The Knight and Her Emperor - Ch. 31

[Hyuuga_ryuu]

It's better to die than to be raped/enslaved later, poor naive princess, even tho she's innocent. She's still a royal.😔

 

[Tatotato]

Idk why people are expecting any of the characters to have ideal morals, are we forgetting that Lucius did start a war out of nowhere? Regardless of the cause, wars always end with bloodshed. Are we forgetting that he called for Paulina's execution until she proved herself to be exceptionally useful? Despite everything he is, he is still an emperor and the one who's running this entire war. He had no reason to spare who he considered a very skilled enemy. It makes a lot of sense for him to end the entire royal blood line, she could have just been used as a pawn to start a coop to reclaim the throne. And he evidently does not want that.

None of the characters who attempted to rape Paulina have been punished either, they were only punished by Paulina herself in her attempts to defend herself. Which is also obviously why Paulina killed the princess herself, so that that she doesn't suffer anymore than this. There was no way that Lucius would have let her keep her luxurious life style, there's no need for a princess who's father attempted to end his life. There was no way anyone on the emperor's side would protect the princess either, she has no value to the emperor, only a source of problems in the future and not to mention those are the same people who tried to get rid of Paulina as fast as possible until Lucius went: No.

 

[Secuthar]

@Yserieh Then why was he going to spare the royalty in the first place? Until the attempted assassination executions and raping weren't in their future. And if I show up to your house and kill you, is that nice? Just because I didn't do worse and torture and rape you? No! So why is it nice now? Throwing her out to the sharks to be raped and killing her weren't the only two options there. And again the "she's a threat to his claim for the throne" would have applied before the assassination attempt as well, but he was willing to let them live then. Her death was a direct punishment for her father's actions. And it's a complete 180 on the attempt to sanitize war and keep things generally fairly lighthearted.

The fact that worse can be done doesn't change how bad what was done is. And trying to frame it as a kindness or a good thing is extremely fucked up. It doesn't matter if worse has been done even in the real world. It's still fucked up.

 

[Amarrez]

The killing/assisted suicide is more of a reflection on Lucius than it is on Paulina, the only two choices she had in this matter was to walk away or 'help'. If she defied the Emperor over something like this (which would honestly be a little out of character), she'd be the next one forced to fall on her sword (or worse).

Unfortunately, I'm also certain that this will be handwaved and forgotten about in like a chapter's time. Or if there is any 'blame' in the narrative, it will undeservedly fall on Paulina's shoulders instead of Lucius'.

 

[berryoragami]

That ended much faster than expected
Thanks for the chapter!

 

[unime]

That action scenes always happen so fastttttttt like... It is because the source material didnt elaborate or is it just the style ? I dont know if I can get use to this
Many thanks

 

[AEnigmatrix]

I think I can sympathize with the droppers on this one. The tone we've seen so far has been pretty, well, mild. So a dark implication like this ought to put a spike in the flavor. As for me, gotta agree with Lucius taking care of this loose end. There is a valid reason for the princess to hold a grudge against him for killing her father, @Secuthar . It's a ruthless and efficient way to handle the issue, and something I wouldn't even hesitate as well if I'm playing Crusader Kings II in his shoes.

A more expensive way would be to shelter her and make sure that no dissidents get hold of her and use her as justification for a rebellion. The usual, idealized way is having Pauliana take on the burden of keeping an eye on the princess and adopt her, maybe making her a squire or something. Maybe she'll even lead her own cadre of female-only knights, but that's just my fantasy speaking.

 

[BanditHadron]

Ruthless!

Excellent

 

[Ulgan]

@Sechutar
he was willing to let them leave since the king proposed a "peaceful" solution. When that solution went down the drain and he was actually betrayed by the king (an host trying to kill is guests has always been a pretty bad thing) it was clear that he couldn't trust him or his family anymore, hence killing them was the most practical solution.
And what Pauliand did WAS merciful, the emperor ordered the princess to kill herself, so helping her doing it in a clean and non painful way is an act of mercy.
Trying to save her would only have been seen as an act agains the emperor and don't forget that she still has almost all the high ranking officers and soldiers against her, so not really an option.
And as someone else already said, we already know that the emperor is not an all righteous character: he started a war out of nowhere just 'cause it was advantageous to his side, he was ready to kill the main characeter just 'cause she is a woman (he ask her to be his knight, then realize she's a woman and order his soldier to kill her), the whole continent wages war only during winter but he disregard that rule and simply continue with his campaign so what he did is totally not out of character.

 

[Cynic]

Lots of conclusion jumpers around these parts. Welp, we'll see if these commenters really do jump off the series if *this* is the catalyst. We don't know for sure what happened or why and even then there is historical precedent for what people *think* happened.

 

[spandxltd]

@Secuthar He was going to give them a good amount of land and be done with it. You can't toss out royalty if said royalty hasn't done anything to you. People would be wary of an emperor who threw out a king who
1)Agreed to a bloodless takeover.
2)Went through with his promises.
3)Hosted a banquet for the king he lost to.

However, that changes when the deposed king tries to run you through. Then you strip him of his land and kill him. Of course, there will be people who say that you arranged the entire thing and then made up a convenient story.

Either they will grab a hold of a penniless princess and use her, or someone will buy the princess quietly and then keep her for their personal amusement and have a bunch of children from her to use.. Either way she's now dangerous.

 

[heml8ck]

I have no problem with this plot development, the only reason I’d consider dropping the series is because the male lead is fucking weird looking. Get a better haircut sir, lol

 

[roxanneayy]

How bloody but inevitable since the stupid king was selfish enough to plan out such a thing. Did he really expect to win over a more ruthless ruler? or more capable knights? Alsoooo more importantly, when did Paulina take off her shoes?!?! Lol I totally didn't see a panel where she tossed them.

Obviously so many people have already addressed the princess situation and the fact that you really shouldn't expect holy/ideal morals from this story but I just wanted to say that I'm really glad to see a comment thread that understands the nature of war. At least, the comments I saw.

 

[elinertia42]

Your knight is super badass

 

[Squippie]

@roxanneayy

Argh I've tried three times to post the screen cap I took but I can not internet apparently

She takes them off just after the Nutcracker

 

[mammaria]

yeaaaah she did her a solid by just killing her. it's what she herself wanted back then too, but some asshole soldiers were gonna try to rape her... she saved the princess from that possibility. pau held on until the emperor came in because she is strong, but the princess would have stood no chance in defending herself. also she's a loose end. sad, but blame your father for that. oof how dark

thank you for the update

 

[moel]

That was so merciful she was.

 

[roxanneayy]

@Squippie found it just find from your description. Thank you!!! I guess I overlooked it for the bells ringing. Hahaha

 

[blazing_boz]

Was it...'especial' merciful to kill the princess ? Either way she was going to die....and nobles tend to get 'honorable' deaths even if they are from the fallen country...
its fucked either way.

Some people in the comments are assuming that the princess was simply just going to be raped…ehh not necessarily. There are many royals that were locked up in their homes and under house arrest for long periods of time. London tower is famous for once being a strong hold on the city and the final resting place for famed people like Jane Grey, Ann Boylen. Mary Queen of Scotts was locked up but treated quiet decently until her impending execution. A princess's power is pretty indicative of how much the people like her and her Mother and Father separately. Sometimes they did get killed on house arrest, something they did not. The religions stance of the country plays a big role in this favor ability as well but I've seen no evidence of religion in this comic but it still plays a big part in the lays of European countries in which the story is based on.]

If the princess mother was from another country and it was a political alliance that would start another war with the mother’s side of the country. If they hadn’t killed her but returned her to her motherland they could have gotten an ally. Also the ideal of blood right is the basis of succession so [while it’s still cruel] The Emperor could have spared her and then just married her off to form and alliance it would have happened to her regardless of who won* that battle and she would have been protected since “non virgins are spoiled goods”. Unless the children she has are born after she is married and to someone of high birth they don't get a play for the crown so rando's thinking they can capture the princess, rape her and be king mean nothing unless those conditions are met. She a public figure the [pseudo]Catholic Church would know something is up.

A princess is more useful alive the dead, and it’s just a huge failing on the emperor part if he doesn’t know how to contain noble hostages properly. People often worship their rules because one of the claims to being a “rightful heir” because they were chosen by God and sometimes the claim to be heaven sent themselves. Kings rise and fall all the time but the general public typical doesn’t like seeing young children get killed, especial a “god child”. [she isn’t married yet so I’m going to assume she is young considering the time period] In addition eradicating the whole royal family isn’t really possible, so the fear of people rising up to make an army if she is alive can still happen if she is dead. Many a times throughout the history parliament /vassals or the nobility searched the royal family tree to try and avoid civil war if their were no more “viable male heirs” because “woman are useless,unless they are desperate”. So The king’s brothers, sister children and cousins are all given a chance at the crown and now they also get to point out how their poor niece was murdered if they do want to start a war. Considering how seemly dense the princess his, if she had been preforming any of her royal duties and being present for courtly affairs which princess were actually played a big role other people would know that she fairly naïve and would have wondered why she was killed. Trials at the time are mostly biased but putting on the show for the people is still pretty important to at least preform the symbolical of fairness. Explaining the betray of the king to explain the lack of a trial...even if its a shame trial might work for the other nobles but it wouldn't be as believable in the naive princess case. Honestly his plan is just stupid considering how is trying to PR himself as a “benevolent ruler who cares about the countries he colonizes” this action backfire on more ways then they benefit. The problem isn’t just the lack of morals…its not even following the logic that existent in the deprived medieval world the story is based on.

 

[Lopleez]

Love this! It’s so realistic and fitting for the story thus far. It a cold hard world in this series but it allows for the characters to truly shine. Very refreshing compared to seeing war glossed over and romanticized.