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Iena appeared wearing a uniform, but keeping track of who was who was starting to get annoying. So, I turned to the person with the most magic power and asked, 「Could you please step forward?」
The one who appeared looked just like a doll. What should have been an expressionless face somehow conveyed either sadness or joy, depending on one’s interpretation.
Her light blonde hair had an almost artificial silkiness, and her skin was far too pale to belong to a human.

Yet she undoubtedly moved, and her bluish eyes stared straight at me.

By the time I noticed, Iena and the three others had collapsed to the floor like puppets with their strings cut, and their magic power converged within the girl.

「Right. I knew it was pointless to keep up the farce in front of you—no, you two.」

She spoke with a high-pitched, girlish voice. You two, huh.
If she isn’t who I think she is, we might have no choice but to permanently silence her.

「Pleased to meet you. Would I be correct in assuming you to be Iena’s creator? But you seem to be a puppet like her.」
「That’s right. On the other hand, your circumstance seems similar to mine; am I wrong?」
「I can’t deny that… but I also find it difficult to readily agree.」
「Of course. After all, we are one, while you are two.」

We exchanged light verbal jabs, but since we didn’t really come here to pick a fight, I decided to move to the heart of the matter.

「You’re Mistress Fiiyanamia’s—Mother Fii’s acquaintance, correct?」
「You call Fiiya your mother, eh? I see, quite a delightful being you are.
That’s right. My name is Munyechka. I go by a different name here in the academy, but it seems I can tell you my true one.」
「Allow me to return the courtesy. Our name is Ailneige, but I am Ainsel.」
「Ainsel… the A-rank hunter who recently appeared, was it?」
「It’s an honor to meet a veteran S-rank hunter.」
「That doesn’t sound very convincing coming from someone clearly capable of being S-rank, yet lingers at A-rank.」
『Ain, what’s going on?』
「Sorry, if I may be excused for a moment.」
「…Hm? Oh, feel free. How very intriguing.」

With Munyechka’s permission, I decided to explain Ciel the situation, as she couldn’t follow the conversation.
Munyechka appeared to be smiling and her expression was far more natural than what any puppet should be capable of.

『She’s an S-rank hunter and an acquaintance of Mother Fii’s. The reason Mother Fii endorsed Puppet Sorcery was likely because she knew about her.』
『I see. Then could she have been the previous guest?』
『That’s what I believe. I don’t know when they met, but judging from her appearance, she likely doesn’t look her actual age.』
『If she did, she’d be as young as the students here.』
『Will that be enough for now?』
『Yeah, thank you, Ain.』

While this explanation was incomplete, it should be enough for Ciel to follow along.
This person was the one mentioned in the princess’ rumor and a person Mother previously alluded to.

「Thank you for waiting. In the meantime, would it be alright if we enrolled in the Puppet Sorcery course?」
「I can’t just turn you away on my own, you know? Feel free, if you’d like.」
「The one who wants to attend isn’t me, though. It’s the other one.」
「The original owner of that body, I assume? I don’t mind either way, though I can’t say for certain how much help I’ll be.」
「Just holding a normal class should be enough, in my opinion… Will the lectures be taught by the previous one?」
「You mean Semiette? She was made for that purpose, yes, but she probably won’t get the chance.」

Apparently, Munyechka had not only planted puppets as students in the academy but even arranged for one to serve as a teacher. Honestly, that’s likely something only she could pull off.
At the same time, it’s probably how she became aware of Ciel’s presence.

「So you’re a student too, Ms. Munyechka?」
「One year above you. It’s better to be younger, after all.」
「Then that would make you younger than Ms. Iena as well.」
「You already know that much about Iena… I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You are Fiiya’s daughter.」
「It’s only by chance. Personally, we’d rather be left alone…」
「With your looks? Impossible. You’re far too beautiful, after all.」

As expected, it’d be difficult with Ciel’s appearance. I thought I caught a glint in Munyechka’s eye, but I’ll just pretend not to notice it.
Come to think of it, I had a conversation about her with the princess… Is that alright? It’s been bothering me, so I decided to ask.

「When I was investigating Iena, I enlisted the help of Princess Leshimiiya, and we ended up sharing information. Will that be a problem?」
「How much does she know?」
「That Iena might be connected to the high-ranked hunter rumored to be on a covert assignment at the academy. That’s you, isn’t it, Ms. Munyechka?」
「Oh, I did take that request. I completely forgot.
That much isn’t an issue. Iena normally keeps her distance from here, and she’s at least capable of using detection.」

At least, she says. I consider detection to be fairly advanced sorcery. If Iena can use it, then Semiette and the other puppets likely can as well. While I estimated Iena’s magical capacity to be around a tenth of Ciel’s, even that much, depending on the application, should be enough to reach A-rank as a hunter. Now, the question is: how many puppets can she operate in total?

I already knew it, but S-rank hunters really are on a different level. As I mulled this over, Munyechka clapped her hands as if something had come to mind.

「Incidentally, since you managed to find me, would you like the merits?」
「Not particularly. We don’t really need to graduate.」
「I figured as much. Honestly, I can’t even guess why you two enrolled in the first place.」
「To gain life experience.」
「…I see. Mostly for the other one, I imagine?」
「That’s right.」
「By the way, what is that child’s name?」
「Please ask her in person.」
「Fair enough.」
「Well then, we’ll be heading off now. I’m sure we’ll have more chances to speak again.」
「Whoops, that turned into a long chat. It’s been a while since I talked like this as Munyechka. I had a lot of fun.」

Watching Munyechka’s delighted smile, I was once again struck by how vividly expressive she was, far from what you could imagine coming from a puppet.

And that ends this chapter! We finally get our introduction to Munyechka from the chapter title! Yay! Btw, in the RAWs, Ain refers to her as Munyechka-senpai.

We are introduced to Munyechka, an S-rank hunter and a previous “guest” of Central. Considering her detection being polished enough to detect our girls sharing one body, it’s not hard to imagine her being able to sense Fii’s magic detection network all over Central. Not only that, each individual puppet of hers seem to be capable of doing the same, and she can puppet at least 5 people at a time. Also, I like how, from Ain’s description, “uncanny valley”-ish the “main body” is. Like, Ain didn’t mention anything weird with Iena and Semiette, the teacher puppet, but she expressly mused about how unnaturally silky her hair is and how neutral her expression was. Honestly, if I could make and possess different dolls/clones of myself, I’d chose to make my main body the weird /ideal one too.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay healthy, stay safe, and have a nice day~!

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