F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!! Chapter 271 271: A Help Entwined with Personal Confusion

"Arial, why am I here?" Evelyn asks while lying on the "water" that feels solid to her. She looks exhausted from the training she'd been doing—apparently, she awakened a new ability. She even told Eve about it, which is how I know now.

Spatial Marionette (Description = Space is one with your stage; a master who knows how to fully utilize the scenery is an excellent host. Now, any place, any ti can beco your stage, and your puppets will be ready to follow you. By using this ability, you can teleport any puppet to your position in exchange for a small amount of magic.)

'An interesting ability, indeed...' Evelyn gets up from the ground. She still looks tired, but now that so ti has passed since Esther's betrayal—since she killed their child—Evelyn seems a little better.

"I called you here because I'm curious, little fruit! You're heading to the ocean soon, aren't you? Just a few days left! You've done such ticulous work—gathering materials, making puppets, strengthening Eve, handling kingdom managent."

"Despite everything, you've stayed strong and kept going! But... shouldn't you rest?" When I say this, her eyes widen as she stares at .

"Are you serious?"

"Of course. I called you here so you could rest."

"..." She looks around, as if searching for sothing.

"Where's the joke? The manipulation? What trick are you trying to pull?"

"Trick? Oh, little fruit, there's no trick. I really just want to see you rest. You're exhausted."

"..."

"Your suspicion wounds . I understand you now, rember? I know how ntally tired and pained you are! So I called you here to give you a break before you board those ships for a war that's going to be emotionally draining... besides..." I step closer to her, placing my hands on her cheeks.

"You cried last night."

"..."

"I know. You don't have to talk. Just rest." Last night, Evelyn felt her "baby"—or rather, the forming magic—dissipating, showing that the "baby" really had died.

After the magic condensed to begin formation, it imdiately started fading, making it clear that Esther had accomplished what she wanted.

"S-She... she doesn't regret it..." Evelyn hugs , burying her face in my chest, while I lower myself, bringing her down with and sitting on the floor with her in my lap.

"...No... she doesn't regret it..." Esther is kind of disgusting. That's not really my feeling—it ca from absorbing so of Evelyn's feelings about Esther. This morning, Esther gave Evelyn a puppet.

Apparently, she had it custom-made, and it was a truly awful thing for her to do. She gave a puppet to replace what she took from Evelyn—such terrible hypocrisy.

Evelyn gave that thing to her dragon to eat, making it clear how offensive she found it that Esther gave her sothing useless that could never fix things. I still don't really understand emotions.

So I don't understand anything about Esther's actions. All I understand is Evelyn, because the feelings I absorbed were hers.

"Go ahead... you can cry. No one will see you cry here." I stroke Evelyn's head, and she can't hold back her tears anymore. She's held them in for too long—honestly, I'm surprised she managed to suppress the urge to cry for so long.

I feel like Evelyn is "traumatized"—not by the possibility of losing Esther's love or necessarily losing another child, but by the possibility that even worse violations could happen and Esther would just keep using the excuse that she did what she thought was best.

"You're scared, aren't you? Poor thing." It's an amalgamation of many fears: fear of becoming so broken that she'll accept everything Esther does in silence, fear of failing, fear of not being enough, fear of not being respected.

And most of all, fear that she'll lose the family she's building. From what I see in her emotions, Esther is Evelyn's family, her closest person, and an inspiration to beco better.

And in that sense, I understand her. It's truly disappointing when you admire sothing that seems superior, and then that sothing turns out to be worse than you hoped and crushes your inspiration.

I understand because I've seen this happen among monsters. Certain intelligent monsters get "inspired" by other monsters to develop their hunting techniques, but when those monsters encounter one that pretends to be what it isn't—

The disappointnt of using them as inspiration and discovering the truth is genuinely frustrating. It's like a fable I once saw, about a fox who was inspired by the shadow of a great predator living in a cave.

The fox listened to the stories of that shadow and was inspired by its incredible abilities—until the fox nearly died trying to do what the shadow had said and advised.

So the fox, indignant and frustrated, returned to the cave, wounded and angry. But instead of staying outside like usual, she went in to face her idol and ask where she'd gone wrong. Then she saw that her idol was a rat using a campfire to project a shadow that wasn't its reality.

It showed that the fox had followed an image that had never truly existed, almost dying for it.

Unfortunately, Evelyn follows the sa pattern. From the start, she's been inspired by Esther, using her as motivation to grow. But Esther isn't good motivation—she's clearly soone who doesn't want to see Evelyn beco independent.

'If Evelyn had based herself on , she'd be so much stronger, freer, and happier today.' I hold Evelyn's head as she sniffles against my chest. I feel her tears streaming down my body as I stay quiet.

'Urgh...' I'm having strange thoughts. Why would I even want Evelyn to base herself on ? The more days pass with absorbing Evelyn's excess emotions, the stranger my thoughts beco.

"Evelyn, why do you idolize such an unrealistic image of Esther?" I ask her, not understanding why, from the very beginning, Evelyn has this almost divine image of Esther.

She is impressive, and she's probably one of the most interesting beings I've ever seen in terms of general capabilities. But that's all. Esther is strong, smart, and undeniably a genius.

But she doesn't co close to the image of blind idolatry Evelyn has of her. Actually, Esther is far more flawed, chaotic, and predictable than the image of invincible, insurmountable, and unstoppable that Evelyn creates around her.

"..."

"Answer , Evelyn. Why? It's not that hard to say."

"..." She stays silent, avoiding the answer she knows—and I think even I know it, if I think properly about how Evelyn talks about Esther.

"You think she's invincible because you've never seen her lose?"

"..."

"That's it, isn't it? You idealize various futures, but you don't envision a practical future where you win. You treat Esther as absolute simply because you're too weak to imagine a future where you co out on top."

"But here's the irony: you beca queen and prevented Esther from becoming queen. That happened precisely when you stopped seeing Esther as invincible."

"And guess what? Esther knows that too. Esther knows you can defeat her—that's why, as soon as you beca queen, she put you on a political leash, controlling trade routes."

"To inflate her own image and diminish your freedom and self-esteem. Why would she do that if she didn't, deep down, fear you?"

"..."

"Evelyn, Esther is only invincible as long as you let her be invincible in your mind. You've already defeated her once, and she reacted aggressively, trying to contain you when it happened."

"If she's so insecure about beating you that she needs to diminish you, then is the Esther in your head really as monuntal as you imagine? Or are you creating a giant shadow from sothing smaller than it appears?"

"W-Why... are you... helping ?" She asks in a tearful voice, looking at —her cute little face nestled between my breasts, her eyes glistening with tears.

"I ask myself that too. So are you going to answer?"

"...E-Esther... seems invincible..." She admits what we both knew from the start: she can't see Esther for who she really is because, being a coward, she creates a giant image of a problem that is small.

"Why is Esther invincible, Evelyn? Does she have infinite Hikishin? Is she immortal? Is she a deity?"

"No..."

"No? Curious. So does she have so ability that makes her body indestructible? An infinite stockpile of different powers?"

"...No..."

"Exactly. She has none of that. So it's curious—how is she invincible?"

"...She... she isn't... b-but it's so hard... h-how could I possibly defeat her and stop her goals?" I stare at Evelyn, who sounds so pathetic.

"Oh, I have no idea. But you know what I hate? Yeah, I hate people who think they're too big. That Esther in your imagination—I despise her. Isn't it arrogant for soone to think they're invincible? No nymph—one of the strongest monster categories—would ever have the audacity to claim invincibility."

"So, Evelyn, let show you one of Esther's flaws. Esther is so weak she couldn't even stop from stealing her wife." I hold Evelyn's face, lowering myself and kissing her.

She looks confused for a mont as I slip my tongue into her mouth. I know I could never steal Evelyn's heart—that's impossible. Evelyn has already locked her heart away for Esther alone. But her body?

And this body that Esther mistreats and breaks so much? Isn't Esther failing quite badly at keeping her flawless image intact?

"M-Mmm..." Evelyn tries to resist, but despite her attempts, she closes her eyes, almost savoring the kiss. Because no matter if Evelyn doesn't like —her body is already so broken that it doesn't care.

"Haa... haaa..." I break the kiss, and she's panting, trying to push back.

"L-Let go..." She orders weakly, turning her face away. I release her, letting her stay on the floor as I step back.

"An invincible Esther could have stopped that, Evelyn. It seems your wife isn't invincible. And it seems your body doesn't love Esther as much as your mind does."

"Sh-Shut up... y-you... you don't know anything. Y-You're taking advantage of my vulnerabilities—"

"Vulnerabilities that Esther created, Evelyn. I'm not the one breaking you like a doll. I'm also not happy about having to settle for soone's broken leftovers, but I must say—this is exciting." Evelyn looks at with disgust, spitting on the floor as if trying to clean her mouth.

"Besides, your body didn't seem to reject . Isn't that curious? Your heart and body aren't in sync. Even if your heart belongs to Esther, your broken body no longer cares whether the affection cos from her or not."

"You've always been a girl starved for emotional and physical attention. So Evelyn, stay sharp—or I might end up stealing your body for myself." She curls up on the floor as if trying to hide her body from .

"Rest well. I won't do anything more. I brought you here to help you, like I said." I give her a fake smile, staring at her body like prey.

"You freak. You're just trying to justify sothing wrong by saying my body wants it."

"Oh? I never said your body wanted it. I said it seed like it." When I say this, Evelyn bites her lips hard.

"Stay away from ." She gets up and starts running, but I don't chase her. It doesn't matter—this spiritual plane is "infinite." She'll just run until she tires out and wakes up.

"Tsk... since when did I start settling for broken toys..." I sit down on the floor. Now that she's gone, I feel confused. In the past, I never would've stayed with soone broken—it would've been uninteresting.

But Evelyn is different in so ways. Maybe it's because I've been absorbing her feelings every day, but it feels so good and addictive that I can't stop, even though it's leaving confused.

"In the end... I really just wanted to help..." I sink into the water, lost in thought about it all.