A Miraculous Story Book 1: Verity Queen

• Reign of Lies •

Picture from cover: Marinette's Miracle Box, the missing Snowy Owl Miraculous pendant and the missing Panda Miraculous hairband

"You could be the librarian that was nice enough to help me prepare our project?" Marinette wondered aloud to Qi as they walked past the park on their way to the bakery. "No no no, that won't work," she mumbled. "Okay, um, you are a man my friend Alya and I met at the library while researching Ancient China, and you are an archaeologist and know a lot of this stuff?"

"I do know a lot about Ancient China," Qi said, nodding. He'd grown up there after all.

"Ah! Yes okay, that works, so just act natural."
Marinette donned the straightest face she could muster. Another round of lying to her parents was about to begin, but this time she had to lie about a whole person. She never should have agreed to this in the first place.

Qi raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"Hey, calm down," he chuckled. "You look like you want to kill someone with that face!"

Marinette laughed. "What do you expect? I'm not an actress!"

"Looks like you're the one that needs to act natural." Qi tugged at the brown sack he held over his shoulder. It was a little heavy, as it contained Marinette's Miracle Box.

"Do you need help with that?" she offered.

"No, I'm fine." He waved her hand away.

"Alright."

Before she knew it, Marinette was standing at the door of the Boulangerie Patisserie with Qi at her side.
"Okay, we're here," she whispered, as if she was on some sort of spy mission. "Hold on, let me plan what I need to s-"

Qi threw the door open and strolled on into the bakery. The bell hanging above the door jingled at his entrance.

Marinette froze and stared at her parents and grandfather who had been working on a batch of cookies. They stared back at her and the old guardian through the open door.

"Marinette!" Sabine called from behind the counter, "you're back!"

The teenager plastered an overly wide smile onto her face and stood straight as a rod.
"Yeah!! Haha," she chuckled, scratching the back of her neck.

Rolland looked up and smiled at his granddaughter, kneading a slab of dough beside his son. "How was your study session?"

"Uh, actually it was for a friend that I'm doing with my project- ack, no, I— a project with my friend! Is what I meant," she squeaked.

"Oh, right. You need to introduce me to your friend someday." The old man sprinkled a little flour over his dough. "What's your project on?"

"Uh, Ancient China!"

Sabine frowned. "I thought you told me you were doing your project on Ancient Egypt?"

"Ohhh! Did I say that?" Marinette's laugh was faker than any word that had ever come out of Lila's mouth. She desperately looked at Qi from the corners of her eyes. He stood passively, watching everything unfold.
"I uhhh- changed my topic! I must've forgotten to tell you," she stuttered.

"Hmp," her mother narrowed her eyes at her and aimlessly toyed with her wedding ring in thought.

"Hello," Tom Dupain greeted in a hearty voice, directing his attention away from the bowl of batter he'd been stirring to the unfamiliar old man, wiping his hands on his apron. "Are you a friend of Marinette's?"

"Well, I'm not sure if I could say that yet," Qi replied politely. "We just met in the library. I know quite a lot about Ancient China, 'cause that's where I came from, if you couldn't tell from my accent. I was helping her with her work." He chuckled as he stroked his beard and winked at Marinette.