☀️ Arselia and Akonia

As Beata had planned, the sorceress's performance became the highlight of the show, bringing it to a close. She was ready to endlessly admire the joyful faces of the audience, almost physically feeling the delight of the crowd, but everything has its end, and her circus performance was no exception. All that remained was to summarize and end the show on a festive note. She steps onto the stage again, signaling the other performers, including the musician, to stand next to her. Guyon thought this didn't apply to him – after all, he had been leaning against the tent wall the whole time, keeping a watchful eye to make sure nothing went wrong. But Beata made a mysterious face, looking intently at him, and beckoned him with her finger. With a sigh, Guyon changed his position because he knew Beata wouldn't give up. After what he had told her the night before, he had partly expected Beata to lock him in the storage room, ensuring no curious eyes and protecting his privacy, but she seemed determined to fight fire with fire. The main thing was that she didn't start kissing him in public, because he definitely wasn't ready for that. But changing position didn't mean he relaxed – Guyon still paid close attention to his surroundings, listening to Beata and the crowd's reaction only with the corner of his ear and politely smiling and nodding at the right moments. However, Beata was satisfied with just standing next to him. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's once again greet the people without whom this performance would not have taken place!" She gestured broadly to her troupe. "I would also like to thank our dear administration, represented by Levi Leonhart, for helping with the organization of the performance, Alexandra from 'Ornament,' who sewed these wonderful costumes for us in record time, and Creon from Kridear, who helped build the stage – unfortunately, he cannot be with us now. And thank you to everyone else whom I haven't mentioned, but who contributed!" She didn't mention Dakhsa by name as punishment for his behavior, but she implied that he was one of those "others." She hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to add a passage about the victims of Zostmer to her speech, but decided not to spoil the holiday by reminding people of sad events – after all, the victims were also in the category of "others." Smile and wave, put on a good face. There is only room for joy here, and sadness can be left for backstage. She silently offered prayers to the gods, dedicating the performance to those killed by the maniac. "See, guys? We did it. We made it. You didn't die in vain, the holiday still took place." In those moments, a mysterious, sad half-smile appeared on her face – those who knew about the tragedy could understand what she was thinking, and those who didn't could continue to remain blissfully unaware. "Speaking of Kridear!" – her gaze caught Klin in the audience. – "Count Chegver, Your Excellency, I hope we will have something to please you with, and you will have something to rebuild your homeland!" – she nodded towards the donation box. A subtle hint, with an important person as a witness, so that they wouldn't think she was trying to put all the collected money in her pocket. To be honest, Beata wouldn't refuse such an opportunity, but she hadn't worked on her reputation just to ruin it, and the goodwill of the townspeople was much more pleasant to her than money. "Today in Margel is very fun and there are many different interesting activities! – she turned to all the spectators again. – Many people tried to prepare something for the holiday, to entertain and delight the townspeople! It would be terribly rude of us to steal your attention for the whole day, wouldn't it?" She smirked. "See you again, friends! Long live the imperial house of Es Dires Arual and Her Majesty Empress Naria! I love you, Margel!!!" – she spreads her arms as if she wants to embrace the whole city. "Guys, keep an eye out," Guyon whispered to the Karneolians standing next to him. "A huge crowd is coming, there will be a terrible crush, and anything can happen in that crush." He himself put his words into action. When the audience dispersed, Beata turned to her troupe. "Well done, guys, you did great! You can consider yourselves professional circus performers!" – she laughed. – "You worked wonderfully, you were very confident, and you can't even say that you're amateurs!" "Yes, everyone performed great. Sorry, I was only paying attention with the corner of my eye, but I still appreciated it." "Guyosh, you did great too. Your work wasn't as spectacular as ours, but it was just as important, if not more so." She gives Laikos and the Queen 20 rem each. After that, she smiles broadly and adds another hundred and a half. "I'm giving you a 300% bonus for your excellent work! Bravo! You are born artists!" She throws a questioning look at Guyon – did she use the percentages correctly? Guyon nodded – yes, everything was correct. Then Beata turns to Arivell and gives her 200 rem. "You saved us. You saved the whole performance! And you did a great job, bravo! I think the audience didn't even suspect that the replacement came at the last moment and we were ready to perform without a musician, that's what I call putting on a good face. And thank you, boss, for finding a third gem in our collection so quickly." "Sorry for the unexpected situation, and for the whole unexpected situation 😅 Force majeure is force majeure. I hope we didn't shock you too much," Guyon said guiltily. Beata -540 rem "Phew... I don't want to keep anyone waiting any longer, the only thing is that we need to check our pirate chest of treasures and distribute the funds. Initially, I planned to leave some for ourselves, but then things happened, and that became irrelevant, so we will give everything to Kridear and for the restoration of the center, although it is already more or less cleared. But I guess I need to discuss that with Klin? – she looks around for the Kridearian, has he come to them or has he run off on his own business? "And in general, we need to check what's there," Guyon noted. "I was watching, of course, but I'm just one person and I could have missed something. What if Dakhs threw in some cow dung?" – he snorted contemptuously. "He should have cow dung thrown into his skull, at least there would be some content there," Beata giggled. She didn't hold a grudge against this pest, he even amused her a little and put her in a good mood. Guyon smiled and shook his head. "In general, everyone worked great, thank you all, well done!"