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

Chapter 330: The Devil

It’s been about a week since I started observing the girl who seems to be the right one. From what I’ve been able to gather, Shizuka really does lead a miserable life.

She studies at a public college where she suffers pretty severe bullying. Her father is a piece of shit who beats her, and her mother deeply despises her. From what I read in her diary when she wasn’t home, her life boils down to this.

Bullying, parental abuse, and deep sadness. All because she revealed she could "see" ghosts as a child, and her insistence, combined with an incident where a kid got hurt by a ghost, made her a pariah.

It’s obvious her parents don’t like the whole "seeing ghosts" thing either. Apparently, her father is a terrible drunk, and her mother drinks heavily too, but I haven’t found much about why.

Since they were loving parents up until she was five years old, there’s missing information. What I have is way too basic. But considering she’s already 19, has no job, and depends on a family that despises and mistreats her, I think a chance at a new life is something she’d accept.

Besides, she seems pretty gentle with small animals, though she deeply loathes her parents. I’ve seen her murmuring that she wished they’d disappear. I’ve also heard her say she wanted to disappear herself.

"Hmm, so many possibilities..." I’m on the roof of this girl’s house, waiting for her to come back from college. From up here, though, I can already see her being humiliated by two upperclassmen.

"Seems like people don’t like exorcists." All the hatred toward her came after she revealed she could see ghosts. In other words, exorcists, despite doing good for the population, are not well-regarded.

Thus, children who reveal they can see ghosts become pariahs. But this girl looked at me a few days ago, spotting me on top of a building from a distance, so she’s someone with the talent to be an exorcist.

So why isn’t any exorcist helping her? Could it be they don’t know she exists? That’s a possibility. Not to mention they probably don’t know about her talent.

"I think it’s time I got closer to her." I phase through the roof of her house, invading her room. Inside here, it’s full of ghosts. There are hundreds of them, some are large, but most are small.

Which seems to add a horrible mental burden. On top of that, it’s full of ghosts clinging to Shizuka’s body. She seems deeply disgusted by her own body, which is covered with these things.

She apparently doesn’t know how to get rid of the ghosts, since the ghosts that invade houses are different from the ones that stick to bodies and require different talismans.

I also noticed that if a ghost is stuck to a person’s body, it ignores the talisman that protects the house, being able to enter and get trapped inside without being able to leave.

"Get out of here. This house is mine now." When I say that, all the ghosts try to drag themselves out, but the talisman on the wall outside the house trapped them here. Since they can’t leave, I kill them all with a light spiritual attack — my threads, just made of spiritual energy.

"Much better." I throw myself onto Shizuka’s bed, stealing her diary to finish reading it. There’s a lot here.

’Considering the bullying, she should get here in a few hours.’ I can’t bring myself to feel pity for her. My life is far worse than hers.

After all, just the fact that Esther constantly devours my body already far surpasses the act of being beaten up every now and then.

’I wonder when I got so cold and wounded that I started comparing other people’s pain to my own...’ I casually flip open her diary, "feeding" on her pain like a damn parasite.

"...Arial really ruined me." I didn’t need to know I was a nymph, but now that I do, I can only take advantage of the benefits of being one.

’I hope she gets here soon... I need to check how submissive she could be to me, and I also need to see if I can curse her soul...’ I turn the pages, carefully looking at what’s there.

...

...

...

"U-Urgh..." I groan in pain, touching the bandage on my cheek as I enter the house.

"SHIZUKA, WHERE WERE YOU?" I hear my father yelling at me, which makes me shrink back.

"S-Sorry, Dad... I-I was at school, I was doing an assignment—"

"I don’t need to know what you were doing." He grumbles from the kitchen while I hear the clinking of liquor bottles. I quickly walk down the hallway to my room.

’I-If they keep spending so much money, soon we’ll have none left...’ I wish I could say something about this irresponsible spending, but I’m not crazy enough to say it and get beaten. I’m just worried about what they’ll do when there’s no more money to buy booze.

"Haa..." I sigh painfully, opening the door to my room. But immediately, the "silence" makes me uncomfortable. I look around, not seeing any of those frustrating ghosts.

However, instead of being alone, there’s a girl on my bed. But she has horns, a tail, and wings, and something about her is terrifying. I feel like I’m going to be killed, but considering my situation, maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad.

’Th-These things normally don’t do anything but cling to me...’ I toss my bag of materials aside while the creature’s eye follows me, but I ignore it and head to my bed.

’W-Wait, is that my diary?’ Before I get closer to the bed, I see the "ghost" has my diary. None of them have ever touched my belongings.

"Hey, give that back!" I try to grab it, but instead of the reaction I expected, the person on my bed hands it to me.

"Aren’t you scared of me? You know you could die, right?" When she says that, a cold shiver runs down my entire spine and my hand freezes in place. Something in her voice is disturbing, and I feel my brain throb.

’Th-These things can talk?’ None of them have ever spoken, but she’s completely different from all the ghosts.

"I-It’s my d-diary."

"So it’s worth more than your life? Bold indeed, Shizuka. Here, take it back, I’ve already read what I needed to read." She hands me the diary while I back away from her with slow, retreating steps.

"Wh-What are you?"

"Do you really wish for death that much?" She asks a strange question.

"...Didn’t you notice? Well, most people get far more terrified than you. The ones who see me, that is. If you’re this calm, it seems like your life doesn’t hold much value."

"Wh-What are you? A-Answer me!"

"...I’m Evelyn. Your attitude is pretty insolent. Regardless, I’m going to be living here for a while, so I’d appreciate it if you were calm."

"L-Living here? But I didn’t allow it."

"I don’t need your permission for anything... besides..." She snaps her fingers and all the ghosts that had been clinging to my body so insistently are destroyed. I’m shocked by this, because I’ve never been able to get rid of these little pests.

"Wh-What do you want from me?" I doubt she came here just to live here, just like all those strange ghosts that latch onto me and make me feel sick.

"I do want something from you, really. But now isn’t the time to talk about it. Your father seems pretty drunk, I think you should lock the door."

"..." I look toward the door, hearing the sound of glass bottles breaking.

"I-If I bar the door, h-he’ll break it down and beat me..."

"...I see. What a miserable situation you’re in." She says just that and starts playing with some sort of web between her fingers.

"...I-I’ve never seen a ghost like you..."

"...I’m not a ghost."

"Not?"

"I’m a demon."

"...D-Demon? L-Like the devil?"

"...That’s right. I am the devil. The Demon Queen Evelyn." When she says that, I’d like to say it’s a joke on her part, but she seems serious. More serious than she should be.

"I-If you’re the devil, then you came to offer me a deal i-in exchange for my soul?"

"Clever girl. Looking at you like that, you don’t even seem like a weakling incapable of escaping your own parents. Yes, I want your soul in exchange for a deal, but I still don’t know if you’re the one I’m looking for. Of course, I can guarantee that coming with me would be better than staying here. But like I said, I want to observe you first."

"...I-I won’t be seduced by a devil who wants my soul..."

"Seduced? What a terrible choice of words. You think I want a malnourished brat who looks like she’d fall over with a gust of wind? I already have my goddess."

"Y-You’re not the devil? Th-The enemy of God?" I get confused by her statement.

"...Hahaha, if God is omnipotent and created everything, then he also created the devil. Following that logic, the devil should worship God too, no? My goddess Esther owns everything in me, so it’s natural that she’s the only one I need to seduce." Her statement sounds like horrible blasphemy.

But ghosts exist, and she doesn’t look like a ghost. She looks much worse. Maybe she really is the devil.

"I-If God exists, why has he never helped me?" I question, frustrated. I have a horrible life, so why am I not helped even though I’ve never done anything bad?

"Who knows? Maybe you’re not worth God’s time. But be happy — you’re worth the time of a being like me... Your mother just got home." When she says that, I flinch.

"..."

"Your diary was pretty empty. There’s something else going on, isn’t there? Don’t you want to tell me?"

"I-I will not talk to the devil." I turn to leave the room.

"Your mother and father have started arguing. If you go out now, they’ll beat you."

"I-I prefer to b-be beaten than to be near the devil. Y-You must be nothing but a liar..."

"Do what you want. But I’ll be staying around here for a while. Running from me is just delaying the inevitable."