11. Wonderland (35)
11. Wonderland (35)
"You tricked me before, you little—!"
"I didn't do a thing! You're the one who let me go!"
Ella, who had gotten tangled up with Squad Leader Joe of the guard corps—the same woman she'd slipped away from last time—was finally subdued and bound.
Maya, deciding resistance was futile, stood still. Reina simply asked the guards to treat Ruelo gently since she was still a child, then calmly accepted the ropes.
"Bring it on! Come on, you bastards! Maya, get behind me!"
Karen planted herself in front of her friend and swung her fists with fearless bravado, but she couldn't overcome the rough hands and was quickly pinned to the ground.
"Sorry about this."
Hawk hoisted me onto his shoulder as he spoke.
"Ugyagya! Let go! Master! My lord—gck!"
I shook my head, watching Clara get clubbed over the head for resisting and slump unconscious.
"How did we get caught?"
"The duet song festival."
I let out a quiet sigh.
That had happened on our very first day inside Cadsun.
"...We've been in the palm of your hand all along."
I could guess why they hadn't arrested us immediately. They'd likely been waiting until we had all gathered in one place.
"The song of the living. Ha, how I would have loved to hear it in person. I understand you. I'd have found it a hard temptation to refuse myself."
Listening to him, at least he didn't seem to know I was part of their group. From his tone, he appeared to take me for a resident who'd been swayed by the living man's invitation.
If so, the 'Mask Play' quest wasn't over yet. Rumi, who had been dragged up from the lower floors, seemed to reach the same conclusion and gave me a slight nod when our eyes met.
Once all of us were subdued, the guard corps members tore up our admission tickets. The next moment we were transported to the foot of the Grand Staircase inside the Judicial Theater. They hoisted us up and climbed the stairs.
Unlike last time, no spectators filled the theater. The guards placed us on the stage and every one of them withdrew from the hall.
The moment they were gone, Ella came hopping over to me, her legs still bound together.
"Hey, are you alright? They didn't rough you up too badly, did they?"
She must have been worried, seeing me sprawled out like that. I got to my feet and flashed a nonchalant smile, acting as if nothing had happened.
"I surrendered right away, so they didn't do much."
At that, she let out a deflated chuckle.
"What? You didn't even put up a fight?"
"I'm a coward. What if I'd broken an arm or a leg?"
"Pfft. Yeah, fighting in that body is asking a lot."
She scanned the interior of the theater after she spoke. The anxiety in her eyes was unmistakable.
I could guess what she was worried about. She was recalling the punishment we had witnessed four days prior.
Just then, a door at the side of the hall opened, and several welcome faces we hadn't seen in a while walked in. The troupe leaders who had been captured before us.
"What, you guys got nabbed too?"
"Oh! Ruelo! My daughter! Are you okay?"
"We're fine. Did you really think they'd try anything with the kids?"
Their demeanor was considerably relaxed. From their appearance, they didn't seem to have been treated roughly. The instant they entered, the ropes binding us slipped loose.
"You good?"
"I'm good. You?"
"All good."
Hobbs and Karen traded a look, snorted a laugh, and bumped fists lightly.
"Ruelo! Heuh-uhng! Did you miss your daddy so much?"
"D-don't cling so much... It's embarrassing..."
"You monster! My Ruelo would never reject her father!"
"Ugh... stop..."
Ruelo looked thoroughly put-upon by her father clinging to her and blubbering.
After spending time with her older girls, her shyness had noticeably faded, and she no longer clung to her father the way she used to. To Minova, who had nursed her since infancy through her illness, it must have stung, but a child acting that way was only natural.
Their father-daughter bond might grow a little awkward over it, but it wouldn't become anything like Simon and Reina.
"Father..."
"Who are those people?"
"They're guides Ella hired."
"They look like a pack of fools."
Simon delivered that cold remark and ended the conversation. He didn't ask his daughter a single question about how she'd been.
That personality of his, seriously.
Still, was having even that kind of family better than nothing? Reina's expression had softened noticeably from earlier.
We were still amid these family reunions when the stage door opened and three more figures entered.
"Is everyone gathered?"
The first to speak was a man in a magician's costume, a hat stacked upon hat upon hat on his head.
This was the man who had presided over the punishment here days before.
"I am Apostle Crazy Hatter."
Beside him, a man with a rotund belly that gave him the outline of a violin lightly flicked a baton and sang his words.
"Apostle Strauss!"
I'd seen his name on a banner. The winners of the five stages in the central plaza were scheduled to perform a new piece he had composed together.
"Apostle Diamond Queen."
The last to introduce herself was a woman in a white tailcoat and white cape. Where her eyes should have been, a single jewel in the shape of a red diamond was set into the center of her face.
"Diamond Queen?"
Simon, who always wore a sneer, was visibly shaken as he stared at her.
Diamond Queen.
Her personal effects had gone up for auction in Vegas alongside Crazy Hatter's.
A magician active roughly thirty years prior, she was said to have developed the majority of card-trick deceptions still in use. With a reputation like hers, she was more than qualified to serve as an Apostle of Kirkeus.
But she also had one particular piece of history that caught my attention.
That was—
"Master?"
"It's been a long time, Simon."
Lord Fantastic was her disciple.
Simon stared at her, looking dazed.
Anyone would be shocked. Meeting someone believed dead for over twenty years.
"I heard you'd been captured. I wanted to run to you at once, but I had to be able to vacate my post first."
The jewel that replaced her eyes emitted a red glow. It resembled the lens of a machine. Yet the affection in her voice made it feel warm, somehow.
"So. That Fantastic boy is now the dignified leader of his own circus? Our disciple has grown up, hasn't he?"
It was a heartwarming reunion between master and student.
Would we finally hear something resembling a normal human being come out of that man's mouth?
We all turned to him with expectant eyes.
Instead of a touching reply, however, he threw his head back and burst out laughing.
"Bwahahahaht."
He laughed for a long while, utterly indifferent to the eyes on him. Then the laughter cut off abruptly, and he swept an icy look around him.
"Now I see what's going on. Eunmak Arno!"
Rumi jumped, thinking she'd been called out.
I patted her shoulder to calm her. He hadn't been speaking to her. He was just glaring wildly around at nothing in particular.
"I don't know if this is some commission from the Duke, but the joke ends here."
He shouted the words, then wheeled around and slapped Reina across the face without warning.
Smack.
"Kgh... ah, Father?"
Reina stared at him with shocked eyes.
"Open your eyes, Reina! This is all an illusion! Or no—are you an illusion as well? Heh-heh. All of it, a fake. Wonderland, everything."
So saying, he raised his cane to swing at her next. I couldn't stand by and pulled Reina behind me. The cane whistled through the air right past her nose.
Simon clicked his tongue, looked away from her, and bellowed as he once more scanned the room.
"A vividly real illusion, I'll grant you. But the attention to detail is somewhat lacking! My master, you see, was not a warmhearted woman like this. Had you witnessed her old-maid hysteria in her final years..."
That was when a red flash blazed.
Wham.
Simon's head snapped sideways with a sickening crack, and his body went airborne, hurtling clear off the stage.
A white cape billowed where he had been standing. Diamond Queen had just backhanded him across the face at a speed rivaling that flash.
The blow was so brutal that Simon's eyes rolled back and he convulsed once, foam bubbling from his lips as he lost consciousness.
"Aish, this little shit's foul mouth hasn't changed one bit."
She pressed a hand to her forehead, exhaled a deep sigh, and turned to face us.
"He's picky and has a filthy temper, doesn't he?"
Her red jewel-eyes gleamed coldly.
Hobbs and Minova nodded in frantic agreement.
"Absolutely."
"He sure does."
She clicked her tongue, watching Reina, who stood there vacantly rubbing her slapped cheek.
"I should've disciplined him more strictly. I went too soft on him because he was my only disciple."
Lacing her speech with coarse curses, she launched into a description of the 'gentle correction' she'd employed on him over the years.
We could now somewhat grasp how Lord Fantastic's personality had ended up in such a state. Growing up under a teacher like her indeed seemed the sole guaranteed path to that degree of ruin.
As her story wound down, Crazy Hatter stepped forward to regain control of the room.
"First, allow me to apologize for the events of the past several days, Earth's Acrobats."
He inclined his head toward us.
"We arrested these three troupe leaders and promptly discerned that you were not intruders."
"Plain as the baton in my hand!"
Strauss flourished his baton and sang out.
"But by the time we understood the truth, you had already fled. We should have received you with courtesy, but given the times, we had no choice. There are certainly more Voodoo Cult informants still within Wonderland. If they were to learn of our plans, there's no telling what they might attempt. Thus, we had no alternative but to bring you here through wanted posters and arrests."
"So will you be sending us home now?"
In response to Ella's question, Strauss held his baton straight up like the numeral one and answered.
"There is a reason we cannot, and a reason we must not! And the two are not the same!"
"Indeed. I shall now explain that reason. It concerns the favor we must ask of you. And it is a matter of some secrecy."
His gaze shifted to Rumi and me.
"You two as well, please come along."
"Us as well?"
"Originally, we intended to ask only these Earth's Acrobats, but Lord Sandman made a special request regarding you two."
"Lord Puck did?"
"Yes. However, we also have a condition. This applies to everyone present here. The truth we are about to share must never be spoken of to anyone outside this group."
Ella thrust her hand up and called out.
"Not even to our other comrades on the surface?"
"Precisely. To no one."
"Hm... fine. Then at least tell us what this favor is."
"Let us walk a little first. You will understand once you see it with your own eyes."
Crazy Hatter led the way.
Reina watched Simon, stretched out below the stage, with a worried eye.
"Um... my father...?"
Diamond Queen waved a dismissive hand.
"Aish, Simon took hits like that several times a day when he was a kid. He'll wake up in a few hours. Come along, child."
Leaving the unconscious Simon and Clara above, we followed the Apostles down into the basement beneath the Judicial Theater.
The stairs stretched on without end.
The deeper we descended, the heavier our bodies grew. A powerful, oppressive force pressed down increasingly on our chests.
"Something's down there."
Everyone nodded at Maya's murmur. They didn't need to see it to know.
The source of this crushing pressure was the presence radiating from far below.
Where the stairs ended.
A vast cavern opened up.
Walls pulsed a visceral red, like something viewed through an endoscope, stretching away on all sides into a distant horizon.
Iron chains hung from the cavern ceiling, suspending a massive steel plate, large enough for thousands of people to lie down and roll around upon.
Having descended the stairs, we now stood atop that plate.
I looked up at the cavern ceiling, scanned the walls, then lowered my gaze to the floor.
I'd been here before.
This was the very place where the final battle against Wonderstein takes place in TT3.
But the thing down below.
The cavern floor held something I had never seen before.
In the game, that spot had been a writhing sea of blood, flesh, and bone. Now, a colossal entity filled it.
A gigantic eye.
At least several thousand eyes, embedded in the mass of flesh that covered the cavern floor, pulsed and squirmed.
And most of those eyes were closed.
Only a scant few remained open.
Crazy Hatter stood at the edge of the steel plate, looking down, and spoke.
"That is the true form of our god."
"Our god... you mean Kirkeus?"
"To be precise, the entity we call Kirkeus is merely one small facet of the dream that being dreams."
Diamond Queen murmured in a somber voice.
"That thing has existed since the beginning of the universe."
Apostle Strauss intoned in a mournful voice.
"The Sleeping Chaos. Should it ever open its eyes, the entire cosmos, even the Demon Gods themselves, would be extinguished in the span of a single indrawn breath."
Just then, a sound of laughter drifted up from below.
- Kik-kik-kik
- Kirrrrr
Kiklings. Thousands, tens of thousands of those so-called laughter-spirits swarmed near the flickering eyes, giggling and chittering.
Images flickered before that great eye.
A clown performing feats of skill.
A singer in the middle of a song.
An actor delivering lines.
A magician weaving illusions.
Some were scenes from the surface; others, scenes from within Wonderland. Dozens, hundreds of images flashed past at dizzying speed.
The longer it watched them, the deeper that pupil became stained with red. Then, the moment it reached a full and perfect crimson, the eye slid shut, as if satisfied.
And soon after, another closed eye would open.
It hit me like a bolt of lightning to the brain.
Every scrap of information I'd gathered up to now snapped into a single coherent whole.
Crazy Hatter turned back to us and spoke.
"We, and you, and our comrades above, and all the Earth's Acrobats—all of us are the musicians of Chaos, playing a lullaby so that it may continue to sleep, so that it may dream pleasant dreams."