Chapter 46: Moon Goddess

I glanced back as I ran as fast as I could down the corridor. There was a group of maids, led by Mara, who were chasing me with a grim expression on their faces.

But their numbers had clearly increased from when I left the room.

Hey! Aren’t their numbers increasing by a lot!?

I was scared and hurriedly turned my face forward and continued to run at a higher speed.

After turning a few corners, a large door appeared.

I turned around and saw that Mara and her friends were still out of sight, so I went in and opened the door in front of me with all of my might to hide.

But the next moment I froze in my open position, because my eyes were wide open in amazement at the scene in front of me.

It was a very large hall, where many beautiful women and beautiful girls in revealing and glittering outfits were happily relaxing and enjoying themselves.

“…What is this place?”

“It’s my father’s harem.”

“Ah! Prince Alfeld!”

I heard Prince Alfeld’s voice over my head as if to answer my dazed muttering, and when I quickly looked up, I saw Prince Alfeld standing there, looking down at me with a happy face.

“You shouldn’t…trouble Mara and the others, Cecilia.”

Saying this, Prince Alfeld smiled bewitchingly and hugged me from behind.

“Hey! Prince Alfeld! Please let go!”

“Fufu. If I let you go, you’ll run away, right? Then I won’t let you go.”

Prince Alfeld smiled happily and tightened his hold on me even more.

I struggled to escape from his arms, even though his behavior made my face hot.

Then someone approached us.

“Huh? Could it be that Alfeld is back?”

“Hello, Mother. I just came back.”

A beautiful woman with brown skin and lustrous black hair approached us from the hall with a lithe gait.

From Prince Alfeld’s words, I knew that she was his half-mother.

Then the women in the hall, who seemed to have noticed his mother’s surprised voice, became excited and all gathered around us.

“It’s true! It’s Alfeld!”

“Wow! Brother Alfeld, welcome back!”

“As always, my sisters are all beautiful.”

“Oh my, then am I not beautiful?”

“That’s not true. My mothers’ good looks are simply mesmerizing to behold.”

Thus, Prince Alfeld was surrounded by his mother and sisters and seemed to be having a good time talking to them.

I was in a state of confusion, wondering what I was supposed to do with this situation while being held in Prince Alfeld’s arms.

Then the dark-haired beauty finally noticed my presence.

“Oh? I’ve never seen your face before…Alfeld, who is this girl?”

“Oh, let me introduce you. This is Cecilia, my bride-to-be.”

“Cecilia? …Oh my, this girl? You finally brought her back!”

“As I recall, you fell in love with this girl a long time ago and scrapped the harem palace plan you had prepared, didn’t you?”

“Brother Alfeld, I’m so glad!”

Hearing those words from the women to Prince Alfeld, I realized after all this time that he really had been thinking about me for a long time.

“Even so…how white and clear your skin is…”

“What?”

“And this smooth-textured hair…”

“Huh? Huh?”

“Purple eyes, how beautiful…”

“What?”

For some reason, the women turned their gaze from Prince Alfeld to me and all at once touched my face, my hair, my hands and other parts of my body with enraptured expressions.

“Huh? Hey! Wait…it tickles!”

The suddenness of the event shook me violently and I was cringing as I was touched, when my vision suddenly swayed in a circle.

“I’m sorry, but please don’t touch my Cecilia too much. I’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

Such was the voice of Prince Alfeld’s voice that I could hear over his back.

Apparently, I was being hidden behind Prince Alfeld’s back.

“Fufu, you really do love her.”

“Yes, so much so that it hurts.”

“I understand. Sorry, I’ll give you some space. Okay, then I’ll look forward to the wedding.”

“Yes. Then we’ll be off.”

After bowing, Prince Alfeld spun around and turned his body towards me and picked me up  sideways.

“Ah, Prince Alfeld!?”

“Come on, Mara’s waiting for you.”

After saying this, Prince Alfeld walked out of the hallway in a staccato manner.

The women of the harem palace then saw me off with smiles and waves, and I arrived at the bathhouse where Mara and the others were waiting for me.

“We’ve been expecting you, Cecilia-sama.”

“…Um…Prince Alfeld, do I still need to change?”

“You should change your clothes.”

“Uh…”

“See, don’t trouble Mara…or do you want to take a bath with me?”

“What!?”

“That way I won’t have to let Cecilia get away and I’ll be happy to be with Cecilia.”

“Oh my gosh, no!”

“Then you want to go in there by yourself?”

“Of course I’ll go in alone! I…Oh.”

“All right, then let’s go. Mara, you take care of the rest.”

“Yes, sir.”

In then end, I was given a bath by Mara and her friends, per Prince Alfeld’s orders.

When I got out of the bath, they carefully applied perfume oil to my entire body and made me change into these highly revealing clothes.

…This dress is really too revealing! My stomach is showing, and I’m not comfortable with just the breastplate like in a bathing suit, and the bottom is trouser-like, but… I can see through to my legs. The waist is wrapped in a non-transparent cloth, so it’s a little better. And this accessory on my arms, neck and ears…it’s something I don’t want to think about.

I was so tired as I stared at my reflection in the mirror of the figure-viewer.

“Lady Cecilia, you are so beautiful!”

“…thank you very much.”

Mara smiled and praised me, and I thanked her heartlessly for her words.

At that moment, the door of the room opened and Prince Alfeld entered the room again.

And when Prince Alfeld saw me, his eyes widened and he froze.

…I don’t look good in this country’s clothes, after all…

I felt even more embarrassed by my current appearance when I realized that, and I looked down, cupping my body with my hands to hide myself, making my face hot.

“Ah!”

The next moment I thought I heard such a breathtaking voice, I was hugged tightly by Prince Alfeld.

“What? Prince Alfeld, what is going on? Ku, it’s painful!”

“Oh, that embarrassed figure of yours, it stirs my heart…you really are my darling.”

“What are you saying…?”

I looked up in confusion at Prince Alfeld’s apparent strangeness, and when I looked up, he had covered my lips with his.

I was startled by this suddenness, but soon remembered that Mara and her friends were still around, so I rushed to hit him on the chest and urged to him to leave.

But Prince Alfeld didn’t seem to let me go at all.

“Wait, stop…Mmmph! Mmmmph!!”

I managed to make a protesting noise with my open mouth, and to my surprise, Prince Alfeld’s tongue cut into my mouth.

Eh!? Is this the deep kissing I heard about before!? Wait, why is this happening!?

I’d seen it in comics and other things I’d read in my past life, but this was the first time I’d actually experienced it, so my mind was in turmoil.

Even so, I felt that it was more dangerous than this, so I managed to escape Prince Alfeld’s kiss by thrusting my arms forward with all my strength while enduring the kiss that was getting deeper and deeper.

“Hah~ hah, Prince Alfeld…you, that’s too much…”

“…I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold back on Cecilia’s cuteness.”

“What cuteness?! And besides, in a place like this…”

As I said this, I glanced around to see that aside from Mara, who looked unconcerned, the other handmaidens were turning over, their faces bright red.

I was embarrassed by their appearance and looked down.

“…Cute. After all, just a little more…”

“I won’t do it! I won’t!”

He put his hand on my cheek again, trying to make me look up, and I hurriedly flung his hand away and shook my head as hard as I could.

“…It can’t be helped, let’s just give up now. Mara, give Cecilia the veil.”

“Yes, sir.”

Prince Alfeld let out a bitter smile and instructed Mara, and after hearing his instructions, Mara took a thin veil with fine gold thread embroidery and placed it over my head.

“…What’s this?”

“Cecilia’s appearance is unexpectedly arousing, so I’m trying to hide that appearance from the others, if only a little.”

“If so, I’ll put on my old clothes…”

“No, you can’t. Well, I have something I want to show Cecilia.”

“What do you want to show me?”

“That’s a surprise for when we get there. Mara, get that thing ready before we get back.”

“Understood.”

So I was led out of the room with Prince Alfeld holding me by the waist and we arrived at the back of the palace.

There was a magnificent door there with a more solemn atmosphere than any door I had ever seen before.

“What is this place?”

“It’s a temple attached to the royal palace.”

So said Prince Alfeld, and he slowly opened the door.

Inside was a large dome-shaped hall with a red carpet running straight down the middle of the floor towards the back.

I was just staring at the sacredness of the room when Prince Alfeld urged me to step forward.

We came to the farthest corner, in front of the highest platform.

“This is what I wanted to show Cecilia.”

“…Wow, it’s beautiful…”

There was a statue of a beautiful woman with long hair sitting on a large crescent moon.

“It’s a statue of the moon goddess in the form of the guardian deity of the Molvarado Empire.”

“Oh, so this is it! It’s so beautiful and lovely!”

“I’m glad you’re pleased. I promised Cecilia I’d show her this.”

“Speaking of which, I guess I was told that.”

“…In the time I couldn’t see you, I saw this goddess statue as Cecilia.”

“To think of this goddess statue as me…I think it’s impossible, right?”

“No, Cecilia and the moon goddess are very similar.”

“…Is that so?”

I said and looked at the goddess statue again, but I couldn’t quite believe that I looked like her.

“Hmm, I can’t wait to get married to Cecilia in front of this statue in a week’s time.”

“…Huh? A week later?”

“Yeah, I haven’t given you the details yet, but in a week’s time, we’re getting married here.”

“What?…What!? One week later!? That fast—I mean, I never said I was going to marry you!!”

“Don’t worry, I’m confident that I’ll make Cecilia happy. Oh, and most of the preparations are already in place. The rest of the arrangements are only a week away because there are some minor details that need to be taken care of. Well, as far as I’m concerned, I’d like to have the wedding today. By the way, after the wedding ceremony, you’ll be transferred to my palace right away, so please be aware of that.”

“Wait a minute! How about how I feel!?”

“I’ll definitely get you to love me. Now, it’s about time to go, so we’ll go back to our rooms.”

Then Prince Alfeld took me back to my room while I was still reeling from the earlier-than-expected wedding date, and I stared at an object in the room with an even more astonished look.

It was a beautiful bridal gown made of layers of pure white, thin fabric.

“This is the wedding gown that Cecilia will wear on the day of the event, I had it custom made. Do you like it?”

“…”

I was too aghast at this marriage, which was moving forward too quickly, so I couldn’t even say a word to Prince Alfeld. I felt that there was nothing I could do about this.

But then, I suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu about the wedding dress in front of me.

…Huh? I think I’ve seen that bridal gown before…oh, yeah! That’s the same one Nina was wearing in the Prince Alfeld route of the game, I believe, it was in the scenes of Nina and Prince Alfeld’s wedding at the end! Seriously, it’s going to be me wearing it and not Nina…hmm? Which means…maybe in that book…

I was staring at my bridal gown and remembering the memories of my previous life in my head.

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