The Freak Show Foreman

Anais' flight arrived around Saturday noon.

The maid went to the airport to greet her in person.

A state-of-the-art airship with a body length of over 100 meters.

Four large propellers were attached to the left and right sides of the airship, front and back, responsible for propulsion. Dozens of small propellers were attached to the frame supporting the gondola, used to assist the rotation of the hull and maintain balance.

The airship descended at a diagonal angle without horizontal adjustment, slowly coming down and stopping abruptly at the landing position.

The skill of the pilot was evident.

The children in the immigration lobby cheered louder as the airship approached.

The maid smiled quietly.

Seeing them, she recalled her childhood when she went to the river every day to watch steamships.

The door of the gondola opened.

A slim woman, dressed in an elegant blouse with a tailored vest and a skirt, descended from the airship.

Under a hat with a short brim and a bulging shape, long green hair fluttered.

Since Anais always took first class on the airship, she should be the first to disembark.

Her bodyguard, Captain Porsche, and her secretary and maid followed behind her.

Anais, guided by the maid, boarded the carriage.

Blagnac Airport served as a gateway for northern canal cities.

It was about a 3 to 4-hour carriage ride from Luz.

"We might arrive late in the afternoon."

"Fortunately, we should be able to catch the last performance. So, tell me. How was the competition? How is the director?"

When Anais heard about the theme of this competition, she thought Wonderstein might seek advice from her, as she was an expert in commerce.

However, he only asked for a few costumes and armor, not making any other requests.

She was worried whether he could pull it off.

She didn't doubt his abilities, but creating a good performance and making a profit were different realms.

During the carriage ride, she listened to stories from the past week from the maid.

The deputy director Ella collapsing from overwork, Wonderstein dressing as a clown and going on stage, the portraits they presented, and the progress of the competition.

She admired him as a merchant.

Wonderstein's commercial skills were astonishing.

Both the items he presented and the sales methods he used were unbelievably sophisticated.

It wasn't a matter of experience or expertise.

It required a genius sense that could penetrate human psychology and the flow of money.

Anais felt her heart pounding.

It was a delightful thing to see the man she admired showing talent in her field as well.

Upon arriving in Luz, Anais headed to the cabaret without unpacking her luggage.

She held a gift in her arms as she got off the carriage.

After the last performance, she planned to rush to him, congratulate him, and personally give him the gift.

With such happy steps, Anais entered the hall and suddenly came to a stop.

"W-What is this?"

She had a momentary imagination that the monsters had caused a riot and killed all the spectators, because the floor and walls of the hall were entirely stained in red. Of course, amidst the pungent smell of freshly cut grass, she soon realized that it was tomatoes.

She was aware of the theatrical idiom related to tomatoes.

"Did the director ruin the show? Did the audience protest by throwing tomatoes?" She wondered.

While entertaining such ominous thoughts, Wonderstein walked out from the rehearsal room.

"Miss Anais, you've arrived."

"Director… what happened here?"

Wonderstein spoke with a tired smile, explaining the events that occurred during the first performance of the day. It all started with the Lord Dosville appearing with thugs, and Wonderstein retaliating with tomatoes.

"Did Dosville create all this?"

The gift box in her hand was crushed. Flames flickered in her eyes. The audacious perpetrator, Lord Dosville, needed to be utterly destroyed.

Wonderstein calmed her with a composed voice, "Oh, no. In a way, he's a victim."

"What do you mean?"

Lweeni, the director of Pandora Magic Show, unexpectedly reignited the case that he thought had been concluded.

He had been tormented by nightmares since Dosville humiliated him. It infuriated him that someone ignorant about circus matters interfered with logic.

When Wonderstein bravely counterattacked, he was the first to applaud. Feeling the release of a decade-long frustration, he couldn't stop there. Grabbing a tomato from the ratman, he threw it at Dosville, who was struggling to get up.

Dosville retaliated by throwing a tomato back, hitting Lweeni in the buttocks.

Indignant, Lweeni retorted, "Doesn't the clause about wet spots include 'moisture caused by the audience'?"

Originally a light-hearted warning mixed with a joke about the possibility of urination, Dosville shamelessly argued that everyone had the right to throw tomatoes, and no one could complain even if they got hit.

Sol, the head of the Mango Troupe sitting next to him, chimed in. He had a long-standing grudge against Dosville.

In this place, anyone had the right to throw tomatoes, and no one could complain, he proudly declared.

It was a mistake.

"Mr. Hopps, the director of Papal Circus, apparently couldn't stand Sol wandering around here despite gaining fame and decided to confront him. So, when Sol said those words, Hopps threw a tomato at Sol. Sol counterattacked with a tomato, but it hit the wrong person…"

Wonderstein skipped the rest of the story.

Anais sighed. It was something she could guess.

The person who had already flipped a tomato was no longer fearful. The coins that had to be spent today were a mere formality. After getting hit once, even a fleeing spectator changed their attitude 180 degrees, enthusiastically buying tomatoes to throw with the intention of hitting someone else. They all danced joyfully until every inch of the hall was covered in red.

Wonderstein nodded excitedly, "All subsequent performances have been canceled. The cabaret staff rushed in and cleaned it up, but hehe, it might affect the teams competing in the fourth week."

"But this isn't an income test through entrance fees. Even if the performance is stopped, focusing on business would be…"

To her words, Wonderstein gave a bitter smile.

"Meanwhile, Maya's sketchbook got hit by a tomato."

"A sketchbook…?"

"She was in charge of the core of our illustration outsourcing… no, portrait sales. Even though it's a Madogu, perhaps because its essence is paper, it couldn't exert its power after getting soaked."

Wonderstein glanced in the direction of the practice room.

Maya was putting all her knowledge into restoring the sketchbook, but so far, there was no progress.

Anais spoke with a regretful expression, "With the profits so far, couldn't we manage somehow? If tomatoes were sold at such a high price, the profit should have been substantial, right?"

"We had to refund all the cards that couldn't be used due to the portrait work becoming impossible. With that, the loss equaled the profit from selling tomatoes. Haha, now all the members are gathered in front of the store, selling food and drinks, but it seems like the gap is not closing. In the end, we…"

Wonderstein started to say something but stopped.

Anais guessed what he wanted to say.

Defeat.

He was about to say that.

She was thinking the same thing just a few seconds ago.

But it wasn't over yet.

There was still hope.

She clutched a gift box in her arms.

"I went to the tomato greenhouse this time because of the issues with pre-and post-processing."

"Tomatoes?"

Wonderstein was puzzled by her unexpected words.

Tomatoes again.

What could be the meaning of a tomato greenhouse?

"Tomatoes were originally not crops on this continent."

Most of the people living in the current Columbia continent were descendants of immigrants from old world.

They sought the New World to find the Holy Land and established a new society, but their lingering attachments and nostalgia for the land they left behind still deeply affected their consciousness.

That's why the existence of Princess Charlotte was special.

She was the only royalty among the immigrants.

Her ability to be crowned queen when the country was founded, even though she was of noble descent, was due to the symbolism of her lineage.

Tomatoes were something she brought from her homeland.

The widely cultivated tomatoes now grew on vines, but the first tomatoes she brought were from a tree.

Golden tomatoes.

The ancestor of all tomatoes.

The tomatoes people currently ate were derived from branches cut from a tree that Charlotte had planted in the ground.

"The only tree bearing tomatoes is preserved in the palace garden northwest of here, in the 'Tomato Greenhouse.' After the queen went missing, a sub-palace was set up there. It was a symbol of guarding one tree of tomatoes in place of the queen. Of course, the actual care of the tree is done by the gardener."

She presented the gift box.

"I haven't tasted it myself, but they say the golden tomatoes have a flavor that doesn't seem to belong to this world. Only 30 fruits are produced from the tomato tree in a year. The queen sends it as a gift whenever an important diplomatic or political message is needed. People joke that it's the queen's greatest power. However, the queen doesn't decide on all the fruits.

The first fruit harvested belongs to the gardener who takes care of the tree."

Anais opened the box.

Inside, a subtly golden tomato was wrapped in silk.

"Hehe, when I visited the sub-palace for pre-and post-processing issues this time, the gardener of the Tomato Greenhouse gave me this as a gift. He apologized as a craftsman for leaving the garden of a prestigious hotel untouched for political reasons. He said he wanted to apologize by giving me this. He also apologized to other guests who stayed at the hotel."

Wonderstein now understood why she was telling him this.

She extended the box to him and said, "What if we put this up for sale as a product?"