After sitting at the dining table for two hours, the Puppet decided to move to the couch in the living room. After sitting there for a few more hours, she returned to her rocking chair on the verandah.
The sun had once again risen to the sky, accompanied by a small fleet of scattered clouds.
Back and forth, back and forth, she rocked on that chair within that same gentle, swinging motion.
With her eyes glued to the verandah ceiling, she failed to notice the shadow in the grass behind her growing slightly larger.
A woman jumped from the shadow and landed on the wooden railings of the verandah, directly behind where the Marionette was seating.
The Puppet turned her head and looked up at the person.
She had the same face as the original hero Yukari and wore a dark jacket that seemed to breathe as it waved in the wind. Resting on her shoulders was a large, blood-hungry scythe.
"Haha...Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Reaper laughed like a deranged psychopath before stopping abruptly in silence, her maniacal grin twisted her face as she spoke, "I have to say, you might be the second creepiest thing I've seen today."
Yukari covered her tone with giggles and whispers.
"B-rank huh, hehehe... hey, you want to have a secret duel before the Summoner gets here?"
The Puppet gently stood up, and raised her arms towards her. For a split moment, it seemed like she was actually accepting the challenge but instead, she just started pinching the Reaper's cheeks and stretching random parts of her face.
Her response consisted of multiple: Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack!
The Reaper's crazy smile was quickly replaced by a deadpanned expression as if she was confused or disappointed by the response. Does she even know what the word 'challenge' means?
Without even asking, the Puppet grabbed the Reaper's free hand and started shaking it.
Watching from on top one of the trees, with his invisible skill still on, the Scout let out a sigh of relief.
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I was worried when the Reaper suddenly vanished in the midst of our journey through the Harmless Forest, especially since it appeared that the Scout had disappeared with her, given that I received no leaf messages from him despite my calls.
Alfred and Cleric were beginning to think that the trees had somehow eaten them. To our relief, after their disappearance, we quickly found ourselves in front of the Puppet's dilapidated house where we witnessed the Puppet and the Reaper engaging in a long, awkward handshake.
Upon seeing me, the Puppet ended the handshake and slowly jogged towards me.
"H-hello again. Sorry abou-"
I was interrupted when she started squishing and pinching my face, just like she did when we first met. Honestly, I was just glad she didn't tackle me this time.
"What's up with her obsession with cheeks?" asked the Reaper.
"I honestly have no clue."
"Klack!Klack!Klack! Klack!Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack! Klack!"
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She brought out the tea set again.
The rectangular table in the dining room had three chairs on each long side and one chair at each short end. Alfred, Cleric, and I sat on one long side, while the Reaper sat next to me at the short end opposite to where the Puppet usually sits.
The Marionette had even prepared an extra cup and plate to account for the Reaper. Cleric was keen as expected while Alfred still didn't know how to react to this but I'm sure they both felt more assured now that the Reaper was here with us. Not to mention the Scout was also watching us from who knows where.
The Puppet started 'pouring' tea into Yukari's cup first.
The Reaper kept her eyes on the porcelain cup as she slowly leaned towards me and whispered, "There's no tea in ther-"
"I know. I know... just go with it." I whispered back.
The Reaper maintained a neutral expressions as she watched the Puppet do her thing.
When I first told the Reaper about the Puppet, she was naturally very interested and immediately wanted to go meet her for herself.
But I made sure to have a stern talk with her on the way here:
"Listen Reaper, we were lucky with the Samurai but I don't think I need to explain to you why challenging someone to a fight can discourage them from joining our village. So no starting fights this time, okay?" It seemed that line of logic was more convincing to Yukari than the "you might get yourself killed" argument that I used before because Yukari was being surprisingly civil.
However, my advice 'don't start a fight with potential allies' should be common sense, so it was a bit concerning that I actually had to remind her about that.
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The Scout watched from one of the tree branches.
Despite his dark green cloak being completely invisible to the naked eye, the surrounding trees seemed to be staring directly at him.
He ignored them as he was more interested by the Puppet's existence. He had a skill that allowed his eyes to zoom in on things like a telescope and another skill that allowed him to eavesdropped on conversations from far away.
He was very baffled yet fascinated by what he was seeing.
Despite all the things he had seen in his journeys, he had never seen a fake who had physical differences to the original.
He was still cautious though. No matter how they look, a B-rank creature was not to be taken lightly.
If a battle were to occur, it would be the Scout's job to retreat and get help. But after listening to their many awkward attempts to talk with the Puppet, the Scout decided he wanted to explore a little in secret.
His plan was to quietly land on the roof and enter through the hole in the attic so he could discreetly investigate the house for anything suspicious.
After activating one of his skills, a gentle gust of wind and leaves swirled around the Scout's invisible form. He then pushed off from the tree branch, causing his body to drift slowly toward the house. This wasn't flight. It was more comparable to a light object being carried by a gentle current of air
Slowly and with the utmost care to remain silent, the Scout's foot made near-silent contact with the surfaces of the roof.
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Almost instantly, the Puppet's head snapped towards the ceiling. It was such a sudden moment that even the Reaper flinched.
Before I could asked, the Puppet quite literally lunged through the window.
The walls started shaking, presumably from the Puppet climbing them. Bits of sawdust fell from the ceiling as the house trembled.
The Reaper and I remained sitting as we peacefully 'sipped' our none existent tea in silence.
The four of us waited.
After a few more rapid footsteps that shook the ceiling, we heard a comedically timed yelp from someone who was definitely an Arthur fake.
Shortly after, the front door opened. We all looked and saw the Puppet holding the Scout's hand, pulling him inside. The Scout's head only looked towards the ground as he walked into the dining room.
He wore a dark green cloak and brown leather gloves that covered pretty much every part of his body including his face. He also wore a mask to cover his mouth but considering his personality and the context, his face was probably turning really red right now.
The Puppet pulled back a chair for the Scout and so he took a seat. The Elizabeth fake then went into the kitchen to grab another cup and plate for him. After she 'poured' tea into the Scout's cup, she sat back down and casually continued sipping her own 'tea'.
After that, only more awkward silence followed. However, that brief moment of silent tea time was promptly broken by-
"Pffffftttttt- HAHAHAHAHAHAH!" The Reaper laughed and pointed at him as she clutched her stomach, "How nice of you to join us, Scout. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Arthur fake could only cover his face in shame. Even though his face was already covered.
Poor guy.
Despite all the effort he put into being as stealthy as he could, this was actually his second time being forced to socialise like this.
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She must have some sort of pre-planned schedule in her mind because right after tea time, she proceeded to give the Reaper and the Scout the same house tour that she gave me when I first visited. But she did make sure to pull out the building blocks again for Alfred and Cleric to play with before doing so.
Even though I had already seen the house before, I decided to join the tour as well.
The Reaper seemed unusually nonchalant about the whole scenario, she would whistle whenever she was impressed by something and would occasionally make casual remarks about the house.
On the other hand, the Scout was practically scanning every single inch of the house. He had gotten over his initial embarrassment and took the hour tour as an opportunity to investigate. He took closer looks at the furniture, and even went as far as asking the Puppet to open several cupboards and drawers to see what was inside, something I didn't dare to do last time. Whenever the Scout asked her to open something, the Puppet would oblige and nod her head. But she didn't open them herself, the drawers and cupboards would open by themselves without any contact needed.
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Besides that, there was nothing to note when it came to what was actually inside. Most of the cupboards and drawers were empty. Some contained random junk like tree branches, rocks or random pieces of dirty cloths.
We found the drawer where the Puppet stored her tea set. I had assumed she had plenty of cups and plates considering she always had enough for everyone but the amount of plates and cups I saw in there matched the exact number of people in this house including my knights. Did she just so happen to have a spare set for the Scout?
The Puppet moved on to the next room and so we followed.
As expected, the house looked exactly the same. The only difference was that the rocking chair was now in one of the guest rooms even though I just saw it on the verandah earlier. That chair was definitely moving on its own.
Eventually, we reached the Puppet's room. Despite clearly being her room, it almost looked untouched since the last time I saw it. The Reaper and the Scout silently observed everything while the Puppet remained seemingly frozen in the middle, gesturing her arm.
It was then my eyes started focusing on an object I didn't pay much attention to last time. The dead flower by the bed. Now that I think about it: that flower might be the only organic thing to ever reside in this house.
I assumed it must have had some sentimental value considering the Puppet hadn't thrown it out yet.
The Scout also noticed the flower but he did not dare touch it. He was probably afraid of angering the Puppet.
Besides that, this house tour seemed faster than last time but that could just be because I was less nervous this time.
We were about to head back to the living room where Alfred and Cleric were playing, but then the Reaper casually pointed at the one place we hadn't entered and asked, "What about the room down there?"
We all stopped. The Scout and I gave Yukari a subtle cautious look which she completely ignored.
The Puppet's gaze fell upon the Reaper. Neither of them seemed intimidated by the other's stare.
Once again, the Marrionette had disregarded the basement entirely during the house tour. To be honest, even if I hadn't mentioned it beforehand, the Reaper and the Scout probably would still have noticed it, just as I did before.
The Puppet reached for something in her clothing. Like last time, she pulled a small key and then raised it up towards the ceiling as if trying to display it. She paused and stood like that for a brief moment while the three of us simply watched.
And so, in complete silence, we explored the darkest and deepest room in the whole house: the basement.
Ka-Clink!
No one said anything while we were down there.
The Scout and the Reaper didn't react to the Puppet locking us inside the room aside from a subtle side glance. They were calm. After all, they had already expected it since I had already informed them about my previous encounter with this basement.
Our footsteps and the occasional klacking of the Puppet's mouth were clearly audible but not a single word was uttered from anyone's mouth.
Without even asking, all of the glass cabinets opened by themselves after we entered, almost as if the Puppet knew the Scout would want to look inside them. As I had suspected last time, each one of these cabinets contained several unique and extremely detailed wooden dolls. Each toy was very distinct from the others, with different clothes and even varying heights.
There I was, staring at one of the ominous wooden dolls, the same one that the Puppet forced to dance last time. There was no emotion in the doll's eyes and yet I could almost feel it staring back at me. Even though this was my second time seeing them, I still couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling of these dolls that might've been real people.
The Scout slowly scanned each cabinet and the contents inside but he choose not to interact with anything.
The Reaper, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to touch anything she deemed interesting. She would even pick up some of the dolls and shake them as if expecting some sort of response. She then spotted something on the wooden doll which prompted her to signal at me with her finger.
I silently walked over to her as Yukari brought the doll closer to my face, much to my discomfort.
But once she brought the doll close enough, something popped up in my vision, right above the doll's head. A name tag. Similar to the name tags you see on monsters but instead of red, it was black text inside a plain white box.
'Zane Ryker'. It didn't sound like the type of name an Elizabeth fake could just make up.
This practically solidified my theory. I had already somewhat suspected it, but having actual confirmation somehow made it seem even more concerning.
The Reaper continued fiddling with the doll's limbs. She was clearly undisturbed by this unnerving confirmation.
Noticing this, the Puppet approached the Reaper and aimed her palm at one of the dolls. White string protruded from her fingers and attached themselves to her target.
Just like last time, the Puppet made the doll perform a small random dance for the Reaper.
I carefully eyed the Reaper's reaction and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Scout also doing the same.
Yukari remained silent while watching the dancing doll. A subtle grin crept onto her face as the only response she gave was an amused chuckle.
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We eventually returned to the living room.
The Puppet went back to assisting Alfred and Cleric with the toys. Speaking of my knights, while we having our hour tour, they had been trying to build the tallest tower possible with the available building blocks.
In the corner, the Reaper tapped her foot against the rocking chair, testing if it would make a move right in front of her.
I leaned my arms against the back of the couch, watching the Puppet peacefully play with my knights. Even without any means of communications, it seemed they had somehow become friends.
The Scout walked passed me and as he did, a leaf appeared and gently fell into my hand.
The leaf bore the words, "Besides the basement, there doesn't seem to be anything suspicious."
True, this place may have been neglected and damaged, but ultimately, it seemed like an ordinary house. If not for that ominous basement, deciding whether to invite the Puppet or not would have been a very easy choice.
Two more leaves appeared in front of me so I dropped the first leaf to catch the new ones.
"The dead flower in her room intrigues me. I don't think it's a normal flower."
Before I could even process that message, the first leaf I dropped gently made contact with the floor.
In response, the Puppet turned her head in my direction. The leaf landed right behind the couch, completely out of her sight. Nonetheless, she stood up, walked around the couch and immediately gazed at the leaf. It was as if she had an uncanny awareness of its presence, sensing it the moment it touched the floor.
I instinctively stepped back as the Puppet approached and picked up the leaf.
Everyone in the room was watching her now.
The Puppet examined the leaf closely but displayed no reaction. Out of the corner of my, I saw Scout move his hand which caused the leaf to gradually vanish and phase through her hand. In response, the Puppet attempted to catch the leaf as it disappeared, only for it to fade away into nothing. Even after the leaf disappeared, she tried to grasps the air in order to find it.
Seeing the leaf shortly reminded both my knights about how you could draw on those leaves and so they eagerly approached the Scout, tugging on his leg as they asked for leaves and sticks. It seemed my knights had already met the Scout in person before this.
Reluctantly, the Scout gave them a pile of leaves and sticks.
My knights then invited the Puppet to come draw with them on the carpet next to the building blocks.
I almost sensed a feeling of curiosity in the way the Puppet moved this time. Alfred demonstrated how the sticks could leave marks on the leaves by scribbling all over it. Cleric then gave the Marionette a leaf and stick so she could have a try. The Elizabeth fake started off slow as she drew a simple line. But once she had a feeling for it, she started scribbling all over it.
Cleric tried drawing one of the soft toys that the Puppet had created. When the Puppet spotted that, she grabbed another leaf and also tried drawing a soft toy.
Watching this, an idea came to mind.
I slowly approached them and when I did, the Puppet immediately snapped towards me, making me flinch. She then extended a leaf and a stick, as if inviting me to join in the drawing. Fortunately, that just so happened to be precisely what I wanted to do.
Under the Puppet's heavy gaze, I slowly wrote the word "hello" on the leaf and handed it to her.
The Elizabeth fake examined my leaf closely before taking a new one and writing on it. As she wrote, she repeatedly glanced back and forth between my leaf and hers.
Once the Scout realised what I was trying to do, he provided us with more leaves. Meanwhile, the Reaper was now sitting on the rocking chair.
When the Puppet was done, she had written the word "hello" on her leaf.
I took another leaf and wrote "how are you?" on it before showing it to her.
In response, the Puppet grabbed a new leaf and wrote "how are you?" on it before showing it to me.
As I thought, she doesn't actually know how to write. She was simply copying whatever I was writing. It was most likely that she couldn't even read either.
It's not exactly uncommon to meet fakes who can't read or write. Many fakes come into existence without that ability. I was fortunate enough to come into existence with that skill already integrated into my mind.
Interestingly, I was told that the Reaper and many others in fake town initially couldn't read or write when they first came into existence. But then later on, they were all taught how to do so by "the Librarian", the Yukari fake who originally founded Fake Town.
Another interesting side note is that even if a person is incapable of reading, they are still able to accurately interpret their skill trees, despite the fact that they appear in one's vision as text. In fact, I once overheard some adventurers claiming that even blind people are able to 'read' their skill trees somehow. The most agreed-upon theory suggest that this is due to the fact that skill trees are 'connected to one's soul' or something along those lines.
Regardless, it seemed communicating with the Puppet was still going to be a complicated guessing game.
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When it was time to go, the Puppet didn't retaliate much this time. She seemed even more compliant when I assured her that I would be back.
She even allowed Alfred and Cleric to keep a soft toy as gifts. Although, the Scout made sure to examine them closely to check for anything suspicious. He probably had some sort of scanning skill for that.
Once again, I was surprised by how 'civil' the Reaper behaved today. I had expected her to unsheathe her scythe and start a fight at the last moment. But she didn't. On our way out, she gently shook hands with the Puppet, whispered something into her ear, patted her on the shoulder, and then casually strolled out with the rest of us.
Just like last time, the Puppet watched our backs as we left. Alfred and Cleric waved goodbye and so she waved back as well. But aside from her waving arm, the rest of her body remained unmoving like a statue. She never took her gaze off us until we were no longer visible through the trees.
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On the way back home, I was about to ask Yukari about what she had whispered to the Puppet at the end but before I could ask, the Scout said, "By the way Summoner, before the Reaper and I arrived at the house, we met the Elizabeth fake in the flower field that you mentioned before."
The Reaper was silent.
I immediately forgot about my previous question as this topic was far more intriguing to me, "You did?"
"Yeah, from our point of view, it seemed like you were the ones who vanished before we came across that field of flowers and met Elizabeth6616. We went towards the directions she pointed at and before we knew it, we were at the Puppet's house." The Scout explained further.
"Did she say anything to you?" I asked.
"You can trust her." The Scout repeated, "It seems like that was all she could say."
"That's what she said to me as well," I felt Cleric cling to my leg. He in particular could still vividly remember the sight of an Elizabeth fake missing half her body. I picked him up and carried him in my arms as I asked the Scout, "Do you think she's referring to the Puppet?"
"Considering she was the one who led us to the house in the first place, most likely yes." The Scout answered, "but whether we believe those words is a conclusions we can't jump to just yet."
"Do you think it's a trap? Like some sort of illusion created by the forest to lure us in and make us lower our guard?"
The Scout just shrugged, "Who knows. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. There's really no way of telling these days."
I silently nodded in agreement. That was very true. In a world like ours where skills are absolute and capable of breaking every line of logical reasoning, it's hard to say what it could be.
Just as the conversation ended, I continued to stare at the Scout with a curious gaze as a different topic came to mind. Although, I wasn't quite sure how to bring up that topic.
Even as we continued walking through the forest towards the exit, I continued to silently stare at the Scout, not knowing how to properly state what I wanted to say.
The Scout quickly noticed this and asked, "Is something wrong, Summoner?"
"No, it's nothing, it's just..." I awkwardly raised my hand towards him to politely offer a handshake, "It's nice to finally to talk to you... like face to face, you know..."
Everyone stopped walking at that moment. They all slowly turned their heads towards him. Alfred crossed his arms while Cleric waved.
"..."
"..."
"..."
A taunting grin was plastered all over the Reaper's face as she nudged the Scout with her elbow, "Look at you, finally socialising for once."
After realising that this was indeed the first time we had ever talked face to face, I could sense the Scout's face turning red as he immediately dashed and hid behind the Reaper's back before using his skill to turn invisible.
"Well it's a bit pointless to do that now." The Reaper chuckled.
Even though I could no longer see him, I could almost imagine him trying to cover his already invisible face. The Reaper continued to laugh and tease the invisible Scout as we all went on our way back to Fake Town.
At the time, my mind was so preoccupied with various matters that I completely forgot to ask about what the Reaper had whispered to the Puppet earlier.
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The only thing stopping the house from being completely covered in pitch black darkness was the glistening moonlight that would seep through the windows.
The door to the bedroom on the second floor slowly opened by itself, emitting a creaking noise that could be heard even from the ground floor, not that there were actually any people on the ground floor to hear it.
Standing in the dark hallways was the Puppet as she waited for the door to fully open.
Her movements were almost mechanical as she entered.
Right next to the almost untouched dusty bed was a wooden nightstand. On top the small table was a glass vase which contained a single withered flower. A small ray of moonlight filtered through the glassless window, casting a soft glow on the withered flower inside the vase.
The Puppet approached the nightstand and knelt down so that she was at eye level with the flower's petals. The petals looked so fragile that the slightest touch might cause it to crumble.
Despite that, the Puppet gently grazed her finger upon one of its petals. Upon doing so, a soft transparent glow surrounded the dead plant as if projecting an image of what the flower used to look like when it was alive.
The Puppet closed her eyes as she silently remained in that position for hours with her finger still making contact with the flower.
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End Chapter
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A/N
Next chapter is pretty much done and has about 5k words which I will post in a few days or a week. It was originally meant to be apart of this chapter before I decided to split it... which is becoming a common trend isn't it.
Sorry about the long break. It's been quite busy for me as I just recently had exams. As always, join the discord if you want to check my progress on future chapters, and thank you all for reading this far. AND SPECIAL THANKS TO THE PERSON WHO GAVE ME MY SECOND EVER PAY PALL DONATION! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This chapter was finished on the 21/11/2023