"...Evelyn? You seem down," Esther asks, lying on top of me. We just had a pretty intense night, and I’m feeling a bit sore. In the end, Esther’s time is running out, and she didn’t manage to convince me, so it seems she’s given up on trying and has started just enjoying the time with me.

"Just tired... you’ve been working alongside my puppets, haven’t you? Why’d you try to manipulate them?" I say, my tone empty. My puppets warned me the exact moment Esther made suspicious moves.

"...Just testing them. They’re really good at what they do. You should be proud," she says, that suspicious smile on her face as she sits up on my stomach.

"..." I think about what Arial said a few days ago in the Spiritual Plane—about it being Esther who’s been creating all my vulnerabilities, and about Esther not being invincible.

"Esther..."

"Yes?" She smiles at me, waiting for me to speak.

"Another girl kissed me. Twice, actually."

"..." The smile on Esther’s face freezes completely. She’s still smiling, but only because she hasn’t quite processed what I said yet. Her eyes show complete confusion, as if she never expected this.

"...Oh..." That’s the only sound she makes. The silence that follows is uncomfortable.

"A girl kissed you? ...Twice?"

"Yes. I’m telling you because I love you... besides, she kisses well... Ghuuhmmm—" I let out a pained groan as a fist slams into my face. I kick Esther off me, and she falls backward as I clutch my nose in pain, feeling the blood start to drip.

"You hit me?!" I say indignantly, while she gets up from the floor with a bit of blood on her knuckles.

"You’re indignant? SERIOUSLY?! After saying that, what did you expect, Evelyn?" she asks, while I tear off a piece of the sheet and press it against my bleeding nose. I feel like she broke something in there.

"I was being honest. I could have never told you, and this is how you repay me? Besides, I said I was kissed, not that I kissed someone."

"Who?" she asks, clearly furious, but keeping her tone cold and composed.

"Who kissed you, Evelyn?"

"I’m not telling." It wouldn’t matter anyway. What could Esther do to a nymph hidden in the spiritual plane?

"So what’s the point of telling me this if you won’t even say who the wretch was?"

"Find out yourself. She’s still in this castle. That’s your responsibility, not mine. Aren’t you the matriarch and head of the family? The one who owns me? So figure out on your own who stole two kisses from me." I spit out blood, tasting the coppery tang, my upper lip slightly split.

"At least now you’ll have something to distract your mind when I leave..." I get up from the bed to change. Violence wasn’t unexpected—the favorability system warned me Esther has 100 points of love and 100 points of hatred, and she can get aggressive with me and those around me.

"You’re going to ignore me after saying that?" She asks, approaching me as I put on my bra and panties.

"Yes. I told you what I had to say. There are only a few days left until I leave. I’m going to start getting my things ready for the trip." She grabs my hand before I can put on my dress.

"Urk..." She squeezes until I groan in pain. It looks like she wants to say something, but knows she can’t stop me from leaving. And since I’m trying not to see Esther as invincible anymore, I hold my ground without backing down.

"You’ve never given me that look before. That whore who kissed you said more than she should have, didn’t she? You gained the confidence to challenge me head-on like this. How presumptuous of you, Evelyn." She takes my hand, now smeared with my own blood, and licks it.

"When I find out who that woman was, I’ll cut out her tongue, dismember her, and sell her to a brothel." She says this, staring into my eyes.

"..."

"I see. So it’s not someone important to you, since you didn’t react." She plays this dangerous game with me as my tail grabs her hand and pulls it to free me.

"Let me change. I have things to do. You do too. You should get to work." I feel a little worried about leaving Esther in charge of everything in the kingdom, but my three puppets will deal with her and stop her from doing anything too suspicious.

I gave them the power to revoke decisions already approved by Esther if they seem too suspicious. That way, if all three approve, they can cancel Esther’s decisions. But if even one refuses, they can’t overrule the signature. Maybe that’s why Esther tried to manipulate them.

"I can work later. Using my blessing, I always finish work quickly." When she says that, I bite my lip. Esther always avoided using her power too much because she didn’t want anyone finding out and didn’t want things to become tedious. But if she’s using it even for daily tasks now, that means she’s become more troublesome to deal with.

"When was the last time you turned off your blessing?"

"Turn it off? Hahaha, that’s funny, Evelyn. Ever since I started working in your place, I haven’t turned this blessing off for a single second."

"..." That’s over two months now. A long time to keep it on, favoring her in every possible way.

"Esther, could you maybe stop punching me in the face?"

"Why?"

"I hate you ruining my beauty. I spend hours taking care of my appearance. If you’re going to hurt me, do it somewhere others can’t see. I hate it when you hit my face." My face begins to repair the damage she caused, and she gives a scornful smile.

"So you want to control even how I hit you? Don’t you think you’re becoming controlling?"

"If I’m becoming controlling, it’s your fault. Ever heard that romantic partners pick up each other’s traits? I wonder what you’re doing that’s the same as me." I say it with heavy irony, even though it’s true.

"Who knows? I’m leaving now. And you can be sure: I’ll find the whore who stole your lips." She ignores everything that happened and starts putting on her clothes, leaving me alone.

"..." I pick up my dress and start putting it on, seeing Esther’s gaze roam over my body with obvious lust.

"Are you going to keep staring? If you’re done, you can leave," I say, frustrated, wiping the blood from my face, which has already repaired the damage.

"Your regenerative ability has grown. Before, you’d take hours for small things. Now, small things take seconds to minutes." Her tone is almost insulting.

I just ignore her, finishing getting dressed and heading to the bedroom closet, grabbing some things and putting them into the storage ring. Esther makes an irritated sound and leaves.

Knowing that once I decide to ignore her, I won’t speak to her at all—that’s the only way to maintain at least a shred of respect. Symbolic rules like staying silent like this.

It’s the only way to make Esther respect anything at all. The only thing that makes her respect me is when I do things that affect her ownership over me. And since she doesn’t want to lose control, she accepts it.

"..." I stare at the door Esther left through.

"...Maybe..." I wonder: if Esther is invincible, maybe I don’t just need to create something that can defeat her, but something that isn’t limited by my own weak mentality?

"...Can I use that?" I murmur, thinking about the game: Evelyn’s "Maximum Technique." An ability that even the Evelyn from the game didn’t want to use. It didn’t come with the skills I have, but I know I can learn it easily right now.

But use it? I don’t have the confidence to try using the "Maximum Technique," but just to know, I try to learn it, opening my status to check. And to my surprise, it actually appears the moment I try to see it.

Maximum Release of the Final Act (Description = In the end, what matters most in theater isn’t the beautiful scene, the initial outcome, or the objectives. What matters is the ending and the tragedy. Using the Maximum Release, the Stage Master decides to bring the end to their theater, releasing the most powerful puppet to bring the play to a close. When used, the user has no control over the puppet, doesn’t know its powers, appearance, or even what it will do, running the high risk of being killed by the puppet itself. An ending that stakes everything on luck, because destiny is a gamble, and only those who risk everything get the best show.)

"This description seems horrible..." This is the technique even the game’s Evelyn refused to use, because the puppet created from it becomes more powerful than any puppet the user currently has.

Even the puppet made from the corpse of Esther that "Original Evelyn" had doesn’t compare to this puppet from the Maximum Release, because this ability creates a puppet stronger than the puppets you have at the moment.

So no matter how strong your puppets are, this particular puppet will always be stronger. But with no loyalty and no obedience to orders or commands. And since you can’t define its powers or appearance, I don’t know what will come out of it.

It could come out as a humanoid puppet, or it could even come out as some kind of monster. But a rather dark thought comes to me.

"What if... I put a reincarnated soul into the puppet?" I can do that, right? It’s the same thing "Original Evelyn" did with me—she brought my soul into her body. So I should be able to place other beings’ souls into my puppets.

’No, I can’t do that... I’m not desperate enough to need to try using this near-suicidal card... besides, I don’t want to condemn someone’s soul to live as a puppet.’ Having someone’s soul inside this "final" puppet, I might be able to control it.

But I don’t want to do that. Still, it’s always good to have a secret card, isn’t it? A card that neither Esther, nor Arial, nor any of the puppets know I have. It’s like the button for a nuclear bomb that only I know exists.

’I wonder how "Original Evelyn" pulled a soul from another world...’ As much as I don’t want to use this now, I won’t be a hypocrite. If I see my situation getting worse, I might need to use unpleasant trump cards.

Besides, this puppet isn’t even for Esther. I want to have this dangerous puppet to use against anything that threatens me that I can’t defeat. The Queen of Angels, for example, is someone powerful and dangerous to my life.

"Time to stop overthinking this..." Maybe because I’m a Demon Queen, this decision is something I need to consider carefully. Just knowing this ability still exists makes me feel a bit calmer, because even if I never use this ability against Esther—since I don’t want Esther dead—I could still use this ability against my enemies and just run away, leaving the puppet to wreak havoc.