Yotogi no Kuni no Gekkouhime - Chapter 25

Two weeks had passed since Selene’s jailbreak―― or rather university breaking incident, her dress that was torned during her fight with Marie was repaired, and her relationship with Milano, on the surface, had returned to normal.

The soldiers didn’t know why Selene who used to spend her time with Milano during the lunch break was suddenly nowhere to be seen, so they thought she was feeling unwell or something. That’s why when Selene finally showed up for the first time in a while, everyone celebrated happily. And Kumahachi, taking advantage of the merry atmosphere, made the soldiers trained a little harder than usual for today.

“Prince, give.”

“Ahh, thanks.”

Sitting together under the large tree shade, which is their usual resting place, Selene makes a cut into the bread with a knife, then puts in a large amount of meat and vegetables before handing the sandwich over to Milano.

“This, easier to eat, you know?”

“Thank you.”

She’s probably not in a fully good mood yet, but she still prepares him a lunch nonetheless, she’s even going as far as to prepare something that is quick and easy to eat so that it’ll not take up too much of his training time, Milano feels really happy about this fact. Though in actuality Selene’s just aiming for the most efficient method by stuffing everything together and make him eat it, making a little bit of everything in small portions is a pain after all.

Milano’s eyes narrow in satisfaction as he eats the ridiculously huge sandwich Selene made for him. It has been a while since he last tasted Selene’s delicious cooking, but the preparation on his part is mostly finished as well. It’s his turn to make Selene happy, thinking so, Milano opens his mouth.

“Actually, there’s something I want to ask of you Selene.”

“What? Food?”

“Not that. I planned to go out for a few days this weekend, so I’d like you to accompany me Selene.”

“Ehー……”

Selene’s face blatantly tells that she doesn’t want to go, but Milano didn’t pay attention to that. Selene wanted to say no at first, but it’s not wise of her if she were to outright refuse him and risk getting on his nerve, and also it’ll be better if she’s in the position where she could monitor him all the time as well. After such judgement, she decided to try to find out what Milano’s intentions are.

“Where? Valbell?”

“No, this time it’s pleasure trip. I think you’ll enjoy it as well.”

Milano smiles tenderly at Selene, showing his sparkly white teeth, but to Selene it’s an irritating smile. If any other girls were smiled at like this, their face would’ve turned beet red, but this smile only makes Selene slightly annoyed.

Milano’s fully aware that Selene doesn’t really want to go out that much, and a mere outing wouldn’t make her happy, but in order to surprise her he’ll need to keep his mouth shut about the destination. Milano’s frustrated that he can’t tell her right away, but at the same time he’s also looking forward to see her reaction. I wonder how she’d react to it, thought Milano with a mischievous heart akin to that of a little boy, which is very rare of him.

And so comes the weekend. While Milano’s on cloud nine, Selene’s feeling down as she is, once again, going to be shipped away to a distant place. The difference between this and the time when she was shipped out from Aquila is that this time there’s an exclusive horse carriage just for her. It’s a horse carriage made entirely from the ground up for Selene only, with a round shape and white color, it exudes a very gentle and soft atmosphere. There’s a small window installed on both sides, allowing her to look outside, and for Selene who’s sensitive against the sun, there’s also light-shielding curtain installed as well.

Its interior is also exceptionally exquisite, a luxurious piece of art that is comparable to even that of top of the line inns in Helifalte. It’s covered with a soft-to-touch carpet, and it even comes with a small bed. Nevertheless, Selene isn’t particularly impressed by it, except for the fact that it has a bed, so other than that, it doesn’t matter if the carriage is dirty or beautiful since it doesn’t change the fact that she’s being shipped out to be sold elsewhere anyway,

And for this trip, in addition to the servants that had accompanied her on the trip to Valbell, Kumahachi also tagged along as well, acting as a guard. Naturally, Butler’s sneaking in on the carriage as well, and right now he and Selene’s talking.

“Butler, travel, know?”

『You meant the destination? Forgive me, but I’m afraid I don’t know.』

“I see.”

Actually Butler already knows where they’re going to, he know what Milano’s plan is, and so he pretended to not know to make his master happy. Selene who’ve been riding on the carriage for three days straight couldn’t endure it anymore and decided to ask Kumahachi.

“Kuma, Kuma.”

“Hm? What is it my lord?”

Selene poked her head out the window, raising her voice to ask Kumahachi who’s riding the horse in front.

“This, where, going?”

“We’re heading to the north my lord.”

“North? Why?”

“Who knows, only the Prince knows the reason my lord.”

Kumahachi answered jokingly, but Selene’s expression clouded even more. Previously, Kumahachi had explained to her that the northern part of the continent is a place where humans mostly never visited. Isn’t this the Prince’s plan to dump her in a dangerous northern forest since he was furious at the fact that I had a fight with Marie the other day at the university? From her point of view, it’d wouldn’t be strange to do so at all.

Kumahachi who noticed that Selene’s stressing out, lightly kicks at the side of his horse in order to get closer to Milano’s carriage in front.

“Prince, don’t you think it’s about time you tell her? Selene-dono seems to be very anxious.”

“You’re right, it’s not a good idea to keep it a secret for far too long. Stop the carriage at once.”

Milano ordered the coachman to stop, and Selene’s carriage which is following behind stopped as well. Milano steps out of his carriage before climbing in Selene’s. Seeing that the Prince suddenly intrudes into her carriage, Selene takes a defensive stance, which Milano responds with a soft smile to reassure her.

“Selene, the place we’re going is not a scary place. No need to be on guard.”

“Liar!”

Selene who has zero trust in Milano immediately denies his words. It’s this guy’s fault in the first place that she was exiled from her paradise in Aquila. When she was taken to Valbell, the only good thing happened to her were that she got to eat fried cartilages and that she met princess Ente. Milano shrugs before explaining things as if he’s reassuring a frightened little kitty.

“The place where we’re going is『Lily Flower Garden』.”

“……Lily Flower Garden!?” (Yuri no hanazono)

Selene’s expression suddenly changes from tensed to amazed in a second. Seeing that, Milano almost burst out laughing. He really didn’t expected for the word lily to has such an immediate effect on Selene.

“Yeah, in the nothern part of the continent, just before the White Forest, there exists a stunning lily flower garden. I heard that it’s so beautiful that people often mistake it for a paradise. Since you did a such good job at Valbell, I’d like to thank you by taking you on a short trip for relaxation you see.”

“Lily, paradise……”

Selene murmurs Milano’s words repeatedly. And suddenly her expression lightens up. Selene smiles―― although Milano and Kumahachi have seen her smiles many times before, but it is their first to see such a radiant smile on her face.

“Banzaーi!”

“Ba-, banzai?”

Selene jumps up on the bed on her carriage, she jumped so high that her hand reached the canopy while doing the banzai pose, which made both Milano and Kumahachi who’s peeking from outside unconsciously did the same pose as well. That’s just how joyful Selene seemed. The word『Lily Flower Garden』is truly like an opium to Selene.

Selene’s brain dictionary, for most of the time, tends to prioritise obscene words over normal ones. For example, if you search『Chichi』in Selene’s dictionary, you’ll find 『Chichi (boobs)』on the top of the list of words instead of the usual 『Chichi (father)』. Therefore, the word lily (yuri) that she heard just now, she interpreted it as the love lilies between two girls, and not the other way around.

From that day on, Selene’s mood improved rapidly. Unlike up until now where she’d usually look out the window with disheartened expression, making her look like a beautiful young noble girl with good upbringing, the current Selene is overflowing with cheerfulness, like butterflies dancing along the wind as they welcomed the coming of spring.

The『Lily Flower Garden』that Milano mentioned is a place far north of the royal capital of Helifalte, located in the region very close to the White Forest, it’ll take about a week by horse carriage to get there. For humans, the White Forest is considered uncharted territory and very few people traveled all the way there, meaning that there’s no such thing as lodging facilities along the way. People going there will have to camp out every night on flat areas, but Selene never complained about that at all.

Since this is a sightseeing trip for Selene, they didn’t bring much weapons or guards with them, only the necessary minimum. They treaded leisurely on the lush green land under the warm sunshine.

“Lily Flower Garden♪ Lily Flower Garden♪”

Since there’s no need to hurry for this trip, they just proceed foward at a relaxing pace. Every time the carriage stopped for a short break, Selene would start dancing a weird dance on the bed, spinning around in circle until she’s dizzy.

“But still, I didn’t expect for the word to be this effective. Kumahachi, sorry for having you accompany us.”

“It’s nothing my lord, I was just about to take a break from work as well, so this is like a break on its own. I have to escort the Prince all the time you see, it’s great to be able to escort a beautiful princess once in a while too.”

Milano and Kumahachi, while eating a light meal prepared by the servants, watch Selene’s fluttering the hem of her white dress around happily. She’s smiling brightly, humming and singing as she dances.

“La, la～la, lucky～, lucky～, lucky～su～ke～be～♪” 1

Selene’s humming and singing this song with incomprehensible lyric just like this.

There’s no way the most powerful man on the continent wouldn’t have a harem of his own. Or at least Selene believes that every powerful man have a harem of their own, and that they held a debauched party on a daily basis, though that’s just a false common sense of her.

Selene’s current body is that of a little girl, compared to her past self, both the amount of food she could eat and power are far inferior, but there’s still a merit in that. Once she arrived at the Lily Flower Garden, maybe she would have the chance to pretend to massage the shoulders of the girls over there, while also massaging many other areas along the way. It’s exactly this little girl body of her that would enable her to do such things.

That’s right, unlike her previous life, in this life she could freely activate her god-like skill『Lucky Sukebe』that she never have in her previous life!

The Lily Flower Garden owned by the debauched Prince who travels around the continent searching for a wife. Just how beautiful the maidens over there would be? Of course, Selene’s most precious angel would still be Arue, nothing could change that. But just by imaging the beautiful sight of a place called paradise still makes her heart flutter.

To Selene, whose brain is dominated by such evil thoughts, everything in the world seems so shiny, like a gold. Even without relying on drugs, people could still trip just by the substances in their brain.

And so when it’s break time again, Selene who’s tired from all the dancing gets off of the carriage and lie down on the grass, breathing in fresh air. As she gazes upon the blue sky with her crimson eyes, she sees the familiar red dragon flying leisurely through the sky.

To be honest, Selene doesn’t really give a damn about dragons at this point. At first it was a shock for her, but now that she’ve seen it many times already, she’s getting tired of it. The fun of watching koalas or pandas comes from the fact that you could only see them in the zoos, they’re rare animals after all, but for this ruler of the world that she’ve seen countless of times, it’s already in the same category as crows and dragonflies in Selene’s mind.

“Heーy! Heーy!”

However, today’s Selene is different. She waved her hands at the red dragon while shouting loudly. All because she wanted to share this happiness of her to someone. The red dragon didn’t show any particular reaction to Selene, only glancing at her for a moment before flying away to the north, to the place further north than the White Forest―― the place called Dragon’s Peak.

“Selene, it’s about time we get moving. Come back here.”

“Yeーs!”

Selene weirdly obeyed docilely, obediently climbing up her carriage and jumps right into the bed, pressing her body on the stuffed rabbit on the bedside. She had to save her energy for the main event. By the way, this stuffed rabbit is something Milano had already placed inside the carriage before the trip, and now it’s used as Butler’s bed.

Blessed by good weather, with no big troubles coming their way, Selene’s sightseeing tour, led by Milano and Kumahachi, proceed smoothly to their destination under the bright sunlight. With less than half a day of distance left, Selene suddenly closes the curtain so that she couldn’t see outside the window.

“What’s the matter my lord? Is it too bright outside?”

“Anticipation, building.”

Said Selene as she waits excitedly on the bed. And since Selene’s basically a hikikomori, just by staying inside a moving carriage tires her out already, and since Selene is someone who loves sleeping, she falls asleep the moment she crawled into her bed. She believed that the moment she wakes up, she’s going to be greeted by a wonderful view for sure.

◆◇◆◇◆

They’ve arrived at their destination. The whole ground surface is covered by white lilites, with many flowers of other colors blooming alongside lilies, complementing their white color, it’s an absolutely stunning scenery. In the center is a spring with clear and calm water like a polished mirror. Everyone, including Milano, are speechless at the beauty of the scene.

“Ohhh……. This is truly beyond my expectations. I’m not really interested in flowers and the likes, but I must say that this is truly impressive my lord.”

“It’s my first time visiting here too…… it’s exactly just like what I’ve heard. No, it exceeded what I had imagined. I wish I had brought Marie and Princess Arue along as well.”

The beauty of nature that no man-made garden could ever hoped to create―― a Lily Flower Garden true to its name. Then Milano and others turned around to look at Selene, but she’s frozen in place like a stone statue.

“…………What is, this?”

“What you ask…… It’s as you can see though, the Lily Flower Garden.”

Selene walks forward wobbly as if absent-minded, before slowly diving into the flower patch.

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

Selene, with her whole body covered in grass, started bawling.