F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 215: Reality

"...Wow!! Lyn, this is amazing!!" Faye says, gazing at the various swords, accessories, toys, jewels, and assorted objects I created. I gathered the material, thought about making a puppet, but chose forms of objects instead.

And it worked! I created object puppets, things I didn’t even know were possible, and in the puppet category, something new appeared.

[Object Puppet] A puppet in the form of an object. It possesses no personality, life, or capacity to act on its own, but can carry general powers and abilities provided by the creator.

"Thanks, Faye. I’m surprised by this too." I didn’t know I could create so many things.

"Evelyn-chan?" Syl’Vyr picks up one of the objects I made and holds it out to me. I’m confused until she presses a button and the long object with a round contact area starts vibrating intensely.

"T-That’s a massager. You click the button and place it on some part of the body." Syl’Vyr tests it on her arm as the vibration spreads. She tries it curiously while I turn to the other things.

"Faye, do you want anything from here? I made a lot of stuff, but most are things I won’t use. There are many objects." Some are creations from the modern world, like the "massager" Syl’Vyr is using.

Of course, in this world, there are things slightly similar to those from the modern world, made through a mix of form and magic, so they aren’t exactly novelties. But still, everything here was created with random materials.

’Maybe I can create... a sword in the style of Grace’s sword.’ The sword the Hero or Heroine receives is absurd. It’s a sword that grows with the user, becoming stronger.

If I had an extremely good, strong material full of magic, I could create a weapon with abilities that grows as its user grows. Incredibly, all my abilities have an insane potential for supporting and growing my allies.

’I guess the cost of being a weakling is fair, considering the insane versatility of my abilities... Now... let’s try possessing other bodies?’ I’ve never tested this.

"Hey Syl’Vyr, you wouldn’t mind if I possessed your body, right?"

"What? Oh no, of course not!" She smiles mischievously, and I’m confused, but I don’t dwell on it, trying to switch bodies. And it’s surprisingly easy. One moment I’m looking at Syl’Vyr, and the next I’m seeing my own static body from Syl’Vyr’s eyes.

"Amazing... w-what weight!!" I look down. Syl’Vyr’s breasts are heavy, making my spine arch forward. But even so, I feel so strong. I can smell things far away in the mansion’s forest and even hear things rooms away that my body can’t.

’I’m so strong...’ Syl’Vyr is in some strange state of "dormancy" where she can’t do anything, nor is she conscious, but I’m controlling her body.

"H-Huh?! W-Why isn’t she wearing panties!!" I cross my legs, embarrassed, feeling it. Faye, distracted by the things I created, doesn’t hear me, seeming very focused on what to take for herself.

’Why the hell does Syl’Vyr walk around without panties!!! I know her mage outfit usually covers a lot, but still!!’ She’s not wearing a bra either. This pervert only has the cloak covering her, with a top under the cloak and a short skirt.

"Urgh, what a terrible personality choice I made for Syl’Vyr..." I try to return to my body, and the switch is equally easy. I think the biggest difference when switching bodies was the sensation of Syl’Vyr’s power and the lack of a core.

Her body doesn’t have one, and I immediately missed it, while my real body has its internal core in the place of my heart.

"Hehehe, what did you think of my body, Evelyn-chan?" she asks with a sly little smile.

"Go and put on some underwear!! If a wind happened, it’d be embarrassing!!" I say, frustrated, as she leaves through the door, smiling and skipping, taking the "massager" she tested earlier with her.

’I feel kind of tired...’ It was six hours creating items. I used a lot of magic, and the exhaustion finally hit me.

"Lyn, I want this!!" Faye, who acts sweeter, comes over with a few things in her hands. I don’t even look at what it is because I don’t want any of it.

"Take whatever you want, Faye. Actually, I’m not keeping any of this, so whatever you don’t take, I’ll break to try and make new things..."

"Okay!!!" She opens her wings excitedly, goes back to the table to grab more things, and then leaves through the door, leaving me alone. I store the remaining materials in a box, but as I bend down to put things in, someone grabs me, holding my hips.

"Finished my work, love," I hear a voice I easily recognize. The position is kind of embarrassing.

"I’m finished too. It’s a bit late for breakfast, but we could have lunch together..." I say, trying to enjoy the peace we still have at the moment.

"Sure, lunch sounds perfect," she says, letting me go but grabbing my tail and running her hand from the base to the tip before actually stepping back. I dump everything into the box and stand up.

"You’ve been making a lot of suggestive advances recently," I say, patting my dress to dust it off, staring at her. She looks totally fine, even though she supposedly worked for six hours. She doesn’t even look tired.

’Was she really working?’ I don’t know the duties of a family matriarch, but I know she has a lot of work. She has to manage territories, money, laws, rules, boundaries, taxes, and various other things.

"Yes, I thought you’d like these advances. And although you’re calling them ’suggestive,’ it’s more like something... permissive. If you want something to happen, it will. If you seem uncomfortable, I take steps back and retreat."

"...That’s very kind of you."

"I said I would respect your boundaries. It’s not kindness; it’s basic respect. Something we owe each other as wives," she says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, instead of accepting the compliment.

"That’s a pretty cold thing to say," I say with some coldness too. She could have just accepted the compliment.

"Perhaps. But I don’t know how to be any different, and I won’t try to be. And regardless, it’s not like we have much else to do, is it?" she says something that’s right.

Unfortunately, in this world, there isn’t much entertainment. Everything that exists as a form of entertainment are books, music, dance, and some hobbies. Of course, aside from some nobles’ disgusting interests with slaves and torture. But there’s no television, games, movies, among other things.

"You seem so down about everything," she says with a strange smile as I pick up the box and move it, fitting it between other boxes with things.

"It’s just... the future is very hazy... I don’t know how to win the competition for the throne and become queen..." The competition is very complex. There are many ways to win. The one everyone is going for is the method of merit and choice, but at any moment the rules of the "game" can change.

"Still bothered by that? Evelyn, do you really think becoming queen is the key to stopping me? You know that in the future, with enough training, I’ll still have the power I need to do what I want, right?" She’s right. Even without the title, she’ll still have the power to do what she wants.

"It’s so frustrating..." I toss another box haphazardly onto the pile of boxes. Some of the stones inside glow because of the Hikishin and the impact.

"I’m the one with the lowest chance of becoming Queen. I’m finally in the competition with some margin of victory, but you all had years to accumulate achievements, while I only started gaining things now. That’s why I’m frustrated and discouraged by how paltry all my effort seems."

"..." Esther bites her lips, coming up to me and hugging my waist. She stares fixedly into my eyes.

"And then what, Evelyn? Suppose you become queen. What will you do?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Huh?"

"The power. What will you do with the power? As the Demon Queen, your fate is consolidated as something very standardized. You must take care of the demons, preventing their extinction. You must take care of your people. You must protect everyone. You must deal with wars, famine, plagues, diseases, and monsters."

"Have you ever stopped to think about all the bureaucracy of being Queen?"

"N-No..."

"Evelyn, why do you think it’s so hard to see our father? It’s obvious—because he’s always working. The Demon King has no rest. Let’s face it, the rare times we see him are because he called us, and then he disappears again into bureaucracies and papers."

"Of course, you have the power of puppets. You could create servants to do the work. But still, could you bear the weight of the position? The weight of all those millions of lives in your hands? The weight of being hated, feared, respected, and seen as a monster by everyone?"

"..."

"Thinking about the future is great, Evelyn. But if you’re really going to think about the future, you have to think about its consequences. Becoming queen is a silly dream when it comes from you, because you only see the finish line, and not what comes after."

"If you’re feeling frustrated just with the weight of trying to win the position, then what does that say about you perhaps having the position? I don’t think you can handle the position, because you’re weak..." She says, trying to kiss me, but I put my hand in front.

"Stop... stop trying to undermine my confidence..."

"...As you wish," she takes a step back, letting me go.

"I’m just being realistic," she says as if what she did wasn’t malicious.

"No, you’re using realism to hurt me. There’s a difference..." Ever since I recovered all my memories, I’ve gotten better at recognizing malice. And Esther always does this. She says real things I need to mature, but says them in a way that undermines my confidence in doing everything myself.

Just like in that board game where we played with leadership as if it were a war. In that game, she was brutally honest about my mistakes and how to improve, but she spoke in a malicious way that left me feeling bad afterward.

"If reality hurts you, Evelyn, then it’s your fault, isn’t it? Because we live in reality, and reality is rotten."

"...Maybe. But if reality is going to hurt me, it can do it alone. I don’t need the girl I love hurting me too."

"...What do you want for lunch?" she says quickly before I can say anything else.

"Something vegetable this time. I’m sick of eating meat."

"Alright, then I’ll have them prepare some pasta and vegetables for the two of us." We change the conversation from something serious to something banal in seconds, because that’s our dynamic now—using barbs against each other and stopping before it escalates into a fight.

But the damage from it doesn’t disappear just because we stop. She successfully damages my self-esteem with small cracks.

"After that, how about we have fun reading some books? And maybe tonight we can warm our bed," she gives me a lascivious smile.

"I’ll think about it..." I say without complaining, because I made it clear that she should make me exclusively hers, that she should treat me as her number one. I won’t be a hypocrite to accuse only her when I’ve already accepted that this is our relationship now.

Because I’ve resigned myself to it. It’s safer, calmer, and more stable to accept her completely and make her only mine. Because our relationship works perfectly for the two of us, and even her malice still comes with some love and some truth, even if it’s love coming in the wrong way.

And she’s right. I need to think about what comes after becoming queen. Because if I succeed, I mustn’t yield and be crushed by the responsibility of the position.

"Esther..." I grab Esther’s hand before she goes to have lunch prepared.

"If you’re going to hurt me with words, do it in a way I don’t notice. If you’re going to try to undermine my confidence and hurt me, at least try to do it as invisibly as possible." I know she’ll never stop. It’s her way, and it’s who she is. So at least do it in a shallower, less blatant way.

"I’ll take that to heart, and I’ll try to be better in that sense, Evelyn. Don’t worry, I’ll do it so subtly you won’t feel it when you fall."

"...You know that knocking down the person you love, just because you don’t want to see her suffer with something that might be unattainable, makes you very cruel, don’t you?" I say to her as a question.

"I know. But I prefer to be the one to knock you off the podium, rather than let you fall alone and humiliate yourself. Because as we said before, I will take the blame for everything. So if you fail in the future... you can blame me. Throw all the blame on me and say you didn’t become queen because I’m a cruel monster who destroyed your chances." She says something that I at least find romantic.

"...Yes... I would undoubtedly blame you..."

"Perfect. That’s how it should be." She leaves through the door as I smile at her, who accepts being that monster just so I can feel better.