F-Rank Puppeteer!! But I'll be Queen, and I'm not a narcissist!!!!!-Chapter 216: A Very Suspicious Gift

"...How’s your plate?" Esther asks as I take a bite of the pasta. It has a fun shape like a soft, well-formed screw, with a delicious sauce and several tasty vegetables.

"It’s very good, though now that I’m eating it, I miss chicken. It would be perfect." It would be better with chicken, though I didn’t want meat today, so I can’t really complain.

"You’d look funny with a haircut that shape." When she says this smiling, I imagine how I’d look. I’d end up looking like one of those Ojou-sama from games who seem to have hair shaped like a drill.

"I prefer to keep my hair straight, hanging down. The strands spreading naturally are prettier for me," I say, confident in my beauty. When it comes to this, I know what’s best for me.

"That’s great, but trying new hairstyles would be interesting..." she says, drinking from a cup with a red liquid, which I imagine is blood with lots of sugar.

"Maybe when—" Someone knocks on the door. Esther and I look toward the door as a maid opens it. The maid approaches with a beautiful box, a shade of purple similar to my hair, and a white ribbon.

"What is this?" I question while Esther stares at the maid as if she doesn’t understand something.

"A gift for you, Lady Evelyn. It’s an official express delivery, and although there’s no apparent sender, a large sum was apparently paid for the shipping." I stand up, approaching the box and opening it angrily because it interrupted my lunch with Esther.

’What would make someone send a gift to me?’ I open the box, and as soon as I do, I stare into it for a second.

"WAAAAAHHHH!!!!" I jump back, dropping the box on the floor and quickly scrambling backward. My scream is desperate, making Esther stand up and come over quickly.

"Evelyn, what’s in the— AAAHHHHHH!!!" Esther screams, jumping up and falling into my arms. Her whole body is trembling as she gasps in fear, hugging my neck. It’s the first time I’ve seen her so scared.

Inside the box is a Vivetrinite, a beautiful greenish stone with a vibrant dark green hue.

Vivetrinite = A rare mineral. It consumes Hikishin extremely quickly, being harmful to races with high magic. However, its real effect is being lethal to any demon, causing their bodies to degrade and turn to dust in seconds, absorbing their bodies which are made of Hikishin. It is a mineral that only appears on the demon continent, born underground rarely when Hikishin undergoes a reversal of effects and solidifies due to earth pressure and subterranean heat.

"YOU BITCH, WHO TOLD YOU TO BRING THAT SHIT INTO MY MANSION!!" Esther yells at the maid, who has an empty gaze.

"Get out of here!" Esther, embarrassed, leaves my arms and sends the maid away. Both of us feel the same dread any demon would have upon seeing this ore.

"Haaa..." Unlike me, a living puppet who suffers less from fear, Esther, who is a demon without any modification, must find it terrifying to see this.

"E-Esther, it seems to be an inert piece." If it were active, both of us would be dead. Someone must have broken the mineral, so it lost most of its properties. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"That maid... she’s under mind control. There’s no demon who wouldn’t react to Vivetrinite. Besides, none of my staff would interrupt my lunch just to deliver something." Esther says something that is true. This ore is so harmful and lethal it could kill a Demon King, and that’s because this mineral reacts with Hikishin.

And demons are the only race with bodies made 100% of magic, meaning 100% Hikishin. Other races just become weaker near this mineral, but for us demons, it’s like the deadliest poison. But this thing is so rare it never even appeared in the game, it was only mentioned.

"E-Esther, why do you think someone sent Vivetrinite to me?!" This isn’t normal. Almost no one could have access to this mineral. It’s so deadly it’s not even moved from the spot when someone happens to find it.

"I don’t know... This is strange. If they wanted to kill you, they would have sent the complete Vivetrinite. And besides, how did someone find this thing?... Unless... it’s someone who already had some." Esther murmurs something odd.

’Someone who already had some? But who?’ I can only think of three options: the Demon King, some collector nobles, and finally, Grace, who theoretically could obtain Vivetrinite, since she’s human and doesn’t suffer much from the mineral’s effects.

"Evelyn, I think our lunch is over... I need to get rid of the Vivetrinite. Even broken, it will soon start absorbing Hikishin from the environment, and before long it will be emitting effects again... I think it’s best to give it to the Demon King for him to destroy and—"

"Esther, what if... it was our father?" When I ask this, Esther falls silent.

"..." She looks at me as if I’ve grown a second head.

"E-Esther, think about it! The Vivetrinite is broken! Who can break this thing?" To break Vivetrinite requires absurd strength, and you still have to deal with the critical absorption. Almost no demon could break a Vivetrinite and come out alive.

"...You’re right... it is broken..." All demons learn from a young age what Vivetrinite is because, although it’s rare, there have been many cases of entire cities dying because a child found one by accident and left it unearthed, and it ended up being moved by animals, or because magical explosions launched them from the ground to the surface.

"I never thought I’d see this thing with my own eyes..." she murmurs.

"Yeah, besides jumping into my arms." When I say this, she gets embarrassed, blushing completely.

"I apologize for my lack of composure in the situation. I was caught by surprise..." she says in that condescending tone, but it’s obvious she’s never shown such weakness to anyone before.

"And if it was our father, why would he send just the broken piece? That question is still strange..." Esther goes back to investigating. She approaches the gift, taking a deep breath, but her hands are trembling. For demons, we feel how mortal this thing is just by getting close.

I’d say it’s similar to the feeling of a human trying to approach an atomic explosion. Your body would be vaporized by the blast.

"Look, it’s so broken I can hold it." Esther shows me, holding the stone in her hand. My tail whips the floor in fear just seeing it.

"O-Okay, I get it, please don’t hold it like that, what if, I don’t know, it activates?"

"Foolish concern, Evelyn. Vivetrinite doesn’t regenerate that quickly. From the damage, I’d say it will take one to four months before it can have its harmful effects again..." She calmly assesses, placing the stone on the table.

"Evelyn, you said our father acted strange before, in a hurry... besides, he’s sending all of us to the battlefield..."

"I think... he’s plotting something... something big..."

"...Now you can keep eating. Since I shouldn’t take it to our father, I’ll take this Vivetrinite to the edge of the continent and throw it into the sea. Sea monsters love devouring things with lots of Hikishin, so I know they’ll eat the Vivetrinite and destroy it in their bodies since it’s still inactive." She picks up the gift box from the floor, throwing the stone inside.

I immediately feel calmer when she puts the lid on the box and ties the ribbon, sealing that thing again.

"I don’t want to eat anymore. Not after that." I thought I was going to die when my eyes saw that crystal-like stone.

"Of course... It should take me about 5 hours to return, so it will be night... Would you do me the honor of giving me a reward?"

"A reward?!"

"Yes, Evelyn. After all, I’m carrying this demon-destroying killer bomb with my own hands, and I’m hiding it from the Demon King for you. Whether it was our father or not who sent it doesn’t matter. Hiding Vivetrinite is a crime."

"The fact that I’m not reporting it is literally a serious offense. But I will get rid of all the evidence, so you and I never received this. Understood?"

"...So you want me to reward you for committing a crime for me?" I ask, thinking about it.

"Obviously."

"...Okay... I will..." I say with a smile as she starts to leave through the door. But even though she maintains her tough-girl pose, her hands and legs won’t stop trembling, because she’s holding the greatest nightmare of every demon.

’But I wonder... who sent this to me... and why send it? I’m weak. I’m not a target that needs something so dangerous to be killed. And why send it as a gift?’ I don’t understand this logic. Something’s wrong here. If it had been sent to Esther, I could understand. She’s strong. But it was sent to me, and I’m weak. A powerful assassin would be enough to defeat me.

’Maybe the real goal isn’t the Vivetrinite... but rather... something else... But what?’ I’m left with this confusing thought. What could it be? It’s obvious the stone is a distraction for something bigger.

...

...

...

"Demon King, the delivery was completed successfully and is registered." One of my shadows appears, bowing to me, as I look at a map in front of me.

"Perfect. Tell me, what action did Esther choose to take upon seeing the Vivetrinite?" I ask because I need to know what she’ll do—if she’ll try to give me the stone, which generates an official record, or if she’ll get rid of it.

"She chose to dispose of the Vivetrinite without issuing any alert."

"...Tsk..." I click my tongue. She chose to disobey my laws, and now without an official record, I’ll have to make a change of plans.

"The other piece—have you managed to inhibit its effect yet? I need it whole, but unable to function." I need this thing for my plan, but it must not kill me, or it would be useless. However, it needs to be whole because if it’s broken, it will make it obvious something isn’t right.

"We are almost there, Demon King, but it will still take some time... Also, that girl, Evelyn, she seems to have noticed that the Vivetrinite was sent by you, or at least suspects it..."

"..." I think about Evelyn. It seems she’s smarter than I imagined. Probably the fact that it was broken gave away the answer, because it was indeed I who broke it, and it took considerable power to do so.

"Shadows, for now, proceed as planned. Regardless of their choice, they have already had contact with the Vivetrinite, and there is still a record that they ’received’ the gift, even if no one knows what was inside."

"That is enough!" I motion for the shadows to leave, to continue with my plans.