Just stories, stories from the Night Circus.
A tale from a small village in some kingdom, where a beautiful witch suddenly appeared and threw every family in the village into discord. This witch had a special trait—she sang beautifully, enchanting nearly every man in the village, who lingered outside her house day and night.
They stopped working and lost all care for their families!
Then the witch became the enemy of all the village women. When the women united and beat her half to death, driving her out of the village, the real calamity had only just begun. At first, it was just vomiting, spreading through the village like a plague. Then they felt their limbs grow stiff and rigid, their skin turning rough like tree bark.
In the end, the entire village turned into wooden statues, with only a mentally unstable little girl surviving.
She was the one who sang that ballad:
*The little village... has died;* *Everyone frozen, or fled.* *Every place is empty and bare,* *Only me and my toys there.*
"That's the story of the Mad Girl, a tale from some village in the western country of Shata. I heard it when I was little." As soon as the three girls finished, Freya, who was eating at the head of the table, already knew the whole story.
"By then, we already felt symptoms of vomiting and stiffness, but it happened so suddenly. We originally wanted to write about the village, but since it was so similar to the story from the Night Circus, we only wrote down these few words..." said the girl sitting closest to Sean.
They hadn't written down the key point. If they were going to write a note, it would have been better to just write "Katia Village Circus." Why did she think to write that ballad first? Wasn't that deliberately misleading?
Sean instinctively checked the three girls' statuses—their favorability was all [Friendly].
But they had no idea what they had done. Simply because Freya had introduced herself as a member of the Sky-Obscuring Wings, and Sean had suggested saving them, this level of goodwill was normal.
It wasn't the first time he'd seen favorability drop from high...
So while the three were speaking, Sean deliberately observed their statuses and found nothing unusual.
Maybe he was overthinking it...
If the three girls had intended to mislead Freya, they wouldn't have used their own bodies, would they? After all, it was *them* who got [Stiffened~].
"Sean? Sean..."
"Huh."
Freya called out to him, snapping him out of his daze.
"What are you thinking about?"
She glanced at the plate on the table... Sean looked down at his own hand and realized he had stabbed his fork into the table!
"What's got you so lost in thought?"
"Nothing serious, just spaced out..."
"Share your thoughts. I can tell you've been pondering something." Freya seemed to enjoy hearing his opinions on all sorts of matters, asking him about everything big and small.
The five girls in front of him were all watching him. Sean tried to think of an excuse to brush it off.
After all, he had just been suspecting the people in front of him... Without evidence, it wasn't wise to bring it up. If they ended up in Rietis later and these girls were still around, it could cause conflict.
"I'm just a bit curious—would these things really be talked about in a circus?" He brought up this question on the spot.
In Tylermian, Sean had never seen a circus performance, but in his impression, a circus was just acrobatics, animal taming, and other flashy, nerve-wracking shows.
"Tch~ I thought it was something serious. Isn't that normal?" The little witch Karyana said with another [Disdain!].
"Karyana..."
Freya chided her, then explained to Sean.
"Circuses often have performers mixed in. They usually tell various stories and anecdotes they've collected, whetting the audience's appetite before selling their own novels. It's a very common profession."
Oh, performers.
Well, he'd learned about another profession today.
No wonder she said she'd heard this version of the story before, back when she was a child...
Freya never revealed her actual age, and of course, Sean didn't dare ask. But judging from Count Hamil, she was at least thirty. If she said she heard it as a child, he probably wasn't even born yet.
"Still, your line of thinking is right. This circus is probably problematic. That story has been around for a long time, but no similar incidents have been reported from that village. If you hadn't brought this up, I wouldn't have connected it to the Mad Girl story. But your situation now closely mirrors the story's setting... I suppose you were trying to hint at this story for me."
Freya fell silent for a moment, a [Thinking!] status appearing above her head.
"A circus that only performs at night..."
"Karyana." Freya suddenly spoke.
"Yes, I'm here."
"Later, continue delivering the letter to Rietis. Tell Sohana the full details of what happened, and have her notify Prince Philip to send someone to check on the Katia village."
"Yes, Leader."
"If you all are showing symptoms, what condition would the villagers be in by now?"
The four girls fell into silence...
"So we can't just stay here. We need to return to Rietis immediately and wait for news."
Sean had expected that after this problem arose, Freya would suggest going directly to the village to investigate. Instead, she chose to go back first...
But thinking it over, this was the right call. After all, the prince was still waiting for news from Koca City. They couldn't afford to waste more time on this, especially since Koca City had directly encountered events related to the Cain Tablet, along with those garbled creatures he couldn't even understand.
Comparatively, at least this [Stiffened~] effect was visible and could be dealt with.
Prioritizing the bigger issue over the smaller one was basic common sense. It was just a pity about that village... If the same thing had really happened there, there might be no way to fix it by then.
"Oh, and make sure to tell Sohana the method to break the curse, and have people monitor all surrounding cities. If that circus is spotted anywhere, detain everyone involved!"
Seeing that Karyana hadn't left yet, Freya added a few more instructions.
Just then, a sudden knock came at the door...
Everyone stopped.
Freya signaled the little witch to go see who it was.
The visitor was a soldier in full armor!
As soon as the door opened, he spoke respectfully.
"Excuse me, is the Red Dragon Witch of the Sky-Obscuring Wings here? General Daniel would like to invite her to visit his residence."
Huh? What's this?
Sean looked at Freya, who was also frowning.