F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 227: Influences of the Past
"...Urgh...Haa...Haa..." I gasp wearily as I drag myself along the road. It’s been about 20 days since Master Evelyn’s unfair imprisonment. No one has let me go see her, and without her to fix the damage I’ve sustained, I’ve been left with all these problems.
But I can’t just leave Master Evelyn in there, being tortured. I also don’t have the strength to save her myself. That’s why I decided to go seek help from someone I hate so much: Esther.
No matter how detestable that woman is, she still loves Master Evelyn. If I can get to her, I can tell her what happened and she’ll come help. That’s why I’ve been walking non-stop in the right direction.
I didn’t even stop by the mansion to avoid leaving a trail or being stopped. I took a different route precisely to avoid anyone preventing me, and now all I can do is keep moving forward.
’I will make it...no matter the effort...’ Without my sword to use, I’ve had to defend myself from bandits using magic and my fists, which has only exhausted me even more.
But it’s worth it if it helps Master Evelyn. For some reason, she cut off all mental contact with me. She only informed me she’d been arrested, the sentence, and Syl’Vyr’s betrayal. Since that message, she hasn’t spoken to me again.
"Aahhh..." I trip on a stone and fall. I’m so desperate to get to Esther for help quickly that I ignored my limits. Walking for so many days straight while injured and low on magic was clearly not a good idea.
But without Master Evelyn, the damage to my body doesn’t repair itself. All puppets have a basic self-repair function, but it’s useless if the damage is too great, or if you’re exhausted.
And since I am exhausted, even though my wounds aren’t absurdly severe, I still can’t recover on my own.
’Why is everything going wrong...why am I still so weak and incapable of protecting Master Evelyn...’ I look up at the sky. Even dragging myself has become exhausting. I can’t help this bitter taste of failure.
I trained so hard and pushed myself so much to get stronger ever since Esther humiliated me in a fight, but none of it mattered in the end. I was still too weak to protect Master Evelyn.
"..." I hear footsteps. I try to get up, thinking it’s more highway bandits, but I’m too weak to continue. Because of the blow to my stomach that Syl’Vyr gave me, when I try to force myself up, I cough up blood.
"You look like you’re in a pretty shitty situation," I hear someone’s voice, but my vision is blurry from exhaustion. I feel this person’s touch and try to strike them, but they catch my hand.
"Whoa, easy there, girl. I’m just helping. Don’t worry so much. It’s not like I’d want anything from someone so pathetic they’re dying by the side of the road," the person says sarcastically as they drag me.
They drag me to a carriage and toss me in the back without much care, then get in themselves and close the small carriage gate. I try to see who it is, forcing my body a little more, while breathing rhythmically to calm myself.
"You..." I see someone that surprises me. I never expected to see this person.
"Darian..." I say his name. He gives me a scornful smile. It’s that man from whom Master Evelyn got her storage ring, the one we saved inside the dungeon. In the end, he still got Master Evelyn fined even though she saved his life.
"See you haven’t forgotten me. Think of this as me repaying a debt," he says while grabbing a bottle of something and splashing the liquid on me. I flinch from the pain and the cold sensation. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"It’s a basic healing potion. After almost dying, I started carrying a pretty big stock of them. You should start feeling less tired soon."
"You know trying to walk under such a hot sun while injured like this is crazy, right? Honestly, what were you thinking?" he scolds me as I drag myself to the corner of the carriage and sit up.
"W-Where are you going?" I ask, wanting to know if he’s changing the route. I don’t want to go anywhere other than the battlefield where Esther is.
"I’m taking supplies to the battlefield where General Esther is, since she needs a lot of stuff. You know I’m still an adventurer, right? I may have almost died, but I’m still Rank B. Though because of the severe injury I got in that dungeon, I’ve started taking more delivery missions."
"..." I gasp, calming down a little. It seems we’re heading to the same place.
"I-I’m also going...to the battlefield..."
"I figured as much. You must be going after Esther, right?"
"H-How do you know?" I’m so exhausted my words come out shaky.
"I was still in the kingdom on the day of the Demon King’s funeral. I know your master was accused of the crime of killing the Demon King."
"W-Why are you helping me?"
"I already said, because I have a debt to your master who saved me. Nothing more. Besides, I doubt that foolish girl would kill the Demon King so cowardly."
"She was foolish enough to help a random demon in the dungeon when she could have let him die. People like that aren’t audacious enough to commit such a cowardly murder."
"...T-Thank you for the help...w-wait...this delivery...did you choose it...to warn Esther?" When I ask this, he grits his teeth and looks away.
It gives me such immense relief that it makes me cry. I never thought this demon that Master Evelyn helped in the past would go out of his way to help her now that she’s in trouble.
He even took a specific supply delivery mission just to go after Esther and warn her about Master Evelyn. It seems I was wrong. Some demons really can be good.
"Don’t cry. I hate the sound of crying. If you cry, I’ll throw you out of the carriage," he says sharply, taking something from his pocket and tossing it to me.
"Food and bandages. But don’t expect too much from me." I unwrap the package, seeing energy bars and bandages. I force myself to start eating something so I can at least regain some strength.
"Darian...thank you so much for taking this mission and helping Master Evelyn..."
"Don’t get things too confused, girl. I just happened to need some money, and this mission pays well..." He’s lying. It’s such an obvious lie, but it makes my heart feel warmer.
I never trusted that Master Evelyn helping demons in danger would ever come back to benefit her. From what I’d noticed, demons are quite malicious and opportunistic. But it seems Master Evelyn’s kindness that day touched Darian’s heart.
"Now be quiet. I don’t want to travel with noise...Driver, you can speed up. I want to get there soon, in 12 days max," he says, knowing it’s a long journey even by normal carriage. It would take a special carriage to be faster, which we don’t have, but I don’t complain.
Any help is welcome, and by carriage I’ll get there faster than if I were dragging myself there exhausted.
"You know...Darian, I always thought you’d be dead...after all, you were a target of someone who seemed dangerous." Master Evelyn and I never learned the outcome of that dungeon murder case.
"...Wow, what a positive thing to think about me. But I agree, I also thought I’d be killed. But apparently, I was never really a target. I just happened to be in the dungeon and became one."
"The guild still hasn’t solved the problem. The so-called assassin is still on the loose, killing adventurers in the dungeons near the kingdom. But it seems the assassin doesn’t much care whether you get out alive or not." He says something that surprises me.
"And you guys, why haven’t you been showing up at the guild anymore?" he asks, as if he’d wanted to see our team at the guild.
"Ah...Master Evelyn and all of us lost our licenses...and Master Evelyn was banned from going to the guild."
"...I see. Well, consider this help settling the score. After I take you to Esther, everything will be finished between us, and I’ll have paid my debt in full."
"...Yes." I just nod in agreement. This help is enough. It’s more than I expected from anyone.
"I never expected that Master Evelyn’s kindness would one day come back to help her..." I murmur with a smile. It seems I still have much to learn from the empathy Master Evelyn once had.
I know things have changed now. Master Evelyn isn’t as empathetic, overly nice, and gentle anymore. She lost that shine for the cruel world. But that naive Evelyn from the past planted seeds that, even now, belatedly, have grown.
They’re somewhat crooked sprouts, and they won’t save her immediately, but they show that kindness, even if not entirely, is still repaid with kindness. That makes me feel a certain remorse.
Remorse for choices I made, like when I killed Yter and hid it from Master Evelyn. I judged him as a threat to Master Evelyn and eliminated him, but he wasn’t a bad person.
And I knew it. I knew Master Evelyn would never approve of me killing that man. She was too good for that. And perhaps I should have understood that kindness and chosen my actions better.
’Kindness begets kindness...I never really believed in that...it seems I was terribly wrong...’ The remorse is unpleasant. I can’t say I regret what I chose; that would be hypocritical because I clearly don’t regret it.
But it’s true I feel a certain remorse, because Yter only wanted to protect Ylya, because Yter was a person who perhaps wasn’t a real threat, just as I only wanted to protect Master Evelyn.
Yter and I were similar. Maybe that’s why I feel this remorse. Because if we were similar, it means kindness could have begotten kindness, and if I hadn’t ended him, he could have been a future ally.
"..." It’s far too late for regrets now, so I just stay silent, starting to wrap the bandages around myself while thinking about how I just want to get to Esther soon and tell her about Master Evelyn.
