F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 182: An Unreachable Future Potential for Evelyn

"Hehehe, got you!!! Death Book, here I come!!" I grab the Death Book, seeing a black padlock with chains sealing it shut. It’s a completely black book and emits a dreadful aura.

[Death Book = Also known as the Diary of Existence is a book that holds all knowledge of the past, present, future, and the infinite timelines of all living beings. Everything that exists can be seen through this book. (In secret, it is also the item that Death herself uses to satisfy her voyeurism fetish, and where she writes down the Dubious Ideas she has during her boredom.)]

"Well, well, let’s see..." I try to open the book’s lock. It’s not a complex lock, but before I can finish, I feel someone touching my soul—not my body, but a touch directly upon my existence.

"Antares, I believe... you are holding a belonging you are not permitted to possess." The voice coming from behind me is cute, but it carries a tone that makes my skin crawl. I, a goddess, am feeling fear.

"I-I..." I open the system, trying to think. I thought SHE was away. I didn’t think she would have arrived already.

"...Antares, answer me."

"I-I’m sorry... I-I just wanted to check something... I-I didn’t mean to bother you..." I wonder if I should bow, or stay still to avoid being killed for ’borrowing’ her book.

"...Look into my eyes when you speak to me." When she says this, I immediately turn around to see her—the absolute being, the strongest ’thing’ in existence. The system opens by itself, showing me the status she allows me to see, an honest status of what she is.

[Status

Name: Fatui Mors Finis (Death)

Race: Principle of Everything

Title: Constellation of Death / Goddess of Destiny and Death (Strongest Being in Existence)

A girl with an extremely cute and enchanting appearance, being relatively short and elegant, with large breasts and soft, gentle eyes. She has black eyes and long hair that reaches her waist, completely black.

She is almost always 100% naked, wearing only black gloves that reach her elbows and 7/8 socks that go up to mid-thigh. Her skin tone is extremely pale, she has sharp teeth, and a slender, smooth figure with thin arms.

Personality:

Observant, Extremely Intelligent, Loyal, Strict with Rules, Absolutist, Extremist

Weight: ∞ kg

Age: ∞

Birthday: Non-existent

Height: 160 centimeters

Status (Form observable by the System)

Vitality: ∞

Magic: ∞

Strength: Irrelevant

Agility: Irrelevant

Defense: Absolute

Luck: Null (chance does not affect her)

System Note: "Traditional values do not apply to entities operating above causality." (Her name means in conceptual translation = The emptiness of reason is death, and death is the end)

She is in the Ninth Layer... Ninth Layer = Absolute, the perfect word to describe this layer. It is the last existing layer, containing only one absolute being, the being at the top of all existence.]

I feel nauseous. I am face-to-face with literal Death, and she caught me at a horrible moment. She looks into my eyes before lowering her gaze to the book in my hands. She does not look happy at all.

Her being naked means nothing. It doesn’t matter. It’s not erotic or sexy; it’s disturbing because it reveals the obvious: she needs absolutely nothing. The gloves represent the fact that she does not touch existence directly.

The socks are a remnant of transition, the phase change between a living being and a dead being. Her body, which is beautiful, doesn’t matter when you know exactly what she is. Her cuteness only represents the gentler side of death, while her aura represents the truth of what death is.

"Give it back." She extends her hand. I gulp dryly, handing the book back to her. I would never have any chance of doing anything against her. I can’t even run from a being like her.

She literally has infinite stats. Nothing can defeat her. Even for my system to evaluate a being like her is impossible unless she allows it, as was the case now.

"F-Fatui-sama, I-I’m sorry..."

"No, do not apologize... Antares." When she calls my name like that, I only feel terror, wondering if she will kill me.

"Could you tell me what you want with my book?" Her question is meaningless. She already knows, and she knows that I know she knows. So her asking isn’t because she really wants to know; it’s only because it is ’Fate’ for this to happen this way.

"I-I saw that the system is signaling more than 1 billion mortals in red... i-it means the destiny of all of them changed drastically all of a sudden... I-I just wanted to ascertain the culprits w-with the help of your book."

"I-I didn’t mean to invade your home, I-I just thought bothering you over something as trivial as the affairs of a few mortals was bad..." I can’t decipher what she’s thinking. Her gaze is too empty.

"..." She stares at the book for a moment.

"I see... Evelyn Ashcroft, Esther Ashcroft, Lysaon Ashcroft, and Grace D’Aragon. Those are the four mortals who recently altered the future and are having markers signal them." She answers what I wanted.

"T-Thank you for your benevolence, Fatui-sama..." I bow slightly to her, showing the utmost respect I can muster. I never thought I would see her here, even though this is her home that I invaded. Normally, she is never here.

It’s obvious she is only here because she knew I would be here and decided not to ignore me, which is terrible.

"What will you do with the mortals I just named?" She asks another question to which she knows the answer.

"W-Well, perhaps I-I will restrict them a little s-so they stop changing destiny..." When I say this, her expression tightens.

"No. Do nothing. Just ignore them."

"..." I don’t say ’but.’ Her orders are absolute, and I cannot disobey.

"C-Can I at least know why?" I would never be this submissive to anyone but her. She truly fills me with immense dread.

"I have already barred the worst scenarios. Evelyn Ashcroft herself is the worst of them in terms of destiny alteration, so I locked some of her destinies where she would cause problems for everyone. Thus, she will merely follow other destinies." When she says this, I am shocked.

’S-She herself intervened?’ I have never seen Death herself lock a destiny before. I’ve heard it happens—when mortals or gods do something that threatens the universe’s balance—but to see it happened now disturbs me.

"Curious? Evelyn Ashcroft... she had a frightening destiny for some goddesses. Timeline number 1 Tack." When she says this, I don’t even know which timeline she is citing.

Since she is Death and there are infinite timelines, she has her own unit of measurement. I only know that 1 Tack is an immense number, larger than the number of atoms in thousands of universes if you were to count.

"It was a timeline with a very minimal chance of happening, and it was the only timeline where Evelyn Ashcroft reaches her maximum potential... Sometimes destiny is fun, don’t you think?" When she says this, I remember that this Evelyn is the same one I saw before, the one with the Puppet Master ability.

"Why... is her maximum potential scary? And... if it’s not too much, how would that happen?" I don’t understand. If only one of her destinies had such potential, then how strong is she if she reaches her maximum?

"...It all happens at divergence number 6 Tack, where Evelyn loves nothing, feels nothing for anyone, and has no empathy whatsoever, while discovering the true power she holds in her hands. This event occurs 3 years after the competition for the throne begins."

"She becomes 100% focused on only getting stronger, without caring about the lives destroyed in the process. However, since she is a dragon, she focused so much on it that getting stronger became her whole world."

"It was then that she discovered the true potential of each ability she has, and with that, her claws scratched the heavens. Some gods were killed by her, and she became a goddess as well."

"O-Oh..."

"You would also die, Antares. More or less... like this." When she snaps her fingers, I receive a memory. Me, facing her. Evelyn looks very different in this memory—taller, with tails, wings, horns, and a confident posture, pure malice in her eyes mixed with a dragon’s madness.

She proposes a forced game I cannot refuse, and I accept, unaware of her power. The game is simple: it’s the children’s game of Hangman. She chooses a word, and I have 5 chances to guess it with the hints she gives me.

If I lose once, she draws a line, until that line forms a stick figure on the fifth loss. It turns out I cannot figure out the word, and when I fail all 5 times, she draws a line across the stick figure’s neck.

Immediately, reality bends and I am decapitated by existence itself, warped by her power. When that happens, I snap out of the trance, shuddering.

"..."

"That is Evelyn’s strongest future, where she can kill gods with simple children’s games. But I had to bar that future from happening, even if the chance was minimal. It is a future that breaks the balance because she kills several gods but does not take on their duties, leaving everything in chaos."

"Now, Antares... you may leave. I have already given you the answer you sought. Next time you try to steal my diary, I will not be so lenient. I am only not punishing you now because I like the system you created and use it for certain things."

"As I said, just ignore the markers in your system. The future of these mortals will still change many times. Just watch and, like all goddesses, let the destiny of mortals follow its own course."

"Divine beings should not interfere too much in the choices and future of mortals." With that, she starts to leave as I collapse to the floor, putting my hand to my neck.

The memory is so vivid. All my power and defense were ignored. My head was cut off the moment I lost that silly little game.

"S-Scary..." A truly frightening future. I am not a weak goddess to be killed in a single blow. I never thought a mere Puppet Master could have such destructive potential.

And that makes me wonder: how strong will this mortal become someday? Death just barred the future where she reaches 100% of her potential, but just because she will never reach 100% doesn’t mean she can’t reach a percentage like 80%.

And 80% of the power that makes goddesses die in one blow would still be a terrifying future for many. Even if it’s a future with a low chance of happening, Death’s blockade doesn’t prevent growth; it only prevents that specific path while leaving all other routes available.

Death didn’t bar Evelyn because she is too strong; she barred her because Evelyn’s power has no ethics. She warps reality so easily with mere children’s games that it breaks any form of logic or chance of victory for most.

I know what that ability is, and precisely because I know, any ’children’s game’ could be fatal. Imagine a game of tag where whoever is tagged has their existence erased.

Or a game of musical chairs, where whoever doesn’t get a seat has their entire existence reduced to the most pitiful state of matter. It is a disturbing power that, if used to its maximum, has terrible consequences.

’It’s not reality manipulation...’ I’m not sure how I would classify it, but it goes beyond simple reality manipulation. And because of that, I feel calmer—calm that Death barred this terrifying future. Because even with an extremely low chance of happening, it doesn’t mean a 0% chance.

And if it did happen, it would be bad. Really, really bad. I get up from the floor, recomposing myself. I’ve already discovered what I needed to know, so I can go back home now and... ignore the system’s markers.

"A goddess... what would Evelyn be the goddess of?" Mortals cannot harm goddesses. Death didn’t show me what Evelyn did to reach that monstrous future; she only showed me a single scene of me being easily killed.

But if she hurt me, then she also became a goddess, or at least someone with divine power. And obtaining divine power is difficult, especially for someone with an ability that weakens their own power. And Fatui said she had become a goddess.

Mortals can become gods, so it’s not impossible. Just curious. If someday she reaches 40 or 60% of that original power and becomes a goddess... I’ll try to befriend her. Such power would help me a lot with some things.

Of course, it might also happen that she never becomes a goddess and doesn’t even have 10% of the power she showed in that memory. After all, there are infinite possible futures. Perhaps I don’t even need to worry. So, we shall see what the future holds for this girl.