3. Deputy Leader Ella (End)
3. Deputy Leader Ella (End)
Ella swallowed a groan with every page she turned.
Three-dimensional stage mechanics.
Refined, naturalistic dialogue.
A scientifically grounded, realistic setting.
The script reflected the latest trend in the performance world—naturalism—with masterful precision.
It was inhumanly polished.
Yet the technical brilliance wasn't the only thing that struck her.
The script also carried genuine human insight.
The comedy banter between the triplets, the lament of Yobel the dwarf—details like that.
Every line reeked of a thoughtful, careful eye for their personalities and everyday quirks.
A troupe leader might normally be expected to possess such knowledge, but this was no ordinary man.
Wonderstein...?
The man who treated everything in the world as a pretense...
Was she supposed to believe he'd actually held that much interest and affection for his members?
It was almost impossible to accept.
That was when it began.
Ella's torment.
She had lived in the world of acrobats from the moment she was born.
She had talent, and she had an eye for a performance.
Her love for the art of the circus itself ran deep.
So the instant she laid eyes on that impeccably crafted script, she couldn't suppress the surge of respect she felt for Wonderstein.
And she couldn't forgive herself for feeling it.
The man was evil incarnate. A demon who murdered your neighbors, your family!
-But look at this script. Let's give credit where it's due. He's a genius! And there's no question he loves the circus.
He's a deranged killer!
-What does that have to do with anything? Maybe that very madness is the proper attitude for an artist!
Oh, Kirkeus...
-Our god was always a little unhinged anyway, right?
For the past two weeks, the war had raged on without pause.
Inside her heart.
Hatred for Wonderstein, and respect for him.
The urge to enjoy her current situation, and disgust at herself for feeling that way.
The clashing emotions, pulled taut, had worn her spirit thin.
And now this day had come.
On top of everything else, she was now facing the fact that Wonderstein had saved her life.
The feelings she'd barely kept in check finally erupted.
"Why are you doing this now...?"
Tears slid down her cheeks.
"You could've just... asked me to come with you normally back then..."
The day she first met him.
"I already promised you I'd go with you..."
Her first performance, the first time a customer had ever acknowledged her.
"Was that what you meant when you said you were confident you could persuade my master?"
Her master, whose body would never step onto a stage again.
"Why did you have to kill my friends... Why did you have to kill the villagers!"
The destroyed village.
The dead.
"You should have... you should have just kept the mask on to the very end..."
The shape the man had revealed.
A writhing mass of dozens of crawling tentacles.
Thick spider legs skewering human bodies.
Hundreds of needle-sharp teeth.
Reptilian eyes studded across his flesh.
A sticky tongue stretching several meters.
Spikes jutting menacingly from his shoulders and back.
Pulsing green blisters.
"You should have just kept deceiving me!"
All of it had been sucked inward, vanishing as if erased, and from the center a man had emerged.
The man who had reached out his hand and asked her to come with him.
The man who was still looking at her, still smiling.
"Why are you coming back now and messing with my head all over again!"
Him, searching for a handkerchief to offer her.
Him, staying up all night to help her prepare for a show.
Him, diving into the water to save her.
She had never once shown a moment of weakness in front of Wonderstein.
At least, not in anything the current him had witnessed.
But the sturdy fortress she'd built collapsed in an instant.
She'd been pretending to be strong, but she was still just a girl of sixteen.
She couldn't endure this suffocating, irrational, contradictory mess any longer.
She wept openly, sobbing aloud.
Wonderstein didn't know exactly what was tormenting her.
But he could tell he was the cause.
He recalled the convulsive barrage of messages.
[Ella's Affection level has increased by 1. As a reward for reaching Affection level 15, <Inspira: Spirit Link> is granted to Ella. Current Affection level: 15 (Next reward: Affection level 30)]
[Ella's Affection level has decreased by 2. The Affection level 15 reward, <Inspira: Spirit Link>, has been lost. Current Affection level: 13 (Next reward: Affection level 15)]
[Ella's Affection level has increased by 2. As a reward for reaching Affection level 15, <Inspira: Spirit Link> is granted to Ella. Current Affection level: 15 (Next reward: Affection level 30)]
[Ella's Affection level has decreased by 1. The Affection level 15 reward, <Inspira: Spirit Link>, has been lost. Current Affection level: 14 (Next reward: Affection level 15)]
Ella's Affection level, rising and falling in rapid succession.
Her emotions were caught in a painful contradiction.
Scrolling back through the log, he saw her Affection level had been oscillating around the 15 threshold for days now.
Wonderstein had a rough idea of her mental state.
It's probably because of the gap between the psychopathic demon she knows and the man I am now, actively trying to raise her Affection level.
And the fact that it was manifesting in this concrete form—an Inspira—was only tormenting her more.
Inspira.
He knew what it was.
From the first game in the series, Tril Trillo 1.
Unlike the sequels, which spanned the globe, TT1 took place in a single city.
Sky City Hippodrome.
A city in the midst of a circus festival.
Because of that setting, most of the support characters you could recruit for your party in TT1 were acrobats.
Acrobats with a wide array of special skills.
That raised a question.
Why did mere performers possess such extraordinary abilities?
Inspira was the setting detail created to explain it.
A gift bestowed by the Demon God Kirkeus—the deity worshipped by clowns and acrobats, a god who loved wit, ingenuity, and laughter—upon his faithful.
Trait: Inspira - Spirit Link
Target: Creatures tamed by Ella
Effect: When Ella mentally calls the target's name three times in succession, she shares its senses of sight and hearing. Call the name three more times to cancel.
Requirement: [Ella's Affection level 15]
From what she'd told him, she'd been attempting this Spirit Link when her connection to a pigeon suddenly severed, sending her tumbling out the window.
Unlike 'Yurakne's Devotion,' this ability didn't help him directly, but it would be a useful reconnaissance tool.
He decided to help her settle her feelings.
The Affection level rewards were secondary; if she stayed in this state, it would cripple their progress.
This circus troupe couldn't function without her.
"Miss Ella."
Wonderstein spoke her name softly.
She had finally calmed down after crying for a long time and was wiping her swollen eyes with the leaf blanket. Sniffling, she avoided his gaze.
"Just... forget it. Stop."
"Didn't you ask me something?"
At his words, Ella let out a hollow sigh.
"I already hounded you about it before, over and over. Why you did it. And you always gave the same answer. 'I'm sorry. I just wanted to go with you, Miss Ella.' Ugh, fine. I said drop it! It's my fault for getting bitten by a crazy demon bastard. Haah... I thought I'd put my feelings in order ages ago, but these past few days have been a damn nightmare... Look, it's done, so don't worry about it. I'll just live with it. I'll go back to being just the Deputy Leader from tomorrow on. Sorry I made a scene... It won't happen again..."
Ella was rambling, her words disjointed. Her unstable mental state was palpable.
Her Affection level was still stuck at 14.
At this rate, it'd tick up to 15 again, she'd get the Inspira, and she'd just agonize over it and have another breakdown...
As she kept waving him off, Wonderstein launched a preemptive strike with the words he'd prepared.
"Two and a half years."
Ella's expression stiffened.
"I promise. Two and a half years. Once we've advanced to the Circus Grand Prix Finals and safely finished our performance, I will leave. I will never appear before you or anyone else again."
"Wh-what are you...?"
Ella's eyes trembled.
Alongside her bewilderment, a glimmer of hope surfaced.
Two and a half years?
She'd thought she was doomed to be a demon's puppet for life...
"I mean it. I promise. I will never, whether during my departure, after I've left, or before I go, bring any harm to you, your family, or the troupe members. My only goal is to reach the Circus Grand Prix Finals."
"You... you really mean that...?"
Wonderstein responded with a short, knowing laugh.
Let's drop the human approach to persuasion. It's clearly backfiring.
I'm the villain here.
All I need to talk about is the contract.
"Isn't it obvious why I've tried my best to treat the troupe members well, why I needed you, from the very start? Cooperate with me in achieving my goal, and I won't harm a single soul."
"Two and a half years... two and a half years..."
Clutching the blanket, Ella steadied her breathing.
It wasn't a bad deal.
There was a time she'd despaired, believing she'd have to walk an endless road alongside this demon.
This, she could handle.
She sprang to her feet and ran to the riverside.
She splashed water onto her tear-streaked face.
Her head felt considerably clearer.
She turned a sharp glare on Wonderstein.
"Fine. Whatever happens, I'll make sure our troupe reaches the Circus Grand Prix Finals. Don't get the wrong idea. This isn't just because of your threat. It's a good challenge for me too. As an acrobat."
"Heh, of course."
"...Hmph. Fine."
Ella abruptly extended her hand.
Wonderstein regarded her with an amused look before clasping it.
"Two and a half years. No harming anyone. Got it? You keep that promise."
"Absolutely."
In that moment, Ella felt the Inspira returning to her.
It was as if the Demon God was asking:
Has your spirit's wandering come to an end?
And at the same time, a message appeared before Wonderstein.
[Ella's Affection level has increased by 1. As a reward for reaching Affection level 15, <Inspira: Spirit Link> is granted to Ella. Current Affection level: 15 (Next reward: Affection level 30)]
***
The ship had been in an uproar since dawn.
It was only natural, given that the leader and Deputy Leader of the trading company's guest circus troupe had gone missing.
Anais, who had been holed up in her office, was now livid, frantically demanding they be found. The crew quickly uncovered several clues about the pair's movements.
"We found the Deputy Leader's slippers on her windowsill, scraped off as she fell."
"Judging by the troupe leader's shoes and socks left beside this window..."
"Come to think of it, a sailor in the lower berths said he heard something hit the water twice in a row while he was sleeping..."
The situation was clear.
The Deputy Leader had fallen into the water, and the troupe leader, in the next room over, had sensed it and jumped in after her.
"We have to turn back and search."
"Chairwoman, with respect, the odds they survived are slim. Judging by the time, it was past midnight. In those conditions, even seasoned sailors like us would struggle to make it out. And the troupe leader—isn't he that genteel gentleman? How could a man like that possibly..."
Anais shook her head at the captain's words.
She had been prone to fits of temper, but she was, at her core, a cool-headed, rational person.
She assessed the situation more calmly than anyone.
"That man is a remarkable magician. Didn't you hear he treated my illness? And acrobats are fundamentally strong and resourceful. There's a fair chance they're alive."
Just then, a commotion arose outside, and a crewman opened the door with a troubled expression.
"Um, Chairwoman, Captain... one of the circus troupe members is asking to see you..."
"Send them in."
Yes. Those people would know what the two of them are capable of.
They might have something useful to say.
The visitor was a mature woman who looked to be in her early to mid-twenties.
Anais, her body withered by long illness, felt oddly diminished in the woman's presence.
-The crewmen say there's a woman who spends every day with the troupe leader...
-That kind of relationship, they say...
Anais tried hard to push away the absurd gossip the boatswain had relayed.
But she couldn't help that her eyes kept drifting to Yurakne's chest, waist, and hips.
Damn it.
"What is it?"
Yurakne flinched slightly at Anais's curt tone, which verged on cold, but soon squared her shoulders and stepped forward with confidence.
"This... is a mouse our Deputy Leader keeps. It seems like it has something to say."
"A mouse...?"
An albino mouse with white fur and red eyes.
Jjiksun scurried down Yurakne's arm and climbed onto Anais's desk.
It dipped its paw into her inkwell and began tracing something across a sheet of paper.
It was... writing.
***
Sunlight glinted off the river.
Having changed back into their original clothes, the two sat side by side, greeting the morning.
Wonderstein offered her a fruit the size of a human head.
"What's this?"
"Fruit from the meal tree. The kind that grows cooked rice."
"...There's a tree for that?"
Wonderstein waggled his hand instead of answering.
That really is a handy ability.
She took the proffered fruit.
Despite being a natural object, the fruit had a lid with a handle attached.
She grasped the handle and pulled, and the fruit split open with a pop.
Inside was a generous heap of steaming shrimp fried rice.
"That's just ridiculous..."
"It's the shrimp fried rice variety of meal tree."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it is."
"And this is a tree branch that grows in the shape of a spoon."
"Oh, come on..."
So they sat together and shared a meal.
Perhaps it was because she'd secured that promise.
Ella didn't feel the same aversion toward him that she used to.
About an hour passed after they finished eating.
Ella, who had been lying still, snapped her eyes open.
"They're almost here."
Bwoong.
The sound of a ship's horn rang out in the distance.
Wonderstein and Ella dusted themselves off and rose to their feet.
"It's been a brief connection, but I look forward to working with you."
"I think it's been plenty long..."
Wonderstein shook his head awkwardly at Ella's retort.
"Heh, don't be like that. We'll still be seeing each other for two and a half years."
"At the end of which, we'll never see each other again."
"What if we end up missing each other later?"
"We won't. Not someone like you."
In the distance, they could see the ship they'd left behind approaching.
--------
Deputy Leader Ella (End)