Armored Girl Monette Ch. 1

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3986di/1/

So I didn’t translate these first seven chapters. All the work was done by Kimamani Translations; I just edited the text a little bit. I used to have a link to their website in the table of contents, but it looks like they deleted their old blog when they restarted translating manga. I saved their old translations for Monette on a Word document just in case something like this happened though. I just wanted to make sure all credit goes to where it is due.

Armored Girl 

“As if I’d marry an ugly woman like you!”

Those were the first words he uttered the first time Monette Idira met him face-to-face.

Those were also the last words she heard from him.

What ugly words. To make things worse, those words were uttered by her fiancé, Alexis Radoll. Monette, still young, was very hurt by his words – and before the wound could heal, the very next day, she despaired when she learned that her younger sister had become his fiancee instead. She began to fear the gaze of others since she didn’t know what part of her was ugly. And fearing their mockery of her ugliness, she stopped appearing in front of others…

And eventually, she decided to wear iron armor from the top of her head to the tip of her toes.

Monette looks up at the sound of the birds chirping.  A blue sky peeks out from behind tree leaves criss-crossing above her. Every so often sunlight brightly shines through the canopy, but Monette just keeps looking upwards without closing or squinting her eyes.

It’s bright enough that it would normally hurt people’s eyes… normally.

“I planned to get back before the sun rose…”

After muttering that she stayed out too long, Monette started walking again.

Enough food supplies to last her a week were in the paper bag she held in both her hands. She bought food that would last for a while, but it’s probably still not sanitary to walk for many hours in sunlight holding the bag. Most importantly, if sunlight hit it for too long, it would begin to hold in heat… and by ‘it’, she meant the armor.

Wanting to get back quickly, Monette sped up a little. In this quiet forest where the chirping of birds echoes, her iron armor clattered loudly…

She’s covered from head to toe – so naturally, her fingertips are too. She covers her entire body with armor. A long while back she started to be known as the ‘heavily armored noble girl’, or just the ‘Armored Girl’ for short. What an ironic name. But it’s true that given how she hid not only her face, but every inch of her skin, there was no way to describe her other than ‘heavily armored’. It’s also true that she was in fact a noble girl. Though naturally, given that Monette was living alone deep in the forest inside the old castle, she didn’t really benefit from her nobility. It’s been a long time since she was a noble’s daughter.

And so that nickname of hers was terribly ironic, but Monette had no interest in correcting the name or in tracking down the person who thought it up and berating them. Her reasoning is probably something like this: They can say what they want, I only talk with people once a week to buy food anyways.

“I’ve got bread, jam, and meat jerky. Maybe next week I’ll bring them some wine to make some more money.”

Reaching the old castle in the forest, Monette spread out her purchases on a table. As she confirmed that she hadn’t forgotten to buy anything, she took off her helmet. A large sigh of relief left her lips as her navy blue hair draped down her back.

It’s incredibly tiring for Monette to go shopping in the nearest city district once a week. It takes several hours to reach the district from the old castle – it’s a long journey as it is, but given that she wears a full set of armor, it’s naturally impossible for her not to get tired. To make things worse, once she reaches the district obviously there are people around, and she always breaks out in a cold sweat at the idea that they look down on her even though she’s covered in iron.

She thinks that she hears a young boy saying ‘How ugly,’ but even when she accepts that those words are just an auditory hallucination, she hears people actually saying ‘Armored Girl’ behind her back. She’s too afraid to verify whether those mocking voices she hears is real or not.

The only thing Monette can do is to take shallow breaths in her helmet and quickly finish up her shopping. Then she runs away to the forest, clanking all the way.

In direct contrast to the city, the only person in this old castle is Monette. Naturally, no one sees her and no one speaks. She even has animal repellent set up.

How relaxing – even if she takes off her helmet and the rest of her armor, no one sees her. It would be so nice if she could live in this old castle for the rest of her life. But in order to live, she needs food. She could make do if all she needed was vegetables, but she can’t make goods like bread and other processed food by herself. In order to buy food like that she needs to go to the city…

“Should I pay them to deliver it here…? But I don’t want people to come here too… Hm?”

Monette went quiet at the sudden sound of other people’s voices. She snuck up to the old castle’s entranceway. People were talking on the other side of the door. From their voices, it was two men… as she was listening closely to verify that, they knock on the door. In a panic, she first puts on the helmet before putting on the rest of the armor that had been left outside. She twirls around in front of a mirror to make sure that no skin is visible.

Either they had followed her in some kind of fascination with the Armored Girl, or they got lost in the forest and want help.

They’re probably not salespeople – she doubts that anyone would come this far just for that. Maybe she forgot her change when she bought her bread, and a nice clerk came to return – nah, no way. If something like that happened, they’d probably want a tip that was greater than the change she forgot.

As she muses, she cautiously reaches a hand out to the doorknob before slowly unlocking the door…

Her eyes widen at the person standing on the other side.

A young man with dark brown eyes and hair and sharp features. He’s wearing a ratty robe and is putting up his hood in an attempt to hide, but he can’t hide the elegance that seeps through what little that can be seen. The moment Monette sees the young man, a young boy’s words echo clearly in her mind, the memories returning.

As if I’d marry an ugly woman like you!

… and so, she slams the door back closed.

She slams it so hard that the door might’ve warped. So hard that it may have hit the noses of him and his companion…

… she hears a strangled cry, so it’s possible she actually did hit one of them.

Humans are pretty good at bouncing back from things, so Monette returned to normal soon after slamming the door shut. She’d mastered repressing her unconscious mind. But the two on the other side of the door don’t seem to want to go home just because of what she did. They begin to bang on the door, louder than before.

“Monette, it’s you right!? Please open up!”

“I think I’ll have some bread.”

“Lady Monette, please, just lend us a small amount of your time!”

“Perhaps I’ll brew some tea. Oh, I had some new tea leaves – I should try them out.”

“I know that you resent me, but Monette – wolves! Oh no, Percival, wolves!”

“Maybe I should have some pastries first… wolves?”

“Lady Monette! Forget about talking, please just give us shelter!”

They begin screaming in between calling out her name as they bang on the door.

“I suppose my animal repellent wore off,” says Monette, tilting her head to the side.

…Though, since she’s wearing an iron helmet, all that can be observed from the outside is a grinding noise and a slight tremble.

Even as she tilts her head, she reluctantly put her hand on the doorknob. She really doesn’t want to let them in, but at the same time, she doesn’t want them to be killed and eaten right on her doorstep. She wouldn’t be able to sleep if they were eaten as they screamed and panicked.

And so, with no other choice, she opened the door. The two men run inside in a panic. She then slammed the door closed so the wolves can’t get in.

It looks like they were really panicked – though, that’s a pretty normal reaction to wolves closing in – so the two of them were breathing shallowly and making sure that they were both alright. They then look up.

That elegant and intelligent face reminded Monette of his younger self… though she barely remembers him from back then anymore. Monette lowers her head. Though she’s covered head to toe in armour and living in a forest, she has to lower her head to him.

“It’s been a while, Prince Alexis,” says Monette.

Her iron armor made a grim grinding sound as her head lowers.

TOC

Chapter 2

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