The Emperor And The Knightess

Donau replied angrily, "That can"t be!" Frustrated, he tried to take his hands out from the twin"s grasps, but they were too strong. He had no chance against them.

The ladies then asked, "Why couldn"t it be?"

"Are you not allowed to like her?"

Donau then replied, "There is no way I like Sir Pol like that! It can"t be because…"

"But you spent a lot of time with her, right?"

"And you know each other very well."

"It makes sense that you would feel deeply for her."

"It"s not strange at all."

"My ladies! That isn"t true! I like her only as a sister and as my superior. It is more like respect than anything."

Donau felt anxious to convince the twins that he wasn"t in love with Poliana. He needed to prove that he didn"t have romantic feelings for her, so he began to tell them the history between him and Poliana.

Things that happened between them, the times he spent with her, how he thought of her; he told them about everything they went through together.

In the beginning, when they first met, Donau was a bratty young man, but now, he was a proper knight just like Poliana. They were friends and he considered her his family, which meant that there couldn"t be any romance between them.

Vaxi and Vanessa listened to him carefully and immediately, they knew that Donau was only making cowardly excuses.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Sir Donau, but…"

"It sounds like you are telling us that you aren"t allowed to love Sir Poliana."

"Why can"t you? Why is it not allowed?"

"That"s right. Why can"t you love Sir Poliana?"

The girls were now focused not on the question of whether he was in love with Poliana, but why he thought he wasn"t allowed to love her. Donau tried to answer them angrily, but suddenly, he couldn"t speak. His lips and tongue refused to work. Watching him becoming speechless, Vaxi and Vanessa consoled him, "How sad, Sir Donau. You didn"t even know how you truly felt about her."

"You didn"t even know you were in love with her, Sir Donau."

Donau"s face turned into a sad frown as he realized the truth. Slowly, he began to confess, "I guess… I guess I thought I would become a burden to her… I would make her feel uncomfortable…"

Why did it take him so long to figure this out? Donau felt so embarra.s.sed that he wanted to hide. It took the twin"s intense questioning for him to realize his own feelings.

Donau was in love with Poliana Winter. He loved her as a family, his superior, a fellow knight, and as a woman.

It wasn"t important when he fell in love with her. What troubled him was why he thought he would be a burden to her if he fell in love with her.

Why would a man loving a woman be a burden? Why?

Donau thought that perhaps he felt this way because he witnessed how hard Poliana worked to be acknowledged as a knight. He thought that feeling this kind of love for her meant that he saw her as a woman, and that would be an insult to Poliana, who tried so hard to be recognized as a knight rather than just a woman. Donau believed that confessing his love to her would make Poliana think he didn"t accept her as a knight.

Donau then murmured, "I thought she would be offended if she knew… I think that is why…"

"That doesn"t make sense, Sir Donau."

"I agree, Sir Donau."

Shaking their heads, Vaxi and Vanessa said to Donau at the same time, "No one would take the feeling of love as an insult or a burden. As long as it is not forced on them, such a feeling would flatter anyone. Sir Donau, you need to remember that Sir Poliana may be a knightess, but she is also a lady."

Indeed, Poliana Winter was a woman. Poliana Winter was also a knight. Donau spent so much time by her side, but he had never seen Poliana as both. The result of his mistake was an angry "no" from Poliana. He was rejected and he had no excuse for it. He was indeed guilty and deserved to be in prison.

He should"ve realized and accepted his feelings for her before proposing to her. Instead, he ended up proposing to her first. He made a huge mistake.

Donau became very pale, but he also became hopeful. He exclaimed, "I should go confess my feelings to her! It"s not too late!"

He needed to fix this situation. Poliana clearly misunderstood his intention, and he needed to let her know the truth. He needed to do it as soon as possible because the more time pa.s.sed, the harder it would be to convince Poliana about his true feelings.

Donau tried to stand up, and the twins looked at him sadly.

"It"s too late, Sir Donau."

"That"s right, Sir Donau. It"s too late."

"Pardon?"

Donau looked at the ladies in confusion, and the sisters explained to the young man kindly.

"Your father, Sir Baufallo, sent official marriage proposal papers to our father."

"And our father accepted, which means that we are officially engaged."

This was how they were allowed to visit Donau in prison. Vaxi and Vanessa continued, "Proposing to another woman is fine before you are officially engaged, but…"

"But you must realize that proposing to another woman after you are engaged wouldn"t be a good idea, right?"

Vaxi and Vanessa smiled like angels, and Donau felt a sudden chill. He tried again to pull his hands out from their grasps, but all of his strength was not enough to free him. He stared at Sir Rabi"s daughters, who had the same strong and loud voices as their fathers.

And suddenly, Sir Donau realized that the ladies, one of them now his fiancé, inherited more than just their father"s boisterous voice.