The Clown Girl's Marionette Finale
The whip of blades sliced through the air—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! The clown girl yanked the knives strapped to her legs and hurled them skyward. The torchlight caught their razor edges, making them flash and gleam. Balanced atop the elephant’s trunk with her eyes closed, the clown girl smiled serenely as she caught the returning knives and began juggling them. What if she slices her fingers? Just watching made my skin crawl.
“Larilura!! Larilura!! Lariluraaaaaaaa—ahhhhh!!!!!!”
A middle-aged superfan, apparently, was yanking at his own jowls and screaming himself hoarse. Hey, mister. Have some dignity.
‘Her name’s Larilura?’ What kind of name was that? It sounded like someone gargling marbles. A stage name, maybe?
Spin, spin! Whoosh, whoosh! True to her eccentric name, the clown girl swayed like a cobra dancing on the elephant’s trunk while continuing her deadly juggling act. Franc’s legs tightened around my neck in nervous excitement. Normally I would have been distracted by that soft pressure, but right now my eyes were glued to the stage.
This was art—pushed to the absolute limit by otherworlders who had honed their physical abilities to perfection. To someone like me, who turned into a bloody mess of claws and fangs every time I fought, it was dazzling.
‘She’s not using mana.’
There was no magical assistance in that acrobatics. It didn’t even feel like she was drawing on her internal mana. Was she really performing such perfect balance and dangerous juggling with nothing but raw talent?
If I really tried, I could probably imitate it. Turning on Beast Regression and stacking every buff available would raise my reflexes too. ‘But that still wouldn’t be enough.’
Techniques boosted by magic had a huge gap between “on” and “off.” Watching the clown girl’s performance made me reflect on my own combat style. Wasn’t relying solely on the brute strength granted by Beast Regression any different from a middle-schooler in a fighting game who only spammed projectiles and kept their distance?
Higher physical ability was always better, of course. That was why I trained regularly. Fighting monsters as an adventurer would naturally raise my stats anyway. But had I ever truly challenged the limits of my body beyond raw power?
No. I hadn’t. It felt like only yesterday I realized how lacking my martial technique was inside that ruin, yet somehow I’d grown used to bulldozing everything with Beast Regression and magic. My overall power had improved, but my skill in actually handling my own body was still pathetic.
For a third-rate adventurer who only needed to scrape by, that might be fine. But for someone aiming for Silver, Gold, and beyond, it was a massive weakness.
‘It was the same when I fought that bastard Tabula.’
The half-human freak had suddenly gone berserk for no reason and charged me, which was lucky. If he’d stayed calm and used proper martial arts, I wouldn’t have won so easily. At the start I was much faster, yet I couldn’t dodge his disciplined strikes and took clean hits.
‘That was the difference in body technique.’
Once Tabula turned into a beast, all his martial skill vanished, letting me beat him like a monster. I just had to dodge those wild claw swipes and land a fatal blow. In other words—
That beast’s fighting style was the absolute worst possible future version of my own combat method.
‘Something… I feel like I’m onto something…’
My scalp tingled. It was a strange new sensation. How should I describe it? It was like back in my exam days when I was stuck on a problem, knowing the answer was right there on the tip of my tongue. A feeling of almost grasping it, yet not quite!
I forgot all about the circus and licked my lips in concentration.
“Uwooooooooooooooooooh—!!!”
About three minutes after the juggling started, when the audience’s tension had reached its peak, the clown girl suddenly opened her eyes. Still juggling, she began flinging the knives one by one into the air.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The blades spun in perfect formation as they flew. The clown girl didn’t even glance at them. She planted her hands on the elephant’s trunk and flipped upside down, spreading her legs in an acrobatic split.
What the hell? How is that even possible? A 200-degree split was one thing, but how could she move like that while balanced on an elephant’s trunk standing on a ball?
“That elephant is incredible too!” Franc exclaimed, squeezing my neck tighter in awe. I completely agreed. The clown girl was amazing, but what kind of monster elephant could balance a full-grown person on its trunk without slipping off a ball?
Whirl, whirl—! The knives she’d thrown began to fall under gravity.
“Noooooooo!!! Larilura!!! It’s dangerous!!!!!”
When it looked like the blades would stab her, the middle-aged man beside us started thrashing like a frog dropped in boiling water. Goddamn it, I picked the wrong seat. There’s someone worse than a hooligan right next to me, folks.
Tap tap tap tap tap—! The clown girl, still performing her ballet-like acrobatics, caught the falling knives with her free hand while balanced on one arm atop the elephant’s trunk. She finished the routine with a gymnastic flourish, descended gracefully, and bowed to the audience.
Clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap!!
Thunderous applause erupted. Most of the crowd was clapping wildly in praise of the clown girl—including Franc.
“Nord! Did you see?! Did you see?! Even when she caught the last blade between her fingers, she kept one eye closed the whole time!!”
“Yeah. It was insane. I’m genuinely impressed.”
I’d been looking down on it as “just some otherworld entertainment,” but the show was so incredible it made me feel like an idiot for underestimating it.
“Thank you everyone☆!! Please enjoy the next performance too~♡?”
The clown girl winked, spun once more, and vanished from the stage. The elephant followed, panting as it rolled the ball along behind her.
So that was the end of her act? I wanted to see more.
“Aww~ She’s gone.”
Franc sounded disappointed too as she hugged my head. In less than ten minutes, the clown girl had completely captured the hearts of the entire audience.
‘I can understand why that middle-aged guy is losing his mind.’ She wasn’t quite Franc-level, but she was still quite pretty. With that revealing outfit and natural showmanship, she was basically this world’s version of an idol.
The circus continued for a full hour. A ballerina-like woman dueled with men in dark clothing, performing a dance of martial arts. Dozens of people built a human pyramid. Animals and performers leaped through rings of fire. Every act had its own charm, and I watched without noticing time pass.
Still, no one surpassed that first clown girl. The other performers were too busy showing off their skills to guide the audience’s reactions.
Whoosh.
Suddenly all the torches on the coliseum stage went out. It was already ten at night. The stands grew dark as the evening deepened.
“What the—? I can’t see anything!”
“Did the torches go out by accident?”
The audience panicked in the sudden blackness. Just as confusion spread through the crowd, flames ignited on the stage once more.
Fwoooosh.
A muscular giant stood holding burning poles. He spun the two flaming rods—each longer than five meters—like torches in both hands. The visual impact was overwhelming. It was a literal storm of fire. The trails of flame stood out vividly against the night’s darkness!
As a Korean, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu and finally realized what this show was.
“That’s… mouse-fire play!!”
These shameless Britannia bastards had now stolen even Earth’s culture! Or wait—didn’t they say this circus troupe came from Romania? So was it the Romanians who plagiarized it? Either way, these otherworlders clearly had zero concept of copyright.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!!
Oblivious to my indignation, the muscleman put on a spectacular fire show. Then performers carrying shorter flaming rods appeared, spinning in circles and dancing. Was this the circus show’s finale?
The glowing flames in the darkness were certainly beautiful to watch. But the real finale was only just beginning.
Swoooosh!!
The muscleman rubbed his pole against the sandy floor and extinguished the flame. I thought it was over and felt a little disappointed—until he slammed the now-dark pole into the center of the coliseum arena.
Boom!!
With strength befitting his build, he drove the five-meter pole nearly a meter into the ground. Damn, what power. Quite the man.
“Why is he planting the pole in the middle of the stage?” Franc asked, still completely absorbed in the show.
“It’s preparation for the final act!!!!” the middle-aged man beside us answered without taking his eyes off the stage.
“Preparation?”
“That’s right!! It’s the pole that will decorate the finale of this circus!!”
The guy who had been openly bored and distracted ever since the clown girl left was now sparkling with excitement? I finally caught on to what kind of finale he was talking about.
“Everyone~! Have you been waiting~☆?!”
A loud voice rang throughout the entire coliseum. Must be some kind of special magic. The girl appeared, still in her clown outfit, dancing her way toward the pole.
“The finale show of our Flangunkula Troupe!! The beginning of Chorus Pupus, the Dance of the Dolls~♡!!”
“Uwoooooooooooooooooooh—!!”
“Sisterrrrrrrrr!!!! Take meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”
At the clown girl’s shout, frenzied cheers erupted from parts of the audience. Franc and I grimaced and covered our ears. It was all because of the middle-aged man screaming in the next seat.
“Everyone, shhh♥!”
The clown girl pressed a finger to her lips at the boiling cheers from the stands.
“You’ll listen to our song quietly, won’t you♡?”
“Yeeeeeeeeees!!!”
The man next to us answered with a nosebleed dripping from his nostrils. This is way too chaotic. Next time I’m definitely changing seats.
“Then let’s begin~★? Is everyone ready~?”
“Yes!!”
The ones who answered were the other circus members. Every performer involved in the show had now taken the stage.
“Perfect! Wonderful! Let’s all start together!”
The clown girl smiled as she climbed onto the pole. Once again, her movements were so light it looked like she was floating in zero gravity.
‘Ah, I see. So she does use mana for moves like that.’
Having watched her closely, I could now roughly tell when she was using mana. Climbing a four-meter iron pole would obviously require it.
Bah-bah-bah-bahm, bah-bahm!
The musicians struck drums and blew wind instruments, playing an upbeat tune. The clown girl, balanced on one foot at the very top of the pole, spread both arms in time with the rhythm.
Shaaaa.
Blue mana threads stretched from her fingertips, connecting to every corner of the stage. They were wax dolls dressed in circus costumes. The girl raised ten dolls using her mana threads.
Then, with all the troupe members and the dolls circling around her, they began to dance.
‘Marionettes?’
The dancing dolls were a type of golem. They had no core or autonomous mechanisms inside—purely Marionettes powered by a puppeteer’s magic. Controlling that many at once was no ordinary skill.
‘No wonder they treat her like an ace.’
I watched the finale in admiration of the young clown girl’s talent.
Thump! Boom!
Parararabam~ Bah-bahm~!
The band marched while playing the ending song. Atop the four-meter pole, the clown girl waved her hands like a conductor. The dolls leaped and twirled in dance. The threads extending from her fingertips spread across the coliseum stage like the canvas tent of a circus.
Several of the dolls climbed onto the elephants’ backs and fired something into the sky. They were mana-infused fireworks.
Piiiiing—!
Fwoofwoofwoof!
The sound was small, but the lights that bloomed were a modified version of Light magic. Beautiful fireworks painted the entire coliseum.
“Wow…!!”
Franc let out a gasp as she watched the fireworks. I tried to burn the sight of her face sparkling in their glow into my memory like taking a photograph.
Bah~ bah-bah-bahm~ Boom boom bah-bahm~!
The elephants, circus members, dolls, and clown girl kept dancing beneath the shower of light. The smiling clown girl at the very top beamed with a bright smile, waving her hands nonstop.
Finally the fireworks faded, the lights went out one by one, and the circus show came to an end.