Meat Puppet

“L-Lord Demon Lord…?”

Facing Vivian’s expressionless, almost icy demeanor, one of the girls timidly raised her head.

Her stunning face, streaked with tears, was pitifully delicate, her golden eyes brimming with fear and confusion.

Her voice was frail, barely a whisper.

“Y-You… brought us here… for what…?”

“Stop pretending, Carol—what’s your game?”

Vivian’s voice was cold, a thread of mana slowly coalescing in her palm.

“W-What do you mean…? We don’t understand…”

The other girl lifted her head, her face equally innocent and terrified, tears welling in her golden eyes, her voice trembling with a sob.

Snap—

Without hesitation, Vivian unleashed the mana in her hand.

No earth-shattering explosion followed, only a soft pop like a bursting bubble.

A surge of deep purple mana obliterated one of the elf twins’ heads into fragments.

“…”

The headless, slender body collapsed like a puppet with cut strings, blood splattering the surviving elf’s face.

Vivian’s fingers then aimed at the remaining girl, her intent clear—one wrong word, and death would follow.

“My patience is limited. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Vivian’s voice was frigid, her eyes filled with killing intent, the mana in her hand pulsing dangerously.

The surviving elf girl stood frozen, as if petrified by fear.

After a few seconds of dead silence, the terror on her face receded like a tide.

In its place emerged an eerie calm, her lips curling into a faint, almost playful smile.

A smile utterly unlike the fragile persona from moments before.

“Well, well, you caught me.”

Whether Lolo, Lili, or… “Carol” herself, she chuckled lightly.

She relaxed completely, shedding her cautious, fearful facade.

Plopping onto a nearby crate of supplies, she sat casually.

“How did you know? I thought I covered my tracks perfectly.”

“I didn’t fully know.”

Vivian stared at this smaller version of “Carol,” her face expressionless.

“I just sensed a ‘faintly familiar spell signature’ and decided to test you.”

At Vivian’s words, Carol’s expression soured, her smile twisting into a scowl.

“A test, and you just kill? Truly worthy of a Demon Lord!”

She smacked her lips, her voice rising with a hint of exasperation.

Glancing at the twitching corpse on the ground, she muttered, “What a waste.

Killing without certainty? That was a precious elf darling, you know.

Aren’t you afraid of a mistake?”

Vivian remained silent.

Carol let out a series of huffy grumbles.

“Fine, you got me. I’ll concede.”

With that, Carol’s foot lightly tapped the [flesh puppet]’s body.

Vivian watched as the destroyed head rapidly healed and reformed.

With a sudden flip, the puppet “came back to life.”

“Hey, chirp chirp.”

The two nearly identical elf puppets dropped their disguises, grinning at Vivian.

“You look well.”

“Have you already given birth, with that accelerated pregnancy?”

Carol controlled the two bodies, one speaking after the other.

Vivian chose silence.

Truthfully, she’d always suspected Carol, that scheming wretch, would try to probe her.

She’d been cautious around elves ever since, even suspecting the elven Heroes like Mira and Sela might be Carol’s [puppets].

Her caution proved justified.

Carol, that underworld menace, was indeed still scheming against her.

“How did you sense something off?

Even a Demon Lord shouldn’t kill without reason, especially when your territory is short on manpower.”

Carol’s other puppet sat on a crate, both elf girls dangling their legs, smiling lightly as they questioned Vivian.

“Intuition.”

Vivian paused, realizing these two might not be easily dealt with.

Exhaling slowly, she began to engage.

“Just a gut feeling that something wasn’t right.

With ‘commodities’ as valuable as you two, the Goldmelt Caravan would’ve prioritized selling you off.”

“I investigated their route.

Their decision to come to Evernight was made only a month ago.

In the two months prior, they were near elf and human territories.

Even with a rushed trip to Evernight, they had ample time to offload you.”

Vivian spoke deliberately.

In truth, her knowledge stemmed from her identity as a [player] familiar with Carol.

She’d been wary of the Grand Necromancer for a long time, preparing contingencies others wouldn’t.

As a moderately popular character in Path of Blasphemy, Carol had ample lore in game texts and fan analyses, which Vivian had studied.

As the Grand Necromancer, Carol was essentially the elven equivalent of a necromancer, a hidden and reviled figure handling the Elven Empire’s dirtiest tasks.

She was their last, unscrupulous trump card in times of war.

Elves, with their low numbers and slow reproduction, couldn’t afford heavy losses.

In moments of existential crisis, they unleashed their [Grand Necromancer].

In the face of survival, morality held no sway.

As a boss players could challenge, Carol had significant screen time.

Some dedicated fans even uncovered that she could control multiple [puppets] worldwide to gather rare [materials].

This knowledge made Vivian extra cautious of anything—or anyone—near her or Lucia.

Her instincts, like a blind cat stumbling on a dead mouse, had been spot-on.

And if she’d been wrong?

Well, mistakes happen.

Tough luck.