, but that wasn’t her problem. She would be dead and therefore, she wouldn’t feel anything.

She only cared about what was going to happen to her before her death. What would happen to her corpse was not of her concern.

‘Oh well, my death can’t be helped. All I can do is to make sure they don’t suspect that I am a woman.’

Poliana briefly thought that it would’ve been better if she died honorably, for example during a battle but she quickly realized that it didn’t matter. Whether she died with honor or be executed in front of a crowd, it won’t change a thing.

Death was just that and her honor would mean nothing if she’s dead.

Poliana sighed again and put on her helmet again.

Only

‘I’m so tired now.’

There was no future for her or for her country. Her life didn’t have any meaning which meant that continuing to live was going to bring her only pain and confusion.

A life without a meaning or a goal…

There was no point, besides, she was so sick of being despised just because of her gender.

Poliana finally accepted her fate. She was ready for her death. Trying so hard all of her life without a purpose made her tired.

Thus, it was now time for her to rest…

…and she deserved it.