F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 221: A Training That Reveals Maturity

"...Evelyn, are you sure about this?" I ask Evelyn, who has gone to the other side of the training area.

"I am!! Come on, Esther!! I’m going to show you something incredible!!" she says as I slowly approach her. Evelyn challenged me to a fight—no magic, no magical reinforcement, just fists and normal physical strength.

Which, to me, is an absurd idea because Evelyn is so weak. But if she’s so eager to get beaten up, then so be it.

"Esther, I’m going to test the skill [Fragmented Theater in Acts]. So, welcome to Act 1." She gives a slight bow as if in a performance and takes something from her storage ring—a small stone.

"...Evelyn..."

"Come on, Esther! Don’t tell me you’re scared?" she says, tossing the stone up and catching it with an arrogant little smile. I dash toward her quickly, dodging all the threads she placed and thinks I didn’t see.

When I’m close, I throw a punch, but she dodges, leaving the stone where her head was. Her reaction to dodging that shocks me as my fist shatters the stone. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"..." The dust, as if completely ignoring the force of the impact, instead of flying forward, blows back into my eyes. And before I can shift my stance, Evelyn jumps on me, taking me down.

I look at her until I notice a knife at my throat, and I recognize it. It’s the knife I gave Evelyn in the past, the one I told her to stab me with. Back then, she weakly couldn’t do it and broke into tears.

That day we talked and I said I knew the truth of the world, she kept the knife. I look at her, my eyes burning from the dust that caught me off guard.

"I won."

"..." I look at my leg. A thin thread is tied to my ankle, which allowed Evelyn to take me down.

’How?...’ I look at her, sensing her magic. She doesn’t seem to have changed anything. So, even though I was holding back, it shouldn’t have been easy for her to react and dodge.

"You know I went easy on you, right?" I say proudly to defend my honor.

"I know. You underestimated me and punched weakly... even though your ’weak’ punch shattered the stone. But it’s exactly because you underestimated me that you fell!"

"How did you do that?"

"...I don’t know? I guess it was just in the script of my play that the mean tough girl would lose to the heroine who lost her physical limits." She smiles arrogantly, but I quickly disarm her and flip our positions, pinning her against the ground while holding her own knife to her throat.

She blinks in confusion, only realizing what happened after the fact. Her tail thumps the ground as if she’s in danger.

"I see... I think I understand what you did... Not bad. But why limit yourself to Act 1? If I understand correctly, what you did was full of limiting conditions. First, it had to be a physical fight. Second, I had to get close. Third, you needed that stone."

"Fourth, you needed a knife. Fifth, you needed the threads. And sixth, you needed me to underestimate you. If any one of those conditions wasn’t met, your skill wouldn’t have worked."

"...I-It uses a lot of magic... A-Act 1 is all I can do for now... And Act 1 doesn’t guarantee I kill or defeat an opponent if they take it seriously... I-I’d have to use bigger acts to win with fewer conditions..."

"Evelyn, this skill is incredible, truly. Just this Act 1 is powerful. If you had wanted to kill me, you could have, because I met all the conditions for you to win."

"But... now that I know, you’ll never be able to beat me using Act 1 in a fight again. Because I bet it was a condition that you announced Act 1 as something that had begun."

"Besides, this is the knife I gave you. You were crazy to get your revenge, weren’t you?" I take the knife from her neck and twirl it in my hand. I didn’t think she’d remember and try to pay me back for what happened before.

"P-Please stop throwing my weaknesses in my face. I know I have a lot of restrictions!! But you lost to me! Imagine if I use Act 1 on Eve—she’ll become really powerful! Because the acts are mainly used to break limits." She says something that actually makes me smile.

’True. From what I saw, it’s more of a strengthening skill that removes general weaknesses... but it also affected me, so I’d say it’s more of a field debuff/buff that affects everyone within range.’ Evelyn has a pretty wide array of support skills.

"Of course, Evelyn. Anyway, I’ll admit you won this one... however... I recommend not trying this again..."

"What do you mean?" she asks, confused.

"My blessing works like any body reflex. If you weren’t my beloved wife, I would have killed you faster than you could realize... my blessing could have activated." She makes a shocked face and shudders.

"Evelyn, that’s how a passive works. It doesn’t just depend on the user’s will. It happens if necessary..."

"Urgh... I... I didn’t know..."

"I know. If you had, you wouldn’t have done it... But even so, that doesn’t take away your merit... however, Evelyn, cutting my neck wouldn’t kill me. Did you forget I’m a Ghoul?"

"If you had started cutting my neck, I would have moved my head away and grabbed your hand. You, who aren’t faster than me, wouldn’t have killed me... Too bad." I throw the knife hard, embedding it in the training area wall.

"...Are you satisfied, Esther? With humiliating me... Seriously, you didn’t have to say all that... You could have let my joy of winning live a little longer." She squirms uncomfortably as I get off her.

"I’m going to train you, Evelyn. I’ll make you a bit stronger and more skilled with your abilities. So expect a lot of criticism, because I won’t hide it when you make a mistake." I start walking away from her.

"But you didn’t see the thread..." When she says that, I stop.

"..."

"The thread on your leg. You didn’t see it, didn’t notice it, and only realized it when I took you down."

’...’ She’s right. I hadn’t noticed anything until I fell. That’s quite a feat, considering I didn’t detect her Hikishin.

"I’ll give you 100% credit for that. I really didn’t notice." Not that it mattered. In a fight with my blessing active, that thread never would have caught me. It would have snapped, or been in a position that didn’t affect me, or better yet, it could have gotten in Evelyn’s own way and helped me.

Because my blessing easily takes care of what is a problem, even if I haven’t noticed it yet. Of course, I don’t say that. Evelyn doesn’t need to hear it.

"The knife..." Evelyn murmurs as I pick up the knife.

"I’m taking it back. I gave it to you that day because you failed to try to kill me. Today, you had the opportunity, which you earned with your own hands. So the knife returns to me."

"Why? Taking back a gift is so mean..." she mumbles, pouting.

"Because... because this time you tried to kill me by choice..." I put my hand to my neck.

"You didn’t hesitate, and your hands didn’t tremble. Deep in your mind, you really thought about killing me, and your reaction shows it. You’ve changed. You’re not that coward who wouldn’t have the courage anymore."

"Now you truly see a very obvious fact... and I’m sure, even though you’re acting like this now, at least once while holding the knife you thought, [’If I cut her throat now, wouldn’t everything end quickly?’]" When I say that, she lowers her head.

"I-I didn’t think... that..."

"Don’t lie, Evelyn. Lying to yourself is something cowards use to run away. You tried to kill me, thought about killing me, and gave up. Whether you gave up out of fear, love, or cowardice doesn’t matter." I hold the knife, feeling its light weight.

"Why would I leave you with the weapon that could one day end my life?"

"I-I wouldn’t kill you..."

"You wouldn’t now, because it was training, because you love me, because you wanted to show you could beat me. But what about when things heat up? The competition for the throne and the position of ruler of the demons?" This knife I gave Evelyn that day isn’t weak.

It’s a weapon that is truly very powerful and could kill me. A normal sword would never kill me unless wielded by someone powerful, but this knife, even wielded by someone weaker, could kill me.

"Only an idiot would give a weapon that’s a risk to themselves to someone they don’t trust."

"E-Esther, are you saying you don’t trust me?" she says in that hurt tone, but it sounds more manipulative than truly hurt—just as a demon should be.

"Yes. I don’t trust you, Evelyn. Not enough. Maybe in the future I will, but not now. Because right now, you still have autonomy."

"...You... are such an asshole. I want to end the training here. I’m hungry." She says this knowing that in the future, because of her dragon instincts, she’d hardly be able to kill me. Her body wouldn’t let her harm someone she loves because a dragon would never destroy its treasure.

"Of course, you can go. I loved the training. I learned my lesson. And you, Evelyn? I hope you learned something."

"Yes... I learned. Thanks for the training..." she says angrily, leaving the room as I smile at her, watching her tail thump the ground in frustration.

"Hahaha, how cute..." I run the knife gently across my neck, feeling the line of blood forming. The cut Evelyn didn’t make on me, I make myself.

"She tried to kill me. How adorable..." I feel my heart race. It was thrilling to feel that. It would have been better if she had moved the knife and cut me to increase the threat.

But this is enough. It’s good to see she’s grown enough to truly see death as a solution, even though she doesn’t seem to feel any pleasure in the act of killing or having power over others’ lives.

"Hmmm, I’m hungry." I lick the blood from the knife as the wound regenerates. I’ll keep this knife very well hidden. Maybe one day I’ll give it to Evelyn again.