I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

As the two disappeared completely from sight, Ella jumped up from her seat.

All eyes turned to her.

She trembled as if stricken with a fever, her whole body shaking.

Yurakne, who was standing nearby, approached her with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?”

Ella stiffly turned her head to look at her.

“Yes, y-yes? Oh, me? I-I’m fine……”

But it was evident to everyone that she was not okay.

She breathed heavily, sweat beading on her forehead, her eyes darting around aimlessly.

“Why, why are you all looking like that? Haha, it’s just a stomach ache…… I, I need to use the restroom…”

With that, she said and rushed into the mansion.

Not only her complexion but even her gait seemed unsteady.

She staggered midway.

Everyone looked at each other with worried eyes.

They all knew why she was behaving like this.

Ever since the incident at the freshmen welcome party, she had shown intermittent seizure symptoms.

It wasn’t due to an injury.

It was something they had anticipated happening sooner or later.

Her lost memories were coming back to her.

The members didn’t know what had happened between her and Wonderstein.

So, they couldn’t casually speculate about it.

Of course, just recalling what they had witnessed, Wonderstein was a dreadful presence.

He ruthlessly killed people without changing his expression, like a monster.

Ordinary people would never have accepted him.

That was no different for the monster members.

They had avoided being with him for several months.

But the members were those who had been rejected by society at least once.

They had suffered all sorts of hardships from “normal people.”

So, even if Wonderstein did something inhumane, they didn’t feel as much moral repulsion as ordinary people would.

That’s why they could choose to ignore his monstrous aspects as much as his human ones were revealed.

Of course, for Womon, Maya, and Gascon, who relatively joined the circus troupe late, they didn’t know what he had done.

So, they had no initial aversion to him.

But Ella was different.

She was a founding member of this circus troupe.

She had seen everything he had done until now.

Plus, there was a past that others didn’t know about.

They worried about how shocked she would be when she regained all her memories.

***

Ella, coming out of the garden, ran without knowing where she was going.

She just had to go where there were no members.

She arrived at the garden area.

The ground was completely empty, thanks to the members harvesting all the pumpkins in the morning.

She grabbed onto any wall and barely caught her breath.

“Ugh, ugh.”

She wiped the sweat from her forehead.

It was another damn hallucination.

It had been tormenting her since the freshmen welcome party.

It appeared even with her eyes closed and her ears plugged.

The places and people varied each time.

But there was a common denominator.

People died horribly, and Wonderstein was involved.

This time, it was an open field in some forest.

A group clad in Armor surrounded them.

When Wonderstein reached out his hand, they exploded into bits of flesh and blood.

Some fled, and some attacked with spears and swords, but they couldn’t become his opponents.

When he spread his arms, they all turned into a sea of blood and flesh.

He stood in the midst of that sea, laughing as he looked at her.

She wrapped her arms around herself.

Did he really… did he really do such things?

“No, no……”

Ella shook her head.

It was obviously false.

Surely, her constant negative conjectures about Wonderstein’s past were being reflected in these visions.

It must be…

Thus, she kept repeating words she herself wasn’t sure of.

Then, she heard footsteps from behind.

She turned around to see.

An old man, clad in muddy clothes, was trudging towards the garden area.

Approaching her, he extended a steaming cup towards her.

“It’s a tonic to clear your mind. You can’t stop memories from returning, but at least you won’t have sudden seizures like this.”

It was a freshly brewed herbal concoction.

He was undoubtedly responding to seeing her distressed.

“T-Thank… you…”

Ella cautiously accepted the cup he offered.

Gascon snorted and extended his hand.

“Hmph. You don’t have to thank me. It’s all because of that guy’s request.”

“That guy?”

“My apprentice, who else? He’s a real piece of work. Only learns what’s promised and then disappears… tsk. How nice would it be if he worried about me as much as he did about you.”

Grumbling like that, he pretended to tidy up the dishevelled area.

Ella stared at the herbal concoction in silence, murmuring.

“The director… worries about me…?”

A laugh escaped her lips.

The terror she felt upon seeing the hallucination dissipated as soon as she realized he was worried about her.

Gascon sighed deeply as he looked at her.

“You are fond of him, huh?”

“Hehe…”

She avoided his gaze as if embarrassed.

The old gardener shook his head as if in pity.

“Hmph. What’s so good about that guy? A pathetic fellow hanging around the circus despite having such abilities.”

Ella widened her eyes at Gascon’s words insulting the two things she liked the most.

“What? A dung carrier sniffing around and rolling on the dirt floor!”

“A dung carrier?”

The two exchanged insults, raising their voices.

Startled by the noise, the members who rushed to the area breathed a sigh of relief seeing the usual sight of the two.

***

Clara hummed a tune as she walked down the street.

She was singing the song the “Quartet” had played at the freshmen welcome party.

She occasionally hopped or swayed her shoulders in rhythm.

Passersby’s smiled subtly at the sight of the tall lady behaving like an innocent child.

What good news does she have?

Clara was engrossed in singing, unaware of how people perceived her.

Although she had lost her power, she still had the ability to listen in on conversations around her.

She had always kept it on before, but not anymore.

Using that power put a strain on her body.

She couldn’t keep causing trouble while indebted to her master.

So, she refrained from using it except when necessary.

As she reached her destination, she stretched her arms out and spun around, finishing her song.

Clara learned about the world through human “conversations.”

In those whispers, she encountered numerous rumours, conspiracies, and manipulations.

Thanks to them, she could grasp the dark and shady side of politics, society, and economics.

While listening to all those secretive stories, she acted as if she understood everything about the world and humanity.

But when she stepped outside, the world was different from her expectations.

The sensations of feeling, tasting, and seeing everything were filled with wonder.

“Wow, miss, what’s the good news? Why are you dancing like that from afar?”

A uniformed old security guard smiled at her and spoke.

Clara smiled back at him and shouted.

“Just because everything’s great! Here’s my Vergsong Merchant Union membership card!”

“Oh, okay, hmm, right. I’ve confirmed it. Haha, it feels so good to see a young lady so bright and cheerful.”

After confirming her identity, the old security guard opened the door for her.

She entered the bank.

Wonderstein and she had decided to divide the remaining tasks since it would take more time for him to come out with clothes.

She visited the corporate bank, responsible for handling the financial affairs of the Union and the company.

The building was bustling with elderly people in suits.

She was the only teenager there.

The guests looked at her as if she were out of place.

In this era, corporate banks were not places for the general public to frequent.

With difficult jargon, meticulous paperwork, and complex processing procedures involving stamps and signatures, it took a lot of effort just to accomplish a single task.

The circus had never had any dealings with this place before.

In Luz, Anais had taken care of the paperwork herself, and afterward, she had personally delivered the funds regularly.

However, for some reason, they had lost contact with her recently.

She hadn’t withdrawn her sponsorship.

They still had the qualification to participate in the Circus Grand Prix.

Wonderstein finally believed that the noble lady had taken an interest in something.

So, using the sponsorship qualification from the Merchant union, he had been going through the formal procedures to obtain funds.

He couldn’t believe it when Clara said she could handle it alone.

When he went to the bank, he and Ella always spent a lot of time discussing and dealing with this and that.

The staff at the counter had the same thoughts.

They didn’t think a teenager who looked barely over twenty could handle business at a bank alone.

But for Clara, who had accumulated knowledge of the world for a long time, bank business was nothing.

She handled what the bank demanded smoothly.

It was the skill of a seasoned merchant.

She handled the situation so well that the supervisor behind the counter even jokingly suggested that she should work for the bank.

Clara chuckled inwardly.

Perhaps she would have been moved by his words when her self-esteem was at its lowest, but not now.

She was with the world’s greatest man now.

She didn’t envy any other position.

So, she was able to finish the bank business faster than Wonderstein had initially anticipated.

With time to spare, she found a nearby playground.

Although she was knowledgeable about high society, she hadn’t investigated acrobatics deeply enough to be able to pass herself off as Clara.

But to properly fulfil her role as the director’s secretary, she couldn’t help it.

She needed to watch acrobatics and accumulate knowledge on the side.

Of course, there was another reason for her to be here.

“Alright, it’s time for an arm wrestling competition! Oh, wait, wait! You there, big guy, step back! This is for women only! Of course, if the gentleman is wearing a pretty skirt, we can consider it. I can’t dare to check if it’s attached to the lady or not, you see.”

Laughter erupted from the crowd.

The bearded man closed his mouth again and stepped back.

Of course, he didn’t go to put on a skirt.

Clara also signed up for the competition.

The prize for the competition was a Halloween cookie set from Slagbrot Bakery, which she was already planning to buy today.

If she won the prize here, she could pocket the money.

She believed she could win.

During this time, she had also received some enhancement to her physical abilities from Wonderstein’s ability.

She could easily handle the youngsters meandering around in this market.

Her first opponent looked to be about six years old.

“Hehe, little kid, little kid, little kid. I’ll eat you alive in the first match!”

Even though she was a kid, she didn’t intend to go easy on her.

She decided to weaken the opponent’s morale with some trash talk.

“Hey! Why did you come here if you’re just a baby bottle sucker?”

Clara whispered loud enough for her opponent to hear.

The kid blushed and bowed her head deeply.

“I-I’m old enough too.”

Clara pretended to listen intently to her mumbling.

“Yeah. What? Can’t hear you? Want me to come closer? Yeah, I can’t hear you, your voice is too small like a little kid’s!”

Then, from the crowd, the kid’s father shouted to cheer his daughter.

Clara pointed at him and teased.

“Is that your dad over there? Is that guy a person? Maybe a rooster?”

The kid’s shoulders trembled.

‘Hehe, she’s mad.’

The referee’s whistle signalled the start.

Clara twisted her arm without giving her opponent a chance.

Thunk.

The match was over in an instant.

TL Note: Eh is this foreshadowing. A small girl? A rooster? What do you think dear readers.

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Chapter 200: Wonderland – 3