Banished Villainess

chapter 18 : The Second Prince Joins

The gathering to monitor his banished former fiancée, Chloe in the middle of the night had become an established routine. Truthfully, he would rather just watch his beloved Momo’s everyday life instead, but that would have been a crime. Furthermore, no man would ever want to show their beloved’s private life to other people either.

As the prince thought of that, he remembered the last time he had met with his beloved which made his forehead crumple.

“Is something the matter, highness? I thought that you might be thinking about Lady Momo but, your face suddenly turned grim.”

“Wait, how did you even figure out what I was thinking?”

“We have been together for some time, highness. I can tell it by your face somehow.”

Seeing his foster brother’s composed face as he said that felt infuriating for the prince. Even as Sei had said that, he who always tries to keep his calm and composed behavior becomes much more relaxed and expressive when it involves Momo too, not losing to the him.

“I met with the lady named Chaco Brown and told her how Chloe had been using her name without her permission. From what I heard from Momo, the two of them had been classmates for two years.”

“Oh… Was she Momo’s former classmate? She must’ve been resentful to the idea.”

The group had just started their assembly but the figure of Dai emptying tea cake plates one after another had caught the eyes of the prince. Dai was a son of a general who held his father in high regard, striving every day to become a man just like him. There was a time that he had hit a slump in his daily endeavors but he made it past there due to Momo’s encouragement. This made him fall for her as result.

Although that gentleness of Momo is one of the many reasons the prince fell in love with her, he’d frankly rather have her stop minding other people like that. He doesn’t want to have other gentlemen misunderstanding her kindness for love after all.

“No, on the contrary, she felt honored having her name used.”

“What!? Was that woman her ally or something!?”

“I do not know. For now, she no longer had any relationship with Momo and they may have never been friends in the first place. Well, enough with that, Momo would be fine with just us by her side. Rather than that, we have to uncover Chloe’s schemes.”

The prince changed the subject in order to forget the unpleasant behavior of Chaco that he had recalled and started the preparation for their monitoring assembly.

At that moment, the participants heard a knock coming from the door. Anyone else other than the entourage of the prince should have been refused entry at this hour. As he suspiciously opened the door, the person on the other side was his younger brother, was Yello Keith Coloflare, the 2nd prince.

“Keith. Why are you here?”

“I heard that older brother is doing some interesting things so I was considering joining.”

“This is not a game. We are doing this to protect Momo from Chloe’s–.”

“If older brother was that worried, he should have had her imprisoned rather than banishing her away. I do not understand why brother must go out of his way to send her in a place far away and monitor each and every single one of her actions.”

“The standard punishment for atonement is to dedicate her life to the church. If I can have my way, I would have gotten her imprisoned, or rather even executed.”

　

Leddorio had never been able to get along with his clever younger brother in the past. Unlike him, his younger brother had just obediently accepted the fiancée assigned to him. He had also maintained a favorable relationship with Chloe before she was condemned. On top of it, there were also talks about the crown has passed to Keith instead, now that Leddorio is no longer engaged.

“Mhm, so that how you ended up monitoring her… then I guess I shall join.”

“You don’t need to. You have not fallen in love with Momo anyway, unlike all of us here. This monitoring is for her sake.”

As Keith tried to enter the room, Leddorio was trying to push him back outside instead.

“But I am not totally unrelated, older brother. After all, Lady Chloe was someone who should’ve been my sister-in-law, and after Lady Momo is wed to brother, she’ll be one instead.”

As the 2nd prince stated the inevitability of his marriage with Momo, the 1st prince was caught off-guard and allowing him to get through. Likely because they were in private quarters, the subordinates of the prince were able to interject into their conversation.

“I cannot ignore that remark, highness. It’s not as though the Miss Momo had already chosen who she will be wed to.”

“Exactly. I may be loyal to his highness Leddorio, but my allegiance and love are this and that.”

“We will become family anyway whoever she decides to marry.”

　
Ignoring the chattering of his subordinates, the prince started to project the recordings of the brooch into the mirror instead.