I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

“Is it really right to go this way?”

Ella looked at the two people guiding her with suspicious eyes.

It had been 30 minutes since they started walking.

Oz and Lumie were leading her deeper into the Card Sun, claiming there was a way inside without passing through the archway.

The overall appearance was similar to a circus tent that one might commonly see from the outside.

It had a shape resembling an overturned washbasin, with red and white stripes repeating on top.

The red stripes were layers of stacked red buildings, and the white stripes were undulating curtains of light.

At first, when they said there was a way, Ella naturally thought it might be a tool to change their appearance or disguise themselves to pass through security checks.

However, they simply asked her to follow them and began to walk around the outskirts of the district without heading towards the archway.

Ella continued to walk behind them.

Buildings of various architectural styles were haphazardly piled up, seemingly covered in red cement that had been applied thickly.

However, despite the chaotic appearance, there seemed to be no holes or gaps that could be entered.

“Hey, when are we going to stop walking?”

As they walked along the wall, the entrance seemed to get further away.

With the increasing distance, the number of people around them also decreased.

Ella looked around anxiously.

Can she really trust these people?

A scarecrow on unsteady legs and a wingless fairy.

It was an unreliable combination.

Although she asked them a question, they only told her to wait and looked at each other without answering.

After walking for a while, they reached the end of the first red zone.

Now, instead of a solid red wall, there appeared a white, undulating curtain next to the path they were walking.

The scarecrow, who had been silent except for asking her to follow, stopped walking and turned to look at her.

“Miss Elphi, have you ever tried ‘cat sneaking’?”

“Huh? Why suddenly?”

Cat sneaking was a circus slang for ‘sneaking into the tent and watching the performance secretly.’

It was a term used because the posture of sneaking into the tent with only the upper body inside and the bottom sticking out was similar to a cat stretching.

It was something that children who couldn’t afford the circus entrance fee often did.

“We were quite poor, so everyone tried it at least once, right? Of course, if you were caught, you were thrown out… But why is that relevant now? Ah… wait, could it be…?”

She looked closely at the point where the curtain met the ground. There was a small gap underneath.

“You mean we can go in here?”

“Yes. The size adjusts to fit the body of the one trying to enter.”

She approached the white curtain and leaned forward. As she did, the curtain fluttered, creating an opening just the right size for her to crawl through.

She lowered her head to look inside, but due to the bright backlight from the curtain, she couldn’t see the other side.

“But why doesn’t anyone enter from here?”

Lumie answered her question.

“There is a powerful guardian spirit called ‘Boundaryser’ here. If someone tries to enter Card Sun without permission, it will run in less than 0.1 seconds and chase the intruder away.”

When she was young, she had tried to enter here with her fairy friends.

Although they had been warned by their teacher, they deliberately tried cat sneaking because they wanted to experience being caught by the Boundaryser.

“You can’t go out either. The moment you try to go out, you will be grabbed from behind and dragged inside. Entrance and exit are only through the archway.”

When Oz mentioned cat sneaking, Lumie dismissed it as nonsense.

The Boundaryser was a powerful presence that could even play with powerful demons like children. It was impossible for them to avoid his surveillance or resist his power.

But Oz said, “It’s possible.”

His suggestion was piercing the veil of common sense.

“How can we enter such a place?”

Ella was also surprised like Lumie earlier and shouted.

“Haha, Lumie gave you a hint just now, didn’t she?”

“A hint?”

Upon hearing his words, Ella fell into deep thought.

There was only one mention of entering inside in their conversation just now.

“If you try to go out, you’ll be dragged inside?”

Ella murmured as if she had caught on to something.

But she couldn’t come to a specific conclusion. Oz gave her one more hint.

The mistake of those who attempted cat sneaking was pushing their heads in.”

Ella looked at him with a puzzled expression as she said this.

“Then… should I push my butt in?”

“Yes.”

Ella looked at the gap under the fluttering curtain.

The idea of sticking her butt into that unknown space was somewhat awkward, she wondered if she would be safe if things went wrong and will she be thrown several kilometers away.

The scarecrow chuckled, twirling his straw hat with his finger.

“I can see you’re having doubts. Alright. Let me demonstrate first then. Lumie, please come in after you see Elphi entering.”

After clearing his throat, Oz prostrated himself in front of the curtain of light. With his butt sticking in, he began to crawl backward.

After about a second of crawling backward, something tickled his back, and at the same time, a booming voice sounded behind him.

“Guest, this is not the way out!”

“Woah!”

A powerful force grabbed his rear end.

He was suspended in the air without any resistance.

What grabbed him was a large figure wearing a top hat and a suit, standing 5 meters tall.

His broad shoulders and chest were more than human.

The scarecrow stuck out his tongue at the sight.

This was the Boundaryser.

The guardian of Wonderland.

They had fought fierce battles against the legions of Wonderstein throughout the various stages of TT3. They appeared only in one stage, without any lines, but left a deep impression on the fans with their exploits in overthrowing the legion.

The Boundaryser mechanically said, “Please go to the archway,” and then lowered him to the ground. He then looked around again to see if there were any intruders.

Even when time Ella and Lumie tried to push their butts in, he moved like lightning.

“Guest, this is not the way out!”

“Please go to the archway.”

He repeated the same polite words and repeatedly grabbed and lowered them.

Ella looked around with a bewildered expression on her face.

Other than the tangled outer walls of the buildings and the white light waves flowing above their heads, there was nothing else visible, but it was clear that they had entered the Card Sun.

“So, how was it? Our first course of Wonderland Tour?”

“Are you satisfied?”

Ella smiled at them and gave them a thumbs up.

“It was amazing Sir and Older sister! Both of you were more trustworthy than I thought!”

However, instead of expressing joy at her praise, the two exchanged glances. One looked somewhat angry, while the other seemed to be suppressing laughter.

Ella then remembered that they had a similar atmosphere while walking here earlier.

“Hey, did I do something wrong? Why are you suddenly like this again?”

The scarecrow murmured, making a sound like he was grinding his teeth.

“Sir? I’m not an old man.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not an old man! I’m in my 20s! And ‘Older Sister’? Lumie may look young because she’s a fairy, but she’s actually in her 50s… Ugh!”

Suddenly, a rope appeared in the air and pulled his arms and legs, making him twist and roll on the ground.

Ella then realized why he had been sulking and burst into laughter.

“What, so that’s why you were sulking? Gee, in your 20s, you’re definitely an old man. And age is just a standard before you die, right? You could be from a generation called grandfathers.”

“Th-then why is Lumie… Ugh!”

The rope tightened around him.

Lumie raised her hand to her waist and glared at him with a stern face.

“Are you talking about a lady’s age so casually?”

Ella made a gesture to calm her down, then turned to the scarecrow who was lying on the ground, gasping for breath.

“Lumie looks like she’s lived young. So, we should treat her youthfully.”

“Ugh, does that mean I lived till old age?”

“Yeah. Honestly, you seem like a clown with a bit of a boring style.”

The scarecrow looked blankly at her, and Ella burst into laughter at his expression.

Even Lumie, who had been scolding him, seemed to find it amusing that he had received a hit.

“Hahaha, you’re really smart! Having an Assistant Director like you must be a blessing for Director, right?”

“Is that so? Our Director should know that too.”

The rope had disappeared without a trace.

Oz grumbled softly, stretched his shoulders, and got up from his seat.

“That Director must have suffered a lot because of Elphi.”

“Really? Every night, he comes to my room and says, ‘I can’t go on without Elphi!’ and snuggles into my arms.”

At this point, Lumie glared at Oz with a fierce expression.

He tried to look dignified and shook his head.

‘Why did she say such a phrase?’

As he tried to change the subject, she spoke in a voice filled with tender emotions.

“Just kidding. Actually, I rely more on the Director. There’s no one better than him.”

Oz looked at her with slightly sunken eyes.

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah. I used to resent him a lot for what he did to me, but now that I think about it, he probably didn’t do it out of malice. Surely, he did it for me…”

Lumie’s face became even more menacing. She glared at him with a look that seemed to say, “What did you do to her?”

The scarecrow frantically shook his head.

It’s not what you think.

But he couldn’t make excuses because the truth was even more terrible.

Seeing Lumie’s menacing expression, Ella realized that her words might sound strange and corrected her misunderstanding.

She explained about the incident where she had collapsed because the Director had pampered her excessively at the Rose Windmill Cabaret.

Although Lumie seemed satisfied with the conclusion that he wanted to help the young Assistant Director gain experience, the scarecrow found it difficult to control laughter, knowing that this actually didn’t happen..

The three of them, who had become a little more friendly than when they first met, left the area guarded by the Boundaryser.

They passed through the ruins of buildings and headed towards the center.

The path was quite steep. Ella and Lumie found it difficult to climb the rubble after walking for hours today.

So, the scarecrow lifted the two of them onto his shoulders and climbed the ruins.

The stick legs swayed unstably due to the weight of the two, but Persona was not tired from physical fatigue, so it was not difficult.

After climbing for a while, they finally managed to get out of the dark alley.

As they threw off the heavy air and shadows, a cool wind blew, revealing a huge complex.

The place they stood was the rooftop of a building that seemed to be hundreds of meters high.

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Chapter 219: Wonderland – 22

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