F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!! Chapter 16: Employees and Their Duties

I quickly finish cleaning Evelyn’s room, finishing up dusting a few spots while sighing as I gather the cleaning supplies and leave the room.

"Hey, Clarissa, what are you doing here?" Soone speaks to as I look and see the head housekeeper, she looks at with surprise as she sees with the cleaning supplies.

She is a young-looking woman, with short, slightly disheveled silver hair, partially tied back with a discreet black bow.

Her eyes are a deep golden hue, always half-lidded, as if constantly analyzing everything around her. Her body is slender, with a rigid posture and graceful, quiet movents, like a well-trained shadow.

She is 89 years old and is the current head housekeeper, a very perfectionist and loyal woman to the royal family. Her na is Verena Kaltz, and to be honest, I find her quite bossy.

"I’m cleaning Miss Evelyn’s room," I respond to her as I bow slightly, she’s my boss, so there’s not much I can do.

"...Miss?" Her gaze narrows as she looks at the cleaning supplies in my hand and then at the door to the room.

"And why? I see no reason for you to decide to do charity work for soone like her," She speaks without knowing what I saw and went through just a short ti ago.

"I have my reasons..." I say, not wanting to talk about it, she also made it clear for not to talk too much.

"Really? I see you are wasting your future as a maid, know that holding onto a rotten rope won’t help you," She speaks without having any idea.

"W-Well, respectfully, that’s none of your business, is it?" I say, rembering that, it was really horrible, that experience made all the rumors about Evelyn seem terrifying.

Evelyn has always been covered in rumors that made her seem like a strange, crazy person, things like talking to puppets, realistically imitating emotions while making each puppet seem like a real being.

And things like that at irregular hours, whether at night, during the day, and so on, not to ntion the fact that she treats these puppets as if they are everything to her, seriously, they’re just pieces of wood and fabric.

However, now that I’ve gone through this bad experience with Evelyn, I know that it wasn’t just craziness, maybe it was so kind of plan to appear weak or sothing like that.

"Do as you wish, Clarissa, but I think you should go find a master who has more of a future, you know, it’s simply ridiculous for you to decide to waste your life serving soone like her," Verena speaks without really caring about .

She’s just very authoritative and wants to assert herself as important, I just let out an unsatisfied sigh.

"I’ll take my leave, I need to close the door and take these cleaning supplies back to their place," I tell her, picking up the things, quickly locking the door, and turning to leave.

"Rember that when the need arises, that rotten rope won’t save you," She speaks as I briefly look at her.

"Maybe, or maybe that rope is a vine on a tree that is deceptively there for the unwary," Snakes, a snake that hangs its body in a tree as if it’s part of it.

But when soone touches it, they receive an unexpected strike, this is the vision that Evelyn gives after that, and seeing her staring at a closet for hours was equally frightening.

It’s unpleasant, what once seed just aningless now has a bizarre aning, but before I leave, Verena stops , touching my shoulder.

"What did you an?" She’s attentive, she understands that things are not what they seem.

"I didn’t an anything, just...that things are not what they seem, I’m sorry, but I need to follow Miss Evelyn’s orders, she is still one of the candidates for the throne, and her orders are above yours, so I need to go," I say, quickly leaving with the cleaning supplies.

"Audacious of you to say that," She accompanies as I walk down the hallways.

"..."

"Are you going to ignore ? I’m still your superior, even if you’re following orders, you can’t just ignore what I say," She speaks authoritatively to as I slow down.

"I’m sorry if it sounded like an insult, I’m really busy, and Miss Evelyn is with Master Augustus," When I say this, Verena seems surprised.

"...That cowardly girl went to see Master Augustus?" She speaks incredulously, as if this were unbelievable, and in the past, it really seed that way, but after what I saw, there’s no room for doubt.

I wanted to tell soone, tell what I saw and what Evelyn did to , but I can’t, I’m afraid of talking too much and her ending up discarding , discarded maids obviously ans dead maids, and I don’t want her to kill .

"Yes, she went to have lunch with Master Augustus, and now she must be with him," I tell her as I reach the maids’ area and put the cleaning supplies in a specific room.

"Curious...hey, where are you going?" She questions as she sees leaving.

"I believe talking too much about Miss Evelyn is wrong, besides, it’s my lunch break," I say to her as I start walking, if I don’t ignore her, she’ll keep asking questions until she gets everything out of .

"...Okay, do as you wish then, have a good lunch...Clarissa, and we’ll see then if that rope is really good," She speaks, referring to Evelyn, and leaves shortly after.

...

...

...

"Miss Esther, here’s what was requested," A maid says, handing a small report as I sit in a chair reading a book. I put the book on a table and take the papers.

’Let’s see...so as expected, she went to Augustus...good choice.’ As I imagined, Evelyn is no longer isolating herself in her room as in the past, she went to Augustus, who is the weakest ntally and the easiest to try to have as an ally.

’As I thought, she’s moving in a cunning way...’ I look at the papers, quickly flipping through her daily routine, there aren’t any very noticeable changes, so she’s acting as if everything is normal while it’s not really normal.

"Hey, maid, why is there missing content from 07:39 to 18:09 the other day?" I question, dissatisfied with this gap of information of basically two days.

"Ah yes, my apologies, Miss Esther, during that ti, Evelyn did not leave her room, and the only maid with any contact was Clarissa, who didn’t want to say anything," She speaks as I ponder the options.

’They still call her just Evelyn...but this Clarissa, she’s the maid who cried in Evelyn’s room after being deceived.’ It seems Evelyn has taken her as her maid after deceiving her with a pitiful puppet trick.

’This ans that...she is slowly and almost imperceptibly accumulating power, first that strange request to our father, and then taking this maid, she is slowly and quietly accumulating power...’ This is not a problem yet.

But it’s interesting, I don’t like too abrupt changes, but I still like interesting changes that can be exploited, currently Evelyn acts like , keeping herself discreet while accumulating power out of sight.

However, Evelyn has an advantage that I don’t have, Evelyn as the family’s failure is soone underestimated, and as such, her deeds and machinations go unnoticed with ease, and even if exposed, many will say it was just a stroke of luck.

"Miss Esther, may I ask why you’re interested in Evelyn?" The maid questions as I look at her.

"You may not ask, now leave, I want to be alone," If Evelyn is going to relate to Augustus, I need to change all my collected data on each one, because I know those things will change.

I’ll keep everything and start collecting new data based on the current changes that everyone has undergone, so far no one has been affected by Evelyn’s subtle change, but in a few months, that may not be the case.

"Maybe...I should give her a maid?" This maid could keep an eye on Evelyn and pass updates to , everyone else has maids who actually work for .

However, Evelyn is the only one I’ve never seen the need to give a maid, now the opportunity is opportune, but if she’s acting smartly as I expect, she’ll refuse this.

’No...not yet, if I act as if I know sothing, she’ll be more cautious, a rat is easier to deceive if it thinks the trap doesn’t exist.’ Evelyn is a rat in my view.

She is weak, fragile, and can only live by hiding and feeding on scraps, but perhaps this view will have to change, everything will depend on how she changes as well.

"Yes...from a rat to a hamster, this change seems appropriate," I say to myself, throwing the papers on the table, currently Evelyn can be passed from a rat to a hamster, which uses a "cute" appearance, which in this case is deceptive, to live among us and gain benefits.

And honestly, there aren’t that many differences, after all, the reports that the maid I sent to Augustus sent say that Evelyn didn’t stop eating until it was ti to leave, just like a hamster trying to stuff more than it can into its mouth.

"Wait...eating too much, golden apple and a monster’s core...what convenient requests..." I know both items, it seems this hamster is hiding too many things in its little cage.

"Let’s see what other surprises you can show , Evelyn," I murmur, treating this as a ga where I already have the guaranteed victory, but where I can still enjoy the journey.