Chương 123: Chapter 124: Future of the Ichoris Legerdemain

Evel exhaled. He expected a few insights, but that level of insight and depth in less than half a day was ridiculous. Yet again, he was reckless. This time, instead of causing himself to suffer, he'd caused the members under him to suffer. He turned to Yuna, who remained seated, her head low.

"What did you think?" She pursed her lips.

"I failed." Evel raised an eyebrow.

"I overestimated what I thought I could do, and because of that we're in a worse place than we should be." He looked at the thirty-something woman with the pointed chin for a while. Out of everything Otis said, that was her conclusion? He was ready for her to blame him for giving her too many responsibilities. Instead, she somehow found a way to blame herself after getting non-stop praise from Otis.

"This is your first manager role, right?" She softly nodded.

"And the circus is a success, right?" She didn't reply. Evel sighed, "You're taking on too much responsibility for my errors. I've overworked you and forced the manager roles on some people who don't even want them. Despite my failings, you made it work."

"That's not fair!" Yuna's head snapped up.

"You've saved so many people from the gruelling work in the mines, and brought a light to the circus most people aren't used to." She gritted her teeth.

"For the first time since I was sold into this shitty city, I actually thought it could improve. I thought I was helping it get better, but I've been holding it back all along." She lowered her gaze. Evel opened his mouth to retort, but quickly closed it. He almost called her stupid for thinking what Otis said was anything but a compliment. Instead, his mind scrambled for a better way to go about making her realize how valuable she was.

Minutes of silence passed between the two, Yuna with her head low and Evel staring unfocused. What would Albert do? Of everyone Evel spent time with, he was by far the most emotionally intelligent. Admittedly, he was also one of the only people he spent a lot of time with. Unfortunately, Evel didn't know. In the end, he sighed and asked her a simple question that he himself was struggling with.

"What do you want to do?"

"Based on what Otis said, we should–""No," he shook his head.

"Ignoring the inspection today, what is it that you actually want to do moving forward?"

"Are you demoting me? I ca–""I'm not firing you, I promise." For some reason, Evel's heart grew heavy.

"I just realized I knew almost nothing about you, so I thought I'd ask. This honestly doesn't have much to do with the inspection." When he first met her, he learned that her father sold her off when she was younger, then transferred his own debt to her. She chose to work at Redigo to absolve herself of that debt, until Evel bought off that debt and brought her to the circus. Since then, he'd learned nothing of her personal life. After a few seconds of silence, she replied, her voice quiet.

"To survive, I guess."

"Survive… Well, you've done a great job so far." She didn't reply, and they fell back into a long silence. Evel took a deep breath, as a lump formed in his throat. Finally he spoke, almost in a murmur.

"I'm–" He hesitated.

"I'm sorry." Yuna raised her eyes with a puzzled look.

"The way I've been treating you and everybody else for the past month… I have no excuse, but I'll promise to be better in the future."

"You're our boss; it's… not unexpected." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Maybe, but that's not the person I want to be. The fear that you're working so hard to hide, I'm sorry you ever had to feel that way." She remained quiet.

"I'm sure you've figured at least this much out, but I have a lot of secrets I can't tell you, and if you can't trust me fully because of it, I understand. However," Evel took a deep breath.

"I'll tell you the reason for my behaviour was a large part due to overworking myself. I… I don't know, but I guess I don't want you to fall into the same trap."

"I can handle it."

"I said the same thing, but the question is for how long? I don't think you realize just how important you are to the circus. As Otis said, you're the crutch, so if you burn out we'll be stuck dealing with the broken leg with no support." Silence.

"You don't need to always be the person responsible for everyth–""Okay," Yuna interrupted.

"You're right, I was being selfish." That's the conclusion she came to?

"Go get the others," Evel nodded.

"We should discuss how we'll use this advice with everyone." Once Yuna left the small tent, he slouched back in his chair. He wasn't sure if he handled that correctly. When he first told the group about their possible partnership with Prachar, nobody thought much of it in the short term. They would provide one extra worker, and in the long term they'd help the circus expand.

Zephyr told him he was underestimating the help Prachar could provide, and he'd brushed it off as a negotiation tactic, when in reality she had been dead on. As for the specific decisions… Just a minute later, Yuna returned with Mateo, Toan, and Clara.

"I've given them a brief rundown of what Otis said."

"What did you think?" He asked.

"I personally like teaching," Mateo shrugged.

"But yeah, Yuna needs to do less."

"My students may be a little lost without me," Toan shook his head pensively.

"But it's a small price for my freedom."

"I kind of like how things are…" Clara trailed off. Evel interlaced his fingers, his elbows firm on the stacks of paper on his desk.

"I have a few ideas, but I want to make sure everybody is on board." … Stretching his arms, Evel pushed aside the tent curtain and walked out into an area a bit too clean for the slums. Every week, there were frequenters who came to the slums performance from Upper-Ichoris, and the biggest problem for them was the cleanliness. Unlike north of the river, the slums didn't have the proper infrastructure or people working to keep the streets clean at all times, so it pushed people away.

As a solution, they put in extra effort to keep the area directly around the circus as clean as possible. Even if it didn't help bring back the Uppers who gave up on the slum performances, at least it kept their prestige high. Their discussions on how to handle management had gone on for a long time, and a few times Yuna had to step out to deal with other problems from within the circus. A firm smile remained on Evel's face as he walked to the metal bridge, as he recalled their discussions.

When he made proposals, Yuna had actually pushed back on a few of his points! A small thing, but he couldn't help but feel a little excited. The other three remained wary of him, despite how hard they tried not to show it, but it was a slow process. In the end, they made a few key changes. Toan was no longer the manager for the arts department. Instead, he was head of design, and he chose another person to be the manager.

Clara remained the manager of acrobatics, but a brand new division, the clown division, was created. They still needed to find somebody suited for that. Mateo remained as the head of magicians, and Yuna remained the overall manager. What changed was their actual approach during the day-to-day. They'd prioritize teaching the workers more, and not just about circus-related topics. Better ways to communicate, who to ask for help, when it's appropriate to escalate to Yuna, and so on.

They'd create resources like a few guideline books, and give proper training right from the moment they hired anyone. The literacy level within the circus was varied. Some came from poor backgrounds, and others came from basic education. Most people could read and write at the most basic level, and would struggle reading any longer form of text. To combat this, specific people would be responsible for conveying the messages while they got proper education.

As far as Evel was concerned, being able to read and write was essential, and he'd create a mini-school if he needed to. With lots of homework too, of course. He couldn't help but smile as the memories of Rick flooded in. The change would be slow and take a while to fully implement, but hopefully it would stick. Evel wasn't satisfied with leaving things there. The main gain from Otis' inspection was the revelation that he didn't really know anything at all.

When training to become a Weaver, he fully relied on the success and experience of the decades of people before him. There was no reason he couldn't do the same now. For that reason, he was currently walking to the library. Otis mentioned a business book talking of bottlenecks. There were probably many more that discussed strategies people created through years of experimentation. So his next destination was the library. The circus was surviving off novelty, and he'd neglected it for too long.

About an hour later, he returned home, three books in hand. Basics of business. Basics of branding. Manufacturing 101. But he decided he wouldn't read them. Since the morning, he'd been busy filling forms, talking with Prachar's people, discussing strategies, and so on. Although he felt full of energy to continue, he decided to honour Albert's intentions for the month. He needed to take a break. He placed the books on his table and slumped onto his bed, staring at his ceiling. Nothing happened.

Unfortunately, breaks were just so… boring. As he considered how to spend the remainder of his evening, his mind returned to his meeting with Zephyr. Maybe he needed a book on negotiations too. He'd honestly thought he did a good job until Albert ruined it. I wonder how she liked the performance? Since he wasn't there to listen in while performing, he could only tell from her reactions afterwards, which didn't tell him much. At the very least, he knew Moe enjoyed it.

Nobody enjoyed the circus as much as that merchant. He'd still never gotten around to reading his stories. Evel pushed off the bed and rummaged around the room. I know I have it somewhere… Ah, there it is. Within a pile of empty books ready to be transformed by the VTR, was a small green notebook. The one Moe had left him to read on their first performances in Upper-Ichoris. There's no way this counts as work. He flipped over to the first of three stories: The Shepherd Who Fed the Wolf