The Freak Show Foreman

Sharp shouts and the sound of military boots briefly echoed through the mansion.

"A perverted magician like this!"

"For now... lock him up in the dungeon!"

Wonderstein and Ella were led away by the soldiers and confined to the underground dungeon of the mansion.

"I had good intentions, but I didn’t expect it to turn out like this."

Wonderstein lowered his head and sat on the prison bed.

"In such a situation, it’s no wonder they’re upset. I wonder if they’ll listen seriously or not."

Even now, he was smiling as he spoke.

Ella was becoming increasingly irritated.

Was everything just a joke to that guy?

The girl muttered to herself.

A crazy devil.

"Traveling with you probably shaved a few years off my life."

Ella sighed and sat on the bed.

On the opposite side, Wonderstein was sitting by the barred window.

He smiled broadly as he looked at her.

"Is the situation really that serious?"

"If you’re asking that... well, it’s not really a big deal. Not a major crime. At most, we’ll spend the night here and then be thrown out of the mansion by the soldiers. The most serious situation is having to continue our poor journey... No, wait a minute, you...!"

She seemed to recall something, and her complexion turned pale.

"You’re not planning to do anything to the people in the mansion, are you?"

"Hehe, what do you mean by ’anything’?"

He chuckled with a smirk.

That disgusting guy!

He always followed this pattern!

His friendly laughter and mild tone were just his mask.

Even when insulted, he took it without any reaction.

But at the moment when his opponent let their guard down...

He revealed his true self.

She remembered how the townspeople who had been rude to him had ended up.

It would have been better if they had been killed.

But they had become something worse than dead.

People turned into something that was no longer human.

The eyes of those who had begged her to kill them still haunted her.

Ella’s pupils were filled with fear.

The devil couldn’t harm her because of the contract.

That’s why she could be rude and disrespectful to him.

But it was different for others.

He could play with and kill anyone else.

She was afraid of that.

"Ah."

Wonderstein also realized what she was worried about.

The atrocities committed by Wonderstein were often seen in the game.

A mad devil who treated humans like toys.

Despite that, he maintained polite language and a contradictory kindness.

Such a unique charisma was the driving force behind his potential appearance as the final boss in the three-part series.

A figure symbolizing the identity of TTT alongside the three main characters.

But he wasn’t that now.

He didn’t have the ability to turn people into monsters or kill them just because he felt like it.

He didn’t have such powers to begin with.

He was just an ordinary human with a mere ten Debulroots.

Wonderstein looked at Ella, who was showing hostility towards him.

Once again, he couldn’t reveal his weakness.

If the current him were to be exposed as an incapable, ordinary human...

"Kill the demon!"

"Let’s fight for our freedom!"

The image of members wielding weapons and rushing at him came to his mind.

And also himself, helplessly falling to them.

To avoid that, he had to somehow continue to play the usual Wonderstein.

Brazen and self-assured.

Wonderstein attempted his self-hypnosis, which had failed once before.

"Hehe, I understand what Ella is worried about. But you don’t have to worry too much. I haven’t given up on securing Lady Anais’s sponsorship yet. Even if I have to, I won’t do anything to harm the people here."

The progression had already deviated from the original work.

However, the quest window was still active.

That meant there was still an opportunity.

He could roughly guess what it might be.

Ella looked at him sceptically.

"Just give up. Lady Anais probably won’t meet you again."

"I still have a chance."

"How? Are you going to force your way in?"

"If necessary, yes."

"You...!"

Ella’s expression turned hostile.

Wonderstein raised his hand to calm her.

"I used the term ’force,’ but I won’t do anything harmful to the people in this mansion. So don’t worry too much."

Ella pursed her lips and grumbled.

"...Really?"

"Hehe, can’t you trust my word?"

"...You bastard."

"So just relax and rest. Don’t worry about unnecessary things."

She glared at him for a moment before going to a corner and lying down.

She went to great lengths for others.

She was a good kid.

Wonderstein smirked and soon became lost in his thoughts.

There was a reason he had mentioned that he wouldn’t harm the people in the mansion.

He remembered the faces he had seen as he was dragged out of the reception room by the soldiers.

A man with a neat beard and a flushed complexion.

"No, what’s going on here?"

"Oh, Uncle. It’s nothing, really. Just some scammers."

Anais had called that man "Uncle."

The important guest who had suddenly appeared today was undoubtedly him.

Wonderstein remembered his face.

Pierre Mopasan.

He was one of the characters who appeared in the prologue stage of TT3.

And if he was the same person he had seen in the game, something bad would happen tonight in this mansion.

Quest Objective: Secure sponsorship from Lady Anais Vergsong.

The quest wasn’t about "curing Lady Anais’s illness," but rather "securing sponsorship."

As long as he could somehow show Lady Anais some favour...

Wonderstein lay on the bed quietly. ’Tonight’s the night, no doubt.’

***

Anais knew that she was special.

She easily understood books that even adults found difficult.

She could easily see the logical connections between numbers and figures.

Living confined in the mansion was frustrating, but she didn’t dislike a life where she was treated like a princess.

The saying that life is difficult without everyone’s care could be reversed to say that she was so special that she received everyone’s care.

The machine that always followed behind her symbolized that specialness.

Who else could afford a machine more expensive than an entire mansion?

Who else could afford to eat nutrition meals as expensive as gold every meal?

She was a special existence.

A young lady who would spend her entire life confined in the mansion.

A young lady who had to rely on machines to live.

Pitying glances from the servants and maids.

Humph. They can babble on about their own sympathy all they want.

Am I the one to be pitied?

You suffer because you don’t have a few pennies, and you say my life is pitiable?

I am not pitiable at all.

I am a noble.

I am rich.

I am a genius.

I am special.

I am...

Haah.

Haah. Haah.

Anais covered her face with her hands.

It’s stifling!

I’m so frustrated I could go crazy!

The oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth!

She wanted to rip it off right now!

She wanted to feel the outside air!

Anger boiled up within her due to the stifling feeling.

"I am special. I am special."

She repeated these words to herself several times a day.

She kept reminding herself continuously.

But this was self-deception.

The thoughts she had just conjured up weren’t her true feelings.

What she truly wanted wasn’t this sense of "specialness."

She wanted to breathe freely.

She wanted to eat whatever she desired.

She wanted to go wherever she pleased.

She didn’t need to be hailed as a genius.

She wanted to share her warmth with someone she loved...

But would such a day ever come?

Anais looked at her slender arms and legs revealed through her nightgown.

Her body, sickly and pale to the point where veins were visible.

Metal tubes inserted into her back in various places.

A wretched sight.

Just looking in the mirror made her feel depressed.

Who could possibly love a woman like her?

Many men approached her.

But they were all despicable individuals.

Their excuses varied, but they all wanted her money.

Claiming they could cure her illness or whispering sweet nothings about love.

They were all the same kind of ordinary humans.

"May I touch you?"

However, she never expected a man who would use both of those lines at once.

First, pretending to cure her illness, then suddenly trying to touch her body.

That too, my...

Her face turned beet red.

Such a perverted person.

The way he approached her was despicable.

Until now, the noble gentlemen who had proposed to her had at least maintained their dignity...

But in their own ways, they all tried to impress her...

"I have a way to cure Lady Anais."

A shameless liar.

Regarding his appearance... well, among the faces she had seen so far, his was the most decent.

But judging by his actions...

Her face had turned red.

What a pervert.

His methods of approach were vile as well.

But the audacity in his actions was what irritated her the most.

"Pleased to meet you. I am Frank Wonderstein."

From the first moment she saw him, something about him didn’t sit right with her.

He exuded more femininity than herself in both his skin and actions.

And that nauseating smile and simpering tone!

It was evident that he lived off his looks and charm.

An extroverted, party-loving kind of man, the polar opposite of herself, who was confined in the mansion, immersed in the scent of paper and ink.

Certainly, he had met many women outside.

But he was an individual who lived in a completely different world from her.

There were many men who came to the mansion and proposed to her.

But she couldn’t help but feel frustrated by the way he approached her.

"Thump."

She still couldn’t calm down.

It was because of that damn machine.

Anais kicked her blanket with frustration.

Today of all days, this should not have happened again.

She should have told her uncle about that man immediately...

That man...

What should she do?

Ugh...

Anais shook her head.

No, this won’t do. My thoughts are getting longer.

I need to sleep. I have a lot to do tomorrow.

Let’s think about tomorrow’s tasks tomorrow.

Get up at the set time, work at the set time, and go to bed at the set time.

But today, why can’t I fall asleep?

The machine is not making any noise right now...

Wait... the machine’s noise...?

Anais listened carefully for any sounds from the adjacent room. While she slept, the machine was placed outside the room, and they connected it through a pipe under the door. Even though the pump’s sound was usually quite loud, she couldn’t hear it at all now.

Five minutes a day.

Just five minutes of rest for the machine before midnight, during which it cooled down its power source and performed a self-diagnostic check. During this time, the machine’s functions temporarily stopped, but it didn’t affect her breathing significantly because the diaphragm was capable of moving on its own due to inertia.

She never consciously noticed these operations that occurred while she was asleep, and they usually went unnoticed.

But today, she was awake.

The machine had stopped for more than ten minutes.

She had heard the midnight chime about five minutes ago.

Normally, the machine should have resumed its operation by now.

Less than twenty minutes remained if that statement was true.

Anais struggled to get out of bed. Her body was uncooperative. She thought the drowsiness was a signal to sleep, but it wasn’t. Her breathing was gradually slowing down.

Anais grabbed the cord by her bedside. It was a call bell for the maid. When you pulled it, a maid would enter within ten seconds.

However, today was truly a day of distrust regarding statistics.

The door did not open.

Could she be fetching a late-night snack? Or perhaps...

"No, if she had been on duty properly, she would have known that the machine had stopped!"

Anais began to move, determined not to passively wait for death.

"To the next room..."

The next room contained a manually operated artificial respiration device for emergencies. If the maids took turns pumping, she would have enough time until the mechanic arrived.

Anais leaned on the door handle as if her life depended on it and pulled.

Creak.

Through the flickering light, she saw the living room. The roaring fireplace and the softly illuminated room, just as usual. A maid lying on the sofa, sleeping as if she were dead. The artificial respiration machine had stopped.

So far, everything was as expected.

But tonight, once again, she was confronted with the limitations of statistics.

There was a person in the living room she had never imagined.

He sat there, examining a pocket watch, and clicked his tongue.

"Oops. It would have been better if you had just quietly gone to sleep."

Anais stood there, unable to move, for a moment.

Why... Why was he here?

"Uncle Pierre...?"