Location: High Rise, Overlooking Concert Venue

Time: 4:00 PM, 02/16/2108

After looking over the crowd awaiting a performance from the freshly announced idol Olivia Oldridge I couldn’t help but admire the work of the man sitting next to me. James Jasper, although back in the Empire he would be better known by the title awarded to him by the Emperor himself: The Puppet Master.

It’s not the most original of monikers, but no one would ever say that to the man himself. Back in the Empire, titles are always valued far more than original names. I’m no different. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who’d refer to me as anything other than the Sanguine Princes.

But in his case, I feel like my father really missed the mark. Such a generic name is almost insulting for someone who reached the pinnacle of what was once considered voodoo. Unfortunately, broaching that topic would be far too insulting, so I’d never really be sure how the man in question felt about it.

As a member of the royal family, it was within my right to bring up, but there was no reason for me to antagonize him like that. My curiosity would have to remain unsated.

While I was having such pointless thoughts, sweat continued to pour down his face as he clutched the straw doll that he used as a medium to control the crowd. Controlling such a large amount must have been difficult, even for him.

“Puppet Master, are you holding up? It should only be a couple more minutes.”

“I will be fine. As long as you don’t need them to do anything complex, I can control this many, Your Highness.”

His tone was hardly respectful. Even the ‘Your Highness’ felt more like a sarcastic remark. Well, that’s the treatment I was expecting from someone who came from the capital.

It was annoying, but he was one of the people strong enough to earn the right to act so flippantly around royalty.

“Good. No one can learn that the crowd is made up of cheap homunculuses. I’ll need you to control them until the end.”

Unfortunately, the concert that I set up managed to draw more attention than I’d hoped. I’m not sure if that’s because people were drawn to see Olivia perform, or they were just interested in seeing why a section of the downtown area was blocked off. Either way, a sizable crowd had gathered outside of the venue. The security team I set up was making sure no real humans managed to slip inside the concert area, but once the carnage started, no small portion of them would start recording it.

On one hand, having so many witnesses would speed things up. The problem was that James’s control would have to be perfect. We wouldn’t be able to pick and choose what people saw. Every single one of the 1,500 puppets under his control would have to pass as normal civilians.

“That will not be a problem. Actually, getting a chance to control this many is an interesting experience. I can’t even imagine how much you’ve sunk into this whole thing, Your Highness.”

“Not as much as you’re imagining, I’m sure. There won’t be any autopsies, so they didn’t need to be completely anatomically correct. I just need them to look convincing while they are being torn apart.”

“I’m sure even that amount is far more than someone like me could imagine. I could only hope that after arranging such a performance that you’ll acquire something worth the trouble, Your Highness.”

“It’s not your position to worry about your betters. As long as you manage to do your job, you can return to the capital this evening and report my great success to the Emperor.”

“I’m looking forward to that, Your Highness. Although, if you would permit me a question, why go to this much work? I imagine such a gambit would be easier if you just used actual citizens.”

“Without a doubt. Using real victims would also mean we’d get a city full of grieving family members. Their anger would spur on even more passion in my favor. With my plan, people will be enraged by the principle of the affair, but no one will have any personal connection.”

“Then why? Calling me here wasn’t easy. I’m sure getting Prince Eren’s assistance must have been difficult, even for you, Your Highness.”

“Because setting up a massacre of thousands of innocent civilians wasn’t an option in the first place. Despite what you might hear about me and the territory I govern, I’m not a monster. The people of this city are soon to be my subjects, even if they don’t realize it. I’d never take an action that would harm them. That’s what makes me a ruler. I’m capable enough to sacrifice efficiency in order to acquire I what desire. Remember that the next time you think you understand enough to question my methods.”

I made sure to give an excuse that would make me look like a noble princess from the Empire. It wasn’t exactly true though. Even if they weren’t my subjects, even if they were my enemies, I don’t think I’d ever be able to stomach a mass killing on that scale. I can accept that sometimes I’ll need to eliminate those who would stand against me, but there will never be a reason to justify a crime of that magnitude.

As someone who was robbed of their very existence, I’d never rob an innocent person of something as important as their life. Those three students that were eliminated were a different story. They willingly took up arms against me. I still didn’t enjoy it, but even I couldn’t justify leniency in that situation.

Such a softhearted answer wouldn’t get you very far in the Empire though.

“Enough of that. Do you believe anyone outside of our circle has noticed your puppets aren’t real?”

James seemed annoyed that I was so concerned about this point, but I had no way of knowing what kind of augmentations the members of the crowd the concert was drawing had.

“It’s the same as before, your highness. Two people are aware. One is backstage, and the other is at the security booth.”

Oliver and Henry. I couldn’t fool Oliver’s ears or Henry’s nose, but I didn’t need to. Oliver was already aware of what was going to happen. As long as I could guarantee that no harm would come to Olivia, he wasn’t concerned. And Henry, well, he wasn’t exactly working for me. Still, he’d move exactly as I expected him to. The fact that he took a part time job as security staff without me forcing the issue at all proves that point.

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“Good.”

I took a few steps away from James to show him that our conversation was over and opened a call with Lucy.

“Lucy, how is the security holding up? Has anyone without a ticket managed to get inside the cordoned off area?”

I purposefully didn’t say anything that could be used against me should the call ever get leaked.

“No. I’m confident that everyone inside has a ticket.”

Perfect. If Lucy said that, it had to be true. There’s no way that she couldn’t smell a human mixed in with that crowd of homunculuses.

“Although there are some people backstage.”

I already knew as much, but that was fine. The staff helping Olivia prepare wouldn’t get involved. And for some reason, Olivia brought Emily Everet Evens backstage. I just can’t escape that girl. I know she was working with W, so I had all the reason in the world to kill her. I didn’t want to imagine Henry’s reaction if I did that though. I’m not sure if he even remembers her, but I’d rather not test it.

“And one more thing. Henry has been staring a hole through me. Obviously, he noticed me right away. After that run in we had the other day, I’m sure he doesn’t trust what I’m doing here at all.”

“That won’t be relevant. He can feel free to be as suspicious as he wants. Henry has been hired as security staff, he won’t let his personal feelings get in the way.”

“True. He’ll probably want a word with you after the concert is over though.”

I knew what she was suggesting. Henry had certainly already noticed the two corpses mixed in with the homunculus crowd. It came up a long time ago, but I’m sure he knows that I keep a necromancer employed.

Horace Hollis.

He’s not an aberration, but his augmentation is so unsettling that he found himself grouped in with us. After causing a scene at his local cemetery back in the empire, he was shipped off to the Northern Territories even before I was.

My arrival in the Northern Territories was a source of interest to many of those already living there, and he was one of the ones who came to offer me his services. I’m not sure if he wanted to fight the system, or he was just hopeful that I’d be a steady supply of fresh corpses for him to use.

Either way, I didn’t care. To this day, he has served me well. His accomplishments are never flashy enough to earn a title, but I’d consider his usefulness second to none.

“Horace, it’s almost time. Are they ready?”

“Oh, Boy! They’re just spiffy. My little fishies are just waiting for their chance to play.”

The third person in the high rise overlooking the concert answered me. Considering he was only controlling two corpses, he didn’t need to be present, but I wanted him close by in case something unexpected happened. With an operation this volatile, one wrong move would be the end of everything. If a stray ember were to burn Olivia’s little finger, Oliver would turn against his uncle and me. I’m sure he couldn’t completely ruin my plan, but he knew enough to make things incredibly difficult.

I also couldn’t discount the possibility that he’d manage to kill me outright. I don’t think he could, but only a fool would assume he didn’t have a chance.

Horace himself looked happy to be here. His little legs were kicking back and forth as he bounced around on the couch. Despite the fact that he’s certainly older than me, he looked like a kid on vacation. I know I get this a lot, but he definitely has some kind of curse that keeps him looking young.

And with the fact that I’m wearing a formal gown and James is wearing a suit; Horace’s choice of shorts, a short sleeve button up shirt, and a bright yellow bucket hat only makes him look like our child.

“But you want me to push their augmentations beyond the max. It’s sad, but they won’t get to swim for long.” Horace’s face was expressing a childish melancholy that shouldn’t be present on a necromancer's face.

“That’s fine. Just make sure you don’t have them hurt anyone, even by mistake. Feel free to give Henry a bit of a hard time, but don’t push it too much. Focus more on letting him get a photographic final hit in.”

“That guy. He’s lucky I don’t have my fishies just gobble him up.”

Before Horace could continue his complaints about Henry, Olivia took the stage.

“Now. Horace, it’s time.”

“Yippee!”

He jumped up on the couch and threw his hands into the air.

“They’re going to have so much fun down there.”

“Puppet Master?”

“It will be perfect, Your Highness.”

With nothing else to do, I moved toward the window and watched over the constructed carnage. I grabbed a tea cup and took a sip of the blood inside it.

The corpses of Grant and Kathrin were rampaging through the crowd. They were being controlled by Horace, and at the expense of their longevity, their augmentations were powered up beyond normal levels.

I considered using the body of Devesh Darnal as well, but his name lacked impact.

Henry was closest to Grant, and as expected, he rushed straight for him. I’m sure he was grumbling about his unlucky fate the whole time.

Grant, or maybe I should say Horace, noticed his approach and while he was still ten meters away, Grant swung his sword in a wide arc, separating Henry’s upper and lower body.

His upper half continued to fly through the air long enough to reach out and grab Grant’s neck. As his lower half reformed, he smashed Grant’s body into the ground, damaging it beyond Horace’s ability to control.

As Henry quickly went back and grabbed his pants, only pausing long enough to slip his legs in, I took a quick glance at Horace. The tears streaming down his face led me to believe that Henry actually ended things before Horace wanted to.

I wouldn’t admit it, but I felt the same way.

Didn’t that idiot Henry realize how difficult it was to prepare Grant’s body? When she killed him, Hana practically burnt every feature from his body. Didn’t she know how to hold back? If it wasn’t for the fact that I needed the corpse to have his augmentation, it would have been easier to just use a different body.

On a more important note, it also meant that more of the homunculus crowd would ‘survive’ than I intended, but it wouldn’t affect things too much. As long as James kept solid control over them, we’d be fine. Most of the people gathered outside of the venue had already started running for their lives. Soon, the MID would have the entire area locked down. At that point it didn’t matter what happened. I trusted that Kalder would be able to keep any prying eyes away.

An explosion coming from the stage pulled me back to reality. Before I could react, I was greeted with the sight of Olivia flying through the air, launching around in seemingly random directions before ultimately crashing straight through Kathrin’s corpse.

Kathrin’s head was completely destroyed, but Olivia wasn’t looking much better.

For the first time in my life, I dropped my tea cup. Before it had a chance to hit the ground I had already shattered the window with a kick and jumped out.

As I was falling, I quickly went over my options. I either had to attempt to kill Oliver before he got a solid grasp on the situation, or I had to try and save Olivia.

No, just saving her wouldn’t be enough. Her body appeared to be damaged beyond what Oliver would ever accept, even if she was technically alive. I would need to restore her completely.

I had to decide before I reached the ground. Once I picked an option, there wouldn’t be time to second guess myself. I couldn’t go back and fix things.

Two cuts in my back opened up as wings of blood shot out, spreading wide and slowing my descent.

I hit the ground with more force than I intended, breaking both legs. I couldn’t regenerate as fast as Henry, so I used my arms and broken legs to launch myself forward until my legs were healthy enough to support my weight.

I’m sure I looked less dignified than ever before. After this was over I’d need to go back and make sure no footage of that scene existed.

As I started running, I knew it had to make a decision.

“Alright, time’s up.”