Chapter 251: 250 Don't Worry, Nothing Will Happen

250 Don't worry, nothing will happen.

Watching Li Ang's somewhat dumbfounded expression, the wooden puppet leading man dangling from silk threads on stage had already finished reciting his opening lines with great feeling and expression.

Next, he was seen stepping with highly aesthetic stage footwork, his figure seeming fast but actually slow, walking toward the next "plot point," while Li Ang took advantage of the "scene change" gap while the tavern set was being built on stage to lean close to the princess's ear and ask, full of suspicion:

"Veronica, look at that leading man on stage—is he a person or a puppet?"

Hmm? What kind of question is that?

Princess Veronica was slightly startled upon hearing this, not understanding why Li Ang would ask such a thing, but after recalling Li Ang's "job," her expression immediately grew serious, and she likewise tilted her head and whispered in his ear:

"A person! In my eyes, a person! Could it be that you see Elijah as a puppet?"

"Mm…"

Looking at the tavern gradually lighting up beneath the stage lamps, and the leading lady in the tavern holding a prop tray, her skirt fluttering as she danced gracefully, Li Ang frowned and said:

"Not just the leading man—in my eyes, every actor who has appeared on stage so far is a talking puppet wearing clothes. We should have encountered an anomalous event.

Veronica, you're that Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's loyal audience, so you should have been following the Morning Star Troupe's movements all along, right? Has there been any noteworthy news about the troupe recently?"

News worth paying attention to?

Understanding that Li Ang was gathering intelligence, preparing to complete the anomaly cleanup work, Princess Veronica took a regretful glance at the stage, but didn't rush to ask questions left and right, and instead quite cooperatively began to rack her memory.

"If you put it that way, there really are some strange points."

After searching through her mind for a bit, the princess recounted, her delicate brows slightly furrowed:

"The Morning Star Troupe's lead actor, Andre, who had worked with Master Wang Wang Wang Erde the longest, was boycotted due to a scandal, and a suitable replacement was never found.

The several performances after that, because of the teething issues with the new actors, received very poor reviews among theater enthusiasts. Master Wang Wang Wang Erde seemed extremely annoyed about this, and proactively reduced the troupe's performance frequency, beginning closed-door training.

But reporters discovered that the food the Central Cross Theater sent in during the training period had never been touched at all, and was thrown directly into the surrounding trash bins, so they suspected the closed-door training was just a front, and made quite a stir for a while…"

The food sent into the theater was untouched?

Hearing this, Li Ang frowned slightly, feeling the news seemed somewhat familiar. After carefully flipping through his pocket notebook, he finally recalled it with a start.

After the Ryan Blood Night, basically recovered, he had run from the hospital back to the Cleanup Bureau, and before being trapped in the police department's dungeon, the director had given him some investigation tasks.

Among them were the shepherd who got lost while looking for goats in Pavo County, the arsonist running rampant in the Loser Arcade, and the Morning Star Troupe's food problem, and so on and so forth.

At the time, after looking them over, he felt these tasks didn't seem to involve anomalies, and ultimately chose to take on the mission to rescue Amy at Rose Manor.

And when he later infiltrated the rebel party, he discovered that the arsonist was actually the rebel party's anomalous object holder—the burn-scarred man Taige, who liked to sniff people with his nose. And now the Morning Star Troupe really had something happen.

If you count the Chengjin Sect Sect Leader he met at Rose Manor, of the four tasks he received at the time, three had already been confirmed to be related to anomalies. It seemed his own director's level of "assigning tasks" was extraordinarily high.

……

"Li Ang?"

After waiting a while without hearing Li Ang's reply, the princess couldn't help but ask softly:

"How is it? Did you discover anything? Will the people who came to watch the play be in danger?"

"I did discover something, and it's relatively good news."

Li Ang, who had come back to his senses, nodded and said:

"If what I'm seeing is real, then the reason the food sent by the theater was thrown away is that all the actors in the entire troupe have already become puppets that don't need to eat.

And from that time until now, a very long period has passed, but the audience members who came to watch the plays during this time have not experienced mass disappearances or casualties, proving this anomalous event is relatively stable and most likely won't affect the audience."

"That's good then…"

Hearing Li Ang's words, Princess Veronica couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, then leaned over and asked softly:

"What can I do to help? Secretly have someone organize an evacuation? Or…"

"No, don't do anything!"

After vetoing the princess's suggestion, Li Ang tilted his head and said softly:

"Since in all those past performances, the audience could leave safely, and there hasn't been a large-scale event alarming our branch, simply watching the play should be safe.

According to Emma's rema… according to the experience a senior taught me, when you're not certain of an anomalous object's specific abilities, and it's unlikely to cause large-scale harm, absolutely don't rush to break the current balance.

So what we should do now is wait in the box for six hours, until the performance is over and the vast majority of the audience, including you, have safely evacuated. Then I'll figure out a way to bring the seniors from the bureau back and complete the cleanup as safely as possible."

"Alright, I'll listen to you!"

Princess Veronica nodded, her cool little hand gripping Li Ang's palm, her lips pressed against his earlobe, and she softly urged with some unease:

"Remember to stay safe. If there's anything I can do, just tell me, I'll definitely do my best to help."

"Mm…"

His neck tickled a bit from the breath the princess exhaled. Having finished asking for information, Li Ang shifted slightly, somewhat uncomfortable, wanting to return to a properly upright seated posture.

But just then, he noticed the princess's soft, supple palm was slightly damp, her upper body leaning over was trembling uncontrollably, and her legs beneath the long skirt were pressed slightly together, appearing to be quite nervous.

After a slight hesitation, Li Ang broke free of his right hand that she had clasped, wrapped his arm around her from behind, leaned close to her ear, and softly comforted her:

"Don't worry, this anomalous event isn't very dangerous, and with me here, you'll definitely be fine."

"…"

The princess, suddenly embraced, was somewhat surprised. In the dim box she looked up at Li Ang, and upon noticing his concerned expression, she lowered her head and softly hummed an acknowledgment, then obediently leaned into his arms.

Actually I'm not scared, I just drank a bit too much hot water on the carriage and need to use the restroom a little… but this isn't bad either~

Cooperating with Li Ang's movement, she leaned further into his embrace. Feeling someone's firm and warm young body, the princess couldn't help but gently bite her lower lip, and in an angle Li Ang couldn't see, revealed a satisfied faint smile.

Still knows to take care of my feelings, not bad, not bad, all that treating you well wasn't for nothing~