Chapter 62: The Willing Fish Takes the Bait

Looking at the small doll in front of her, Audrey remembered things from her childhood.

That was ten years ago, shortly after she first went on stage and developed social anxiety disorder. That could be considered the darkest stage of her life. During those days, she had been hiding at home, and except for her two mothers and sister, she refused to meet or communicate with anyone.

It was also during that time that her Second Aunt, Noerose, happened to visit her home and showed her the possibilities of puppet dolls.

Audrey remembered very clearly that it was a sunny day. It was bright outside, but she had the doors and windows tightly closed, curtains drawn, and was hiding alone in the dark room, shivering.

At that time, even when she was alone, she could still feel the hallucination of being watched by countless gazes. She always felt that in the corners around her, under the bed, and in various crevices, there seemed to be eyes opening. They were all watching her with greedy gazes, and it seemed that as long as she relaxed, she would be eaten clean by these monsters.

At that time, she was still young and couldn't do anything. The only thing she could do was curl up in her beloved little quilt, fantasizing that the angel-down quilt was an invincible defensive barrier that could isolate those annoying gazes.

It's just a pity that the invincibility of the quilt was only a fantasy. This psychological barrier was eventually broken. When she realized that a foreign object had crawled into her quilt, little Audrey screamed and jumped off the bed. Having already possessed tens of thousands of mana at that time, she exploded, and the violent surge of mana directly flipped the entire room, exposing the foreign object that had invaded her bed.

It was a small spider-lady doll.

Hmm, that is, the kind of monster where the upper body is a beautiful woman, but the lower body is a hideous spider.

"Oh, sorry for scaring you. I just wanted to play a joke on you. Let me introduce myself. I am the cousin of your paternal mother, Noerose. You can call me Second Aunt."

That small puppet was slapped against the wall by the mana, and after sliding down the wall to the ground, it got up shakily and introduced itself to Audrey like that.

This was also her first meeting with her Second Aunt.

The root of Audrey's social anxiety was the overly greedy gazes of the audience when they looked at her. Those gazes contained all kinds of naked desires.

If this were someone with less obvious emotional perception, they might think nothing of it, but Audrey happened to inherit part of the succubus's abilities, and there was no need to say how keen demons were to the perception of desire.

Perhaps the desires contained in those gazes were just fantasies in the audience's minds. People all said that fantasy was not a crime; as long as one didn't take real action, just thinking about it in one's head wasn't a fault.

You see a beauty on the road, and from the first moment you see her, you've even thought of the name of your future child, but in the end, you are still too cowardly to go up and talk to her. Then the fantasies in your head have no meaning at all, and the beauty you fantasized about will never know that she just got married and had children with someone in another timeline.

Normally, this is indeed the case, but for Audrey, it was not so.

The succubus's core talent is called Source of Desire (SSR). This is an ability that can perceive and read all desires generated toward oneself.

Relying on this ability, in the eyes of a succubus, the prey's XP is crystal clear. They can instantly see through whether the prey in front of them is an older-sister-con or a loli-con, a big-chest party or a flat-chest party, likes black silk or white silk, etc., and then adjust their hunting posture accordingly based on this information.

Therefore, this is why there is a legend that succubi can always appear in the form people like the most.

Audrey didn't know whether it was lucky or unfortunate that she inherited this talent from her paternal mother. Therefore, the desires contained in the gazes of those audience members were clearly a series of movies with herself as the protagonist in her perception. As for how nasty the content of these movies was, there was no need to say more.

A true succubus might dismiss those dirty desires and instead feel happy, thinking this is a manifestation of her charm, but Audrey was just a witch; she didn't have the succubus's promiscuous nature.

As a disaster-class race evolved from humans, witches might have surpassed humans by countless versions in power and talent, but in the spiritual realm, they hadn't actually progressed much.

Naturally, Audrey, who had seen the ugliness of the world at a young age, couldn't hold on in the end, and the problems of social anxiety and self-isolation were left behind at that time.

However, what Audrey feared were only the dirty desires that people, or more accurately, fellow witches, had toward her. After all, she couldn't just fall out with people because of their mental fantasies.

The Eastern Immortals once had an old saying: judge by deeds, not by heart; if you judge by heart, there are no saints.

Even ordinary individuals in a powerful group like witches cannot fully control their hearts. She couldn't just pull out her wand and duel with people because of a little fantasy of others; that would instead make her look like the crazy one.

And could a witch who aimed to pursue art duel with her audience every day?

It was precisely because she clearly understood this point that Audrey felt powerless. Since she couldn't control others' thoughts, she could only hide herself and not see them.

It's just that if she hid, what would happen to her dream of pursuing art?

This was the reason for little Audrey's pain and confusion at the time.

However, that day, in the ruins where the roof had been flipped by violent mana, looking at the vivid spider-lady puppet in front of her, Audrey's haze-filled heart saw the light again, just like the room that had its roof flipped and was illuminated by the sun, dispelling the darkness.

Perhaps in others' eyes, this spider-lady puppet, which actually looked a bit terrifying on the outside, was also quite scary and easily triggered the uncanny valley effect. Many people were actually quite afraid of these overly realistic dolls.

But as a witch, Audrey naturally wouldn't be scared by this, and perhaps it was because there was a layer of puppet in between, her talent didn't work on this puppet. After all, this heartless puppet wouldn't have any desires toward her.

Then, since I can't go on stage myself, wouldn't it be fine if I hid behind the scenes and let my puppets perform?

Although as a medium for her power, she could still feel others' desires toward her puppets, watching a movie with puppets as the protagonists was much easier to accept than watching a movie with herself as the protagonist. Moreover, most normal people shouldn't be bored enough to have strange desires toward puppets.

And this also solved the problem of her finding it difficult to find companions who could cooperate with her. After all, whether it was dancing or singing, there were very few solo performances; there always had to be backup dancers or accompaniment, and in Audrey's situation, she could at most cooperate with her two mothers.

But with her two mothers' fame, it was hard to say who was the protagonist and who was the supporting role once on stage. Although her mothers felt that Audrey's future achievements would definitely surpass theirs, Audrey knew very well that she was probably only a green leaf to set off her two mothers at her current level.

After all, dancers and singers couldn't just rely on their faces. Even if Audrey was beautiful, in the professional field, she was far worse than her two mothers at the moment.

However, if they were all puppets, then this problem could be solved. As long as she could manipulate enough puppets, Audrey herself would be an entire song and dance troupe.

It was with this idea that she embarked on the path of creating a puppet theater.

It's just a pity that this path was far more difficult to walk than she had initially imagined.

Rigid dolls had limits. Some dance moves that witches could display couldn't be reproduced by dolls at all. The artistry displayed by living things and dead things were also two completely different concepts. Plus, puppet theater was a niche project, and the audience was mostly children, and so on.

Anyway, the difficulties and setbacks Audrey had encountered over the years were far more than she had imagined. If she hadn't developed social anxiety, according to the path planned by her mothers, she, at 16, should have already been standing on the big stage of the Venus Theater, the holy land in the hearts of witch actors and the art center of the Witch World, enjoying the attention and praise of the whole world.

However, the reality was that after she had worked so hard for so long and put in countless efforts to create the puppet theater, it couldn't even get on the lowest-level official stage, and could only be a small internet celebrity streamer on the Mana Web, with only a hundred thousand fans.

And after realizing the difficulty of this path, Audrey didn't plan to give up, so she came to this Witch Academy to find her Second Aunt to continue learning puppet techniques. She wanted to create the perfect puppet that could carry her artistic dreams.

But reality gave her another hard slap.

The talent and knowledge she had been proud of in the past were now all trampled to pieces by an inexplicable classmate, and even her Second Aunt, a relative worth trusting, suddenly had a new favorite. She felt as if she had been abandoned by the whole world.

People's collapse often happens in an instant. Now, the little fox's mentality was already on the verge of collapse, and she began to doubt whether she was living like a clown.

Hmm, perhaps she shouldn't have organized any song and dance troupe; a circus was her true destination. She could definitely play the role of a clown naturally.

Audrey used to be just socially anxious, but now she was almost self-isolating.

I'm tired, really tired. Anyway, I'm not a genius, my talent isn't good, my mentality is so bad, what am I busy with? It's better to lie flat and wait for death.

She thought to herself.

However, just as the desperate darkness was about to shroud her again, just like ten years ago, another small puppet stood in front of her.

And I don't know if it was a hallucination caused by her exhaustion, but Audrey always felt that this doll was exceptionally exquisite, just like the perfect puppet she had been searching for, the one that could carry her artistic dreams.

This small doll was now standing in front of her. It was so vivid and lifelike; clearly a dead object, but it radiated the vitality of life.

"Hey, have you come back to your senses, Miss Audrey?"

This small, blonde, blue-eyed witch doll waved at her, then cupped its hands around its mouth like a megaphone and shouted.

This time, its voice wasn't even a dull metal synthesized voice, but the voice of a crisp and pleasant little girl.

"Mm..."

Because she was facing a doll, Audrey wasn't very scared. She subconsciously nodded and even made a sound.

And the little doll that got a response was instantly happy and beaming.

Audrey rubbed her eyes, confirming she hadn't seen wrong. She actually saw an expression on the doll's face, and the expression was so natural.

Oh my god, could puppets be this detailed?

The little fox was shocked.

"Then Miss Audrey, do you know where in the academy school qualification assessments can be conducted? My master wants to go."

The small doll walked up, grabbed Audrey's pant leg, and shook it gently, acting like a spoiled child.

At this moment, the little fox felt as if the thing in front of her wasn't a cold puppet, but a lively and cute little sister.

It's just that when she finally couldn't help but reach out and grab the small puppet directly, the hardness and coldness she felt brought her back to reality.

At the same time, another hand reached out quickly and snatched the small doll back directly.

"Hey, look if you want, don't touch randomly."

Dorothy took back this small puppet made with her sister Alice as a model and said faintly. In her hand, the little puppet Alice also hid secretly behind her hand, sticking her tongue out at Audrey.

Having said that, Dorothy didn't care about the junior sister's reaction and walked forward on her own.

Well, based on her years of experience with social anxiety, if you want to communicate with another socially anxious person, you must start from the other party's interests.

She had noticed earlier that this junior sister seemed very interested in puppets, so this was a good entry point.

And judging from the other party's reaction of wanting to grab the puppet earlier, Dorothy knew that the bait she had set was effective.

Hmm, then today's goal was accomplished. Being too enthusiastic when dealing with social anxiety would make the other party uncomfortable, so at this time, one should retreat to advance.

Sure enough, Dorothy hadn't walked a few steps before she keenly noticed a little tail following behind her.

Thus, she stopped again and looked at the junior sister who was looking uneasy.

"Miss Audrey, do you still have something to ask my master?"

On her shoulder, the small Alice puppet also gave up teasing the cat and turned to look at Audrey, asking.

"..."

The little fox tried to open her mouth again, but she still couldn't speak no matter what. She was anxious and spinning in circles again. Fortunately, she finally couldn't bear it anymore and shook a Q-version puppet of herself out of her tail.

"I, I know where the school qualification assessment is."

This fox puppet, which looked much rougher than Dorothy's Alice puppet, said this with a cold metal synthesized voice.

After speaking, Audrey looked at this senior sister, whom she hadn't wanted to acknowledge just a few minutes ago, with those alluring fox eyes, waiting for her reply.

At this, Dorothy's mouth curled up slightly.

Hehe, the fish has taken the bait.

Tsk, it's just that bullying an honest child like this makes me feel a bit guilty; it feels like I'm abducting a little girl.

... The scummy witch is feeling uneasy in her conscience... ===== CHAPTER 63 =====