The Girl Who Unknowingly Became Harem Queen! - 33 Reaching Out A Hand

“Ah, is nap time over already?” it asked in a cute high-pitched, sleepy voice.

“It talks?!” Maria was not expecting the round fur creature, lying the princess lap to talk. The cute creature was covered in an ombre of icy-blue, lavender, and pure-white soft fur.

“May I ask what you are doing here?” The nice melodic voice drew Maria’s attention away from the bird and onto the expressionless princess. Feeling a bit shy, Maria stumbled over a few of her words, answering the princess’ question.

“Two girls were about to drop a tarantula on your h-head, but don’t worry I s-stopped them!”

Staring close into those glittering crystal clear amethyst orbs, a blush stained Maria’s chubby cheeks, finding the princess too pretty to stare at. Not taking heed to Maria’s shyness, amethyst eyes stared at the girl who had come to her side and asked,

“Why?”

“Huh?” Maria stared confusedly at the princess, unable to understand her response.

“Why would you help me? Helping me would gain you nothing,” Not a hint of emotion could be detected in Princess Luna’s voice when asked of this and that was when Maria noticed that within the depth of those jeweled amethyst orbs, swan loneliness. A type of loneliness Maria was very familiar with; back in her old world, Maria could never make any true friends.

There was never anyone who she could relate to, seeing how all the girls her age were into popular idols, celebrity gossip, and dating. The boys weren’t much better, always debating on who was the hottest girl in class and bullying the weak and timid.

Thus Maria was left on her own, even though she had her granny who she recalled loved her dearly. She never had someone her own age to joke around and have fun with, something which used to sadden her before she came to this world and met Mai and Julian.

“Because it was the right thing to do. I didn’t do it to gain anything from you.” Peering inside those emerald large orbs, where there was nothing but pure sincerity, something which came as a surprise to the princess.

Being born into royalty, one experienced the true dark side of people at a young age, since the day she was born. No one could imagine the immoral things she, a child none the less, had either experienced or witnessed.

Such events caused her to close her heart to everyone around her except for her kind mother, who, if it weren’t for still being alive, constantly protecting her from the schemes of the current Empress, the young princess would’ve already been dead by now or ended up in a similar state as her other half-brother.

Her relationship with Alan was not a good one, better to say that their brother and sister relationships did not even exist. Which was normal to children born in the royal family, birthed by a number of different women, all who belonged to the emperor.

The fight for the throne tended to always turn gruesome as their need for survival or their thirst for power all depended on the children they birthed. An example of this was the skyrocketed number of the emperor’s mistresses, childless women who were all easily disposed of by none other than the empress herself.

Eliminating any threat before they could give birth, woman monopolizing the emperor’s affection towards only herself.

Using her evil schemes, the empress always made things harder for the young princess’ mother to the point that even the emperor, her own blood father, was now dissatisfied with her mother. Losing one of her main pillars of support, both mother and daughter’s situation in the palace had become difficult.

Lady Ealria was slowly losing the support of the nobles on her side, her own half-brother Alan hated her, something which he displayed in public. People only sought to use her status and secretly mocked her behind their backs. Which was why Maria’s sincere actions truly shocked the young princess.

“Say, how about you join me and my friends for lunch? You can decline if you want to.” Maria didn’t want to force the princess into anything against her will but at the same time wanted to at least ask, giving the princess the option to accept or not.

“You’re inviting me to hang out with your friends?” The princess seemed uneasy towards Maria’s friendly suggestion but calmed down once the other girl smiled warmly at her.

“Yes! Don’t worry, my friends are super nice and have no ill will towards you,” Maria reassured the princess just in time for the next bell to issue, meaning that it was now time for lunch. After removing herself from the bench, Maria surprised the princess by reaching out towards her hands and clasping it in hers. Once their hands were clasped, Maria took off, dragging the princess along.

Even after Maria, Julian, and Mai became third-years they still had their lunch in the same rose garden with the occasional visit from Richard and Akihiko. All who were present when Maria arrived with her new guest.

“Hi, guys, meet Princess Luna! She’s joining us for lunch today~!” Maria happily announced, taking in all of the dumbstruck expressions on all those present.

“Umm, did I just hear that right?” Akihito dropped the fork that he had stabbed into strawberry shortcake that rested on the table, almost falling out of his chair that he leaned back in, standing on only two legs.

“I was not expecting this…” muttered Richard, blue eyes staring at the conjoined hands of the two girls and suddenly felt uneasy, instincts ringing alarm bells.

“P-Princess?!” Poor Julian turned a ghostly pale, on the edge of fainting if Mai didn’t slam her hands on the table.

“The princess is joining us?! No way?!” exclaimed Mai; running over to the two girls, she shook the princess’ other hand, shooting her a sunny grin.

“Yo! I’m Mai, and that pale looking guy about to faint is Julian; the red-headed boy is Richard, and the dark-haired boy is Akihiko. Oh, and those two neko-maids are Shirone and Kuroka; they serve Maria.” Mai was kind enough to go ahead and introduce everyone to the princess.

Face emotionless as usual, Princess Luna ran her eyes over everyone that was introduced to her and noticed that besides the Scarlet heir, everyone else was new to her. Nodding her head, she put each name to memory.

“I see… You all can just call me Luna,” said the princess, unaware at how a few of the others felt a bit uncomfortable with calling the princess of Astral so familiarly.

“Alright, Luna it is!” Well except for Mai who had no problem addressing the princess so intimately. Nodding her head towards Mai’s action, Maria decided to follow along.

“Since you request it, from today forth I will address you as Luna,” said Maria, only to hear in the distance someone calling out the princess’ name.