LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

Lady Boianca wandered around curiously in this place filled with students, where the atmosphere was harmonious and peaceful.

The afternoon sunlight was incredibly warm, and Lady Boianca occasionally conversed with students who passed by her in this place.

The students were very talkative, their sometimes humorous wit always made Lady Boianca smile from the bottom of her heart.

Some innocent children with eyes full of longing for the future—under the gaze of such eyes, even those with the coldest hearts might reveal some tenderness.

There were many people here, and while life inside the castle was peaceful, life here was actually rather lively.

She didn't particularly like noise, but here, perhaps it wasn't so bad?

At this moment, Don was directing his Traveler marionette to move his family's packed belongings from the castle to the school.

Calligraphy and paintings, gold, jewelry, miscellaneous weapons, flowers his father had planted for his mother—Don packed them one by one, having the Traveler marionette bring them back to the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw.

With Amon and unknown parasites appearing in his territory, the real world was no longer safe.

That parasite might find its way to his side, and if he wasn't careful and it parasitized someone important to him, that would be more than just trouble.

Therefore, Don simply brought his mother into the theater.

It was impossible for a parasite to silently penetrate through the combined blockade of the Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker within the theater, along with the fusion of Darkness pathway power and System powers, right?

As for the things in this castle that were worth cherishing, nostalgic, and had commemorative value, he would also replace them one by one, bringing them all into the theater. After all, the theater came with supernatural abilities, and building structures was a matter of minutes—recreating a one-to-one replica of the castle there wouldn't be difficult.

He planned to use this place as a trap for wrong choices.

He had his marionettes bury some 'good stuff' in this castle that could provide a full ascending experience, and although he felt somewhat regretful about this old home that had accompanied him through all his time since birth in this world, the approaching danger still reminded him and his mother.

Being cautious was the priority at this time.

Subsequently, Don looked toward 'Baron Lamud'.

The Theater With Curtains That Never Draw—the appearance of this Sealed Artifact was truly equivalent to a huge treasure.

Don silently sighed with emotion, then threw out two more Faceless marionettes controlled by the theater core.

After returning the 'Baron Lamud' marionette from the 'A Moment of Luck Sealed Artifact to the theater core for operation (the Marionettist's Spirit Body Threads had limited operating distance), having them play a loving family, Don then prayed to the theater through the Ring of the Curator for a miracle to interfere with divination and prophecy directions before finally leaving the castle.

As for the servants and others, Don also planned to gradually dismiss them and have marionettes come in to completely replace them all.

Marionettes really were a good thing, he silently sighed with emotion.

Inside the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw.

The entire school was divided into three parts, separated by countless curtains folded and twisted, isolated by barriers formed by the Miracle Invoker's extraordinary power distortion, accessible between the three only through special methods.

Don stood in the outermost surface campus area, where the blue-black gate prominently bore the word 'Miskatonic' written in ancient Hermes.

Magnificent ancient buildings were arranged in orderly fashion throughout the campus grounds of enormous area, with students bustling about, not finding it surprising to see Don suddenly appear.

"Headmaster."

"Headmaster."

Students going in and out enthusiastically greeted Don when they saw him.

Don didn't respond; the Ring of the Curator on his little finger flickered slightly.

His figure disappeared from the surface campus gate, entering the deeper inner campus area.

The same campus, the same buildings, though these buildings had subtle changes, but without careful observation, nothing could be seen at all.

There were also quite a few people here, but their conversation topics had changed from 'what to eat today' in the previous place to 'today's divination failed again'.

In Don's plan, the surface campus would be used to recruit normal students, where subjects like mathematics, linguistics, history, and other knowledge not involving mysticism would be taught.

The inner campus would be used to recruit Beyonders.

Alchemy, divination, star observation, Giant language, Dragon language and other ancient languages, acting method and explanations of various extraordinary creatures—all knowledge involving the extraordinary domain would be gathered here.

And students from the surface campus would naturally have opportunities to encounter the mysterious and the extraordinary—this was part of his plan from the beginning.

After all, these were all marionettes anyway, and even after recruitment, the vast majority of new students would stay in the surface campus for a very long time.

As for what the situation would be like then, adjustments would have to be made after actually recruiting new students.

He had divided the entire school into three parts—the surface and inner campus areas corresponding to ordinary people and Beyonders, and the final campus area—

Finally, there was the deepest and most dangerous place.

That was a pitch-black world.

A black sun and a pure white moon rose from the south. The massive campus built of bluish-black stone bricks seemed corroded over millennia. Stones cracked, sprouting bouquets covered in eyes. Unnamed grey-brown vines crawled across the ground. Slender Man-like shadows patrolled the teaching buildings. Decaying dormitories echoed with disjointed footsteps. A pair of blood-stained embroidered shoes, unworn, stepped forward, one up, one down.

Paper figurines conducting funerals for the dead, drowned living corpses lying in pitch-black coffins, meeting brides who had died violently at their weddings despite their joyful union.

In that distant place full of dark clouds, taller monsters like telephone poles emitted sizzling sounds from their trumpet-shaped heads, twisted and distorted eerie figures appeared one after another in the barren weeds, and further away, a huge pyramid tomb stood inverted...

This was the 'Paradise Lost' that Don had prepared for digesting his potion after advancing to Marionettist, formed by the mental pollution created by out-of-control monsters and various things mixed together—the Crimson Campus.

Tearing away the peaceful and calm veil before ordinary people, making intruders and students with disguised identities and unclear motives face their deepest fears directly.

Though it wasn't needed right now, using it to entertain that parasite? That wasn't impossible either, though he feared the parasite wouldn't get the point of the embroidered shoes.

Hmm, speaking of which, the theater's accumulated miracles really weren't many anymore.

There should still be enough to create a few more buildings.

After all, it was a sponge—squeeze it and there's always a little bit left... But the project for mass-producing miracles needed to go online; this definitely required harvesting a wave of leeks.

"By the way, System, Buddy" Don added "go educate the Theater Core some more on the historical stories behind things like the red wedding dress and the Slender Man."

Let's see if we can scare this Sealed Artifact to death—then his Marionettist potion would be maxed out, and he wouldn't need to act like Amon anymore, graduating directly to Sequence 4.

[Roger that.]

The system's electronic voice sounded even more sinister when telling ghost stories.

Theater Core: :)

Are you polite? I ask you, are. you. po-lite?

(End of Chapter)