Yotogi no Kuni no Gekkouhime - Chapter 21

A few days has passed since Selene’s return to Helifalte, and except for the fact that Selene unknowingly avoided a crisis as someone’s aiming for her life, her days at Helifalte is pretty much business as usual. For Milano however, he has a serious problem awaiting him.

The sun has just risen from the horizon, but Milano’s already standing in front of Selene’s room, his expression tensed. He have to go to his daily training after this, meaning that if he missed this timing he’ll have to wait for many hours before he has the chance to meet Selene again. Milano breathes in deeply before knocking on the door.

“Selene, I’m sorry that it’s this early in the morning, but are you awake?”

“Sleeping!”

“So you’re awake. Sorry but I’m going to enter your room for a minute.”

Milano opens the door, and inside the room there’s a ball of blanket on top of the bed. Naturally, the person inside is none other than Selene. Right now she looks like a manjuu1 made out of blanket, and that angry manjuu ball won’t even poke her head out to see Milano’s face.

“Today’s weather is fantastic. A little early, but if you’re awake, why don’t we go for a walk?”

“No.”

Hearing the muffled response from the person inside the blanket ball, Milano sighs. He walks up to Selene and sits on the bedside, still no sign of Selene the manjuu ball poking her face out.

“What is it that you’re unhappy with? Ever since we came back from Valbell you rarely talked to me.”

“…………Annoying.”

Just as Milano had said, ever since they came back from Valbell, Selene has been in a bad mood all the time. Not only that she wouldn’t meet Milano, but when they were talking she wouldn’t look at his face at all, not to mention that during meal time shes clearly ignoring him as well.

“If I had done something wrong then I promise I’ll be more careful in the future. So Selene, would you mind telling me what are you not happy with? You can be straightforward with me.”

“Because Prince, is Prince.”

“Because I’m me?”

Milano confusingly tilts his head at the riddle-like words. Riddle or not however, it’s clear from her expression that Selene doesn’t like Milano’s very existence itself. In the end, after a period of awkward silence, Milano left the room for his daily training, still having no idea what Selene meant.

“Uuuu, drug, drug……”

After confirming that Milano had really left, Selene repeated the word over and over like a drug addict. Surprisingly enough, Selene in previous life never dabbled into those kind of drugs. What she’s saying refers to the white powder she bought in Valbell, which was quickly confiscated by Milano.

When that powder was analyzed by Helifalte’s phamacist, it turned out that the drug was an extremely strong tonic. But still, since it was obtained from a shady back alley in Valbell, they decided to store it in royal treasury instead.

And this made Selene very unhappy. She planned to drug the Prince with large dose of that powder so he’ll be finished in one go, but the Prince acutely sensed a looming danger coming his way, so he decided to take the initiative.

Of course, Milano and the phamacist bear no ill wills toward her, but Selene feels as if her path of hope was cut short, she lost all her energy and willpower to make the daily poisoned lunch box, and for the past few days she has been sulking in her bed all day.

“Sharp stuff, knife…… weapon, want.”

If drug is no good, then her only worst-case scenario option left is to use a direct attack, but right now Selene’s not in the position to even do that. Back at the time when she was taken prisoner by Milano, Arue told him “When Selene waas in confinement, she shaved her beautiful hair in an attempt of self-injury.”, thus every sharp objects were strictly controlled to not be near her.

Thanks to that, the only sharp object left in her room is just a tiny pair of scissors for cutting threads, coupled with that the room is checked everyday by the outstanding maid, Selene could not even smuggle in a knife from the kitchen.

“Uuu, kill you, kill you……”

While mutterring such unsettling words, Selene falls asleep again with the blanket over her body.

◆◇◆◇◆

“We’ve got a winner!”

Kumahachi’s deep voice resounded throughout the royal training grounds. Right now he’s acting as a referee for the soldiers doing practice matches here. It’s one-on-one match using mock swords. This should be one of the usual training match that occured everyday, but the sight unfolded before every soldiers here made them speechless.

“Ah, Prince! I’m very sorry!”

“No, it’s my loss. Your skill has improved.”

The young soldier, whose brain finally catched up with reality, paled and hurriedly bows his head to Milano. On the other hand, Milano casually praised the boy for his hard work. Here on this training ground, one’s social status doesn’t matter.

“Prince, I think we should wrap it up for today.” (Kumahachi)

“What are you saying, it’s still morning. Too early to finish the training.”

“With you in that state, it’s going to affect other soldiers’ morale as well my lord.”

Kumahachi flatly rejects him. Milano’s fully aware that he’s unable to concentrate as well, but he’s still opposed to the idea of leaving the daily training early. Grabbing the reluctant Milano’s arm, Kumahachi forcefully drags him to under the tree that the soldiers usually used as a resting place before sitting down.

“Ever since you returned from Valbell, you seems to be very absent-minded.”

“Not really, I’m very healthy as you can see.”

“It’s useless trying to hide it my lord. You might be fine physically, but mentally you’re not so fine.”

“There’s nothing I worried about though.”

“Ah, Selene-dono is here!”

“Wha-, what!? Wh-, where!?”

Milano quickly stands up, looking at the direction Kumahachi’s finger is pointing to. However, there is no lovely white princess there, only a bunch of guys training on the neatly trimmed grass under the clear bright sky.

“……Kumahachi!”

“Haha! So Selene-dono is the cause as I suspected. From what I heard, the Princess is not in the best of moods is she?”

“……Precisely.”

Annoyed, Milano sits back down. Since their return from Valbell, Selene almost never made him lunch boxes again. Milano feels pretty down because of this, but he never showed it on his face.

“So you already see right through me…… Selene, she’s avoiding me.”

“Why is that my lord?”

“This is just my speculation, but I think it’s when I confisciated a medicine she bought in Valbell. At that time, I was so focused on keeping dangerous stuff away from Selene that I didn’t take her feelings into consideration.”

Selene cares about him very much, so much so that she’s willing to use the money she was given to buy a medicine for his sake rather than hers. Yet he ignored her kindness, and instead give her a scolding, trampling on her kindness even more. Milano felt like going back to that moment and punched himself in the face for doing such a thing to her.

In reality, Selene never had even an atom of consideration for him in the first place. Well, he’s not wrong that he shattered Selene’s expectation.

“I see, and how is Selene-dono doing now?”

“Unapproachable. She covers herself with the blanket and won’t look at my face, rarely even replies to me. It feels as if I’m talking to a snail.”

“Have you apologized to Selene-dono?”

“Already did. I said if I done something wrong I’ll be more careful in the future. But she said『I hate Prince because Prince is Prince』or something like that. I really don’t know what she means by that.”

Milano holds his head with his hands, muterring so as if groaning. Even Milano who can easily solve the problems in Helifalte National University’s test had never faced such a challenging problem like this one. Though that challenging problem is simply just ‘I don’t like you.’, but such a thought never crossed Milano’s mind.

“Fumu…… This is very similar to 『Moon’s Princess Requests』my lord.”

“Moon Princess?”

“Umu. It’s a folklore from my country. On a certain day, a beautiful princess from the moon descends upon earth in front of an old couple. Many nobles tried proposing to her, but the princess requested them to bring something to her before she accepts the proposal, said thing however is extremely difficult to obtain that no ordinary man could get a hand on. She does this to deter those nobles away.”

The story and his situation are very similar to each other. Interested, Milano prompts Kumahachi to continue.

“And, what happened next?”

“Well, in the end the princess went back to the moon……”

“We can’t have that!”

“Prince, this is just a folklore.”

“S-, sorry. Y-, you’re right……”

Milano blushes as he realizes that he loses his cool more than he thought. Kumahachi next to him smiles wryly before adding more to the conversation.

“And here’s the thing about her request. In the end, all the men used various means to prepare the fake version of what she requested, but every one of them failed to satisfied her. Well, in my humble opinion, I think that what the princess truly requested for is 『Sincerity』which these men do not have.”

“Sincerity huh……”

But Milano already did his best to be sincere. What more can he do?

“I know it’s just a folklore, but how about you try giving Selene-dono a gift as well?”

“Luring with gifts, is that what you’re trying to say? Wouldn’t that be insincere?”

“That’s why it’s just sincerity in the end. No matter how many words you use, but if there’s no actual visible benefits, it’d be hard for people to be attracted to you. That’s why we should give Selene-dono something that she really likes.”

“Something that Selene likes huh……, yeah that sounds pretty good. Kumahachi, thank you.”

“You’re welcome my lord.”

Milano thanked Kumahachi before deciding to conclude his training for today. After that, he quickly hopped into a small carriage, returning to the Royal Palace. As soon as he arrived at the palace, Milano headed toward a certain room with a swift pace, almost running. Standing before the white door, he knocks lightly on it a few times.

“Marie, are you inside?”

“Eh, Nii-sama? You’re early today.”

Marie comes out of her room, looking up at her brother with puzzled expression before inviting him inside. Marie’s room is full of rose color stuff, from the carpet to curtains. Other furnitures and decorations are also very girly, from the white table with colorful flowers in a vase on top, or the stuffed bunny doll on the bed. It’s very different from Selene’s dull and tasteless room, which has only necessary stuff for actual uses.

“There’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“Something you wanted to ask? Let me guess, this is about Selene right?”

Seeing Milano’s eyes widen, Marie smiles proudly. Since Selene’s arrival, Marie has been able to talk more casually and jokingly to her brother than before, which gradually makes her complex disappear, thus their relationship as sister-brother returns to normal.

“How did you know?”

“I mean, recently Nii-sama has been visiting Selene’s room first thing in the morning everyday aren’t you? Anyone can see through you like that. So what happened? You two had a fight?”

“I’d not call it a fight but……”

Milano tells Marie how it happened. Surely Marie, a girl about the same age as Selene, would understand how Selene feels. Since Milano had never asked Marie for help before, Marie feels incredibly happy to be able to help her brother, so she sincerely lends him an ear and gives him advices.

“You’re right, maybe she wanted to see your apology in tangible way. Because no matter how many times you say thank you or I’m sorry, in the end they’re just words, anyone could say that.”

“So you thought so too…… Also, up until now I’ve never thought about what I should give to Selene. Do you have any suggestions?”

Milano asks Marie in quite a shyish way, unusual of him. He thought that he had done may things for Selene up until now. However, Selene has surprisingly shown very little reaction to anything he had done for her, something which Milano realized just now.

Perhaps it’s because the environment Selene was raised in, or perhaps her nature, or perhaps both, but she’s clearly different from other child her age. She has no particular likes or dislikes to any food, she ate everything that was served to her, and previously when his mother asked her what she wanted, she just asked for a hug. Other than that she’s very docile, sleeping for most of the time, so he has no idea at all about what she wanted.

Well it’s natural that he wouldn’t know. That’s because all Selene really wants are food, secondly sleep, and the last one is woman’s breasts. She’s not looking for anything girly, as long as she can eat, laze around, and sometime fondle her sister’s breasts, anywhere would be a paradise. In a way, she couldn’t be more of a simple person, content with very little things.

But Milano’s tied by the understanding that, since Selene and Marie is at around the same age, surely they must have something in common. Of course, Marie thought so too. Marie frowns, crossing her arms as she racks her brain for ideas.

“Hmmー…… this is hard. If I were in her place I’d have asked for clothes and many more stuff, but Selene doesn’t seem to be interested in that kinda thing…… Ah! If it’s things she doesn’t like then I know one.”

“Something she dislikes?”

“It’s rose. She doesn’t like them.”

“Roses? It’s rare for girls to not like that flower.”

“Right? I thought it was weird too, since I really love roses and all. I think Selene’s a little different from others.”

“Alright got it. And, what about stuff she likes?”

“Ummm, what was it again…… I think she had told me what she likes before. Sorry, I can’t remember it.”

“Is that so…… No, that’s plenty enough.”

Giving his thanks, Milano pats Marie’s head. Back in the old days, Marie liked to be patted like this. Just recently she’d brush his hand away if he tried to touch her. Today however, Marie’s a little nervous but she obediently let him pat. Then, as Milano’s about to leave the room, Marie cheers him from behind.

“Nii-sama, I hope you and Selene can make up soon!”

“Ahh, thank you Marie.”

Milano’s a little surprised, but he immediately smiles gently to her. It’s thanks to Selene that Marie’s able to cheer on him fully like this. Milano doesn’t want to see Selene holed up in her room all the time any longer.

“I have no choice. Seems like I’ll have to use my trump card……”

Milano closes his eyes, hesitating for a moment, but then he nodded as if he made up his mind about something before calling out to a nearby maid.

“Sorry but I have an urgent request to ask of you, would you mind if I take your time?”

“Y-, yes. As you wished.”

If the Prince said it’s urgent, then it’s probably something really serious. Thought the maid as she stands straight. Milano asked the maid to bring him a paper and a pen. He writes something down on the paper, signed it, folded it, before handing it to the made.

“Sorry for the urgency, but please tell the chancellor of Helifalte National University that there’s a certain student I wish to meet. If you show this paper to the gatekeeper, he’ll bring you straight to the chancellor.”

“Eh!? You’re going to meet a student, Prince!?”

The maid’s surprise is very understandable. It’s unprecedented for the first Prince of Helifalte Kingdom, a major power, to want to meet with a mere student personally like this. Milano’s fully aware of this fact as well. If he acts too carelessly, there’s a risk that there would be wild rumors circulating about him and that student, which would cause unnecessary trouble. Nevertheless, a maid like her couldn’t disobey a direct order from the Prince.

“Then, may I have the name of the student you wished to meet as well, my Prince?”

Milano is silent for a few moments. Wondering if his judgement is truly the right one. However, to solve this current situation, he need the help from that student. And so, Milano opens his mouth to tell the name.

“It’s Arue Aquila-dono. Please tell her that I’m in dire need of her help.”