Chapter 362: Easier Than It Seemed

"...Well? What was that? Explain it to me properly, Evelyn." Esther asks me while Kali is with Saluvia. I look down at the chain on my ankle for a few seconds, then touch the chain on my collar.

"Esther, my therapy session with Saluvia is soon. Can we please be quick?" I say to her, not wanting to fight or drag this out. There's the whole matter of the war that I'll have to write down on paper and send to the generals of each section.

"...Fine, we'll keep it brief. Just explain to me what that thing you did was. How did you knock out Marie, and what were those hands? As far as I know, your blessing doesn't make you strong, but you implied with your words that you were strong."

"..." I take a deep breath, calming my mind for a moment. I won't have any problems if Esther is in a good mood and just accepts it.

"After I ate the golden apple, I found another message from the 'Original Evelyn,' and I... destroyed it, or something like that. But I thought, the only way that Evelyn could make me see the messages is if something powerful was showing them to me."

"So I figured the only thing capable of that was the marionette made from her corpse... s-so I played a children's game to obtain it, and now I have a marionette made from her corpse from another timeline." I explain everything in a very summarized way.

"..." Esther seems thoughtful for a few moments.

"Show her. I want to see this marionette that was able to defeat Marie instantly." She speaks like an authoritative order. I simply obey, manifesting the marionette fully.

"...Is she alive?" Esther asks, touching her face gently.

"No, it's just a doll. She doesn't think, doesn't speak, only moves if I make her move. She can't even plan, so she'd have trouble obeying complex orders or anything similar." It's like a toy bound by strings.

"Interesting."

"You're acting... different than I expected. Esther, I swear I thought you'd get jealous or something." Esther touches the marionette identical to her.

"I won't be jealous of myself, especially of a doll without consciousness... I'm just curious... what will you do with this?"

"Nothing... I just want to use her as my shield to protect myself, nothing more." I make this clear to Esther so she won't suddenly get jealous.

"Well, I prefer it that way. It's good to know you'll be safe whether I'm there with you or not, since you manifested her in the other body, and in this body I believe she can be wherever you are."

"H-Hahaha, of course... you're taking this really well... way better than I expected," I say, somewhat nervous. Something's off here, isn't there? Esther, who was jealous of Kali for having spent months in my womb, really isn't jealous of this "copy" of herself?

"Evelyn, your look offends me. I won't be jealous of this marionette, because she is me, and because I know you wouldn't do anything with this specific marionette. Because no matter how much your morals have changed for me..."

"This marionette here was still created from my dead body, and that wounds your instincts. If you tried to get involved with this marionette, whether carnally or romantically, you'd feel terrible and sick." Esther is right. Obviously, I wouldn't like it.

"...But what about Kali? Why are you so jealous of Kali, then?" I don't get it. Kali is a baby, and Esther is jealous. Marionette Esther is a beautiful adult and totally my type, and Esther isn't jealous!

"Obviously, it's because she can steal you from me!!!" She speaks with an angry tone, as if my question were wrong.

"W-What?... Th-That's disgusting!!? Seriously? S-So you think I'd get romantically involved with our daughter?"

"Obviously! Though it's more likely that brat would want you than you wanting her! Since I know your past, I know you were human, and humans have all that fuss about biological incest, but we're demons. Your daughter is a cluster of Hikishin like me and you! Besides, we're nobles — it wouldn't be strange for a daughter and a mother to enter into a relationship."

"...Esther, shut up or I swear I'll punch you!" Marionette Esther moves, stepping slightly in front of me, reacting to what I want.

"...I won't back down just because of that broken toy, but fine, ignore me. We'll see how this little parasite behaves in the future. For now, let's focus on the war to change the subject, how about that?"

"..." Marionette Esther disappears as Esther sighs and rolls her eyes at me.

"There isn't much to plan. It's a war, and we only have the option of invading head-on. The angels are already prepared, and I can sense their magic. They're going to wait for the attack to happen first instead of advancing to try to gain ground," I say to Esther, who sits down beside me.

"Evelyn, you must not turn the angels into marionettes. None of those who are defeated or are alive," Esther says out of nowhere.

"Why?" I could turn a large portion of the enemy angels into puppets. They'd be useful and would reduce our casualties.

"...Thanks to what you can do outside the domain, you can turn beings far weaker than you into permanent marionettes, but that uses what's inside their bodies."

"The Queen of the Angels isn't some naive, goody-goody idealist. She's going to do something. If you turn the angels of her kingdom into marionettes, I don't doubt there'll be bombs inside them."

"..."

"You're smart, Evelyn. You know she must have already figured out what you do — turning angels into marionettes — and she won't let that happen. Old tricks don't work in battles like this."

"Also, don't try other tricks you were repeating in every city. The Queen of the Angels used all of that to gauge your forces."

"Is she really that evil?" I question Esther with doubt. Using her own people to test the enemy's strength — is that really something the Queen of the Angels would do? I know too little about her to tell.

"Yes. I don't know her well, but I know her politics and the laws she's been putting in place since she rose to power, and I can tell you, she's an extremely false viper who pretends to be good while monopolizing all power through the shadows."

"Besides, to maintain an entire giant kingdom like that without civil wars despite the nobility, she undoubtedly has to be someone very feared by those at the top."

"So she and the King of the Angels are two problems. Strategists we won't underestimate."

"Alright, I'll hold back on the repeated strategies and think of new things."

...

...

...

"Hey, Qyraen, as Queen of the Angels, are you sure you want to do this? It's risky for the general population." Raguion asks not as my husband, not as my brother, but as the King of the Angels, to make clear his position — more political than affectionate.

"...Yes, I've been informed that the Demon Queen is capable of turning our still-living troops into dolls she uses. So, by contaminating all the commoners' food in the kingdom with reactive Hikishin powder..."

"We'll turn the bodies of every civilian and low-ranking soldier into bombs that drain Hikishin from the area. Demons, whose bodies are literally composed of Hikishin, will take damage if they're within the blast radius, regardless of their resistance."

"These explosions could even wound the current Demon Queen herself. And since it's only reactive with my magic and yours, it's perfect for us to use. As long as we're careful when putting this into the food of the commoners and low-ranking soldiers, no one will find out." Raguion seems pensive.

"I know it's useful, but the risk if we're discovered is bad. The people must never know we're turning the majority of them into anti-demon bombs." I give him a smile.

"Thank you for worrying, brother, but I've already taken care of things my way. We'll manage to do this without anyone finding out. Only me, you, and my secret personal team are aware of the plan."

"And my secret personal team is composed solely of angels who have undergone intense brainwashing and who cannot speak or write due to curses, so there isn't a single person capable of discovering this," I say to make him feel more secure about the plan.

"Besides, it's not even guaranteed we'll use this. There's a chance the Demon Queen will avoid this very trick she's been using. If she's smart, she won't try it again. And if we do need to use this trick, we just say the demons themselves were to blame for the people exploding."

"After all, they've already poisoned the nearby rivers. The people already hate them. Lying a little won't make our people think too hard about the real culprit."

"...Alright, I'll trust your decisions, but we'll have to be careful with how the news circulates. The people are tense. They've never seen war reach their doorstep before, so they don't know what to do."

"Right now, they trust us a lot, and that trust has increased. But as our troops start dying and the invaders advance a little, morale will undoubtedly fall, and they'll start to doubt us."

"We need to plan right now how to recover the people's morale and trust as soon as we lose it, no matter what lie it takes." Raguion is already moving on to future plans.

"Hahaha, this is why we're perfect for each other." I pinch his cheek with a soft, loving tug.