Walking down the path in the woods that lead from the mansion to the town was quite a peaceful walk for the demon. For once, he felt relaxed. He even got to see a few little spiders down his nature trail.
He was finally away from the one place that caused most of his stress.
Once he had entered the town, his eyes took in the scene of the center of life in the town, busy people, horse carriages, civilians, and children.
Most of these things he detested, especially humans. But hell, he was away from that Trancy brat.
He walked a bit further into town, a few noblemen eyeing him, his status was easy to clarrify from his attire as a butler. At times, he would have noblemen come up to him offering him jobs as a butler due to his 'proffesional' attire and appearance. He at times thought of taking these jobs and abandoning his station at the Trancy manor, but he declined all of the jobs with the goal of the soul he is to be rewarded in the end.
He often questioned if his soul was even worth it.
Through the walk in the victorian town, his eyes often would glance at the posters swelling with color. He didn't really pay attention to them, but one particular poster caught his attention. It was different from the others.
-Cirque de l'Enfer-
"Come see the wildest performance of this era.
Acrobats, contortionists, Fire eaters, and much more!
Featuring our newest performer : Hombre Gato~ "
He squinted his eyes to look at the picture behind the flashy words to see a young man, looking around the age of twenty, holding a deck of cards with bright pink hair, and cat ears.
A neko? Hm. Those are usually unheard of in the human realm. I wonder how idiotic humans even got their hands on such a creature.
Claude shook his head, a few locks flowing with the motion.
Might as well give this circus a shot.. I don't have much else to do. He shrugged, and looked at the map on the poster for directions.
After a few minutes of navigating, he could hear a man standing on a soapbox yelling for people to come visit the circus.
"Come one, come all! Come see the lovely performances of the unique and talented at Cirque de l'Enfer!"
He walked passed him, a bit annoyed at the shreiking man in an odd, bright purple suit with an obnoxious vibrant green tie.
The large pink and blue tent looked bigger on the inside than it did the outside- he was a bit amazed at how humans can pull entertaining shit like this together.
The show had yet to start, nobles, peasants, and people of all ages stood in the crowd, excited to see the performance of this traveling circus. Claude walked passed people to get to an empty seat, sitting next to a few nobles that eyed him with greed and caution.
"What's a butler doing here?" A cocky nobleman asked, with a single gold tooth.
"None of your business."
"Hm, fiesty. How abo-"
"Save it. Heard it all before." He rolled his eyes at him, the man sat back in his seat, slightly offended.
They never change.
The noblemen are as greedy as ever for butlers, especially ones in fine attire to show off like a pet.
A good amount of minutes passed before the lights in the tent ceased, a spotlight shone on the middle of the circus with a flashy ringleader stepping into the attention of the audience.
"Welcome, one and all-" He gave the introduction. Claude sort of zoned out, feeling rather irritated, yet a bit embarassed that he had even considered going to a show meant to amuse children.
The first bit of performers were an act of chinese dancers, balancing on swords and such. He was a bit impressed how humans could do such without demonic abilities or powers.
Humans were stupid, yet incredible creatures. In all the same, he still hated them.
The next act were of horseback riders, balancing on their steeds, sometimes ten men at a time balancing on each other on a horse running at full speed around the ring.
The animal act was rather interesting, having tigers run through obsticals and elephants do tricks for the amusement of the audience.
Claude was amused by this, catching himself chuckling to himself every now and then. Watching patiently, it was the last act that really grabbed his attention.
"Now, I hope you all enjoyed today's performances.. But before you leave.. we'll present you with one more act..."
A large, oddly designed cage rolled out to the center of the ring, a pink flashy one.
"I Introduce, Hombre Gato!"
The cage's door rolled open, a circus member quickly ran over to grab the chain at the end of the neko's collar.
Claude's attention was heightened, the creature had bright pink hair, along with matching ears and a long pink tail, he had obvious pierced ears, and interesting colored eyes. Almost the same as his.
Anxiety was written on his face, his body seemed slightly emaciated. He shook as he walked on all fours to the middle of the ring. The spot light followed him, making his heart race.
Using his demon senses, Claude could hear how loud his heart was beating. He could see his hands shake and his tail twitch with anxiety, and he could hear the shakiness of his voice.
At first, he refused to do what the circus member commanded. They gripped his gold chains harder, yanking at his pink collar to do the trick. He sighed, standing up, adjusting the bit of his black and pink circus costume before stepping onto the obstical. He closed his eyes and sighed. The member let go of the chain when he saw he was going to perform.
He lowered back to all fours, with Claude watching the creature struggle through his anxiety, he began running through the obstical course, jumping through hoops, doing flips and running along the wall of the circus ring near the audience members. He jumped on a ledge, running along the rim of the ring, allowing a few audience members to pet at his tail.
He ran by Claude, allowing both of them to lock gazes. It seems that time moved a bit slower at the time they gazed at each other, the neko sensing this man was not of human kind.
The pink neko jumped from the ring of where the seats were and returned to the obstical, finishing the last bit.
He ran through an obstical with force of jumps, leaps and flips. Without warning, the circus member that held his chain set a hoop on fire, alarming him. He was about to leap, but fell.
A gasp came from the crowd as he began to panick, his anxiety increasing when he saw the angry circus member walk towards him, grabbing his chain with extreme force to pull him back stage. He started to panick even worse, trying to get away. The lights went off to focus on the ring leader who walked into the picture, Claude on the brink of standing up and breaking the neck of the man who was dragging the neko away.
"..I apologize for that bit folks," The ring leader laughed.
"Besides that, I hope you all enjoyed the show. Please feel free to stay behind to look at the animals, and please donate to our cause! Thank you for coming!" He bowed, everyone stood up to clap, except for Claude, who was slightly enraged.
People stood up to leave, some staying behind to look at the animals. Claude watched as they all left.
"Excuse me, sir?" Claude grabbed the attention of a worker.
"Yes?"
"Do you know where I may be able to see the neko?" He asked.
"We don't usually put him up for show with the animals. He is usually too skittish."
"Then why have him for a performer at all? .." His voice showed slight anger for the disrespect of the creature.
"Look, I am a, erm, business man. I will be able to donate money to this so-called 'circus', but doing so, I'd like to see the neko, I want to see if your business is something worth investing in."
The worker sighed. "Look, sir, we're going bankrupt. Probably worse, since we added that freaky cat to the group. He isn't doing us any good, I-" He silenced with Claude's icy stare.
"If you want the money, let me see the damn neko."
The worker sighed.
"Follow me,"