7. Trial of the Rose Windmill Cabaret (11)
7. Trial of the Rose Windmill Cabaret (11)
The Rose Windmill Cabaret rarely opened its Number 2 and Number 3 halls during the daytime.
The cabaret's main draw was its night performances, and staffing for daytime shows was limited. Normally, only Hall Number 1 was used during the day.
The third Monday of June.
For the first time in a long while, both Number 2 and Number 3 Halls of the Rose Windmill opened simultaneously.
It was for a special performance by an outside troupe, not the cabaret's own company.
The show would run through Saturday.
Two circus troupes competing in the Circus Grand Prix would each take over a hall for a head-to-head showdown.
And this special engagement wasn't limited to this week alone.
For the next two years, circus troupes from across the globe would arrive and rotate each week, competing against one another.
The residents of Rouge, a city that thrived on entertainment and lodging, broke into grins at the prospect of this flood of patrons and tourists continuing for two years straight.
The box office in front of the cabaret was packed with customers waiting to exchange admission tickets.
The theme the Rose Windmill had set for the showdown was 'Free to Enter, Pay to Enjoy': how much revenue could be generated without charging a cover fee.
Admission might be free, but that didn't mean anyone could simply stroll in and watch.
After all, they'd made the contest all about generating revenue. If the place swarmed with nothing but penniless spectators, it would defeat the whole purpose.
The theater management had prepared mechanisms to screen out those who lacked the means to spend.
[100 Zircoin] = Includes 1-day pass, General Admission seating.
[180 Zircoin] = Includes 1-day pass, A-Class reserved seating.
[400 Zircoin] = Includes 2-day pass, A-Class reserved seating.
[700 Zircoin] = Includes 2-day pass, S-Class reserved seating.
[1200 Zircoin] = ......
.........
[5000 Zircoin] = Includes full 6-day pass, VIP reserved seating.
[※Note: Purchases inside the cabaret may only be made with the Zircoin bundled with this admission ticket.]
Zircoin was a type of virtual currency used inside the theater.
Each person could buy only one ticket, and every ticket came with a fixed allotment of Zircoin.
In effect, there was both a minimum and a maximum amount of currency each patron could wield.
This weeded out those with no purchasing power whatsoever, while also preventing wealthy sponsors from mobilizing their fortunes to indiscriminately dump money and tilt the earnings overwhelmingly toward one side.
The claim that admission was free actually meant you could enter the theater and move freely between Number 2 and Number 3 Halls. But becoming a genuine participant in this box-office game required what was, in practice, a de facto entry fee.
Wonderstein was impressed by Bwallet's business acumen.
What came to mind were casinos and theme parks.
At a casino, entry was simple, but entry alone didn't let you play — you needed chips to participate.
And at a theme park, entry was easy and you were, technically, free to ride any attraction. But they'd introduced ride tickets, reserved boarding passes, and tiered pricing brackets, then sold a special currency for use at the indoor concessions.
The Zircoin-linked admission ticket encompassed both concepts at once.
It was a right to differentiated service, a currency for the shops, and the stake you used to take part in the voting game.
Even troupe leaders who'd been put off by the idea of free performances could no longer lodge any objection once they saw how Bwallet was selling these tickets.
A few troupes did protest the tiered pricing structure.
Troupes that primarily catered to nobles pushed hard to eliminate the 100-coin bracket and raise the standards across the board, while those who had always performed for commoners argued just as forcefully to drop the 5000-coin tier and lower the bar.
But Bwallet countered every complaint with rational logic.
"Each price bracket was determined by analyzing the revenue structure from the free-admission performances our theater has hosted over many years. In other words, it reflects the actual spending distribution of audiences — residents and tourists alike — who attend free performances here."
And indeed, every ticket tier sold out at a roughly comparable rate.
Those who had banked solely on a high-end, high-margin strategy, and those who'd planned to turn a profit through high volume at low margins, now both found themselves forced to rethink how they would capture audiences in the other brackets.
Grand Prix participants didn't have to wait for the ticket lottery.
Each troupe was issued five '6-day full-access passes' and 10,000 Zircoin.
This also served the function of allowing fellow professionals to evaluate one another.
In most troupes, this would have sparked fierce competition over which five members received the tickets, but the Monster Circus was fortunate in that regard — the number of members who could appear in public was limited to begin with.
Wonderstein, Ella, Yurakne, Maya, and Sven naturally ended up with the passes.
The group divided the 10,000 Zircoin evenly as well, taking 2,000 each.
"You have to make it last all six days, so spend it wisely."
Their leader's advice went straight out the window. On the walk from the hotel to the theater, the group promptly began wagering Zircoin on which troupe would win the contest.
The Zircoin they'd received this week could only be used for this week's competition.
Since revenue and net profit figures were to be announced daily, they agreed to watch the results through day five and then hand over their Zircoin to the winning side on day six.
Wonderstein and Maya bet on the Silver Screen Circus, while the other three each staked 200 Zircoin on Pandora Magic Show.
In the betting, Pandora Magic Show had the edge, 3 to 2.
But the moment they stepped into the theater and had to decide which show to watch first, the momentum flipped completely.
Silver Screen Circus.
Pandora Magic Show.
Both had spent years building sterling reputations in the industry — one with Illusion Magic, the other with escape artistry.
Their performance styles couldn't have been more different.
One sent not a single performer onto the stage, delivering its show entirely through illusions; the other had its star magician, Luini, commanding center stage, just as he had for decades.
"I saw the Escape King's show once before, back in Vegas. The narrative, the suspense, the humor — it all meshed together organically right there on the spot. Exactly what you'd expect from a veteran who's spent decades in this business. As for an illusion show... well... I've never seen the Silver Screen's work, but illusion shows usually turn out to be disposable trickery, nothing more. I'd guess even the Silver Screen would just be a few minutes of 'ooh, aah, amazing' before everyone gets bored..."
Ella had made her case, but apart from her, everyone else's opinion tilted toward the illusion show.
Street-corner magic was something they'd all seen plenty of — but the chance to witness the craft of illusion mages said to stand at the pinnacle of the field was something else entirely.
In the end, they settled the decision with rock-paper-scissors. Ella against the other four. The odds didn't faze her in the slightest.
But to everyone's astonishment, she proposed a best-of-three format — then proceeded to face all four of them in succession, winning every single match without a single loss or draw, four opponents, eight straight victories, and settled the matter decisively.
"Alright! Then we're heading to the escape show."
As Ella pumped her fist in the air, Maya stared at her with open disbelief and demanded an explanation.
"Be honest. Deputy Leader, is the blessing you got from a Demon God... just winning at rock-paper-scissors?"
Instead of answering, Ella gave one wrist a casual flex and began cycling through rock, scissors, and paper at high speed.
In the space of two or three seconds, the shape changed dozens of times.
The motions were so fast they left afterimages, the sharp hiss of air audible with every shift.
"Nothing special. Just a bit of observation and some sleight of hand."
All four of them privately resolved never again to expect a fair game from Ella in anything that involved manual dexterity, and fell in step behind her as she led the way toward Hall Number 3.
The hall where Pandora Magic Show was being held crackled with the buoyancy of a festival in full swing.
An older man in an orange cloak climbed onto the stage.
Escape King Luini.
His shock of white hair and robust physique lent him the imposing authority of an industry patriarch.
His name erupted from all corners of the hall like a battle cry.
He answered the crowd's calls with a raised hand, poised between arrogance and humility.
Striding to center stage, he thrust a finger high and proclaimed,
"You won't be able to look away for a single second!"
His signature catchphrase was echoed by many in the audience.
Ella planted one hand on her hip, raised an index finger, and mimicked the pose right along with him.
For his age, Luini's voice and every gesture brimmed with vitality.
His sense of humor was broad enough to be effortlessly enjoyed across generations.
Whenever he singled out audience members to tease, even the target could laugh without offense, and he was equally adept at turning the joke on himself.
The talk-show portion alone, before a single escape had been performed, already had the crowd thoroughly wound up.
His first prepared trick was an escape from a water-filled glass tank.
A crack split the glass and water began seeping in; the aging magician yelped and scrambled to stuff the hole with cotton, frantic to buy time.
It was, of course, useless. The crack widened, and the magician pounded the glass wall, screaming.
The acting was so absurdly comical yet so thick with genuine-seeming peril that the entire audience leaned forward, eyes wide, completely absorbed in Luini's show.
His boast that they wouldn't be able to look away for even a second was the honest truth.
Even Maya, generally impervious to excitement, found her head naturally inclined forward more than usual, her fingers fidgeting against the armrest.
Wonderstein felt a twinge of regret that his situation with The Smiling Man prevented him from losing himself in it as naturally.
Water finished filling the fractured tank.
His entire body was submerged.
Bubbles streamed from his mouth as his complexion drained to a ghastly pallor.
It did not look like an act in the slightest.
Time simply continued its indifferent passage.
Luini made no move to escape.
He merely thrashed, spitting bubbles under the water.
It sank in for the audience, then, that something had gone wrong.
A worried murmur spread through the seats.
The unease on stage was just as palpable.
Pandora Magic Show staff members leaped up from below the stage, desperately trying to assess the situation.
Through it all, Luini's movements grew slower.
His face was turning a shade of purple.
He was drowning.
A burly staff member scrambled onto the stage gripping a hammer.
He swung it to smash the tank open.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, every light in the hall went out.
Terrified screams rang out.
A few weeping voices threaded through the chaos.
Several seconds passed like that.
The lights returned.
Just a single one.
A lone spotlight shone on the very back of the audience.
There stood the soaking-wet old magician, one hand braced against the wall, breathing in ragged gasps.
"Haah, haah... The older I get, the less it feels like the old days."
He flashed a grin.
A beat of silence hovered, then gave way to a thunderous roar of cheers and applause.
The house lights fully restored.
The tank on stage was undamaged.
That crashing noise a moment ago hadn't been the hammer.
The glass tank within the stage remained, cracked and filled with water just as before.
No matter where you looked, there was no visible opening a person could have slipped through.
Even if he had managed to escape, how could anyone have reached the very back of the theater in those few seconds?
Not a single droplet of water traced the path from the stage to that rear spot in the audience.
After a brief pause for the crowd to settle, Ella called out with an expression of pure exhilaration,
"81%!"
"81%? What does that mean?"
"The script reproduction level. What we've been practicing. I figure if we can reach that level, we could compete at something close to what we just watched."
Was that her way of measuring performance combat power?
"Is that an exact figure?"
"Just a gut feeling. A gut check."
Wonderstein shook his head at Ella's reply.
"Looks like the Pandora side hasn't bothered with any other strategy, though."
"A good show doesn't need gimmicks."
And indeed, to watch Luini's next act, they placed orders for drinks and food right at their table.
Over the course of Luini's show, which was split into three segments, they ended up spending more than 1500 Zircoin.