The Duke's Daughter Is A Villainess (11)

"Duke Baudelaire, you must be wondering why we've asked you and your family to come here today." The king spoke, with a gravel to his voice that made Dahlia unintentionally tense.

Even if she knew what they were here for, she couldn't help but feel nervous in front of the king and queen like this. In her original world there were already no more real monarchs left, so now that she was facing a real one, it all seemed a bit daunting.

"Yes, so could Your Majesty please explain why we're here?"

The king snapped his fingers, and then suddenly someone approached the duke with a set of papers. The duke took the papers, then started reading. The more he read the more his expression hardened. Dahlia took a peek over his shoulder, and glancing at the words 'stolen baby' and 'conspiracy' she figured the papers were the results of the investigation Noah did on what actually happened the night the princess supposedly died.

Dahlia didn't really care to know what happened before, but she did have Buddy tell her what Stella's future was supposed to be like. In the plot, originally Alice was supposed to be the one to get lost in town and accidentally end up at the orphanage. And as she's seen the painting of Noah's mother in the palace, the minute she sees Stella in the orphanage she recognises that she must be somehow related to the royal family. Though by the time Alice found Stella, Stella was already sixteen and lived a miserable life. The orphanage was underfunded so Stella, as one of the oldest children in the orphanage, often had to resort to stealing or doing jobs that no one wanted to do to get money to provide for the other children there. When Alice found her she'd already suffered through the worst of life and was in horrible shape.

Even though Noah gained a sister and Stella could finally have a better life, it didn't last long. Stella only lasted two weeks in the palace before passing away in her sleep. It turned out that she contracted a disease from the poor living situation she was in while she was in the orphanage, and they were too late in finding her so they couldn't cure her before she succumbed to the illness.

That storyline was originally meant to happen so that Noah would have a tough time and Alice would have to comfort him and they'd eventually start their relationship through this experience. Alice would save Noah from the grief of his sister dying and she would finally realise what she felt for Noah when she realised how much it pained her to see him hurting.

Stella, in the end, was just used to have the main couple of the story finally get together, so Dahlia thought it would be fine if she used Stella for her own gain instead. At least this time Stella wouldn't have to die.

"Are you asking me to give up my daughter, Your Majesty?" The duke asked, the anger clearly heard in his voice.

"But she is not actually your daughter, Duke. She's mine." The king replied, looking as calm as ever.

Stella, from beside Dahlia, gasped, her eyes wide. Just as she was beginning to adjust to her new life, suddenly there was an even bigger surprise.

Dahlia took this change to sneak a glance at Noah. He stood beside the king's throne, looking perfectly collected. Looking at him like that, she could not get a grasp on what he was thinking or feeling.

The second prince was nowhere to be seen. Dahlia knew he wasn't important, as he was barely even mentioned in the novel. She wasn't even sure the author of the novel had bothered to give him a name.

"But!" Stella suddenly yelled, as all eyes turned to her. "I like the Duke! And I like Dahlia! And I want to stay with them!"

The king went stiff, Dahlia stifled a laugh, and the duke merely grinned triumphantly.

"Your Majesty," Dahlia spoke up, "if I may say something?"

The king blinked, having not expected Dahlia to speak at all.

"...Go ahead."

"Everybody already knows that Stella has been officially adopted into the Baudelaire family, so I'm afraid just simply taking her like this won't be so simple. Since Stella herself wants to stay with us, why don't you let her? Rather than immediately moving her to the palace, maybe it would be better to start off by letting her visit the palace regularly instead. In the future, if she becomes more familiar with the royal family, she may even choose to live here herself."

Dahlia could tell that the king didn't like her suggestion at all, but was forced to consider due to how much Stella seemed to like Dahlia and the duke and how reluctant she seemed to staying in the palace. Though he didn't know Stella yet, she was still his child, so he did still want her to be happy.

"...I suppose that's a fine idea." The king said eventually. "We'll start by having Stella visit the palace every weekend, then."

"But... won't people think it strange for her to come so often?" The queen asked.

The king thought for a moment, looked at Noah, then looked at Dahlia, and finally seemed to come up with something. "Since we cannot let the truth of Stella's origins come out, I would like to suggest having Dahlia become Noah's fiancée. With that, if Dahlia visits the palace every weekend and brings Stella with her, it would not be so strange, would it?"