F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I’ll be Queen, and I’m not a narcissist!!!!!

"..." I look around, feeling the uncomfortable bed my body has already gotten used to. I notice I'm in my room in the castle. Eve is here too. I even want to pretend I'm still asleep, but I've been awake for about 4 minutes now and I should get up.

Did I fall asleep at some point while Eve and Syl'Vyr were bringing me back? Or did I faint? I'm not sure. I was already exhausted before, so I must have passed out. It's all Arial's fault.

The magic she forced me to drink, coupled with who-knows-what she did to my body, left me completely drained.

"...?"

"Evelyn-sama, I see you're awake? After you fainted, we tried to bring you to the castle as you requested," Eve says, coming over to me as I stare at her.

"But after a few hours, a strange group appeared and forcibly brought us to the castle super quickly. You've been asleep for about 5 hours, and your fainting was fortunately just from normal exhaustion," Eve quickly explains the situation.

'I feel fine now...' I get up, looking around my room. It's exactly as I left it, though I notice a few things are different, as if someone had moved my stuff and tried to put it back but couldn't quite manage.

"H-Hey, where's Snacksy?" I look around, seeing that he's gone. Eve just shrugs, and I can't feel his presence in the castle at all. I look at the corners of the room where he usually stayed.

'Dammit... someone destroyed him...' I don't feel his magical thread anymore. It means someone broke him and made off with the pieces. It also means someone's been coming into my room while I was away and got rid of him because they realized he was watching.

And I doubt Clarissa would do that. After all, I made it clear she shouldn't be moving things around, especially the puppets in my closet.

"Snacksy... He was ugly... really ugly... but he was an honorable soldier! It's sad that they broke him, but he will not be forgotten!" I say, getting completely out of bed and stretching.

He was the first puppet I built to help me, and even though his help was minimal, he was still a loyal "servant."

"Eve, where's Syl'Vyr?" I ask, not seeing her around. I let out a yawn as I look out the window and see it's already daytime.

"She went to the kitchen to get some food to eat. Besides, she doesn't know the castle, so she decided to explore," Eve says, while I know my father will likely summon me soon.

"Eve, the Demon King will soon summon all his children and maybe some additional people for a meeting. However, this means he is like, REALLY furious... It also means he'll kill almost anyone who steps out of 'line,' so please behave!"

"No matter what he says, no matter if he even implies horrible things or gives me orders I don't want to follow, you must not interfere. You must not speak, complain, and above all, do not interrupt him! And don't even think about showing any murderous intent towards him! Don't do it! Under any circumstances!!"

"And Syl'Vyr won't be entering the room with us! Probably, my father will only allow one servant per candidate for the throne to enter, and only close servants who won't spread what they hear."

"And you're my only servant who meets those requirements." I say, noticing my hand is trembling. The original Evelyn was always afraid of the Demon King, and while I understand her fear, I didn't want to inherit part of it.

I clench my fist tightly to stop it from shaking. I still need to create my other puppet, but now isn't the time for that, so I'll set it aside for later.

"...Alright. I'll do my best to stay quiet," she says with a smile, and I nod in approval.

'Strangely... I don't remember this in the game...' In the game, there was never anything about a nearby fortress city being destroyed. That means there are only two possibilities.

The first is that this event wasn't relevant in the game, so it never appeared, meaning Grace never knew about it, since Grace had limited access to information.

And since we followed Grace's perspective in the game, we didn't know everything happening in the kingdom, as the demons tried to hide a lot of the information she had access to.

Or the second possibility is that... it's my fault. Evelyn never left the castle in the game until much later in the story. Meanwhile, I left the castle two to three years earlier than in the original. And strangely, this event in that city forced me to return to the castle.

'Am I being paranoid... or was that city destroyed just to make me return to the castle?' I wonder, filled with doubt. I know this isn't the game anymore, but I've seen plenty of things that make it clear this world uses it as a foundation.

And the most obvious foundation of all is the system, which is similar to the game's system. And perhaps the system forced me back to the castle because "Evelyn's" destiny is in the castle, not outside of it.

But I decide to think about that later. I need to deal with my father first, and then spend my free time on speculation without proof.

"Eve, now I need to take care of my appearance and..."

"Evelyn-sama, don't you care that a city was blown up?" Eve suddenly asks.

"What? I don't understand this question right now. It's obvious it's sad and I don't like it," I say, confused. Obviously, I feel bad about so many deaths, and I'll feel even stranger if those deaths really are indirectly my fault.

"Yes, yes, it's very sad, Evelyn-sama. People died... but you didn't see any of it... and you seem barely bothered by it all, since you're even planning to fix your appearance now..." she says, leaving me confused.

"...Eve, what are you implying?" I ask, now somewhat annoyed.

"...Nothing. Do you need help with your appearance?" She just changes the subject, and I decide not to waste time on this. I have to be ready before my father summons me.

"Sure, could you get the dresses from the closet? I'll see if there's anything good there..." I say to her, thinking about what appearance to present for this meeting. All my "siblings" will be there.

...

...

...

"Sure, could you get the dresses from the closet? I'll see if there's anything good there..." Evelyn-sama says to me while putting a hand on her chin, thinking calmly.

'Again, she's ignoring the terrible problem right in front of her... This is the fourth time...' It's an obvious pattern. If it doesn't affect her and didn't happen right in front of her, she ignores it.

I take a few dresses from her wardrobe and place them on the bed for her to choose from while I think about this.

'Could it be trauma? Does she involuntarily avoid thinking too much about things that don't affect her?' If it is trauma, then it's my duty to try and cure her of it... or perhaps leave it be if it's healthier for her.

There's no reason to let her feel sad about random people she's never met. I just feel like this isn't exactly healthy for her, because ignoring a problem just because it doesn't affect her could lead to bigger problems in the future.

Like this case with the attack on that city. It clearly has nothing to do with us yet... but now that Evelyn-sama's Father is going to act, it means it does affect her, and she shouldn't ignore it as if it has nothing to do with her.

'Evelyn-sama seems so calm now...' She seems absolutely sure that nothing will happen to her, but I'm not so optimistic, especially after what those people said.

Evelyn-sama wasn't conscious, so she didn't see, but those people were truly dangerous, and they made it clear that Evelyn-sama would have problems for being near the place yet doing nothing.

For demons, anything that disfavors the Demon King is redistributed as the fault of those who did nothing. The mere fact that Evelyn-sama was there and is one of the few survivors makes her the perfect "scapegoat."

After all, the Demon King won't accept the blame. Those guys also said Laplace would be in the same trouble as Evelyn for being near the city and not noticing anything.

'It's so unfair... Evelyn-sama is weak; she couldn't have done anything even if she had known...' Unfortunately or fortunately, Evelyn-sama won't be able to make the new puppet for now.

Mainly because she wanted the puppet to be an angel, and after this attack, having an angel in the group would cause problems.

'Rank B...' I think about my own strength. I can't protect Evelyn-sama yet, and that truly hurts. I wish I had the strength to protect her, but for now, I'll have to accept whatever the Demon King decides.

'I need to get strong on my own...' Relying on Evelyn-sama to strengthen me with materials won't work because that's a very long-term plan. Evelyn-sama clearly isn't thinking rationally in this regard.

She's trying to create the "perfect" group without first strengthening the group she already has. If Evelyn-sama let me reach Rank S using that core, or even split the core in two and got me and Syl'Vyr to Rank A, we could gather more materials to get stronger and keep evolving.

However, for me to get stronger, I don't depend solely on her. I can do it alone too, with training, discipline, and a lot of effort. I need to train my plasma lightning technique.

This ability is my strongest skill, and the more powerful I become, the easier it will be to help Evelyn-sama.