F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 177: Undeniable Truth

"Lady Esther... I’m so sorry, I didn’t..." Before the servant can finish, I blow his head off with a thrust of my spear. He failed me for the last time.

"Wow...Esther-sama was truly precise?" Elizabeth asks curiously. She arrived here two days ago and is now here bothering me. At least she brought useful information, as my most important servants have returned with good news.

"Yes, I was. He got my order wrong twelve times in four days. That many mistakes are unacceptable," I say, tapping my foot anxiously on the floor, each sound making me more irritated.

"..." Elizabeth looks at what I had ordered, now spilled on the ground.

"Blood? Esther-sama, since when do you enjoy drinking blood? Normally you drank coffee, lots of coffee full of sugar. What changed?" When she asks that, I realize.

This servant I just killed was the one who made my coffee most of the time. He made it perfectly, which is why he served me for over five years. But now I killed him for twelve consecutive mistakes. Twelve mistakes, all of them being cups of blood instead of coffee.

He never learned how I would like a cup of blood, so naturally, he got it wrong every time.

"..."

’Blood...’ I swallow drily, only now realizing that I’m increasing my orders for cups of blood. Before marrying Evelyn, I only drank sweetened coffee, or else sweet tea as well.

After tasting Evelyn’s blood and living with her, I replaced my morning coffee cup with a cup of blood. And now that I’m away from Evelyn, I’ve replaced the morning, afternoon snack, and evening cups with blood.

’Damn it...’ I put a hand to my forehead, feeling the smell of blood spreading across the floor. I promptly sit down in the chair while Elizabeth looks at me with concern, since I’m not one to kill useful servants over something as trivial as a wrong ordinary order.

"It’s my race..." Everything is happening as my mother said it would. After experiencing the wonderful taste of blood, this craving for more arose.

’It’s growing, slowly, but it’s growing. And without Evelyn nearby for me to bite, it’s getting worse...’ I always bit Evelyn, usually weak bites, but in that bite, I could smell her blood and even taste a few drops.

That was enough to give me "peace." But now I don’t have her nearby, and that makes me demand blood more actively. And us being on a battlefield only makes everything worse, since I’m seeing blood even more constantly.

"Elizabeth, leave. And fetch me a cup of blood... I want it to be sweet, so add a lot of sugar. But it needs to be a controlled amount; it can’t be so sweet it takes away the coppery taste of the blood. And it needs to be warm, so it has to be fresh, but not too thin. It needs to be thick and strong..." I send her off to get what I desire.

"...Immediately, Esther-sama..." She leaves after giving me one last look, while I activate the relic to see if I can now observe Evelyn, and finally it works.

’Oh?...’ I see Evelyn in an underground prison with an angel. She’s looking at torture tools while I see on the side of the table one of the three books I wrote and gave to her.

"...She’s... using what I taught..." This gives me a momentary satisfaction that distracts me from my craving for blood, because watching her is more interesting.

...

...

...

"Evelyn-sama, I’m glad you’re awake!!" Eve says upon seeing me in the corridor. I woke up a few minutes ago, and then I looked at Eve’s and Syl’Vyr’s memories. What I saw bothers me; Arial kept acting so perverted using my body.

"Eve, thank you for taking such good care of things..." I say to Eve with a somewhat empty look as I walk towards the underground prison. The first thing I’ll do upon waking is go torture angels.

"Evelyn-sama, what..."

"I’m going to go torture the angels... to get it over with quickly..." I really don’t want to, but looking at Eve’s and Syl’Vyr’s memories, I know what Arial told the soldiers, and I have a time limit to get something out of these prisoners.

Besides, Eve just had a conversation with Clarissa, and the angels are causing trouble because they’re just imprisoned but nothing has happened to them yet. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"...Evelyn-sama, if this is about the fake Evelyn, you don’t have to... do what she wants to force you to do," Eve says without confidence in her words, because she knows that’s not the reason.

"..." I stop and look at Eve.

"The Demon King said only I should torture the angels... and... I’d have to do it sometime, right?..." I say with a fake smile, hiding my feelings, as I feel should be done, burying all the fear of what I’ll do deep down.

"Evelyn-sama, I can see you’re faking..."

"And what are you going to do about it?" I ask as I resume walking straight for the underground. I reach the stairs and start descending.

"Nothing... I won’t do anything you don’t want, Evelyn-sama. But is this really what you want to do? You could have me or Syl’Vyr do it for you and then tell the Demon King you were controlling our bodies..."

"..."

"Stop. From here on, only I should go." I’m not going to follow Eve’s idea. Because... because I’m an idiot. I still feel that if I do this, I’ll somehow be rewarded by Esther. I feel I’ll gain something good for myself if I just ignore any pain or bad feeling.

"...If you need me..."

"I won’t need you, Eve. Just go back upstairs and prepare the paperwork. I’ll write a report for the messenger to send the information I obtain to the Demon King..." Before I can finish, Eve hugs me.

"You seem... sad..." she says seriously.

"..."

"I will do as you asked immediately... if you need to... I don’t know... talk after you’re done, I’ll be here." She lets go of me and starts climbing back up while I descend. Her offer seems great, but for some reason, I don’t want it.

I’d feel weak accepting her help, and I want to be strong. So I completely ignore the fact that she could indeed help me as I arrive at the prison. I see several imprisoned angels.

"..." When they see me, the hatred is clear. I look around and search for the most relevant angel among them until I find a girl. She has red hair and golden eyes, with large white wings, and her clothing is the most imposing and has two medals.

"You. You’re the leader, aren’t you?" I say as she spits in my direction, even though I’m too far away to be hit.

"You disgusting monster. Yes, I am the leader. But you won’t get anything out of me. I would never give information about..."

"I don’t want information." I interrupt her and pick up one of Esther’s books, one of the three books I’m using to lead, and open it to the Chapter on torture. Then I grab the chains of the angel girl and start pulling her into the torture chamber.

Their chains are magical items, so she is easily dragged by me without me needing to exert much effort. When we enter the torture area, I hook her chain onto a peg, and the chain shrinks, pulling her against the wall.

"..." She lets out a pained groan as I place the book on the table, open to one of the Chapters. The most basic knowledge Esther imparted is to torture not in search of information, but to torture for the act of torturing itself.

’Chapter 20... [The act of torturing solely for the sake of causing pain makes the tortured reveal more than they would if tortured for information. Therefore, it is important to continue torturing them even if they tell the truth, to continue until you judge you have obtained satisfactory answers.]’ I read one of the entries.

"Haa..." I sigh, looking at the various torture tools. I don’t even know how to use most of these things. There are all kinds, and seeing them like this gives me chills. The gleam of the metal is like a horrible temptation.

’Reward... I’m not torturing for the pain of these angels... it’s for the reward... it’s a war... I need to torture them... I-I need to do this...’ I rationalize that it’s all for the kingdom, for the Demon King, and mainly for the two most important factors.

To rebuild my relationship with Esther, and to obtain rewards. This strange desire to accumulate gold arising at the worst moments. I want to gain something I can keep.

’Mom said I shouldn’t love Esther... that love is the worst thing for a dragon... why am I so stupid...’ I berate myself mentally. I’m fond of Esther, there’s no denying it. Why else would I do all this if I didn’t love Esther at least a little?

But my mother told me, love is the worst thing for a dragon. We can’t see it accumulating, and it can crumble quickly. And it’s all true, but even so, I pursue this feeling that might one day destroy me.

"..." I shake my head in frustration as I pick up a pair of pliers. They are very sharp and have a slight smell of disinfectant.

"Let’s begin, angel..." I take a deep breath, calming my heart, and closing my expression into something inscrutable. I don’t need to make this worse than it needs to be. I just need to go to the angel, torture them enough until they talk, and then leave.

No pleasure, no excitement, no interest. Purely something done to achieve a result. This is war.

"..." I take steps closer to the angel, as the angel girl hardens her expression into something angry, but confident that she can withstand the torture.