THE GROUP REACHED THE GRANDE TENT in no time. People were now allowed to go inside. Mirana, who always wore her signature blue and white cloak, her mage clothes underneath, and carrying her staff, was now wearing a more casual outfit. She let her long black hair flow down, fixed up by Riku. She’s now wearing a simple long-sleeve shirt and a skirt. Raijin couldn’t help but stare.

“What?” asked Mirana.

Raijin blushed. “Nothing. Your clothes really suit you.”

“Where’s your staff?” asked Riku.

“I’ll just summon it when I need it.”

“Nice,” said Brunnhilde. “I also do summoning magic.”

“Come on.” Daisuke interrupted. “Let’s go in.”

From the outside, the Grande Tent looked like a grander-looking circus tent compared to common circuses. It was big, but it didn’t look like it could fit in thousands of people. Even the hallway where the group was walking looks like it already took most of the tent’s space. But as soon as they reached the end of the hallway, the group was amazed.

Suddenly, they were at an upper box area in what seemed to be a large indoor arena. They saw the stage far below at the center of the tent.

The group was in awe. Even Siegfried and Brunnhilde, who both already saw Cirque du Magique perform, can’t help but be amazed.

Daisuke looked at Brunnhilde with a confused face. “What just happened?”

“It’s spatial magic. See those orbs?” Brunnhilde pointed at the glowing orbs floating near the ceiling of the tent. “Those were imbued with magic that creates space. We're still inside the Grande Tent, but thanks to those orbs, the space inside the tent became larger, wider, enough to fit in, I guess, a few hundred thousands of people.”

“This is amazing,” said Riku. “I never thought that such magic could exist.”

“There’s more to magic than just making plants,” said Mirana. “I’m sure you’ll be able to learn more. And remember: although we have our affinities, it is not possible to use other magic. Just a whole lot more difficult.”

“Alright. It’s time. Everyone, stick to the plan,” reminded Jack.

* * * * *

Mirana, Daisuke, Raijin, and Lanatte went around the Grande Tent trying to find the outsourced people of the circus. Mirana told the group that the circus outsources their manpower that deals with heavy lifting, utilities, and logistics.

“So, Mirana. Too bad we are not going to see the show, huh?” said Raijin.

“Then you should have not come with us then,” Lanatte commented.

“Yeah, you should have said you wanted to watch,” Daisuke added.

Raijin didn’t respond.

Mirana shrewdly smiled.

The group reached backstage and exits at the back of the tent.

“Look, those are the tents of the outsourced men,” Mirana whispered. “We are looking for a man with prominent facial hair. Lisa told me we wouldn’t miss that guy.”

Raijin then pointed at someone. “Like that one?”

The rest looked in the direction Raijin was pointing. They saw Eduardo talking with his men. Eduardo had a long and curly mustache. In fact, he seemed to be the only one with such prominent facial hair.

“Great. We’ll confront him when he’s finally alone,” said Mirana.

The group waited until Eduardo entered one of the smaller tents. When they were certain that no one was looking, the group followed Eduardo inside. As soon as they entered, they were surprised the tent also has wider space inside thanks to the spatial magic. And awaiting them were several dozens of Eduardo’s men, who were all confusedly looking at them.

“NOBODY MOVE!” Mirana shouted.

The people inside cast their weapons using summoning magic and charged the group while Eduardo tried to escape.

“We’ll handle the small fries! Go after funny mustache!” Raijin offered.

Mirana nodded. She summoned her Everfrost and followed Eduardo, freezing anyone that blocked her way.

“We can’t let anyone of them out of this tent,” said Lanatte.

Raijin looked at Daisuke and Lanatte. “Umm. You guys go do your elf thingy. I’ll block the exit.”

Lanatte used her power. The pattern on her skin glowed brightly that it intimidated the men inside. She then created a small banana plant where a banana leaf sword came. Daisuke created his signature wooden arms and charged Eduardo’s men.

Eduardo’s men all carried melee weapons: swords, spears, battle-ax, mace, and war hammers. Lanatte simply parried the attacks of the men she encountered, then smack them with the flat surface of her banana leaf sword. Meanwhile, Daisuke used his wooden arms to block any attack, then countered with a right straight, sending Eduardo’s men flying. The men proved no match against the two elves.

“And who are you supposed to be? These people’s boss?” one of the men managed to sneak past Lanatte and Daisuke, and reached Raijin.

Raijin flinched.

“You look like a weakling. I’ll at least kill you!” the man swung his sword downwards.

Raijin was able to block the attack with his tonfa. He then turned the tonfa on and electrocuted the man.

Raijin sighed. “That was a close one...I’m totally gonna ask Daisuke for hazard pay.”

Soon, Eduardo’s men were all fainted. Lanatte, Daisuke, and Raijin looked around inside to find Mirana. They reached the farthest part of the tent and saw Eduardo pinned on a wall.

“Mirana! You alright?” asked Raijin.

Mirana looked behind and saw them. “Yeah, I’m fine. Had a good run though. This guy over here could really run.”

“You better start talking or we’ll start breaking something.”

Eduardo used his artificial power and turned it into a humanoid pine tree. “Guillermo! Do it!!”

Guillermo, with a chant of a spell, made the space inside the tent even wider.

* * * * *

Riku, Musaoi, and Marcactas left the Grande Tent and went to the Fairy Dust bakery. As expected, the bakery was closed. There were also fewer people on the street as most of them decided to watch the performance of the circus.

“Any ideas on how we can enter the store?” asked Riku.

“Let’s try going through the back. Fewer people to notice we’re trying to break and enter.” Marcactas suggested.

At the back of the store, they noticed a basement door.

Musaoi used her power to create vines that entered the gap of the door.

“Looks like a simple wood was blocking the door from the inside,” said Musaoi.

Musaoi used her power to move the wood that blocks the door. Marcactas then pulled the door open.

“That was easy. Let’s go.” Said Marcactas.

“No. Wait!” Riku used her magic to create rose vines that stopped Marcactas’ feet from stepping inside.

“What is it, Riku?” asked Musaoi.

“You can’t see it, but the stairs are imbued with magic sensors. I think it’s a trap to alert people if there are thieves.”

“Well, that makes sense. That’s some magical home security they’ve got here.”

“How do we get in then?” asked Marcactas.

Riku breathed deeply. “Sorry Marcactas, I don’t think you can come with us below. Musaoi and I could enter, but you’re just too big.”

“Okay. Then I’ll stay here and keep watch.”

Riku and Musaoi agreed. Musaoi then used her power to create watermelon vines that wrapped her and Riku. The vines traveled downwards without them tripping any magic sensors.

As they reached the inside of the basement, they were free to walk around thanks to the absence of magic sensors. Inside, they saw baking ingredients and utensils.

“I don’t know, Riku. I think Daisuke and Mirana were wrong about this bakery’s manager.”

“Let’s just keep looking around. There could be something that could help us solve this case.”

True enough, Riku and Musaoi soon found pieces of evidence that could help them. As they walked around the basement, Musaoi accidentally pressed a brick that opened a secret passage and they immediately entered.

“Glaizerocks?” said Riku who found a cabinet filled with magical rocks that fairies love. “That’s a lot of glaizerocks.”

“Riku! Over here!” called Musaoi.

“Blueprints.”

“Yeah. And look at this map. It’s a map of the Arcanas Kingdom. All the shrines except the Central Shrine were encircled.”

“And this one says ‘Arcane Fountain Castle’. Blueprint of the castle…”

As they looked over the stuff on the table, they saw an old book. Riku read the title: “Merlin’s Guide to Forbidden Magic and Artifacts.”

“Who’s Merlin?” asked Musaoi.

“He’s the greatest living sorcerer in the entire world. It is said that he is a direct descendant of Miyuki, the first-ever mortal magic-user.”

Several bookmarks were on different pages, but what caught Riku's eyes was the page regarding forbidden artifacts.

“Oh, no. Daisuke's right.”

“What? What does the book say?”

“Here, look.” Riku showed Musaoi what she read. “The Star of Arianna is a five-piece magical artifact that could unleash devastating elemental magic. The fragments, however, use a lot of mana and release magic too strong that it could not be wielded by ordinary people. And on this page. it is said that multiple fairies should be powerful enough to wield at least one fragment.”

“So you’re telling me that the manager of this bakery has something to do with the stealing of the fragments?”

“Yes. And the mages were wrong. They think a worthy person can only use the fragments and that no mana was being consumed. But the truth is only those with a lot of mana and who are strong enough to use the fragments can.

“So what do we do now?”

“We go back and regroup. The manager, Alicia, was able to condition many fairies thanks to that glaizerock. If Alicia is the one who’s trying to steal the fragments, then she’ll be able to use all of the fragments.”

Musaoi and Riku left the secret room, but as soon as the secret door closed, several floating puppets blocked their way.

“GHOOOOOOOSTSS!!” Musaoi and Riku screamed. “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Musaoi was still panicking and shouting when she used her power. She created huge watermelons around her wrists. The watermelons rotated and released seeds like a machine gun, hitting the floating puppets and destroying them.

When the watermelon machine gun was out of seed ammo, Musaoi and Riku stopped yelling. They quickly escaped from the basement and went to Marcactas.

“Hey, what happened down there? And why are you both crying?” asked Marcactas.

Riku and Musaoi were both trying to catch their breath.

“Nothing. Come on, let’s go. We’re going back to the Grande Tent,” urged Riku.