CH 9

Chapter 9: Princess of Princesses.

After their encounter with the dragon, nothing special happened for the rest of the travel, Selene and the group arrived safely at Helifalte Kingdom. I wonder just how desolate this country would be, surely it’s something like demon lord’s castle or something, Selene thought. But soon her expectations would be shattered.

In Helifalte’s Kingdom, cities are designed with urban center in the middle, surrounding said urban center are lush green farmlands. As one goes deeper from the suburbs to the city center, the number of wooden buildings decrease and stone buildings increase, the building’s height, elaborateness and durability also become higher as well.

There are spacious pavements leading to the city center that are easily accessible by both carriages and people alike, and in places where river passes there are sturdy stone bridges installed to cross them. Even Selene, looking out from the gaps in the carriage, couldn’t spot any places where poor people with tattoos all over their body are hanging out.

What on earth is going on? Shouldn’t it be that the demon lord only cares about its own land being gorgeous, leaving the common people starving and ridden with diseases? This is strange, I wanted to get more information but Milano told me not to put my head out of the carriage, so I could only take a sneak peek from the gaps inside the carriage.

“Ohhh! Prince Milano is back!”

“Prince-sama! You must’ve been weary from such a long trip!”

Since I’m riding in covered carriage, I can make senses of the situation only by listening to the voices outside, but the further we headed toward the city center, the more voices of the people welcoming the prince become. I can only see Milano’s back at the carriage’s entrace from here, but it seems like he’s waving his hand to the people, answering them with a smile.

“Everyone, being fooled, no good.”

Selene’s talking to herself alone in the carriage. Although he might be good-looking, but in actuality he’s a scumbag who goes on the so-called bride searching journey, tearing apart the sisters from a small country that love each other very much, even abducts the littler sister as a hostage. Though Selene wanted to yell that out loud, but in her current position she can’t.

If the truth is poorly exposed, not only that she’ll be in danger but also Arue as well. For now she had no choice but to wait for another opportunity. Selene’s face tightens as she renewed her resolve to fight in the demon’s lair itself.

“Selene, we’re about to arrive at the royal palace. Sorry for the loud noises a moment ago.”

Milano turns his head back while still riding the horse, calling out to Selene with a strangely tensed expression. He wanted the travel to be as quiet as possible since she’s not used a crowd of people, but he can’t just not respond to the people welcoming him either. It’s because of these common people that the royalty still exists, that’s what Milano thought.

After a short while, the carriage Selene’s on seems to have entered the royal palace’s area. Now that she’ve been told that it’s fine for her to look outside now, so she sticks her head out of the carriage’s entrace to see the surrounding.

“Hieee.”

Selene’s dumb voice leaks out in amazement, but that is not without a reason. Helifalte’s royal palace area are so wide and spacious that Aquila’s royal palace area can’t even compare.

There are majestic sculptures of eagles and lions, a fountain that creates a small rainbow, a bright red rose garden, there are also flower beds with colorful flowers which Selene doesn’t know the name of. This place here is so beautiful that if she was told that this here is a garden museum she’d believe it without any questions.

Unlike back in Aquila where there’s only an old man leisurely managing the entire garden, here she sees a group of ten servants moving briskly, energetically tending to the land.

All the gardeners are full of energy, and when they see the prince, they all bowed respectfully. Although every one of them are just simple gardeners, their discipline are like that of a guard’s.

“Now then please excuse me, I’ll have to go to the barracks for a bit my lord. I have to tell them that we’re back.”

“Kuma, go already?”

“Haha, I’m sorry Selene-dono, though I do look like this but I’m still very much a busy man, let us meet again later.”

Selene could only see Kumahachi off worriedly as he walks away from the carriage.

“I have other things to do so you can go back first” is a convenient excuse often used by loners, so Selene really pitied him, seeing as he’s being treated as an errand boy.

“Kuma, don’t lose.”

Selene said those words as to encourage Kumahachi as he left, seemingly lonely. But Selene failed to notice that Kumahachi actually can go anywhere he wants at his own discretion, and is far higher in status than other servants. In Selene’s mind, she thought that Kumahachi couldn’t find any other dirty old men like him to befriend with, so he’s all alone and lonely.

“We’ll have to get in a carriage to go to the royal palace. I also need to report the matter regarding you to father as well, but you must be tired from the long journey right? You can go ahead and rest first.”

“But we, riding carriage though?”

“This carriage is for travelling only. It’d be outrageous to ride in this to the palace after all.”

Milano said as he prompts Selene to get off of the carriage she’s riding in, he also told other servants to take care of this carriage and after that they can go rest in their dorms. Selene and Milano were the only two left on the shoulder of the road, but then at the perfect timing, she sees a small carriage being pulled by two horses approaching. Behind the horses is a small simple looking box-like thing with a door and roof, just big enough for about two to three people to get in.

“From here we’ll have to use this carriage for travelling in the royal palace area.”

“We ride, this?”

“That’s right. All facilities here are quite a distance apart from each other if we walk after all. That’s why we have these carriages as regular service here.”

“Tch.”

Just how rich is this guy? Thought Selene as she clicked her tongue while climbing up the prepared carriage. Then, the coachman skillfully reins in the horses, proceeding along the paved road that is even flatter than in the city with a light clopping sound.

“That carriage! Stop right now! I said stop right nowー!”

The carriage moves forward leisurely for a while, but then suddenly a voice comes up from behind. That voice comes from a similarly small carriage, but it’s approaching at a fast pace as if the coachman is in a hurry.

“Milano-sama, what should we do?”

“Stop for now. There’s only one person who’d call me while I’m still riding in a carriage like this after all.”

Milano sighs while replying, the coachman reins in the horses again and make them stop. Milano steps out of the carriage and stands outside, and the carriage chasing after them quickly brakes and stopped alongside Milano’s. After that the carriage’s door opens, revealing the figure of a young girl stepping out.

“Nii-sama1, welcome back. ‘Bride Searching’ Journey must’ve been tiring for you isn’t it.”

“So it’s you Marie, and as soon as I came home you decided to be sarcastic huh.”

“That’s not it. Just welcoming you home is all, Wel・come・ing・you・home! I’ve been waiting for you by myself all this time after all.”

The one who speaks to Milano in an arrogant and sarcastic tone is a beautiful young girl. She’s a little older than Selene. And like Milano’s, her hair is platinum blonde in color that stretches down to her waist, her large sky-blue eyes have a hint of strong-willed in them. Her rosy crimson red dress adorns her body, refining the young girl’s gorgeousness even more, coloring her flamboyant appearance.

“Marie, right now I have to go to the royal palace. If you want to talk then I’ll listen to you later.”

“Yes right. The oh-so-grand First Prince like Nii-sama who has to travel to other countries places more importance on reporting things to Otou-sama1 and Okaa-sama1, more than his own little sister’s welcoming.”

The young girl said in a prickly tone. From what I heard, it seems like that golden hair beautiful loli is Milano’s little sister, Selene presumed while still inside the carriage.

“I’d love to play with you, but I’m in a hurry right now. This time I didn’t come back alone you see, there’s other person with me.”

“Liar. If you’re talking about Kumahachi then he went to the barracks already. I saw him with my own eyes.”

“No not that. Selene, sorry but can you come outside for a moment.”

As soon as Milano finished speaking, Selene climbs out of the carriage and immediately goes behind Milano before clinging to his back tightly. But since their height is too different, rather than saying that she clings to his back, it’d be more correct to say that she’s grabbing his waist.

“The girl that’s hiding behind you? She’s quite tiny isn’t she.”

“Selene, this girl here is Marie, my little sister. There’s no need to be so scared, she won’t bite.”

“I’ll never bite in the first place!”

Marie cry out angrily, which made Selene’s hands around Milano’s waist tighten even more. Milano’s mind is getting shaken, thinking that Selene’s frightened because of his strong-willed little sister, in reality however that’s not the case at all. Selene’s just trying to deal as much damage to the prince as she can that’s all.

He’s probably enjoying his life to the fullest, seeing that he’s rich, strong, handsome, and on top of all that he also has a cute little sister as well. Selene who’s burning fiercely with envy and anger, grabs the Prince who’s full of gaps from behind, trying desperately to do a German suplex on him.

However, it’s impossible for a delicate young girl to even lift the Prince up, though if it’s her previous old man self then that might still be manageable. After struggling for a while Selene’s finally tired and releases her hands, before nodding in greeting to Marie with only her head out from the Prince’s back. From Marie’s position, Selene must’ve looked like a shy young girl who’s using the Prince as a shield, poking her head out timidly.

“Selene, here, nice meet you.”

“Wah.”

Seeing Selene peeking out from behind Milano bashfully, Marie puts her hands over her wide-open mouth.

“She looks like a doll more than a real doll……”

Marie muttered after seeing Selene whose beauty is peerless even when still young. Though Marie knows that she’s a beauty herself as well, but the young girl in front of her is so radiant that it blew her away.

“Hey Nii-sama! Who’s this girl!? She’s super cute! Or did you finally granted me my wish!?”

“No, it’s not like that you see……”

Marie draws closer to Milano while he’s struggling to find the right answer to give her.

“Wish, what, is it?”

Hearing Selene asking from behind, Milano confessed as if he has resigned himself.

“Well, Marie keep pestering me saying that she ‘wants a cute little sister’ you see. Though I already told her that it’s impossible.”

Milano reminiscence the scenes that are still vivid to him. Marie apparently is jealous of him of the fact that he can travel to other countries alone, but she can’t. So everytime Milano goes to other country she’d give him various orders such as ‘I want that jeweries there.’ or ‘I want national costume from that country.’

Though all of those things are difficult to obtain, but for the sake of his adorable little sister, Milano would do his best to accomplish her wishes every time. But gradually Marie’s requests escalate, and in the end it’s ‘Since it’s you, my wonderful Nii-sama, I know that you can do it. This time I want a cute little sister’ or so she said, a truly absurd request.

Go ask father and mother for that, he was about to tell her that but the words stucked in his throat, but if she actually go and ask them that’d spell trouble for him as well so in the end he didn’t tell her. But still, there’s no way he could grant her that wish, so he thought that maybe if he leave it alone she’ll just forget about it, never in his wildest dreams would he thought that he’d accomplish her request this way.

“Nii-sama, can I bring her along with me? You said your name is Selene right? Let’s play!”

“No you can’t. She’s a little bit of a special case you see, and also she must be tired from the long journey. I must have her rest for today.”

“Ehー! It’s just for a little while so it’ll be okay! Nii-sama you’re way too strict!”

“Don’t say such selfish things. Be a good girl and do what you’re told.”

Milano reprimanded her, and Marie looks down slightly in dejection.

“……Nii-sama you’re always like this. You never listen to what I said.”

“This girl’s body isn’t quite healthy you see. Once she recovers I’ll let you two play together.”

“Whatever, I’ll just play alone!”

Marie said angrily before jumping onto the same carriage she came out of before driving away to the royal palace. After the storm has passed, Milano and Selene got into the carriage again, telling the coachman to continue.

“As you can see Marie is a little selfish and a little hard to please, but deep down she’s a good girl. So if possible I want you two to get along.”

“……Un.”

Selene lightly nods. At first Selene was cooking up a plan on how to burn the whole royal palace down, and also many other dangerous plans similar to that one. She couldn’t care less about the Prince dying, but she can’t risk burning such a cute blonde loli alive. Now that she has to think up of a way to assassinate only the Prince without collateral damage, thus the challenge’s difficulty ramps up even more and it made her head hurts.

“Royal palade, over there?”

“No not that one, that’s just a horse stable.”

The horse carriage proceeds foward while Selene’s crafting up her evil plans. As they’re getting closer and closer to Helifalte’s royal palace, the buildings that look like Aquila’s royal palace start to appear. Each time Selene sees one she’d ask is that the royal palace? But she’d get the answers such as ‘that’s the horse stable’ or ‘that’s the chapel’. Every time she hears such answers, Selene’s hatred gauge towards the Prince rises rapidly.

“We’ve arrived. From today on this is where you’ll live.”

In the innermost part of the beautiful garden, the place where Milano led Selene to can only be described as a chalky white palace.

The huge white palace is not so glamorous in terms of color. However, every single wall and pillars here are polished to the finest white with no excessive decorations adorning them, giving the palace both solemn and elegant appearance

As soon as the Prince arrives in front of the palace, the servants inside immediately formed a line to greet him as if to care of their master’s tiredness from the long journey. Milano is apparently already used to this and only lightly waves his hand to greet them.

Upon seeing the tiny little girl behind him, all the servants made a curious face, but because they’re all well-trained and educated they didn’t pry any further. Milano explains the brief version of the circumstances to the nearest servant and told him to guide Selene inside the palace.

The floor inside the palace is made out of polished marble with crimson red carpet laid on top. The corridor is wide enough for a single small-sized carriage to pass through easily, along it are sets of silver armors and goddess statues. The redness of the carpet and the whiteness of the wall, when blended together helps create the solemn atmosphere within this palace.

While the exterior is simple yet solemn and majestic, the interior also possess that same simplicity, but majestic and elegant in its own style, enough to receive guests from other countries proudly and flexibly without offending anyone. Truly a building that symbolizes this country.

“From today on this here will be your room. Sorry that this is just an extra room, but I already have it cleaned. It might be a little small but please bear with it in the meantime.”

The place where Milano had his servant lead to while he’s explaining apologetically, is a single room that’s spacious enough for you to play some sports in it. It has the same red fluffy carpet as in the corridor, a big that’s big enough for five Selene to sleep in, and some expensive furnishings here and there, such as a full-length mirror with golden trim, not too much in the room that it’ll get in the way.

On the other hand, Selene felt an urge to chop this Prince’s head with an axe in two, then write the meaning of ‘small’ on his very brain with a permanent marker.

“I’d like to stay with you a little longer, but I’ll have to go to where my father…… where the king of this country is and explain him the situation you see. I’ve already prepared a personal maid for you so if you have anything you can ask her right away.”

“Maid!?”

Selene immediately blooms into a smile upon hearing that sweet word. A maid that has been polished by the great nation, what a wonderful sounding word.

“Ahhh, don’t worry Selene. I’ve arranged a skilled maid for you. She’s an expert on this field with thirty years of experience. There’s noting to worry about.”

“Eh.”

Are you out of your mind Prince? Selene protests without a moment delay.

“Young girl, okay.”

At first Milano thought that Selene was asking him, but then he immediately understands what she’s trying to say a moment after. Selene’s a smart girl. That’s why she know that she’s currently a burden to this country. She deemed that she’s not worthy enough to have a skilled and kind-hearted maid assigned to her, so she’s saying that she doesn’t mind being assigned with an inexperienced young maid.

“You don’t need to worry about it. since I’m also involved in this situation one way or another, I wanted to do as much as I can to take care of you. I may still be inexperienced, but at least I can look after you. So you should take a rest both on your body and mind here for a while.”

Milano tries to comfort the pitiful little princess as gently as he could before leaving the room. Selene who was left behind finally realized that it’s the Prince plan to monopolize all the beautiful maids to himself only, and resents at the Sex-Crazed Prince’s poor excuse even more.

But there’s no point in staying angry forever. After confirming that she’s alone, Selene closes the door and calls out to her only ally.

“Butler, please.”

“Understood. I’ll begin my investigation right now.”

Butler whose name was called peeks out from the chest of Selene’s dress. The day before she entered Helifalte Kingdom, she had hid Butler inside her own clothes. Butler is clever, small and also agile, making him perfect for espionage missions. He’s also stronger than average humans in term of combat prowess, so when the time calls for it he can defend himself. He has become a literal right-hand man for Selene, a truly reliable butler.

Butler crawls out of Selene’s dress and jumps onto the red carpet on the floor, then immediately begin to inspects every nook and cranny of this spacious room, making full use of his keen senses of smell and hearing.

“Please do not worry. It seems like there are no suspicious objects in here. Though this room is still lacking for the great Princess, but for a temporary stay I’d say this room passes the mark.”

After knowing that there are no traps or something along those line in this room, Selene patted her chest in relief. Though Helifalte’s guest room can be considered one of the highest class room possible in the entire continent, but apparently Butler deemed that it’s still not enough for Princess Selene. Once Butler’s inspection job was over, he quickly approaches Selene, bowing respectfully in front of her.

“Princess, I’m very much sorry about this but I think I’d need some alone time. I must go talk to the mouses around here you see. It shouldn’t take that long, but in the meantime please do rest well while waiting for me.”

As quickly as he speaks, Butler agilely rushes out through the gap in the door. In order to escort Princess in times of emergency, he must have the information on every nook and cranny of Helifalte’s royal palace and its surrounding as fast as possible.

“Sleepy……”

Now that’s both Milano and Butler are gone, she felt safe and secure for the time being. Without even batting an eyes on other shiny glittering furnishings, Selene dove headfirst into the bed.

Since Selene left Aquila, she has been living a healthy lifestyle. At sunrise they would travels through the wilderness by horse carriage, only stopping for lunch and some small breaks at intervals. Before nightfall, if they’re nearby a town they’ll go there and find a lodging, if not they’ll set up a camp. And when dinner’s over, they’ll leave some night watchman around the camp before sleeping, preparing for tomorrow’s journey.

Such an extremely healthy and refreshing lifestyle made Selene feels like her body is crumbling down. Selene’s a night owl person, a human who can’t function normally if she doesn’t receive twelve hours of sleep a day, so even now she’s still sleepy. She crawls into the white feather blanket while rubbing her eyes.

Unlike her previous stiff and dirty blanket, the blanket and mattress here are very soft and feel nice to touch, enticing Selene into the world of dreams. She must get the plan for assassasinating Prince Milano done, but instead she closes her eyes, thinking that she can leave it to her tomorrow self, and thus the drowsiness slowly lures her in――

“Selene!”

But suddenly, the door opens with a tremendous force. While thinking that it’s so noisy, Selene unwillingly raises her upper body from the bed, and what she sees is the blonde hair loli―― the Prince’s little sister Marie standing there.

“Ah, it’s loli.” (loli da)

“It’s not Itsloli (Lolida). It’s Marie. Maribelle Helifalte, the first princess of this country. Helifalte you see, it’s the biggest country on the continent, and I’m that country’s princess you know. In other words, I’m the princess among princesses. Understand?”

“Amazing.”

Selene’s quite sleepy so she just replied with whatever comes to her head first, but her response surprisingly made Marie feels good. Every time she told someone of her status, be it the aristocrat’s daughters or princesses from other countries, they’ll either act humble or arrogant, so hearing Selene’s honest reply with no poisons in it like this is quite a new and refreshing experience for her.

“You, you’re pretty honest kid. You interested me.”

“Marie, what can I, do for you?”

“It’s Maribelle-sama. Hey, Selene. I’m giving you the chance to play with me. So come.”

“……Okay.”

Though Selene’s very sleepy and wanted to chase her away immediately, but being asked by a blonde loli princess like this, she had no choice but to follow her. She sluggishly crawls out of the bed, and Marie shows her a truly wonderful smile.

“Ah, um…… Maribelle-sama, Selene-sama is quite tired right now so perhaps tomorrow……”

A little elderly maid tries to voice her opinion to Marie. Perhaps this is the maid that is assigned to Selene, but such words couldn’t deter Marie at all.

“Quiet! Me, the greatest princess of all, is saying that I’m giving you the chance to play with me! And that’s okay with you, right Selene?

“Okay.”

That’s right, this is the one-in-a-million chance. In her previous life, it’s impossible for her to play with a young girl, let alone talk to her without getting reported to the police. So to Selene, she must accept the blonde loli princess’s invitation no matter how sleepy she is, or how much blood she had to pay for.

“Then let’s go to my room right away.” (Marie)

“Maribelle, -sama, me, unknow people, room go, okay?”

“……You don’t have to care about that. Nii-sama, Otou-sama and Okaa-sama don’t even pay attention to me anyway.”

Passing through the maid who’s watching the situation with worried face, Marie energetically pulls the yet-to-full-awake Selene along with her, and Selene of course follows her with unsteady steps.