Chapter 134

Chapter 134

The First Division, headed by Sir Ainno, consisted of his hand-picked knights. He chose the men solely based on their skills. Sir Ainno did not consider any other normal qualities, including the men’s personalities, families, and ranks. This meant that the soldiers in the First Division were excellent fighters, but they had horrible personalities. This made Sir Mahogal’s life a living hell.

Poliana found it interesting that somehow, Sir Ainno ended up choosing only the men that were just like him.

Total jerks…

On the day of the officiating the knight’s order, Lucius the First smiled beautifully as he congratulated his friend. The emperor wished Sir Ainno his best but as soon as he saw the mascot for the knight’s order, the emperor’s smile disappeared.

The knight’s order was supposed to be represented by a dog to symbolize loyalty and bravery. The emperor expected to see a furry fluffy dog, but instead, it was a lizard! Lucius the First couldn’t believe what he saw. Did his friend betray him and change the mascot to this disgusting lizard?

“Where’s the dog?”

Lucius the First flinched in fear. The lizard was disgusting and huge, and the emperor wondered if it was a baby alligator. Then suddenly, the animal looked up and the face of a dog appeared. The emperor gasped in shock.

It turned out that it was actually a large dog wearing the alligator hide. Sir Ainno bragged, “It’s from the alligator I caught from the Msmel forest recently. I’ll call this an alligator dog! We, the knight’s order, will serve the emperor with the loyalty of a dog and the ferocity of an alligator.”

This was clearly done to make the emperor uncomfortable. Sir Ainno was such a jerk! Suddenly, everyone realized where Sir Ainno had been when he disappeared. He must’ve traveled to the Msmel forest to hunt an alligator.

Lucius the First frowned at Sir Ainno. He had to hide his fear of lizards, so he couldn’t say anything. Then, he saw the official knight’s order flag. It boasted of an alligator with the legs of a dog. It looked fierce and incredible.

The northerners who have never seen an alligator were impressed. The large sharp teeth, the impenetrable-looking hide, and the fearless eyes…

“What an extraordinary animal. It looks incredibly strong.”

“It is an amazing mascot! We have never seen anything like it before.”

Even the mid-continent locals and the southerners were amazed too.

“We have never seen such a huge alligator before.”

“Are you sure that it’s not a dragon?”

“It must be a dragon! It has to be!”

“How genius! To think of putting that hide over a dog…!”

Sir Ainno loved to tease the emperor, so he found it worth his time to spend day and night hunting in the Msmel forest. Sir Ainno remained serious and Lucius the First had no choice but to follow suit. He swore that later when they were alone, he would make Sir Ainno pay for his disgusting joke.

During the banquet, Poliana criticized Sir Ainno, “Don’t you think you went too far? You know how much his highness hates any kind of reptiles.”

“His highness has been even worse to me lately, so we’re even.”

Poliana had to agree to some extent because everyone has been very busy lately. When the emperor was overworked, everyone closest to him had to work even harder to keep up.

Of course, what Poliana didn’t know was that this wasn’t what Sir Ainno was talking about. He wasn’t complaining about the amount of work; Sir Ainno was unhappy about the fact that Lucius the First would not stop talking about Poliana to him. Sir Ainno was sick of the emperor whining about his hopeless love life. Sir Ainno, however, did not correct Poliana and let her know what was really going on. It was better that she didn’t know about it.

This was better for both Poliana and Lucius the First.

Sir Ainno looked at the emperor. Of all the women in the world, why did his friend fall for someone like Sir Poliana? He supposed it was none of his business. As long as Lucius the First didn’t confess to her, Poliana was never going to know how the emperor really felt about her.

‘Love is such a stupid thing.’

Love, feelings, and marriage. Sir Ainno couldn’t understand any of them. He looked around pensively. More and more men were getting married, and this was becoming a problem. Sir Ainno, who claimed that he would not get married until he was over 40 years old, was slowly beginning to realize that there were less and less unmarried men around him. He was becoming… alone. After work, there used to be plenty of men who could go out drinking with him and enjoy the town, but now, things were changing.

This was going to get worse once these men have babies. Once his men had their children, their lives would revolve around their families, not their friends.

***

Sir Mahogal and Poliana chatted about the upcoming marriages of Sir Howe and Donau.

“Sir Poliana, you must be very disappointed that you don’t get to attend the wedding.”

“It’s true, but I will send them lots of gifts.”

“Are you curious where they must be by now?”

“Well, they are probably moving slower than the soldiers, so they are probably…”

It was now common knowledge that Sir Howe and Donau became engaged to the Bika twins. The two families received lands from the emperor in the south and were in the process of moving. They were going to be married in their new home.

Poliana would’ve loved to attend their wedding, but it was too far. This was especially a bad time because she was swarmed with so much work.

Sir Ainno was also disappointed that Sir Howe was gone. Although Sir Howe could be lazy, he was an excellent knight. Now that he was gone, Sir Ainno had to find another decent knight to fill his spot in the knight’s order. On top of this bad news, Sir Mahogal was planning to retire some time soon in the future. He actually wanted to retire immediately, but Sir Ainno wouldn’t allow it until he was able to find his replacement.

Most of the royal or imperial guards came from influential noble families, which meant that these knights retired early. The purpose of becoming a royal guard for these young men was to further their government career and influence as a nobleman. These guards rarely saw their positions as permanent or long-term jobs. After all, they came from wealthy powerful families, so there was no need for them to slave their lives away in the guard unit.

Most retired before they turned 40. Only those who were poor or from a family of generations of knights remained in the military longer.

Sir Ainno turned towards the emperor again.

‘Gosh, I’m getting a headache.’

He saw that Lucius the First was chatting with some of the noblemen while furtively glancing at Poliana whenever he got a chance. No one seemed to notice this except for Sir Ainno.

Sir Mahogal was married with children. He had a decent marriage and Poliana was clearly not interested in him. She didn’t even see Sir Mahogal as a man, yet the emperor looked at them with obvious jealousy. Sir Ainno could tell what the emperor was thinking, and he shook his head in exasperation.

At the beginning of the banquet, Sir Ainno felt guilty about scaring the emperor with the alligator dog, but now, he didn’t feel sorry for Lucius the First at all.