F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 209: Dragging everything forward

"...Urgh..." I brace myself against the door, breathing heavily while my legs tremble, barely keeping me upright; my tail is also drooping, with no strength left to move.

I feel like I’m about to collapse from exhaustion. I guess we really went too far with our "playtime," even if she wasn’t rough. I can’t forget that she has all that strength, and I’m a weakling with low stats in almost everything.

"Whoa, easy there, Evelyn..." Esther says, calmly holding my waist as I stumble, almost falling face-first onto the floor. She helps me walk more steadily—thirty minutes of rest didn’t help as much as I’d hoped.

"How many hours?" I ask how long it’s been since we entered the vault and started doing that inside.

"About eight, more or less... maybe more, but probably a little less." She speaks while licking her lips, her gaze fixed on my thighs. There are bite marks on my calves, on my arms too, as if she’s been marking me all over with her teeth.

"I feel sick... Eight hours of that? After we already spent practically a whole night with almost no breaks, it was too much for me... And please, stop biting me. I’m covered in marks." I murmur with a hoarse voice. Esther seems completely fine, but I clearly don’t have that much stamina.

"Alright. Now, do you want to eat something?... Or not yet? I’d understand if you don’t want to." She says all helpfully. Such kindness is really sweet, but I don’t want to eat.

"What happened while I was asleep?" I ask curiously, not really wanting to eat anything right now. I still don’t feel comfortable eating after watching her eat my tail.

"Some of our siblings returned to the front lines, and our father... well, I’m not sure. He disappeared like he always does. And the heroine Grace is flirting with Marie somewhere around here."

"I don’t think there’s anything else important. The war is moving forward, and of course, the best thing of all was the [Bridge] that you and Lucien secured. Many of our soldiers are being sent there to build a fortress."

"After all, the bridge is currently sealed, but soon they’ll reactivate it, and it can be used by both sides. And we know the angels will be waiting on the other side for the demons to attack."

"I see... Okay then... I guess... everything’s fine for me? I don’t have to go fight anymore, right?" I say with a smile, and she smiles back at me as she helps me walk down the hallway.

I really don’t want to have to go back to the battlefield. Killing, torturing, and seeing blood is unpleasant even for me now that my memories are completely free.

"Of course. Although your chances of becoming queen are the worst of all. If you don’t return to the war, you’ll hardly have any chance of becoming queen. Don’t you care about that?" She asks curiously.

"I... I’ll figure it out, Esther!! I will be queen..." My goals haven’t changed—they’re just under a new perspective. I still need to become queen. I can’t let Esther have the power that the title of Queen of Demons provides.

"Hehehe, of course. Then we’ll see what you do... Do you want to go on a date?" She asks out of nowhere, and I think about our past fight, which started largely because of a failed date.

Which makes me not want to go on a date with her. Because if we do, maybe another fight will happen—though we probably won’t ever fight for that same reason again, since now I know Esther loves me and really tries hard for me.

"..."

"...I..." I go quiet. I don’t know if I want a date, so I don’t know how to respond—because she doesn’t know how to do dates. Honestly, if she plans another date, it’ll be crap.

"You know very well what I think about your dates. If you’re going to plan one... please do it alone. Without asking other people, without reading books... Even if the date is bad or weird... I want you to choose it." I tell her honestly.

Because if she does it 100% from the heart, even if the date is bad, I’ll still love being part of it. Besides, since I’m a dragon, she and I both know I’ll need constant proofs of love, or the jealousy will start to explode.

"Of course. I’ll plan a date like that, then. And if the date is bad, the fault will be mine." She says with a smile as she tries to kiss me, but we hear a clearing of a throat. I look to the side and see Eve.

Eve has an expression that mixes anger, joy, and confusion. She’s probably angry at Esther for not letting anyone see me earlier, confused because I finally woke up but didn’t even go talk to any of my puppets, and happy because I woke up.

"...Oh, Eve..." I murmur, pulling away a little from Esther. Despite my shaky legs, with a brief effort I manage steadier steps.

’Esther’s tongue works such wonders... my legs can’t handle it.’ It’s complicated. I guess I’ll need to increase my physical strength and stamina a bit to keep up with Esther.

"You look great, Evelyn-sama... Can we talk? It’s about our connection and—"

"Can’t you see we’re busy?" Esther interrupts Eve with a nasty look, while I feel my connection with Eve has become more fragile, as if something inside her has cracked.

A very large crack, one that interferes with many things in our connection—a flaw I’ll need to fix as soon as possible by reinforcing the bond I have with them.

’That must be that bitch’s fault...’ It can only be that "Evelyn"’s fault, and her making me know the truth. She must have done something to the puppets I already had, which is why the connection weakened.

’But what did she do? And if she can affect even my current puppets without even existing, what exactly did she do to my puppets? Did she give them some order?’ This is complicated.

"Eve, we can talk about this later..." I tell her, motioning with my hand for her to give us some space. Talking now isn’t a good moment. I’m tired, and the feelings between Esther and me are still intense, so we both need distance from others.

’We’ll talk later about this. It’s complicated to explain now. I’ll make things clearer when I explain...’ I send that message to Eve, who nods and walks away.

"Alright, Evelyn-sama... I’m glad you woke up... We can talk more later, then..." Eve says as she turns around. She seems tense—she must have noticed the crack in our connection is quite serious.

"So, as I was saying, Evelyn..."

"Esther... can we just... rest a little? I’m exhausted..." This time I interrupt her. It’s great to plan a date and all, but I’m too tired to interact with someone as intense as Esther.

"Alright. I guess we overdid it this time... You don’t want to go to sleep?" She asks curiously as we reach our room, which isn’t far from the treasure vault we were in before.

"Sleep... I really don’t want to sleep... Nine days of sleeping is enough already... I just... want to rest physically and mentally..."

"I understand... I’ll make you some tea."

"Tea? But I don’t even like tea..."

"Tea helps you calm down. I don’t like it either, but isn’t it better to make a medicinal tea to soothe your muscles and relax your mind than to stay like this? Besides, I bet you’re pretty sore. Tea will help reduce the pain."

"Esther, I have eighty-nine bite marks scattered across my body. I don’t think tea will help with that." I can perfectly feel every "broken" point of my puppet body. Each of her bites counts as a "broken" spot, even if it’s just a mark.

"You’ll understand after you drink it, Evelyn. Now sit here quietly and wait." She places me in a chair and heads for the door. I stare at her ass, her hips swaying seductively.

Now that we’re at this stage in the relationship, I’ve started noticing more how beautiful Esther is, and how magnificently lovely her body is—things I didn’t try to notice before because I was too shy.

"Haaa... I married a beautiful woman... If everything were easier, happier, and more stable, it would be a perfect life..." I rub my eyes with my hands, a little tired of everything.

’You can’t hide everything behind sex... I’m sure Esther has noticed too...’ Our relationship has so many toxic and bad points that we’re just sweeping everything under the rug called "sex," as if that will fix it all.

But one day, the intimacy will become boring, repetitive, and dull. And when that happens, the bad parts of our relationship will become even more glaring, since a relationship can’t survive on physical intimacy alone.

"What could fix our relationship? Living alone, isolated and peacefully on an island? Having a child? Giving up the competition for the throne, the genocide, and everything else, and just dragging our lives forward aimlessly?" All three seem like options that wouldn’t work.

’I don’t want to have to live isolated in some lonely corner with just Esther... I also don’t want to have kids—why would I want to bring a baby into this horrible world? And I don’t want to just drag my life along aimlessly and see what happens...’ I sigh, having to bear responsibilities someone so young should never have.

"A date..." I look out the bedroom window, the sun outside shining brightly and illuminating the room.

"A very simple start... but maybe with a little hope, everything will work out?" I wish I could believe that, but I can’t be as optimistic as I was in the past.