Freak Show of the Circus (9)
There are two kinds of clowns in the Western world back on Earth. One is the Clown. The usual sort, like Larilura—smiling, performing, the classic entertainer. Faces painted white, flipping and joking for the crowd. The other is the Pierrot. These ones never smile. They wear the same tear-streaked or blank expression from curtain to curtain. A lot of people have coulrophobia because some Pierrots take the makeup to genuinely terrifying places.
Pierrots thrive on that primal, skin-crawling dread. Think old silent horror films. So in a world where science hasn’t exactly taken off, it made a grim kind of sense that deformed performers would drift toward this kind of living.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—!
The drumroll kicked off a show that felt like a direct slap to human decency. It was like watching a silent horror film come to life. A two-headed Siamese twin sat in the shadows at the top of the tent, forced smile stretched across both faces. The expression looked more like twisted agony than anything funny, yet somehow it landed as dark comedy.
A one-armed dwarf woman with a thick beard that would put most men to shame carried a similarly armless man on her shoulders. The pair tried to juggle together.
Clatter. Thud.
Their act collapsed in under ten seconds. A pure-blooded dwarf failing at four-ball juggling? No. It was staged. The way Roman howled with laughter from the stands proved it.
“Oh no! It seems our performers are a little nervous today! Maybe the balls scared them! That’s how it goes with rookie clowns!”
“Hahaha! Two of them together and they’re still worse than animals!”
“Hee hee hee. How pathetic.”
The audience began laughing at the grotesque display. So that was the angle. They weren’t targeting commoners—they were after the wealthy. High ticket prices, plus the kind of people who lived on superiority complexes would enjoy this the most.
Rattle. Rattle-rattle.
A new figure emerged from the animal entrance. It was a man with no lower body at all. Face painted white, rope clenched in his teeth, he dragged the stage equipment behind him like a beast of burden.
“Ugh…?!”
What came next made Franc’s breath catch in horror. The contraption held a target, and tied to it was a man with no arms. Apples rested on his shoulders and head.
It was the same target and the same poor soul she had seen in Clara’s forge. The moment Franc realized what was about to happen, her stomach twisted.
Step. Step.
A woman strode onto the stage with loud, deliberate footsteps. It was Anasiss Serpia—the same one they had seen outside the coliseum. She walked slowly, flaunting her long, elegant limbs in cruel contrast to the deformed performers around her.
Whiiiish—!
Knives floated into the air the instant Anasiss threw them. Some kind of telekinetic magic. I didn’t know how it worked and I didn’t give a single fuck. I’d seen enough.
“Franc. We’re leaving.”
I stood up, face twisted in disgust. Franc rose silently and followed. Her hand in mine wouldn’t stop shaking.
“Larilura? What about you?”
“I’m coming. I don’t want to see any more of this.”
Her voice was colder than I had ever heard it.
We slipped out of the tent in heavy silence.
I took Franc to a nearby café so she could calm down. Honestly, I didn’t want to give these circus bastards a single copper, but the place had nowhere else to sit. Typical.
“Haa… Nord. I’m okay now. Sorry for worrying you.”
Franc finally spoke. She hadn’t even touched the warm drink I’d ordered for her.
Splash!
I dumped mine straight into the flowerbed beside the table.
“It’s not exactly something to be proud of… but I’ve heard freak shows like that are more common than you’d think,” Larilura said, mask removed. She had pulled her robe hood deep over her face so none of the circus people would recognize her.
I tossed my teacup onto the table with a clatter.
“Deformed people only have two ways to survive—begging or these fucking freak shows.”
It was an ugly truth, but it was reality. Even in the 21st century, people with deformities or disabilities face discrimination and persecution. In this world where the Enlightenment never happened and education is basically nonexistent, complaining about it is pointless. I felt sick to my stomach, but I wasn’t about to start preaching.
I’m not some PC warrior.
Between living as a laughingstock and starving to death, they had chosen the former. If I ruined their livelihood over my own morals, they’d only end up hating me. Everyone knows how brutal the treatment and perception of disabled people is in this world.
Just look at Robert from the Transport Guild.
Robert is the guild master’s son. No matter how good the Transport Guild’s location is, it’s not some small-time operation. Yet the son of a man who can casually drop ten silvers on a whim gets kidnapped by random bandits while working as a peddler? In a fantasy TRPG that would be standard backstory. But this is a world where real people live.
Why would the son of a guild master lower himself to one of the most 3D jobs in this isekai?
The reason is obvious.
His one-armed condition would hold him back from properly inheriting the guild. In a world where disabled people are treated like this, what right did I have to lecture them about their choices? Normally, that’s what I would have thought.
Normally.
I glanced at Larilura. Her face looked like she was trying not to spit out a bug she’d accidentally eaten.
To be honest, I figured it was one of these two circuses.
From the start, the suspects had been this circus and Larilura’s troupe. I mean, come on. A circus in a city where children are being kidnapped? It practically screamed shady as fuck. So I’d stuck them on the suspect list based on pure gut feeling.
But the more I observed Larilura’s group, the more they dropped down the list. They did scout talent aggressively, but they stayed at a separate inn. Their schedule was too tight for secret education sessions. This circus, on the other hand, was different.
These bastards had been staying in the lord’s mansion while performing for him. After they started doing street shows, they secured a huge plot of land. Plenty of room to hide children inside those tents. Maybe they’d been bribing the lord since the mansion days?
I had a decent read on this lord’s personality by now. He promotes coliseum fights and circuses, yet the city is full of orphans. The paid bathhouse only opens at night. Nothing about that says “decent human being.” The guards’ diligence and the lord’s character were separate issues. Clear water flows from the top, but if the top doesn’t give a shit about commoners, the whole system rots.
Fuck.
If my guess was right, we were screwed. We had no solid evidence to arrest them. These people hadn’t started this shit yesterday or the day before. I wasn’t a detective—how the hell was I supposed to gather proof? And if the lord really was taking bribes, he might even defend them until we could force his hand. Then my head would fly right off its shoulders in the name of noble privilege.
God damn it. I’ll have to talk it over with Franc back at the inn.
I turned to the depressed girl.
“Franc. There’s no point staying here. Let’s head back to the inn and rest for today, yeah?”
“Mm… okay.”
Franc nodded and stood. Larilura followed suit.
“Are you heading back now?”
“Yeah. Neither Franc nor I are in the mood to do anything else today.”
“Same here. I’ll probably get scolded by the ringmaster and need to reset my mood before the night show anyway.”
“Heh.”
Larilura’s half-joking tone finally coaxed a small smile out of Franc. I silently thanked her professional spirit as we left that godforsaken isekai amusement-hell behind.
“Where the hell is the exit again??”
I had been trying to leave, damn it. But every single tent looked identical, so finding the way out was impossible. I spat out a curse at this diabolically intricate formation.
“This is… the Demonic Cult’s secret technique, the Bewildering Phantom Nine Palace Formation!!”
A cursed maze designed to trap the unworthy in an endless loop of identical circus tents. Side effect: extreme irritation and loss of direction.
“Um, the exit is that way.”
“Ah, right.”
We U-turned according to Larilura’s directions. Yet somehow we ended up right back at the same café after one full loop.
“Would the woman who said the exit was this way please step forward?”
“W-wait a second!”
When I called her out with a straight face, Larilura hurriedly covered her sides.
“I mostly only stay around our lodgings except when we travel between cities, so my guiding skills are a bit lacking! But I don’t think this is entirely my fault!”
“You really do only speak the truth when it hurts.”
I gave her a solid flick on the forehead.
Thwack!
Larilura’s eyes watered as she clutched her head.
“Ughhh!! How can a junior be so rude to his senior?!”
“Keep acting up and I’ll undo the runes on your mask. If I follow you while you get kicked out, we might actually find the exit. Sound good?”
“I’msorrypleasedon’tI’llgetscoldedbytheboss!!”
“You’ll get scolded for skipping rehearsal, sure.”
“My part is so easy I could do it with my eyes closed, so I’ll only get lightly scolded! But if they find out I snuck into another circus and caused trouble, I’ll get properly destroyed!”
“Fine, just stay quiet. I’ll go ask around.”
As I said, the place was ridiculously huge, like some kind of amusement park. I walked into one of the tents that had its flaps wide open. Inside were animals that still seemed to be in training. A lone elephant happened to look my way, so I asked.
“Trumpet-trumpet? (Do you know where the exit is?)”
The elephant rolled its eyes, then pointed right with its trunk. Elephants really do use their trunks like hands. What a helpful old man.
“Good elephant. See you around.”
Were these animals being abused too? I could have asked, but since I was the only one who could understand elephant-speak, it wouldn’t count as evidence. I set the question aside for later.
“The guy inside said to go right.”
I returned to the group and gave the update. What I hadn’t anticipated was that the poor elephant suffering under the same bastards who ran this place wouldn’t actually be kind to another one of those bastards.
“Nord. This path doesn’t feel right, does it?”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing for the last three minutes.”
The tents looked more and more like half-finished construction sites the further we went. The same anxiety you feel when you take a wrong turn and end up on an active job site hit me hard. Larilura’s silent stare was unbearable. Fuck! I should have asked a person instead of the elephant! This is what happens when an introverted loner tries to navigate!
Whinny.
A horse’s cry came from a nearby tent. Since there was no one else around the half-built structure to ask, that was our only option.
“I’ll ask one more time! Wait right here!”
“Wait, what?! Don’t just leave us here!!”
The place had serious “authorized personnel only” vibes, so Larilura followed me. Franc had no choice but to tag along too.
“Why are you following me, auntie?!”
If you come in too then I can’t use vector-animal talking! Larilura shot back with perfect logic.
“First of all, I’m a beautiful eighteen-year-old, thank you very much. Second, if we get caught out here and get kicked out, you’ll be left inside alone, Mr. Nord. And third, whether I’m here or there, I still need directions anyway☆!”
It was all perfectly reasonable. I was seriously considering throwing away my master’s degree when Franc suddenly gasped.
“Hey, guys… what is that?”
She pointed to a corner of the tent where a foal was tied up. Or at least, it looked like a foal. It had sheep horns growing out of its head. What the actual fuck was that? Some kind of isekai twisted unicorn?