I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

The building of the Animal Taming major was sponsored by the Miracle Palace before the school was even built.

Due to the nature of the subjects involving caring for animals, a spacious and open area was necessary.

The students who entered the sponsorship pointed out various traces left behind, such as elephant footprints or tiger claw marks, discussing among themselves.

What kind of animals are they bringing and training?

Training was something one could enjoy simply by observing without necessarily showcasing any skills.

The students were excitedly discussing the animals they were looking forward to.

At the end of the garden stood a small tower.

At the entrance of the tower sat a creature.

Many students, including Ella, recognized it.

A four-legged creature with a eagle’s head and white wings.

It was a Griffin, the task that appeared in the entrance exam.

“Squawk!”

As strangers approached in groups, the creature stood up, assuming a defensive posture.

Closing its beak with a loud sound, it snorted.

Scratching the ground with its claws, it threatened them.

The students hesitantly stepped back, looking at the creature with fearful eyes.

The Griffin was a fierce beast that could attack farms and even snatch calves.

If it went on a rampage, it wouldn’t be surprising if several people were injured or killed.

“You all stay behind me. It might get startled.”

Clara stepped forward, speaking with a serious tone.

This Griffin was a stubborn creature that few students could handle.

Clara herself wasn’t very comfortable facing it.

However, she had been coming here every day for the past three weeks.

Instead of covering up what she had done wrong in the entrance exam, she had agreed to fulfil a few requests from the professor.

Thanks to that, she had become familiar with facing the Griffin.

Now, if she just set her mind to it, Clara felt like she could surpass even the highest score Ella achieved in the entrance exam.

As she stepped forward, the Griffin’s demeanour softened slightly.

Clara smiled reassuringly at it and approached slowly.

The Griffin folded its wings and stretched its neck, a gesture of relaxing its guard and showing friendliness.

Clara also spread her arms and approached calmly.

The creature also approached her.

Admiring murmurs could be heard from the students behind.

Clara felt exhilarated as she reached out her hand towards the Griffin’s beak.

Petting it was a sign of affection to it.

“Yeah. Here. Come here…”

However, her attempt was unsuccessful.

The Griffin suddenly raised its head.

“Squawk!”

It was the sound the Griffin made when it was excited.

It dashed towards the students, passing Clara.

“Oh no! Everyone, step back!”

Clara shouted.

The Griffin had already pounced on one of the students.

A student in a blue gym uniform struggled under the excited creature.

Clara looked embarrassed.

She had told the professor she could handle it…!

What a disgrace.

Clara took out a dagger from her pocket.

There was an anaesthetic on its end, which could even sedate an elephant.

As she threw it towards the Griffin’s neck.

Laughter burst out.

It was from the person the Griffin had pounced on.

“Hahaha, ticklish. Stop it. It’s been only three weeks? You remember me. Yeah, yeah. Good boy. Good boy.”

The voice belonged to Ella.

She hadn’t been attacked.

The Griffin had rushed towards her out of joy.

It extended its tongue through its beak and licked her hand.

The students watched in disbelief.

Handling such a violent beast as if it was a puppy.

It was hard to believe even after seeing it.

“You, you have to pet his beak…”

Clara wanted to give the impression that she was somehow in control of the situation.

She wanted to show that she could give advice to make the Griffin behave better.

However, Ella ignored her advice.

She stroked the back of the Gryphon’s neck instead of its beak.

Because it seemed like that’s what it wanted right now.

Indeed, the Griffin appeared to prefer that side.

Although Ella didn’t know much about the creature called the Griffin.

Her skill in handling him was as good as a professional Griffin rider.

***

She could read what the creature wanted through its fleeting eye expressions and small habits.

Clara now looked at the Griffin, which was resting its head on Ella’s lap.

She had confidently stepped forward only to be overshadowed beautifully.

How could that stubborn creature, known for its stubbornness, be so attached to someone it had only seen a few times?

It had been attending this school for years, barely even exchanging greetings with anyone…

As Ella calmed it down, the children who had been intimidated by it earlier gradually gathered around her.

They couldn’t help but admire the majestic appearance of the Griffin and its splendid feathers and wings.

“I’ll give this back to you.”

Reyna unexpectedly handed Clara a dagger.

It was the item she had thrown earlier.

Clara felt deflated with disappointment.

She had thrown the dagger with all her might, only for it to be effortlessly caught by her.

“Thank y…ou.”

She took the dagger Reyna offered and tucked it into her pocket.

Distracted by the consecutive mental shocks, she even forgot she had to guide the students.

After ample discussion with the Griffin, the students entered the tower.

“Wow.”

“What’s all this?”

The children exclaimed in awe or shock as they saw the inside of the room.

The office resembled a menagerie, filled with animals.

The owners of the traces they had seen in the garden were there.

There were also beasts akin to Griffins.

But the children didn’t seem afraid even when they saw them.

No, they felt sympathy instead.

They were all trapped.

In glass jars lined up on one side of the room.

“I guess this is what that rumor is about.”

“It’s a bit chilling to see them all gathered like this.”

Then, someone appeared from the corner of the office as the door opened.

It was a woman in her mid-30s with a kind smile.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Pyrene, the Professor Taming.” [Note: Pyrene is her real name. Till now I have been referring to her by her title]

She smiled at the children, who looked at the glass jars with a mixture of interest and concern.

“You were already admiring them, weren’t you? Aren’t they charming creatures?”

While the children nodded, their faces showed some doubt.

Representing the children, Ella asked her a question.

“Are the animals okay? It looks cramped and stuffy in here.”

“The students were worried about that.”

Pyrene picked up one of the glass jars.

Inside was an elephant.

“Don’t worry. This is just an ordinary glass jar, but when a creature enters it, it becomes a completely different world from this one.”

She suddenly turned the jar upside down.

The children screamed in surprise, but the catastrophe they feared did not occur.

The elephant inside the glass jar remained squatting on the bottom of the jar, seemingly unaware of what was happening outside.

“In reality, these animals are not inside the jars.”

Pyrene explained about her Inspira.

She could put the animals she contracted into the glass jars.

As mentioned earlier, she simply expressed it as putting them in glass jars, but in reality, the glass jar served as a medium to connect the world where the animals were with the real world.

“They are in a completely different space from here.”

“Where is that?”

“A place more comfortable and pleasant than anything else. They don’t feel physically or mentally tired there. They don’t need to eat or deal with waste. I think it’s a special space built somewhere in Kirku’s domain.”

She led the students, pointing out where they had encountered each of the animals and explaining their personalities, talents, and skills.

Each of them had their own story or anecdote.

The children were amazed, shed tears, or expressed anger as they heard different stories.

Originally, the students were supposed to disperse by early afternoon, but due to the extended time spent, it was late afternoon before the day’s excursion schedule could be completed.

***

I nodded as I listened to Ella’s story.

Even though it was time for them to return, there was no word, so I contacted her and Maya through the Sound Room.

Fortunately, everything was fine.

They had just spent a bit more time at the last place they visited because the children had enjoyed it.

“Oh, I see.”

I nodded at her generous assessment of Professor Pyrene.

Was my worry unfounded?

Even though she had shown madness in TT2, now she might just be a mere animal enthusiast.

Even in the game, she was focused on capturing animals.

She even carried glass jars with a cheerful smile in that hellish setting.

After a few sub-quests, she would invite players to her hideout to show off her collection.

“What’s this…?”

“Ugh.”

The knight’s expression stiffened, and the thief looked like might vomit at any moment.

Only Maya scrutinized Pyrene’s collection with an emotionless face.

The creatures inside her jars were not ordinary beings.

“G-gu… please, k-kill me. I can’t…”

“The legs are torn apart like this. Aaaagh!”

Victims whose bodies were transformed by Wonderstein’s power.

They had stopped just before being completely transformed into monsters.

“Isn’t that a person?”

At the knight’s words, she smiled brightly and shook her head.

“A person? No, of course not. My ability doesn’t capture people.”

She said so and took out a jar from a corner of the office.

It was a jar with a round body and a long snout.

“Master, guests have arrived.”

She proudly presented it to the warriors.

“Say hello. He is my master.”

Could there be people transformed into monsters inside it as well?

The thief, inspecting the jar closely, frowned.

There wasn’t even a living creature inside it, let alone a human.

Even one side of the glass jar was shattered.

Inside, there were only dried bloodstains clinging to the broken shards like pieces of shell.

“Master! Master! Guests have arrived!”

With a broken glass jar from which no sound could be heard, she found her master who had died decades ago.

“As expected, this woman is a bit crazy.”

“In a city dominated by Wonderstein’s madness, wouldn’t anyone be a bit off?”

Though she was a creepy figure, compared to the allies in other cities, she was relatively quiet.

At least she didn’t harm people.

However, her words about not ‘recognizing people’ as ‘people’ made me uneasy.

***

After the students left, Pyrene was alone in the tower.

She drew the curtains, locked the door, and approached the bookshelf behind the desk.

As she touched a few items there, the bookshelf made a noise and moved back, revealing a hidden passage.

Passing through the passage, she found a switch on the wall and turned on the lights in the room.

As there were no windows in this room, the light from the lamp did not spill outside.

The light illuminated the dark space.

The space revealed was several times larger than her office.

Several large shelves surrounded the room.

Hundreds of glass jars filled each shelf.

Inside them were creatures, each different from those seen outside and with distorted features, as if someone had grabbed one corner of the original creatures and twisted them sharply.

They were forms that could not be found in this world, let alone in the Abyss.

Even faced with such horrifying things, Pyrene’s expression remained calm.

After all, there was no reason for her to fear them.

They were all captured by her Inspira.

She stared at the center of the room.

From the dark corner came a deep, rumbling voice.

“Have you come.”

There was no figure of a person in the darkness.

There was only one glass jar with a round body and a long snout, firmly bound to the desk by a sturdy chain.

The voice came from inside it.

Inside the flask with a round bottom, there was a creature that did not seem to belong to this world.

It writhed with black flesh, reminiscent of something that might be seen in the trash bin of a seafood shop, with layers of broken shells and shells piled on top of each other.

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Chapter 176: Demon in the Bottle – 15