Chapter 5: CH 5

Translator: Keeez

Chapter 5: Tribute.

Milano successfully survives through the dinner party in one piece, avoiding the girls at the party like how a bullfighter would dodge the raging bull’s charge. In the next day’s afternoon, Milano, accompanied by Kumahachi, goes to have a talk with a certain man, and apparently that man is this country’s chancellor.

“Did you enjoy last night’s banquet? That was the best hospitality our country can offer.”

“Thank you for your hospitality. Chancellor-dono.”

Though he didn’t say that he enjoyed it, the Chancellor smiles happily. And although Milano has done this kind of lip service many times before, but he still can’t get used to the feeling that he’s lying to himself.

“I’m very glad to hear that. Now, I’d like to present to you His Majesty our tribute.”

Milano thought to himself ‘This again.’ but didn’t show that emotion on his face. That’s because this is something that he has already expected to happen. During his journey, not only he has to deal with the girls by gently rejecting them one by one, this is also another matter he has to deal with as well, which is ‘Tribute’. First they’ll use lovely ladies to charm him, and after that they’ll follow up with luxurious gifts to impress him.

This is more troublesome than dealing with the girls in many way. If handled poorly or outright refusing without considering other’s party honour, in the worst case, this could lead to the bonds between nations being severed. Perhaps if he had power and authority like his father he could just refusing by saying “I do not need it!” straight in his face, but Milano is still but a prince, so he had no choice but to accept all of it as to not cause any troubles.

However, there is only so much you can stuff in such a small horse carriage, so everytime the carriage gets full, he had no choice but to go back to his home country, which is a problem in itself. That’s why the progess on his continential journey is significantly slower than what initially planned, which give Milano a huge headache.

“Though Aquila is a small country, but with have large patches of lush grassland. The horses raised here is of excellent quality, suited for both military use or agricultural use. Or if you’d like, our deer’s pelts are also the highest of quality……”

Milano, tired of listening to this Chancellor appealing his country to him, interrupts him, knowing well that it’s rude to do so.

“I appreciate the gift you’d like to give me, but there’s one place I’d like to visit. Could you please guide me to that place?”

“Certainly. I’ll immediately arrange and prepare any sightseeing spots the Prince wishes to go.”

“Then let’s head there with haste. Kumahachi, come with me.”

“As you command.”

And the place Milano told the Chancellor that he wishes to go is, to put it bluntly, the place that made no senses at all. Because the place he told him was a place that is situated in the corner of the Royal Palace, a place that is akin to that of a garbage dump, the warehouse. While he had many questions in his mind, the Chancellor had no choice but to guide him there.

“U-, um, Prince Milano. This place is just a humble warehouse though?”

“Just a humble warehouse, huh. Or is it that there’s an incredible treasure lies within, by any chances?”

The moment he said that, the Chancellor’s cheek twitched, which Milano noticed.

“No not at all, as you can see, it is a dirty place where people throw away things they don’t need here. It is not a place that a man of high status like Prince Milano would set foot in……”

“Didn’t you say that my lord can go anywhere he wishes to? Or is all that a lie?” (Kumahachi)

“No no no! I wouldn’t dare lie to His Majesty Prince of Helifalte Kingdom!”

“Then that shouldn’t be a problem. I’d like you to open the door quickly though.”

Cornered by the young lion and the young bear, the Chancellor had no choice but to order the gardener to open the door. Inside, it’s as dark as it appears from the outside, damp and moldy odor spreads throughout the building, Milano and Kumahachi frowned unplesantly. They walk up to the second floor, and guess the room’s position from where they found it last night.

‘As I thought……’

Milano nodded, and Kumahachi nodded back quietly. In the innermost part of this warehouse, this room’s door is not made from tattered wood, but instead made from iron and looks sturdy.

“This door seems quite sturdy isn’t it. So this country likes to spend a lot of money for the door to a room that stores only junk huh.”

“That is, well, this room is a little special compared to other rooms so……”

“What’s so special about it? I’d like you to explain that to me.”

“I do not have the authority to do that, my prince.”

“How peculiar. It is something that even Chancellor-dono’s could not explain, yet it is contained in such a garbade dump-like place such as this?”

With Milano and Kumahachi’s continuous strikes, the Chancellor, unable to answer, is in cold sweat. Perhaps the phrase ‘Between the hammer and the anvil’ is for a situation like this.

“Can I look inside for a bit?”

“Eh?”

“I, the First Prince of Helifalte Kingdom, Milano Helifalte, is asking you if it’s okay to look inside.”

Milano answered exaggerately as if to threatens him. Though he doesn’t like to flaunt his influence like this, but if he doesn’t use it things would go nowhere. The Chancellor had no choice but to nod in respond to the prince’s intimidating request. Then Milano reaches his hand out to the door, but suddenly, pale white sparks scattered from it, as if to drives him away.

“Fumu, sealed huh.”

“Seems to be a seal engraved by magic my lord. From what I can see, I assume that this is the same level as Aquila’s national treasure class.”

“Yes, this is a patterned seal indeed. As you can see, only a few people in Aquila Kingdom can open this door. So……”

So it can’t be opened, just give up already, that is what the Chancellor would like to say but he didn’t do so.

“Kumahachi.”

“Understood.”

When Milano slightly nodded to Kumahachi, Kumahachi proceeds to stand in front of the iron door, and reaches for Tachi sword1 at his waist. For a prince to walk in other countries’ garden while armed is impolite. Therefore Milano is unarmed, but for Kumahachi who is his bodyguard, he is permitted to have a sword at his side.

“U-, um, Kumahachi-dono, what exactly are you……”

“If you don’t want your body and your head to be separated from each other, then step back.”

The Chancellor who finally realized what’s happening quickly back away from the door. Kumahachi lowers his body, before swinging the still-sheathed sword at the door.

“KIEEEEEEEEEEE!!”

Together with a strange war cry that sounds like a monstrous bird’s roar, a shining white blade is unleashed. The force behind the sword was so great that with just the wind generated from the sword’s swinging motion and Kumahachi’s spirit made the Chancellor falls on his bottom.

After the sound of metal scraping against each other, Kumahachi returns to his natural posture.

“How’s it?”

“Quite a fragile seal I must say.”

Kumahachi smiles fearlessly and sheathed his sword. And then, as if him sheathing his sword is a trigger, tremendous amount of light is released from the seal. The phosphorescent light sparks out, bursting vigorously like a man in agony, before gradually settles down, and eventually disappear.

“H-, he sliced it!? The sealed door!?”

“More accurately, I slashed the seal itself.”

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Kumahachi explained to the Chancellor who’s still on his bottom as to what just happened. There are many ways to nullify magic, one of that is to scrape away the engraved seals, patterns or magic circles. If even only a part of the magical engraving is broken, the magic power will pour out like a water bottle with a hole in it, rendering it useless.

Though this seems easy to do on paper, but in reality it’s not such an easy feat. The material that has magical power within it, when engraved with a seal, its strength magnifies several folds. And the door he slashs is an iron door, not some filmsy door made with paper or wood. If any ordinary humans were to slash a sword at an iron door like this, not only it’ll not leave even a scratch on the door, but the blade will be chipped beyond repair.

The reason Kumahachi is able to perform such feat is because of his sharp blade forged from the foreign land, his blessed physique and his bear-like arm, and above all, a technique called Iai2 that he has polished to its finest, all these three combined. He can easily cut through objects like a hot knife against butter, whereas it would be impossible for any ordinary people to even make a dent on it.

“Well then, the door has been unlocked, guess I’ll excuse myself and take a look inside.”

Ignoring the Chancellor who’s still on his bottom, Milano gently opens the iron door. Then he sighed at the sight before him.

“As expected, I guess.”

Inside this room, or rather the prison cell, there’s a pure white young girl sleeping soundly on a tattered bed, a place that’s not suitable for a girl like her at all. Kumahachi and the Chancellor followed him inside shortly after.

“Well, Chancellor-dono, would you care to explain to me what exactly is this? Who exactly is this girl?”

“Ummm, this child is a daughter of an aristocrat, but because she caused a little mischief so……”

“Even if she did caused a mischeif, but I think treating her like this is still a little too much. Isn’t this as if she’s a criminal, no?”

“I-, it’s not just a mischief my prince. This child’s body a bit weak, and in this way she can rest her body……”

“Body’s weak, huh.”

Milano recalled last night’s chase, that’s quite a healthy sick person, he thought, irritated by the Chancellor’s excuses.

“You’re letting her rest here, in a place like this? The smell is quite awful, and the ventilation is horrible if I may say so.”

Kumahachi must’ve felt the same way as the prince as well, as he said in sarcastic tone and reaches his hand to the sword’s hilt, making a clink sound. With just that, the weak-willed Chancellor is in utter dismay, telling them everything about the truth. You might think that for the Chancellor of a country to be this easily scared out of wits is rather pathetic, but with the show of overwhelming strength just a moment ago, and also that this is also a request from the prince from a great country, the Chancellor would rather risk the wrath of the queen, so that he may not awakens something even more frightening than that.

After listening to the brief version of Selene’s background and the story of how she ended up like this, Milano couldn’t suppress the welling anger inside of him.

“Princess Selene, the Second Princess of Aquila Kingdom huh……”

“This girl certainly look like Yukiwarashi3. I understand that she’s a little different inside, but to reject her outright like this would not solve any problems, would it?”

Kumahachi and Milano felt the same way. Their stern face turns even more hostile. One of Helifalte Kingdom’s doctrine is ‘To accept everyone’s differences’. The reason great country is powerful is not only because their territory is large nor their mighty military prowess reigns above others.

To move something gigantic, both big and small gears need to be in sync and work together in harmony. It is something Milano’s father understood very well. In fact, if his father doesn’t believe in this principle, then Milano wouldn’t be able to make a friend with such differences such as Kumahachi.

“Can’t you set her free?”

“That is impossible my prince!”

The Chancellor replied while trembling from Milano’s displeased glare. But Milano didn’t really expect anything so he doesn’t mention it any further. It’s because he thinks that even if he pressures the queen to set her free, but the chance of this girl being able to live a happy life is almost nonexistent. It’ll be too harsh for the young girl’s fragile mentality to live in the midst of cold glares all around her, while only able to rely on Princess Arue for help.

On the other hand, the girl in the center of this conversation, the ‘mentally fragile’ young girl as they implied, Selene, is sleeping soundly like a log, completely oblivious to all of this.

Yesterday, she was too worried about her big sister so she couldn’t eat properly, and after that she had to run with all her might in such a state which caused exhaustion to her body. Then, unable to forget Arue’s soft feeling that she’s unable to feel in a long time, she’s too excited and couldn’t fall asleep until dawn. After all of these events were over, now calmed down Selene requested for a large portion of breakfast, in which wolf it down immediately.

To sum it up, she didn’t sleep throughout the night while also not having anything to fill her stomach, and today’s morning she ate her fill of yesterday, and when she’s full she took an afternoon nap.

The mouse butler, after looking after his master Selene until she falls asleep soundly, having completed his job of being a night watchman, he slept under the bed in his nest made from cutted clothes.

Watching Selene sleeping depely as if she’s in a coma, Milano judged that it must be that she’s in the state of extreme fatigue. Which is no surprise, if any other ordinary girl were to be locked up in such a place like this, their mental health would have given out a long time ago.

“What a pitiful girl……”

Milano gently reaches his hand to Selene’s cheek, as if he’s caressing a delicate glasswork. In Milano’s palm is a unique feeling of the warmth and youthfulness of her body of kid her age. The Spirit of the Moon that he couldn’t reach to yesterday finally takes a form and is now within his grasp. At the same time, the scene of Selene praying piously under the moonlight comes into Milano’s mind.

――Isn’t it that this girl is praying for help?

Having been thrown in such a horrible environment, there’s nothing the young girl could do. That’s why at night she secretly sneaks out and prays to God in the location where she feels at ease. A grievous prayer that wouldn’t reach anyone. Seeing the stain of tears on her pillow, it reaffirms Milano’s thought that he definitely isn’t mistaken about it.

Milano closes his eyes, froze for a little, as if hesitating, before suddenly turns toward the Chancellor.

“Chancellor-dono, this warehouse is where you stores ‘things that are not needed’ correct?”

“Eh, ah, yes…… that is indeed correct.”

“Then let’s make it so that this girl is my tribute.”

“……Ha?”

For a moment, the Chancellor acted as if he doesn’t understand what’s going on, but then his mind catches up, then his expression turns to that as if he’s seeing something unbelievable.

“This ‘unneeded thing’ would probably not affect your country’s finances, and I also want this girl. Is it not beneficial for us both? So is there a problem here?”

When Milano takes a step toward the Chancellor with a hint of “You know what’ll happen if my request is not met, don’t you?” in his voice, the Chancellor breaks out a big sweat as if he’s a frog being glared by a snake.

This here is Aquila Kingdom and not Helifalte Kingdom. Even if he’s a prince, acting so tyrannical in other countries is not allowed. However, that’s only on the paper. If you really angered the young lion from the great country, then god knows how dreadful their sanctions are going to be.

“I will deal with the negotiation myself. First, I’d like to pay Princess Arue a visit as soon as possible. And I’d like you to contact her with haste. Is that okay with you? Chancellor-dono.”

“…………Yes.”

The Chancellor replied back without his voice gradually dims down as he speaks, before walking out of Selene’s room wearily.

“That’s quite an agressive approach you took there my prince.”

“Are you saying that I should just sit idly by while knowing full well what’s going on?”

“That would be too fiendlish of me if I really thinks like that my prince. No matter what reason, we must not let a young children live in such a place. If such a thing happened in my country, their entire family will be killed on the spot.”

Kumahachi said so angrily, it’s probably that Kumahachi had to suppress his murderous intent while the Chancellor is still present in the room.

“Breasts……”

Suddenly Selene muttered so, and the two look at the young girl’s face who continues to sleep soundly.

“……She seems to be sleep talking. Probably missing her mother.”

“But her mother said that she doesn’t want her. If she truly misses her then we should return her to her mother, but such is her fate. This is truly unbearable, truly.”

With nowhere to vent his anger, the Prince look up at the low ceiling.

In Selene’s dream, she’s still intoxicated by the feeling of her big sister’s breasts, but she couldn’t even imagine what reality is looming over her, a reality that is more dream-like than a dream that she couldn’t even possibly dream of.

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