Chapter 46: Poorly Made Copy
"Hmmm, the food is wonderful," I murmur with satisfaction. This is the best breakfast imaginable, I can’t wait for the maids to cook for me as well.
"Evelyn-sama, now that you’re done, what do you wish to do?" Eve speaks as I ponder. Currently, I’m trying to gradually accumulate power and authority. Getting this room for myself may have seemed insignificant, but it’s little by little that I’ll rise above everyone in the competition.
"Eve, I’m biting the edges of this cake filled with cream, while digging a hole to the center of the cake! Do you understand what I mean?" I say, and she nods.
"Oh, so that’s why you’re doing things in small steps, very clever," she says, nodding.
"Exactly! Of course, this is not something others should know, let them underestimate me." I never thought that being considered a failure would become an advantage. When they finally realize how strong I am, it will be too late for them to get rid of me.
"But Evelyn-sama, why go so slowly and secretly? I know it’s advantageous, but it also means it will take at least 1 to 2 years before you truly have the authority to be considered a threat," Eve says as I sigh.
"You know, Eve, we’re not real siblings. The candidates for the throne care more about their dreams than others. If they find out I can become a threat, they’ll try to kill me before I become a problem." They’re not like cartoon villains who let the hero grow stronger.
Each candidate for the throne is like a final boss who would attack the hero’s starting town and completely disappear, leaving no future problem. They’re the type who would hit the hero during the transformation instead of letting them transform.
In short, they’re the kind of villain who would strike first and give a villain monologue to the dead hero, not because they don’t have reasons, but they’re still dangerous.
That’s why I want to try to befriend them to avoid conflict and at least make the competition for the throne more peaceful.
"Eve, someone has invaded my room!" I say urgently. Snacksy just triggered an alert. Before, he could only get agitated to try to warn me, but since I became a living puppet, I can have a stronger connection with him.
"Eve, go see who the intruder is. I’ll stay right here. If it’s an assassin..." I don’t finish the command.
"I’ll do what’s best. I’ll be back soon," she says quickly, starting to run and disappearing. I go to the door, closing it, and return to the table.
’Assassins...’ It wouldn’t be uncommon, but I can’t let them mess with my room. Sending Eve means I’m here alone.
’It’s okay... It’s okay...’ I won’t die just because Eve isn’t here, but I feel tense because she’s the only source of security I have.
"...I see you. You don’t need to hide. Why don’t you sit in front of me so we can talk?" I say with extreme confidence, and suddenly someone appears in the chair in front of me. I look at them, shocked.
’What the hell!? Where did this person come from?’ I bluffed, thinking that bluffing and seeing I was alone would help me calm down, but someone really revealed themselves.
"You noticed me, what a surprise. I thought I was well hidden," the person in a black outfit with a black mask says. I don’t know who they are, and the appearance doesn’t make it clear if they’re male or female.
"H-Haha, of course I noticed. It’s hardly possible to hide from the magnificent me," I say with false arrogance, avoiding trembling. I didn’t even know there was really someone hiding.
"I see. Was that how you noticed your room was also invaded? It seems she was right to pay some attention to the ’failure’ of the family," the person in the chair says, casually grabbing a roll and shoving it under their mask.
"Something like that..." I say nervously, thinking about who this spy might be. Probably not an assassin, and the brazen attitude suggests they don’t fear anything from me.
’I need to bluff... I have a chance... Whose servant is this person?’ I take a toast from the table and eat it, using the food to avoid speaking while thinking about who the master of this person might be.
’Not Lucien, Laplace, or Augustus, because they don’t care much about me, and they have no reason to spy on me... That only leaves Marie and Esther...’ I think it might be Marie’s servant. This servant is bold to reveal themselves, sit at the table, and even take the food, which is very much Marie’s style.
’No... Marie has no reason to watch me...’ I think harder, looking at this person.
"Esther is really anxious, am I that interesting?" I say, and the intruder pauses. With that, I know I’ve hit the mark they are Esther’s servant. It was even easier than I thought, maybe I really am a genius.
’Bingo!’ She’s the one who has the most reason to observe me. I don’t know why she decided that spying on me in the morning was a good idea, but now I know she has her eye on me.
"You know, tell Esther she doesn’t need to keep spying on me. If she’s curious about me, she can come here and talk to me. I’d love to chat with her," I say with a smile.
"..." The intruder suddenly disappears. I feel a bit humiliated for being so slow, as everyone just seems to vanish and reappear when they move. I’m too slow to keep up with my eyes.
So I can only pretend I saw it and that there’s nothing wrong, to maintain the image that it wasn’t surprising at all.
’I hope Eve comes back soon...’ I wonder how long I’ve been followed. I guess this spy only revealed themselves because I spoke with such conviction that hiding no longer made sense.
"It can’t be too long..." I murmur. I don’t know how much this spy heard of the things I said, but I doubt it was much, considering Eve is always with me and this spy had something to do with the invasion of my room.
’I need a mage...’ A mage puppet would be very useful. With a mage, I can have someone who creates barriers to defend me, who creates something to prevent my conversations from being overheard, or who creates a spell to detect hidden people, and other things.
’A mage, a healer, a tank... an assassin?’ I wonder about the classes I need. Mage, healer, and tank are mandatory, but I need others that can be useful, though I can’t just create random puppets.
In the future, I plan to have hundreds to thousands of common puppets, but puppets with specific classes, personalities, races, and being extremely detailed are ones I’ll have in relatively low quantities.
This is because common puppets, I can just make with materials and give a specific power without expecting them to get stronger, but the special puppets are the ones I’ll entrust my life to and do everything to fortify.
Eve is one of those special puppets. Probably the next special puppet will be a mage, but I wonder what race, appearance, and personality would be best for a mage.
’Well, I think 5 or 6 special puppets are enough. I already have a swordswoman, it’s a good time to think about the next ones...’ As I ponder this, Eve returns.
"Oh, Eve, I’m glad you’re back... Someone was here, they invaded the room, but didn’t do anything. I think it was a spy for Esther," I say to ’Eve’ quickly. ’Eve’ nods.
"I also found someone, they were rummaging through your things. They fled through the window when I entered the room. I tried to chase them... I’m sorry I failed," she says with ’sadness’. This only confirms that they were Esther’s servants.
Esther, using her ability, made the universe favor her in the search for strong allies. She has some incredibly skilled and unique servants, so obviously Eve couldn’t defeat several of them.
"Don’t blame yourself, ’Eve’. It’s okay that you couldn’t catch the person who invaded my room. Did they do anything in the room?" I ask, getting up from the table and going to her.
"No, she... Is there a problem, Evelyn-sama?" ’Eve’ asks when I hold her hand. I caress it, sensing the lack of softness I’m used to.
"Eve, attack," I say, and the real Eve bursts through the door, advancing incredibly fast with her sword. I release the hand of the fake Eve, who barely dodges, and my Eve grabs me by the waist and runs out the door.
"I’m glad you didn’t believe that farce," my Eve says, running quickly through the corridors.
"What happened?" I knew the first Eve who entered the room was fake, because she didn’t have my vitality or connection. So as soon as she entered, I told Eve to come back.
"That’s the disgusting rat who invaded your room. She tripped me and punched me in the stomach, then left through the door. But then I got your warning that a ’Eve’ had appeared in the room where you were, so I came," she says as I nod.
"It’s a servant of Esther, although I didn’t think they’d be so bold as to try to impersonate you. What fools, they’re probably looking for information," I scoff with a smile. Never would I fall for an illusion, because my bond with my puppets is impossible to copy.
"She’s not following us. It seems she gave up. Your room was ransacked, probably searching for something, but she didn’t have time to organize it because I got there," Eve says as I sigh.
"The day has been insane, and it’s only 9 in the morning," I say, and Eve gives me a smile.
"Well, at least this shows that someone knows you’re not a failure," Eve tries to see the positive side.
"Yeah..." The problem is that it’s the worst person to know that, I’d prefer Esther not to be so brilliant, since that makes her dangerous.