F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!! Chapter 232: Fragments That Will Remain

"...Urgh..." I groan in exhausted pain on the bed, my whole body aching and I’m exhausted. I look at Esther, who’s been watching excessively for hours. I woke up a while ago, so I don’t know how much ti has passed, but neither of us has said a word.

[Esther’s Favorability 10 (Total = 100/100) / Mark of Hatred = 100/100]

[Current Favorability Rank ??? Completely Obsessed!!! (Extrely Dangerous. When an Individual acquires this Favorability, it cannot be lowered. The individual becos unpredictable and romantically jealous and dangerous, both for you and for those around you)]

’Haa... it was obvious it would end up like this eventually...’ I look at this; it seems like now Esther will only have eyes for and has beco dangerous. I bite my lips, knowing it wasn’t smart of to get Esther into this state.

But I couldn’t do anything different. After being imprisoned and tortured, I couldn’t stop ntally begging for Esther to co and save . And while I was alone with nothing but pain, I thought.

I have practically nothing. Because of , my family in the other world was destroyed. In this world, even though I’ve achieved things, it’s nothing special. And the only person close to who isn’t a puppet is Esther.

And in the end, even my puppets betrayed . Normally, they shouldn’t be able to betray because the [Connection] between and them would prevent it. But because of that "Evelyn," who made take her place, the connection was broken.

But it being broken showed that the characters of the puppets I created weren’t perfect, and that they had too much freedom. And with her freedom, Syl’Vyr chose to betray . Maybe I really wasn’t such a good master.

Maybe it was my fault for wanting friendship with puppets. Maybe everything started going wrong from the point I lost all the mories I should have had from being born in this world and only rembered too late.

"..." I lower my gaze to my body, covered in very intense marks from what happened between us. Esther has never been this rough with before; I think she really is furious.

And of course she would be. I was very an to her. I admit it was my fault for being so cruel, but I couldn’t have acted differently. I was tortured for over a month, and every second of the torture, all I thought was why she still hadn’t co to save , even with her blessing.

Or when she would arrive to get out of there. The first week, her delay was almost "acceptable." By the second week, it was unbearable. And from the third week on, I felt wronged by her not coming right away, and I started blaming her, even though deep down I know it’s not her fault.

"I-I... I’m in pain..." I murmur, calr now. Now that I know she’ll never abandon , I feel calr. I know I have an emotional dependency on her, but she also has an emotional dependency on .

And we both know emotional dependency is bad, but we can’t break free from it.

"That doesn’t matter. You asked for it." She says without stopping staring at . Her gaze holds a disturbing wildness.

"I know..." She bit very intensely. This was the first ti she ate pieces of without removing them from my body first. It was painful feeling her eat my tail without cutting it off first.

"Weren’t you busy... you said you would take care of the rest of my prison ti..."

"I already took care of it. You are now officially a free woman. Although, not even I can remove you from the registry, and everyone in the kingdom already knows about your cri. Proving your innocence doesn’t matter anymore."

"I-I see... is there nothing else for you to do?"

"What else would I do besides watch my wife?"

"...About your plans... Maybe they’ve changed?" I ask curiously. If now that she loves absolutely, her plans have changed.

"Oh yes, Evelyn, I changed my plans about the genocide."

"Really? So..."

"I’m going to kill everyone, not to free them from the falseness of this world anymore, but to have this entire world just for the two of us. Doesn’t it sound romantic?"

"W-What? No! T-That’s even worse than your previous motivation." I get up from the bed, disturbed. How the hell did she co to that bizarre conclusion? Before, she wanted to "free" everyone from this world, which she judges as false because of the knowledge she has.

But now she wants to kill everyone just to be isolated with ! That’s a thousand tis more selfish than her original plan.

"Isn’t that what you wanted, Evelyn? You’re my number one, and I’ll always give my best for my number one. I’m going to give you an entire planet. Can it get more romantic than that?"

"B-But that’s not what I..."

"Why are you saying this now, Evelyn? I’m your number one too, so why are you thinking about other people’s lives? You should just accept everything I do with gratitude."

"B-But it’s not... it’s... this..." She exposes the hypocrisy of what I did before. Before, I made Esther my number one in everything because I had nothing. And I was imprisoned, full of pain. I only had Esther as an option, so it was easier.

But now that everything is out in the open, she’s using the sa thing I did before, in an even worse way.

"...Say thank you."

"Huh?"

"Say thank you, Evelyn. Thank your wife for being so benevolent as to give you an entire planet. Don’t you have your dragon problem with hoarding? Well then, I’m giving you an entire planet to hoard. Isn’t it satisfying?"

"B-But I thought... that it would be different..."

"I didn’t ask what you thought. I told you to say thank you." She climbs on top of , her voice carrying a dangerous tone.

"Th-Thank you..."

"Thank you for what, Evelyn?"

"Thank you for wanting to give a planet..."

"No, no, no, that’s not it, Evelyn. Co on, don’t be a stupid bitch. Thank properly."

"...Ah... t-thank you for being my number one..."

"That’s better." She leans down, kissing . It’s so intense. She holds tightly. I feel her touch as if a dangerous snake were coiling around .

"H-Hmmm..." She shoves her tongue into my mouth, her gaze not leaving mine for even a second. I close my eyes, simply accepting the kiss born from what I so desired, but which ca in the wrong way.

"Haa... Haa..." I pant when she breaks the kiss. The taste is coppery, the taste of my blood on her lips.

"This is how it should be, Evelyn. Don’t make hurt you, because I feel like I won’t be able to control myself so well if it happens again."

"..." She takes my hand, looking at our wedding ring. Her gaze is indecipherable as I just look at the bedroom window.

’Did I really want things to end up like this?... I wonder... why did everything get so dark so fast...’ Everything I do seems to lead to a terrible fate. I wonder if the reason destiny hates is because of what that Evelyn did with that whole confusing business of affecting ti and causality so that she would no longer exist and I would take her place.

"O-Ow..." I groan in pain, looking at her as she bites my finger.

"Don’t get distracted. I’m here, in front of you. What could be more interesting than ?"

"...Nothing..."

"Exactly. Nothing is more interesting than . So look at when I’m near you." She growls at while continuing to stare at the ring on my finger.

"Our siblings will probably return to the castle to organize everything in a month or two, since the Demon King is dead. We’ll have a lot to deal with, since the competition for the throne continues and there’s the ongoing war."

"W-What will you do about my ruined reputation and those responsible for framing for the Demon King’s murder?" I ask hopefully that there will be so justice.

"Nothing for now. Your image can’t be recovered. That’s not how an accusation of this level works. Even if you’re innocent, you confessed, and that’s what matters to the masses. Besides, finding the culprits will be difficult, and there’s still a lot I have to do."

"So don’t expect much progress on that front. Besides, Evelyn, why would I fix your image? It doesn’t matter, right? I know the truth, and whether your image is tarnished or not, I’ll always love you, and that’s all that matters."

"...A-Ah... yes... it’s... you’re all that matters to too... what will you... do with Syl’Vyr..."

"Evelyn, you talk too much. Why are you asking all these silly things instead of asking about ? Why don’t you ask what happened to during the ti I was on the battlefield? Why don’t you ask how I found out about you, why I was late, and what I did to save you?"

"I just thought... it was important for to know what would happen..."

"No, it’s not. Everything important for you to know, I’ll tell you. Now be quiet. You’re still injured, and your body is recovering. I don’t want you leaving this bed without permission, since you’re almost out of magic and slept for three whole days."

"!!!"

’Three days? I’ve been sleeping for three days and I’m still in pain?’ When Esther started eating my tail, I ended up fainting from exhaustion and pain, but I didn’t know three whole days had already passed. I thought it had only been a few hours since it all happened.

I look at the wings I have now. At so point, they grew, but I don’t rember clearly because the ti in prison was hazy and the pain kept from focusing properly.

"Alright, I’ll stay here until my body recovers..." She kisses again, interrupting . Her intensity is suffocating, but I simply accept it.