The morning after the puppet attack, the town of Verne was eerily still. The streets, once filled with hushed whispers and cautious glances, now felt abandoned. The townspeople who had fallen under the marionettes' influence wandered about in a daze, their memories fragmented.

Estelle, Joshua, Anelace, and Agate stood outside the collapsed remains of the puppet theater. The Bracer Guild had sent reinforcements to help ensure that whatever strange force had manipulated the townsfolk was no longer a threat. But unease lingered in the air like a stubborn fog.

"So," Agate said, crossing his arms. "We fought off a bunch of creepy puppets, the ringleader vanished into thin air, and now we got a whole town full of folks who don't even remember what happened to them. Just another day on the job?"

Joshua exhaled. "I wish it was that simple. This wasn't just some magician's trick. The way those puppets moved, the way they controlled people… it felt engineered. As if someone had built them to do exactly that."

"Like an experiment?" Anelace asked, tightening her grip on her sword.

Joshua nodded. "Or a test run."

Estelle had been unusually quiet, her brows furrowed in deep thought. She knelt near the scattered remains of one of the marionettes, her fingers brushing against the broken wood and metal plating.

"Something wrong, Estelle?" Joshua asked.

She picked up a small gear fragment, turning it in her palm. "Yeah… this doesn't look like anything a normal puppet would have. This material—it's advanced. And look at this." She held up a thin silver wire embedded within the gear. "This isn't just a simple mechanism. It looks like it was designed to transmit… something."

Joshua leaned closer. "A signal?"

"Maybe," she muttered. "But a signal for what?"

Agate snorted. "Mind control, obviously. That masked freak was pulling the strings."

Estelle shook her head. "No, I don't think it was him. Not entirely." She glanced around, lowering her voice. "I think he was just another puppet."

Anelace's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean…?"

Estelle nodded. "Think about it. When we took down the big marionette, he tried to restore it. But when Joshua struck him, he didn't fight back—he just disappeared. Like he was never really there."

Joshua frowned. "An illusion?"

"Or maybe something worse," Estelle replied. "What if he was controlled, just like the townspeople? What if he wasn't the one in charge?"

A heavy silence fell over the group as the implications sank in. If the masked man wasn't the mastermind, then whoever—or whatever—had created this show was still out there.

Agate let out an exasperated sigh. "Great. So we didn't just beat the big bad, we just cut off one of its hands. Now we gotta find the real one behind this mess."

Joshua turned to Estelle. "Do you think you can analyze that gear?"

She nodded. "It's worth a shot. If we can trace where this came from, we might get a lead."

Anelace glanced around. "We should also check with the townspeople. Some of them might have seen something, even if they don't remember everything clearly."

Joshua agreed. "We'll split up. Anelace and I will talk to the villagers. Estelle and Agate, see if you can get that gear examined."

Agate grumbled. "Babysitting scrap metal. Just what I wanted to do."

Estelle smirked. "Oh, come on. You love this kind of thing."

Agate gave her a deadpan look. "Yeah, sure. Right up there with gettin' stabbed."

Splitting up, Joshua and Anelace headed into town while Estelle and Agate made their way to the local workshop, run by an elderly engineer named Grady. He had been spared from the mind control due to his habit of never attending public gatherings.

When they showed him the gear, his expression turned grim. "Where did you find this?"

"The puppet theater," Estelle replied. "Do you recognize it?"

Grady wiped his hands on his apron and sighed. "I do. This ain't normal craftsmanship, not by a long shot. This metal? Reinforced with orbal circuitry. Whoever made this was integrating modern tech into those puppets."

Agate tensed. "Wait… you're sayin' this was orbal tech?"

Grady nodded. "A hybrid of traditional craftsmanship and advanced engineering. Not something your average tinkerer could make."

Estelle exchanged a look with Agate. Orbal-enhanced mind control puppets? That wasn't just someone experimenting with magic tricks. This was calculated. Deliberate.

Grady scratched his head. "There's only one place I know that could produce something this advanced. The Epstein Foundation. Or maybe… Reinford Company."

Estelle's stomach twisted. Both were massive technological powerhouses. If either of them had a connection to this, things were far worse than they had imagined.

Agate soon was slient. He knew that both of those organizations had branches in the Calvard Republic, so they could have easily gotten that mind-control technology from either place and that made their job a lot more difficult.

He soon crossed his arms. "That ain't a good sign."

"No, it's not," Estelle agreed. "It means this is bigger than just a traveling puppet show. Someone's using high-end tech to manipulate people, and we don't know why."

Grady sighed. "Well, if you're planning to dig deeper, be careful. If someone's playing with tech like this, they won't take kindly to you snoopin' around."

"Yeah," Agate muttered, "like we ever take the easy jobs."

Estelle pocketed the gear. "Thanks for your help, Grady. We'll figure this out."

"Don't mention it, if you ever run into Cassius tell him I am always ready to assist him with whatever he has going on now." Grady said to them.

As they left the workshop, Estelle felt a growing sense of urgency. This wasn't over. The mastermind behind the marionettes was still out there, watching, waiting.

And they had just begun to unravel the strings of deception.

Meanwhile in a dark and dank warehouse, the Puppetmaster was recovering from the fight he had with the Bracers as he pulled out a communication device he had with him and said three simple words.

"Commence Operation Horizons."