F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!! Chapter 32: Favorable Purchases

"Okay Eve, what do you think of this?" I strike a pose for Eve to see in the dress I picked from the store.

With one hand on my hip and chin raised, my hips slightly tilted to the side, and a hand resting on it, I look at Eve as if to say "Of course I’m perfect."

"It looks very good, Evelyn-sama. The matte purple dress with dark gold details on the ruffles goes very well, although I think pure gold would also have looked beautiful," she says as I ponder.

’Hmmm...’ I go back into the fitting room, grabbing another dress, a very beautiful white one. It seems I don’t have a good sense of my own beauty, so I use the mories of the original Evelyn for the choice.

’White, no... at least not completely white.’ A completely white dress looks bad on , making look like a bride or sothing similar. The white needs sothing more.

"But what could I wear?" I think deeply, sothing isn’t letting the outfit harmonize with .

’Maybe the problem isn’t specifically the color or the design...’ Any dress looks beautiful on , but I don’t just need a beautiful dress, I need a dress that is beautiful and enhances my natural beauty.

"WAIT!! THAT’S IT!" I grab all the dresses and shove them out of the fitting room for Eve to take.

"Eve, return all of these and get dresses with fewer ruffles, less details, and slightly more vibrant colors, but nothing too exaggerated." The clothes themselves are the reason I’m not satisfied.

Clothes full of details and vibrant colors don’t help, in fact, they hinder my natural beauty. The dress only needs a few things for that.

"Okay, Evelyn-sama, one mont," Eve says as I wait. It turns out I wasn’t as lost as I thought, we got here relatively easily after bumping into Grace.

I guess the universe was really ssing with or sothing, and that’s why I got lost at so point.

"Here are the clothes, Evelyn-sama," Eve says, passing several outfits to . I take them and see that they are exactly what I wanted.

"Perfect!!" I say, putting on one of them, a white dress with small black ruffles, simple but with an elegant, intricate pattern, not exaggerated, but very beautiful on .

"Eve, what do you think of this?" I say, opening the area and looking at her, and she thinks for a mont before answering.

"It’s perfect, the white complents your eyes perfectly, and the black incredibly helps to soften the influence of the white, making it match your eyes," she speaks professionally, and I smile.

"Yes, I agree," I say while deciding to try on the next ones. I also help her choose hers as we spend hours on it, in the end, I end up buying 17 dresses for myself and 12 for her.

"..."

"Evelyn-sama, is there a problem?" Eve asks as I collapse on a bench in the city.

"789 gold coins... why is this so expensive..." I murmur with a heavy conscience. Eve and I were buying without realizing how expensive things were getting, and in the end, we spent more than half of all the money we had.

"...I’m sorry for being costly, Evelyn-sama," she says, and I shake my head.

"It wasn’t your fault. It’s because items for nobles are really expensive. In fact, I think we were lucky. The dresses are beautiful, and normally buying this quantity could cost over 10,000 gold coins, and if they were of the highest quality, it could reach up to 100,000 gold coins," I tell her, and she nods.

"Worse still would be custom-made clothes... because they are perfectly tailored to your body and can have very special magic and materials, so the price is huge. And in the future, we can buy that without a problem, but for now, it’s difficult," I say to her.

"But don’t worry about it, Eve. Even though we don’t have much money now, we can still buy so materials with the remaining gold coins," I say, trying to cheer her up.

"But we should leave that for another day. It’s ti to go ho now, and we don’t have enough money to pay in advance, so it’s better to just go to my room, store the clothes, and get ready," I say to her.

"Of course, Evelyn-sama..." Eve speaks, but pauses while looking at .

"Is there a problem, Eve?" I question with doubt.

"We’re being followed," she whispers very softly, and I’m surprised.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, and it seems to be an assassin because I felt the malicious intent to try to kill you," she says, and I move closer to her, but she remains calm as if she hasn’t noticed.

"Can you win?" I ask, and she nods, staying calm despite my growing nervousness. I grip the shopping bags, trying not to tremble.

"Great, then let’s kick that bastard’s ass," I say, taking her hand and pulling her along with the shopping. I quickly lead her, looking for secluded areas and entering a poorer, darker region.

After walking for 7 minutes, Eve stops , making stop. She seems ready for a fight.

"Is there a problem?" I whisper softly so only she can hear.

"...Eve, why..." Before I can speak, Eve grabs a knife before it can hit . The knife is dripping a purple liquid as Eve skillfully handles the weapon.

"Poison, seems potent," she says, throwing the knife in the direction it ca from, and I hear a thud as the person who attacked has dodged and fallen from the roof of one of the houses.

’Poison... quite useless.’ We are puppets; poisons can’t kill us, at most they can weaken us a little, depending on what the poison does, like a corrosive one.

"An assassin who can’t even hide is a failure, don’t you think?" Eve speaks harshly to the person covered in a cloak. The person turns to try to run, but before I notice, Eve has already appeared behind the person, kicking them with extre violence, hitting the right side of their head and throwing them against the wall.

"W-Wow..." I must admit that Eve can be scary when she tries. That was bizarre! I didn’t even see her move; she just disappeared and already struck the assassin, who is now unconscious.

Honestly, I’m not surprised they tried to kill , especially with being outside the castle. Combining that with my reputation as a failure, I must have seed like an easy target.

"Evelyn-sama, do you wish for to... clack him?" Eve says, moving her finger across her neck and asking for permission to kill.

"Don’t do that!!" I say, and Eve seems slightly disappointed.

"I understand. What should we do?"

"Obviously, we’re going to sell him!!" I say, leaving Eve surprised.

"Sell... him?"

"To the guards, I an this assassin must have so reward as an assassin, and the guards can pay sothing, so let’s take this assassin to the castle," I say. Guards usually don’t give rewards for common assassins and bandits killed.

But they can give rewards for living assassins and common bandits, because the more prisoners they have, the more money they earn, as they have more people to watch over and keep contained and alive.

Also, they use this to maintain an image that the law is functional and that a potentially dangerous person has been arrested by them.

"Understood, Evelyn-sama. Then let’s take him with us," she says, grabbing the assassin by the leg and seeming to think about how to carry him, deciding to just drag the criminal down the street.

"Wait, Eve... steal from him," I say, and a malicious smile appears on Eve’s face. She releases the criminal and quickly rummages through the clothes, purloining everything she finds.

"Evelyn-sama, I got a bag of coins with 3 golds, 3 poisoned knives, a bottle of poison, and a paper... it seems to be an order to kill you, a reward of 100 golds, no sender," she says, slightly disappointed, putting the things in her pocket and handing the paper.

’It’s... kind of scary to know they’re targeting my life... but oh well, I guess...’ I look at the paper, recognizing what this attempt is.

"YOU BASTARDS!! HOW DARE THEY MAKE SUCH A HORRIBLE DRAWING OF !!!" I get angry at the terrible drawing, which looks like a 4-year-old did it, but I soon sigh, calming down.

"Eve, I think they just gave this to several small-ti criminals. Look, the reward is low, the paper is of low quality, and the drawing is complete garbage. They must have given multiple copies of the order, and whoever killed would get the money... which ans..."

"There’s no proof of who did it," Eve completes.

"Exactly... and it also proves they’re underestimating too much if they think a re 100 coins are enough for soone to kill . With that money, only so desperate vagrants would even try," I say, making it clear that more attempts will occur out here.

"Let’s go, I don’t want to stay here any longer. Imagine if another crazy person shows up trying to kill for asly coins," I’m hating having others evaluate my worth as re gold coins.

’Tsk, if they’re going to evaluate , at least give a grand value!!! Like, I don’t know, a substantially huge amount?’ It’s irritating; they’re labeling as worthless.

"If I find the bastard who made this stupid ad, he’ll pay dearly!! I’m going to take all his money... damn, this world is turning into a fucking money-addicted capitalist!!!" I lant.

I’m poor, no one can judge for wanting to amass a lot of money, especially in this dangerous world where only the strongest survive. The insane amount of money I’ll have to spend to create powerful puppets will be absurd.

’This way, it seems like my power depends solely on money!! What an cruel injustice’ Not having money when having a power that depends on money, what a cruel twist of fate.

’Probably I’ll need things to make money, like going to dungeons, defeating monsters, and so other thods.’ It’s a rather nebulous and cruel destiny for .

"Eve, let’s get out of here," I say, ready to forget this problem.