Chapter 36: Chapter 75 – The Tenants Visit a Carnival! (Part 2)

We found Valeanor at the missing person's tent, being pampered by several carnies. Two were massaging her legs and a third fed her fresh fruits. One of the supervisors, foot tapping impatiently, stood by the radio and was ready to call into the intercom again if I was taking too long.

"Uh… I'm the caretaker, here to pick up the elf," I said.

"Ah!" Valeanor lit up when I came in. "My caretaker has arrived. Thank you, gentlemen. Be blessed that you have laid your hands on my royal being."

"Please, take her so we can get back to work," the supervisor pleaded at the edge of sanity.

I bowed before leaving. "Sorry for the trouble!" 

Ange and Irapesha were eating corndogs when I returned with Valeanor in tow. The elven queen didn't appear apologetic in the slightest. 

"You can't just take advantage of the employees here just because you're a netherfolk! If this gets back to Professor Markel, he's either going to dock my pay or send you to another caretaker. You don't want that do you?" I scolded her.

"I don't see what the problem is. They were perfectly content serving me, as they should." Valeanor folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air.

"Maybe if they were a bunch of weebs, but they looked genuinely displeased… Please, just stay next to us and don't wander off."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes.

"Here, Akira." Ange held a corn dog up to my face. "Irapesha and I fetched something to eat while you were away."

I took a bite of the corn dog and lamented that this couldn't have just been a date instead.

"You will put more fat than muscle on you, eating such garbage. Though it isn't so bad to indulge every once in a while." The dragonewt blew fire onto her corn dog to char it a little darker before digging in.

We left the administrative area and returned to the main thoroughfare of the carnival's play area. They had a lot to do for regular humans, but nothing that caught Valeanor's attention.

I had to get creative. There must be something she might enjoy here.

Behind the ferris wheel, a large space had been partitioned off to be a petting zoo. They had pigs, sheeps, donkeys, and goats. This sort of attraction was mainly targeted to young children, but maybe Valeanor would enjoy petting cute baby animals.

"Why don't we meet some animals from the petting zoo?" I suggested to my tenants.

"Eugh. What do you take me for, a peasant farmer? Why would you think I have any interest at all playing with farm animals?" Valeanor remarked with disinterest.

"Oh, come on. Look at them. They're so cute." I purchased some feed from a handler and to lure some animals my way.

A floating sheep ate from my palm. "Baa!"

"Rakka?! What are you doing here?"

"She must have gotten separated from Tamara." Ange knelt down to pet the mana beast.

"Or to get free food," I said, noting how she went straight for the feed that spilled from my hand.

Perhaps in defense of their young, some of the adult goats and sheeps started headbutting Irapesha's legs.

"Are they food?" Irapesha picked one up, only to have it bleat and headbutt her.

"No, they aren't food! Put it down before we get in trouble!" I yelled.

"Excuse me, please don't pick up the animals!" the supervising animal handler shouted.

Valeanor was standing away from the pens, refusing to come any closer. She pinched her nose with one hand and the other was on her hip. If there was any clearer indication that she didn't want to be here, that was it.

"Alright, I give. What do you like?" I asked her.

"Not this, that's for sure. Let's see… Long hot baths, extravagant feasts at ball parties, orchestras playing lullabies to me until I fall asleep… is that so much to ask?" Valeanor shifted her gaze to me as if I could make any of that happen except for the first one possible.

"In short, yes. You lived quite the lavish lifestyle that two out of three of those is not within my power to grant," I replied.

"How disappointing. I wasn't even asking for much." She sighed.

If that wasn't asking for much, I dreaded what asking for much really was in her mind.

"How about hobbies? Things you liked to do for fun on your own?" I asked.

Valeanor thought for a moment and fell into a nostalgic trance. Her lips formed a smile, the first she had made since coming out to the carnival. 

"I used to tend a personal garden on the terrace of my castle, just outside of my bedchamber. I never allowed any of my servants near it for fear they may make a mistake," she explained in a softer tone.

"You're telling me, the haughty Queen Valeanor had a green thumb?" I raised a brow, doubtful of her story.

"But I remember it," Ange chimed in. "It was in fact a beautiful garden. She had shown it to me once when I was brought to her castle."

Valeanor put a hand to her chest and proudly declared,  "It was a collection of hundreds of flowers unique to certain climates of Weyera. I used magic to create microclimates so that they would grow in my garden away from their place of origin. Oh, they were such a delight to gaze upon."

A queen with a penchant for gardening.

I'd yet to receive Valeanor's dossier from Professor Markel, but maybe there would be something inside detailing more.

"Hmm… What do you think of flowers on earth?" I pointed to a boutique selling bouquets and individual flowers.

"Horrifying. They are unhealthy and dying. It is a testament to a flower's constitution that it has survived this long by human hands," she said, then went onto lambasting the florist.

Passionate was one way to describe her. On the plus side, I finally made a breakthrough.

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We found one of the Remmys playing a dart game. A giant bag filled with prizes was slung over her shoulder. The other four most likely had the same luck.

"You're really cleaning house," I said, walking up to Remmy as she struck a bullseye.

"These games are so easy, I can win them with my eyes closed." Tentacles emerged from the slime girl's body and flung the rest of the darts into the center. The crowd went wild cheering for her. She accepted the prize from the begrudging carnie who now had to close the game booth after running out of things to give out.

I thought she was going to keep all the prizes, but to my surprise, began handing them out to people instead. Remmy even handed one out to each of her dormmates. A dragon plushie to Irapesha, a toy crown to Valeanor, and furry handcuffs to Ange.

"It feels as though this was a slight at me." Valeanor lifted the crown to her eyes on one finger, unimpressed by the plastic toy. Nevertheless, she put it on, 

"Thank you, dear." Ange stroked Remmy's head

"Wait… Why did you give Ange handcuffs?" I squinted at Remmy, but before she could give an answer, the rest of her copies clamoured back with their own bags of prizes.

"We're back!"

"Whew… Winning all these was a lot of work."

"There's so much, I don't know what to do with them."

"Think we can make a buck selling it all?"

I put a hand to my face. "You guys are so lucky there's room in the van."

As it was getting late, we decided to find the rest of the tenants and get going. Cresta, Ines, and Tamara were just about to play a ring toss game when we found them.

"Oh, Rakka!" Tamara grabbed the sheep and put her back on top of her head. "Did you have a nice lunch?"

"You left him there on purpose?" I groaned.

"Ehehe~ Rakka said she was hungry, and I didn't know what to feed her. That was when we came across a petting zoo for her to sneak into," she innocently explained.

Cresta and Ines received their rings from the game attendant. Ines went first, missing most of her shots. Nearly all of them bounced off the side of the bottles. The entire goal of the game was to sink a ring into the neck of a bottle, but it was incredibly difficult. Mainly because the rings were already narrow to begin with.

"Another bucket, please!" Ines slammed several more bucks on the counter.

"You know this is a pretty hard to win game, right?" I warned the two.

"I know… but when Tamara said she wanted the giant sheep plushie, I couldn't resist…" she muttered.

The human-sized sheep plush dangled tantalizingly amongst the other, much smaller toys. According to the game attendant, it required three successful ring tosses. Or we could pay $300 for it.

"I might be able to get it in one try!" Cresta confidently exclaimed. She picked up three rings, and instead of tossing them like a frisbee, she underhand tossed each one right onto a bottle. Everyone's jaws, including the game attendant, dropped. "Heh. The giant sheep, please!"

"Yay!" Tamara jumped with joy.

"I'm sorry, but I can't have you guys playing this game anymore. Just take this and leave," the carnie said, shoving the enormous toy into Cresta's hands.

Cresta then gave it to Tamara who had a difficult time holding onto it due to their size differences. Meanwhile, Ines threw her arms in the air in frustration, having purchased extra rings for nothing.

"Now that we have everyone together again, is there anything else you guys want to do before we leave?" I asked the group.

"I want to try riding that!" Tamara pointed to a merry-go-round.

"Must we? It looks like such a drole." Valeanor groaned, but quickly changed her tune when Tamara pouted. "In… In that case, it doesn't seem too boring. I say let's try it!"

Unable to resist the smaller girl's beady eyes, Valeanor was pulled along by the other tenants to the ride.

I was about to follow after them until Ange tugged on my arm.

"We haven't been alone all day. Why don't we skip this ride and go on that instead?" Ange said of the ferris wheel.

I glanced back at the backs of the tenants who were already in line. Ines, who hadn't run off yet, returned to push us in the direction of the ferris wheel.

"Go with your girl, dude. I'll make sure no one gets lost. We'll meet back at the entrance, so you guys have your fun," she insisted.

With no other reason to decline, I went with Ange on the ferris wheel. We sat across from each other at first, but Ange moved to my side as the pod went up. Down below, the merry-go-round played its fanciful music, and I could only imagine Tamara having a grand time with the others.

Ange linked our arms together, followed by our hands, then leaned her head against my shoulder. The scent of her shampoo filled the carriage, calming me down after a day filled with high tension.

"You spend so much time worrying about others, I sometimes wonder if you forget about me," she said, rubbing my thumb with her own.

"Sorry… The more tenants we get, the more on edge I become. Last thing I want is something going wrong and us getting in trouble for it."

Then it occurred to me that February was coming up. That meant Valentines' Day. I should probably think of something to do for the both of us.

"What do you say about going on a vacation? Just the two of us?" Ange asked.

"I can't just— Wait, I actually can. It hasn't been a year, and I already accrued a bunch of vacation days. But leaving the dorm in someone else's care again? Especially so soon after Valeanor moved in?" My heart picked up speed, thinking about a honeymoon-like vacation with Ange.

"You work so hard. I'm sure you can afford a few days off," she purred in my ears.

"I still have to get Valeanor settled in… But I'll… think about it," I said, avoiding her gaze as my face turned red.

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