I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

In the Slagbrot Bakery Factory, there was a small three-story building that seemed out of place at first glance.

Although small in comparison to the factory’s size, it was larger than several houses combined.

The building exuded an atmosphere as if it was living in a different era.

Its architectural style was quite old-fashioned, and its exterior was quite worn out, despite having been renovated quite a long time ago.

Surrounded by the factory’s elegant buildings with graceful curves, the building looked even older than its actual age, seemingly out of place.

The descriptor of not fitting in didn’t just apply to its appearance.

Its purpose and location were also issues. It occupied a significant portion of the factory without serving any apparent function.

However, none of the factory workers questioned why the building was there.

That was because this place was where everything began for this company.

It used to be the pastry shop of a certain pastry chef before he became the owner.

Originally located on a different street, the pastry chef bought the building and moved it to this location.

Although the building was old and worn out, its interior was clean, thanks to the regular maintenance by the employees.

It was also the place where the rehearsal for “Fantasy 13” was taking place.

The 11 acrobats commissioned by the Marquis stayed here, dedicating themselves to the performance.

The Marquis’ soldiers guarded the building 24 hours a day, controlling access in and out.

No one was allowed to leave the building until he watched the premiere of the performance.

The Marquis did not want any information to leak out before then.

There were several attempts to break in, mostly unsuccessful.

However, one attempt almost succeeded.

Several journalists managed to sneak in by stealing the factory uniforms and pretending to be employees.

They managed to steal a portion of the script that was left unattended in the rehearsal room.

Fortunately, the suspicious behavior of the soldiers led to their capture, preventing the information from leaking out.

The public’s interest in “Fantasy 13” was explosive.

Newspapers devoted a whole page to the news every day.

Most of the news was repetitive, as there were no new revelations.

They speculated about the content of the play, questioned the authenticity of the script obtained by the Marquis, or condemned the Marquis’ monopolistic behaviour of owning cultural assets that should belong to all humanity.

Fortunately, there was little criticism of the acrobats invited by the Marquis, as there was no way to know what was happening inside.

Thanks to that, they could focus solely on preparing for the performance.

Before starting the actual rehearsal, they first selected a director.

No matter how good the script was and how talented the actors were, without someone to coordinate the entire stage, the performance would face difficulties.

“I’ll take charge. Any objections?”

Lord Fantastic shamelessly volunteered himself.

No one objected to him.

He was capable enough.

There was no one here with as much experience in leading such a diverse group of acrobats.

As with Christian’s other works, “Fantasy 13” had several experimental elements.

First, there were only six actors on stage, including the protagonist and the acrobats.

The other characters were represented by puppets, panels, shadows, etc. They were not only ambiguous or exaggerated in form but also had no lines.

“Oh, I see.”

“A court jester. Isn’t that too much for such a little kid?”

“Do you not like my suggestion?”

The dialogue between them and the protagonist was only progressed through the protagonist’s lines.

The audience could infer what the other character said through his reaction.

At first glance, it seemed like it would confuse the audience, but Christian cleverly arranged the dialogue, so the audience could naturally feel what the other person said.

Watching the rehearsal, admiration naturally flowed.

At the same time, in some parts, he deliberately laid the dialogue with ambiguity to provoke the audience’s misunderstanding and give them laughter.

Another peculiar point was that the script was dynamically structured.

The five acrobats could take on different characters.

Each acrobat could be the heir to the throne, an assassin, an ambitious person, an apprentice court jester, or the head of a poor family.

The script changed depending on which character each acrobat played.

For example, in a scene where the ambitious person teaches the protagonist the harsh reality of the court, the instruction only stated, “[Acrobat 17, as the protagonist, admires the pretty dolls and smashes them].”

If the acrobat was playing the role of an assassin, they smashed the dolls with brute force. If they were a dagger acrobat, they threw daggers to cut off all the doll’s heads. If they were an animal tamer, they swallowed them all through the tamed wolves. If they were a juggler, they stomped on them with their feet to make them flat, and if they were a tightrope walker, they pushed them off the railing and dropped them all off the cliff.

Although the actions were different depending on the acrobat, they all uttered the same line.

“You will end up like this too, poor jester. My smile is not a smile, but a sneer.”

Each acrobat was assigned dozens of skills. There were very basic acrobatics, difficult advanced acrobatics, and creative acrobatics invented by Christian.

The actors were required to memorize all of them and follow the instructions in the script.

Wonderstein thought it was like an action game. When a command was entered, each character displayed a spectacular action assigned to them.

Ella praised it as the script that demanded the most acrobatic skills among Christian’s works.

“Wow, this is not easy, right? If they had really auditioned properly, I would never have passed.”

Karen cried.

Despite her usual confident and carefree attitude, she was surprisingly sensitive to other people’s opinions. If she made a mistake, she would often look around nervously.

At such times, Maya had to be called to comfort her.

“Idiot.”

“T-thank you, Maya. For comforting me… I’ll work hard!”

Strangely, Karen regained her energy. It was unclear how that was comforting her, but she said so.

It was surprising how mature Ruelle looked, despite her young age, as she struggled to handle such training.

Even in difficult times, she never complained, and even when she made mistakes, she silently repeated the instructed movements.

“It’s less difficult than when I was drinking the Galaxy.”

People who heard her words sighed with pity.

She had once been afflicted with an incurable disease, so she could cope with pain calmly.

However, while she was indifferent to difficult things, she felt extremely embarrassed when she had to act lively or energetic.

“I-I would have failed if I had auditioned too….”

“What nonsense! If it was our daughter, she would have passed with her beauty alone!”

“Stop it, Dad…”

Of course, Minova was most embarrassed when Clara did acrobatics.

Despite being from the same incurable disease background (?), Clara was humble in the face of pain.

Even though she was the oldest among the six actors.

“I came here on the condition of not doing acrobatics!”

The strange thing was that while she grumbled like that, she still managed to do what was required of her.

The scene where the protagonist, who knew nothing about acrobatics, clumsily imitated his colleagues’ talents was so realistic that even Lord Fantastic admired it.

Moreover, she perfectly delivered the lines as required by the original script.

“Indeed, she is a graduate of the Lekachep!”

“The ‘novice imitation’ is originally the most difficult, but… The subtle skill improvement in the latter part is amazing.”

“Senior Clara must have been that type. The switch turns on when she gets on stage.”

People admired her skills.

However, there was a hidden reason for this.

First of all, she was not acting as someone with mediocre skills imitating the protagonist.

She really had mediocre skills.

In the beginning, she tried to imitate the talents of others while watching them, but she ended up looking really incompetent, and in the latter part, since it was a scene where she had to perform the talents she had memorized, she showed a slightly better performance.

Moreover, it was strange when she made mistakes in her lines.

The script they were using now was something she had recovered over several months using a huge amount of magical materials and using the power of the Demon Mage as much as possible.

As she recited a conversation from a dozen years ago as it was, Pyrene would transcribe it.

In other words, she was nothing short of receiving acting guidance from almost the original author himself.

Unlike the three who revealed their strengths and weaknesses, Ella and Reyna showed flawless performances.

Their acting skills were so excellent that even the other practicing people turned back to look at them.

Ella treated the wolf, which was nothing more than a roughly cut piece of black paper, as if it was a wolf she had raised with affection, and Reyna performed a solo act that seemed like a life-and-death battle with the shadow of a royal knight trying to kill her on a wooden bridge.

However, there were flaws among the six of them.

Maya, who had never been on stage before, was one of them.

She, a graduate of the Castya Magic Academy, skilfully handled even difficult techniques, and she memorized the lines and instructions perfectly after seeing them once.

The problem was her acting skills.

Although she took on the role of ‘assassin,’ which had the least emotional expression among the five, she struggled to express it.

Her movements were stiff like wood, and her voice was always cold and blunt in any situation.

It was to the point that it not only broke the immersion of the audience but also of the people acting with her.

In the end, the experienced Lord Fantastic came up with a trump card.

“I’ll use one of my Inspira.”

[Mime in the Mirror]

One of his four inspirations, which allows him to imitate the opponent’s every move, or make the opponent imitate his every move.

When Maya stepped onto the stage, he decided to use the Mime in the Mirror on her to let him act himself.

And Arno decided to implement the ‘Fantastic Vocal Cords’ to reproduce his voice.

“To be precise, it’s our Assistant-Director’s skill.”

He muttered as if excusing himself for something no one had asked.

“Wow, so this was the secret of the ‘Voice’? Maya, do you think you can do it too?”

“If I study it.”

So, leaving the movements and voice to the two, she decided to focus on acrobatics.

Many scenes of the play required one-person acts against silent objects.

So, it was convenient for them to practice separately.

Hopps was in charge of the shadows, dolls, and panels, which were their counterparts.

In the process of practicing the ground skills, he wore a doll mask and did it, so he was very good at that role.

His expressions were so noticeable in the plywood pictures that sometimes they could even convey messages.

“….”

“Can you bring me some water?”

The figure drawn on the board nodded.

The role distribution was finalized with Minova.

“What should I do?”

Simon smiled, as if waiting for Wonderstein’s question, and replied, “There’s one thing. It’s not related to the stage, but it’s important. It’s helping everyone from behind.”

The Director assigned him to handle odd jobs.

It had to be seen as intentional torment.

Giving such petty tasks to someone who was a Director was insulting.

“Go and mop the floor.”

“Hey, didn’t I tell you to move this luggage before breakfast?”

It was like this.

Ella resisted strongly, but Wonderstein accepted it humbly.

After all, someone had to do the job in the courtyard where access by other personnel was prohibited.

Ironically, Ella, who had expressed so much dissatisfaction at first, was the one who was bossing him around the most later on.

“Director, give me a shoulder massage!”

“Yes, coming.”

“Director, let’s go to the rooftop and feel the breeze!”

“Yes, yes, I got it.”

It wasn’t so bad.

He had been bossed around by her more than anyone else so far.

Above all, her intention to preserve her dignity by appealing that this was something that happened routinely in our circus troupe was felt.

Everyone was faithful to their roles.

On the 10th day, they were ready to show the stage to the Marquis.

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Chapter 210: Wonderland – 13