Honestly, letting a cute little girl go out on her own takes a lot of courage.

After all, there are plenty of criminals around these days, and some of them are even more dangerous.

Advanced technology makes life better, but it also makes criminals more dangerous, so you still have to be careful.

Especially someone like Yexing—a cute little girl with beautiful silver hair who looks completely harmless. She’s exactly the kind of target certain people love.

“What should I eat later? I probably shouldn’t live on junk food all the time. If this great figure of mine turns into a ball, I’ll totally lose it.”

Yexing wasn’t worried about her safety. After all, she could run incredibly fast.

She was only worried that if she kept being such a couch potato, she’d get fat and turn into a ball. Just thinking about it was terrifying.

“I guess I really should get a certain amount of exercise?” Yexing muttered.

Back then, going to work every day had been all the exercise she got. As soon as she got home, she’d lie around.

Now that she was stuck at home all the time, she had nothing to do.

Her other body had at least found a respectable job, but Yexing was still unemployed.

Actually, she should say she was a gig worker.

Well, she didn’t even have enough of an identity to be a gig worker.

“Mmm... Never mind. What’s so bad about being a couch potato? A little extra softness makes you nicer to hug. I’m giving up!”

Yexing didn’t know that after she’d turned into a little girl, some mysterious power had fixed her body size. She could eat as much as she wanted and never gain weight.

There was no need to worry.

Just then, someone suddenly blocked Yexing’s path.

Yexing looked up and saw a stranger smiling at her.

“Hey, little girl. Where are you going? Can you tell me?”

A chill ran through Yexing. She grew wary, already preparing to run.

“Who are you?”

“Don’t worry about who I am. I saw a little kid walking alone and thought it might not be safe, so I came over to check. If you’ve gotten separated from your parents, why don’t you let me take you to find them?”

At those words, Yexing knew she was screwed.

She really had been targeted by criminals!

Damn it. Being too cute really was a crime.

“Mmm... No, thank you.”

Yexing had just turned to run when several people came over and blocked her way.

From the looks of it, this was a whole gang working together?

It was nighttime, sure, but they were way too bold!

“Mmm...”

They gradually forced Yexing into a narrow alley, and she was starting to get scared.

She wasn’t as brave as she’d imagined. Otherwise, when she’d made her wish earlier, she wouldn’t have asked for the ability to run incredibly fast. That was obviously for getting away when she ran into danger.

She didn’t want to get involved in a fight or anything.

Violence was forbidden.

The ringleader laughed.

“We’re lucky tonight, running into a prime catch all by herself. I wonder whose kid you are. How’d you get the nerve to wander around at night? I guess you can only blame your parents for not keeping a better eye on you. Heh~”

At one particular word, Yexing’s expression dimmed. An unpleasant memory came back to her.

It wasn’t like she had parents looking after her.

But no matter how bad that made her feel, she needed to hurry up and run. She didn’t want to be tamed into a little fluffball.

There was still some space between the men. She could just charge through at full speed. Whatever happened after that, she didn’t care.

“You asked for this...”

But just then, heavy footsteps sounded behind her, in the dark alley.

Yexing looked back and saw a tall figure slowly emerge from the shadows, carrying an oppressively dark presence.

He wore a top hat and a black tailcoat, as if he were about to disappear into the pitch-black shadows.

He took the hat off his head and held it out in his hands.

“Caw—caw—”

A flock of crows perched on the power lines seemed to have been summoned. One by one, they flew over and into the hat.

The shadowy figure held up the hat to show it off.

“Behold, and observe your Audience Etiquette.”

As his low voice rang out, a mass of black feathers suddenly burst from the hat, spraying into the sky and drifting lightly through the air.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him. They were completely silent, as if watching his performance.

Little did they know that the moment the magic show began, their thoughts were no longer their own.

“Huh?” The only exception was one confused silver-haired little girl.

Yexing felt like another strange person had just shown up.

Was this some kind of new-age performance art in a dark alley?

It was just too dark to get a good look at him.

His voice sounded kind of familiar.

The black feathers slowly drifted down. A few landed on the men surrounding Yexing, then sank into their bodies.

Then all the feathers around them vanished like phantoms, like black smoke dissolving into the darkness.

Yexing’s eyes widened in shock.

Whoa!

“That was amazing! Did I just get caught in a Kyouka Suigetsu?”

The shadow walking through the darkness drew closer, and Yexing finally got a clear look at him.

“Huh? Mr. Magician? What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to find you, Miss Audience. Some of the details have changed since I last saw you, but I wouldn’t mistake you for anyone else.”

That’s right. It was the magician Ye Lan had met earlier at Wanyu Plaza, the one with the old-fashioned style of performance.

Yexing was happy to run into someone she knew here, but now wasn’t the time to chat.

“Mr. Magician, there are some bad people here. Hurry and call the police...”

But when Yexing looked back, the men who’d surrounded her were gone.

Confused, she scratched her head.

“Huh? Where’d they go?”

“You mean those audience members? They’d already left once my performance was over.”

Yexing pondered that for a moment.

She figured he probably meant that the bad guys had gotten scared off by his magic trick.

They’d run off that easily? That was pretty hilarious.

“Miss Audience, what did you think of my magic trick?” the magician asked.

“It was awesome! The visuals were so striking, and it was really impressive. How’d you do it? That was amazing!”

Yexing clapped excitedly, and she meant every bit of it.

It was rare to meet someone so genuinely innocent.

“Oh, really? I’m glad you liked it. That’s wonderful...”

Then the magician held out his hand to Yexing, as if inviting her along.

“Mr. Magician?” Yexing stared at his hand, puzzled.

“I remember being a magician, a comedian, and a clown. Magic is just one of my skills, so ‘Magician’ isn’t exactly the right title. You can call me the troupe leader. Would you let me take you to see my troupe?”

Yexing paused, thinking about whether she should go.

She believed the man in front of her really was a troupe leader. After all, his performance had been incredible.

But she was really hungry. Should she get something to eat first, or go see the troupe with the leader?

Yexing weighed her options.

She’d been taught not to go anywhere with strangers, but Mr. Troupe Leader had saved her. He’d scared off the bad guys, so it should be okay, right?

Besides, a troupe was such a rare thing these days!

It was impressive enough that they hadn’t died out completely. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to get to see one.

Yexing decided she could go take a look.

If she ran into danger, she could always use her incredible speed to get away.

“Sure!”