Chengzhong Dino twitched her index finger.
Screech—
The white silk threads wrapped around the Count's right arm instantly tightened to their limit.
Like a knife through soft butter, they followed the muscular contours of the Count's arm, smoothly and with extreme precision, shaving off a slice of flesh as thin as a cicada's wing.
Vampires could block physical pain, but what the Count felt at this moment was far beyond the physical realm.
The slice of flesh tumbled in mid-air and dissolved into a wisp of blue smoke.
A sliver of his soul had been scraped away.
“Aaahhhhhhh—”
A scream erupted, sounding barely human.
“Tell me,” Dino said softly.
“I really don't know! Let me go!” the Count struggled, his mind already blurred by the intense agony.
“Then make something up,” Chengzhong Dino replied.
“I really don't know, stop asking me... I don't know anything. I don't even know where that thing came from...”
Chengzhong Dino said no more.
The threads vibrated.
One slice, two slices, ten slices, a hundred slices...
They fluttered in the air like a swarm of butterflies.
Sophie clicked her tongue inwardly.
Dino's personality had been like this since Hiso first met her.
She was the gentlest, most considerate sister.
And also the most dangerous “landmine” of a sister.
Even now, that hadn't changed much.
After all, to her...
Playing along is more precious than the truth.
...
New Calendar year 144, the Puppet Theater.
Two puppets, suspended by strings, danced clumsily on stage, performing a play.
As the final curtain fell, sparse applause echoed through the theater.
There weren't many patrons.
On stage, Chengzhong Dino merely gave a cold bow before turning to leave.
Hiso sat down next to an old man and asked, “Old-timer, what's the story here?”
Although the system's quest already outlined the first step, Hiso intended to learn the background details from the NPCs first.
“Sigh, it's a long story.” The old man shook his head, about to adopt a storyteller's posture for the young man, but then he caught a glimpse of Hiso's face.
“Oh my, you look so...”
A red glow lit up in the young man's eyes.
“Young man, you've got a nice build.”
A moment later, with the words 【Charmed】 floating above his head and hearts in his eyes, the old man began his tale.
Ming City was a gathering place for those who held the Puppeteer inheritance.
The strongest Puppeteer would be granted the title of Puppet King.
Wealth, status, glory.
Whoever held that title would receive the finest treatment regardless of which corner of the Red Moon Empire they visited.
People constantly fought over the title of Puppet King and the secrets behind it.
“It's a pity. The Chenzhong family was clearly the one with the most potential to produce the next Puppet King,” the old man said, swaying his head. “But there's no hope for that now.”
“Why? That girl seems very talented. She's so skilled despite her young age,” Hiso said, swatting away the old man's hand as it tried to sneak toward his thigh to feel him up.
“No matter how skilled she is, it's useless.”
“Because the Chenzhong family's Puppeteer inheritance requires two people to use it together.”
It was an inheritance that could only be wielded by a brother and sister who shared a perfect mental connection.
The brother would control the lead puppet, while the sister controlled the supporting puppet. Though their strings would intertwine, they never tangled. The joys and sorrows portrayed by the puppets required two people who were perfectly in sync yet fundamentally different.
It was a powerful legacy.
The ancestor of the Chenzhong family, who first obtained this inheritance, had also added a blessing to their bloodline through a ritual.
Every generation of the family would produce, and produce only, a pair of gifted fraternal twins, free from any genetic defects common to inbreeding.
Chengzhong Dino was supposed to have an elder brother.
Supposed to.
The eldest son would learn the lead role, and the second daughter would learn the supporting role. The siblings would take the stage as partners and train as partners.
Every play and every cultivation method of the family was written for a sibling duo.
When Chengzhong Dino's mother was pregnant, her grandfather had already begun crafting two small puppets—hand-sized figures made of paulownia wood, dressed in theatrical costumes.
The grandfather worked on them for ten months, staying up late every single night.
But on the day the two children were born, only one survived.
“Some say the girl was born under a curse and killed her brother in the womb.”
“Others say the boy of the Chenzhong family was cursed to death by the current Puppet King because he was too much of a threat.”
The old man sighed.
...
“I'm back,” Chengzhong Dino said.
“How was it? You didn't hold your brother back, did you?” her father asked.
“Of course not. I was very good, right, Brother?” Chengzhong Dino pouted.
“Alright, let the children rest,” her mother smiled. “It's time for dinner.”
The spacious oak dining table was wiped spotlessly clean.
It was a sumptuous dinner. Golden roasted poultry, rich mushroom soup, and soft bread fresh from the oven, still steaming.
The father sat at the head of the table, with the mother beside him.
Across from them, place settings were laid out.
Chengzhong Dino sat in a chair on one side, her legs dangling, unable to reach the floor.
Beside her was another empty chair.
In front of that chair, a set of gold-rimmed bone china plates was neatly arranged, along with a pair of polished silver cutlery and a goblet filled halfway with red grape juice.
“Eat more. Practicing the inheritance takes a lot of energy.”
The mother used a serving spoon to scoop a large portion of fragrant mushroom soup, reaching across half the table to steadily pour it into the empty bone china plate.
“Your sister was a bit slow in her studies today; you need to help her more.” The father sliced a piece of the tenderest poultry meat and placed it in front of the empty chair.
“Yes,” the mother said, looking at the empty chair. “You are the elder brother; you must carry the responsibility of the firstborn. Dino has been hardworking since she was little. You need to look out for her and teach her more about the lead string techniques. Do you understand?”
There was no response in the air.
“Good. That's the spirit. Eat more meat so you can grow big and strong.” The mother nodded with satisfaction.
Chengzhong Dino cut the food on her plate into small pieces and stuffed them into her mouth.
Chew, swallow.
Four people had always lived in this house.
Father, Mother, herself, and an invisible, inaudible, intangible brother.
The firstborn handled the lead, and the second daughter handled the support. This was the ironclad rule the Chenzhong family had followed for centuries.
The inheritance was just like that; it required two people.
It was through this inheritance that the Chenzhong family possessed the wealth and status befitting Transcenders.
And because every generation consisted of a brother and sister, the family's bloodline could be passed down purely.
Now.
The Chenzhong family's inheritance was about to be severed.
Strength, reputation, status, pure bloodline, and the hope of reaching the rank of Puppet Master.
All of it was going to vanish.
The entire family was grieving, and as such, this was how they processed and eased their sorrow.
Puppeteers were naturally skilled at acting, and drama itself was a story built upon countless lies.
No one would be so tactless as to jump up in the theater and shout, “No, this is fake!”
If everyone was committed to the performance, then it didn't matter if it was a lie.
...
Chengzhong Dino lay in bed, curled up in her blankets, staring blankly at the ceiling.
She had actually known for a long time that her brother was dead.
After all, her family always told her that her brother had simply gone on a journey to travel the world, and that once she finished learning her part, he would return.
But even after Chengzhong Dino had mastered her brother's part of the inheritance as well...
The brother who had gone traveling still hadn't returned.
If only I could find a way to play both roles myself, Chengzhong Dino thought silently.
Although marrying an outsider would result in an impure bloodline and cause the blessing to fail, she could at least ensure that the inheritance continued for her generation. Once she earned the title of Puppet King, it wouldn't be difficult to obtain another blessing through her connections and resources.
She had talent.
But no matter how much talent she had, Chengzhong Dino couldn't conjure a brother out of thin air.
She couldn't even imagine what a brother should be like.
Chengzhong Dino fell into a heavy sleep.
The next day, she heard the sound of an argument at the door.
Chengzhong Dino was jolted awake by the fierce shouting in the front courtyard.
She didn't put on shoes, stepping barefoot onto the cold wooden hallway as she noiselessly approached the sliding door of the living room.
Through the crack in the door, she saw several familiar faces.
They were relatives from the collateral branches of the Chenzhong family.
Inheritance was closely tied to bloodline. To maintain the blessing that could produce the peerless puppeteer twins, the main branch had established a rule against marrying outside the clan.
The members of the collateral branches, however, had children with outsiders, and their bloodlines were no longer pure. That enviable blessing had long since vanished for them.
Without the constraints of the blessing, the collateral branches were not limited in their reproduction, and their numbers naturally grew large over time.
And now, this group of people had blocked the main house's living room, their greed unconcealed.
Now that the main branch's lineage was severed, the inheritance should be handed over.
This was the reasoning being loudly proclaimed by the leader chosen by the collateral branches, a tall, thin man wearing a dark brown kimono.
Chengzhong Dino recognized that face.
He was a mean-spirited relative.
When Chengzhong Dino was younger, she had curiously stopped this man, who occasionally visited the main house.
“Uncle, where did Brother go on his travels? When is he coming back to teach me how to pull the strings?”
As a young child, she had looked up at him with pure curiosity in her eyes.
Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother.
Everyone's answer was different.
They were all thrilling, long, and interesting stories.
The tall, thin man stopped and looked down at her.
His gaze was filled with impatience and hidden jealousy.
“I don't know! Don't ask me!”
Young Chengzhong Dino froze on the spot.
Seemingly triggered by a sadistic urge, the man turned back and added something in an extremely vicious tone.
Those words were so sharp and painful that Dino's mind had activated a self-protection mechanism, instinctively sealing and forgetting that part of the memory entirely.
After that incident, her parents had been furious and had directly kicked out all the relatives who had been living under the main house's protection.
But that event had left an unhealable wound in Chengzhong Dino's heart.
In the world of Puppeteers, everyone was playing their own role.
Playing along is more precious than the truth.
Because the fact that the other party is willing to perform, willing to complete the play...
At the very least, it shows that they care about you in some way, that they keep you in their heart.
Lying takes effort. You have to think, you have to invent, you have to remember what you said.
A person's willingness to spend that effort is a baseline level of respect.
And if they refuse, if they refuse point-blank...
It means—
You aren't even worth the effort of a single line of acting.
They won't even spend the energy to maintain a facade.
That was the world of the Puppeteers.
Now, that mean-spirited man was back.
Leading a grand procession of collateral branch members, he stood once again in the main house's living room.
“Who do you think you're still fooling? Huh?”
The tall, thin man pointed at the dining table at the end of the living room, which was set with three sets of bowls and chopsticks, spit flying from his mouth.
“There is no son! What kind of house-playing game are you people in!”
The man's voice was thunderous, causing dust to shake down from the ceiling.
“That blessing of yours broke long ago! That so-called brother didn't even live to see his first full month before he died. What right do you have to still occupy this mansion? What right do you have to keep holding onto the family's secret grimoires?”
The father's face turned ashen, and the mother covered her face, sobbing quietly.
“You just want to sell the inheritance,” the father roared.
“So what?” the relative said impatiently. “We can't learn this inheritance anyway; we might as well sell it for a good price.”
“Besides, it's not like your single-daughter family can learn this inheritance now.”
I can do it. My talent is super, incredibly good. As long as I can understand what a brother is supposed to be like, I can master this inheritance alone.
Chengzhong Dino hid behind the door, her small hands clutching the wooden grain of the doorframe tightly.
But she couldn't say those words.
Even if she did, her parents would immediately act out a scene of amazement and joy.
Even if Chengzhong Dino said she was already the Puppet King, her family wouldn't debunk it; they would immediately buy a cake to celebrate together.
This, too, was part of practicing the 【Inheritance】.
This was Chengzhong Dino's family.
A family that was always gentle, always performing a play.
However, now, those carefully woven threads used to protect a broken family were being brutally torn apart by the cold reality of profit.
It hurt.
Having the truth bluntly exposed was so painful.
Pain showed on her parents' faces, and her own heart felt hollow, as if a hole had been punched through it.
Agony, pure agony.
The father's expression was one of sheer suffering.
Indeed, at this point, there was no difference between the main branch and the collateral branches anymore.
And so...
“Hey, hey, what are you all doing standing at my front door?”
A gentle voice suddenly rang out.
The relatives turned back in bewilderment, only to be startled by the ugly fellow who had appeared.
“You... you're so ugly...”
“According to the Castle Doctrine, you're trespassing.”
The newcomer spoke lazily. He was incredibly strong, and one by one, he tossed the relatives—some of whom were Transcenders—out of the house.
“Don't come back and disturb my family again,”
He told them fiercely.
The relatives couldn't stand being near this ugly guy and were all scared away.
“Dad, Mom, I'm back,” he said to the parents.
Then he peeked toward her, where she was hiding behind the door.
“Oh, if it isn't my cute little sister?”
What entered her vision was a handsome young man who looked only slightly older than herself.
He rubbed her head.
Actually, his acting was terrible—under this roof full of master actors, everyone could see the nervousness and lack of confidence in his eyes.
However, also under this roof...
“Ah, Son, you're finally back. By the way, my name is Chenzhong Ze,” the father said.
What kind of son would need his father to introduce himself?
“Mom missed you so much,” the mother said, wiping her tears. “I'm Chenzhong Saori, you probably don't remember.”
What kind of son would need his mother to introduce herself?
“I...” Chengzhong Dino walked out hesitantly. “My name is Chengzhong Dino.”
“Right. My name is Hiso,” the man said, still sounding a bit unfamiliar with the name.
He didn't even have the same surname.
But under this roof, none of that mattered.
“Brother... no, Elder Brother.” Chengzhong Dino stepped forward and threw herself into Hiso's arms. “Elder Brother, I missed you so much.”
A brother didn't exist.
But now, she had a brother who did.
After all.
Playing along is always more precious than the truth.
...
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