SHC Chapter 14

14. Clerical Error

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Small Hell Circus.

I lamented the fact that it had only been ten days since I started working here as an assistant.

Today, when Samdu returned from his eighth walk and stepped into the cage, he immediately breathed fire. Of course, it was Yellow.

“Here, food.”

Then, with practiced movements, I filled the bowl and pushed it inside the cage. I’d gotten pretty used to it by now.

Taking him on a life-risking walk once a day and feeding him twice a day must have helped, because thankfully, Samdu had started following me well.

Well, Yellow was an exception now and then.

The three heads attached to the same body each had their own personalities: Red was innocent like a child, Blue was clever, and Yellow was suspicious.

Every time I reached toward the food bowl, Yellow still growled. He probably thought I might steal his meal again.

But I had food prepared by the ringmaster. As if I’d steal your baby porridge again.

“Hm?”

Then I suddenly saw Yellow’s middle head bump into the top of the cage.

“Your head reaches the ceiling?”

Only a few days ago, the cage had looked perfectly spacious for him.

I quietly observed and concluded that Samdu had gotten bigger.

By now, my mind came equipped with a filter that let me overlook most of the strange things that happened inside the circus with half-lidded eyes.

No wonder, he’d felt stronger when he ran yesterday.

I refilled the food and immediately stood up.

“Ringmaster. Can we replace Samdu’s cage?”

I shouted the moment I opened the office door, but there was no response. When I peeked my head in, the room was completely empty.

‘Is he in the lodging?’

So I walked into the lodging this time, looked up toward the stairs leading to the second floor, and called out loudly.

“Ringmaster!”

Up on the stairs, the ringmaster stepped out into the small lounge, gripping the railing as he looked down at me. As always, he was wearing his ringmaster uniform.

The way he looked down at me said he’d kill me if I’d called him for something pointless, and judging by his expression, I must have woken him up.

I felt a little sorry, but what was done was done. So I raised my voice and asked him first.

“Can we change Samdu’s cage? He’s grown so much his head hits the ceiling.”

“…Take care of that yourself. You’re the caretaker.”

I was just the helper. He was the manager.

But I couldn’t call him back just to argue that, so I simply shrugged and returned to the shed where Samdu’s place was.

There were other animals in the shed too. But under the cloth-covered cages, none of them made any sound. During the day, they always slept soundlessly, no breathing, no snoring, not even the slightest shift.

Just like corpses.

The same was true for the circus performers beneath the tent.

“Samdu.”

I called one name, and all three heads perked their ears and turned toward me at once.

“It’s cramped in there, right? Come on, let’s move you.”

I opened the larger cage that had been prepared beforehand, then opened Samdu’s cage. Of course, I had already attached the chain leash.

The leash made for monsters was enchanted so that even if the person holding it was weaker, they could still control the creature. Thanks to that, I could take him on walks and move him like this without much trouble.

Fortunately, as long as I was holding this leash, Yellow didn’t breathe fire at me.

Was it the effect of the magic?

Or did he just not want to lose the person who took him on walks by burning me to death?

“How is it?”

Once he was moved to the new cage, I asked happily.

Samdu’s heads were reacting to the new space, but his tail was wagging in delight, so it seemed he liked it.

“Alright, I’ll get going now.”

His walk was done, I’d fed him, and now there was nothing I had to do until midnight.

When I stepped into the guest room of the ringmaster’s lodging, the cool air inside contrasted with the outside and welcomed me. Thanks to that, I could sleep comfortably and then return to the circus tent before everyone else woke up with no issues.

If I said I woke up earlier than the others to go see Samdu, everyone believed me.

Except Kiss.

“You weren’t there.”

He must have come looking for me again today.

Starting a few days ago, he’d been coming to find me, saying he wanted to stay with me, specifically in the area where Samdu was.

Why did he wake up so early anyway? Did he not sleep?

I ran out the moment the sun set and came straight here, so how had he already stopped by the shed?

“Where were you?”

“You know. I went to see Samdu. Guess we missed each other.”

“I went before the sun fully set.”

I blinked.

The ringmaster had once said I was the only one who could take Samdu on walks, so I assumed regular members couldn’t move around in daylight.

“You went before sunset? Then, does that mean you can move around in daylight? Or is it okay around sunset?”

As I got lost in thought and didn’t respond, Kiss watched me and then corrected himself late.

“…Technically right after sunset. But you went even earlier and came back before that?”

I scratched my head, then quickly came up with an excuse.

“Sometimes I fall asleep next to Samdu.”

Kiss tilted his head slightly with a faint smile.

“Really?”

He didn’t sound convinced.

“Really. I swear to the sky.”

The day I actually earned the nickname dog-food thief, I really had fallen asleep inside the shed.

“Hm.”

Kiss puckered his lips and made a face that clearly said he didn’t believe me, then his expression brightened.

“Alright. I’ll believe you for now. You must’ve fallen asleep in some corner.”

Then he invited me to join him in greeting guests for today’s circus show.

“If I’m told to do something, I do it.”

As an assistant with no right to refuse, I let out a deep sigh and asked,

“Then do I have to dress up like you?”

Kiss had already finished preparing for the guest reception. His outfit, decorated with fluttery lace and artificial flowers made from crumpled, thin oiled paper like tissue, had wide sleeves and ribbons attached here and there. It looked like something a doll would wear.

“You’re fine in your regular clothes.”

“Hm, but I’m not as handsome as you.”

Kiss’s eyes went wide. His pupils shifted horizontally again.

“Do you like handsome guys or something?”

“I hate them.”

His pupils rounded back as confusion filled them, so I explained right away.

“A handsome guy is my rival.”

At that, Kiss laughed harder than at any comedy.

That was annoying.

After laughing for a good while, Kiss removed one of his flashy corsages and attached it to the front of my clothes. With a white flower on black fabric, I felt like I was attending a funeral.

“A rival? I’m on your side.”

Saying that, Kiss took my hand.

“Come on. Guest reception starts before the show.”

Reception.

What Kiss called reception wasn’t anything complicated. It was basically crowd-gathering and entertaining guests, like the same department as the Pink Bear. The Pink Bear handled gathering crowds and ticketing, while Kiss gathered crowds and memorized the guests, lifting their spirits according to their type. You could say he was a preshow performer who hyped up the audience.

His reception skills were friendly yet polished.

“To think, even the Earth God has honored us with a visit! We must be getting famous. Welcome! Let me guide you to a good seat!”

After escorting a giant tiger riding on clouds, Kiss turned to welcome earth spirits who had arrived next.

His smooth silver tongue never stopped. Between his chatter, he placed kisses on the cheeks of anyone who signaled for it.

The first time I saw that, I was extremely shocked.

He kisses just anyone?

But then I remembered his name and the naming style of this circus, and I couldn’t help nodding.

“It’s fan service.”

He whispered this to me as I stood nearby with my mouth open.

“I’ve got a lot of fans.”

“So you kiss your fans? Is that allowed?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? I only do it when they want it.”

I fiddled with my lips for no reason.

“No, I mean… you. Are you okay with it?”

At that, Kiss smiled widely and took my face in both hands.

Ah. Not good.

That pose… wait.

“Don’t. Don’t do it, really.”

I waved my hands, but the difference in strength made it useless. His lips landed on my forehead. The slight plumpness of them pressed softly against my skin.

Feeling my face heat up all at once, I shoved him away by the chest.

“I like kisses.”

Saying that, as he stepped back, Kiss waved cheerfully at another approaching guest.

He was, in every sense, the flower of this circus.

Kiss was popular with all spectators, regardless of age or appearance, and thanks to that, countless kisses followed wherever he went.

To have that many fans, how long must he have been in this circus?

Even though he looked around my age, I figured he was probably old enough to be my ancestor. The thought made my head pound.

Once things settled down, and it seemed most of the audience had gone inside, we began wrapping up.

“Oh right. Samdu’s cage was different.”

“Ah… I changed it today. He got bigger.”

Bored, Kiss started chatting, and I answered without thinking.

“When I took him for a walk earlier, his head hit the ceiling.”

I froze.

I shouldn’t have said that.

I was supposed to be asleep during the day along with the rest of the troupe. I’d been hiding the fact that I took Samdu on walks in daylight.

The reason was obvious. I didn’t want anyone to realize I was human.

There could be man-eaters here, creatures that ate humans, so I tried my best not to stand out. And here I was slipping up.

I forced myself to move again, shifting a panel as if nothing had happened, watching Kiss’s reaction from the corner of my eye. He didn’t seem to think much of it.

Only then did I secretly sigh in relief and prepare to go up on stage as usual.

“……”

But the next day, in broad daylight.

While returning from walking Samdu, I saw a familiar man standing in front of the ringmaster’s container office.

A pure white man shining under the glaring midday sun hurt my eyes.

He glanced around, then slipped inside the office like a thief. It was Kiss.

‘How…?’

How was he moving around in the daytime?

Was he allowed to?

With questions filling my head, I entered the shed and put Samdu back in his cage. I was about to feed him but felt something off, so I stepped back outside and watched the container building.

The fact that he could walk around in daylight was one thing, but entering without knocking and clearly keeping watch of his surroundings was another.

‘It’s safer not to meddle in other people’s business.’

Especially here, where an ordinary human like me could easily wind up dead.

I went back inside the shed to give Samdu his food, then smacked my forehead and ran back out.

‘The lodging!’

If Kiss went into the ringmaster’s lodging for any reason, he would start finding traces of my daily life starting from the first floor. After staying there for over a week, the first floor had changed around my presence, centered on the guest room I used.

One of those traces was the slippers.

Maybe he felt sorry that I kept walking around barefoot, but the ringmaster had given me a pair of slippers that fit perfectly. I always left them right by the entrance where they were immediately visible when opening the door.

And along the path I usually walked, tissues and towels were stacked.

I didn’t know how the ringmaster lived on the second floor, but at least on the first floor there were no basics like toilet paper or tissues. So I asked him for some, and he gladly made a space for them in a corner of the first-floor lobby.

‘Suspicious in every possible way.’

If Kiss so much as turned his head slightly, he would see my lunch still lying on the table in the kitchen. If he went further in, he would find my underwear hanging to dry in the laundry room.

‘No, absolutely not.’

I hurried to the office area. Quieting my footsteps, I slowly approached the window. Carefully, I raised my head to peek inside.

Fortunately or not, Kiss was sitting in the ringmaster’s chair.

‘So he didn’t go into the lodging.’

Letting out a sigh of relief, I raised my head higher to check what he was doing.

‘A laptop?’

He was gripping a wireless mouse, moving it diligently as he stared intensely at the screen.

‘Did he come here to do something?’

Kiss watched the screen for a long while, then set down the mouse and began stroking his chin. After that, he frowned uncharacteristically, deeply absorbed in thought.

He didn’t blink at all. If not for his fingers occasionally moving over the keyboard, he would have looked like a statue.

He examined the laptop once more.

‘What is he looking at? And is he even allowed to use that without permission?’

I wondered if the laptop wasn’t the ringmaster’s but a shared one as I leaned further toward the window.

Just then, Kiss, reading something on the monitor with burning focus, suddenly snapped his head in my direction.

“!”

I barely managed to dodge out of sight.

I slowly crouched down beneath the window, then moved immediately. I rounded the corner opposite the entrance just in time to hear the window slide open with a clatter. I pressed myself tightly against the wall and stopped moving.

“Hm?”

Kiss’s voice rang out clearly.

He wasn’t trying to hide his presence.

“What are you doing over there?”

Did he catch me?

I held my breath as much as possible, trying not to make a sound.

Kiss might be the closest thing I had to a friend in this circus, but I couldn’t forget he was still not human, and still a potential suspect for being a flesh-eater.

Bad guys don’t go around with “I’m a bad guy” written on their foreheads. Being careful wasn’t a bad thing.

“You think I won’t notice if you hide?”

Kiss’s voice floated in like a pleasant breeze, his tone sing-song and playful.

What… so was it nothing?

My tension lessened a little, and I unconsciously lowered the hand covering my mouth.

Should I go out?

“Ta-da!”

Seeing him act playfully like that, maybe it was fine.

So I peeked my head out slightly. And in that moment, I saw Kiss leaning his belly on the windowsill, bending down and peering below.

His hair hung down with gravity, and between the strands his face beamed brightly.

But it wasn’t his usual smile.

“!”

My breath stopped. I quickly clapped my hand over my mouth and jerked my head back into hiding.

The Kiss I’d just seen had his mouth split wide to his ears in an exaggerated grin, eerily similar to the slit-mouthed ghost from the red mask urban legend.

The way his lips stretched upward so unnaturally looked so unreal, like something out of a cartoon, that I bit my tongue to make sure I wasn’t imagining it.

‘What the hell…’

As I squeezed my eyes shut in panic, I heard Kiss’s low murmur.

“Did I imagine it? Thought someone was down there.”

His voice was gloomy and heavy, so unlike him that it didn’t even sound like his.

A moment later, the window shut with a sharp click.

But my legs were shaking so badly, I couldn’t bring myself to move toward that side. I ended up slowly creeping in the opposite direction. There were no doors or windows here, so hiding until Kiss left felt like the safest option.

Leaning against the wall, I spent time listening intently for any sound of footsteps.

How long had it been?

Sitting behind the container building, facing the dark forest, I felt an eerie chill, as if any moment the four-legged creature that chased me days ago might appear, even though it was midday.

‘No. It’s daytime.’

It wasn’t night, and besides…

‘Even if a flesh-eater did show up, that just means Kiss isn’t the culprit, so it wouldn’t be all bad.’

Even if he had been acting suspicious just now.

Rustle.

The sound of grass shifting echoed from somewhere.

‘No way…’

Eyes wide, I stared into the forest.

And soon enough, I saw the shape of a large beast within the trees.

“……!”

I jumped to my feet and pressed my back to the wall. For some reason, I couldn’t run. My eyes were glued to the creature walking out of the forest.

It was like my feet had grown roots.

I couldn’t move at all.

‘M-move. Move.’

Thankfully, my fingertips finally twitched in response to my desperate urge to flee.

Even though only the tips of my fingers had moved, the paralysis in my body loosened just enough for me to shuffle sideways along the wall like a crab.

Cold sweat trickled down as I crept away.

At this rate, it might be better to run into the container and get Kiss’s help…

‘Hm?’

My snail-paced body stopped.

The forest was shaded by thick leaves, but it wasn’t pitch-black. The rustling shape approaching slowly began to come into focus.

The creature came close enough that I could make out its color.

It was big. So big that if it stood on two legs, it would easily tower over me. And it was black. A deep, glossy black fur covered its entire body.

Lastly, it had bright blue eyes.

‘That… that was…’

It was the dog that had helped me.

Leaning against the wall, I slid down until I was sitting.

The dog approached with its tail drooping.

About two meters away. Our eyes met.

I couldn’t greet it aloud, Kiss might hear, so I simply lifted my hand and waved my palm.

‘Hi. I can’t talk right now. Hope you understand.’

Not that it would understand what I said in my head.

Still, I tried to stand, wanting to go closer. But my legs, weakened from the shock, wouldn’t lift me at all.

‘Oh, come on.’

I ended up crawling on all fours toward the dog.

The dog patiently waited as I approached. It even lowered its belly to the ground to match my eye level.

‘So gentle.’

The first meeting had been intense, but in the end, this dog had helped me.

I slowly reached out my hand, palm up.

Lick.

The dog licked my palm.

“……”

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing, then began petting its neck, face, and head. Its fur was sleek and incredibly soft. My lips relaxed on their own and stretched into a wide grin.

Feeling my touch, the dog pressed its head gently into my hand.

‘I wish Samdu were this calm.’

Well, it was unreasonable to expect such composure from a puppy that still wasn’t fully grown.

I tried to hold back, but before I knew it, I was already grinning like an idiot. The dog stared at me blankly as I laughed.

Click, thud.

A door opened and closed.

‘Is Kiss leaving?’

As I turned around, the dog yawned lazily. I slowly stepped toward the door, and there I saw Kiss’s back disappearing toward the circus tent.

Only after he completely vanished from sight did I finally let out a long breath.

“Ha….”

The tension drained from my body.

‘Did he just use the laptop and leave?’

I hadn’t watched long enough to know what he did inside. I returned to where the dog had been, but it had already disappeared.

‘Gone, huh.’

If I meet it again, I’ll greet it properly that time.

Keeping hyper-aware of my surroundings, I headed toward the container entrance. I scanned everywhere like a meerkat, worried someone might see me or Kiss might return.

When I opened the door and stepped inside, I finally let out the scream I’d been holding back.

“Arghhh!”

“……”

The ringmaster was standing right in front of the door, looking down at me as if wondering what on earth he was witnessing after I practically headbutted his chest.

“R-ringmaster? You were here?”

He glanced at me, then walked back to his desk and sat down.

“Um…”

Should I… tell him about Kiss?

While I was hesitating, the ringmaster picked up a piece of paper. It was about the size of a memo. I could barely see the indentation of handwriting pressed through from the back.

Reading what was written, the ringmaster’s face twisted, and he crumpled the paper in his hand.

Why… why is he reacting like that?

“Assistant Choi.”

“Yes?”

“You…”

He began speaking, but then shut his mouth again.

Why? What?

“Never mind. Go.”

With that, he closed his eyes and sank into thought, so I left the office, leaving him there.

I was going to give Samdu the food I hadn’t delivered earlier.

And when I reached the shed, I ended up screaming again.

“Argh!”

“Hi?”

Kiss was inside.

Clutching my chest, I froze while Kiss grinned triumphantly at me.

“I knew it. You do work during the day.”

I had been pretending all this time that I could only move at night like the rest of them. But since he already doubted it, I panicked, desperate to come up with a reasonable answer for why I was out in the daytime.

He had been heading toward the circus tent, so why did he stop by the shed? Did he notice me earlier? If so, how was I supposed to act now?

Kiss was smiling warmly at me, but when I remembered the eerie voice he had used at the office window, the face in front of me felt impossible to trust.

No good.

The best defense is offense. I’d ask him first.

“What about you?”

“Hm?”

Kiss tilted his head with a catlike smile. His expression said he didn’t understand, so I asked again.

“Why are you walking around instead of sleeping?”

“Oh.”

He let out a light sound of acknowledgment and spread his arms casually. His shadow stretched across the shed like a cross.

“Are you asking about me? I appreciate the interest, but I asked first. So answer. Don’t dodge it.”

But looking again, the lighting inside the shed cast his shadow strangely, making the cross shape appear upside down. Several inverted crosses overlapped on the floor.

As I stared at the shadows, my gaze drifted toward Kiss’s eyes. His yellow pupils were split horizontally.

He was waiting for my answer.

No matter what I said, it felt like stepping into a trap.

‘In times like this, there’s only one thing to do.’

Play dumb.

“Ah, you caught me.”

Trying to act as naturally as possible, I walked past him and headed for Samdu’s food bowls. I could feel Kiss’s eyes sticking to me as I passed. It made my skin prickle.

“Yeah. I work during the day.”

I scooped food into the bowls as if it were a normal day and kept talking casually.

“I feed him and take him for walks during the day too. Isn’t the ringmaster too much?”

Deliberately turning my back to him, I held all three bowls at once and walked to the cage. For some reason, Samdu was incredibly quiet today. Even Yellow kept his mouth tightly shut, pressed against the far back wall.

“And also, Kiss.”

“Mm? What is it?”

Kiss answered softly.

I quietly took a deep breath, placed all three bowls inside, and backed out. Samdu still didn’t move to eat. While he stayed pressed to the wall, I closed the cage and stood up to face Kiss directly.

“Could you keep this a secret?”

“……”

Still smiling faintly, Kiss watched me in silence.

“It’s just that…”

“That…?”

“It’s just… embarrassing.”

“What is?”

There had to be a reason he was digging so insistently. Trusting my instincts, I kept acting.

“Do you really need me to say it out loud?”

I frowned as if annoyed, grabbed the empty feed bucket, and said,

“Move. I’ve got work to do.”

Kiss exhaled through curved lips and looked me over with searching eyes. Then he placed his hands on his hips.

“Assistant.”

“What?”

I snapped back sharply on purpose as I started to leave, but Kiss spoke again.

“Your first day here.”

“……”

What’s he trying to bring up?

I thought I’d dodged the topic, but he immediately shifted the conversation again.

“You said the ringmaster told you to come here, right? But he seemed really unhappy about signing a contract with you. Isn’t that strange? Why call you here if he didn’t even want the contract?”

Honestly, that was my fault. If I hadn’t listened to his “it matches the circus concept” advice that day, I’d be resting safely at home instead of here.

I turned my body slightly and looked at him from the side.

When our eyes met, Kiss closed his mouth. Instead of continuing his questions, he quietly observed me. Time stretched. Eventually, he spoke.

“Your memory is still fuzzy, isn’t it?”

“What memory?”

“You.”

With no expression this time, Kiss took one step closer. I suppressed the urge to back away and stood still. Then he took another step. And another.

Now only about thirty centimeters separated us.

“How you got here.”

Instead of stepping closer again, he bent down, bringing his face close to mine, and added…

“What sin you committed before you died.”

As I focused on the meaning of his words, confused, his nose brushed mine. Only then did I stumble backward, dropping Samdu’s food bowl to the ground. With a wet splatter, the red mush spread across the floor.

But I couldn’t take my eyes off Kiss. His horizontally slit pupils fixed directly on me, sending a chill up my spine. It felt like if I made one wrong move, something terrible would happen.

And what?

‘What sin I committed before I died?’

Wasn’t Small Hell just a circus of monsters?

“You really look like someone who knows nothing.”

Kiss lifted both hands and cupped my face. Then he leaned in. I jerked my head back in surprise, but Kiss’s strength was overwhelming.

Our foreheads bumped.

Then our noses touched.

Up close, his yellow eyes flickered like those of a wild animal in the dark.

“Who are you?”

My heart dropped.

“What exactly are you?”

He kept pressing me with questions.

“Why is it…”

His breath scattered across the corner of my frozen mouth.

“You’re not on the paperwork?”

“…?”

Paperwork?

Kiss let go of my face and stared at me. Then he bent down to pick up the food bowl I had dropped.

“It’s strange, right? Including the ringmaster, our circus should have ninety-nine members.”

Shaking off the food, he set the bowl upright again, then reached toward the spilled red mush as though it were blood. A blue magic circle glowed under his hand.

‘!’

Wasn’t that something only the ringmaster could do?

My jaw dropped as I realized Kiss could use magic.

“But the paperwork lists only ninety-eight. Why is that? Who’s missing?”

The blue magic circle flashed and swept all the spilled food away. The floor was spotless in an instant. When I looked at Kiss again, he shrugged.

“I may look like this, but I’m the vice ringmaster. I should know at least this much.”

“You’re the vice ringmaster?”

“You didn’t know?”

I had absolutely no idea.

“Anyway, I went through the roster one by one.”

He still wasn’t finished. Folding his arms, he spoke.

“The one whose name was missing was you.”

Ah…

“You even checked the list of the deceased?”

No way I’d show up there.

“You weren’t listed as dead, either.”

Because I wasn’t dead.

“But also, you don’t smell human.”

Kiss tilted his head.

“So strange.”

With his doll-like face watching me like that, I felt like a statue from the art room was glaring down at me. It was chilling, yet from his perspective, his suspicion made complete sense. Inside, I wavered over and over, should I tell the truth or keep playing dumb?

“I…”

Kiss focused intently.

Feeling pressured to say something, anything… I opened my mouth, but at that exact moment, the curtain covering the shed entrance was flung aside as someone stepped in.

“You used magic?”

It was the ringmaster, muttering in a low, dangerous tone. His face was hard, and he strode forward without sparing me a glance.

“What are you doing?”

“What about you? Did you read my memo?”

Only then did the ringmaster turn toward me. But since that was the eye-patch side, I couldn’t feel his gaze at all, though I could guess he wasn’t pleased.

Still, I was relieved. At least the ringmaster, who understood my situation, had appeared.

“Yes. I read it. I was about to contact you because of it.”

All I saw was the back of the ringmaster’s head and Kiss’s strange expression. I stayed quiet behind them and listened.

“The database hasn’t been updating properly.”

The ringmaster pointed directly at me and continued.

“And on the living side, he’s listed as missing. That’s why he’s not on the deceased list yet.”

“…Is that true?”

Kiss shifted his gaze from the ringmaster to me. Feeling awkward, I looked away.

“He’s in the missing persons registry. You can check for yourself.”

“Hm.”

Kiss made a thoughtful sound, then asked something else.

“Then why do you make him work in the daytime? Isn’t that overworking him? Since when? From the beginning? I should’ve realized it the moment you gave him clothes enchanted to let him walk around in daylight.”

I jumped at that.

This outfit… had that function?

I touched the clothes the ringmaster had given me, suddenly aware of their weight.

“Anyway, why did you give your work to him?”

“He’s the assistant.”

“……”

“……”

Kiss and I were both struck speechless by the ringmaster’s shameless answer.

“Assistant. Right. Yes. Assistant. Sure.”

After a moment, Kiss rubbed the back of his neck and grumbled.

“Then why did you get annoyed that first day when he signed the parchment?”

It was about the day I first wrote the contract.

This time, the ringmaster fell silent. I held my breath, waiting to hear what excuse he would come up with.

“…Parchment.”

At last, he spoke.

“There aren’t enough sheets.”

It was an understandable yet unbelievably petty reason. Judging by the way Kiss briefly bit his lower lip, he felt the same.

“So from now on, use regular paper.”

“Well… if that’s the reason, then I guess I’ll accept it. You only have about ten sheets of parchment, after all.”

Ten sheets really wasn’t much.

“Never use it unless it’s someone you absolutely refuse to let go.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Kiss answered the ringmaster’s warning, then looked at me.

“You only use parchment for someone you really want to keep by your side.”

After saying that, he let out a small sigh. Then, with his eyebrows drooping slightly, he approached me.

“Ah, Assistant. Sorry I scared you earlier.”

“Well…”

But before I could say anything, he pulled me into a sudden, tight hug.

C-can’t breathe.

“Can’t believe I misunderstood you.”

As I struggled to push him off, the ringmaster approached. His expression was thoroughly displeased.

“I thought you were an ordinary human.”

Startled by the unexpected comment, I pushed Kiss away even harder. The ringmaster grabbed Kiss by the back of the neck and yanked him off me.

“Hey, what the… are you messing with me?”

Kiss rubbed his neck repeatedly, as if the ringmaster had actually hurt him.

“Thought you were gonna rip my neck off.”

“Stop talking and go inside and sleep.”

“What about him?”

Kiss pointed at me.

“He still has work left.”

Kiss looked openly unhappy, but when his eyes met mine, he forced a smile onto his face. The result was a bizarre expression. Still, as he kept looking at me, his expression softened and brightened. Then he stepped close and spoke.

“If the ringmaster works you too hard, tell me. I’ll give him hell.”

“Go.”

Kiss flinched at the single syllable from the ringmaster, frowned in annoyance, then smiled at me again before finally leaving the shed.

Even after he disappeared, the ringmaster stayed silent for a long while before finally speaking.

“Be careful with Kiss.”

I already was.

The tension that had built up earlier from acting in front of Kiss eased a little now that it was just the two of us. No matter what, being with someone who knew my identity brought some relief.

“And also.”

The ringmaster stepped closer to me.

“You’re starting to smell human again.”

…What?

Surprised, I turned my head, and he cupped my right cheek with one hand and lowered himself to press his face against the left side of my neck.