Envenheim 181

I had no time to mourn my beauty. For in just two hours, I had to help Paris greet the foreign king he wished to make an alliance with.

“You do not have to help me if you do not wish to, Mimi.” Paris told me when he came to our bedroom to check on me again. “Do not feel pressured.”

I had just gotten dressed suitably for greeting royalty with the help of my half-sister. She picked out the dress Caerwyn had given me and lathered me up in a sweet-smelling perfume. After that, she had lightly dabbed my fur in human makeup to make me really stand out. I shook my head. “I wish to help you. I would do anything to be of use to you…”

I chose those words specifically because I thought they were what he wanted to hear. Those words rang of someone who wanted to be his, and of someone who would love him no matter what. That was what I thought he needed.

It was what I needed and wanted, after all.

And Paris looked at me with an expression mixed with desire and hesitance. He said, “I won’t stop you if you wish to come…”

“We have an hour, right?” I asked. “I want to really charm them. I have a plan.”

Paris raised an eyebrow. “Yes, we still have an hour.”

“I want to cook for them and attend to them myself, if that’s okay. We don’t need slaves to do it. I think they might find that to be very quaint.” I told Paris hopefully.

Paris smiled a little at that—he could be cute when he smiled, despite the ugly scar on his face. I wondered if he thought the same thing about me. “I think that’s a very good idea!”

“Good… I have some moth delicacies I want to try with the help of the moth slaves and some human food I want to try with the help of Terry.” I said to Paris excitedly.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Paris left, then, and I had Terry—who always guarded my door--summon my sister. We all headed to the kitchen to cook and direct the slaves about what we were going to cook.

“Gerta, what was that leafy thing with the noodles you used to cook?” I asked her.

“Tyuri, My Lady.” Gerta was proper when we were around humans and other moth slaves.

“Terry, do you know any extra-special human recipes?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Of course.”

“I’ll help you make it.” I said to him.

And, in under an hour, the kitchen bustled and we put together a magnificent feast.

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I was ready to greet the foreign king with Paris at the front of the castle. Paris said this king was king of a land across the sea--a land that was just as poor as ours, and so if we said and did the right things, he would be likely to form an alliance with us.

This foreign king bowed to us and introduced himself along with his brother and a few of the other important nobles he brought with him.

“Greetings, my name is Tomoya. This is my brother, Akira.”

I, in return, curtsied gracefully and Paris bowed deeply. Paris introduced us, “this is my lovely wife, Mimi, and I am Paris.”

Tomoya looked at me curiously. “So it’s true… You did marry a moth princess.”

I stayed quiet and let Paris do the talking. “She’s a lovely girl—most human women pale in comparison to her. She would like to attend to you personally while you’re here. She is hard working and kind to a fault.”

I curtsied lowly again. “I am at your beck and call…”

Tomoya smiled and kissed my hand. “She certainly is charming. I never heard of a queen who serves instead of slaves.”

I smiled my most brilliant smile in return to try and sweep him off his feet. He couldn’t take his eyes off of me for a moment before Paris seemed to jealously help me to my feet and bring me to his side.

“She prepared a magnificent meal for you with the help of the slaves. Would you like to eat first and then talk of alliances?” Paris asked.

Tomoya nodded while not taking his eyes off of me. “Very well.”