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

Chapter 320: Things of the Past

"We’ve arrived, Evelyn." Esther lands on the floor of what seems to be a very large mansion. From what Esther explained, the person we’re meeting is someone called Ragnar, the strongest beastman on the continent.

"Oh..." There’s a line of servants and maids standing still, as if they were waiting. Esther simply walks ahead while I follow her. It seems they were already expecting us.

"...Evelyn, I’m going to talk to Ragnar alone. He’s an... irritating guy, so if you’re with me, he’ll bother you, especially since you’re the queen. So I’ll let you have some free time. No one would dare touch you, so you’re safe as long as you don’t leave the mansion."

"I’ll be keeping an eye on everything too, and if something happens, just undo that extra body of yours and that’s it," she warns me as we enter the mansion.

"Okay, Esther!" Esther heads up a staircase, but I stay behind since she told me not to go with her. Not really knowing what to do, I look around and call a maid over.

"I would like a room," I say to the maid who looks me up and down. She’s a cat woman; her ears are cute. I wonder if Esther would like a cat girl costume with a tail and ears during sex.

"Follow me..." She starts walking down another hallway while I follow, spreading threads everywhere. After all, I’m not so naive as to just trust people anymore. I also scatter several "drones," small puppets disguised as mosquitoes and spiders that are basically cameras.

We arrive at a room, but before the maid can open the door, she shudders. Her tail stands completely on end and bristles before returning to normal, and she backs away from the door.

And then a fox girl appears, barging in through the window. She stares at me, her eyes quickly scanning my entire body.

"Miss Lya, do you need something?" the maid asks the fox girl. From her coloring, I can tell she’s a [Chaos Fox], a very strong variant race of fox.

"Who are you?" she asks me sharply, while the ignored maid simply retreats and leaves as if running away.

"...I am Evelyn Ashcroft, Queen of Demons."

"HA! You? Weak like that?"

"This is just an extra body. I’m not really here, so I guess your ability to assess me isn’t very good." When I say this, she clicks her tongue.

"So we beastmen have such little value in your eyes that you send a copy?" She really believes that, but this body of mine isn’t just a copy. It’s literally me; it has the same strength, magic, and abilities.

’Damn... I got called weak completely for free...’ I know I’m weak; I don’t need someone reminding me.

"Yes, you have very little value." It’s Esther who won’t let me leave the kingdom anymore, so my true consciousness is there in the other body in the kingdom, but it’s better to maintain an image of authority.

"Such insolence, you horned bitch." She says it as if I’d feel insulted by having horns. It wouldn’t even make sense for that to be an insult.

’What a wild woman...’ Just in case, I tie extremely thin threads around her limbs, only so that if she decides to attack, she’ll get stuck.

"Master Lya, please don’t run so fast-" Someone appears at the window, but when the person appears in the window and looks at me, she freezes in shock, while I also freeze in shock.

"Evelyn?"

"Syl’Vyr and Faye?" Lya looks confusedly at me as I stare, shocked, at the two who enter through the window. My gaze immediately turns serious while disgust stamps itself across my face.

"You know my slaves?" Lya questions, confused.

"Slaves?" When I hear Lya say that, I give an ironic smile.

"So this is the freedom you were looking for, Syl’Vyr?" I ask with mockery. She left me for this? To be someone’s slave?

"...It’s not exactly what I expected... but Lya doesn’t treat us badly... most of the time she’s good to us," Syl’Vyr tries to defend her supposed freedom.

"Hey, hey, hey, can you stop ignoring me?" Lya says, already irritated, while I seriously consider whether I shouldn’t just sacrifice Faye and Syl’Vyr’s existences and give their powers to Eve, but I decide not to, just for old times’ sake.

"Oh yes, your life seems perfect now, Syl’Vyr, dressed like a WHORE." Her clothes are extremely revealing and barely seem like they were made to cover her.

"..."

"Nothing to say? Then it seems I was a terrible master if your current situation is better than when you were with me." Lya seems to understand a bit of the situation.

"They are my property now, and I suggest you be careful what you say." Lya approaches as if trying to intimidate me.

"...Your property? You saying that is hilarious... Syl’Vyr, [Bend the Knee]." For the first time in my life, I give an [Order]. I’ve never forced my puppets to obey, because I treated them as special to me. Giving them orders as if they were machines seemed wrong in the past.

Syl’Vyr may have left, but she is still a living puppet, so she forcibly obeys the order, kneeling even though she tried to resist.

"E-Evelyn?" Syl’Vyr looks at me with a hint of despair in her voice, perhaps realizing that her life, her control, her freedom still depends entirely on me not wanting to do anything.

"Don’t forget, Syl’Vyr, you are still a puppet. Just a puppet born from my power, and that will never change, no matter how ’free’ you think you are."

"And you, ’Lya,’ can keep the leftovers I no longer want, but know that they are still my property, and if I wanted, they would be forced to return to me." I assert myself. I am no longer the coward of the past.

The only one who can scare me is Esther, and no one besides her gives me any real fear. What I say makes Lya’s face contort with rage.

"YOU-" Lya tries to punch me, but I end up, out of anger and curiosity, testing my domain’s ability. Even though Nerina is a wretch for deceiving me, everything she taught me was real.

Lya’s arm transforms into a rigid puppet structure with joints like a doll’s, which is the power of my domain. This makes Lya immediately recoil. Of course, she’s too strong to suffer the full effect, and her arm soon returns to normal.

’I still need to practice this.’ Converting organic matter into a puppet is still something that needs practice.

"..." Syl’Vyr and Faye stare at me, shocked. Of course they would be; I’m quite different from when the two abandoned me. I started using my powers more, and I became more cruel and cold regarding the lives of other people.

"Don’t forget that I am the Queen of Demons, little fox. If you’re not careful, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy."

"You think you’re hot shit, you fucking doll." She curses at me, snarling, but now in a more cautious manner.

"And you, Lya, should be careful with your ’slaves.’ After all, who knows when they might try to betray and abandon you?" I slam the bedroom door, ignoring her as she complains about me slamming the door, but soon she leaves, saying something full of hatred to Syl’Vyr and Faye.

"..." I forcibly access Syl’Vyr and Faye’s memories, not because I care about them, but because I want to better understand this continent’s situation. Lya seems to be someone important, and if the two of them are always close to Lya, they must have already heard something important.

"...I see..." Their memories contain quite a lot. It seems that as soon as they were captured by Lya, both became combat slaves.

Lya used them as her "personal gladiators" in bets and underground death matches. Since both Syl’Vyr and Faye are above average in combat, they ended up surviving quite a few fights.

And later, Lya decided she wanted another function for them, making them her private "bodyguards," but the title is more of a pretty term for a sex slave who fights when necessary.

"How deplorable... they abandoned me for this?" It’s almost an insult. Both of them abandoned me with all that excuse about looking for something better, and now they are even worse off than when they were with me.

Meanwhile, Eve, who was loyal and always stayed by my side, now already has the official title of general, is extremely strong, and not only that, but she’s also started making friends.

And naturally, I am striving to make Eve stronger, and we have been getting closer recently with casual conversations during rest breaks, conversations we haven’t had since the past, when times were more peaceful.

Eve achieved the improvement in life that Syl’Vyr supposedly wanted, a life that both of them could have gotten if they had just stayed with me.

I know I wasn’t right in my way of treating my puppets, but it also wasn’t right for them to abandon me to live on their own.

"It seems Lya is the reason why the beastmen want to enter the war..." I begin to tell Esther, who is in the kingdom. She is right beside me, helping me with a bath while I recount what I discovered.

She listens to everything I say attentively, and is surprised when I tell her how I got this information.

’I don’t understand how the two of them can give their loyalty to such a disgusting woman...’ Faye and Syl’Vyr gave their loyalty to Lya. Even though it was by force in the beginning, now it’s real. However, in both their memories, they heard Lya’s plans.

Lya has terrible plans! She wants to kill her father, wants war, makes people kill each other for entertainment. She’s like a filthy, wild beast.

"I can control puppets, marionettes, and dolls..." I think about this. I can control even things that aren’t my creations. Since I can do this, I begin to control all the children’s toys that are dolls to be my "eyes" and discover more about the current state of the beastmen continent.

After all, the more Esther knows, the more advantages she’ll have in negotiations with this Ragnar.