While Cesare was thinking, Anya beside him suddenly said cheerfully. "Okay, I agree to your request." Hearing this, Cesare looked shocked. He didn't know the specific value of the sword, but in any case, it was much more expensive than a trip. However, Anya continued. Said.
"I can give you either gold coins or this sword, but we need to get to the destination first before handing things over to you."
Claudius hesitated for a moment. "Okay, that sounds reasonable." He lowered the brim of his hat. "Not only are you beautiful, but you are also so generous. I don't know how lucky a man must be to marry a perfect girl like you."
It sounded like nothing more than a glib compliment, but Anya smiled awkwardly. "Can we get in the car now?"
"Of course! Please come with me, both of you." Claudius tilted his head and smiled, and the facial tissue on his face also tilted over.
Cesare had a very bad impression of him, extremely bad, but after thinking about it, it was still important to hurry. If he went on foot or waited for the next passing carriage, the cost of time would be unimaginable.
As he followed Claudius towards the carriage, he looked at Anya's side face.
The girl's expression remained unchanged as usual, which made Cesare wonder if the sword was not as precious as imagined. When Anya realized that Cesare was looking at her, she even turned around and smiled sweetly. .
"Rosen, go lock up the cat, then get in the car and get ready to go." Claudius waved his hand and said, and the freak named Rosen immediately started moving, pulling and pulling the lion into the final stage. Horse and carriage.
Cesare originally thought that the man's brain had shrunk to the point where he could not think properly, but now it seems that Rosen can understand some basic communication.
The first carriage was half a height taller than an adult, but fortunately Cesare and Anya were better at it. They got into the driver's seat first, and Anya stepped on Cesare's shoulder. Then he jumped on the roof of the car, turned around and grabbed Cesare's hand, and the two of them climbed up easily. The iron carriage is very strong, and there is no risk of collapse even if you run or jump on it.
Claudius also thoughtfully handed some thick blankets to Cesare and Anya to protect them from the cold wind on the roof of the car. They were good choices to put under them or wrap them up.
The lion was locked in the carriage cage at the back, and the young child laborers got on the carriage one after another and took their places. One of them, a gray-haired little girl with brown hair, was the coachman driving the last carriage.
Although the reins were almost as thick as her arms, her familiar posture and the scars all over her arms were enough to prove that she had been qualified for this job for a long time. Next to her sat another child worker who looked younger than her.
The carriage in the middle was also driven by a child laborer, but Cesare took a closer look at the child's face and found that the child's face was full of wrinkles and had a beard. After thinking about it for a while, he realized that it was a child. A short-legged dwarf.
This is not an adjective for the height of a gallon, but a true disabled person. At first glance, the carriage he was driving contained a lot of sundries and props for performances. The crippled Rosen and the remaining child workers were crowded on the edge of the carriage, while the lighter children sat on Gabe's side. above.
In the end, the first carriage that Cesare and Anya were in was driven by Captain Claudius himself. The three carriages drove onto the dirt road in an orderly manner. The circus flag fluttered in the wind and the steady and powerful sound of horse hooves echoed in the forest. Echoing, the convoy set off steadily towards the west of the forest, and things finally made new progress.
Anya sat at the front of the carriage, holding her hands back and her legs half hanging beside Claudius's head. "There are so few people in your circus, what kind of shows can they perform?" Anya asked curiously, but her question made Claudius' face turn ugly, as if he had been hit by a pain point.
"We used to have a lot of people, and there were many more carriages than now, but when times were hard, most of us dispersed." Claudius said while driving the carriage, and freed up a hand to rub the Rub the tip of your nose.
"But it's not bad now. We have the biggest cat in the world and the ugliest woman in the world. Someone will pay for it."
I looked at the lion in the cage at the end and Rosen in a woman's dress. "But that's not a cat but a lion, and the man in the skirt is not a woman. He is ugly because he is a poor man with a brain development disability. You are lying."
Anya blinked, confused by Claudius's words.
"Maybe, but not everyone knows what a lion looks like, and we also have a group of cute dwarves, don't we? Did you notice the beard on that dwarf's face?" Claudius chuckled. Several times.
"That's just a group of child laborers and an adult dwarf, sir! I've seen dwarves. They live in caves, and both men and women have big beards!"
Anya expressed her opinions forcefully, her eyes were extremely firm, as if she had really seen things that didn't exist.
Cesare inadvertently looked at the dwarf driving behind him, as if he heard someone commenting on him. The dwarf nervously raised his head and peeked here, and his sleeves revealed numerous scars caused by whipping.
Anya continued to talk, and these wonderful creatures turned on an abnormal nerve switch in her brain. "In fact, I've seen griffins, giants with big feet, people with gills on their necks, an eagle bigger than a carriage, and oh yes! And dragons!"
Like Cesare's reaction, Claudius also shook his head indifferently. "As you wish, dear, I love your imagination. Maybe I should sink that loser Polonius into the river and let you be the storyteller."
Cesare heard a strange name from his mouth, Polonius? It could be the name of one of these child laborers, it doesn't matter.
After returning to the castle, she would no longer have anything to do with this circus, and there was no need to remember each of their names. Claudius's attitude made Anya pouted in anger.
"It has nothing to do with imagination, the point is that you are using someone else's physical disability to lie. None of the propaganda in this circus is real."
"Who cares? A smart person like you would never come to a freak show." Claudius was also a little irritated, but soon realized that his tone was disrespectful, and his attitude softened again.
“It’s a healthy relationship that audiences just want to spend money to laugh at pathetic weirdos, and these weirdos use the money they earn from being laughed at to make a living.
Believe me, this is the destiny of freaks, decided by God. If they want dignity, they must starve to death. Claudius sneered.
"Including those child laborers, their lives are not worth as much as a breakfast for two of them. If you feel pitiful, you might as well ask them if they are willing to stay in this circus caravan...or are their parents so poor? A home that’s like a cesspit.”
Seeing Anya and Claudius chatting for a long time, Cesare listened without interrupting. Apart from the conversation between the two, there was only the sound of horse hooves and the slight sound of wind.
But unconsciously, the sound of horse hooves became chaotic and complicated, and something seemed to be moving in the woods on both sides. A flock of birds flew away from the forest. Anya instantly raised her face to look at the birds, blankly, as if she was listening to something.
Immediately afterwards, Cesare carefully observed the situation on both sides of the motorcade. The fast-moving carriage made it difficult to see anything clearly with the naked eye. He only felt that it was a human face with a cruel smile hiding behind a tree, flashing from the field of vision. And passed.
"Mr. Claudius, you don't know anyone in the woods, right?"
"Ah? Of course not, you mean..." Claudius took a breath. He realized something, but it was too late.
Before the carriage with the lion at the back could realize what had happened, an arrow suddenly flew directly through the head of the young groom, killing the little girl at that time. The impact caused the body to fall off the carriage.
The child worker next to him was covered in scarlet as the blood spurted out, and his instinctive screams resounded through the entire convoy. Everyone, including the horses and lions, were aware of the danger at this moment, and the sounds of neighing and roaring were endless.
"Damn it! There are robbers! If you catch them, run away!" Claudius shouted loudly. He lowered his body and whipped the reins to make the carriage go faster.
The sudden acceleration almost caused Cesare and Anya to fall out of the car. Fortunately, they climbed down in time and held onto the edge of the car to steady themselves. At this critical moment, Anya stuck her head out and asked Claudius curiously. "There are no trade routes here, and there are few people coming and going. Why are there robbers?"
The arrows that kept flying pierced the air above the head and struck the car floor with a crisp sound like rain.
"It's not because this forest is notoriously unmanaged, the army doesn't care, and the local families are silent. The prisoners who fled from all over the place want to avoid capture in this ghost place, and over time they form gangs."
Claudius muttered, swearing harshly to himself. "You really shouldn't have stayed there for so long!"
Just now, he said that Claudius's business was like a robbery, but now he encountered a real robber. Cesare had no free time to lament how unlucky he was. A group of ragged bandits rode fast horses from the woods and rushed towards the convoy.
They held sharp sword blades in their hands, with ugly faces and yellowed rotten teeth. They were so frightened that the carriage behind them lost control on the spot. The coachman died. The child in the deputy seat was so frightened that his crotch was wet and his limbs were stiff. Can't hold the reins at all.
As the horses neighed, the rearmost cage tilted and overturned after a bump. It rolled into the woods with a scream and disappeared.
