Chapter 81
─Whish-whish-whish!
The clown girl pulled knives from the straps around her legs and tossed them into the air. Their blades were so sharp that they flashed brightly in the torchlight.
The clown girl, eyes closed atop the elephant’s trunk, smiled as she caught the knives and juggled them. What if those razor-sharp blades cut her fingers? Just watching made me shiver.
“Larilura!! Larilura!! Lariluraaaaa──agh!!!!!!”
A middle-aged guy who looked like the clown girl’s die-hard fan yanked at his double chin and screamed himself hoarse. Hey, mister. Have some dignity.
‘Wait, is her name Larilura?’
How the hell did someone end up with a name like Ranranrurira? Was it a stage name?
─Whirrrrr! Whish-whish!
The clown girl, as distinctive as her name, kept swaying atop the elephant’s trunk like she was doing a cobra dance while juggling the knives. Fran must’ve been nervous, because she squeezed her legs tighter around my neck.
Normally, I’d have been focusing on how soft they were, but right now my eyes were glued to the stage.
An art born from an otherworlder pushing their physical abilities to the limit!
It was dazzlingly impressive to someone like me, who turned every fight into a bloodbath like a beast, slashing with my claws.
‘She’s not using mana.’
There was no magic or other assistance in that acrobatic act. She didn’t seem to be drawing on the mana inside her body, either.
Was she really pulling off that balance and dangerous knife juggling through sheer talent alone?
If you asked me, I could imitate something similar. Beast Regression and a ton of buffs would improve my reflexes, too.
‘But that’s not enough.’
Techniques boosted by magic came with a huge gap between ON and OFF.
Watching the clown girl’s acrobatics made me reconsider my own fighting style. If I fought by relying on nothing but the strength Beast Regression gave me, how was I any different from some grade-schooler in a fighting game who only spammed keep-away and weak pokes?
Physical ability was better the higher it was. That was why I trained even in my spare time. Just working as an adventurer and fighting monsters would make it improve on its own, too.
But had I ever pushed my body to its limits in any way besides raw strength?
No, I didn’t think I had.
It felt like only yesterday I’d realized how lacking my weapon skills were in the ruins, but before I knew it, I’d adapted to a fighting style that relied on Beast Regression and magic to brute-force my way through.
My overall abilities had improved, but I still lacked the skill to control my body.
That might be fine for a third-rate adventurer who’d never get past Bronze.
But for me, someone who planned to reach Silver, Gold, and beyond, this was a fucking huge weakness.
‘It was the same when I fought that bastard Tabula.’
I was lucky that the half-human suddenly went berserk for no reason and charged at me. If he’d calmly used martial arts, I wouldn’t have beaten him so easily.
At first, I was much faster, but I couldn’t dodge that bastard’s precise attacks and took some clean hits.
‘That was the difference in physical technique.’
Once Tabula turned into a beast and lost all his martial arts, I could beat him like a monster. I just had to dodge his flailing claws and land a fatal blow.
In other words──the fighting style of that beastly bastard was the worst possible version of my future fighting style.
‘I feel like, I feel like I’m starting to understand…….’
My scalp tingled.
It was a sensation I’d never felt before. How should I describe it? It was like when I got stuck on a question during a practice exam.
That feeling like something was about to come to me, or maybe not! I forgot all about the circus and licked my lips.
“Woooooooooooooooooooooo──!!!”
Had it been about three minutes since the juggling started?
Just as the audience’s tension hit its limit, the clown girl suddenly opened her eyes and kept juggling as she tossed the knives into the air one by one.
─Whish-whish-whish-whish!
Knives spinning as they flew in a straight line!
The clown girl didn’t even look at them. She did a handstand on the elephant’s trunk and spread her legs in an acrobatic split.
What the fuck, how was that possible? Fine, I could accept that her flexible legs could spread nearly 200 degrees, but how could she move like that on an elephant’s trunk perched on a ball?
“That elephant’s amazing, too!”
Fran marveled, sweating with tension. I totally agreed. The clown girl was amazing, but what the hell was that elephant, balancing a person on its trunk without rolling off the ball?
Whirl-whirl─!
The knives the clown girl had thrown fell under gravity.
“Nooooo!!! Larilura!!! Watch outtttt!!!!!”
When it looked like the knives might stab the clown girl, the guy beside us started flailing around like a frog dropped into boiling water. Fuck, I picked the wrong seat. Folks, there’s a guy beside me worse than a hooligan.
Clack-clack-clack-clack─!
The clown girl, who’d been doing acrobatics like a ballet dancer, balanced on the elephant’s trunk with one hand and caught the falling knives with the other. Then she finished her act, danced down like a rhythmic gymnast, and bowed to the audience.
─Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap!!
Thunderous applause. Most of the people in the stands praised the clown girl with their clapping. Fran was among them.
“Nord! Did you see?! Did you see?! Even when she slipped the blade between her fingers at the end, she had one eye closed!”
“Yeah. That was fucking incredible. Honestly, I was genuinely amazed.”
It was such an amazing circus show that I felt like an idiot for looking down on it, thinking, It’s just entertainment from another world; how impressive could it be?
“Thank you, everyone☆!! Please enjoy the next act, too~♡?”
The clown girl winked, spun around, and disappeared from the stage. The elephant followed her, panting as it nudged the exercise ball along.
Was that girl’s act over now? I wanted to see a little more.
“Aww~ she’s gone.”
Fran sounded disappointed, wrapping her arms around my head. In less than ten minutes, the clown girl had completely captured the audience’s hearts with her opening act.
‘I can understand why the guy beside us is acting like that.’
She was quite pretty, though not as much as Fran. With her revealing outfit and great showmanship, she could be called an otherworldly idol.
The circus went on like that for an hour.
A ballerina-like woman engaged in a martial arts performance against men in black approaching her, dozens of people built a human pyramid, and animals and circus performers danced through rings of fire.
Every show had its own strengths, so I lost track of time watching them, too. Even so, no one was better than the clown girl who’d appeared first.
The other performers were too busy showing off their skills to have time to engage the audience, too.
─Whoosh.
Just then, the torches on the Colosseum stage went out. It was already ten at night. With the night growing late, the stands had gone dark as well.
“What the hell! I can’t see!”
“Did the torches go out by accident?”
The audience, unable to see a thing, grew flustered. As confusion spread through the stands, a flame suddenly lit onstage.
─Fwoooosh.
It was a muscular macho guy holding a burning pole. He spun it around with both hands, flames burning at either end like torches. The pole was over five meters long, making for an incredible visual effect. It was a literal storm of fire.
The blazing trails of the torches stood out against the darkness of night!
As a Korean, I felt a sense of déjà vu, then realized what this act was.
“That’s…… jwibulnori!!”
These copyright-ignorant bastards of Britannia had gone and ripped off our Earth culture, too!
Wait, the troupe was from Romagna, so were those Romagnans the ones ripping it off? Either way, like proper otherworlders, they had rock-bottom respect for copyright.
─Whoom-whoom-whoom-whoom!!
Unaware of my indignation, the muscular macho put on a dazzling fire show.
Then circus performers appeared holding short, torch-like poles and danced in a circle. Was this the circus show’s finale? The flames glowing in the darkness were definitely a sight to behold.
But the real finale started from there.
─Shhhhh!!
The muscular macho rubbed the pole against the sandy ground to extinguish the fire.
I was a little disappointed, thinking it was over, but the macho stuck the extinguished pole into the middle of the Colosseum arena.
─Bam!!
As you’d expect from a macho, he was strong enough to drive a pole over five meters long nearly a meter into the ground. Damn, what a presence. He was quite the man.
“Why is he sticking the pole in the stage?”
Fran asked, having been so immersed in the show she’d barely spoken.
“It’s preparation for the final act!!!!”
The guy beside Fran answered, staring fixedly at the stage.
“Preparation?”
“That’s right!! It’s the pole for the grand finale of this circus!!!!”
The guy, who’d been blatantly bored and doing other things since the clown girl left, was suddenly excited? I had a pretty good idea what kind of finale he meant.
“Everyone~! Have you been waiting~☆?!”
Her voice rang out across the entire Colosseum.
Must’ve been some kind of special magic. The girl, still dressed as a clown, appeared as if dancing and approached the pole.
“The grand finale of our Planguncula Circus!! The Dance of the Dolls (Chorus Pupus) is about to begin~♡!!”
“Uwooooooooooooooaaaahhhhhhhh──!!!”
“Sisteeeeeeer!!!! Take meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”
Some of the audience went wild in response to the clown girl’s shout. Fran and I frowned and covered our ears. It was because the guy in the seat beside us was shouting.
“Everyone, shhh♥!”
The clown girl brought a finger to her lips at the cheers boiling up from the stands.
“You’ll listen quietly to our song, won’t you♡?”
“Yeeeeeeeees!!!”
The guy beside us shut his mouth, nose bleeding. He was fucking distracting. Next time, we should avoid sitting near him or something.
“Then I’ll begin~★? Is everyone ready~?”
“Yes!!”
The ones who answered were the other circus performers.
All the circus performers involved in the show had come onto the stage.
“Wonderful, just perfect! Let’s all begin together!”
The clown girl smiled and climbed onto the pole. Once again, her movements were so light she seemed to be floating in zero gravity.
‘Oh, I see. Does she use mana for movements like that?’
Watching the clown girl closely, I could more or less tell when she used mana. She’d need mana to climb a nearly four-meter iron pole.
─Ba-ba-ba-bam, ba-bam!
The performers with instruments beat drums and played wind instruments, performing a lively tune. The clown girl, balanced on one foot at the top of the pole, spread both arms to the rhythm.
─Rustle.
Blue mana threads stretched from the clown girl’s fingers, connecting to spots all around the stage. They were wax dolls dressed in circus outfits.
The girl raised ten dolls with her mana threads. Then all the performers and dolls danced in circles around her.
‘Puppet dolls?’
The dancing dolls were a type of golem.
Marionettes, with all their cores and self-moving mechanisms removed, were operated solely by a puppeteer’s magic. But controlling that many at once was no ordinary feat.
‘No wonder they treat her like an ace.’
I watched the finale, marveling at the talent of the clown girl, who was still so young.
─Dun! Da-dun!
─Ba-ra-ra-ba-bam~ Ba-bam~!
The wind ensemble marched while playing the finale, and the clown girl, standing at the top of the four-meter pole, waved her hands as if conducting them.
The dolls hopped and danced around. The threads extending from the clown girl’s fingertips covered the entire Colosseum stage like the tent one pictures when thinking of a circus.
Then several of the dolls climbed onto the elephants’ backs and shot something into the sky. It was fireworks infused with mana.
Piiiiing─!
─Pyu-pyu-pyu-pyung!
The sound was faint, but maybe it was a variant of the <Light> spell; beautiful lights like fireworks decorated the Colosseum.
“Wow…!!”
Fran let out a gasp as she watched the fireworks.
I tried to etch Fran’s face, sparkling in the fireworks’ light, into my memory like I was taking a picture with a camera.
─Baaa~ Ba-ba-bam~ Dun-dun-dun, ba-bam~!
The elephants, circus performers, dolls, and clown girl kept dancing beneath the shower of lights.
The smiling clown girl at the top beamed brightly as she kept waving her hands.
And so, as the fireworks faded and the lights went out one by one, the circus show came to an end.