Chương 70: The Oracle Hand

"We're friends, right? Please give me a second chance!" Mateo fully prostrated himself on the ground, head touching the ground and arms flat ahead of him.

"I'm so sorry! Please don't fire me!" Beside him, Clara matched his pose, her words between sniffles and the ground damp beneath her face.

"Don't fire them! They're hard workers, I know they'll do better next time!" For some reason, Toan had decided to join the duo in begging. He hadn't even been a major part of the performance. Evel turned to Yuna, "What's wrong with them?" She sighed.

"They think you'll fire them because they messed up so badly. And they're probably afraid you'll go out of business because the show had so few people."

"And what do you think?"

"Well, Clara did mess up that metamorphosis trick, then later tripped up one of the guests. Then, also ran out sobbing for the night. On the other hand, Mateo forgot all his lines, introduced the wrong trick a couple of times, and even fell off the stage at the end." The three somehow grovelled deeper. Clara is begging harder than when her dad needed food…

"But," Yuna continued.

"You've already invested so much into them that I can't really see a world where one mistake is all it takes to get kicked out. As for the show, the audience loved it. I'm sure they'll be back with their friends next week." Evel turned back to the three grovelling at his feet.

"They did mess up pretty bad, didn't they?" He chuckled.

"But for their first performance with no real experience, they held themselves together pretty well. I wasn't exactly expecting perfection."

"Until Clara ran away mid-performance." Yuna smiled. Evel shook his head with a sigh.

"Alright, you three, nobody is getting fired. Get up." The three slowly got up. Now, Mateo also looked as if he were about to cry. Why cry now? Wasn't he just given good news?

"R-really?" The friendly, round-faced simpleton asked.

"You guys did an overall decent job for your first-ever performance with a severe lack of any experience. With this being an introduction to magic shows, I doubt they even noticed your missteps. Honestly. Well, except a few of the worst ones, I guess." Clara fell back down to her knees and broke into tears again.

"Th-th ahnk you stho mahch" She mumbled between tears, dampening the floor even further. Seeing his colleague so sad must have evoked similar feelings within Mateo's heart since he immediately also broke down into tears. Evel massaged his forehead as the two continued to cry and comfort each other. On the side, Toan was looking away, covering his eyes and holding back his tears, like a dam on the verge of giving in. These guys…

"Tomorrow is your day off, so after clearing up the stage, go home. As always, make sure to take home anything valuable since we don't have anyone protecting this place. We'll hire more people eventually." With that final command, Evel left. It was getting impossible to maintain his ruthless businessman persona with these… characters running amok. Today's performance was very successful. Sure, Mateo forgot some lines, and a few tricks were messed up.

And sure, Clara running away mid performance in tears wasn't the greatest look, but in the end, it was him who was the star of the show. They had done more than an adequate job of allowing him to show off his skills. His plan for the circus didn't really rely much on the success in the slums. In fact, it almost didn't matter at all. What he was more concerned about was making sure his debut in Upper Ichoris was perfect. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road.

If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Up there, they had operas, plays, concerts – other forms of entertainment that the slums just couldn't quite match up to. There, it would actually be important to make sure the first impression landed properly. Every single performance here was just practice and making sure his workers were up for the task, and so far, if nothing else, their enthusiasm alone was enough. Yuna was calm-headed and rational. He planned on making her responsible for overall management.

Clara was passionate. Whatever she did, she tried her best, although that passion quickly turned into anxiety and fear. Toan was artistic and surprisingly diligent — perfect for costume design. Right now, his work was amateurish, but like every art, it was a skill that improved with time and practice. And Mateo was the social glue that kept the rest of them happy. Even Evel enjoyed his presence and little pranks, despite trying to maintain his Eth persona.

He also had serious talent to eventually become another star of the show. Eventually. As Evel walked through the dark alleys, illuminated only by the moonlight and the white ash that reflected it, he occasionally heard murmurs. At some point, he heard a familiar voice, so he decided to listen in.

"And then he sawed her in half! Blood was everywhere, and she was screaming like crazy!" The first person was excitedly explaining.

"Yeah, but maybe that was just their ability? Ricky's got one, doesn't he? It's less useful than my mother-in-law, but he's not going around pretending he's not using it." This second voice was unfamiliar.

"Nope. No aura at all! And I even got to get close to one of the tricks! Even if it was an ability, the fact that we would get to see someone so skilled to hide the aura in person isn't worth anything to you?"

"And they all could do this?"

"No, no, only the magician guy! He was like an oracle. It was crazy. He knew exactly what card I had without even looking at the deck! I snooped around a bunch, but I couldn't find anything that would let him take photos of the card either."

"You sure his ability wasn't hypnosis or something? Maybe he gave you a brain worm."

"DUDE. Just come next week, I swear it'll be crazy. And it's only 2 Riak, which isn't that much once a week to spend on something so crazy. Trust me. The way his hands move will just mesmerize you."

"First of all, that's a weird thing to say. Second of all, fine. But if it's all bullshit, then you owe me 2 Riak."

"And if I can get you to admit it's good, you'll get me entrance to the next one?"

"Done." With a smile, Evel kept walking. The show left the intended impression. The remaining week passed much the same. Evel continued training with Albert, helping his workers improve their crafts in the circus, and doing some training during the nights. He fell into a steady rhythm, spending his free time going on runs around Upper Ichoris. It helped him train his body, but also get familiar with his next stage ahead of time.

The circus kept bleeding money, but admittedly, the 25 Riak a day was not a great sum, so Agent didn't care at all, as long as he assured them he'd expand north soon. Throughout the slums, whispers of the circus spread like fire, often by those who had never even gone. It turned into a local legend, and many people wanted to claim that they had been the first to see the performance. Yet, even then, many people refused to spend the extra 2 Riak.

After all, if they spent it properly, they could maybe even stretch that over two meals. Soon, Evel began hearing a new nickname float around.

'The Oracle Hand' Since it was better than anything he himself could come up with, he decided to run with it and told Toan to update the posters. COME SEE THE GREATEST ILLUSIONS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN! ICHORIS LEGERDEMAIN THE ORACLE HAND PERFORMS! EVERY SUNDAY EVENING Toan might have overdone it… The next performance came as scheduled, and the number of people almost quadrupled. From just 14 people to 50 in just one week was a massive improvement.

The tricks continued, and this time, Clara didn't break down in the middle of the performance. Instead, she completed the metamorphosis trick in an extremely quick time. To achieve such a feat no doubt took an immense amount of practice, even outside their dedicated times. Mateo managed to remember most of his lines and only had a few slip-ups along the way.

With such a large crowd, it became difficult to accommodate everybody with just their four staff members, so they were forced to drop all the acts that required Toan to support, and he instead went around ensuring all the menial tasks were done, such as stopping fights, keeping things clean, directing people around, and so on. After this performance, Evel finally made the decision to hire more staff. Mateo remained the 'head of the staff' in title since he was so popular, but he wasn't very reliable.

He liked people too much, and people liked him too much. Instead, Yuna became the true person in charge, given the title 'Manager'. Their circus grew to a total of eight workers, but the new hires took on simpler roles. Manning the front door, security, cleaning messes, and so on. They also created a partnership with nearby restaurants that offered to advertise the circus throughout the week, as long as their restaurant was mentioned at the very end of the show, when everybody was hungry.

It was mutually beneficial, and perhaps one of the main reasons why their next show broke over 150 people. The legend of The Oracle Hand spread even further, and soon almost everybody living in the slums had learned of him, at least in passing. The circus was thriving, but as the size of the audience and the number of employees kept increasing, so did the busy work. Gradually, it expanded enough to take a noticeable chunk of each of Evel's days.

Still, the days progressed smoothly with his training continuing in full force. It was the day after the third week of the show that he got the video transmission from Avid.

"Dissent is moving."