Three days passed in a flash. Besides preparing acts for children, Statiw also prepared stories for adults, just in case.
At ten o'clock on the morning of the banquet, guests began to arrive at the Colt family estate. From this moment, Statiw and Cana had already started their performance.
"As you said, only a few children have come to watch our show; the adults don't care at all." Looking at the two or three children gathered in front of the stage, Statiw, from behind, manipulated the materialized characters while chatting with Cana, who was on stage, using magic cards to release various beautiful magic orbs.
"Moreover, most children won't stay here forever. Their attention will quickly shift, and they'll get bored of these shows before long, then start exploring the entire castle," she replied with a light chuckle, listening to the cheers of the children below, excited by the dazzling color changes.
Cana was already very familiar with these performances, handling them with ease. Furthermore, her card magic was incredibly versatile; it could be used for combat, divination, and even as summoning magic.
As time passed, the children below, just as she had predicted, quickly grew tired of the constantly changing colors. Without an audience, there was no need to perform. In fact, the real need for continuous performance was only after eight in the evening, as that was the main part of the banquet.
However, what troubled them was that, at some point, a well-dressed young man in his twenties had appeared in the audience. He watched the constantly changing colors on stage and asked Cana, "Don't you have any other performances? I'm tired of these constantly changing colors; every banquet is like this. Is there nothing more exciting in this world?"
"Looks like we have someone discerning," her interest was immediately piqued by his words. She stopped the performance on stage and asked the young man in the audience, "What kind of performance do you want to see?"
"Something special, preferably something I haven't seen before," the young man in the audience replied with a transparently fake smile.
"You want to see a performance you've never seen before? Then you've come to the right place." Cana wasn't angered by the annoying fake smile on the young man's face. Such smiles always appeared on young nobles like him, and the reason was simple: their acting skills hadn't yet matured to the level of their parents.
Knowing that the young man wanted to see something special, she returned backstage and said to Statiw, "Statiw, there's a discerning person in the audience. Bring out your so-called magic tricks for him."
"No problem." He had seen everything that happened in front clearly from behind, and he had already prepared before she returned backstage. So, as she spoke, Statiw set up his easel, then controlled a character to walk to the front of the stage with several metal rings.
Once the character reached the front of the stage, he controlled him to first hand the metal rings to the young man in the audience and, through the character's mouth, said, "Come, you can check if there's anything amiss with these metal rings."
"Hey, Statiw. Aren't you afraid of offending him?" Cana immediately reminded him from behind after hearing his request to the other party. After all, in this world, such a request could be considered an insult to people from certain prominent families.
"Don't worry, since he wants to see a performance he hasn't seen before, he shouldn't get angry over such a small matter," he replied with a knowing look.
Indeed, just as he had predicted, the young man didn't mind the perceived offense. Instead, he eagerly took the metal rings, inspected each one, and asked, "Oh? Is this part of the performance?"
"Yes, because the next performance involves these metal rings, that's why I need you, as the audience, to inspect them beforehand." Statiw smiled slightly, took the metal rings from the young man's hand, and returned to the center of the stage: "Alright, you've inspected these metal rings. They are indeed completely closed, correct?"
"That's right, I'm certain of that," the young man nodded.
"Then..." He controlled the character to pick up two metal rings and sharply strike them together in the middle.
After a crisp 'clink,' the two metal rings in his hand magically passed through each other's edges, becoming two interlocked metal rings. Then he smiled and asked the young man, "Now, are you still sure they are completely closed metal rings?"
"Huh? What's going on?" The young man was stunned and immediately walked onto the stage, taking the interlocked metal rings from the character's hand and pulling them apart. He found that the two metal rings were as if they had originally been interlocked, and they even made 'clinking' sounds when their metal edges collided.
The magic of this world is incredibly wondrous, capable of many things unimaginable to ordinary people, such as changing clothing colors, summoning strange creatures, flying in the sky, and even spatial transference. The young man had seen many kinds of magic, but he had never seen anyone perform like this, nor could he guess what kind of magic was being used.
"Can you separate them again?" After carefully examining them, the young man handed the metal rings back to the character and asked.
"Of course," Statiw replied.
"Then can I stand here and watch?" the young man asked again.
"If you wish, no problem," he had no intention of refusing the young man's request.
Seeing him agree, the young man immediately became excited. He watched intently, without even blinking, as the character held the metal rings. The character then sharply pulled the metal rings apart.
A 'clink' sounded again, and in the blink of an eye, the metal rings separated once more into two independent metal circles.
"This... what's going on? I didn't see you use magic. Does that mean this isn't magic? Or is there something I didn't notice?" Under such close observation, the young man didn't see any magic circle appear, which made him even more curious. He once again took the two separated metal circles from the character's hand and conducted an even more detailed inspection, even to the point of pressing every part of the two metal circles with his hand.
"It seems he should be very satisfied with this performance," Cana said with a smiling face, standing backstage and watching the young man inspecting the metal circles on stage.
"Yes," Statiw nodded. "He probably has no idea that the person standing in front of him is a character materialized by Pict Magic. The reason the metal circles pass through each other's edges isn't because there's a mechanism on them, but because my Pict Magic can connect with real objects, thereby changing them..."