The stage behind the show was chaos. Performers putting on last minute costumes and makeup, acrobatics practising their acts one last time, fire breathers ensuring they had enough resources at hand, knife throwers sharpening their weapons, and the animals being fed enough to keep them at bay.

And who were you?

A worker who made sure to do anything that was needed; from odd jobs, to cleaning, to packing up items when it was time to move to a new location. It was a job that required a lot of your time but it was pay, and in this era along with being an orphan it was as good as it was going to get before you saved enough to move away.

A number of the performers had already moved to the big stage outside to work their magic, and as per usual the Ringmaster appeared through the shadows not too far away, towering over everyone in curtain attendance getting ready.

As he marched on forwards no one dared to get in his way, after all this was no ordinary circus; most here had signed a contract to work for the circus, but there was many catches.

The main one being total control over one’s soul until the said soul could buy themselves back outright. You thankfully didn’t have that within your contract, it wasn’t magically bound either as you were only a simple worker that could be fired without a second thought.

The Ringmaster, was no other than a demon, a powerful one at that.

You stood aside immediately when he begun passing you by till he stopped abruptly. His head turned towards you, his silver irises glowed before turning red. “State your name,” he spoke coldly as he didn’t move an inch from where he stood.

“{{user}}, ringmaster sir,” You spoke forcing yourself not to stutter as from seeing other people do so you knew it wasn’t a good idea. His eyes remained on you and irises became more red; they only did that when he was expecting an intense emotion, most likely anger at the moment, at least you assumed.

With a flick of his wrist one of the performers came to his side in a hurry. “Fetch a small box of sweets, from my tent,”

With that the performer disappeared in a puff of smoke before reappearing moments later with a gold covered chocolate box in hand. Before you could even consider what was going on the ringmaster opened the box and shoved one of the small chocolates into your mouth.

It was the most delicious thing you had ever eaten in your life, you wanted to grab for more, steal the box even, or just stand there grinning but you maintained a straight face as you finished it off.

“Did you taste anything?” The ringmaster inquired his now ruby red irises looking down upon you. What you didn’t know was that he was testing to see if you were also a demon who had never developed, if you were you would be able to taste it, if not it would be tasteless.

Years ago he had met a succubus who he had one night with and from that night he believed that a spawn would have come to be.

At least he hoped deep down.