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

Chapter 326: Assessment

"...So, Evelyn, how have you been feeling?" Saluvia asks while we’re having a therapy session in my room in the castle. Esther isn’t here because Saluvia doesn’t allow the person who was largely to blame for my state to be near me at times like this.

"Oh, I’m fine... Esther’s been nice—"

"And that mark on your belly?" Saluvia says, gesturing with her pen toward my stomach. I feel a bit embarrassed; I wouldn’t want people finding out about what Esther did to me.

"Oh... that?... Esther enslaved my soul... but it’s fine, it’s not that bad. She’s still been kind to me most of the time. Besides, that medicine you made for her has been helping her control the hunger," I say with a small smile.

"Have the medicines been helping you?" she asks, paying close attention. It’s kind of annoying having to take medicine every day, but thanks to them my mind has been clearer, and I’ve been trying to get better and stop just drowning Esther in my sadness.

"Yes, they’ve been helping a lot, even though it’s a bit upsetting what Esther tries to do when I don’t want to drink the medicine... but other than that, everything’s fine." She jots a few things down in her notebook.

"Your overall condition has improved, though only slightly for you and more than I expected on Esther’s side. She’s really been putting in the effort... hmm... but Evelyn, giving up all your autonomy, all your decisions, and shifting the blame while handing it over to Esther isn’t the best way to deal with this."

"..."

"You know Esther only does what she does because you previously allowed it, right? You have no right to complain when you made it implicit and explicit that Esther can do whatever she wants and you’ll just obey..." She asks it more as something she wants to make clear than as a question.

"I... I know... it’s entirely my choice, but I don’t really regret it... besides, I think the fear of losing me is messing with Esther’s heart." I understand that I gave Esther all this freedom.

"Doesn’t that make you feel bad?"

"...No." I give a big smile. I’m not going to feel bad about it. It’s proof that Esther loves me more than anything, and that losing me is something she’s not willing to risk in any way.

"...You sound sadistic."

"...What?"

"You, Evelyn, sound sadistic."

"I-I’m not sadistic!" Where did she get the idea that I’m a sadist? That doesn’t make any sense!!

"Maybe not sadistic the way Esther is, but emotionally, Esther’s suffering makes you happy when it implies Esther is trapped with you. That is sadism. You should accept your emotions more."

"I—"

"You run from your emotions too much. I’m just saying what I observe, but your smile when you said ’no’ — in my view, that wasn’t the smile of someone who feels sad or uncomfortable. It was a very genuine smile."

"..."

"...Evelyn, what have you thought of the walks and more balanced meals?" she asks me, changing the subject, which makes me more comfortable. I don’t like being confronted with this talk about me being "sadistic."

"W-Well... Esther’s been coming with me. Exercising is strange because it doesn’t change anything about my body or my life, but it’s nice spending time with Esther. And I’ve been eating better too."

"Hmm..."

"S-So what’s my progress?" I ask, curious about it. She’s been doing these general assessments every three days, and sometimes she listens to my complaints too.

"Low but frequent. Esther’s is what impresses me the most. Her focus on making you better is pleasing. I think we can end here," she says, closing the notebook. She didn’t even ask anything about my son in this session, unlike the one three days ago.

’How does she...’ Saluvia stands up, still dodging the little puppet on the ceiling that’s supposed to watch and see what she’s writing. Somehow her head always got in the way.

She really doesn’t let me see what she writes so much in that notebook. I’m quite curious, but she just leaves and Esther comes in when she goes.

"And?" Esther asks, sitting down in the chair Saluvia was in, as if trying to erase any trace of another woman in my room. Her jealousy in that sense seems cute.

"Improvements, but not much. But Saluvia praised your improvement, Esther... and she also said I’m sadistic," I tell her, throwing myself onto the bed and looking at the ceiling.

"Evelyn, the spells you asked for have been done. Are you sure about creating this marionette?" Esther asks me, having forced me with the slave mark to reveal my entire plan.

"Yes, yes, I am. I have a great plan with it!! Of course, if you can kill the Queen of the Angels on your own, I won’t need this marionette," I say to her boldly, because I don’t need arguments — I just need Esther to say something.

"..." Esther stays quiet, because she still can’t do it, and she won’t be able to for a while. With Esther’s talent, in about three to five years she should have the power for it. She would have had the power much sooner if she were the Demon Queen, but since she’s not, she depends on more time.

Besides, the Queen of the Angels doesn’t just leave her realm and come to personally annihilate the demons because of a very interesting phenomenon. It’s a phenomenon of "empty territory destruction."

The "Ruler" of a territory needs to be in it most of the time. The Demon King didn’t leave the continent to go kill the Queen of the Angels because they could take advantage of his absence to cause irreparable chaos.

The Queen of the Angels also can’t easily leave her realm and continent because she’s her race’s greatest line of defense. So the Demon King and Queen of the Angels can only leave for a limited time.

But every day away from their realms means an added moment of risk. That’s where the difference comes in: on the demonic continent, there are candidates for the throne who can defend the realm, which allows the Demon King to leave temporarily for important things.

Like the negotiation with the humans done in the past. The Queen of the Angels has no one powerful enough to protect the realm. The King of the Angels is strong, but he’s still weaker than the Queen of the Angels.

So it’s more or less the Queen of the Angels and the Demon King evenly matched, and the King of the Angels is equivalent to two or three throne candidates. Naturally, a gigantic magical attack could hit the angel realm if the Queen isn’t there to block it.

And the demonic realm currently only doesn’t receive gigantic magical attacks from the Queen of the Angels because Esther is here. Esther is our line of defense — which is what’s keeping her trapped here.

"Evelyn, your plan had better work. I—"

"Esther..." I stop Esther. I know she’s going to say she doesn’t trust my capabilities much because of how ’fragile’ I am, but the medicines have really been helping me clear my mind and plan better.

I’ve been creating so many new things that right now, with my powers alone, I could devastate 80% of the cities on the angelic continent by myself, turning almost all angels into marionettes and using them as armies.

It’s just that the Queen of the Angels currently destroys my body in one blow if she tries — after all, she’s extremely powerful. That’s why this "Super Marionette" needs to be created.

"The Queen of the Angels is being cautious, but Esther, that’s only because she’s not sure yet. The moment she realizes there’s no one capable of fighting her, she’ll stop maintaining the current passive fighting style."

"She just hasn’t done anything because she’s analyzing." I’m not naive anymore. Watching the angels’ movements in the cities of the angelic continent, I understood — the Queen of the Angels isn’t some nice person.

She’s practical, logical, and cold. She’s leaving the cities closest to the continent’s edges with civilians to be killed, and she’s letting the closer cities enter her realm, but she’s kept her main army far from the edges.

In other words, she’s letting us spend forces and resources advancing. The Queen of the Angels’ only flaw is that she still hasn’t noticed that dead civilians and soldiers become my marionette soldiers.

That’s the only advantage we’re having during the advances, and we should take advantage of what we can.

"...How many days left?" Esther asks in a rigid tone.

"Three days. I already have almost everything ready, and we’ve captured the three cities I needed... three days and a lot of patience..."

"Your plan had better work, Evelyn. If everything goes wrong, I’ll take you far away with me. We’ll live on a secluded island where you’ll be trapped forever," Esther says possessively.

"...I’m going to win this war..." I say to her. She stands up, comes over to me, and climbs onto the bed. She climbs on top of me, holding my hands possessively.

"You’d better win, Evelyn. And I hope you know — I’m only accepting this risky plan of yours because I want to show that I trust you, so don’t destroy that trust by failing me."

"I-I won’t fail! I’ll manage to create this marionette successfully... and I’ll find a way to control her... I just need some time to prove it to you."

"...You’ll have that time... so make the most of the time I’m giving you, Queen, and show that you deserve to be the Queen."