Volume 2 - CH 4

Episode 4 – The Heroic Prince

I was standing with a very unpleasant face in front of the prince who was a rumored hero.

Before I came into the room, I had taken off my mask so we all revealed our faces, but… how should I put it… The prince’s little sister, Angelica, and his attendant, a black haired young man, showed their admiration with a ‘Whoa…’ as they saw my face for the first time. Well, I could understand that. Everyone usually had similar reactions.

Then, we both stared at each other sharply, appraising each other. It was only natural since we were both in the same position.

However, what in the world is this gaze?! It feels like my skin has been exposed, and that there are slugs crawling all over, licking the side of my breasts and around my waist. What is this unpleasant feeling!?

It’s often said that a woman instantly notices when a man stares at her breasts, even a little. Never in all my days had I understood that meaning like today!

“…Onii-sama. It is impolite to stare at a lady so much.”

Hearing Angelica’s warning, the prince said “Oops…” and finally turned his gaze away and skillfully went down on one knee.

“Forgive my discourtesy, your majesty. I am the third prince of the Amitia Kingdom, Ashyl Cloud Amitia. It is an honor for me to have you spend your precious time here today.”

After saying so, he took the back of hand like it was the natural thing to do, and kissed it.  …S-so fast, I didn’t even have a time to prepare myself.

Mikoto twitched and in an instant raised her eyebrow, 『Can I kill him?』, she appealed by gazing at me, but I silently replied 『No, this is a normal greeting for royalty and nobles!』 which somehow stopped her.

“I am the sovereign of the demon kingdom, Imperial Crimson, Hiyuki the Graceful Lady of the Sky. Today I am visiting as per your invitation.”  I made my self-introduction, thinking that it’s better to give a proper long name for the time being and use my nickname later.

After that, we each introduced our attendants, mine is Mikoto, and his is Sir Carlos, a black haired young man who has a cold atmosphere, and then we sat in our seats. I’m pretty much like a king which means my social status is higher, therefore I sat in the seat of honor, and Ashyl sat on the lesser sofa together with Angelica next to him. Lastly, each attendant stood behind their respective master.

“Nevertheless”. Prince Ashyl just sat and stared at my face which was right in front of him, “I heard the rumors that said that your majesty Hiyuki is a beauty, but it turns out you are a peerless beauty who would make even the moon blush.”  He gave me high praise with unrestrained emotion, then he suddenly turned serious and timidly asked me a question.  “―To be honest, I do not believe there is anyone in this world who could match your majesty. Is this not some kind of transformation spell?”

“My figure is what you see, unfortunately I don’t possess such an spell. ―So then, your highness, please call me ‘Hiyuki’ or ‘Princess’, as I am accustomed to being called in that way.”

The three people sighed in relief after I said so.

“That’s right! Then, from now on I can call you ‘Onee-sama’, right, Hiyuki-sama?”

Replying to Angelica’s lively voice, there is no other choice but for me to say “Sure, if it suits Angelica-sama”, and smile awkwardly, giving her a nod.  I really can’t reject her…

Even so, it’s Onee-sama… Onee-sama …an elder sister! I feel like I’m hearing a high pitched scraping noise of something eroding my almost dissipated male dignity or my proof of existence. (In the first place, with Tengai washing my body on the first day, putting on bra and panties, and going to the bathroom, almost 90% had already disappeared)

(ED Note: What? What male dignity?)

“Onee-sama?”

Angelica nodded enthusiastically at her brother’s question.

“I asked her before! Because when talking with Hiyuki-sama, she really gives off an ‘Onee-sama’ feeling!”

O-onee-sama feeling―. I wonder if with this my remaining dignity is finally gone?

“…Hmm, Onee-sama huh? ―Hiyuki-hime.” Perhaps facing a problem, Prince Ashyl ponders deeply, then looks at me with serious eerie look.

“What is it?”

“I…no, will you marry me?”

(TL/ED Note: Here he starts off with 俺 {ore}, but then switches to 私 {watashi}, a more formal way of speech)

―*SLIP!*

Three people excluding Prince Ashyl and Angelica all fell over.

“Oh my! Onii-sama, that’s a great idea! In that case, I could even openly call her ‘Onee-sama’ as my sister in law!”

No-no! Even the person himself looks so proud, like he just saw a Columbus egg. From where exactly did he jump to get to that senseless conclusion?!

“Are you a fool!?” I reflexively yelled that even against this country’s prince.

Then his attendant in the back, Carlos, who normally is supposed to make an unpleasant face when his master is treated poorly, also appears to be nodding twice in agreement. Perhaps this kind of statement is an everyday occurrence for him.  This guy also has it hard doesn’t he?

“…What exactly is this foolishness?”

A question mark floated on Prince Ashyl’s handsome face. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he was a high profile handsome man with his mixture of elegance, wild looks ,and his nearly red blonde hair. While thinking about why I had to explain this simple question to him, I gave him the answer in an easy-to-understand manner.

“Fine, here’s why. Presently, this country does not acknowledge our country. Not to mention that our country is composed of demons, and humankind does not approve of demons having the same privileges as humans. Even now there is no legal resolution. With me being a demon, there is no reason for you and I to have a legal marriage with this gap!”

Both Mikoto and Sir Carlos nodded in consent, but the on-topic prince said,

“That is where we have to make the people around us accept our love, right? If that’s the case, how about we make one or two children first before the de-facto marriage?” He gave another over the top proposal again.

Rather, a child huh…that means I have to give birth.  A kid obviously is not obtained from a pumpkin field after being carried by a stork.  What has to be done, I have to bear with trying to make a baby with this prince every night…Yes, that’s impossible.

As expected, my slightly remaining dignity is holding out, and my strong physiological rejection was showing.

“Unfortunately, I intend to keep my body pure until marriage, therefore I cannot accept that idea.”

I reject him softly and Angelica also nodded vehemently, agreeing with me.  “That’s right. Onii-sama, you were too rash in proposing marriage!”

“―Or more precisely, I believe you were already too rash when you offered me the marriage just 5 minutes after we met.” I added to her words with an ‘Are you stupid?’ tone.

“If you’re telling me that, I don’t have anything to say back, but you…ah, it’s okay, right? Is my way of speaking a bit rough? You were charming me so much.I believed that it was a once in a lifetime fateful encounter, so I thought it wouldn’t matter.”

(TL/ED Note: Now he switches back to 俺 {ore}, which is more masculine and less polite, less like royalty)

Even though I was told earnestly with a passionate gaze, and even though I was confessed to by this sordid man, who appears to have cute child-like side like Joey on occasion, but has a height exceeding 180cm with a thick chest relative to his age and emitting male hormones from his entire body, my heart isn’t throbbing at all.

“Onee-sama, maybe it is reasonable to not believe something that comes up so suddenly, but it is the first time I have seen my brother become so serious for someone. To strengthen my point, my brother surprisingly gets approached by a lot of women. Also, he gets marriage proposals often regardless of whether it is within the country or outside, but he rejects them all. It is the first time my brother has proposed to someone on his own. By no means is it just a temporary feeling, so with that would you please believe in it and accept his proposal?”

I was also appealed to by Angelica, passionately. Hmm, well it’s not that I don’t believe it.  But somewhere in her speech, I got that ‘I don’t want to believe it’ feeling.

“―Be that as it may, your highness. Picking her majesty Hiyuki as a wife is impossible in reality.”  Carlos who kept silent until now, opened his mouth.

“For example, even if your highness manages to earn the consent of your royalty’s origin, the house of nobles won’t approve it. On the contrary, they will take advantage of it and disinherit your highness as a traitor prince who sold his soul to a demon. ―Or perhaps I should say, that would also happen if this conversation here were to leak out.”

Ah―, well, that’s true if I think about it normally.  Yes, the flow of this conversation is kind of moving into a more serious discussion.

“House of nobles, huh? Those guys just keep hindering me all the time.”

With that, Prince Ashyl momentarily held a look that seemed as sharp as a sword’s edge.

Afterwards, he corrected his posture and turned toward me again.  “―Which reminds me, my invitation was originally about this one issue.  Hiyuki-hime, weren’t you contacted by the house of nobles?”

Hearing that, I shrugged my shoulders.  “There was a letter. Besides the prince’s passionate letter, the content was ‘All of your things are mine, so present everything you have’.”

“Hmm, that’s really like what those guys would say. Then, Hiyuki-Hime, how will you respond to it?”

“That would be, invading the capital with an army and massacring anyone resisting, along with this country’s higher ups, of course? ―Ah, except you guys, the act of killing someone with good will is an unjust thing. Well, that is only as long as they are not opposing me.”

My words made Angelica and Carlos hold their breath.

“Massacring those who opposed you would be understandable, but the higher ups too? I think that’s unreasonably excessive.”  Klang! Spontaneously, Sir Carlos who was criticizing me with such a tone was blown away together with a sound of broken metal, then his body crashed into the wall and made thundering sound.

“Really, such an unexpected person! Who permitted the likes of a servant such as yourself to speak directly to the princess?”  Mikoto raised her beautiful eyebrow and spit out her words while holding her favorite holy staff which, unknown to the rest of us, she had retrieved.

From his point of view, prince Ashyl was standing up and before he knew it, he was looking at his hand which held a broken sword.

That moment, the sword stopped Mikoto’s blow that was supposed to snatch Sir Carlos’s soul. Understanding that Ashyl’s protection can’t be penetrated, Mikoto instantly moved her legs to kick Sir Carlos out of her reach while simultaneously breaking Ashyl’s sword into pieces in a few short moments. No one but Mikoto and I saw it.

Of course, Angelica didn’t understand the situation. She just nervously compared her brother and Sir Carlos who held still, leaning against the wall and breathing roughly.

“Sorry, my subordinate’s impolite acts are my responsibility. I will apologize again and again. However, he is my important friend. Somehow would you at least please spare his life?”

Saying so, Prince Ashyl went down on both of his knees, bowed his head, and apologized right there.

“…Yo-your highness…”  Looking at his figure, Sir Carlos was at a loss for words, he then bit his lips and lowered his face.”

“My utterance was a concern about Prince Ashyl’s and Princess Angelica’s well-being, but it looks like it seemed rude. Please disregard it.”  Then I signaled to Mikoto with my eyes, she reluctantly pointed her holy staff towards the collapsed Sir Carlos.

She’s making the finishing blow?! Angelica left her seat in panic, but it seems Prince Ashyl had predicted what would happen. He lightly lowered his head in thanks.

“…You better give your thanks to the Princess generosity.”  Healing light wrapped around Sir Carlos’s whole body.

…Th-that’s good. If it was Tengai or Utsuho, they would absolutely kill him without any mercy.

End