13. Circus Charlie (6)
13. Circus Charlie (6)
Traditional funerals normally meant cremating the body and sealing the powdered bones in an urn. But during the years when the Black Death swept the land, a different form of cremation took hold—one designed to handle the endless flood of corpses with severely limited fuel. The flesh was burned away; the remaining skull and bones were laid to rest in the catacombs below.
Reducing bone to powder requires temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees, but seven hundred is enough to consume flesh. A mere three-hundred-degree gap might sound minor, yet the fuel needed for the former was several times what the latter demanded. The catacombs were born of that grim arithmetic.
By both their origin and their location, they possessed every condition that would normally render a place vulnerable to the Abyss. And yet, because every skeleton interred there had received funeral rites from a priest—and because they lay beneath a cathedral—even the deepest chambers had almost never seen a demon or wraith.
Charlie had been able to use this place as a secret base during his student years for exactly that reason. Which didn't make it a pleasant spot to linger. The stacked skulls and bones, by their mere presence, wove a tapestry of visual dread.
But from somewhere among those corridors of human remains, voices had been drifting—warm, familiar voices that felt wholly out of place in this labyrinth of the dead. The voices belonged to Charlie and Ella.
When they first met again after so long apart, neither knew how to begin. Ella had been wary of him, appearing without warning in a place she would never have expected. Charlie had stepped before her still undecided about how he ought to face her.
What broke the awkwardness were their animals. The pigeon, the rat, and the monkey threw themselves at one another as if the tangled history between their owners meant nothing—hugging, rolling across the floor, radiant with reunion.
The two of them watched and managed wry smiles. Barely a year ago, they'd been exactly the same.
They set aside the questions they'd meant to throw at each other. Instead, they traded greetings and laughter, just as they used to. They talked about the time that had passed, but with a careful, silent agreement to avoid any mention of home.
"That obstacle course was brilliant. How did you come up with it?"
"Ah, that one? I built it by thinking back to the days when we picked the pockets of those desert traders."
"Oh—now that you mention it, that's exactly what it was, wasn't it? Some of us kept watch, some made a racket, and the rest slipped in. Hmm—that one part in particular. Identical."
"Which part?"
"The bit where, if you failed, your calves didn't survive."
At her words, Charlie burst out laughing.
"Ha-ha, we really got chewed out for that one back then, didn't we?"
"So how did you explain the puzzle to the other students? You said all the others came with some kind of 'back in our hometown' story, right? This one's a little embarrassing to admit. Kids at a country circus school would just think you used your skills for petty theft."
Charlie pointed at the blue-furred monkey cradled in her arms.
"I obviously left out everything except the part about rescuing this fellow. Especially the bit with our mentor charging at us with a club—didn't breathe a word of that. And a little thievery's fine. When you study magic or acrobatics, everyone's pulled those kinds of pranks as a child. Turns out the elite schools weren't any different."
"Ooh-ooh-ah-ah!"
The monkey, delighted by something, wrapped its arms around the back of Ella's head and rubbed its face against her crown. Grinning, she tickled its belly.
"Blue Monkey's still a big baby, I see."
Hearing the name she had given the animal years ago, Charlie protested in a sulky voice.
"His name is Montecristo."
"Think of it as a nickname. Isn't that right, Blue Monkey?"
"Kyaak-kyaak!"
Monte bobbed his head furiously, as if he vastly preferred the name she'd chosen.
"Don't you like the name I gave you better, Monte?"
At Charlie's question, the monkey yawned theatrically and pretended not to hear. Charlie shook his head, giving up. Taming had been the subject he'd studied hardest after entering Rekachev, but when it came to affinity with animals, he couldn't come close to matching Ella.
"By the way... where's Bueongdung-i?"
For the first time, a crack appeared in the composure he'd maintained so well. He stared at the ceiling for a moment, then murmured in a subdued voice.
"He left."
"What?"
Unease flickered across Ella's face.
Left—surely he didn't mean...
Charlie hastily rearranged his expression. He knew the lighthearted mood between them would have to end soon, but he wanted to hold onto it as long as he could. He forced a cheerful voice.
"He met some female owl, and the two of them took off together."
Ella, who had been staring at him blankly, burst into laughter.
"That actually happens? Don't feel too bad. Birds are different from mammals—they leave the nest they grew up in all the time. Hmm, so should we find a wife for our Gudol, then? I suppose I could just raise one more female...."
Charlie pretended to look affronted.
"Then Gudol would be miserable."
"Huh? Why would he be miserable?"
"He'd have to live caught between his mother-in-law and his wife."
Ella dissolved into giggles. They traded a few more jokes about the horrors of living with in-laws before the conversation drifted to Simon Magier and his cowardly tricks during the competition.
"That man is shameless and utterly without scruples."
Ella had never seen Charlie express such open disgust toward anyone. He was presumably still furious that the man had turned a game Charlie himself had designed into a stage for cheating.
The two of them lost track of time. What finally cut their conversation short was the sound of a bell ringing from the entrance to the catacombs.
Charlie let out a soft sigh.
He wanted to stay like this with her....
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. It was regrettable, but unavoidable. Their purpose here was revenge.
He sent the monkey to escort the guest.
"Ukiiii!"
The animal leapt down from Ella, scrambled over pillars of skulls and bones, and vanished into the darkness.
"Where'd you send Blue Monkey?"
"You'll find out soon. Come on, let's head this way."
Charlie still wore a gentle smile, but his voice carried a chill that hadn't been there before. Ella hesitated, then rose to follow him.
The questions she had pushed aside raised their heads once more.
Why had Charlie come here at all? Why had he brought her to this place?
She burned to ask, but the words wouldn't leave her lips. She was afraid of the answer she might receive.
They walked in silence. Tension pressed in from every side, making it impossible to believe that cheerful conversation had filled the air only moments ago.
It was Charlie who broke the silence.
"How good is your Troupe Leader, really?"
Thrown by the sudden question, Ella faltered, then asked back.
"At what?"
"Acrobatic skill. The kind you use with your own body."
"He's outstanding. He matched Lord Fantastic once, blow for blow—ended in a draw."
Charlie let out a short, dismissive snort. He didn't believe Wonderstein possessed anything like that level of ability.
And why would he? All he had seen since arriving here was a base schemer: a man who tried to fool the world with a fake script, who dragged young women around and toyed with them, who rolled about in a wheelchair with a convenient-sounding illness right before the exam.
Charlie's voice turned mocking.
"Oh, really? If his body worked that well, you think he'd have joined the exploration team?"
"Of course. He and I would've made the best pair. We'd probably have blown the game open inside an hour."
Charlie's eyes sharpened.
The best pair? Blow my game open?
A hostile voice escaped his curling lips.
"A man that skilled must be impressive even from a wheelchair. I'd like to test that."
"Test what?"
Charlie stopped and turned to face her. He wore the cruelest smile she had ever seen on him.
"Can your Troupe Leader get through the traps and obstacles I've set and make it all the way here?"
***
Charlie's colleagues, having left the school behind, guided Wonderstein down into the underground through a sewer entrance tucked deep into an alley.
They treated him with a certain restrained politeness. When the path grew rough, they slowed the wheelchair. At particularly deep drops, they hoisted him—chair and all—and lifted him across. Unlike Charlie, they held no personal feelings toward Wonderstein whatsoever.
Charlie hadn't told his friends what he had seen and heard. The evidence was far too thin to paint Wonderstein as a villain on that basis alone. And besides, recounting the story with his own mouth was simply too humiliating.
So instead he persuaded them that Wonderstein was to be used as a hostage, a means to pressure Ella into revealing the truth. They disliked the idea of dragging an uninvolved person into their affairs, but Charlie was so insistent that they reluctantly agreed.
"May I ask why you've abducted Miss Ella?"
"......."
"Do you perhaps bear a grudge against me?"
"......."
Wonderstein couldn't guess who these people were. They weren't figures who had appeared in TTT, nor did they seem to harbor any personal vendetta against him. They never spoke a single word beyond what was strictly required.
Eventually he gave up trying to extract information and focused instead on preparing for combat.
They passed through the sewers and entered the catacombs. Even Wonderstein had never seen anything like it—walls closely packed with bleached bones stretching into the darkness.
They hadn't gone far before a blue-furred monkey came bounding out to meet them.
"This is as far as our guiding goes."
"Follow the monkey from here."
Their plan was this: push Wonderstein into a chamber full of traps, then show Ella what was happening, threatening that if she wanted him to live she had to confess the truth of what had happened that day. Originally they'd meant to simply grab Ella and interrogate her outright, but Charlie had argued for a different approach, and they adjusted the plan accordingly.
They had no idea whether it was right to shove a man who could barely propel his own wheelchair into a den of death-traps.
"I don't see why we have to do it this way."
"Same here. If Ella really is the one who massacred the villagers, a threat like this isn't going to work anyway."
"I don't know. For now, let's trust Charlie. He's our leader."
"Yeah. I'm sure he'll handle it."
After confirming that Wonderstein had followed the monkey into the inner catacombs, they readied themselves to move to where Charlie and Ella were waiting.
Then they heard footsteps approaching from behind—back the way they had come, down the same path they had descended. And it wasn't just one person.
"Looks like we picked up a tail."
"Tch, we took too long. Should've just stuffed him in a sack and run instead of pushing a wheelchair."
"If we'd done that, we'd have been caught at the entrance."
The four of them readied themselves for a fight.
A short while later, a group appeared at the mouth of the stone chamber.
They were also four.