Moonlight Princess 22 EN

14-17 minutes 25.07.2022

Translator: Keeez

Chapter 22: Rhapsody. (First Half)

While the maid is still out on her errand, Milano couldn’t help but anxiously wandering around the entrace of the Royal Palace. Standing next to him is his little sister Marie. As for the gardeners around him, they’re puzzled at the rare sight of their restless Prince, nevertheless they continue to do their work silently.

“Nii-sama, why don’t try to calm down a little?”

“I think I’m pretty calm though……”

Hearing that, Marie shakes her head left and right, fed up. Saying anything her brother right now would probably be useless. Meanwhile, a horse carriage with a maid can be seen from a distance, returning from her mission. Without waiting for the carriage to reach here, Milano runs toward it instead. Noticing this, the maid hurriedly stop and get off the carriage.

“Is there any problems?”

“No. The headmaster1 was quite surprised, but he said there’s no problem even if you visit her right now.”

“Excellent. Thank you for your help.”

Milano said thanks to her, the maid bows her head respectfully before returning to her work. After that Milano hops into the carriage, as if taking turns with the maid. Seeing that, Marie runs to her brother on the carriage, her expression vet surprised.

“Wait a sec Nii-sama, are you really going, like, right now!?”

“Yeah, I need Arue-dono to tell me how to improve Selene’s mood as soon as possible after all.”

Perhaps not wanting to waste anymore time talking to Marie, Milano prompts the coachman to head toward the university immediately. Milano believed that the way to improve Selene’s mood is undoubtedly Arue herself, his reason being that their affection for each other as a family must be very deep. What he’d never have thought is that Selene’s actually a weirdo who loves her sister not as sisterly love, but a real love between two person.

Marie smiles wryly. It’s her first time ever seeing her brother being this restless. Rather than disappointed, she feels even more intimate with her brother, who she thought was a perfect superhuman, knowing that he could also behave in such a way. Ahh, so my brother is still an ordinary young man despite his brillance. something like that.

“You’re so hasty Nii-sama……”

Seeing that the silhouette of the carriage her brother’s riding in had disappeared, Marie returns to her room, her task finished. However, Marie suddenly stops in her track. She puts her hand over her mouth, mumbling to herself as she look downward.

“It’d be more effective if the gift is a surprise to her. But still, Selene has a strangely good intuition……”

It’s not that Selene has a good intuition, it’s just that she has a butler with outstanding espionage abilty is all. Marie doesn’t know any of this however, so she’s worried that Selene herself might already sensed that her big brother’s searching for her favorite things.

“No choice then. I, Maribelle, will lend a hand for Nii-sama’s sake!”

Although her tone of voice sounds like she’s not very serious about it, Marie returns to the Royal Palace, happily skipping along.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

『Princess, don’t you think it’s about time you should forgive the Prince? He seems to have reflected on what he did as well.』

“No.”

Poking only her head out of the blanket, Selene brushes off Butler’s advice. Even a monkey can reflected on its action anyway, and also if the Prince’s suffering, then that’s all the better.

“Prince, hate.”

『Princess, you mustn’t say such selfish things. He even goes as far as to visit the National University for your sake. From what I recall, apparently he’s going there to have a talk with Princess Arue.』

Recently Butler has been going out several times within a day to see if there’s any event happening. Most of the time he’s the one doing the reconnaissance, but sometimes he leaves this task to the mouses within the castle. And according to the intel he just received, it seems like Milano’s heading to Helifalte National University all by himself.

“Fuuーnn………… eh?”

She couldn’t care less if that garbage of a Prince is going to the university or turning himself into pigs’ feed, so Butler’s words just goes into her ear and out the other. But within Butler’s intel contained a word that she couldn’t ignore.

“Nee-sama, coming!?”

『That seems to be the case. It’s probably due to you ignoring him all the time that he couldn’t properly tell you.』

“No good!!”

Selene jumps right off of her blanket. What a blunder! Rotating her thought circuit to the fullest, using what little left of her brain cells to try to understand Milano’s intention, she quickly comes into a conclusion.

Up until now she has been keeping a close eye on the Prince, meaning that he couldn’t act thoughtlessly. However, in these past few days, she had dropped her guard. Because of this, that debauched Prince saw this as an opportunity and immediately seize the chance to get Arue for himself.

Actually, people around Selene thought of her as a maiden in love, looking at Milano’s back with admiration in her eyes, so they couldn’t help but smile at the pure little fairy. The truth though, Selene’s trying her hardest to stare menacingly at him all the time, like a tough drill sergeant.

Selene’s imagination starts to get wilder and wilder. Isn’t it strange that he didn’t tell her of the arrival of her big sister? The reason for that is simple. It’s because he feared that telling this to the hostage would create unnecessary obstacles.

Surely that guy’s acting all gentlemanly on the outside, saying something like『Your little sister is currently mentally down, may I borrow your wisdom to solve this predicament?』How dare he try to exploit her big sister’s pureness with despicable acts of his, Selene’s eyes burn red with anger.

“I have to hurry!”

Selene jumps out of the bed, wearing her usual white dress made in Aquila, which is the nearest dress to her. The ribbon at her collar is shabby tied from all the haste, but there’s no time for her to worry about that.

『Princess, where are you heading to? Let me go with you as……』

“Wait!”

『Heh? Haa, if Princess says so, I’ll be standing by here patiently……』

As if she didn’t listen to what Butler said at all, Selene shouted at him to wait. She meant to say “My dear Arue-neesama, right now I, Selene, your knight, is coming to your rescue! Please wait for me!”, but unfortunately she said it too short. So Butler understood it as an order for him to stay put. If it’s his master’s command, then Butler had no choice but to obey.

“Dang it! How dare you!”

Shouting so as she closes the door behind her violently, Selene runs along the hallway with tremendous momentum―― or so that’s what she thought of her speed, as fast as a gale, though in the end she’s just an eight year old girl with little to no exercise. The maids that are cleaning the furnishings along the hallway all look at her with puzzlement as the young girl runs hurriedly past them.

And just like that, Selene head straight toward the palace’s exit. Several horse carriages are parked there. Selene had used this carriage service many times already, though only within the palace area, the training ground to be specific. Surely if she pleaded hard enough, her usual coachman would bring her to the university where Arue’s at.

“Wait right there!”

However, the moment Selene’s about to dashes right off of the long hallway, someone’s standing in her way, blocking her path. That person stood tall, their back against the sun’s ray, so Selene could only make out a silhouette.

“Who are you!”

“You’ve come as expected. I’m glad I’ve been waiting for you here.”

The person before Selene is none other than Marie. Selene doesn’t know why Marie’s here, but she has no time to be her playmate. While still panting heavily, Selene ignored Marie by trying to walk past her, but Marie steps out in front of Selene to block her.

“Marie, move.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

“A-, a walk.”

“Your eyes are swiming around.” 2

“Me, can’t swim, my eyes, can’t too.”

Selene smiles adorably at Marie, trying to avoid the question with a joke, but Marie won’t fall for such obvious acting.

“Selene, you’re looking for Nii-sama right? Sorry to say this but he’s not within the palace right now.”

“University?”

“N-, not that either!”

“Marie, eyes, shifting.”

Marie’s not that good at lying too, so it immediately shows on her face. And Selene didn’t miss that change of expression on her face. Selene’s senses are quite sharp when it comes to something regarding her interests, a sly nature of hers.

Marie, while surprised that Selene’s senses are sharper than she had imagined, somehow managed to pretend to be calm. She can’t let Selene go any further than this. As a cupid for her big brother and Selene, she must stop Selene here no matter what.

“Nii-sama’s busy right now so you can’t disturb him. How about you come play with me? It’s definitely going to be more fun this way.”

“……Busy, with what?”

“About that…… uhhh, you know, I have no idea too, but in any case he’s busy. That’s why, you can’t disturb him. Un, right.”

Marie answered falteringly, which fanned the suspicion within Selene even more. He even prepared to this extent to block her from reaching to him, doing something that he couldn’t even tell his little sister about, he’s definitely evil at this point. Or at least that’s the only thought Selene could come up with.

Even at this moment, her big sister’s chasity is in crisis. She must go past Marie as soon as possible. Didn’t they say, the more obstacles in one’s way, the brighter one’s love burns? Right now Selene’s spirit is all fired up, though in the wrong way.

“Uwoohー!”

Without thinking any further, Selene abruptly rushes forward with all her might in order to cut past through Marie. This is Selene’s most skilled tactic when she used to played strategy simulation game, ‘Overwhelming firepower, if enemy’s defense is tough to crack, then just ramp up your firepower even more to breakthrough.’, something like that. In other words, bulldozing her way through.

“Wai-…… Wait right now!”

“Uuuuー!”

However, her will alone isn’t enough to breakthrough. Though Marie panicked a little when Selene suddenly turns eccentric, but she immediately holds Selene back from behind, with both of her arms locking Selene’s from below. Selene resisted by fluttering her arms around, but with her delicate body she couldn’t pull herself out.

Marie, being Holy Prince Milano’s little sister, has been receiving special education for the gifted, and as such can be called talented. Selene on the other hand, spent her entire day lollygagging around doing nothing. So to compare the two using birds as analogy, one’s like an eagle and other a duck, in term of physical prowess that is.

“You can’t go to the school without permission! Now, be obedient and play with me already!”

“Okay, I give up……”

“Un, that’s the way to go.”

Selene nods slightly, a gesture meaning that she’ll do as Marie says. Marie sighs in her mind, relieved. The only thing she has to do after this is accompany Selene while her brother finds out what Selene likes from Princess Arue, then the plan can be called successful.

“Then, play.”

“What are we going to play? Hide-and-seek? Drawing?”

Marie asks with a blooming smile, Selene look up at her before suggesting a play that Marie had never heard before.

“That way, turn, stare. Want play.”

“That way turn……? What’s that?”

Selene explains the game’s rule to her. The rule’s simple, Marie must look at the direction Selene’s finger is pointing at and she’ll win, if she look in the wrong direction then she loses. This game is probably made up by Selene, but Marie’s interested in this unknown game so she decided to go along with her.

“That way…… turn…… stare!”

Selene points right above. Although not as much as Milano, Marie’s nonetheless still a princess with the great Helifalte blood in her vein, and she always strive to be the best she could at both literary and military. Following the slow Selene’s finger is an easy task. Marie turns her head upward at about the same time as Selene’s finger moves.

“Looks like it’s my win!”

“Marie, keep staring.”

“Eh?”

As Marie’s about to turn her head to the front again to look at Selene, Selene grabs her head with both of her hands, fixing Marie in place.

“Me, until say, okay, keep stare.”

“What a weird play…… Fine by me though.”

And so Marie’s frozen in place, looking at the ceiling. She’s the onee-san here so she must take Selene’s mood into consideration. Marie thought so and obediently obeyed. However, even for Marie it’s hard on her neck to keep looking upward forever. Getting tired of it, Marie asks Selene while still looking up.

“Hey, how long do I have to do this? My neck’s getting tired…… wait, ahhh!?”

When Marie turns her head to the front, Selene who should’ve been in front of her is now gone. She hurriedly look around for Selene, and there she sees her far off in the distance, getting into the horse carriage.

The carriage leaves quite quickly, probably because Selene urged the coachman to hurry. Selene used the chance while Marie’s looking upward to get out of there without making footsteps sound. Even against a ten years old girl, Selene had no mercy as she used an underhanded tactic to win against her.

“You-! You tricked me!”

Getting played big time by Selene, Marie loses her temper as she furiously gets into another horse carriage.

“Follow that carriage please! Hurry!”

The coachman has no idea what’s going on, but pressured by furious Marie’s threatening eyes, he chases after the carriage Selene’s in with all his might. Thus began the car chase, or rather horse carriage chase, between Selene and Marie.

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In chapter 21 Milano called him as the chancellor (of the university) (学長) but the maid called him headmaster (学園長) instead, not sure if this the author’s mistake or just the character calling the same person differently, probably the latter. 1

This actually meant something like “Your eyes are shifting” in English, in Japanese it’s “Your eyes are swimming.” 2

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