9. Black and Gold (6)
9. Black and Gold (6)
The judges for the Rekachev entrance exam were its current students.
That did not mean the students themselves assigned the scores.
It meant that the benchmark for earning points on the entrance tasks was determined by the scores those students themselves had earned when they took the exam.
The condition for an applicant to earn top marks on any given task was straightforward.
They simply had to surpass every record set by the currently enrolled students.
In other words, achieving the maximum score on a task meant proving that, in that specific skill, the applicant already exceeded every single person at the school.
Charlie had earned the top score on all twenty-five tasks featured on the entrance exam.
From the moment he enrolled, he had bested every student in the school.
Thirteen of those scores surpassed the records set by Golden Libra Reina.
Humble as ever, Charlie always corrected the tally whenever the topic arose, insisting it wasn't thirteen wins to twelve losses, but twelve wins, twelve losses, and a draw.
He credited his victory over Reina on the final task to sheer luck.
That last task had contained a trap.
It was the kind of snare only recognizable to students who had trained at Rekachev for several years.
Yet both Charlie and Reina had encountered it for the very first time.
Reina, who attempted it first, failed to avoid the trap and made a mistake. Charlie watched her misstep, figured out how to overcome the trap, and nailed the top score.
Charlie always said it: had he gone first, their results would have been reversed.
How much wider had the gap between them grown over four years?
Were they still evenly matched?
Unfortunately, there was no way to know.
Charlie had returned to his hometown a month ago, right after graduation.
He'd even turned down a spot with 'Rekachev 25,' the elite circus that exclusively accepted the school's top graduate. Everyone tried to talk him out of it, but he refused to listen.
The students were anxious about whether their own records could defend the top scores.
Lord Fantastic's daughter had once again registered to take the entrance exam.
The reason was the 'draft' rule the school had imposed on all participants in the Grand Prix.
In order for a troupe to recruit new candidates, it first had to release one existing member.
And the draft selection order was determined by the score the released member received on the entrance exam.
Lord Fantastic knew the draft rules perfectly well, yet he'd still released his own daughter to compete. His intent was unmistakable.
He was confident she could crush every other applicant.
Last time, a rookie like Charlie had happened to be among the applicants, delivering them an unexpected rescue. This time, they could hardly count on that kind of luck.
They'd have to defend those scores with nothing but the current students' own abilities.
"Let's have some confidence. We've been honing our skills at Rekachev for years."
"Right. What's so great about Golden Libra, anyway?"
"While she's been coasting on her father's fame, we've put in the work."
"Exactly."
Listening to her friends chatter so casually, a blue-haired girl—the one who held the top score in over half of the twenty-five tasks—narrowed her eyes sharply.
Her name was Clara.
She was one year Charlie's junior and currently the school's top student.
Her gaze, burning with a resentment far more intense than anyone else's, fixed on Reina as she entered the auditorium.
Clara didn't share her friends' breezy assessment.
She knew exactly how formidable their opponent was.
She knew Reina was a genius leagues beyond her.
Reina had once been the object of Clara's worshipful admiration.
Not anymore.
Now, Clara found her insufferably, unbearably galling.
Her mind drifted back to a few months ago, just before graduation.
She had wanted to settle her feelings for Charlie before he left the school.
She'd confessed to him.
He'd turned her down.
"Why? Is it because I'm not good enough?"
"No, no. You're a good friend, Clara. But I... I already like someone."
His words had left her reeling.
"Wh-who is it?"
"...Ha, it's a little embarrassing to say."
"I want to know! Is she in the circus world? A student here? Don't tell me... a professor?"
Clara knew he was on friendly terms with the taming professor.
He'd excelled in every discipline, but he'd studied taming with particular intensity.
The other professors were old-timers who'd held their posts since the school's founding, but the taming professor was a woman in her mid-thirties. Everyone gossiped that he was utterly smitten with her. The rumor had only grown louder after he'd been spotted walking with her late at night.
Charlie, clearly recalling the campus gossip, gave an awkward smile.
"No, no. Absolutely not. She's not from our school. But yes, she is an acrobat. More extraordinary than anyone..."
At that, Clara had shot back, her voice thick with emotion.
"More extraordinary than anyone? More skilled than me? I may not be as good as you, Charlie, but I'm still the top student in my year."
"Well, even for you... you wouldn't beat her. I haven't managed to settle it with her myself..."
The instant she heard that, she knew exactly who he meant.
The person he'd never managed to beat.
The person he always described as having an unresolved draw with him.
'Golden Libra' Reina Magier.
The only daughter of 'Lord Fantastic' Simon Magier, the greatest magician in the industry.
Clara had been a fan of hers.
A teenage genius acrobat with timeless, flawless looks and a breathtaking physique, the most celebrated talent in the world.
Plenty of people envied her, but Clara hadn't been one of them.
She'd been awestruck by Reina, who always appeared so perfectly composed on stage, never betraying a flicker of emotion.
She had been Clara's idol, everything she dreamed of becoming.
But no longer.
That very day, the moment she returned to the dorms, she'd ripped every poster of Reina off her walls.
All the magazine articles and performance merchandise she'd collected went straight into the trash.
Someone who had shone so brilliantly as a distant idol had become utterly repulsive the moment she'd wormed her way between Clara and the man she loved.
Clara's gaze swept over the exam apparatuses set up throughout the auditorium, and she licked her lips.
Reina Magier.
Her former idol.
She wanted to watch her crash and burn.
***
The people entering the hall were divided into two main groups.
The applicants here to take the exam, and the circus representatives who had come to watch them.
The applicants clustered around the bizarre contraptions installed throughout the auditorium, murmuring among themselves.
These were the tasks they would have to perform today.
Every face was either taut with nerves or flushed with excitement.
None, of course, looked anywhere near as buoyant as Ella.
"Whoa! Look at that one! What is that? Looks like a training device for jump power and balance? I've never seen anything like it! And that one—is that a strength tester using centrifugal force? Judging by the spring angles, if you just swing it wildly, you'd wreck your arm structure!"
Ella surveyed the hall with an exhilarated expression.
Pretty jewelry and clothes left her utterly indifferent, but acrobatic equipment? She attacked those with blazing eyes. Seeing that even memory loss hadn't changed this side of her one bit, Wonderstein shook his head, relieved.
"You attended a circus school too, Ella. Didn't they have things like this?"
"A dirt-poor country school like ours? No way. The master built everything himself with his own hammer. It was effective training, but... Oh, wait! How does that one work?"
Wonderstein glanced at the device she pointed to and rattled off its operating principle and purpose.
She stared up at him, eyes perfectly round.
"How do you know that?"
"Hm. It's obvious just by looking."
"Then what about that one?"
Wonderstein answered every single question the moment she pointed at a new device.
The look in Ella's eyes deepened with an extra layer of respect and affection.
Amazing.
An amazing man.
His statuesque looks and warm way of speaking.
His gentle smile and the care he showed her.
And above all, his encyclopedic knowledge of the field she loved and his sheer polymathic talent.
She wanted to shout it to everyone around her.
This is the troupe leader I chose.
This is the man I respect.
This is the man I love.
She recalled standing beside him up on stage.
Someday, she wanted to stand there with him without any makeup at all.
Wonderstein and Ella!
The ultimate duo!
"Hehe."
Wonderstein let out a small sigh, watching her smile to herself so blissfully.
What was she, some kind of gym nut?
She had to be the only girl in the world who got this excited over training equipment.
"You like it that much?"
"...Wh-what? What are you suddenly saying in front of all these people!"
"...Huh?"
Ella only then realized he'd been gesturing at the acrobatic gear.
Caught red-handed in the middle of her own private fantasy, she'd startled like a thief with a guilty conscience.
"Ah, I... no, I wasn't, hehe. Anyway, you really are something, boss. You figured all that out at a single glance..."
It was only natural that Wonderstein could instantly grasp how every device worked.
All the acrobatic equipment used in the twenty-five tasks Rekachev had prepared had appeared in TT2.
Roughly half were tools that could be repurposed for conquering dungeons; the other half appeared in a broken state, functioning as traps.
Just then, a bell rang, and six figures—men and women—stepped onto the auditorium stage.
The professors of the circus school.
"The Dean is currently away on business and unable to attend, so I will offer the greeting in his place. I am Elpara, Vice-Principal of Rekachev Circus School and the professor in charge of tightrope walking."
A woman in her fifties, wearing a black conical hat and a black velvet dress, stood at the podium.
She was one of the five acrobats who had founded Rekachev.
Rekachev's curriculum was divided into seven main categories.
There were the five acrobatic disciplines commonly referred to as the 'Traditional Five Acts,' plus elocution and acting for clowns, and literature and creative writing for playwrights.
Each of the five core acrobatics was the personal specialty of one of the school's five founders.
Yakovlev for Strength Show-off.
Elpara for tightrope walking.
Kailo for Ground Acrobatics.
Lugo for shooting tricks.
Ursus for animal taming.
Thirty years ago, these five had made a name for themselves across the circus world as the 'Five-Person Gang.'
Then, at the invitation of a jester sent by the Emperor, they'd joined forces to establish this school and take up professorships.
Of the five, only Ursus had retired. The other four were still teaching now and would continue to do so four years later.
The Four-person Gang.
They had been the final bosses of the Yeterinpurk stage in TT2.
Wonderstein smiled as he watched them step forward one by one.
They'd left a deep impression on his memory, probably because they boasted the most murderous difficulty in the entire TTT series.
His mood soured slightly, though, when the young female professor in charge of taming came forward.
She had appeared as a helper in TT2.
Like the Ghost of the Cabaret, when everyone else was swept up in madness, the one person who kept their sanity was usually the one already drunk on their own private madness from the start.
She was no different.
"That's Ursus's star pupil! I even have her autograph. A friend got it for me..."
Ella's eyes sparkled as she looked at her.
Wonderstein felt like he'd heard the name Ursus somewhere before.
As he racked his brain, the opening ceremony came to mind.
Worried he might slip up, Ella had prepped lines for him in advance for the interview.
That's where the name had come up.
-The acrobat I respect most? Naturally, Ursus.
At the time, he'd thought nothing of it and simply recited whatever she fed him.
He'd assumed she admired him because he was a famous tamer.
He'd had no idea Ursus was a member of the Five-Person Gang.
In the games, they were always referred to as the Four-person Gang, so he hadn't even known the man existed.
He'd vaguely thought it odd that only the taming professor was in her thirties...
"I believe the tragedy that claimed my mentor, Ursus, must never be repeated. I sincerely hope the task force the Grand Prix organizers have established will capture that villain, the so-called 'Black Magician.'"
The taming professor referenced the terrorist attack from seventeen years ago.
Ursus had been there, she said, and had died.
Wonderstein no longer felt surprise at yet another atrocity being added to his tally. He simply accepted it, impassive.
"Now then, each circus troupe participating in the draft, please send forward the member you are releasing. I must remind you: once a member is released and becomes an applicant, under no circumstances are they to have contact with their former troupe during the examination."
In the order the school called their names, the members each troupe was releasing stepped forward.