I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe - Chapter 543
EP.542 20. Wandering Saint (9)
Saint Victor sacrificed himself to destroy the Plague Lord. He merged with his opponent, then gave his entire body the order to commit suicide, thereby eradicating him. As a result, the two were dragged into the belly of the Circus, their souls entangled.
Over many years, Dr. Frankenstein conducted repeated experiments to find a way to bring her brother back to life. Finally, she discovered that the method was to collide two Thrills.
She prepared to revive her brother through repeated experiments. The three witches were also born in that process.
Time Demon Luthmaine’s artificial apostle, Rabbit Witch Rel Lohera.
Wisdom Demon Kleventain’s artificial apostle, Crow Witch Ratena Lassen.
Dominion Demon Dorgon’s artificial apostle, Serpent Witch Melissa Serpenti.
They were created by extracting the source of the Demon God and implanting it in a body made with Devolute. They functioned as apostles. Her theory had been successfully proven.
Encouraged by this, Dr. Frankenstein soon began the resurrection of her longed-for brother. She opened the door by colliding the Thrills, extracted the targeted point, and implanted it in a body made with Devolute.
She prepared a body that looked exactly like her brother when he was alive. All she wanted was for her brother to call her name and smile like before.
However, the awakened subject 24601 was a completely different being from her brother. She had been prepared for the possibility that it might be the Plague Lord, but it wasn’t even that. He was even cursed and couldn’t laugh.
The experiment failed. The doctor didn’t get anything she wanted.
She was disappointed and gave up her research for a while. She had tried to make subject 24601 laugh, but that didn’t work either.
Decades ago.
In the end, she must have felt disillusioned with the experiment itself. She disappeared from the world, leaving her laboratory, her assistant, her creations, and even the apostles in the bottle she had made.
And as the years passed, one day at the 2nd Circus Grand Prix.
Based on the information she had gathered, Clara could visualize what had happened 18 years ago as if she had seen it with her own eyes.
Igor recreated the experiment that Dr. Frankenstein had done by colliding two Thrills. Of course, his purpose was not to revive Victor or to create a second Wonder Star. He wanted to become the artificial apostle of the Circus himself.
He put the extracted source of the Circus into his own body.
Originally, without a body tailored to the purpose, like the three witches or Wonder Star, it would have exploded the moment the door opened due to the pressure. However, the place where Igor was that day was the place where the world’s enthusiasm for the Circus was the hottest.
He used the Circus Grand Prix to make up for what he lacked. A part of the Circus successfully took hold in his body.
However, unlike Wonder Star, he was a being with a strong sense of self and will. He was the Plague Lord who had been sealed away over 100 years ago.
This was what happened because he had used the formula left by Dr. Frankenstein. It was a spell to draw out Victor’s soul, and when his soul was not detected, the closest being was drawn out instead.
Igor, who had finally gained power equal to Wonder Star, was no longer purely himself. He called himself the Plague Lord.
When he saw the man blocking his way, his anger exploded. His opponent looked exactly like the man who had interfered with him over 100 years ago and finally sealed him away.
The clash of the two biomancers. The Wonder Stage collapsed in the aftermath of the battle.
That was when Clara escaped from Wonder Star’s grasp. She collected information from the world and gained knowledge. And after exploring alone, she was able to figure out what the black magician had done.
For a long time, she had thought that Wonder Star was the culprit of that incident. Even after she submitted to him, she thought that the reason he participated in the Circus Grand Prix was to recreate the experiment he had done in the past.
However, after meeting her sisters in the dollhouse, her eyes were opened.
The reason why Wonder Stein planned to reopen the Circus Grand Prix was to capture the Plague Lord that had been released into the world.
He had seen through Igor’s intentions. He knew that Igor would seek greater power if given the opportunity.
The 3rd Circus Grand Prix was a challenge and a trap for him. Try what you did that day again. I’ll catch you there.
Igor willingly responded to his provocation. This was as expected.
However, there was one thing he overlooked. He thought that Igor would not have collected a few eyes by that day.
There were less than a thousand people in the world who were born with eyes, and no magic could detect them. He expected two or three at most. Wonder Stein was content to leave the only eye-bearer Igor knew to his friend and hide it.
However, Igor moved beyond Wonder Stein’s expectations. He used the submission system of ‘Christian Guide’ to find the eye-bearers.
Those born with eyes naturally enjoyed watching performances, and it was highly likely that such enthusiastic spectators would send scores to the world-famous magazine Christian Guide.
Originally, the appreciation for the performance was different for each eye-bearer, but thanks to the fact that the collective intelligence of mankind had provided a universal standard called ‘star rating’, the eye-bearers gave almost similar scores for the same performance.
In this way, Igor hunted dozens of eye-bearers and was able to hold dozens of eyes in his body.
Just by hitting two trills, he had drawn out the power of an apostle, so what would happen if he opened the door with hundreds of trills?
Clara clenched her fists at the thrilling sensation that pierced her whole body. It was the power she had dreamed of when she was trapped in a bottle.
A great power that was hard to imagine as a mortal. Perhaps the world could be overturned with just a flick of a finger.
If she could get her hands on that power…
Clara, who had thought that far, soon sighed and shook her head.
‘Stupid, stupid. What are you thinking? It must be Cinepecus whispering in my head.’
‘No, it’s not.’
‘Be quiet.’
Clara clapped her hands over her ears. Strangely enough, since April Fool’s Day, the whispers of the devil had become clearer. It seemed to have a will of its own, beyond the ringing sound.
‘Did I get a mental parasite like Ruel?’
‘I’m not that.’
‘Then what are you?’
‘If you think about it carefully, you’ll know. You just don’t want to know.’
Clara felt something eerie in her words. But she soon shook her head and dismissed it.
It was his specialty to confuse people’s minds with words that seemed to mean something. It would only hurt her if she was swayed.
‘Shut up.’
Clara decided to think of this phenomenon as just one of the side effects of the body swap. It had already left her with many effects that she had never expected.
The most notable was the greatly increased settlement rate of Clara’s body. Since that day, the time she received maintenance from Wonder Stein had been greatly reduced.
She knew why she was suddenly thinking in the wrong direction. It was because she didn’t want to move on to the next stage.
So what was Wonder Stein going to do by luring Igor to the Circus Grand Prix finals?
She knew the answer.
He was the one who was born to be expected to become Victor, but was abandoned by the Creator because he failed to become him. He was finally given a chance to become someone like Victor.
Wonder Stein planned to make the same choice that Victor had made 100 years ago. After attempting to merge with the Plague Lord, he would eliminate him with his body and a cell suicide order.
A double suicide with the Plague Lord.
That was Wonder Stein’s plan, as told by her older sisters.
In a year and a few months, he would disappear from this world.
Clara wished she could take her brother’s place instead. That’s why she used April Fool’s Day to swap bodies with him.
But she couldn’t be Igor’s opponent. She almost failed to save him, letting Igor take her brother away from her, and almost ruining his plan.
-I, I was scared. I thought I’d never see my brother again.
-Never. That will never happen.
-Really?
-Yes.
My brother must have another ace up his sleeve.
‘Are you sure?’
Clara wanted to believe him. But she couldn’t hide her anxiety on the other hand.
***
Back in his quarters, Wonderstain had his work inspected by Gaston. He couldn’t hide his joy at his student’s excellent performance beyond his expectation and let out an exclamation.
“As expected, you’re a natural at fieldwork. Who would have thought you could produce such results in just 8 hours? That’s right. For someone as naturally gifted as you, having you explain things with a flower pot in such a small space like this won’t do. I’ve been too focused on theory and gave you a hard time. Starting tomorrow, I’ll reduce my lessons and increase your individual assignments.”
Wonderstain inwardly rejoiced. His free time had increased. He shared a playful and secretive conversation with Yurakne and delighted in this situation.
Wonderstain went up to rest, and Miki, who had been watching the situation with a wry look, opened his mouth. Although there was a difference in age, the two were close enough to joke around as fellow field workers.
“But are you going to keep that gardener doing the circus work? It doesn’t seem as appealing as circus work no matter how you look at it.”
“He must be Ella’s friend from her hometown. That damn circus. Hey, kid. Being a gardener is a much better and socially respected job.”
“Isn’t it the same as a farmer who just tills the fields and fertilizes them?”
“Ack!”
Gaston made a gesture of grabbing the back of his neck.
“What do you know, you little punk!”
“Honestly, I can’t think of anyone when I think of a gardener. Is there anyone who succeeded as a gardener?”
“Why not? Monte Cavill, Adel Huepris, Carl Lumijung….”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“Me neither.”
Umon, who had been watching quietly from the side, chimed in. Gaston looked at the two with a dumbfounded expression.
“You ignorant fools.”
“That’s not it. It’s just that being a gardener is that kind of job.”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
Gaston, who had been teased by his young juniors, pouted and soon brought up another name.
“Even Saint Victor was a gardener!”
“Wasn’t he a monk?”
“Don’t tell me you’re trying to pass off cultivating a vineyard in a monastery as gardening?”
“Wow, looks like he’s trying not to lose an argument with a child.”
Gaston pounded his chest in frustration.
“Victor wasn’t a clergyman. Anyway, all those Eastern Orthodox kids claim to be great men… He was an alchemist and a gardener. In the old days, there were many scholars who lived in monasteries. It was called a temple stay. The job Victor had there was to take care of the garden.”
“Even if that’s true, Victor didn’t become famous through his gardening work, did he?”
“Right, right.”
Umon agreed again. Gaston muttered to himself that they were ignorant brats and continued his explanation.
“You don’t know this. He started by discovering the ‘laws of heredity’ through growing peas, and went on to prove the existence of ‘genes’, that they exist on ‘chromosomes’, and that the base material is ‘DNA’, and finally, that the structure of DNA is a ‘double helix’.”
The two couldn’t understand a single word the master of the alchemy guild was saying. They were just ordinary teenage boys. All they understood was that Victor grew peas.
If Maya had been there, she would have told him he was right. She had been steadily researching Saint Victor ever since Yekaterinburg.
But she wasn’t there. She and the other three had gone out after lunch and hadn’t returned yet.
Just then, the sound of footsteps could be heard from outside.