Chapter 54: Look, That’s Just a Puppet
Someone?
No, not a person.
Sylvia instantly made the judgment, a brilliant starlight flashing across her eyes so that her vision would not be obstructed by anything.
However, that trace of starlight was particularly conspicuous in the surrounding darkness, immediately drawing Isabella’s attention.
The blonde girl, who had been pondering how to answer the other’s question, was momentarily startled. Then, with some confusion, she asked,
"What happened, Your Highness?"
Sylvia withdrew her gaze and replied with a smile in her voice,
"Mm... do you remember that 'teaching aid' I brought last time?"
"Teaching aid?"
In the darkness, a trace of bewilderment crossed Isabella’s face.
Seeing that the other had not caught on, Sylvia added,
"The shadow that provided us with one of the materials for the Puppeteer extraordinary ritual."
"Oh!"
Realizing what she meant, Isabella sat up,
"A border demon?"
"Yes."
Sylvia nodded, then stood up, walked to the window, and casually drew the curtains open.
Bathed in the bright moonlight, she raised her hand and pointed outside,
"There. A border demon has crossed the boundary of the world and entered reality."
Hearing this, Isabella immediately grew interested. She hurried to the window, peering through the glass at her own garden.
At that moment, on the stone-paved path, a strange figure was transitioning from illusion to reality just a little more, and it would succeed.
"It seems different from the one we saw last time?"
Seeing the monster that clearly had a physical form, Isabella tilted her head.
Hearing the question, Sylvia nodded,
"Mm, that’s right."
"The major Churches have only named and classified the spiritual materials left behind after a border demon’s death, but have never named or classified the border demons themselves precisely for this reason—"
"Border demons have too many external traits, and new types appear from time to time."
"This is because the extraordinary power from the Spiritual Realm merges with the memories or rules of the Manifest Realm, creating all sorts of strange variations."
Sylvia, who had recently been brushing up on this world’s occult knowledge, explained leisurely.
At this moment, the figure of the border demon fully solidified, its appearance now fully revealed under the moonlight:
It was a humanoid monster about two meters tall, dressed in brightly colored servant attire.
At the same time, dark brown branches and dark green thorns coiled around its body.
In addition, it held a large pair of scissors in its hands.
"Mm... it seems that either someone from your household, or from a nearby house, had a gardener who became resentful and full of grievance toward their work."
Watching the monster gradually straighten its back, Sylvia casually remarked.
Hearing this, Isabella mumbled softly,
"It shouldn’t be from our house. We treat our servants very well."
At these words, Sylvia laughed,
"Grievance at work isn’t only about whether the treatment is good or bad it also depends on whether one has passion for the work."
"Of course, if the pay is high enough, even hatred can turn into passion."
After this playful comment, the Puppet girl’s deep purple eyes turned back to the window. In her right eye which was visibly darker and murkier a glimmer seemed to flash.
At the same time, she continued speaking,
"Don’t think of its appearance as some kind of stage performance."
"The only reason you can stand here so calmly watching it cross the boundary of the world is because I’m here."
"If I weren’t here right now, and if the patrolling Knights nearby failed to detect its arrival in time, then everyone in this house would be dead."
"Remember if you encounter such a situation without protection, and before it fully descends into reality run. As far away as possible."
At this moment, her voice was unusually stern, without a trace of the previous leisure.
Hearing this, Isabella also wiped away the curiosity that had been on her face moments ago and nodded heavily.
Yet in the very next second, her stern expression instantly returned to its earlier look the shift so quick it almost seemed as if her expression had never changed at all.
Under Sylvia’s deeply complicated gaze, she asked curiously,
"What extraordinary abilities does this border demon have?"
"Which Path’s abilities would it resemble?"
Hearing these two questions, and watching the stiffly moving gardener monster turn around, Sylvia responded,
"I won’t know its specific extraordinary abilities until it uses them."
"And this also answers your second question:"
"Border demons do not perfectly align with the thirty-two Extraordinary Paths."
"Like most extraordinary creatures, while their extraordinary power is stable, its structure is entirely random."
Isabella nodded thoughtfully, while Sylvia, watching the monster that had now turned to face the house, also prepared to act.
However, just at that moment before she actually made a move against the border demon the creature, whose movements had just become fluid, suddenly stiffened again.
A flash of light flickered in Sylvia’s right eye, and her poised attack was instantly halted. Instead, she looked out the window with interest, her gaze falling upon the monster.
At this moment, in her vision, countless nearly invisible, hair-thin threads almost blending into the night were stretched taut around the border demon’s limbs, binding its movements.
These threads extended upward at an angle and gradually converged.
"Mm... that direction is... the rooftop, the rooftop of the house next door."
Sylvia’s lips curled into a smile as she spoke leisurely. But standing beside her, Isabella looked utterly confused,
"Hm? What is it, Your Highness?"
Seeing this, Sylvia smiled again, then raised her hand to point toward the rooftop on the right, casually explaining,
"I hadn’t noticed earlier there’s another extraordinary individual nearby. And a rather high-level one at that."
"Look over there."
As her words fell, Isabella shifted her gaze from the monster now resembling a rusted-joint puppet to the direction Sylvia indicated.
Without night vision, she relied on the fairly bright moonlight and saw two black silhouettes atop the neighboring rooftop.
"This..."
She opened her mouth, utterly surprised to discover that there were extraordinary beings protecting the area around her home.
But... there were clearly two figures. Why had Her Highness said there was only one?
As though reading her thoughts, Sylvia lowered her hand and shook her head,
"That is one person. No only one of them is a person."
"And that person is not here to protect you."
"She... is merely passing by."
As she said this, her expression grew increasingly strange, as though she were holding back a laugh.
"Hm?"
At this, Isabella also noticed her Highness’s odd expression and let out a questioning sound.
In response, Sylvia did not hide the truth and spoke directly,
"Do you remember the explosion from a week ago?"
The blonde girl nodded.
"She should be the culprit behind that."
"To my knowledge, there is only one Puppeteer in the City of Alova right now."
Just then, one of the figures leapt down from the neighboring rooftop, "breaking" into Isabella’s garden.
Bathed in the moonlight streaming over the open ground, the blonde girl saw that the figure’s exposed skin was marked with joint after joint!
As her eyes widened in astonishment, Sylvia spoke leisurely,
"See? Only one person, after all."
"After all, the one that just jumped down... is only a Puppet."