One-Eyed Monster

Kadi instantly understood what Igor meant, then he sprang up from the bed in excitement.

Igor hurriedly pressed down on his shoulders to calm him, reminding him there were others here, not to expose his identity so fast.

But Kadi’s movement was still too big; with a bang he smashed his head into the slats of the upper bunk.

The loud noise woke up the light sleepers at once, they thought something important had happened.

The red‑haired man was one of those unlucky light sleepers; he looked toward the source of the sound and asked with concern, ”What happened, what’s going on?!”

”He…” At that moment Igor’s hand was on Kadi, and he was frantically thinking of all kinds of excuses to fob these people off. ”He had a nightmare, every now and then he has a spell like this.”

Igor spoke while patting Kadi’s shoulder, as if comforting him.

”A nightmare, huh! Just drink a cup of sugar water before bed and you’ll be fine.” The red‑haired man yawned, then lay back down and quickly fell asleep again.

The others also scratched their heads and went back to sleep.

Watching them lie down again, Igor let out a long breath of relief; he had finally quieted them down.

The big guy Quinn tiptoed over and looked at Kadi with concern. ”What, dreaming about the amnesia again?”

It seemed this Quinn did care about Igor and the others.

Kadi stared blankly at the big lug, not knowing how to answer for a moment.

This guy named Quinn seemed a bit too enthusiastic, and this kind of enthusiasm felt a little strange to Kadi.

But Kadi also knew this was not the time to casually expose his identity; he still had to keep playing out this ”amnesia” setup.

So facing the obviously warm‑hearted Quinn, Kadi rubbed his head. ”I think about this question all day long, sigh!”

”Don’t worry, there’ll be a way here!” Quinn whispered, afraid that speaking too loudly would wake the others.

”Let’s hope so.” Kadi sighed and rolled over to sleep again.

Igor also turned over and went to sleep, no longer responding to Quinn’s enthusiasm. For Igor and the others, the more enthusiastic Quinn was, the more they felt they might slip up.

However, the way the two of them acted looked completely different in Quinn’s eyes.

Quinn thought, have these two guys discovered who I am, is that why they’re being so cautious with me?

With this doubt in mind, Quinn returned to his own bed. To him, these two were a bit special; if it weren’t for that blue‑skinned guy’s unique Energy, he wouldn’t have been paying them special attention.

Quinn knew these two had secrets, and were desperately hiding something. He still didn’t know their real purpose in joining the Circus, but it wouldn’t be long before he figured it out. On his turf, no one got to stir up trouble.

For now, he’d just see what exactly these two wanted to do.

Quinn slowly walked back to his bunk and fell into a deep sleep.

Time slipped by with a swish, and before long the sky had brightened.

The Circus members all began packing; one performance in a place was over, they were heading to another. They had always lived this drifting life, so every Circus was a troupe of performers on the move.

Captain Stanley was very experienced. The hired hands he’d recruited quickly helped them pack up all the equipment and props; the few large wagons were stuffed to the brim.

After finishing their work, the hired hands went to collect their pay. Igor noticed that after paying them, Stanley also handed each of them some fragments of a pill. The hired hands were delighted when they received those fragments and left in high spirits.

Igor quietly said to Kadi, ”Be careful with that pill, it’s definitely not anything good.”

Kadi nodded, then nudged Igor with his elbow. ”When are we going to make our move?”

”No rush. We need to get close to Brava first; only through him can we find new information.”

So Kadi and Igor walked over to Brava.

These Clowns would cover their faces with greasepaint during the day; they seemed to have become a kind of emblem of the Circus.

When people saw these Clowns, they knew the Circus folk had arrived, and they would get excited.

So as long as it was daytime, they would paint their faces thickly, so people could recognize their role.

Although Brava was the leader of the entire clown troupe, most of the Clowns were unwilling to get close to him, because Brava couldn’t give them any power, couldn’t make them into elites; so they didn’t want to associate with this clown leader.

Most of the time, Brava drove the wagon alone…

But this time, Brava suddenly found that he’d acquired two little followers at his side.

The two little followers were Igor and Kadi. The two of them stuck close to Brava, and their fawning attitude was way too obvious!

This surprised the red‑haired man and the others; they wondered what exactly these two were trying to do. Brava the Clown was a dead end; what future could there be in following him?

What Igor and the others were thinking, of course, they would not tell the red‑haired man and his lot. They were only approaching Brava now to find a breakthrough. Igor had already sensed that Brava had something special about him, and he wanted to use that ”specialness” to uncover the Circus’s secret.

Brava looked at Igor and Kadi’s behavior and was a bit puzzled.

”Why are you hanging around me?”

”We want to learn from you!” Igor said.

”Learn what from me?”

”Clown performance!”

This left Brava even more confused. He was wearing greasepaint now, so his identity was naturally that of a Clown. He couldn’t figure out why these two newcomers would stick to him. In the Circus, he was probably one of the lowest‑ranked existences.

He hadn’t needed to be so lowly, but that other identity clung to him like a shadow, not allowing him to fully become Brava. That identity only acknowledged the role of Clown and refused to recognize the identity of Brava!

”You should be following the Captain.”

”The Captain can’t give us what we want!” Igor and Kadi said in unison.

”Don’t you want power?” Brava was a bit confused now.

”No, we want to become who we used to be again!” Kadi shrugged as he spoke, feeling that this line would definitely strike a nerve with the Clown in front of him.

Kadi had a hypothesis about Brava’s situation, of course based on the information Igor had shared.

Sure enough, Brava’s expression changed when he heard Kadi’s words, as if something had invaded his heart. His expression grew desolate, a sharp contrast to the clownish costume, his whole body shrouded in a layer of sorrow.

Brava rubbed his eyes; there were traces of tears in them, and that moisture made the greasepaint at the corners of his eyes start to peel…

”Help me…”

At the same time, this Clown squeezed out that faint plea from between his lips!