F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!

Chapter 309: A Considerably Fair Deal

"So, Evelyn, how are things on the other side?" Esther asks as she signs some papers in the office. She has me sitting on her lap, so I’m a bit too distracted to do what I’m supposed to.

"They’re fine. The armies arrived without issue, and we’re preparing to march toward the first city..."

"That sounds great. Considering our army and your puppet army, things are going wonderfully. Your power has also grown immensely. Taking the first few cities will be relatively easy, even without any strategy — just push straight forward."

"But that’s not what you’re going to do, right? I’d be quite disappointed if your plan was simply to advance in a straight line like some barbaric savage."

"...I planned to use bomb puppets to throw themselves at the walls and detonate in various areas, opening up breaches, and then advance after launching magic from above against the city... and a few other little things..."

"That will easily decimate plenty of civilians. You don’t care?" She asks a rather malicious question, and it’s obvious that I do care, but it’s either that or we get attacked. I don’t have a real choice since I wasn’t even the one who started the war. Retreating now would be stupidity.

"I hope as many people as possible survive, but if they don’t, they can have the honor of becoming puppets." Thanks to what I learned about magical manipulation from Nerina, I can now transmute materials without even touching them or being close. So I can just turn any corpse into a puppet immediately.

"How wicked, desecrating the dead like that," she says in a mocking tone, which is honestly quite frustrating.

"Don’t speak as if you care, Esther. You don’t even see them as people. Don’t judge me — you know it hurts me when you do this kind of thing." She strokes my head between my horns.

"I’m sorry, Evelyn. I’m not trying to hurt you. I just find it amusing how your morals and kindness died the moment they were confronted with the reality of war."

"..."

"Esther, do you still want to commit genocide?" I ask, as I always ask every certain amount of time, or when important things happen, because I have hope that she’ll change her mind.

"Yes, my goal hasn’t changed, and it never will change out of nowhere in the hopeful way you keep wishing for. Why do you ask?" Her answer deeply disheartens me, not because I didn’t expect it, but simply because I’m tired of trying.

Esther never changes her mind about this, not even for love. It’s exhausting. Why am I fighting so hard for people I don’t know and who barely matter to me?

I tried so hard to stop Esther that my life just sank into chaos. If I had done nothing, if I had simply accepted Esther’s genocide, wouldn’t I be much happier? I could have just accepted Esther’s love without having to fight so hard to stop her.

Just acting like a loving and submissive wife — wouldn’t that have given me a much easier life? The more I fight against this terrible fate that seems immovable, the more I hurt myself.

But giving up... if I give up on this at this point, the feeling of being useless will drown me. I fought so hard to stop being a failure; if I give up now, I’ll just go back to being the failure of the past.

But the exhaustion is so great. I don’t want to fight for this anymore. I really want to just give up and let Esther do whatever she wants. Fighting against this has become too costly for my mental health.

"Evelyn, why do you care so much about this? Have you ever thought about the wonderful possibilities of having an entire world to yourself?" She stops signing the papers and speaks in a sweet tone.

"Because I don’t want that... but I also don’t want to fight over it anymore. I’m just... exhausted. And now that I’m going to have a child, I don’t have the mentality to spare." I’m already socially broken.

Like a battery that, no matter how much I charge it, is always at 30%, and I still have to spend that mental energy on Esther. I no longer have the mentality for this fight, much less for helping people I’ve never seen in my life and who don’t care about me.

After all, when this baby arrives, it’ll just be one more worry that will take up more space in my mind.

The conversation with Grace made it clear: to everyone, I’m just the Demon Queen and nothing more. It doesn’t matter if I’m trying to save all the people of this world. No one knows it, and no one will ever come to know it.

It’s a kindness that will be ignored and erased. Or rather, it will never leave even a trace on existence itself. No one would know — only me and Esther.

"Tired already, Evelyn? That’s very pathetic on your part. It hasn’t even been that long since you started trying to stop me. Is your will really that weak?"

"...Esther, is there something you want from me so that you’ll stop? Anything... I’ll do anything if you give up this genocide." I wonder if now there’s something Esther would want from me.

"Anything, is it? Are you so exhausted that you’re offering anything? Do you think random people you’ve never seen in your life are worth that? Foolish. Your naivety and kindness are almost disgusting."

"..." That reminds me of what Saluvia said — that I would have fared better being born an angel.

"So you want to make another deal? I can give up on this."

"Really?" I ask, surprised. She never seemed to want to give up on this, so why would she agree to abandon genocide now?

"Oh yes. But the cost is you becoming my slave. I will tattoo a seal onto your body. I will know every place you are, I will be able to give you orders that you’ll be unable to disobey, and you will never again have any chance of freedom." She rubs my belly while I think about it.

"...But..."

"Don’t you think it’s fair? To save everyone, you can become my obedient doll for eternity. NOTHING less than that would make me give up — nothing besides death, of course, since if I died, I couldn’t do anything."

"...That... isn’t fair at all... I wouldn’t be able to know if you’d ask for absurd things... or try to get rid of our baby again... after all, I would be a slave — what would stop you?"

"And what if I promised during the marking not to overstep the limits? Besides, I would hardly impose rules. I just want the feeling of having you as something that could never leave my side in any way."

"And if I said I accepted this trade... would you really keep your word? Or would you deceive me?"

"To have you like that, I could hold back all my anger in many situations. I could fulfill many of your requests, and I would truly never break my word to you."

"...Is this serious, or did you just say that to string me along?"

"You want to stop fighting, don’t you? This stupid struggle is simply losing its appeal and only holding us back. If we acted together, as the wives we are, we could accomplish everything much more easily."

"I... could accept that... but we would have to make a fair contract... so that you don’t break any rules." She looks surprised when I say that.

"Are you serious? You’re going to sacrifice everything for a bunch of people you don’t even know?" She sounds almost offended.

"Esther, I’m already a slave... a slave to a love I can’t disobey. Would letting you mark my body with a slave’s mark really change anything?" It’s stupid, I know, but because I’m a dragon, I can barely disobey Esther anyway.

"...Tsk... Fine, we can make a contract then. And so you don’t say I’m cheating, you can put in the clauses that would grant you freedom if I broke them."

"...You won’t commit genocide if you get this?"

"Yes."

"Is it really that easy?" I’m shocked that this was all it took.

"You’re so foolish, Evelyn. Outside of the restrictions, you won’t have any protection. I can break you and rebuild your will. I was already very worried about your mental health and the possibility of you killing yourself."

"As my slave, suicide simply ceases to exist. Disobedience? Impossible. Having your body obey every command is perfect. I have your heart, but I didn’t have your lascivious body that runs after other women."

"Now? Now I’ll have access to the only thing I couldn’t control. This trash of a world doesn’t matter if I can have every little piece of you under my control." When Esther speaks like this, it’s disturbing in many ways.

"...But Evelyn, why this now?"

"...I’m just really tired... nothing more... it’s exhausting... not that I do that much, so it’s just... I just want to finish whatever I wanted in the past, once and for all." To stop being a failure, to become queen, and to prevent the genocide Esther wanted to commit.

Three complex goals, and I’ve already accomplished two. The current war? It barely matters. I NEVER wanted to get involved in this problem because Esther was a bigger issue. I knew there would be a war, but honestly, I’m already doing more than I should.

As long as Esther agrees to stop her genocide, I don’t care about becoming a slave! I wouldn’t even care if she decided to kill me!!! Because once Esther gives up on the genocide, I will have demonstrably accomplished everything I wanted from the very beginning.

Proof that I am someone entirely new in every possible way. And proof that I can accomplish anything if I try.

"Alright. We can do this now, before you change your mind." She suddenly sets me on the floor and takes my hand, pulling me to go with her.

"W-Wait, were you being serious?"

"Completely, Evelyn. We’re going to the treasure vault. It has everything we need, and no one needs to find out about our little secret." She has a huge smile on her face, which sends a few shivers down my spine.