Chapter 15: CH 15

Chapter 15: Princess of Valbell.

Two days after the visit to Valbell Kingdom has been decided, it’s finally time for Selene and Milano to depart Helifalte. On this trip, escort soldiers are few, as well as the number of maids to take care of Selene as well. All in all, a much lower number of people than in past journeys. One of the reason for that was because the neighboring country’s princess is quite picky about outward appearances, thus they had to carefully select only the good-looking people they could find.

Even the horse carriage this time is adorned with many decorations and engravings, the kind of thing that’ll be more appropriate to call it a piece of fine art rather than a horse carriage, totally unlike the one used in previous journeys that emphasized mainly on practicality. However, there’s also one more thing that’s totally different from the previous journey, something that made Selene grumpy from the lack of it.

Inside the horse carriage, Selene, sitting helplessly next to Milano, complained.

“Why, Kuma, not here?”

“We’re going to Valbell this time you see. Kumahachi is quite not fit for the job.”

Milano answered shortly. In simple national power comparison, Helifalte’s about two or three times more mighty than Valbell. However, Valbell being this continent’s number two is still a fact nonetheless.

Kumahachi is someone who has the prowess but not the looks. It’s not like he’s dirty, but he also doesn’t like formal clothes either. For previous countries they visited during the journey, they can use Helifalte’s mightiness to steamroll them into accepting this bad habit of this, but not on Valbell.

Besides, Helifalte and Valbell are only about three days away by horse carriage. There are lots of inns along the way that also served as guard posts, so bandits rarely appear. So bringing Kumahachi along would be, in many meanings, unnecessary when other soldiers can also serve the same role as him.

However, Selene doesn’t understand the situation around these parts very well. Even though they brought along Kumahachi when going to remote countries, but when visiting a big country, they instead leave him behind, so Selene couldn’t help but assume that they were deliberately bullying him while excusing it with appropriateness and stuff. Selene pitied the Poor Elephants1, or rather the poor bear1.

In order to look away from the fiendish prince, Selene gazes outside the horse carriage with her hand supporting her cheek. Then, under the shining blue sky, she sees a gigantic crimson red creature flying by. It’s the same dragon she saw when she departed from Aquila.

“Dragon, again, flying.”

Selene muttered in a very thrownaway tone, as if she was saying ‘Not that guy again’. At first, it was a shock for her to see a dragon, but after she arrived at Helifalte, she saw it everyday flying to the south in the morning, and in the evening it flew back to the north, so it’s getting boring for her. No matter how rare and popular pandas or koalas might be, but if one watches them for hours everyday you’ll eventually get tired of them, the same logic applies here.

“Gold, silver, ones none?”

Selene complained to the red dragon flying high in the sky, flying away without even a single glance at her.

It’s sure boring to see only that red guy everyday, is there no gold or silver guys around here? Or is it their kinds are that rare to begin with? No matter what the reason is, I really want them to consider their audience’s feelings at least a little, Selene complained selfishly inside her head to the red dragon flying away. But dragons are not entertainers, so it’s up to them to decide what they wanted to do.

After three days of riding inside the horse carriage, Selene and the group finally reached Valbell Kingdom. If it were any other countries that isn’t Valbell, then Milano would’ve stayed there for a few weeks, studying the country’s culture, geography and stuff, but for this country Milano planned to leave as soon as possible.

The royal capital of Valbell is indeed splendid, fitting for the nation second only to Helifalte, all in all a considerably magnificent city. If we’re considering only the liveliness here, then it might be even superior than Helifalte’s royal capital. However――

“So dirty.”

“So you think so as well Selene.”

Exactly as Selene said, although the center is prosperous, but its development is warped. Buildings that look like they were copied straight out of Helifalte’s architecture book stood tall on the main road, their exterior are excessively and uselessly elaborate. In contrast, just one street off to the rear and the buildings turned shabby. A cityscape that looks like a fake version of somewhere.

“It’s because Valbell forcibly remodeled its city to resemble Helifalte you see. But they probably didn’t pay enough attention to the details. Its central part may be elegant, but for the backstreets, it’s as you can see.”

“Boring.”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

Selene gazes upon the gold-gilded city, her expression seems to be a little angry. Milano, seeing her expression from the side, also agrees with her as well. Only the wealthy few are given favorable treatment, and the rest of the citizens were cast aside. With this kind of governing, the nation will soon meet its dead end. If it’s currently good for us now then all is well, such a train of thought is truly boring indeed.

However, what Selene meant by boring doesn’t concern the citizens of Valbell at all. ‘Why can’t this place be Helifalte instead?’ is what she meant. If the nation’s king is a tyrant, its citizens a bunch of thugs, then she wouldn’t have to feel guilty for destroying such a nation. She’d like them to at least consider the doctorSelene‘s feeling when she had to precisely remove only the tumorMilano with a scapel without affecting other areas of the patientcountry‘s body, thus unreasonable irritation arises within her.

Passing through the main street in silence, Selene and Milano finally arrived at Valbell’s royal palace. Unlike Helifalte’s achitecture, the buildings here are decorated in gold all around the building, boasting its sheer size. It was, no doubt, costly to construct, but it feels more like they just attached any valuables they could find to the building, like a clown dressed in many layers of clothing.

Milano talks with the guard near the castle gate, in which the guard asks both Milano and Selene to get off the carriage, then they took custody of the horse carriage before leading it away. Seems like they’ve a dedicated carriage yard somewhere else.

“Oh my! Prince Milano! You’re here at last!”

Milano and Selene get off the carriage before steadily approaching the palace. When they’re near the entrace they hear a shrill voice. Immediately after the voice, a woman approaches Selene and her group, shaking off her servants that are trying to hold her back.

Her age is about the same as Arue, with voluminous chestnut hair and reddish brown eyes, colorful jeweled rings on every finger, adorned in purple dress with large amount of shiny gold or silver ornaments.

“Haa, you’re the same as ever.”

Seeing such an appearance, Milano openly clicked his tongue with a disgusted expression, something very usual of him. Selene also frowns as well. But of course, not frowning to the lady in front of her but to Milano. Don’t be so picky when a woman’s literally offering herself to you, she thought.

“Long time no see. Princess Ente.”

“Oh my, please don’t be too formal by calling me Princess Ente, Prince Milano. Just Ente is alright. If possible, I’d like to drop the Prince part of yours as well.”

The woman called Ente, with ornaments covering her entire body and slanted eyes, she forcefully holds Milano’s hand. Milano mobilizes all of his mental strength and somehow manage to make a smile, then casually take a step back on one foot while shaking hand.

“I came here this time just to greet you while still on my studying journey. I’m grateful for your care, but I’ll have to be modest this time as well.”

“Geeeーz! You’re still as formal as ever.”

Milano’s barely able to keep his smile on, but if you look closely you can see that his smile is a forced one. The only people not noticing this are Ente herself, whose expression looks like she has a fever, and Selene who’s full of jealousy. Feeling the hatred gaze eminating from a pair of red eyes diagonally below him, Milano hurriedly makes an excuse.

“Selene, this person here is Princess Ente. The princess of Valbell, an acquiantance from my childhood.”

An acquiantance, Milano stressed this word.

And it also seems like Ente’s finally noticing Selene’s presence. Apparently, there’s only Milano and no one else in her field of view.

“What’s up with this little shrimp?”

“This girl here is Selene, and because of various circumstances, I’m currently taking care of her.”

“Circumstances!? What circumstances!? Why is Prince Milano keeping her!?”

“I’m not keeping her. I’d like to ask you to refrain from using immodest words in front of a child.”

“Heh…… Prince Milano is…… a woman other than me…… is it.”

Hearing what Milano said, Ente sends a death glare at Selene. Even for the old man Selene who likes beautiful young girl, that light in Ente’s eyes make her takes a step back. I can’t, this person is scary. Fortunately, Ente immediately returns her sight to Milano after that.

“Hey, Prince Milano. May I ask you something?”

“What’s it?”

“Why is it you called『Princess Ente』 with me, but you called this shrimp by its name?”

“Well you asked why, but this girl is like, one of my servant you see. So it’s natural to call her by her name, is it not?”

“I’ve told you many times that I’d like you to call me like that as well, am I not!”

“This girl and Princess Ente’s status are different after all.”

Milano cleverly utilizes the different in status into his advantage, casually getting through the situation. Ente is a person with very intense temperament after all, if you answers her request once, her next request will gradually escalate. Therefore, Milano’s trying to brush it aside as formally as possible.

“Well, it’s fine I suppose. Since Prince Milano finally comes here, it’d be boring to be angry all the time. I’m a benevolent person after all, so I’ll forgive that child’s rudeness toward me.”

“But, me, did nothing.” (Selene)

“……What did you just say?”

“No, nothing, ma’am.”

Her tone as cold as ice, made even Selene take back her words and her back stand up straight. She even saluted her for some reason.

“Very well, let’s cast this all-too-formal greetings aside and get inside shall we? Ever since I heard that Prince Milano is on a journey far away from home country, I’ve been cleaning the guest room every single day you know. And・of・course, that includes my bedroom as well.”

With the tone of voice as if to charm men, Ente makes an elegant gesture for Milano to enter. And naturally for Selene, Ente ignores her completely like a pebble on the roadside.

Though unable to publicly announce it, Selene is still a royalty nonetheless. Being looked down upon like this is probably the greatest humilation for her. Thinking so, Milano looks at her apologetically, But Selene seems to be calm and composed, like the willows that sway along with the wind, not against it. Unlike the gaudy princess in front of him, this little girl here stays dignified, making Milano honestly impressed.

Though it’s simply just that Selene never has something like royalty pride to begin with.

When Selene sees Princess Ente’s behavior, it instead make her feels relieved. Princess Ente is certainly a beauty, but that gleaming light in her eyes and her small face made Selene thinks that she looks somewhat like a praying mantis. She’d be really envious if his childhood friend was the cute and kind-hearted type like Arue, but now that Selene knows her personality, she can push the Prince to her without any worries.

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But apparently Milano doesn’t like Princess Ente that much, seeing as he wants to avoid any contact with her as much as possible. But even if God forgives him for trying to avoid Ente, Selene will not. She’ll use any means necessary to get Prince Milano to be more intimate with this praying mantis-like princess.

“Serves, you right.”

Selene mumbled quietly in her mouth so that the voice doesn’t leak out. Selene remembered from somewhere that female praying mantis have high probablity to eats the male partner after copulation, and so she giggles to herself, thinking that was a brilliant analogy from her.

“Selene, please give me a little help.”

“Eh? Wha? Hya-!?”

Milano whispers softly to Selene so that only she could hear. Immediately after that, Milano uses both of his hand to scoop Selene’s body up, holding her in his arms. It’s the so-called princess carry.

Selene, who was imagining the scene where the Prince is being firmly held, shredded to pieces and eaten alive by the giant praying mantis just now, couldn’t react in time, thus she was held up without being able to resist. Now she’s the one being firmly held by the Prince instead. Such is irony.

“Prince Milano!? What exactly are you doing!?”

And, the one who’s even more astonished than Selene is none other than Princess Ente in front of her.

“Please excuse me. Selene has weak constitution you see. So let us have a chat later, for now I’d like to let her rest first, is there anywhere she can take a rest? You said that you cleaned the guest room daily right?”

“That is…… B-, but Prince Milano you didn’t have to carry her! She can walk on her own just fine isn’t she!”

“This girl’s body is not that strong you see, even right after we brought her to Helifalte, she was so tired that she collapsed.”

What Milano said is undeniably a fact. When he said that, a part of it was out of concern for Selene, and another part was for avoiding conversations with Ente. It’s half-truth half-lie in a sense.

On the other hand, Selene’s trying to escape from his arms, flailing about like a kitten who didn’t want to be held. Unfortunately however, the difference in their physical strength is too large. It looks like an amateur being tightly grappled by a judo master, thus she could only flails her little legs around.

“……Very well then. I’ll have someone from the castle guides you.”

“You have my thanks. Then I’ll see you later.”

Milano bows slightly with elegant movements before walking past Ente. Seeing that they walked past by, Ente turns to look at them with Hannya Demon-like2 expression. Though fortunate, or perhaps unfortunately, both Milano and Selene didn’t see that face of hers. The servant acting as a guide leads them inside, before having the two entering the room dedicated for Selene.

“Let me go!”

As soon as they enter the room, the thin thread of patience within Selene finally snapped, and so she mercilessly slaps Milano on his cheek. In Selene’s mind, she thinks she’s slapping with a force so strong that it’ll snap his neck right off his shoulders, but in reality Milano feels almost nothing. Milano lowers Selene down to the floor without a hint of pain on his face. Selene then immediately flees to the corner of the room like a scared rabbit, and with her back against the wall, she makes a 大 letter pose as if trying to intimidate him.

“I’m sorry. If I let Ente keeps going on like that I’ll really be taken into her room you see.”

“You taken, better.”

“Please don’t say something like that. Also I must apologize for saying that you were of different status earlier, even though it’s for simple pleasantries. I must apologize for suddenly holding you as well. But I really can’t handle that princess you see.”

“Hmph!”

Even when Milano apologizes, Selene’s anger doesn’t seem to be dissipating any time soon. She’s probably thinking that he’s mingling intimately with another girl. Milano shrugs his shoulders, and just like every time he had to deal with the upperclass ladies, he bows down respectfully. Yet the area between Selene’s brows is still wrinkled.

‘Her jealousy is deeper than I thought……’

Though in actuality, it’s just that she doesn’t like being lifted up by the Prince, who was just being considerate, nothing more.

“I’ll have to go and greet the people in this castle you see, so Selene you should go ahead and rest first.

Milano said and left the room, leaving Selene alone.

“As I thought, nothing good ever comes from being involved with Ente……”

Rubbing the cheek that was slapped just now, Milano leans on the door and sighs.

Though this journey is supposed to be a studying journey, but to be honest there’s really nothing that can be learned in Valbell.

Perhaps because Valbell sees Helifalte as its rival, so most of their culture are forcibly changed to resemble Helifalte. There is also not much unique industry or knowledge that utilizes this region’s geography too, all in all just a cheap copy of Helifalte.

Valbell also probably only wants to publicly announces that ‘The Prince from the great nation has come all the way to greet us’ and nothing more. The person who really wants him to visit is probably only Ente who’s too attched to him. He judged that it’d be the best course of action to withdraw from here as soon as possible. While hoping that Selene’s mood will be better by dinner time, Milano goes to exchange the annoying social pleasantries alone.

“Tastes, horrible.”

On the other hand, Selene, who’s now all alone in the room, is cringing at the room’s interior. Almost all of the furnitures in this room are gilded in gold, and on top of that, there’re also a lot of mysterious objects that seems to be art pieces, carpet with bear head attached to it, a taxidermied deer head on the wall, and many more furnishings that she has only ever seen in animes and mangas.

『All of these are nothing but frabications, deception if you will.』

While Selene’s playing with the bear head on the carpet by sticking her hand into it, Butler who has been staying inside Selene’s dress obediently until now suddenly jumps out, as if he has run out of patience.

『Good God! What is up with these horrendous things! How dare they offer such a hideous room to the great Princess! Though every one of these furnitures are covered in gold, but they’re nothing but third and fourth rate piece of arts, what a truly horrible tastes indeed. And also, please have a look at this.』

Butler jumps up onto the shelf with one big leap while also venting his anger, he then holds a small vial turns the it around with both of his hand. Heaps of dust fall out from the bottle.

『It looks beautiful only at the visible parts, but it seems like they doesn’t care about the details at all.』

“Butler, you housewife?”

The way Butler complains sounded like a housewife checking on the window and sees that there’re dust everywhere, which made Selene chuckles.

Basically the room itself have a bad taste, but the bed is quite nice if we exclude the fact that it is leopard print. But there’re only two things that’re important for Selene, one is if the amount of food is sufficient or not, and second is the bed comfortable to sleep. Well, Selene’s actually able to sleep anywhere as long as she has a futon to begin with, even a thin one.

『I think Princess is too kind for your own good. That little girl Ente is going to take advantage of you.』

However, after saying that much Butler begins to rethink what he thought. Her merciful and generous heart is the proof of a monarch. The evidence of a person with great capabilities. She even accepted a vermin like him, granted him with wisdom and power, such a great Princess would surely be compassionate even against such a hateful attitude, able to laugh it off and forgives the rudeness toward her. Thinking such, wouldn’t it be idiotic of him to be upset with that girl’s attitude? His master is always one step ahead of him.

『Good grief, seems like I still have a long way to go as the Princess’s butler.』

“Eh? What?”

『Princess, I’d like to go and have a look at the state of the kitchen here, so may I leave for a while?』

“You, hungry?”

『Not at all, but that little girl called Ente seems to like Prince Milano you see. She gives you such a horrendous room like this, I’m afraid that they’ll serve you terrible food as well. So I’d like to investigate the ingredients used.”

“I allow.”

『Thank you very much. Then this Butler will get to work immediately.』

He stands on two legs and bows respectfully to Selene. Butler dashes off like an arrow, jumping right out of the opened window. And so Selene, now truly alone, lies down on the bed, thinking about what to do next.

“What do I do……”

With one hand, Selene grabs her silky white hair like threads of silk hard. Selene’s plan at first was something like, since Ente’s the fashionable type of princess, she probably would invite Selene to a tea party or something. She’d then casually try to slip in topics about the Prince to Ente. After that it’ll be like 「How dare he makes a girl cry, he’s the worstー!」 or something, creating an awkward atmosphere between them, slowly forcing them to be together, that was the plan. It was a brilliant plan that took her two hours of precious sleep time to come up with.

But because of the Prince’s dumb behaviors, the plan is now useless. She must create a new plan immediately. However, she wonders just how on earth can she have a meeting with Princess Ente.

If she is able to publicly announce her position as the Princess of Aquila, then perhaps it’ll be possible to forcibly and directly have a tea party with her, but unfortunately that method is not possible.

Which means that the only time she can meet her is during dinner only. But there will probably be other people other than Princess Ente as well. It’d be better if there’re only three of us, Milano, Ente and herself. Thinking about such things, Selene desperately squeezes every atom of her intelligence that she doesn’t possesses, but suddenly there’s a knock on the door, and about at the same time the door is hurriedly opened.

“Ojou-chan3, how are you feeling?”

“Princess, Ente?”

What extreme luck is this. Princess Ente that she has been wondering about on how to meet her, has come to see her in person.

“There’s something I’d like to talk about with you, I wonder if that’s fine with you?”

“Un!”

Selene smiles brightly, knowing that God is on the side of righteous after all.

However, Selene failed to notice that Princess Ente’s eyes are sharp cold, as if she’s looking at a hatred enemy.

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