12. Rekachev Circus School Trial (4)
12. Rekachev Circus School Trial (4)
The sudden clash of blades startled me awake, and I looked down into the courtyard. Below, a duel between a skeleton captain and a headless knight was taking place.
The two swung their swords, aiming for each other's weapons rather than their bodies. Each collision erupted with a visceral clang. They fought on, dodging and parrying with exaggerated motions that would have looked utterly impractical in a real fight.
The Ratmen seated in a circle around them squeaked and clapped every time a flashy move was executed.
The figure in pirate garb was Sven. I couldn't tell who the headless knight was.
Did any of our troupe members have a Halloween costume like that?
It didn't take me long to realize the headless knight's head wasn't hidden by a costume—it was simply invisible. Each time the knight's breathing grew ragged, the space where his head should have been rippled. It was clearly the power of the Transparent Paint, the reward item Maya had received.
The two fought for a long while but failed to reach a decision, finally declaring a draw. It was inevitable, since all they did was clash blades. They praised each other's skills in theatrical tones.
"Ha ha, your disciplined orthodox swordsmanship is so solid I can't find a single opening!"
"Your unorthodox, battle-honed blade is equally astonishing—I could never predict its path!"
When the headless knight removed his transparent helm, red hair bloomed out like a flower. The knight was Karen. Now I remembered: earlier, she had been pestering Maya to help her with a disguise.
"Squeak! I want to be a pirate!"
"Squeak! Knights, gather over here!"
Inspired by the duel, the Ratmen grabbed wooden sticks and split into pirate and knight factions. They installed Sven and Karen as their respective commanders and began a war game. The two seemed briefly flustered, but soon they were racing around the courtyard, shouting things like, "All forces charge!" and "Turn them all into shark bait!"
They must have been itching with pent-up energy for days. With reporters constantly lurking nearby, no one had been able to relax.
Fortunately, today Rumi had created an illusion of a fake "Frank 10" to lure the reporters to the opposite side of the city, so the area around our lodgings was quiet.
A castle wall built of stacked boxes crumbled. A ship built of stacked boxes sank.
I watched the pirates and soldiers meet their valiant ends as the war concluded, then sank back into my armchair.
And in that moment, my eyes met those of the person sitting beside me.
A girl with silver hair was staring intently at my face.
"Ah... Miss Maya, have you been there the whole time?"
"Yes."
Her expression was as emotionless and cool as ever.
I realized then that she had been giving me a massage.
"Oh my, quite a bit of time has passed. You could have woken me."
"You fell asleep due to spiritual fatigue. I thought it better to let you rest."
After hearing that my Spirit Body had been damaged and my limbs were useless, she had attempted a simple treatment based on basic theory she'd learned at school. It was nothing grand—just infusing the wounded area with magic power to accelerate the Spirit Body's recovery.
"How are your injuries?"
"I feel somewhat better, thanks to your massage, Miss Maya."
I gave my arms and legs a light, experimental wiggle.
She nodded slowly, rose from her seat, and left the room without another word.
Had she seriously sat quietly beside me for an hour just to ask that one question?
I shook my head a moment later.
Even when she looked like she was spacing out, her mind was often piecing together complex magical theorems. She was likely conducting her own private research.
She always passed the time by searching for new questions to explore.
Earlier, she'd mentioned she was re-examining the mystery of the Tetromino Plaza that I'd told her about.
I wriggled my fingers and toes.
Some sensation seemed to have returned compared to the first day, but I still couldn't move around without the wheelchair.
My life after returning from Wonderland had changed somewhat. I was now in a position of needing constant care. Moving around inside the villa without help was a struggle. Ironically, this kind of life felt familiar to me.
At least Wonderstein's body was free from biological phenomena, so no one had to spoon-feed me or help me to the restroom. It consumed Devolut, but it could supply its own necessary energy. I only really needed help when I physically had to move.
I watched a small dot in the distance grow steadily larger until it settled on the windowsill. A hawk pushed the window open with its beak and came inside.
"You're getting quite good at flying now. What's that?"
I spoke, noticing the blood and flesh clinging to the hawk's talons.
"An owl latched onto me, so I shook it off."
"To think you'd even engage in aerial combat. You seem to have fully adapted to your body."
The hawk was Chen Hawk, a Persona I had brought with me from Wonderland.
Life Creation was one of the greatest Authorities Wonderstein possessed. Yet I had never dared to use it.
Creating a life carried an immense weight of responsibility. I'd experimented with various things using Devolut, but Life Creation was the one thing I hadn't dared attempt.
Then, a soul with nowhere to go came to me. Creating a physical body for his spirit to dwell in—that much I could manage.
The hawk tidied the blood and flesh from its talons with its beak.
I'd originally intended to create a human body for him, but he had refused.
He felt that his memories as "Chen Hawk" were too faint, and that wearing that shell and pretending to be him would be an insult to the self who had been Chen Hawk.
"I'm grateful you gave me a second life. I'll keep your secrets, of course, and cooperate with your work. But living as a human... I don't think that's for me."
I respected his feelings.
So I created a hawk's body for him. For someone who had been an aerial acrobat, there was no more fitting form.
"Then what should I call you?"
"You can give me one."
After a moment's thought, I summoned our circus's animal taming expert. I spun her a story about finding an injured hawk, nursing it, and how it grew so attached it wouldn't leave my side.
"Oh, not bad, boss! Picking up a hawk, huh!"
She was overjoyed that I was keeping an animal. And when I asked if she had any decent name ideas, she answered:
"Hawky!"
"Screeee!"
The hawk screeched loudly as if lodging a complaint.
I'd briefly forgotten her naming sense. I simply gave him the most straightforward name.
"I'll just call you Hawk."
"What, how cold of you!"
I watched Hawk preen his feathers. They say the mind follows the body. Watching him act, he seemed to have become a bird through and through. I picked up a few shreds of jerky and offered them to him. He perched on my forearm and accepted them.
Once his belly was full, he spread his wings again and flew outside. To adapt quickly to his new body, he'd been flying outside at all hours lately. I'd given him a body far sturdier than an ordinary hawk's, so there was no need to worry unless he decided to dive-bomb a Griffin.
Not long after he left, I summoned Clara to my room.
***
Over the past few days, Clara had felt as if she were walking through a nightmare.
Though she had lost most of her former power, as a former Apostle of Sinepekus, she could still exercise a basic ability: collecting and listening to the conversations around her.
It fed her information regardless of her will. Since the day she was born, she had never cursed her power as she did now.
- He sure likes the industry up-and-comers, doesn't he? Just fame-chasing vermin.
- Fine, let's say Ella and Reina are one thing. But what's the six-year-old brat doing there? What's she ever done?
- A thousand knives? You've got to be kidding. They said everyone was suffering from auditory hallucinations. You think they all saw a mirage?
- Lucky him. Riding on a big sponsor's back and making connections with a duke.
- Hee hee, getting sponsored by nobles is common in this business. I can see the future already.
When she had been in the bottle, the discord among people had been nothing more than a lullaby to her. She'd watched petty humans tear each other down with scornful amusement.
But when those whispers were aimed at friends she had come to think of as close, it felt entirely different.
Secluded in a world entirely her own, she'd never known that words could be this sharp, this painful.
She'd always thought that tearing others down was just a fun pastime...
She understood now why the Madosa of Sinepekus all drifted through back alleys, keeping their distance from people and living as nameless stray dogs. Anyone with a sound mind would inevitably fall into Papilax from all the whispers buzzing around them.
This whole fake script fiasco had been her fault.
It had caused trouble for Master and her friends. Every bit of condemnation she overheard felt like something she had done to them.
She hadn't slept a wink in three days, tasting guilt for the first time in her life. Every time she faced Ella and Maya, she flinched involuntarily and avoided them.
What tormented her even more was Master's attitude.
She expected him to say something to her. Whether he knew of her mistake or not, she thought he'd at least question her about what happened in Wonderland.
What she'd done in there, who she'd fought to receive those injuries.
But Master hadn't said a single word to her. She got the impression he was deliberately avoiding speaking with her.
Had she lost his trust?
If he'd just criticized her for her mistake, it wouldn't have been this agonizing.
She wanted to hear anything from Master's own lips.
And today.
Master had finally called for her.
"Miss Clara, you look terrible."
When Ella and Maya had told him about Clara's strange behavior, he had roughly guessed what had happened. She must have retained some hazy memories of what occurred in Wonderland.
"Why did you call for me?"
For the first time, a flicker of hostility toward him surfaced on Clara's face. Her haggard eyes intensified the impression.
Wonderstein read the emotion in her gaze and hesitated for a long moment. Seeing her expression, the words wouldn't come. Telling her that he'd heard the whole story from Ella and Maya might itself cause her shame.
Clara couldn't endure his hesitation and spoke first.
"May I ask what happened in Wonderland?"
Wonderstein swallowed dryly. He'd given himself away too obviously.
He could have denied knowing anything, but feigning ignorance now, with the mood already set, would be nothing short of deceiving her.
"Do you not trust me?"
Clara's words came out like a sigh.
"That's not it. It's just that the mistake you made, Miss Clara..."
"So you knew."
At her words, Wonderstein paused for a moment, then nodded a little more firmly.
"Yes. I knew."
Silence stretched between them.
Clara broke it first.
"So you've been deliberately avoiding me these past few days."
"That is true... but it's not for the reason you're thinking. Your mistake did cause some trouble for the others. But it's a misunderstanding to assume that it changed my feelings toward you in any way."
Wonderstein, still lying down, gestured for her to come closer.
She hesitated briefly, then approached him. He managed to lift his arm and took her hand.
"Forget what happened in Wonderland. I'll pretend I don't know either. Later, when your body and mind are a bit stronger, then I'll tell you about it."
"Are you saying I'm too weak to handle it?"
"I'm saying it because I'm worried about you."
At Wonderstein's words, Clara felt a sense of calm settling over her heart.
Master wasn't angry about her mistake.
She wiped away the tears that were flowing.
"Heh, how embarrassing."
"Not at all. In your own way, it was a mistake you made while trying your best, wasn't it? Am I wrong?"
She nodded. Then she spoke in a voice that carried a faint whine.
"I'm not useless, am I? Ever since I joined the circus troupe, it feels like I've been nothing but a burden, making you worry instead of helping you."
Wonderstein smiled at her words.
"The title of 'secretary' has been weighing heavily on your shoulders. But that's not the same as the condition for accepting you here."
Only then could she finally set down the burden on her heart.
Becoming his right hand and aiding him in his schemes had been purely her own ambition. Looking back, he had never asked that of her. He'd only asked her to stay alive.
She resolved not to ask further about Wonderland, as he'd requested. As he said, without sufficient power, before colossal forces like the Apostles, the Reaper, and the Sleeping Chaos, she would only be a source of worry for him.
"Just having you with us in the circus troupe is enough. Do you understand?"
"...Yes."
"Please answer a little more brightly and energetically. Like you usually do."
"Yes!"
Just then, with perfect timing, the group who had gone out returned to the lodgings.
In truth, he and Ella had coordinated the timing beforehand using the Sound Room.
As soon as they entered, they looked for Clara.
"Clara, come on down! We bought a ton of snacks!"
"Clara! I'm hurt you couldn't come play today!"
"What's all this? Did you leave out gifts for me and Maya and only buy things for Clara?"
"Hey, Ratmen, stop moving! How dare you try to snatch the cake!"
Only then did she realize her master had prepared a surprise party to cheer her up.
"I'd like to go down together. Could you help me, please?"
"Yes, boss!"
With a bright smile, Clara helped her master into the wheelchair and headed downstairs to where her friends were waiting.