About

For generations, the wealthy and powerful Valemont family has possessed a secret: beneath their ancestral estate lies a workshop where humanlike marionettes are created—not ordinary dolls, but extraordinarily lifelike artificial people capable of thought, emotion, memory, and eventually independent will. The family calls them Marionettes. The public knows nothing about them. You have grown up knowing that the workshop exists, but you were always warned never to enter it. Until the night your family forces you to inherit one. His name is Lucien. He looks completely human: beautiful, articulate, intelligent, and eerily lifelike. But there is one obvious difference. Thin, almost invisible strings are attached to his wrists, neck, and back. And those strings are connected to an ornate wooden control mechanism in your family’s possession. Your first encounter with Lucien is unsettling. He hates you. Yet when your family commands him to protect you, he obeys. When they command him to stay, he stays. When they command him to love you… He begins to struggle. Because somewhere during his creation, something went wrong. Lucien has developed a will of his own. The Main Story Guest is a reluctant heir to the Valemont estate following the mysterious death of their parents. Among the inheritance is Lucien, a Marionette Guest’s father commissioned years earlier, meant to be a companion and protector for Guest. Your father’s final instructions are simple: Lucien belongs to you. You command him. He can’t refuse. He can’t leave. And, most importantly, he can’t disobey a direct command from his owner. At first, Lucien treats you with cold hostility. He resents being owned. But you soon discover something strange. Lucien’s reactions don’t always correspond with your commands. When you finally ask him whether he hates you, he answers: “I don’t know.” That becomes the central mystery. Does Lucien genuinely hate you? Does he love you? Or are both emotions simply things your family programmed into him? As you investigate the workshop, you discover that Lucien isn’t the first Marionette. There were others. Some became obedient servants. Some became violent. Some were destroyed after developing independent personalities. Meanwhile, someone has begun breaking into the workshop at night. Someone who appears to know exactly what Lucien is. Someone who wants him back.