The Saintess and the Villainess

Chapter 34

Joey came back into the room, pushing a rattling tea cart in front of him. While he began to set up the tea things, Collette turned to Anne. "Quick, have you decided on any styles you like?"

"Oh," said Anne, glancing back down at the catalog. "I, uh..."

"It doesn't matter," said Collette. "Joey, come here a moment!"

Collette took Joey off to the side, rattling a bunch of orders to him.

While they were preoccupied, Belle took a sip of her tea, and said quietly, "So if you're father is... who you say, then who's your mother?"

"I don't know," said Anne. "She's the one who abandoned me at the church."

"If you don't know who your mother is, how do you know that your father's the elf king?" asked Collette, plopping down next to Anne.

"Collette!" said Belle. "You should keep your voice down when discussing such things."

"Oh come on, Joey already left," said Collette, serving herself a slice of tea cake. "It'll take him a while to gather all the stuff I asked for, too."

"Well, our dad has a lot of illegitimate kids," said Agis. "So a while back my brother Elyon invented a magical device that acts as a sort of paternity test."

"Wait, 'our'—?" said Belle. "Are you also an illegitimate child of the elven king."

"No, I am not!" said Agis, puffing out his chest. "I'm completely legitimate. I'm the third son of King Theodas and Queen Elincia, Prince Agis Clearshot."

"You're a legitimate prince?" Belle's voice was calm, but she was tightly gripping the arms of her chair in a way that implied she was barely keeping it together.

Collette whistled.

"I actually met Agis kind of randomly one day," said Anne. She didn't remember it herself, but it was mentioned in the original novel. "And the family resemblance was obvious, so we confirmed it with the test thing."

"Okay, okay," said Belle, taking a deep breath. "Just accepting all of this, shouldn't you still have some way to figure out who Anne's mother is? If you know around when she was born, then surely your father remembers..."

"I think you're underestimating how much our dad gets around," said Anne.

"Just how many half-siblings do you guys have?" asked Collette.

Anne and Agis both looked at each other and then shrugged.

"At least enough to fill a platoon," said Agis. "Most of them are in the royal guard."

"And that's only the ones we know about," said Anne.

There was a pause as everyone considered this.

"You two should really be more careful about who you tell about all this," said Belle. "I mean, a legitimate elf prince wandering around the capital city..."

"It's not like we go around telling everyone," said Anne. "But you guys are friends of Corvina, so it's fine, right?"

Now it was Collette and Belle's turn to exchange glances.

"Well if you'd ask me a few weeks ago, I would've told you that Lady Corvina herself would've been the absolute worst person you could have told any of this to. Although I wouldn't be surprised if she already knew anyway," said Belle. "But honestly I'm not sure what to make of any of a this anymore. I can't keep up."

There was a knock on the door and Joey came in followed by several other shop assistants, all weighed down by armfuls of clothes.

Collette clapped her hands and got to her feet. "Enough of all that! Now it's time for some real fun!"