News of the incoming circus spread through Brunhild fairly quickly. According to Kougyoku, all the children of the town were unbelievably excited by the sight of the tent being set up.
Those who didn’t live in Brunhild found everything here fascinating, but the people who did probably considered it a part of daily life. Therefore, the sight of Frame Gears training in one of our fields was probably far less interesting than a circus rolling into town.
“Hey, hey! Dad! When are we going to the circus? It starts tomorrow, doesn’t it?!”
“Calm down, I bought tickets already. They were sold out for the first showing, but I got us tickets for the second day.”
“Whaaat?! Not tomorrow?!” Linne booed and frowned, but it wasn’t like her complaining would change anything.
You could reserve seats at the circus, or you could go there on the night and get tickets then. The reserved tickets had more legroom and got you access to a better area of the tent, so I wanted those. Reserved tickets were sold out for the first day, and I didn’t want to abuse my power to kick some excited townsfolk out of their spot. I wanted this to be an experience for all of Brunhild to enjoy, so I gave up and simply booked spots for the second day instead.
I bought a total of ten tickets for me and my wives, then six tickets for our kids. We also got some tickets for Ende’s family, bringing the grand total to twenty-one tickets.
There were only sixty reserved spots to begin with, so we ended up buying a third of the seating area... Plus, it was expensive.
“I can’t wait, mom!”
“Mhm, I can’t wait either...but don’t forget you need to study today, dear.”
“Aww...” Linne grumbled a little as she went back to the textbook at her desk, but she was still smiling.
Educating our kids was important, even if they were stuck in the past. I didn’t want to send them back to the future only to find their academic abilities weren’t up to par. Yoshino and Linne found it the hardest to concentrate. Quun was a natural genius, while Arcia and Elna both tried really hard so their grades were great. What surprised me the most, however, was that Frei was remarkably gifted as an academic. I figured she wouldn’t be as scholarly-minded, since she was a weapon nut like King Felsen, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Frei, who was in the middle of cleaning one of her weapons, suddenly looked up and asked, “...Was someone thinking something rude about me?”
“It’s just your imagination.”
...Damn, she’s sharp. Guess that’s my daughter for you. Or wait, maybe she gets that from her mother?
“When watching a show, it’s best to eat something you can hold in one hand, like a sandwich or a rice ball.”
“I see... You can handle that, mother. I’ll work on smaller bite-sized things that we can have as snacks.”
Arcia and Lu were busy prepping lunch boxes. They were planning to make stuff for everyone, including Ende’s family...which made me wonder how many boxes it’d take.
“Touya, you’re getting distracted,” Yumina said as she gestured to the documents on my desk.
“Ack, my bad.”
If I wanted to go to the circus with my family the day after tomorrow, I needed to handle all of my royal duties beforehand. Otherwise, Kousaka would get mad at me. One drawback to being the ruler of a country was that you couldn’t delegate every part of managing it. Thankfully, I did have Yumina and Kousaka on hand to help me with a lot of things. Their assistance was hugely appreciated. Yumina was something of a secretary to me at this point, even.
In all honesty, Yumina and Kousaka were the ones truly running Brunhild...but I decided not to think about that.
As I was finishing up some of my paperwork and watching over my kids as they studied, Karen and Moroha came into the room and headed toward me.
“Got a minute, Touya?”
“What’s up?”
Karen gestured to follow her, so I got up and went with them.
Huh? What’s going on?
Moroha leaned in and began speaking in a quiet voice, whispering, “It’s about the circus. I figured I’d better warn you in advance. There’ll be gods in it.”
“Huh?”
Gods in the circus? What’s that supposed to mean?
Karen sighed, probably due to my visible confusion.
“You’re so slow in the head, you know? We’re saying that some of the gods who came down to this world are performers in that circus, you know?”
“What?!” I exclaimed, completely dumbfounded by Karen’s words.
You mean the gods who came down for my wedding?! They’re in the circus?! I know we’ve accounted for Granny Tokie, but the others went around the world to do their own thing, right?
If I remembered right, the gods who’d come down for my wedding were the god of strength, the god of crafting, the god of puppetry, the god of theater, the god of industry, the god of wandering, the god of glasses, the goddess of gemstones, the goddess of flowers, and the goddess of dance.
“There’s three of them. The god of strength, the goddess of dance, and the god of theater.”
“Three?!”
Three of them?! Just how blessed is this circus?! No wonder the world supposedly cheers for them!
“Luckily, they’re not using any of their powers. They’re acting in the capacity of their human alter egos. That’s why it took us so long to notice.”
Though they were in human form, my sisters and the other gods could use their divinity. If they used it, then any other divine lifeforms would be able to pinpoint their location. But if they didn’t use it, they couldn’t be tracked.
“This is gonna be a crazy circus, then.”
“I don’t think they’ll take it beyond human limits, you know? But they are extremely capable...”
...I don’t believe you. You guys see human limits way more flexibly than anyone else! You act like humans with thousands of years of training and expertise! That’s still inhuman!
“But why Brunhild?”
“I don’t think it has much meaning, you know? Circuses travel all over, so they’re probably just stopping here randomly.”
Hm... Guess if they were going from Belfast to Regulus, it’d be a logical pit stop. So wait, it’s just a coincidence? I guess if the kids weren’t here, I probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to it... But the goddess of dance, the god of theater, and the god of strength are all gonna be here...
I’d met the god of strength before when I visited the Pantheon Temple. He was insanely powerful...and most likely their strongman, which meant there was no way Elze could beat him.
The god of theater was, uh...feminine? He was male, or at least I figured he was. Gods probably didn’t have a concept of binary gender, but it was just easier for me to impose my standards on them.
As for the goddess of dance, well...she wasn’t very memorable.
“We’re gonna go see them tonight. Want to come, Touya?”
“...Do I have to?”
“No, you don’t. But this world’s under your custody, and they are technically visitors. It might be good to check in on them and see that all’s well, right? Could prevent any issues.”
“Ugh...”
As annoying as it was, Moroha had a point. I wanted to just believe they were behaving, but I had to make sure. Even if God Almighty had told them not to cause any trouble, their concept of trouble was on a different level than regular people. Checking on them before the first show was the right thing to do. Besides, Karen and Moroha had come down to the mortal realm to support me, so this fell under that category too.
“All right. I’ll come with you after I’m done with work, so wait for me.”
“Got it.”
I finished talking with my sisters and returned to my desk.
Well, can’t exactly tell the kids I’m going to the circus without them, so I’ll have to keep them in the dark about this.
I quietly resolved to sneak out of the castle later.
Gods performing in a circus, though? That sounds insane!
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