The Apple Circus was stationed in the suburbs of Starstone City.
The circus was not particularly large, surrounded by a circle of wooden stakes, with the entrance facing the main road directly. From outside, one could see the tent-like building inside, along with some strangely carved statues dyed in vibrant colours, which looked extremely interesting. It was just barely evening, yet the place was already crowded with people. The Apple Circus only opened in the evenings, but already many had started queuing up early, which was enough to show just how popular the circus had become recently.
Orisa was wearing a light blue long dress, indescribably beautiful and pretty in Charide’s eyes, though she was still showing a sullen expression right now, blaming Charide for leaving for too long before. Charide was whispering sweet nothings in her ear while surveying the surrounding scene.
At that moment, he saw the circus gate being opened, accompanied by cheers from those in the queue, as a short man with a beard walked out from inside. The bearded man was dressed in very strange clothing, with a thick scarf wrapped around his head, and he sported a somewhat comical moustache, though he actually looked rather handsome and refined. Charide, as a mercenary, was not old, but he had travelled far and wide to many places, yet he had never seen this man’s style of dress before, so his brows furrowed involuntarily.
Suddenly, he felt something odd—
“Why does this man seem somewhat familiar to me?”
“Everyone, no pushing, please queue up properly. Tickets are now on sale for entry, ten silver coins per ticket.” The bearded man said in a crisp voice, but that voice… it was clearly a woman deliberately roughening her throat!
So this bearded man was a woman in disguise?
Suddenly, Charide realised why he found this person somewhat familiar—she seemed to be Debbie, the vice president of the Name-Your-Own Magic Guild, the genius girl who traversed time?
“This is the deputy leader of the Apple Circus.” Orisa introduced in Charide’s ear, clearly Orisa had long been interested in the circus’s performances. Although she had pretended to be unhappy about the bad date earlier, in reality she had been looking forward to it eagerly.
“Oh, is that so…” Charide replied casually, but his expression was somewhat unnatural.
By now, the deputy leader had started collecting silver coins and issuing entry tickets. From the circus emerged a pretty girl dressed as a maid, a tall beauty with long golden hair who was unmistakably extraordinary at a glance. This time, Charide was shocked once again: “This, this golden-haired maid looks just like Gilga, the golden female swordsman summoned by that Debbie…”
The golden-haired maid was in charge of ticket inspection, her work meticulous, but on that pretty face was a hint of… well, a sense of shame, that kind of feeling.
Orisa suddenly nudged Charide’s arm, “It’s our turn.” She whispered to Charide.
Charide snapped back to attention, nodding hurriedly. His heart was filled with indescribable shock, but after all, he only felt somewhat familiar; that group of imperial enemies could not possibly disguise themselves as a circus and openly appear here, right?
He was just too tense… He composed himself, quickly pulling out his money pouch and taking out twenty silver coins. He bought two tickets from the deputy leader. The tickets were simple, printed with the circus’s apple logo and a string of golden numerical codes. Bringing the tickets to the golden-haired maid, he handed them over, and she swept her hand over that string of golden numerical codes (ps: sword qi scanning the code), saying expressionlessly: “You may enter. We hope you enjoy your visit.”
—Charide felt like she was on the verge of tears while speaking, that was the look of shame reaching its peak…
Charide gently took hold of Orisa’s hand, and Orisa did not resist, which made Charide’s heart swell with a bit of joy. Together, they entered this magical circus.
Upon just entering, what first drew the two was a strange fragrance wafting from one side, with quite a few people gathered there; it was a stall selling food.
The sign beside it listed all sorts of foods for sale, all things never seen before, with names marked below that were bizarre and strange: popcorn, jianbing guozi, ice cream, hot dry noodles, hamburgers, KFC set meals…
The food was a bit more expensive than outside, but special places had special prices, which was understandable. After weighing his money pouch, Charide squeezed into the crowd and bought two buckets of popcorn, one for each of them. At this moment, looking at the person standing behind the stall, he fell into contemplation.
The wanted poster for that logistics vice minister Jacob had no image, but from descriptions, he was a seventeen-year-old boy of slight build. This vendor in the strange long robe matched the description no matter how you looked at it…
No, no, it must be that I just imagined the deputy leader as Debbie, so now I’m still being paranoid!
Soon, Charide received his two buckets of popcorn. Just as he was about to leave, he saw someone nearby buying two portions of the KFC deluxe set meal. It was a fried chicken coated in flour, generous in portion, with small bread rolls, sweet wine drinks, and so on; the aroma was rich, served in large paper buckets, but one bucket cost a gold coin, ridiculously expensive. And this person bought two at once?
“So much, can you eat it all?” Charide could not help but ask.
“Who said it’s for me to eat? This is for the Big Stomach Girl.” The person replied, then hurried off happily holding the food.
Somewhat baffled, Charide stood there stunned for a moment before realising what was going on— not far from this stall was a performance area, where a huge dining table was set up, covered in food. Behind it sat a petite girl, constantly stuffing food into her mouth. Beside her stood a sign: Eat As Much As You Can— the dining performance art from the Big Stomach Girl.
It turned out that audience members could buy food from the vendor and place it in front of the Big Stomach Girl, who would eat every bit of it right in front of them, as much as there was!
Watching her continuously swallow the food, her petite body not even bloating in the slightest, cheers erupted all around.
“Keep going!” “Keep going!” “I’ll go buy another KFC!”
Charide: “…”
So this so-called dining performance art was like that, but that Big Stomach Girl was indeed powerful enough; she looked so petite, yet could eat so much… Wait, Charide’s body suddenly trembled. Looking at this Big Stomach Girl, although she was wearing strange clothing, her dark skin and petite build could not help but remind Charide of that girl with the title of Super Strength Girl, Gunny…
It couldn’t be, right?
While he was in shock, cheers suddenly came from nearby.
Charide hurriedly took Orisa over to watch; it turned out a juggling performance was underway there.
The so-called juggling involved throwing three or more sticks or balls into the air, catching them orderly and throwing them again. Such tricks were basic skills for every juggler, but the juggler before them had taken this trick to a new level.
He was throwing bricks.
And nearly ten bricks at once, caught, then thrown again; those bricks formed a chain, flipping up and down in his hands, the scene was spectacular, drawing cheers from all around.
But Charide had no mood for cheering at all, because—
“Gambler Green…” he murmured softly.
At this point, Charide could not help but break into a cold sweat; the idea in his heart seemed to grow ever stronger.
Then, after watching the juggler’s performance for a bit, Orisa pulled Charide to see the funniest animal taming show here.
On a small stage set up on one side of the circus, the animal taming performance had already begun, surrounded by a circle of audience members who burst into waves of laughter from time to time. On the stage, performing was a pretty girl in a long skirt, her face veiled, but undoubtedly a very beautiful girl. As for the beast she was training, it was a strange black-and-white creature, like a wolf or a dog, yet with a touch of majesty and cuteness.
Her performance was also quite original.
“Sit!” she shouted.
But her beast stood straight up on its hind legs instead.
“Stand!” she shouted.
The beast immediately crouched on the ground, glaring at the beautiful tamer with serious eyes as if in defiance.
“You’re driving me crazy—” the beautiful tamer shouted, somewhat annoyed.
“Awoo wooo~~~” The beast let out a series of provocative howls.
The tamer immediately hiked up her skirt to discipline the beast, but the beast bolted away, and so man and beast began chasing each other around the stage.
This comical scene immediately sparked peals of laughter from the audience below.
Orisa no longer kept a straight face, successfully amused by the scene, her body leaning tightly against Charide’s. Seeing this, many understood it was all staged, with the wolf-like dog deliberately uncooperative to create humour, but one had to admit their performance was too realistic, utterly seamless. It didn’t feel acted at all!
Just…
“This, this is Danni, the only daughter of the Anduin family who was taken hostage? She looks just like the rumoured Danni…” Charide thought to himself, his worldview shattered.
After watching the animal taming for just a moment, Orisa suddenly tugged hard on Charide’s arm: “Hurry, hurry, the Peerless Enchantress’s performance is about to start!”
“Peerless Enchantress?” Charide was stunned, but the person had already been dragged by Orisa towards the large tent wrapped up nearby, where many people were already waiting and now entering one by one.
They were chattering excitedly; the Peerless Enchantress was the headline act of the Apple Circus, her singing and dancing from the mysterious capital, dreamlike and illusory, making countless hearts yearn. However, to watch the Peerless Enchantress’s performance required paying another ten silver coins.
Seeing Orisa’s expectant gaze, Charide could only grit his teeth and pour out another twenty silver coins from his money pouch, handing them to the big-bearded man guarding the entrance.
That man…
As he handed the silver coins to the other, Charide’s body suddenly trembled. Though the man had a full beard, his fair and tender complexion showed he was not too old; that build, appearance, and black-haired features, a name immediately surged in Charide’s mind: “The All-Rounder Archmage Ye Chui…”
After entering the enclosed tent, the tent flap was closed, and the big-bearded man—now called Captain Jobs—walked to the wooden platform at the very back of the tent, announcing loudly: “Welcome, everyone, to enjoy the Peerless Enchantress’s performance. If you feel delighted, you can purchase flower baskets from the side (there was a small stall on one side of the tent, stacked with flower baskets and bouquets of various sizes; the cheap ones needed only a few dozen copper coins, while the most expensive required a gold coin), and send the flower baskets to the stage to let our Peerless Enchantress see your sincerity. Don’t be stingy, now. Alright, the performance begins. Please welcome our Peerless Enchantress to the stage.”
He lightly tapped his white-covered grimoire, releasing some spell. With his magic, the dim tent immediately lit up in a kaleidoscope of colours, then a beam of light fell on the stage, where a pretty girl was already standing.
She was a beautiful and alluring girl, dressed in exotic style, a navel-baring long skirt extremely rare in the Star Empire, accentuating her slender and graceful figure, with a pink veil over her face adding a touch of mystery.
Then, Charide in the audience: “This seems to be the Blue Witch Resha…”
