The Freak Show Foreman

"I’m really sorry about this. I told you I’d leave everything to you, but I showed up like this all of a sudden. But you see, things took an unexpected turn…"

"Don’t lie! It was all planned from the beginning."

At that moment, a loud cheer erupted from the lower floor.

The entire coal exchange was buzzing with activity.

Some seemed to be crying tears of joy.

The sound of footsteps shook the entire building.

Everyone seemed overwhelmed with joy, not knowing how to react.

Of course, they would be.

They had thought they would all become unemployed overnight, but they had survived. And they would continue doing the same work.

Pierre spun his hat in his hand and said, "No, think about it. Did we really have the resources to send dozens of our employees here from the beginning? The cost? The conditions for their training? And the chaos that would have occurred while they settled in? It’s best to just keep them employed."

"Then you should have explained it that way from the beginning. What’s the point of all this? Just me. Do you know how hostile those people have been looking at me for the past few days?"

Pierre smiled as he looked at the complaining Anais.

"Thanks to that, we’ve reduced the expected labor costs by nearly 70%. If we had approached it in a more cooperative manner from the beginning, we wouldn’t have been able to cut it by even 30%. Because you were so determined to cut them all, my appearance came to be seen as a Saviour to them."

Anais had many complaints, but it was hard for her to deny his words.

In the world of commerce, if there was any hint of dissatisfaction on your side, there would be nothing more to negotiate.

"This is what they call ’push and pull’ happening on the spot. It’s a fundamental negotiation skill. As a merchant, you should always have the attitude to negotiate under any circumstances. Even if you’re wandering through the desert and someone suddenly appears and demands gold coins for the water you desperately want, you should just clench your fist and calmly ask, ’Why should I buy that?’"

Anais thought carefully about his words, calming her anger.

Push and pull.

Similar concepts included the carrot and the stick.

She had heard of these concepts before.

But she didn’t know they could be used like this.

If she had been just reading documents at home, she would never have experienced this.

"Anyway, this time, you did well. These complicated mining rights would have required dozens of company employees to stick together for months, but you handled it all by yourself."

"I wasn’t alone. There were a few other employees, and besides, there’s Mars…"

Anais quickly closed her mouth.

Mars was a trouble-shooter who helped Vergsong Company in the field.

He was an expert in information gathering and rumor tracking.

This time, she was able to resolve the complicated mining rights issue not only because of her brilliant mind but also thanks to his substantial support.

It would be nice to gather and pop open a bottle of champagne together, but he didn’t like revealing himself.

Especially, he didn’t like his name being mentioned.

He claimed that he could hear the voice calling his name no matter where he was in the world.

If the public were to learn about his existence and his name, he might find it impossible to sleep due to the echoes of people’s voices in his head.

So he lived in hiding.

Only three people within the company knew his name.

Geralt, Pierre, and Anais.

Others usually referred to him as "the hound brought information" or "the hound went tracking."

"…In any case, the help from the others was significant."

"Hehe, no need to be so modest. They were all intimidated by the charisma of the Iron Mask."

The Iron Mask.

Anais frowned.

"Don’t call me that way! What’s ’Iron Mask’? A iron mask! Isn’t it too intimidating as a nickname for a girl like me?"

"Haha, wasn’t it thanks to that mask that no one tried to push you away? If you had threatened with a child’s face, would it have worked out as smoothly? The Iron mask set the mood right, and thanks to it, my ’pulling’ worked perfectly."

That’s how they discussed the aftermath of their recent mission.

Not long after, the director of the coal exchange came up.

He had only been down for less than 30 minutes, but he was already tipsy and emotional.

"Haha, this cake was originally for a farewell party! Now it’s for celebration! Cheers!"

He placed plates with cakes in front of Pierre and Anais and went back to enjoy the party.

Anais watched his back as he went downstairs.

Perhaps because he was drunk.

He had forgotten that Anais couldn’t eat.

Instead, she received nutrition through a tube attached to her back.

It had been this way since last year.

When she was five years old, the machine was only used for about two hours a day to assist her breathing.

But as the years went by, her lungs weakened, and the time she spent wearing the mask increased.

Since last year, it had become impossible to take it off even for a moment.

Of course, she could technically eat if she wanted to.

Taking off the respirator wouldn’t immediately stop her lungs from functioning.

But given the inconvenience of the process and the memory of how her stomach reacted with seizures when she tried to eat once, it was easier to just give up.

Now she was forgetting what sweetness, saltiness, and bitterness even were.

The only thing that touched her tongue was the cold air coming through the metal filter.

"No…"

Would she have to live like this, bound to a metal device until she died?

Without ever sharing warmth with another person?

Was that her fate?

"Anais."

What was going on in her uncle’s head?

What was the ’Iron Mask’ he mentioned?

All she wanted was…

All she wanted was just…

"Anais!"

Her uncle’s shout.

She looked up.

Her uncle was looking at her with a sad expression.

His gaze momentarily went down.

Anais looked at her own hand.

The fork she was holding was not piercing the cake; she was crushing it.

Without realizing it, her emotions had gotten the best of her as she struggled with food she couldn’t even eat.

She placed the cake back on the table.

The plate made a shaky noise.

Her excitement had subsided, but her trembling didn’t stop.

Then, Pierre handed her a handkerchief.

"Wipe your tears."

"Ah."

Anais touched the upper part of her mask.

It was filled with tears.

It had flowed from her eyes.

"My pretty face is going to be ruined."

"Well, you are not that pretty, to be honest."

"Again, again."

Anais wiped her tears with the handkerchief until she felt a slight pain.

Pierre watched her with a teasing grin.

"Tsk tsk, I envy you. I really do. Being a cry-baby. What will your future husband say?"

"…Do you think I’ll get married?"

"Are you advocating for singlehood?"

In response to Pierre’s mischievous question, Anais spoke with a somewhat sulky voice.

"Who would want to marry me…"

Anais looked at her own body.

There were tubes for injecting specially balanced air into her mask,

Tubes for regulating the pressure to make her chest expand and contract on her back,

and tubes for injecting nutrients into her side.

And from the metal mask covering her nose and mouth, there was the sound of air hissing through the filters.

In the back of the room, the machinery kept making a continuous noise as it ran.

"Tsk tsk, look at that look in your eyes. So, is that how you plan to catch the man of your dreams?"

"…I’ll just catch him."

"Love isn’t that easy, you know. Love is like a strategy game. Like I said earlier, it’s about giving and taking. That’s important even in relationships between men and women."

"Can’t you just like someone because you like them?"

Pierre chuckled as if he had heard the most innocent statement ever.

"Negotiating in relationships is somewhat similar. You need skills to push and pull, to hold and shake the other person’s hand."

He mimicked crushing something invisible with his clenched fist.

Anais raised her eyebrows at his words.

"But Uncle Pierre, you can’t even do that with Aunt Renaud, right?"

His grip on his fist loosened as he let out an awkward laugh.

"Well, you see… Some things you really want, you just can’t help it, even if it means losing everything else."

"Really want something… even if it means losing everything else?"

Anais looked dreamy, as if lost in thought.

Pierre thought that was enough consolation for now.

So, he added a more practical piece of advice.

"No, remember this. If you wander through the desert and someone appears before you with something you really, really want, it might be poisoned."

***

Anais was startled awake by a loud crashing noise.

She blinked her eyes open and looked around.

It was her office, set up in a room at the Metropol Hotel.

The time was late morning, with the sunlight streaming in from the south-facing window.

She had fallen asleep on her desk while reviewing the documents she had been working on.

That’s probably why she had that dream.

A few papers lay scattered on the desk – something about coal mine management, coal reserves estimates, and low-carbon (???). It was related to a mining district under Vergsong Merchant Guild’s control.

She had been reviewing those documents before she dozed off.

Was that why she had that dream?

Her mind wandered back to a few weeks of outings when she was ten.

For Anais, who rarely ventured outside the mansion, those were some of her precious memories.

It seemed ridiculous that the person who had tried to kill her during those outings often appeared in her dreams.

"What was that noise just now? Did Porsche cause it?"

"They seemed to be practicing something in the circus troupe."

He gestured toward the window.

Anais approached and looked down at the garden.

Whatever they were doing, the once meticulously maintained garden was now a mess, covered in dirt.

It seemed like something like fireworks or explosives, had gone off.

Anais quickly scanned the people in the area.

The person she was looking for stood out immediately.

A handsome young man with blonde hair and a black suit was near the site of the explosion.

Though his suit and cloak were dirty, he appeared unharmed.

Anais breathed a sigh of relief but then froze.

It was because of the purple-haired woman peeking through his cloak.

The spider woman, Yurakne.

One of the members of the circus troupe.

Perhaps at the moment of the explosion, he had shielded her with his cloak.

Clang.

Anais’s fingers lightly scratched the window as she clenched her fist.