Chapter 84
“Yes. Nice to meet you. I’m Nord, a Bronze Class adventurer.”
Technically, I was a provisional Bronze Class adventurer, but close enough. At my confident introduction, Ms. Alexandra smiled warmly.
“So you’re an adventurer. Are you interested in the circus?”
“Nope.”
Were these people that desperate for talent? Apparently, the usual rule in this line of work was to launch into a recruitment pitch right after introducing yourself.
“Hehe. What a shame. You seem to have talent.”
“Right? Right? I think so, too!”
─Boing!
Larilura sprang up from her crouch like a frog, spreading her arms wide. She struck a pose that looked like the hands of a clock pointing to nine.
“That’s why I’m teaching you to juggle! Maybe you’ll fall in love with the circus and join our troupe!”
I was shocked to learn she’d been harboring such a shady motive.
“Ah! Did I say that out loud? Then I take it back☆”
“Words don’t come with refunds. Tough luck.”
“That’s what he says, troupe leader! I’m afraid you’ll have to give up, then—hup?!”
Oh, she got hit again. This troupe’s slapstick routine was great. Better than Gag Concert.
Ms. Alexandra grabbed Larilura by the cheek and pulled. The makeup on her cheek stretched right along with it.
“Luri, how many times do I have to tell you? With all the bad things happening lately, I’ve told you over and over not to do anything that might make people misunderstand you. Have I or haven’t I? Hm?”
“I did! I did! But it huuurts! My makeup’s gonna come off! Bweeeee!”
If she knew that, why was she teaching the neighborhood kids to juggle?
Where had the circus troupe’s charismatic ace gone? I pondered the profound question for about ten seconds, then moved on to wondering why Fran’s breasts were so soft.
“I truly have no excuse. This is entirely my fault as her guardian. If you’re angry, please take it out on me.”
Ms. Alexandra bowed her head. Since she’d mentioned being Larilura’s guardian, I assumed she was her parent. I shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it. I asked because I want to learn, so jokes as harmless as hers are fine.”
They were pretty funny, too.
“Thank you. If she gets cheeky, feel free to smack some sense into her. Please don’t hold back.”
Ms. Alexandra smiled as she gave me Larilura’s familiar user manual.
She greeted us elegantly and returned to the inn, leaving Larilura behind. Larilura clutched her stinging cheek and cried. It seemed she was afraid to touch it in case she smudged her makeup.
“Waaah… She’s always picking on me…”
“That’s because you—”
“What’s wrong with me?!”
I was going to say something, but decided it was too much trouble. People didn’t change their inborn personalities that easily. Larilura grumbled like a sulky child.
“Shouldn’t you be happy to get teased by such a lovely beauty? I can’t understand why anyone would get mad.”
“You’re alive thanks to Britannia’s criminal justice system.”
“Really? That’s so mean. I mean, sure~? Maybe sometimes I go juuust a little too far~? But if it’s me, you can surely just take it as a bit of charm, right♡?”
Whatever the case, it didn’t seem to be my fault.
─Whoosh!
I humored her a little, then went back to juggling. I could manage four balls, but once I tried five, it felt like the processing power of my tiny, tiny dumbass brain—IQ 98—had hit its limit.
─Thwack!
A badly thrown ball fell and attacked my face. The grimy ball hit my lips, and it felt absolutely disgusting. Fuck.
“Ugh, ptui, ptui! Doenjang and ssamjang.”
─Spit, spit! Prrr! Pffft!
I wiped my mouth, spitting like a horse at the unpleasant feeling. Larilura, who’d been watching, covered her mouth and laughed as if she’d just thought of something funny.
“Hey, hey~? How does it feel to be the only one standing still while those girls way smaller than you get better and better♡?”
“Huh?”
That little brat had crossed the line. Larilura giggled and pointed at Fran and Erika, trying to provoke me.
─Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A huge number of balls kept moving through Fran’s hands. While I’d been busy doing something else, she’d already managed to juggle more than ten.
Comparing us like this made the difference in our stats painfully obvious. If my dexterity was one, Fran’s had to be around twenty.
About twenty Nords. A pair of hands worth forty silver, if you put a price on them.
“Aren’t you frustrated that you keep failing~? If you call me ‘senpai,’ I could kindly coach you from right beside you~♥”
Larilura cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. A vein popped on my forehead.
“Senpai, my ass. I’ll figure it out myself, so just watch.”
“It’s nice to be proud~ But I think it’s wise to know when to compromise, too! I could give you some helpful tips, you know?!”
─Poke!
She kept mouthing off, so I poked her in the side. My sneak attack made Larilura twist around, looking like she was enjoying herself to death.
The troupe leader had given me permission to use violence, so I had no reason to show any more mercy. Larilura grabbed her waist and glared at me in protest.
“Y-you startled me and made me make a weird noise! How dare you do that to your venerable senpai?!”
“Oh. You don’t know? This is Vector-Discipline.”
I answered. Vector-Discipline was the ultimate technique of Earth’s heroes, used to raise cheeky little brats into upstanding young people. It was a move worthy of the heroes of children everywhere.
“Behold the realm beyond the heavens.”
I’d been a little annoyed by Larilura’s teasing, so I raised both hands into spear hands.
"「Vector-Discipline」.”
“Kyaaah?!”
─Poke-poke-poke-poke-poke-poke!
I jabbed her in both sides with my spear hands! I had unleashed the technique that I’d learned back when I was a zero-dan taekwondo student, before jamming a finger and quitting the dojo, right here in another world!!
“Take that─! Take that─! Take that─! Take that─! Take that─!”
“W-wait, wait a second?! Kyah! D-don’t, don’t do that! Seriously!”
─Flip!
Larilura escaped my Vector-Discipline with a backward roll. A clown’s hundred-point tumble dodge! Truly masterful!
“You can’t do this just because I teased you a little! Apologize!”
Larilura clutched both sides and protested angrily. I’d gotten a bunch of pokes in and felt better, so apologizing wasn’t hard.
“G-guh… Ah done wrong.”
“All right. I, the kind one, forgive you☆!”
Fuck, she actually let me off the hook. The circus troupe’s ace had a damn cheap price tag.
“Oh, right. About the tip I mentioned earlier. I’ll show you, so would you like to try it?”
“What is it?”
Curious, I asked. There probably wasn’t any method with only advantages. She’d likely been reluctant to teach it because there was something wrong with it.
“It’d be more accurate to call it a shortcut than a tip! Basically, you practice juggling while using mana!”
Larilura crossed her fingers into an X.
“Only people who can use mana can try it, and it might give you some weird habits, but if you do it right, you can ingrain the sense you gain from handling mana into your body, too☆!”
“Weird habits?”
“People have trouble adjusting to how different things feel with and without mana. A lot of them hit a wall with high-difficulty acrobatics because of it. I’ll understand if you decide to give up!”
I’d find out whether I wanted to give up after I tried it.
This was like the ‘standing on bamboo’ training you heard about in wuxia novels, or something along those lines. Failure wouldn’t ruin me, but for some reason it still made me furious and set my insides boiling.
“Hehe! I like your enthusiasm☆! So, you’ll try it?”
“Of course. ──「Transformation」.”
I struck a pose for the first time in a while and switched Beast Regression ON.
─Whoosh!
I tried juggling five balls, taking care to control my strength. Actually, with Beast Regression on, it was hardly even a challenge. ─Whoosh, whoosh! You little bastards sure spin nicely. Why don’t you do that when I’m juggling you?
“Is this your doing, my body?”
Was Nord really just an idiot with big muscles whenever I wasn’t using mana?
Out of sheer stubbornness, I turned Beast Regression off. Immediately, the feeling in my hands and feet dulled, and it became difficult to control my strength.
“……Huh?”
─Clatter!
The balls slipped from my hands and came tumbling down. Beside me, Larilura smiled brightly. She stayed quiet, probably thinking she’d get hit again if she got cheeky.
But I was more focused on the difference in how things felt.
When I had mana on, I’d had a better feel for how to throw and catch the balls properly.
I picked up the fallen balls and thought about why.
‘Ah. Beast Regression really is different from ordinary mana reinforcement.’
Since I could switch the silent-cast Beast Regression spell on and off, it activated and dispelled faster than my clumsy mana control.
So unlike other people, I could feel the difference between using mana and not using it more quickly and precisely.
‘This… I can make it work.’
The reason it was a bad shortcut was probably that switching mana on and off muddled the difference in sensation.
But that didn’t apply to me, did it? If I got confused, I could instantly switch Beast Regression on without an incantation and restore the right sensation, so the drawback of this shortcut was practically nonexistent for me.
“Kiyoyoyoyoyoyot!”
I made another attempt at juggling in the stance of the Heaven-and-Earth Demon Fist.
One, two, three… The more I repeated the motions, the better I got!! As my skill evolved at an incredible speed, Larilura’s face grew stiffer and stiffer as she watched me juggle.
“──Too slow. Even falling.”
Papapapap─!
Had it been ten minutes since I started practicing? My body was gradually developing movements so keen and precise that I no longer needed mana.
It was like acquiring the ‘proper form’ that an athlete only managed to master after tens of thousands of repetitions, but in cheat-mode time!
Ah── I’d forgotten.
My talent wasn’t my ability to use mana or my physical skill.
──It was the potential of Beast Regression.
“I get it now. I see your level.”
Papap!
I stood tall on one leg. Juggling five balls had already gotten so boring I could’ve died.
“Larilura. Five more.”
“Huh? Yes? Wait, are you using mana right now?”
“HELL NO.”
Mana was nothing but a luxury to me now. I lowered my voice solemnly and said,
“Throw them, Larilura. Accept your fate.”
“I, I don’t know what you mean, but… I’m really going to throw them, okay?”
“No, uh, just throw them gently. Gently.”
I quickly corrected myself because I was a little nervous. I wasn’t confident I could catch them all if they came flying too fast.
─Whoosh, whoosh!
I caught the balls flying toward me and kept juggling.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds… Even after that, not a single ball dropped.
I’d successfully juggled ten balls.
“Pathetic.”
I’d already reached the height of mastery. I lowered both arms and caught all the rubber balls.
“But I like it.”
─Shashashak!
I set down the rubber balls that had filled both my arms.
Larilura’s jaw had dropped. She soon started working her mouth and said,
“Hey. Are you really not interested in the circus?”
“Hehe. Sorry, but I have another dream I want to pursue.”
“Aww. What a shame.”
Larilura drooped her shoulders, but her eyes still sparkled with interest.
“Okay. Shall we move on, then? You can keep up, right☆?”
What a foolish question. I grinned and spread both arms.
“Bring it on!”
***
─Ting! Ting!
I was repeating high-difficulty juggling practice with Larilura when it happened.
I was trying the third step, ‘juggling with sticks,’ when the clock tower suddenly rang out.
What now? I glanced over, curious, and saw the clock tower’s hands pointing to twelve. Was it telling us to go eat?
“Oh, it’s lunchtime☆!”
─Boing, boing!
Larilura, who’d been coaching me, hopped over to where Fran was like a little kid. I followed with a stick tucked under my arm.
“What are you two doing for lunch, Sister Fran and Mr. Nord~?”
“Hmm. I’m not sure. Nord, what do you think? I’m not hungry yet.”
Fran asked as she put the balls away.
Lunch, huh? I wasn’t very hungry either. Other than dealing with stray cats, I hadn’t done much today.
“Let’s eat somewhere nearby. Larilura, is it okay if we come back later and keep learning?”
“Of course☆! I’ll be busy with rehearsals and going over the show plans this afternoon, so come back tomorrow morning! Oh, Erika? You have to go back for lunch, too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then take this!”
The quiet girl nodded, and Larilura smiled as she pulled out a small, paper-wrapped package.
“Ta-da! This is a present from me to Erika☆!”
“Huh…?”
“Ah, don’t feel bad about it! It’s just a sandwich that’s nice to have for lunch!”
Larilura was flustered by Erika’s surprised reaction and placed the sandwich in her hands.
“I’d like to walk you back, but circus people can easily get on the bad side of the older, fussy folks☆ I might get scolded by the troupe leader, too, so I’ll have to pass this time♡”
“Oh…”
“Sneak a bite on the way! Don’t be late because you’re eating, and if I give you too much, the director might get suspicious and throw it away☆!”
At Larilura’s lively words, Erika’s eyes widened. Fran thought for a moment, then asked,
“Um, Erika? Would you like us to walk you back instead?”
“Ah, right. It might look suspicious, but there’s no harm in going as far as the neighborhood.”
I agreed with Fran. It was daytime, so it should be safe, but you never knew.
Besides, we’d crossed paths for a reason. I could ask the cats to keep an eye on her and make sure nothing happened. If she was an orphan, she’d be an even easier target for kidnappers.
Erika hesitated at our offer, then asked,
“Th-then, Sister Fran, could you walk me back as far as nearby?”
“Sure! And you don’t have to be so formal.”
The two of them chatted more casually. They must’ve gotten close while juggling as I gave Larilura her Vector-Discipline.
I said goodbye to Larilura, too.
“See you, Larilura. I’ll see you again.”
“Byee~☆!”
We parted ways with the circus girl whose energy was off the charts and headed for the orphanage.
“Nom…”
Erika ate the sandwich as we walked. Judging by how ravenously she devoured it, she probably didn’t get to eat much normally.
When she’d finished, I asked her,
“Erika. Did you sneak out without telling the orphanage director?”
─Flinch!
Erika trembled at my question. Fran seemed to have thought the same thing, because she smiled wryly.
“When you say you need to get back before lunch, you mean before the orphanage director comes back, right?”
“N-no. Well, um…”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell the director.”
I reassured Erika. Sneaking out to play without your guardian knowing was the kind of escapade kids her age often got up to, so I understood.
It was like sneaking over the school wall to get to the snack shop during lunch.
But at least there weren’t kidnappers near the middle school snack shop. As I waited for her answer, Erika said with a nervous flinch,
“I… want to be someone who puts on amazing shows like Sister Larilura…”
“…What did Larilura say?”
“I… haven’t asked her yet…”
“Sigh… Is that so?”
I let out a deep sigh. Judging by how well she juggled at her age, she had some talent, but making a living from it was an entirely different matter.
And I seriously doubted Ms. Alexandra would approve.
“Okay. I won’t butt in and stick my nose where it doesn’t belong. But don’t go out at night, and stay out of alleys even during the day.”
“Okay.”
I wondered how much good saying that would do, though.
We walked Erika back to the orphanage and saw her off. I had three cats keep watch nearby and asked them to come to the inn where I was staying if anything happened.
“Meow-meow─! (Okay─!)”
“Myaaaow! (Got it!)”
The three cats had been easily won over when I promised to feed them enough fish to burst their bellies, and they hung around the orphanage grounds.
I hoped those little furballs would do a good job as CCTV cameras.