Guardians of the Prince

Chapter 23

I knew from the beginning that it was what they call a Trip to Another World.

“Yiiii!?”

Thud!

I could feel myself falling, could feel my stomach dropping, and I instantly passed out.

–Nanao

I had a hunch someone was calling my name, and I opened my eyes.

I was laying face down on someone’s chest. They were wearing a black uniform, with the sleeve of the white yukata I was wearing laid on top of it.

I timidly lifted my gaze. There was an emblem like the face of a lion on their stand-up collar.

Lifting my gaze further, my jaw dropped.

It was a young man with deep blue eyes, probably only a little younger than me. He had an attractive jaw line, a perfect nose, and really nicely shaped lips.

He said something, a surprised look on his face.

“△△? ※○☆×?”

I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It didn’t seem to be English.

The young man had a hat firmly on his head that looked like an old-fashioned student cap. I couldn’t see the color of his hair, but at any rate, he was undisputedly, amazingly attractive.

“Wow, a prince…” I muttered unconsciously.

The young man burst into a smile. And then he pointed to himself and said, “Otto! Otto!”

“What?

Why was he saying “Husband?” 1

What– No way, was this one of those stories where a girl gets whisked away to another world and meets a fantasy prince? Like, she falls onto the prince, and gets told she’s going to be his wife!

Holy cow, now that I notice it, aren’t we on a bed!?

I climbed off him at mach speed, and scooted away from him until my back hit the wall. The bright yellow obi that was wrapped around me got stuck between my back and the wall, and was smooshed.

Wait, Kahzapka’s not here! He just dropped me off here and then disappeared!?

I thought for sure he was gonna take me to where Mommy-chan was!?

It was at that point that the rest of the room finally came into my field of vision.

For a prince’s room, it was a little simple…

Wooden planks on the walls and floor, I even recognized an iron stove on a dirt floor.

I could see a stable right next door through the window, and what looked like a meadow beyond that.

Mm, a farmer prince?

He sat down with his feet hanging off the bed, and grinned at me. His stand-up collar jacket with the cuffs a little long felt like a student uniform, and his pants and shoes were black.

Maybe he wasn’t so much a prince as a knight.

The young man stood up with a refined motion. He approached and opened what seemed to be the front door, and then turned back to me and waved lightly. It felt like, come on outside.

I approached him nervously and stepped out the door.

The door opened in the opposite direction from the stables, and in front of me was a little path pushing its way through the grass. I followed the path with my eyes, and gradually there were more and more houses, and past that it became a full on city. It seemed this was the outskirts of a town.

And then beyond the city there was a hill, and on top of the hill was a small, beautiful castle.

The ivory walls were gentle on the eyes, and there were several triangular spires.

As I stared at it, fascinated, I heard something that sounded like the whinnying of a horse.

When I turned around, the prince from a minute ago was pulling an animal that looked like a goat crossed with an impala by the reins, just leaving from the stables. He straddled the animal in a single motion.

He really was fascinating, and he pointed in front of him, looking at me.

What? Was he telling me to ride in front of him? Why?

When I hesitated, he pointed at the castle, and said, “Mommy, there.”

Em… embarrassing…

I headed into town, swaying on the back of the goat-like animal, along with the young man. Since I was wearing a yukata, he pulled me up and turned me sideways to side down.

Yukata in another world, yikes am I gonna stand out… Although just as I was thinking it, I noticed that every single person walking down the street was wearing really eccentric stuff. Some of them had wings and animal ears attached to their clothes or bodies, some had added balloons or ribbons, and there were even some people in masks. The streets were strung up with electric lights, and it looked like some kind of festival.

This was some kind of coincidence. I was wearing the yukata because I’d been on my way to a festival myself. My aunt Koaya (Sissy Aya) had bought it for me for my sixteenth birthday, and I was thinking I’d run some errands and then unveil it at Sissy Aya’s place…

Well, a few things had happened, and I’d ended up on this strange journey.

With all these thoughts running around in my head, I tugged on the sleeve of my bellflower-patterned yukata.

The castle’s entrance was a set of smart-looking, ivy-covered silver gates. In front of the gates was a person who seemed to be a soldier, dressed exactly like the young man. That must be a soldier’s uniform. So, this young man was a soldier too? While he was talking to the man at the gate about something, I looked around a little.

Just then, atop the gate post, was a familiar, large white bird. It was Kahzapka.

“Kahz! Jeez, where have you been?” I suddenly shouted, quite loudly, and the young man and the soldier both looked at me in surprise.

The young man looked up at the gatepost, and made a face like, Ah, but the soldier just looked back from me to the gatepost with a confused look on his face. Apparently he couldn’t see him.

Kahzapka flapped his large wings, and flew down into my arms. Pretty light for his size, ain’t he.

“This girl is –‘s daughter.”

All of a sudden, I could understand some of the words the young man was saying to the soldier.

I looked at my arms, and Kahzapka looked back up at me. Ah, it was all thanks to him then?

“Here’s her Shin.”

The young man yanked my left hand out and showed it to the soldier.

At some point, a strange character had been carved onto the ring finger of my left hand. Oh… That’s my name. I knew at a glance.

And just like that, we entered the castle. Apparently that character from before was like ID papers.

As we walked down a neatly manicured path, I glanced at the young man, and he grinned at me.

He had a bit of a strange air to him… He looked sort of like Kahzapka, like, I don’t know how to put it, he smelled the same?

We crossed several corridors, and had come pretty far into the castle. Our footsteps echoed off the high ceilings.

The double doors at the end of the hall were open, and I could hear several people talking inside.

The young man stopped in front of the room.

“This is gonna be some kinda surprise,” he mumbled, and winked at me. “Wait here for a minute.”

And then he went in by himself.

I exchanged looks with Kahzapka, who was still in my arms.

“Welcome home. That looks nice, suits you.”

There was a calm, quiet male voice, to which the young man responded.

“Thanks. I didn’t have any trouble finding it.”

“Is that alright, to lend him your uniform, just because you’re off duty? Are guards allowed to do that?”

A subdued male voice spoke this time, and sounded like he was making fun a little bit.

“A guard’s job is to protect the prince, so if it’s useful to the prince then it’s fine, right?”

Another voice. This one was laughing too, but it sounded clear and refreshing.

The young man’s voice responded. “I thought if I could pretend to be a guard, I could go on festival dates with Koume and not have all the townsfolk sticking their noses in all the time, but… The truth is, actually, I ended up meeting someone else by surprise, so I took her home with me. Where is Koume?”

I heard Mommy-chan’s name and my heartbeat got louder, but I also hadn’t missed that one simple word.

This young man said… date!?

He popped his head out from the door. “Nana, she’ll be right– oh, she’s here.”

I followed his gaze and turned around to see a human figure coming to a stop down the hallway. Looking back at me, her eyes got wide, and she pressed both hands to her mouth. “Nanao…..!”

I gently set Kahzapka down, and then turned directly toward the figure and ran.

“Mommy-chan!!”

I leapt directly at the chest of the mother I hadn’t seen in years.

We’d been exchanging letters forever, so I knew how things were in this world. But the truth was, I didn’t care about any of that stuff.

I wanted to see Mommy-chan smile, I wanted to show her mine. That had been my first wish.

But now that we’d finally met again, the both of us were sobbing and crying so much we couldn’t smile.

So then. After all the tension of coming to a place I didn’t know, I recovered more quickly even than Mommy-chan, and then asked about the army of guys she seemed to have around her.

“Prince Ouji, is it possible Nanao doesn’t know about Your Highness?”

“What? But when we met she looked right at me and said Ouji though! And I spoke to her in proper Japanese too. Nana’s Otto.”

“… I believe you meant ‘otouto.’ ” 2

“What? So then what’s ‘otto’ mean, professor?”

“In a married couple, it’s the man.”

“Oh, right. So like, I’m Nana’s ‘otouto’ but I’m going to be Koume’s ‘otto,’ right?”

“Awfully determined, aren’t you.”

Mommy-chan. Seems there were a few things you decided not to tell me, huh?

But Mommy-chan was still sniffling, with her forehead attached to my shoulder, so I decided I’d sternly cross examine her later.

[Daughter and bird, and mysterious young man – fin]

author’s note: Which is all to say that, in addition to being a continuation of, [Beautiful Daughter and White Bird], this is a continuation of [Parallel Prince].