3 The Duke and The Circus

At the same time as Layne's meeting with Ciel, Sarah went to meet with her father, the reigning Duke of Rivellon. Opening the door leading to Benjamin's office, she marched inside with conviction.

"Why did you do it?" She started asking coldly.

Benjamin stood up from his chair and went towards the office's windows, before finally saying, "I had no choice."

He continued, "You should've known already, that I promised Celica to not let her son and daughter be embroiled in politics and succession problems. This is the only way I know to alleviate the problem."

"By disowning him and selling Laura away to another country?" Sarah pressed with a bone-chilling tone.

Benjamin calmly replied, "I'm not disowning him, I'm just letting him live outside for an undetermined amount of time. And I'm not selling Laura away, I let her study in a good academy abroad."

"That's just rhetorics, you did nothing." She concluded.

"But I did, I assigned guards to Laura and Loyd, ah his name is now Layne. Just wait a bit, they will come by soon." Benjamin mused.

As he said that, the room darkens, and the shadows come to life. The silhouette of a man formed from shadows abounds, becoming more complete with each passing second before it finally morphed, fully human, bowing towards the Duke.

"How are they?" Benjamin asked.

The shadow replied, "Seventh Young Master went towards The Six Ridges before finally stopping at that Circus. The fifth Young Mistress, however, went missing after her semester break at Francs Royal Academy."

Hearing the news, Benjamin clenched his fists while Sarah scoffed at him, saying, "The only way you knew of doesn't seem to be all that good."

"Leave the office, Sarah," Benjamin said quietly.

Unwilling to leave before the matter was settled, she replied defiantly, "Not before you give me a good answer, father."

Angered, both at the news and himself, and his daughter's rebellious personality, the air solidified around him, forming the sharp pressure of a sword's bite. The papers on his desk fluttered, sliced apart by the sheer density of his presence.

"Now," He demanded.

Although she was unwilling, Sarah knew not to trample on her father's temper. She said, as she was leaving, "Fine, but you better make all of this right," before closing the door behind her with a resounding thud.

"Tell me the details," Benjamin pressed.

The shadow, still in his bowing posture, replied, "The fifth Young Mistress went on a holiday to Franc's countryside, saying she wanted to try her hands on farming. She bought a piece of land there, neighbouring a forest, before vanishing overnight."

Massaging his headache, Benjamin urged the shadow to continue, "Before she disappeared, she left behind a clue, saying the fairies wanted her to visit their parties. After that, she, along with the piece of land she bought and the forests neighbouring it vanished into thin air."

Taking a deep breath to calm down, Benjamin was beginning to understand the crux of the problem, he murmured, "It seems the fae was behind her disappearance, it won't do us good if we proceed without caution."

"Alright, continue to monitor the place she disappeared in, and pull back the ones following Layne. That circus is a safe place," Benjamin decided on the shadow's course of action.

It replied, "Understood," before scattering towards the shadows where it came from.

Left alone in the office, Benjamin mulled over his choices, before finally restarting his work on the Duchy's problems.

=======

Elsewhere…

=======

I was greeted by the most wondrous of sights, inside the great tent, specifically the place where performers gathered behind the screen. Since the tent that Cirque du Ciel used was gigantic, they don't have stuff cluttered outside of the tent, unlike other circuses. Instead, they have a separate room, where I am in right now, where the stuff they used was gathered.

There, I found lions, tigers, and all manners of animals being trained by the beast tamer. I also found pierrots and trapeze artists balancing themselves on either large balls or a strip of rope high up in the air. There were also strongmen who lifted boulders.

Ciel guided me through the jungle of animals and performers, leading me towards the deepest part of the Circus, the ringmaster's living space and office, which was a wagon-house as large as an adult elephant.

She knocked on the door of the wagon, saying, "Grandfather, I found someone to take your place tonight."

An aged voice replied, "Come in."

Inside the wagon was various trinkets and paraphernalia used to perform acrobatics, everything you'd expect from a ringmaster's room. However, I could also spot some stuff that might be related to the ringmaster's daily life, such as all the religious symbols and books.

As a sign of respect, I greeted first, "Greetings sire, my humble name is Layne Karlott. It's a pleasure to meet you," I bowed.

He looked at me judgingly, before finally nodding, and saying, "This boy's not bad. Fine, I can let you help, but only if you sign a non-disclosure agreement. Also, you can call me Ashur, Ashur Bhan."

"It shall be done. Do you have a non-disclosure agreement on you or should I draft one myself?" I replied and asked. Adding in, "I don't have any paper on my person right now."

The ringmaster opened a drawer beside his small desk and took out a piece of blank paper. After writing on it for a minute or two, he gave the paper to me, saying, "Here, sign this."

Glancing at the paper, I could see what it entails. It stated that I shall not expose whatever information I got from the circus, whether that information was vital or not. If I broke this agreement, the circus will sue me. There were also some kinds of symbols I couldn't understand, which I attributed to the ringmaster's religious activities.

"Here you go, Mr Ashur," I replied to the ringmaster before giving him the signed non-disclosure agreement.

"Alright then kid. Ciel, you can tell the boy our acts and timetables," The ringmaster commanded.

Nodding to her grandfather before pulling my hand, she said, "Come here then, there will be much to learn if you want to sell the show correctly. There are some acts with backstories and some acts of pure skill, you might also have to sell the performer's story to the audience. That's why grandfather asked you to sign that agreement, we don't want some sensitive information that was the lifeblood of the circus leaked."

While thinking the lady in front of me can't really gauge the distance between a man and a woman, I said, acquiescing, "I understand".

Thus, I started learning about who does what, where they came from, and how the act came to be. Which, to be fair, will really help me sell the show to their audience this night.

While I was learning and studying the information they dumped on me, the sun marched on towards its destination, the horizon, and the moon took over its place.

It's showtime.