The Emperor And The Knightess

Following Lucius the First"s order, Sir Deke explored the southern regions before stopping at the viceroy"s official residence. The viceroy, who controlled the entire southern region, Sir Rabi, welcomed Sir Deke with open arms. Sir Rabi was genuinely happy to see Sir Deke. It has been a very long time since he got a visitor from the capital. He was also very fond of all of the Ingreter brothers.

The Bika family offered to throw a banquet in honor of the guest from Yapa, but Sir Deke declined it since he needed to do a lot of work here. Unlike in the northern and mid-continent region, there weren"t many intelligence agents Sir Deke could rely on, which meant that he had to do the work himself. It was an annoying situation, but it could not be helped.

Thankfully, the southern region has been very quiet lately. After the incident with d.u.c.h.ess Nani, who was thrown out from the Yapa castle by Lucius the First, there was a concern that the colony, Nanikun, might cause problems, but nothing happened. Instead, the people of Nanikun mourned the death of Lady Rebecca and prayed for the health of Princess Luminae. The people of other southern colonies felt the same way.

There was also a big interest in who would become the next wife of the emperor to replace Lady Rebecca. Everyone expected it to be a lady from the south again. There was still a rumor that the emperor preferred middle-aged women, but other than that, things were relatively quiet. Many n.o.ble ladies of the south secretly felt expectant, hoping that they could become the next wife of the emperor.

After Sir Deke was done doing his research in the south, he readied himself to return to Yapa, but before he did, he dropped by the Viceroy"s house one last time. Although he didn"t want a huge banquet in his honor, he still wanted to become the Bika family"s guest. When the war was over and many of the knights ended up staying as guests of Sir Rabi, Sir Deke heard that these men were treated luxuriously. He wasn"t one of the guests at the time because he was away with his brothers Sir Aeke and Sir Beke, which made him feel envious and curious, so he wanted to become one now. He wanted to experience the luxury of being a Bika family guest. It was also considered a great honor to be a guest of Sir Rabi and his family.

The entire Bika family welcomed him. Sir Donau, who was about the same age as Sir Deke, was especially happy to see his old friend. They spent a lot of time together during the war and they became close friends at the time. It has been a very long time since they last saw each other.

Sir Deke joked, “You"re being too nice to me, Donau. If you think you are going to get something from me, you"re going to be disappointed. I have nothing, so stop being so nice.”

“What are you talking about? I am really happy to see you, that"s all. Don"t be such a jerk.”

“How is life in the south by the way?”

“Pretty good, except for the summer; it"s too hot here. I miss the north sometimes.”

The family of the viceroy and the Ribo family both lived in their official residence. Sir Baufallo was the landlord of the adjacent land, but Sir Rabi offered to live together since his residence was so big. In truth, Sir Rabi just wanted to be close to his twin daughters so he could watch out for them. The in-laws ended up living together as one big family.

Sir Howe was happy to live with Sir Rabi, who he idolized, and Sir Donau was ok with the situation as well since he got to live with all of his family. Although, being surrounded by family and relatives all the time could be a little overwhelming sometimes; this was why Donau was happy to see a new face.

Sir Donau asked, “Did you get to check out the road conditions? Are you done all of your work?”

“Yes, it seems like all the roads are in good condition. They"re very cleanly made, and it was much better than the ones in the mid-continent. I don"t think there is much to worry about.”

The official reason for Sir Deke"s visit was to check on the roads. It was a plausible excuse since the emperor was indeed planning on uniting the entire kingdom with well-built roads. For easy imports and exports among the colonies, solid accessible roads were necessities. This was his big plan for the future.

Sir Deke made sure to always carry a map, telling everyone he was just checking on the roads. Thus, no one suspected that he was there for another reason. He also marked the map of any roads that needed to be repaired so it looked even more convincing.

Sir Donau replied, “Of course, my father-in-law is the viceroy, after all. He"s very thorough in taking care of everything. He is an excellent landlord.”

“Wow!”

Sir Deke exclaimed and added, “You sound so natural calling him your ‘father-in-law!"”

“…”

Sir Donau looked away in embarra.s.sment while Sir Deke laughed. It was so nice to see Sir Donau looking comfortable and happy in his new life. It was clear that Donau was content.

Sir Deke had nothing to do until dinner, so he decided to walk around the residence. The truth was, one of his purposes here was to find out the general atmosphere of the Viceroy"s residence. It was obvious that the emperor was right in trusting Sir Rabi with such an important job. Sir Deke could see that Sir Rabi"s residence was well-kept and well-run. All the works were done efficiently, and everyone seemed generally satisfied here.

Then suddenly, Sir Deke screamed when he saw a strange creature on the ground.

“Arrggh! What the heck! What is that?”

He almost fell to the ground from the shock of it. Sir Deke took a step back and took a careful look at the animal. To his surprise, he realized that it was a dog. But it was not the kind of dog he knew. The dog"s face had similar features as the northern dogs, but the animal had no hair on its body. It looked like a duck or a chicken without any feathers.

What surprised him, even more, was the fact that there were similar looking creatures on the ground all over the place. Most were underneath the tree in a shade or lying against cold stones. It seemed that these animals were trying to keep themselves cool.

“What the heck!”

Bardo Bika, who was walking alongside Sir Deke, explained, “The dogs and the cats were not doing well with the heat here, so we shaved them.”

Thinking about the luxurious hair the northern dogs usually have to fight against the Acreian cold, Sir Deke felt pity towards these dogs. His eyes began to tear up a little, so he quickly turned away and headed towards the dining room where the dinner was about to begin.