The Empror's Trap-Chapter 86: Ch - A Misunderstanding Vol2

Lina also didn’t understand why these people were staring at her. She looked down at her clothes - they were perfectly normal. Though not the elegant attire she wore when going out, but rather a loose, casual-style dress, there was nothing inappropriate about it. And it wasn’t revealing either, so why did they keep staring at her?

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"Um, Grand Marshal..."

"What is it?"

Kenji casually picked up the warmed milk beside him, took a sip, and asked. His gaze met Rinas’s and saw his expression.

After pondering briefly, Kenji understood something: "Lina, go tell the steward there’s no wine at this banquet. Have him bring some good wine to serve everyone."

"Understood, young master."

Lina obeyed Kenji’s orders almost unconditionally. Though she knew her young master was sending her away, she still cheerfully carried out his command.

Watching Lina leave, Kenji looked at those present and smiled: "What’s wrong with everyone today? Why are you staring at me?"

"Grand Marshal..." Rinas looked awkwardly at his colleagues around him, then gathered his courage.

"Grand Marshal, though I deeply trust Lady Lina’s loyalty to you, I... I never expected you to take this step."

Wait, what step did I take?

Kenji was completely baffled by this.

"Though I know you trust her greatly, being too close to Lady Lina isn’t very beneficial for you, Grand Marshal. This is my advice," Rinas said.

Kenji carefully glanced outside, then asked awkwardly: "Wait, who gave you this misconception?"

Clearly, his subordinates had misunderstood his actions.

"No need to hide it, Grand Marshal," Old Tang beside him winked, "Though miss Lina was always loyal to you before, back then she wouldn’t have had the honor of sitting beside you to eat. A guard is just a guard after all - have you seen any guard in Camelot who can eat with their master?"

Ah, this.

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Kenji fell into deep thought.

Thinking about it this way, indeed - Kenji allowed Lina to eat beside him partly because he truly trusted her, and partly because Lina followed him closely almost inseparably every day. Having her stand beside him all day seemed too inhumane, so naturally he allowed her to sit beside him.

But clearly, such treatment was rare in this world. After all, no matter how close guards were with their masters, they were still guards. Being able to sit and eat at the same table as their master was extremely uncommon.

Though Camelot was relatively open-minded, such customs wouldn’t change easily.

"It’s really not what you think," Kenji could only explain weakly.

"Your Excellency," Rinas’s expression looked somewhat serious, "Your relationship with Lady Lina now, at least in our eyes, is truly unusual. If you act this way in front of others, they’ll probably think the same as us."

"Your Excellency, please consider carefully what political impact it would have if you were truly together with Lady Lina..."

"Oh, so you understand politics now?"

Kenji smiled at him.

This left Rinas speechless.

Truthfully, as a military officer, Rinas wasn’t very skilled at handling political matters. It was only after Kenji gave him a pile of books to read that he gained preliminary exposure to political affairs.

Now for him to raise these matters to Kenji was a bit like trying to teach a master their own craft.

"Don’t worry, I understand these matters well enough. I won’t let myself or the empire fall into an unfavorable situation," Kenji said. "But ultimately, Lina’s identity issue is indeed a concern. We can’t let her continue living under the label of an evil sect’s remnant forever. When there’s time, I think I’ll need to work on this."

"If it’s you, Grand Marshal, I think it should be possible," Rinas said while picking up a piece of braised pork rib and eating it with satisfaction. "Although in the Western Empire’s view, Her Majesty the Emperor is Camelot’s spokesperson, they also place great importance on you. Clearing her identity shouldn’t be difficult."

"Dealing with foreign countries isn’t hard, but domestic matters are difficult. The evil sect once poisoned the common people - regarding her identity, I fear people will find such a transformation hard to accept in a short time," Kenji shook his head. Just then, Lina walked in.

She entered carrying two jars of fine wine.

One military officer immediately smelled the intoxicating aroma wafting from the wine jars and got excited: "Ah! Such precious wine! Sister-in-law is so thoughtful..."

Bang!

Before he could finish speaking, another officer swiftly punched him on the head.

The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

Lina looked at the scene, placed the two wine jars on the table, then curiously pointed at herself: "Was he calling me?"

"Ah... probably?"

Kenji was extremely embarrassed.

Of course he was calling her - was there another woman here...

"Don’t joke around, Mr. Sai, I don’t deserve that title," Lina smiled, then sat in front of Kenji. "Young master’s marriage is a very useful resource, it has to consider benefits. What benefits could I bring young master?"

This left everyone present at a loss.

These words - you could say they defused the situation, but they were hard to evaluate; you could say she was being self-deprecating, but the person in question seemed completely unperturbed, as if this was perfectly normal.

It was quite strange.

But what she said wasn’t wrong.

Kenji was the second-in-command of this empire, controlling both military and political power. His status meant everything about him could be extremely precious political resources, especially major matters like marriage.

For example, if a small country wanted to establish connections with Camelot but was too weak to qualify for marriage ties with the emperor or royal family...

Then marriage ties with Kenji the Grand Marshal would be the best political approach. After all, though the Grand Marshal was second in power, ultimately he wasn’t royalty, so marriage was still possible.

Given his status and position, marriage - which should be a ceremony recognizing love - often became objectified, wrapped in interests. This was a cold, hard fact.

"Stop that," Kenji glanced at her, then said either jokingly or sincerely, "I’ve said before, I can’t leave…."

"Who can’t leave whom?" Lina turned her head, supporting her upper body with both hands as she leaned forward to ask.

"Tch, guess."

"I won’t guess."

"If you won’t guess then hurry up and eat."