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

I stand in front of Evelyn-sama's bedroom door. I can hear her crying through the door. I want to go in, but I feel that anything I say will just sound hollow and make the situation worse.

'...' My heart aches, and I'm consumed by pure hatred for that bitch who slapped Evelyn-sama.

'I'll kill her.' I can't help Evelyn-sama feel better. I'm not good with words and I can't even offer her support, so, consumed by rage, I start running down the hallway.

I spend several minutes running through the corridors searching for that bitch. I will never forgive her for hitting Evelyn-sama. That damned Demon King is another one I hate; he humiliated Evelyn-sama and made her start crying.

Soon, I see Esther coming out of the throne room with that girl named Tsuki, but I don't care about that. I just draw my sword and lunge at her with all my speed, coating the blade with plasma electricity, giving it a purple glow.

"...!" Esther notices me before I can hit her and catches the thrust with her hand. However, I use all my strength, forcing the blade to pierce through her palm completely until the palm of her hand touches the sword's guard.

"..." She shows no expression of pain as I try to pull or move the sword, but she closes her hand, gripping the guard firmly.

"Good attack, wooden doll," she says while blood flows and drips onto the floor.

"I'll kill you!" I release the electricity, giving her body a powerful electrical discharge, but without the element of surprise, it does nothing to her body.

"You're Rank B, right? It's quite a feat for a Rank B to injure my body... you have a good sword. Most would break trying to pierce me with that much force."

"Though, unfortunately, you only wounded me because I let my guard down... it seems you've lost your chance to kill me... but thank you for this lesson."

"I was far too... complacent with my defense. I shouldn't lower my guard just because I was near the Demon King," she says, squeezing the sword tightly and trying to pull it from my hand.

Her strength is monstrous as I'm dragged along, but I don't let go of the sword. So, she simply releases it, causing me to stumble backward from the force I was using to pull.

"Normally, I would kill anyone who attacks me. Do you know why I haven't killed you yet? It's because you are also mine, wooden doll," Esther calls me a wooden doll again, derogatorily.

"I will never be yours," I say, getting into a fighting stance.

"Ah, but you already are. Because Evelyn is already mine, and everything that is hers is mine. Even trash like you still belongs to me," I see her hand healing completely as if nothing happened.

"I see you're quite brave as well. Few have the audacity to attack me... was it because I hit Evelyn?"

"Don't you dare speak her name with your filthy mouth," I say with an angry snarl, charging at her, but before I realize it, I'm hitting the castle fence with great force.

"...?" I notice my arm is broken. I received a blow so fast and so strong that I was thrown from the castle and only realized it when I hit the fence behind me. I feel an unpleasant pain in my broken arm as I see Esther already in front of me.

"The Demon King doesn't like significant damage to the castle structure, so I deduced bringing you outside was better... now I wonder... should I break you completely?" she says with malice, without a smile on her face.

I try to get up, but my legs are weak and the broken arm makes it hard to maintain a proper sword-fighting posture.

"..." I try to charge at her again, but before I know it, I'm hitting a tree. She's too fast, and this was a lost fight from the start.

I guess even the blow that injured her hand was something she allowed to happen just to assess how strong I was. This fills me with frustration. I know that if I die, Evelyn-sama will be even sadder.

But I have feelings too. I can't hide the hatred and anger I feel for this woman. The way she treated Evelyn is worse than the Demon King's insults.

"You know, girl, I pondered whether I should kill you... and I decided not to... do you know why? Because you don't care about dying. You came here expecting you might end up dead from this petty revenge... you're more impulsive than I thought..." she says, appearing under the shadow of the tree.

Her eyes glow with a dangerous red, while the shadows make her look even more disturbing than before.

"Eve... Eve... Eve... do you know how noble etiquette works? It has a very interesting rule. To maintain a noble's status, they need good servants. A noble's servants are a reflection of themselves."

"That's why my servants are adequate for me. They obey everything I command and make as few mistakes as possible... It's impossible to ask for perfection from them, so I don't demand they be perfect, I only demand they don't make mistakes beyond a certain limit..."

"If one of my servants attacked another noble just for petty revenge, I would make a point of skinning that servant alive while giving them a bath of salt and acid... in this situation, it would be you suffering that treatment."

"However, you are not yet my servant... after all, the marriage hasn't happened yet. So you are my future possession..." she says, approaching me. I try to stand, but I collapse to the ground.

"I know Evelyn won't punish you... and that's precisely why I decided to do things fairly... I will punish Evelyn for your fault." When she says this, I look at her, confused.

"You don't understand? Your mistakes are Evelyn's fault. You are her servant, a reflection of what she tries to project... if you attack me, it means one of two things: either Evelyn doesn't know how to control her servants... or she wants to attack me."

"Neither is good... that's why I will punish her for it."

"W-What! No!! You can't punish Evelyn-sama!!" I say desperately. I didn't think my actions would backfire on Evelyn-sama.

"I can't? Tell me, Eve, who's going to stop me? Evelyn is mine now. If I do something to her, it's no one else's business. That's how a marriage works. Not even the Demon King will have a say in what I do with Evelyn."

"Now... Eve, know that I am a very rational person... every time you cause trouble for me, I will punish Evelyn for failing to control you... however, if you submit to me here and now, I will do nothing."

"!!!"

"I will never be loyal to you!" I say, my voice dripping with venom.

"I don't want your loyalty. I just want you to know your place. You are a mere commodity... a freebie that came with the main purchase, if that helps you understand."

"I neither like nor dislike you. You are the background decoration that came with my trophy wife, and in the end, decoration is just that—decoration. It shouldn't interfere with anything; it should just stay there," she speaks in an extremely derogatory way about me and Evelyn-sama.

I bite my lips, full of anger and a terrible understanding that if I don't do this, she will hurt Evelyn-sama because of me.

'Dammit... I made everything worse...' I let my anger get the best of me. Evelyn-sama told me not to do anything at the beginning, but I got so angry that I came here to fight and ended up in this situation.

"..."

"I'll help you decide... if you don't do it now, I will break Evelyn's legs and arms. I think that's a 'fair' price for your error. After all, you came to me using your legs and used your arms to attack me. Nothing more fair than your owner temporarily losing those two, right? Since I know she won't punish you," she says cruelly with a devilish smile.

"D-Don't do that... I-I'm sorry for attacking you... it was... my choice. Evelyn-sama doesn't know I came to do this... I... overstepped my duties as a servant and made an attack based entirely on my personal opinion..." I say, trying to fix what I did.

I can't let her hurt Evelyn-sama because of me. I need to be rational now, use the rationality I ignored before to prevent Evelyn-sama's suffering.

"I see you at least know how to recognize your mistakes... then kiss my feet... It's very natural for servants to perform simple actions when receiving honors, decorations, or apologizing."

"I want you to kiss my feet. It will be an adequate way for you to show how serious you are about your apology... so, what will you choose? Your honor... or your loyalty?" she says as I decide to do it, because I caused this problem.

"...No, not like that. Don't walk to me; crawl on the ground," she stops me before I try to stand up. I just crawl humiliatingly along the ground until I reach her, stopping right at her feet.

The desire to stab her with my sword still comes to me, but I know that will only make everything worse than it already is. So, I lower my head and kiss her foot. When I look up after doing it, I only see a cold, emotionless gaze.

It's somewhat chilling. I expected a smile, a look of mockery, but all I see is an empty gaze and a completely neutral expression.

Even though I give her a clear murderous look, and she notices it, she expresses nothing, as if I were irrelevant.

"We are done here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must take my leave. After all, I still have wedding matters to decide, and you have made me fall behind schedule," she says in a mechanical, soulless manner, as if everything that happened until now was nothing.

Somehow, this is worse than if she had mocked me. I am so low in her perspective that I'm not even worth any attention.

To me, she just vanishes. She moves too fast for me to see, so I'm left here, collapsed on the ground. I look at my sword and see that its guard is crushed. A magnificent sword like this was easily crushed by her hand.

'I'm sorry, Evelyn-sama...' I apologize for this failure. I only made everything worse, and I worsened any chance of being able to help Evelyn-sama in the future, because now Esther has made it clear: anything I do wrong will result in punishment for Evelyn-sama.

It means that now I can only watch if Esther hits or insults Evelyn-sama, and this fills me with a bitter feeling of rage and disgust.

'I must get stronger...' I need power, but not just the strength to fight and maybe win. I need guaranteed strength to defeat her. I've decided that from now on, I will be more rational.

No matter how much it hurts me, I must no longer interfere in the marriage or in Esther's future actions. I must let her ignore me completely until I have the power to kill her.

'One day...' It might take years to happen, but one day Evelyn-sama will strengthen me enough to accomplish this feat... I just hope... that by then, Evelyn-sama won't be broken.