No no, I've got this. The prologue skips back twenty years to when Pauliana is a child and sent to train. When she is fourteen, she enlists. She spent six years there to get her rank and was four years away from the ten year service that would have allowed her to take over her family estate when she was taken hostage and offered a better revenge/found someone who recognized her abilities.
She is twenty, at the youngest.
Not sure about the emperor. However, based on what people are spoiling, he does need to learn to respect Pauliana. I originally wrote respected instead of recognized but she was taken on for her abilities; it seems soon he will overstep the boundaries.
By the time this war ends, I would say Pauliana was eight/ten when she was forced out of her house so...6/4...12/10...we're looking at eight to ten years of war. Unless, hope to God not, Pauliana was as low as six when she was pushed out. That leaves six years left.
so when he realizes that he loves her...They're 40 years old?Σ(  ̄□ ̄||)
they all look so young..