Lily Bennett had no choice but to withdraw her gaze in frustration, turn around, and walk alongside him.

On the way to the warehouse, Little Boy lowered his voice and spoke with feigned mystery:

"Do you believe it? That man is definitely not Emily Foster's brother. She must have hired someone to come and pretend to be her relative."

Lily Bennett recalled Emily Foster's waxen face and said, "...Why would she hire someone to act as her brother?"

"Are you stupid!" Little Boy said. "Of course it's because she's a 'freak.' She doesn't have to do anything—just stand there and she can rake in the money. There's even a freak in London who met the British princess!"

Lily Bennett echoed him a couple of times, but inside she felt certain things weren't as simple as they seemed.

The circus manager was a man driven solely by profit—how could he possibly let go of such a cash cow so easily, just because she found her family?

Just yesterday, he was still encouraging two children to fight each other to the death.

Wait.

She almost forgot, Eric Carter wasn't that old, at most sixteen or seventeen.

...And yet she had been so frightened by a wounded teenage boy that she couldn't move.

But thinking of how he had gradually approached her, his eyes cold and hollow behind the white mask, the blade hovering above her cheek as if it could pierce her throat at any moment, she couldn't help but shiver.

He was completely a beast devoid of humanity.

If she could, she really didn't want to deal with him again.

The "warehouse" Little Boy spoke of was actually just a covered wagon, filled with a pungent, moldy stench. Between the wooden crates, cobwebs had already formed.

A thick layer of dust coated the shelves, where a row of wide-mouthed jars sat, each containing animal livers of various sizes, preserved in liquid.

Moving things was hard work, and neither Lily Bennett nor Little Boy spoke. For a while, only the creaking of the wagon's wooden boards could be heard.

When only the last crate remained, Little Boy made an excuse about needing to pee and slipped off somewhere.

Lily Bennett waited a long time, but he didn't return. Noon was approaching, so she had no choice but to open the crate and start moving things out, one by one.

Inside seemed to be some bizarre exhibition items: for example, a mermaid's skeleton, a giant's hand bone, a cursed portrait, a doll possessed by an evil spirit... At the very bottom, she even saw a fetal specimen.

It was an embryo no bigger than her palm, its whole body smooth and sticky, as if wrapped in a gelatinous membrane. The slits of its facial features were already visible, as if it might open its eyes at any moment.

Lily Bennett didn't want to look at it closely. She was about to close the crate and carry it out when she suddenly noticed a label on the jar:

"'Four-legged woman' Emily Foster's child, born by accident. Thank you to her for allowing us to make a specimen, to show the world how wondrous God's handiwork is! Even a deformed child can give birth to life."

Lily Bennett felt a chill run through her entire body.

Thinking of what Little Boy had said about "the popularity of freaks," it was hard not to imagine something dark—Emily Foster got pregnant and didn't want to stay in the circus anymore, so the manager used some means to make her miscarry, then turned her fetus into a specimen for people to gawk at.

That would explain why Emily Foster's face was so pale, and why she hadn't spoken a word—

Most importantly, the manager valued profit so much that he wouldn't even spare Emily Foster's fetus.

Would he really let Emily Foster leave?

Or rather, would he let any member leave the circus?

The specimen jar was sealed tightly, but Lily Bennett felt as if the liquid inside was seeping through the glass, soaking into her fingers, burrowing into her veins, crawling in a whisper around her ears.

It took her more than ten seconds to realize that this was what it felt like to be utterly terrified.

Calm down, calm down.

She forced herself to suppress all her panic, treating everything as if it were a survival horror game.

The win condition: escape the circus.

Known character information: the manager, Mike Harris, Emily Foster, Little Boy, Eric Carter.

The manager was a profit-driven, ruthless pervert; Mike Harris was the manager's nephew; Little Boy seemed mature but was actually simple-minded.

Emily Foster's plight was pitiful—not only was her unborn child made into a specimen, but she herself was likely sold off by the manager—that tall, thin man was definitely not her brother.

But Emily Foster was physically impaired; there was no way she could help her escape the circus.

After all this, her only option left was Eric Carter.

This circus was so bizarre that there was no way she could escape on her own.

She had to bring Eric Carter in.

Even if he was the phantom of the theater, even if he might fall into a murderous frenzy at any moment, she had to grit her teeth and win him over.

Chapter 5

After moving everything, Little Boy reappeared, grinning as he apologized to her.

Lily Bennett had too much on her mind to bother arguing with him.

Lunch was stew and potatoes, and it tasted awful. The stew had only a pinch of salt and gave off a greasy, fishy smell. The only thing she could swallow was the potatoes, but their skins hadn't been properly peeled.

Lily Bennett ate until she was nearly in tears.

Still, lunch wasn't a total loss—at least she learned that Little Boy's name was John Smith. Next time he tried to slack off, she could shout at him by name.

Just like in the morning, Eric Carter still hadn't appeared.