I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

Lumie, upon waking, immediately cloaked herself in Arno’s illusion. It had become a habit over the past twenty years, and the transformation was instantaneous.

As soon as she assumed Arno’s appearance, someone opened the door to the lighting room.

It was Karen.

Seeing him sprawled on the floor, she shouted down the hallway.

“Guys, I’ve found Director Arno!”

They were apparently just starting to search the surrounding area for people.

Time flowed differently between Wonderland and the surface, so the difference between her return and the previous team’s arrival was less than 30 seconds.

Lumie abruptly stood up.

Wonderstein had promised to follow right behind. Considering the time difference between there and here, he should have surfaced by now as well.

However, as soon as she stood up, a dizzying spell of vertigo hit her.

Her body burned as if in a fever. It was no surprise, given that her body had once been frozen solid due to the Reaper’s curse.

“Director, are you okay?”

Karen, alarmed, moved to help her, but at that moment, Ella’s voice echoed from downstairs.

“We’ve found him! Our Director!”

“Really? Director Wonderstein?”

Lumie brushed off Karen’s helping hand and headed for the stairs.

“Move aside. I need to go down.”

Her body was in such a state that it wouldn’t be surprising if she collapsed at any moment.

She wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest, but confirming that Wonderstein had returned safely was her top priority.

The backstage area was already crowded with people. They were gathered around Wonderstein, who was lying on the floor.

“What happened?”

Arno urgently asked. Ella, checking his pulse and breathing, shook her head.

“I don’t know. His body seems fine… but he won’t respond no matter how much I call.”

Lumie sighed inwardly.

It had already been a minute since she returned. That meant nearly two hours had passed there.

He should have been back by now. But his body remained motionless, as if his soul had vacated it.

Two, three minutes passed.

Lumi instinctively knew what had happened and closed her eyes tightly.

He had failed.

The image of his last smile flashed before her eyes.

­-Go on ahead. I’ll be right behind you.

Damn bastard.

Tears welled up in Lumie’s eyes.

His promise to return together had been a lie to reassure her.

He had intended to sacrifice himself to save her all along.

‘You jerk. Did you think I’d feel at peace if you left like this?!’

She recalled him standing protectively in front of her, facing the fearsome Reaper.

Lumie bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, trying to hold back her tears.

The others, unaware of what had transpired, were relieved to see everyone safe and exchanged smiles.

They believed Wonderstein would wake up soon, not realizing there was a problem because he appeared unhurt.

Their innocent and ignorant peace made her grief even harder to bear.

Just when she thought she couldn’t hold back her tears any longer, he suddenly opened his eyes.

“He’s awake!”

“Director!”

Wonderstein lifted his head and looked around at the people surrounding him.

When he saw Arno among them, he sighed in relief and immediately began acting.

“Ugh, my head… What happened? The stage suddenly started shaking…”

Lumie almost burst into laughter at his audacity.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and glared at him.

How could he make her worry like this?

She flashed a lenticular message before his eyes.

­’What happened? Why did it take so long?’

­’Long? What…’

­’Almost five minutes have passed in real time!!!’

Seeing the three exclamation points, he realized how startled she must have been.

­’Oh, that. The time barrier collapsed as the Zakanuba Legion retreated. They said the flow of time returned to normal midway through.’

What? she never imagined something like that happened. Then, there’s no reason to be mad at him.

However, her expression quickly hardened again.

“Are you really okay, Director?” Maya asked.

He shrugged. “Aside from not being able to move my arms and legs?”

“With your magic, you can fix that easily, can’t you?”

Reyna said, recalling how he had instantly healed her injuries before.

“Well, it seems like my soul took a hit. It’s going to take some time to recover.”

“Then someone needs to take care of you!”

Clara shouted excitedly.

Karen, with a playful expression, joined in.

“Feed you, change your clothes, bath you…”

“Ba-bath him… that’s weird…”

Ruelle’s face turned bright red.

Come to think of it, while the adults were checking on Marquis Slabbrot’s condition, all the girls had come down to see Wonderstein.

Lumie felt a surge of irritation seeing him surrounded by the girls, laughing.

After all, they had gone through thick and thin together.

She wanted to send him a long message of complaint, but with everyone so close to him, using the Lenticular was too risky.

Since they found out he couldn’t move, everyone stuck close to him, chattering away.

Before long, three Director entered the waiting room.

They announced that the Marquis had woken up safely.

The Marquis believed he had fainted due to low blood pressure, something that had happened to him before.

Lord Fantastic cleverly fabricated a story that they hadn’t realized the Marquis had fainted and continued the performance.

It was a plausible excuse.

Since the blind Marquis always kept his eyes closed, it was hard for those on stage to tell if he had fainted or was just watching the performance from the dark audience area.

Thus, they could create an alibi for the missing 1 hour and 30 minutes.

“Haha, a performance of Cristian’s new Script debut with the audience asleep. That would be quite a joke if the reporters found out. I’m sorry, but could you do it again? Let’s consider the previous one a rehearsal.”

Performing again wasn’t difficult.

Even though a week had passed, no one had forgotten their parts.

Moreover, since it was almost a one-man show, they could review the script backstage.

“We’re not going to end up in Wonderland again, are we?”

A scared Karen asked.

Maya reassured her in a calm voice.

“Such coincidences are hard to come by in a lifetime.”

“Really?”

Ella smacked her lips in disappointment.

While the actors prepared for the performance, Wonderstein lay on the waiting room sofa. Lumie used an illusion of Arno to pretend she was working, while she stayed with him.

He told her what had happened after she left.

“Oh, right. We need to finish up. Give me your hand.”

“My hand? Oh…”

She looked down at her palm.

Strangely, there was a mouth with white teeth sticking its tongue out.

“That grotesque thing needs to be removed. Isn’t it disgusting?”

“There are much stranger things in Jormungandr. There’s even a farting trumpet that looks like a butt.”

“…Does it smell too?”

“Of course. It also scatters poop powder.”

“Really?”

She puffed up her cheeks at his innocent question and then burst out laughing.

“Pahaha, did you believe that?”

Wonderstein smiled wryly as if he couldn’t help it.

“You’re just like a fairy.”

“Hmph, indeed. It’s been a while since I felt like this. Thanks to you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. If you hadn’t found me back then, I’d still be stuck in a dream world.”

Lumie recalled what Oberon had said to her.

For twenty years, she as fairy hid in a illusion world.

The remark was spot on.

She lost her wings due to the pain of heartbreak, cut off contact with her friends, built walls between herself and the world, and lived alone.

Those years amounted to twenty long years.

The characteristic childishness and stubbornness of a fairy had taken a bad turn.

If there hadn’t been someone to pull her out, she would have lived like that until she died.

“Thank you. The week in Wonderland made me feel like myself again after a long time.”

“You could keep living like that, couldn’t you, ‘Lumie’?”

At his ticklish whisper, Lumie blushed.

Honestly, this guy is a master at charming women.

“Sh-shut up! It’s ‘Director Arno’! Get on with what you were doing!”

“Haha, understood.”

“Don’t laugh!”

“I’m always laughing, though?”

“Liar! In front of Kirku……”

“Well, then, please place your hand on my body.”

“Hmph. You don’t want to hear any embarrassing stories about yourself, huh? Here!”

She brought her hand to his mouth.

It was a thoughtless action.

She chose the exposed face because he needed to make physical contact to use his power.

But she overlooked what was on her palm.

Was the movement that followed really just a coincidence, or did her subconscious play a role?

The moment she placed her palm on his mouth, the lips on it sealed his mouth and slipped a tongue inside.

Then it bit down on his lips.

She realized the sensations climbing up from her palm were the same as those in her mouth and tongue, and she jumped in shock.

“Huh? Aaah! Hey, what’s going on……You, you……What did you do!”

“I was more surprised. This feels really weird. I never thought I’d be kissed by a ‘palm mouth’.”

“Who said it was a kiss! M-my hand moved on its own! Forget about it! A kiss should be done properly later……”

“Later?”

“No, no! That’s, um, well……! Hey, I said stop laughing! It’s not like that!”

Wonderstein laughed heartily, watching Lumie’s face turn bright red and her antennae perk up.

Just then, a bell rang from the stage.

It seemed the preparations for the play were complete.

A clown and five acrobats climbed onto the stage.

The three leaders took their places for their respective roles.

Just as the performance was about to begin again, the hall doors burst open, and the Marquis’s secretary rushed in.

“My Lord!”

His face was pale. The expressions of those following him were equally grim.

The acrobats recognized them.

They had seen them before the premiere.

They were experts in ancient texts and artifacts invited by the Marquis to authenticate the script.

“I told you not to come in without my permission.”

“My Lord…It’s urgent…It seems we’ll have to cancel tonight’s banquet and press conference.”

“What do you mean?”

The secretary, with a troubled expression, spoke.

“Well…the thing is…the authentication results…the script…was found to be fake.”

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Chapter 244: Wonderland – 47