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

Chapter 327: A Childish Game

"...Evelyn-sama, everything is ready," Eve says to me as I watch the devastated city Marie destroyed. Gathering the magic from all the lives of the three cities, it’s already possible to do what I want.

"Thank you for the help, Eve... it might take a little while, but I’m sure everything will work out..." I say, looking down at the ground, where the "children’s game" I’m going to play to retrieve the soul I need is drawn. Intuitively, I already know how to use the magic [Final Act Maximum Release], so I really just need the soul I’ll find through the children’s game.

The game consists of twenty squares on the ground. There are three squares "stacked," then two on top of the three, then it goes back to one square with three more stacked, and so on until it reaches twenty, and at the end there’s a circle with the word "portal" written on it.

This children’s game is based on "hopscotch," a game where the child has to jump on one foot from square to square without moving. When there are two squares, she can use both legs; when there’s only one, she must use only one leg.

There are many variations of this game, but what matters is the "reward." In the traditional game, the reward is reaching "heaven," which is the circle. In some versions, it can also be a portal or a finish line.

Considering it’s a children’s game, but I’m applying more realistic effects, the "heaven" of the game is a portal that will take my consciousness to another world so I can retrieve the soul I need as a reward.

I’m going to play this game together with Eve, and for everything to work, I had to explain to Eve all one hundred rules of the game and the rewards and punishments. Unfortunately, the game needs to punish the loser, and Eve is the one who will lose.

So she’ll feel intense physical and mental pain as punishment for losing the game, but she said it was fine and she accepted it. So now we just need to play.

"..." I’m feeling a little tense. Esther, who is with my other body, is hugging me to help me with my fear of this going wrong, because I’m not sure of the limits of this power.

"Eve, let’s start soon... I want to be quick about this... after all, we’re in a war, so the faster I finish this, the faster we’ll have this puppet." Since my consciousness will leave my body, they would naturally become motionless.

But by using the soul backup, it’ll still be as if I’m here. So visually, nothing will change for Esther or Eve. What will change will only be for me, since I won’t feel the other bodies, the puppets, or receive the memories from the extra bodies.

"Alright, Evelyn-sama... but if something goes wrong, come back immediately, please... I really don’t understand why you think this crazy, unpredictable plan is the best one, but I’ll support you if that’s what you want," Eve says with a smile.

"...I think it’s precisely because it’s unpredictable that it’s good." I smile at her. The queen of the angels would never expect this, and that’s exactly the biggest advantage.

"Hey, Eve... if everything goes wrong and my consciousness gets lost... know that I really like you a lot. Even though I’ve been colder with my puppets lately, you’re special to me."

"...I really like you a lot too, Evelyn-sama... so please take care of yourself... and come back safel—" I kiss Eve on the mouth, stealing her lips. Eve’s eyes widen in shock as I pull away from the kiss.

"When you were born, you stole my lips. I figure, since there’s a chance I might get trapped who-knows-where and never come back, it’s only fair that I return the favor... don’t tell Esther, okay? It’s our little secret." I smile at her, an almost childlike smile, as pure as the smiles I used to be able to give back in that simpler, easier time of my life.

"..." I start hopping through the squares, playing the game. Immediately, the reality around me seems to distort. The ground disappears, and instead of just looking like marks on the floor, the squares look like a staircase rising up to "heaven," and the ground seems to be at an infinite distance from me.

My heart fills with a strange fear, but I take a deep breath and keep climbing. I can no longer see the city, the continent, or Eve. In fact, all I see in every direction is the "sky." Even when I look down, it seems mirrored, with the sky down there as well.

"14..." With each step I climb, reality seems to fragment more, and I feel that sensation—the same sensation of losing my physical body. I look at my hands, feeling that now I am just a spiritual and mental projection, and my body is back there with Eve.

"17..." Looking up, I can see a kind of golden gate, extremely beautiful. When I reach the nineteenth step, the golden gate opens. I know I cannot lose, but looking down makes my body tremble.

I feel that if I fall, I’d be erased from existence. I know my power forces my victory, but the last step is terrifying somehow, even with all the planning.

Even with all of Esther’s help with magic and the extras. Anyway, after reaching another world, I just need to find a suitable soul and come back, and fortunately, because I’m a nymph, I can sense the emotions of others through observation.

It didn’t work properly before because magic blocks it, but I probably won’t find anyone with enough magic to block this ability, and maybe I’ll even go to a world without magic! And in the worst-case scenario, I’ll go to an empty world.

The return also isn’t that hard. At every moment, I’m still inside the children’s game, so when the game ends, I’ll come back. And the game ends when I’ve found who I’m looking for or when a time limit, which is quite long, has passed.

"20..." I reach the last step in front of the gate. I take a deep breath, not wanting to hesitate, and then I jump straight through the portal, entering it and hoping I’m lucky enough to find a good world.

...

...

...

"..." I look at Evelyn’s body. Her body has completely stopped moving, indicating she has already "left" for now. But I still feel her soul here through the slave mark, so only Evelyn’s consciousness has gone away.

"E-Esther?" Evelyn "wakes up," but I know it’s not Evelyn—just the backup of her consciousness that she left active so it wouldn’t look like she’s unconscious. Only me and that "Eve" know about Evelyn’s plan.

"Backup Evelyn, was Evelyn’s power a success?" I ask her, and her eyes widen before she realizes everything.

"Ah... yes, yes... ’I’ have already left... but I can’t tell what’s happening. Too far away... so no reports... ugh!" She groans when I throw her hard against the bed.

"Did you forget you gave me a communicator that shares what you see and hear? What the hell was that about not telling me about a kiss, you little slut?" I get irritated immediately. How dare she kiss another woman and then say to keep it a secret from me.

"W-Wait!! H-Hey, it wasn’t me!! The ’Evelyn’ isn’t even here!! Are you really going to punish me for something that wasn’t even under my control?!"

"The body is still hers..." I put handcuffs on her, pinning her to the bed, and take a collar from the drawer beside me, fastening it around her neck.

"T-This is so unfair... y-you know she was just saying goodbye, right? And the thing about not telling you was just to make you jealous!! She knew you were listening and—" I gag Evelyn’s mouth with a very long sex toy I pull from my storage ring.

It’s like a phallus, but it’s forty-five centimeters long and not very thick. It goes deep into Evelyn’s throat, blocking it completely, and the end of the toy is like a mask.

The mask attaches to Evelyn’s lips, keeping her silent and shutting that naughty little mouth for having kissed another woman.

"I know, and she succeeded. I’m dying of jealousy. The only thing left for me is to punish her body. She had no right to kiss another girl, especially knowing I was watching." I tear off her clothes, leaving her only in her underwear.

Evelyn squirms on the bed, a little desperate at being punished for something that theoretically isn’t her fault, but to me, she’s also guilty. After all, she’s still Evelyn, no matter what.

"..." Backup Evelyn looks at me as if she’s being betrayed. She’s still Evelyn to me, so I ignore her gaze. Punishing her for the mistake she thought wouldn’t have consequences is the right thing to do.

"Don’t look at me like it’s so awful that I’m punishing you while Evelyn is working hard to get stronger. It’s your own fault for being so foolish as to think there wouldn’t be consequences."

Normally, I wouldn’t let Evelyn carry out this crazy plan, and I would also never let her become stronger than me. But in the future, I believe this puppet of hers will be weaker than me, and anyway, I already possess Evelyn’s soul.

"Now... let’s test something new." I grab a sex toy that looks like a pink saw connected to a rod. The "teeth" of the saw are small spherical protrusions. I turn on the saw, watching it spin while Evelyn shakes her head negatively at me.

"I hope you like it. The seller said it was very intense and can be used continuously as long as it’s charged with magic. Let’s see how many hours you can endure."