The journey from Bayam to Pritz Harbor was a long one.
During the journey, he tried different types of acting methods with his marionette.
In one instance, he came out of his marionette and acted as if it were his friend in front of the people on the ship.
He also made his marionette make new friends while acting as a real person.
Sometimes he also made the marionette take a female form by making it use the Prometheus Ring to steal his Faceless power—a female form because it naturally attracted more attention and desire from the people around.
He also performed simple acts where he was a drunk man bothering a pretty lady—(who was secretly his male marionette). Of course, at some point, it just became an instrument of amusement to him.
Then again, while it was effective, it wasn't really that efficient as he was performing for mundane people.
So he decided to go further and made his marionette act like the Beyonder it was.
He made a stop at Bansy Harbor, where he hid inside his marionette and became a 'Hunter'.
There he acted as a bounty hunter for 3 days, where he hunted multiple people nonstop. He set traps and tracked people as a Hunter would, he provoked them, and then when the time came, he burned them as a Pyromaniac would.
He found out that acting as a Beyonder from a different pathway through a marionette was truly an effective method of digesting the potion; when acting, he just had to make sure to act as a Beyonder from that particular pathway would.
By now, it had almost been a month since he left Backlund, and truth to be told, Jace wasn't much of a fan of the water. Nyx, too, was pestering him to stop messing around, so he didn't delay his return much and returned promptly.
—
After Jace arrived at Pritz Harbor in Backlund, he took out his Polymath Ring and teleported a few times to reach his bungalow in the North Borough.
He directly appeared in the hall of his house. Looking around, Jace noticed that a fair amount of dust had gathered on the furniture, floor, and walls.
He sighed, realizing that he would have to clean the whole thing alone—but then again, not alone, as he had a marionette to do the labor work for him!
Currently, he was hiding inside his marionette through the 'flesh blood fusion' power of the Rose Bishop bracelet, so he got out and took his real form.
By now, Nyx, who had been resting in the leather bag around the marionette's shoulder, had gotten out and disappeared in some direction, settling into her house.
Jace removed the Rose bracelet from his hand and kept it in his pocket. He looked at his marionette, who stood before him, looking back at him.
Jace smiled sympathetically and patted his marionette's shoulder. "It's all you, buddy. It's all you..." he said, and walked away to rest in his bedroom.
The marionette sighed and got to work, cleaning everything while Jace slept.
Of course, he wasn't completely asleep, as a part of his mind was awake, controlling the marionette to clean the house.
—
When Jace woke up, it was afternoon.
By now, his marionette had already cleaned the house and prepared a hearty lunch.
Jace took a bath and sat at the dining table.
He cut into the well-done steak on his plate and took a bite. "Mm..., this is wonderful," he stated, looking at his marionette, who stood beside him wearing a suit and a bowtie.
"Thank you, sir," the marionette said with a bow.
Jace had decided to make this marionette his butler of sorts, and it seemed to be working quite well. Having a marionette was truly convenient in all sorts of ways.
Of course, in the end, the marionette was him all along, but it was still pretty awesome that he basically had an avatar of a different pathway he could use within a certain range.
Jace picked up a glass of wine, which was already served, and took a sip.
One other thing he had been expecting was the use of sealed artifacts through the marionette, as some side effects did not affect them, and it was working!
Currently, the Polymath Ring was with his marionette. Now that Jace was a Sequence 5, he could wear the ring for about an hour before the side effects of 'retardation' affected him. But his marionette, on the other hand, could wear it without any side effects because the marionette's mind was already dead and it couldn't be affected in any way.
That was also why marionettes were immune to mental attacks from the Spectator pathway.
—
After lunch, Jace decided to experiment more with his enhanced powers, like the range of fire controlling and fire jumping—which was now about 100 meters—and his other powers like paper figurine substitution and illusion powers had also been significantly enhanced.
The range for the air pipe was increased several fold as well, for which Jace honestly couldn't see a use.
His divination skills had also gotten significantly better, allowing him to perform even vague divinations which would still result in a success.
His intuition of a Seer, Clown's premonition, as well as his memory and intelligence, had been boosted as well.
So much so that Jace could now speak, read, and write Japanese because he had watched a lot of anime and tried to learn it once; he could also speak and understand Korean because he watched a lot of Korean dramas as well.
The only shame was the fact that no one here spoke those languages.
Jace shook his head in sadness, reminiscing about things from his old life...
—
In the evening, Jace appeared behind Catherine's manor with his marionette.
As he stood with his marionette, Jace pulled out what looked like a poker card but was made out of metal and was very reflective.
He held the card before his marionette. "Come on now, go in," he said.
"Whatever," his marionette muttered. Soon his figure turned illusory and flew into the reflective surface of the card.
The marionette had used an imitated 'mirror blink' with the help of the Polymath Ring to hide in the reflective card.
Jace smiled as he looked at the card. There was a transparent figure of his marionette hidden within.
He put the card in his pocket.
The only problem with storing a marionette in a card was the fact that Jace could not use the Polymath Ring now, as it was with the marionette in the card. Without it, his marionette would not be able to come out, but on the other hand, he could make his marionette come out anytime he wanted.
Jace kept his thoughts aside and snapped his fingers.
Zhup.
Jace appeared directly in Catherine's bedroom. As he did, he immediately turned his head right towards the bed, only to see Catherine sitting while leaning against the headboard while reading a book.
She was wearing a simple, cream-colored gown with her hair loose.
Noticing him, Catherine looked up from her book and smiled. "Took you long enough," she said.
Jace chuckled and walked to her side of the bed, kissing her while leaning down.
Catherine kissed him back, but she also took the opportunity to grab his hand and pull him to the other side of the bed.
"Oh—?" Jace was startled for a moment, but he soon found himself lying on his back on the bed while Catherine was on top of him.
She leaned down and started kissing Jace while grinding herself on him below.
A few minutes later, she separated her lips from him. Jace chuckled. "Hehe, did you miss me that much?" he asked, seeming too pleased with himself.
It had been well over a month since they had seen each other... and Jace had missed her. he had gotten used to their visits and conversations; he wondered if Catherine felt the same...
Catherine rolled her eyes and laid her head flat on his chest while hugging him. "Since you are now a Sequence 5, I suppose you succeeded in your quest to find 'mermaids'?" she asked, changing the subject.
Ever since he had gone on his journey of advancement, he had been writing her letters every now and then; it was one of the reasons Catherine knew he was back and wasn't surprised to see him.
"Yes, I did find them," Jace replied, as he caressed Catherine's lower waist through her cotton gown, feeling what he had longed for over the weeks.
"And?" Catherine asked as she looked up at him. "Are they as beautiful as the legends say?" she asked with genuine curiosity.
"Yes, they really were beautiful," Jace answered.
Catherine suddenly seemed to have a mischievous glint in her eyes. She raised her head while keeping one hand on his chest for support.
Looking at him with a smile that Jace was quite familiar with, she asked, "Were they even more beautiful than me?" As she spoke, her fingers on his chest moved, caressing his nipple softly through his shirt.
Jace knew where this was going, but he answered her question with honesty. "Yes, she was the most beautiful creature I have ever seen."
"Ohh~?" Catherine's eyes turned colder, and her fingers moved and pinched his nipple hard enough that he almost winced in pain.
She leaned down and whispered in his ear seductively, "It looks like I need to teach you a lesson..."
Just as she was about to go even further, Jace placed his other hand on her back. "Wait," he said. Catherine stopped and looked at him.
"But I already learned my lesson," he said, looking at Catherine with sincerity.
Catherine smiled amusedly. "How so?" she asked as she loosened her fingers on him.
Jace smiled. "Why don't you see for yourself?" he said, as his hands on her waist and back tightened and he moved her to lay down beside him.
The bedroom, which was already dark, became even darker as a scene of Jace sitting on a dinghy materialized above them.
Jace was using his illusion powers to show her how his conversation with a mermaid went. Now that his illusion powers had strengthened, he could create the scene that happened from his memory into perfectly realistic illusions, with all sorts of complex sounds.
It was far better than watching a movie in 3D.
Catherine meanwhile was amazed, being able to see the memories of Jace right in front of her.
Splash.
The red-haired mermaid jumped out of the water and sat on the edge of the dinghy right before Jace.
Catherine was quite surprised to see the beauty of the creature. For a moment, she doubted if Jace was showing her a crafted image to fool her, but she could tell it was the truth.
Soon she heard and saw the conversation between the mermaid and Jace.
Catherine also saw when the beautiful and delicate mermaid changed her demeanor completely and consumed Jace's hand, which was quite a disturbing image.
Jace stopped at that and dispersed the illusion.
Catherine burst out laughing. She figured out that Jace was actually trying to establish a connection with the mermaid—perhaps even flirt with her—but the whole situation turned out different than what he expected...
After laughing for a minute or two, Catherine finally stopped and asked, "Hehe~, why did you even give her your hand if you knew what she was going to do?"
Jace sighed, his cheeks slightly flushed. "I didn't expect her to consume it right in front of me, and I certainly did not expect her to go crazy like that," Jace explained.
Catherine giggled softly. It was her plan to 'play' with him, but seeing him like this, her heart softened.
She got on top of him and started kissing him softly.
"Chu~, silly boy~, do you want mommy to comfort you~" she whispered, as she kissed his neck, her hand sliding down low in his pants.
"Yes..." Jace whispered, as his hand on her waist tightened.