CH 26

Chapter 26: Homesick.

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

She was deceived. Now that Selene realized this fact, she couldn’t help but dive right into the flowers and bawl her eyes out. Milano, and also Butler who’s watching the situation through the gaps in the carriage, widen their eyes in surprise at the sight of never-before-seen Selene.

“Selene, wha-, what’s wrong!?”

Milano hurriedly steps out, but before he could do so Kumahachi suddenly places his hand on Milano’s shoulder.

“Prince, you shouldn’t interrupt Selene-dono when she’s enjoying herself so much.”

“Mu……”

At Kumahachi’s words, Milano stopped himself before looking closely at Selene again.

Selene, as usual, is rolling around on the flower bed, yelling something incomprehensible.

Sure, he’s surprised at Selene’s sudden strange behavior, but in a sense you could also say that she’s expressing her joy through bodily movements. As if she’s letting out all the emotions she couldn’t contain any longer.

“You’re right, it appears that I’m still a novice when it comes to understanding Selene’s feelings.”

Milano chuckles lightly. After all, she’s not the type of girl who speaks a lot. She is unable to express herself verbally. That is why, instead of using language, she expresses herself through bodily movements.

It’s the same behavior as the other day, when he went to the university without informing her first, or when he suddenly hugged her when they were in Valbell, and she hit him hard on the cheek in a bad mood.

“It would be best for Selene-dono if we left her alone for a while.”

“Sure, I’ll let her have her fun. That’s why we brought her here in the first place.”

『This Butler is…… deeply moved to see Princess be so happy.』

It’s not just two male humans, but even Butler joins in as he keeps watching from the gaps in the carriage, wiping tears of joy with his front paw. His master, who had been imprisoned in that deplorable garbage dump-like prison, is now able to play around on the sparkling rainbow flower field to her heart’s content. That’s the sight he has always wished to see the most.

“Goshdanggiiiiit……”

Selene, on the other hand, is experiencing a mental breakdown right now. The controller inside her has already broken, causing her to flailing her body around on the flower field like a lawn mower, but eventually she runs out of stamina and plopped down on the spot.

That bastard, how dare he deceives me. This ain’t Lily Flower Garden one bit. But wait, isn’t this literally a Lily Flower Garden though? Selene’s getting confused as she spews insults out one after another, gripping the grass tightly as she trembles in humiliation. Her hopes were high, but her disappointment was even higher.

Calm down, calm down now Selene Aquila. You must be composed even when you go to hell and back. Selene manages to mobilize what little reasoning she has left and tells herself so.

Right, this is where I must think in the opposite direction. It’s not ‘I came here for the girls’ love paradise’ but ‘I came here for sightseeing’. As you can see, literally, that this place is a natural wonder truly best described with the word “paradise”, with a wide blue sky spreading across the horizons and white lilies as far as your eyes could see. If I think of it that way, I feel like I’ve calmed down a little. The idea of thinking of it as a sightseeing tour is great and all, though everyone except Selene already thinks of it that way.

Now that she has settled her mind, Selene brushes the leaves off of her hair and dress before returning to Milano.

“What’s the matter? We’re not within the palace area right now so you can continue play as much as you want, you know?”

“Not, playing, around.”

“Fufu, Selene, but your cheeks are beet red though?”

Selene’s cheeks that are suppressing the flames of rage inside her are blushing. Because her skin is the color of pure white snow, whenever she gets worked up, her cheeks will become visibly pink. Selene usually acts like a well-behaved young lady, so she’s probably embarrassed to be seen acting in such a childlish manner. Milano thought so as he smiles softly at her.

“Leave me alone!”

Selene, who takes his smile as a provocation, reflexively yelled back. But Milano just shrugs his shoulders, thinking that she’s only just trying to hide her embarrassment. At that moment, Selene almost bursts into a fit of rage, leaps up like a frog and uppercuts him straight on the chin, but she succeeds in holding back. She must avoid enraging the Prince and risking him attacking her older sister.

“Going, over there.”

“Got it. We need to set up the tents for the night here, so don’t wander too far away, okay?”

“Okay.”

Selene tries her best to smile while saying so, before running to the fountain at the center of the flower field. Even though she appears to be angry on the outside, on the inside she probably wants to play around the flower field as much as possible. That’s why Milano lets her wander around freely as much as she wants. As for Selene, she just wants to get away from Milano as soon as possible since she couldn’t endure acting all smiley in front of him anymore.

“Kumahachi.”

“Understood.”

When Milano briefly urges him, Kumahachi inserts his sword back into its scabbard on his side before following behind Selene. Though this place might be stunningly beautiful, it’s still a land uninhabited by humans nonetheless. There’s also the fact that the White Forest, the place where elves and unknown creatures live, is nearby. You can never be certain that you’ll be safe here. So, to prevent such danger, Kumahachi will escort her.

Kumahachi follows behind her while making his presence as thin as possible, so that Selene wouldn’t feel like she’s being monitored but still at a distance short enough for him to protect her from any danger that may arise. Selene, without noticing Kumahachi at all, walks straight through the flower field to the fountain at the center. Then she suddenly picks up a wooden branch on the ground and proceeds to draw a mysterious line on the soil.

‘Is she trying to draw something?’

Kumahachi watches Selene having her fun drawing time with a smile, but Selene, in a gloomy mood, is just trying to make a path between a nearby ant’s nest and the fountain so that the water will flood their home.

“……Boring.”

But she gives up after a few minutes, throws away the stick, and rolls around on the grassy ground because the ant’s nest is quite a distance away from the fountain. As a result, the ant’s peace has been restored.

Selene lies down on the bed of grass and flowers in the shape of the letter 大 without a single care in the world. The idea of lying on the beautiful grass of mother nature sounds great and all, but it’s nevertheless still grassy ground. When you lie down, many unknown small insects will start crawling all over your body, going inside your clothes and whatnot. The level of discomfort will rise rapidly, making you unable to sleep. Humans should be sleeping on man-made beds after all.

“Haa……”

Selene is sighing as she looks up at the wide blue sky with white clouds here and there, in complete contrast to when she had a raging maelstrom in her heart. The sun in the center of the sky is blessing the green earth with its rays. When that light surrounds Selene, she becomes even more radiant. To Kumahachi who’s watching her from afar, she looks exactly like a spring fairy blessing the nature.

“So, bright.”

Selene subconsciously frowns at the strong sunlight that’s starting to hurt her eyes. Even though Selene’s wearing a dress with magic woven into it, but Selene’s body itself is not very resistant to sunlight in the first place. Sunlight is often the symbol of health, vitality, and hope, but to Selene the sun’s a deadly laser.

If I stay in a healthy place such as this for too long, I’m gonna end up being unhealthy. How did it turn out like this in the first place anyway? Selene sighs with a fuu- as she reminisces about her hometown, Aquila.

For Selene, that hellish prison was like heaven to her. As someone who loves staying at home, not being able to go outside doesn’t concern her at all. Though her food is what many would consider unfit for royalty, compared to her past life, where she only ate gyuudon every single day, it’s quite healthy and nutritious.

Playing in the garden was also enjoyable. Back in Aquila, only a frail old man is in charge of the entire garden. Taking advantage of this, she planted and grew many unknown plants in the forest as she pleased.

Maybe if she asked King Schwan, he might let her plant something as well, but Helifalte is a great nation with many top-notch gardeners. Everyone’s going to laugh at her if they see how amateurish she is at gardening.

And the harshest thing of all is the fact that she isn’t able to meet her beloved big sister anymore. Back then, she was able to meet her about once every two to three days, but now she is rarely able to meet her anymore.

Still feeling down, Selene turns to look behind her and sees the servants setting up tents and making simple campfires. Milano seems to be the one giving them instructions; every one of them is radiating an aura of happiness and harmony.

“Ughhh, I hate this.”

Selene holds her head in her hands. Just the thought of her having to camp outside with this cheerful, athlete-like group of people makes her sick in the stomach. It makes her feel like she’s being forced to be in the group of fit guys she doesn’t really get along with well on the school trip or sports festival.

“Wanna go back……”

She was completely broken, and she was also forced to camp out with this group of normies. Selene looks up at the sky with a drop of tears in her eyes, feeling strangely homesick. If she knew it was going to turn out like this, she wouldn’t have come in the first place. Aquila might be impossible to go back to, but even her bedroom at Helifalte is totally acceptable at this point. She wants to sleep for at least fifteen hours.

At that moment, she sees the same red dragon flying in the sky. It seems like it’s taking the same route every day. It heads south in the morning and returns to the north in the evening.

“Dragons, lucky……”

Selene mutters to herself. Dragons are free to fly anywhere they please. Now that she thinks about it, it kinda irritates her. Dragons are so lucky to have such freedom, she thought. Though Selene herself also has that freedom she wishes for, in many meanings, it’s just that she completely doesn’t realize that.

Perhaps if she can tame a dragon, she’ll be able to pick up Arue at the royal capital and escape together to some uncharted territory, where they’ll live happily ever after.

But such an escape from reality won’t change her current situation. Selene shakes her head and returns to reality, quite fast in doing so when compared to her usual thought process. At that same time, she finally notices Kumahachi standing a little distance away from her. Selene stares at Kumahachi, and Kumahachi hurriedly averts his eyes. The reason he’s doing that is because he’s just there to protect her in case of an emergency. He doesn’t want to disturb her fun time.

From Selene’s point of view, Kumahachi is a lonely, unattractive old man. He probably doesn’t get along with that group of guys either and wants to be away from them. She’s getting the feeling of『I want to talk with Selene-chan but I don’t know what to talk about……』from him, seeing that he’s weirdly always a little distance away from her. He is truly an unsociable guy who doesn’t know how to interact with girls, and his one redeeming quality is only his sword skills. And that feeling of his, Selene understands it better than anyone else. By the way, Kumahachi is not lonely nor an old man. He isn’t interested in little girls either.

“Can’t helped, I talk, with you.”

Selene’s already like『Geez! You really are helpless if I’m not here for you Kumahachi!』and decided to hang out with him out of pity. It’s absolutely unnecessary for her to do that, though.

Even if her current body is that of a little girl, maybe as a fellow old man, she’ll be able to talk with him heart to heart. Or at least, rather than talking with those cheerful muscular guys, talking with Kumahachi seems like it’ll make her feel more at ease. Thinking so, Selene stands up.

『Young one, you wished to return?』

The moment she stands up, Selene hears a solemn voice echoes inside her ears. Selene’s red eyes widens, she looks around her, but not a single soul could be seen.

“Who, where!?”

『Look above you. It is I, I am the one conversing with you.”

As instructed, Selene looks up and sees the red dragon flapping its wings, stationary. It looks more like a gigantic rock floating in the sky than a creature flying. When Selene turns to look behind her to see if Kumahachi heard this voice as well, but he just averts her eyes by looking up at the sky. Other than that, he’s not showing any sign of hearing this voice at all.

『I am matching my voice with the wavelength of your magic power. None will hear mine voice except for you, young one. Yours also won’t be heard by those around you either. Be not afraid. Feel free to express your feelings.』

“Ha?”

Selene replies bluntly. Since this is a world where mice can talk, it’s not like she’s surprised to see a dragon talking, or rather she had already anticipated this. Still, since the dragons had never taken the initiative to talk with her before, Selene just tilts her head to the side, puzzled as she doesn’t know what its intention is.

『Young one, I heard your words loud and clear. Wanna go back, you said that yourself, no?』

The dragon asks again in the same solemn tone of voice, as if to confirm the fact. As for Selene, she wants to tell him that ‘Well yeah, if possible, I want to return, like, right now. I wanna go back and munch on snacks, eat warm, yummy food, and sleep in a comfortable bed‘.

“Un, want go back.”

『I see……』

After a while of silence, the dragon nods magnanimously.

『Then I shall bring you back. To your motherland.』

“Eh……? Ah, wai-!?”

The moment it said that, the red dragon does a nose dive so fast that she couldn’t track it with her eyes, the ground trembles, and the gigantic dragon lands in front of Selene.