Yotogi no Kuni no Gekkouhime - Chapter 12

Selene, dressed in white negligee, wakes up from her slumber. She stretches herself while yawning, getting out of her bed, looking up at the wide blue sky outside the window. The weather today’s clear as always, perfect for espionage missions.

“Un, nice morning.”

Selene muttered so, fully satisfied, as this is her first time in a long time that she wakes up this early. Though the sun is already at its highest point in the sky, or the time people generally called noon, but for Selene who usually woke up with the setting sun as background, this is truly a marvelous early wake-up.

Selene uses a glass to drink from the water bucket that her personal maid has prepared since dawn, quenching her thrist. She washes her face with the remaining water in the bucket, before heading to the massive closet to dress herself up.

“This, much, not needed……”

Opening the double-door closet, Selene sighs while muttering so. When she arrived here, there’s nothing at all in this closet, but now there is a massive amount of colorful dresses hanging, all of which are the finest in Helifalte.

It has already been two weeks since her first dinner with Helifalte’s Royal Family, and almost everyday from that day on, she’ll be having dinner together with them. For some reason it seems like the King and Queen have taken a liking to her―― especially the Queen who give her clothes as gifts every single day, filling up the gigantic closet in her room to the point of it being almost full.

“The same one, then.”

Even when confronting a huge amount of outfits, Selene’s very decisive as she reaches her hand to the cloth nearest to her, a milky white gothic dress. It’s the same dress she wore when she lived in Aquila. If her personal maid was a young and beautiful maid then she’d have dliberately ring the bell to have her help dressing up, but unfortunately her personal maid is an obaa-chan, so Selene had no choice but to dress up on her own.

“Butler, you there?”

『Yes Princess. If I may inquire, where are you planning to go today?』

“Investigation.”

『Though I already inspected every nook and cranny within this Royal Palace, but since eventually this will be yours Princess, It’d be wise to have you see all of it first-hand.』

Selene squats down and brings out her palm, in which Butler immediately jumps onto. She opens the collar of her dress, letting Butler sneaks into the chest part of her dress. To Selene, Butler’s a reliable partner that she can relied upon during times of emergencies, so she planned to have him with her for as long as she could while she explores the inner workings of Helifalte Kingdom.

“From today, I serious.”

Selene reaffirms herself while dressing herself up. During all this time she has been telling herself that she’ll get serious tomorrow, that she’ll finally go find the Prince’s weak points, but not even once had she found any major weaknesses in him, so Selene’s getting impatient.

It took her two whole weeks to realize that her resolution to get serious tomorrow would lead her to nowhere, as in the next day she’ll tell her self the same thing and leave it to her tomorrow self, a loop if you will. So to overcome this loop, Selene resoluted herself firmly and wake up early today.

“Secretly, quietly, as possible……”

Though there are no restrictions or surveillance on movements within the Royal Palace’s area, but when thinking that she’s about to do something that’s supposed to be stealthy, she can’t help but get nervous. In order to not be detected, she quietly, slowly, and secretly opens the door.

“Seーlene♪”

“Waah!?”

The moment she steps outside, someone hugs her from behind, causing Selene to flail her arms and legs in struggle.

What a blunder, her espionage mission is finished in just mere three seconds.

“……Ah, Marie.”

“Ehehe, sorry sorry. It’s rare to see Selene coming out at this hour after all, so I thought I’d surprise you.”

Marie laughs softly while still hugging Selene from behind.

Selene, being hugged by a blonde loli princess at such a close distance that she can feel her breath, smiles.

Seeing her dear friend forgives her and even smiles along with her prank, Marie smiles as well.

“Selene, are you going to study this afternoon? Do you want to join me?”

“Not, today.”

“Ehー! But it’s rare for you to be available at this time so let’s study together~”

Marie lets Selene down as she circles around Selene to her front, making an unhappy face. As a part of her royal duties, Marie must study, in which Selene can join her. But since Selene basically sleep during the daytime, so she almost never participate in any classes.

“Pleaseee, let’s go sutdy together. You don’t like daytime right? But now that you’re awake let’s do it together okay?”

“Me, study, don’t like.”

Selene gently refuses. The thing about she not liking studying is the truth. However, Marie took it as Selene’s showing reserve. Education like this costs money after all. So the considerate Selene thought that her taking advantage of free classes like this is rude. Or so that’s what Marie thought Selene thought.

“But you sure are amazing Selene. You never received any education right? And yet you understood things at the first sight.”

“Because I’m older.”

“But I’m the onee-san here though?”

No matter how dumb Selene might be, but she’s still a person who graduated high school in modern day Japan nonetheless. Though she might not excels at language and stuff, and except for things related to society or other people, she mostly understand and able to applies science, arithmethic, geography and hygiene study to everything else.

Because of that, all the professors thought that Selene’s very smart for an eight years old, a genius even. So compared to Marie, Selene has quite an advantage of several years of life experience, or putting it in other words, Selene at her full power is slightly superior to Marie, but looking at purely talent, Marie’s overwhelmingly superior. Ignorance is truly a bliss.

Though Marie hates losing, but she never felt inferior to Selene. As to why, it’s because Selene doesn’t possess any of the skills considered most important for noble ladies at all, such as arts, dancing and singing.

If she draws a picture, it becomes a modern art piece in a sense, if she dances her left and right foot will entangle each other, and if she sings a hymn with her angelic voice, it turns into a song of destruction instead. So all in all, Marie is far more talented than Selene in this part.

In other words, Selene and Marie have their own field of expertise. Selene’s existence complements Marie’s strengths while also being talented in her own right, she’s the perfect solution for Marie’s inferior complex as she has been constantly compared to her overly talented big brother.

In fact, ever since Selene arrived, Marie has been smiling a lot. Even her snide remarks when conversing with her big brother due to her jealousy is slowly disappearing as well.

“Ah, your collar is wrinkled you know. Here, stay still.”

Marie noticed that the collar of Selene’s dress is flaring out, so she reaches her hand out to fix it. Selene often leave her dress as is after she pulled on its collar to put Butler in her chest. Both her defenseless words and actions doesn’t match her lovely appearance at all, thus it arise Marie’s desire to protect her.

“Make sure you’re well-dressed at all time alright. Well, if you’re dishelved I’ll fix it for you anyway though.”

“Thank you.”

“Then, why is it that you won’t come to the class? You have something to do?”

“……Investigate.”

“Investigate? Like what?”

“About, the Prince.”

“Eh? About Nii-sama?”

Marie’s expression turns into a confused one, but then she reaches to a conclusion. Objectively speaking, her big brother is the most handsome man on this continent and none can rival him. His nickname as Holy Prince isn’t just for show.

There’s a rumor that says all woman, be them children or old ladies, thought of him fondly. And although that rumor is not far-off from the truth, Marie doesn’t quite like that rumor one bit, yet she’s still proud of her big brother having such rumor around him.

“Oh, is it that you have a crush on Nii-sama Selene?”

“Wrongggg!”

Selene denies with all her might. Seeing the usually quiet Selene suddenly denied in a loud voice, Marie judges that she ‘hit the bulleyes’. It’s easy to tell since Selene’s skin is pure white, her face turns red like an apple when she gets work up.

‘Well, it’s not surprising that Selene would have a crush on Nii-sama.’

For Selene, her big brother Milano is literally her savior after all. Marie has seen scenes like this from picture books or dramas before, and she liked it a lot, the scene where the Prince with a white horse rescues imprisoned princess. So it’s not very surprising that she’d fall in love with him.

And also, no matter how hard Selene tries to deny it, but her wanting to investigate about Marie’s big brother is in itself self-explanatory, and more importantly she has a clear evidence right in front of her eyes to support this as well.

“Selene, you always wear that same dress all the time. Why is that?”

“……Nothing, particular.”

As Marie said, Selene’s wearing that same milky white gothic dress today as well. Since Marie’s quite picky about fashion, she remembers Selene’s dress every day. And it seems like Selene liked this white dress the most.

Marie also knows that ever since Selene came to live in Royal Palace, her mom has been buying her clothes every day. And of course, every single one of them is carefully selected and is of the finest quality you can find.

Yet, Selene never even touched those clothes, but instead prefer to wear the dress made in a rush just before she left Aquila. Though that dress is not of bad quality, but compared to those tailored in Helifalte it is indeed inferior. When Marie ponders at the reason why she always wear that dress, there’s only one reason that comes to her mind.

‘It’s the first present she ever received from Nii-sama after all.’

This dress is after all, the first ever gift she received from her dear person. The fact that Selene wears it every day symbolized her feelings for Milano. Or at least that’s the only explanation Marie could come up with.

But in reality the reason is totally different. Selene actually doesn’t care about what she wears at all, and it’s just that she’s already used to wearing this dress so this one is her favorite. Or rather, when she takes off her cloth and ask the maid to wash them, they finished cleaning it while Selene’s still sleeping, so they hang it in the front area inside the closet. And so when Selene woke up, she just grabs whichever one that’s the closest to her hand, which happens to be this dress, so it’s a loop that continues to today.

She’ll keep wearing this dress until it’s completely ruined, and if another dress was in the front, she’d have pick that instead of this one. If she could exchange all of these luxurious dresses for some comfortable-to-wear jerseys, she’d have made that exchange without hesitation.

“If you’re looking for Nii-sama then he’s probably at the training ground at this hour.”

“Training ground?”

“The place where soldiers practice. Nii-sama goes there everyday even though he’s a prince. That place really stinks of sweats, but he still likes to go there nonetheless, he’s a weirdo, really.”

“Poor thing.”

“Ah, so you thought so too Selene? He should’ve spent his time with something more elegant than that, he’s the prince after all.”

But of course, Selene doesn’t even have the slightest sympathy for Milano at all. When she said that she meant the soldiers who had to deal with him. It must’ve been suffocating for them to be monitored constantly by their boss everyday, being picky about each and everything.

“Hey, Marie.”

“Hm? What?”

“There, me, go okay?”

“Eh? You meant the training ground? It’s not like you can’t go, but that place is boring you know?”

“No matter, me, prince, want see.”

“Rather that sweaty place, don’t you want to go to the rose garden? We have an excellent rose garden here you see.”

“Roses, don’t like.”

Selene shakes her head left and right, rejecting Marie’s invitation.

Marie tilts her head at Selene’s refusal.

“Is that so? But I really liked rose garden though. Why do you dislike them?”

“Smells bad, not happy.”

“Ehー, but I really liked the roses’ scent though. Then, what is it that you like Selene?”

“Lily.” (Yuri)

“So you liked lilies, but there are no lilies garden here in the Royal Palace. Nii-sama might know where they existed though.”

“I see……”

Selene seems to be slightly disappointed, but then, as if she remembers her initial objective, she turns to Marie.

“Wrong, not that one. Prince, want meet.”

“You wanna see him that much?”

“Un.”

“Nii-sama is quite strict about his discipline though, so you might be unable to talk to him much.”

“No matter, only seeing, enough.”

Selene’s expression is serious. Seeing that her little sister is determined no matter what, Marie takes her feelings into consideration as she replies.

“I see, so you really want to be near Nii-sama that much. There’s a horse carriage a little distance away from here that you can take a ride. I can’t guide you all the way though since I must attend the afternoon class.”

“Un!”

If it’s the training ground we’re talking about, that means it’s the perfect chance to observe the Prince’s true abilities. And maybe she might be able to find his weaknesses as well. At first when she was found by Marie, she thought she had failed the mission, but it unexpectedly turns into an advantage, making her smile brightly.

On the other hand, seeing Selene smiling so brightly, Marie smiles back at her as well. It’s very rare for the usually calm and emotionless Selene to be this expressive. She must be very eager to see Milano’s gallant figure.

Marie’ve heard that Selene’s of low social status, but Marie’s own father was married to her mother who’s from common birth just like Selene, and their age difference is about the same as Milano and Selene’s. Then there’s a good chance that they could be together. Or at least, rather than having her precious big brother stolen by ‘That’ from the neighboring country, having Selene engaged to him is miles better.

‘I’ll be rooting for you, Selene!’

While cheering Selene inside her heart, Marie takes the good-mooded Selene to the place where the horse carriage is stationed at.