I Became the Leader of the Monster Circus Troupe

The first challenger emerged from the group centered around Reyna.

They were already active teenage stars, each of whom had been featured in solo articles at least once.

The girl walking out towards the jungle gym right now was also a somewhat famous figure in the industry.

“Merren!”

“It’s Merren the Silent!”

“The Silent 12 Minutes!”

The students cheered her name.

Even the students of Lekachep seemed slightly tense as she appeared.

Usually, the ones to pass through the jungle gym the fastest were the tightrope walker majors.

They often accomplished tasks that took others weeks in barely any time at all.

Merren was also a tightrope walker.

And not just any tightrope walker; among the active teenage acrobats, she was one of the top five in tightrope skills.

She walked towards the center of the courtyard, drawing everyone’s attention.

Though her expression showed tension, she didn’t seem afraid.

She stopped at the spot where Clara had stood earlier.

She bent down and pulled something from around her ankle.

Clang, clang.

A clear ringing echoed through the garden.

She was holding a bronze-colored bell in her hand.

She always carried it tied to her leg.

“She has been carrying that thing all along?”

“I didn’t hear any sound at all.”

“Indeed. So she’s ‘Merren the Silent.'”

Merren’s trademark act was performing acrobatics on a tightrope with bells attached.

She was famous for never making a sound while traversing the rope with multiple bells.

When she started her performance, the audience automatically hushed.

Applause and cheers were usually refrained from during her performance.

Once, she even silenced the entire arena.

People called that moment the ‘Silent 12 Minutes’ as a tribute to her noiseless performance.

Passing through the jungle gym in a single attempt was achieved by only one or two people in each group in Lekachep.

Charlie did it in the previous group, and Clara did it in the current one.

Maybe Merren could do it too.

All eyes were on her, both students and alumni.

She took a deep breath and leaped.

Her way of walking was unique.

When people moved, they usually alternated between lifting steps and shifting their weight.

But she moved both her steps and shifts simultaneously.

It was a method that could make even the most stable person wobble after just a few steps.

But she had ingrained that way of walking into her body through rigorous training.

She moved as if sliding on the ground.

No sound came from her steps.

She pushed a bamboo pole vertically and launched herself into the air.

She followed Clara’s route precisely.

She jumped and leaped, ascending step by step from the 1st to the 2nd, and then the 3rd floor.

The eagerly anticipated 4th floor came.

She leaped across to the opposite bamboo stem for the final jump.

But then, something unexpected happened.

Crack.

The bamboo she landed on snapped.

She fell from 25 meters in the air.

A short scream erupted from all sides.

She quickly unfolded her fall technique.

But there was a protruding branch in her falling path.

Thunk.

She hit it with her foot.

Before she could even feel the pain, her body crashed onto the ground.

Thud.

The garden floor trembled.

The students sighed in sympathy.

“Why did it break at that moment!”

“Of all times…”

“What happened to Merren?”

She quickly got up.

The area where she landed was sore, but she wasn’t seriously injured.

However, the bone in the area hit during the fall was dislocated.

She pushed away approaching colleagues, limped to a corner bench in the garden, and sat down.

She examined her foot, bit her lip slightly, and adjusted the dislocated bone.

Crunch.

While adjusting her bone, she didn’t let out a single scream.

She breathed heavily after holding her breath and gingerly moved her foot around to assess her condition.

She soon nodded reassuringly towards her worried friends, confirming her well-being.

The students cheered for her.

“Wow!”

“So unfortunate!”

“Merren! Merren!”

At the sound of their cheers, the Lekachep students who had been staring blankly at her snapped out of it.

They looked at her with resentful eyes as she limbered up again, preparing to jump.

They started murmuring loudly, as if to make sure she heard.

“If you don’t think you can do it, just take the stairs.”

“Why did she step up then? Ugh.”

“If she gets hurt, is she going to hold us responsible? Really don’t like this.”

“She’s supposed to be silent, but she’s making quite a racket, heh heh.”

Since Charlie graduated, the atmosphere in Lekachep had become quite hostile.

Partly because they were directly involved in preparing for the Circus Grand Prix, and there was frequent comparison with outsiders such as public admissions tests or drafts, naturally increasing their solidarity and hostility towards outsiders.

Merren seemed slightly deflated amidst the hostile atmosphere surrounding her.

Although accustomed to performing acrobatics in a quiet atmosphere, her concentration easily wavered in noisy surroundings.

Ella inwardly cursed as she observed the returning tension.

Why are there people like this?

She was somewhat skilled.

Why mock her like that?

She recalled old memories.

The school she attended was also fiercely competitive among children in honing their skills.

They said kids mature early without parents, but they were still kids.

They restrained or fought each other out of competitiveness.

Ella had been the target of such schemes several times.

Ironically, she often fell victim not to direct competitors but to their followers.

Especially the girls who liked Charlie.

Ella believed they sabotaged her grades because they saw her as their competition.

They sometimes exchanged insults or even got into physical fights.

But that was it.

They were like family, relying on each other in difficult situations. They didn’t openly insult or humiliate people like these kids did.

Ella was disappointed that among the students, no one was comforting Merren.

It was infuriating to see them laughing or gossiping among themselves.

“Charlie spent four years with these kinds of people?”

She looked at Clara.

The last bamboo breaking was no coincidence.

Earlier, Clara had intentionally weakened the bamboo from the inside using her ‘Strength Boast’ technique during her jump.

She had been at this school for a few years.

She must have had an understanding of the strength of bamboo.

How much force to apply to break it without it showing externally.

She had set the trap intentionally.

So the latecomer would make a mistake.

“It was probably originally a trap aimed at me.”

Reyna also saw through Clara’s intentions and gave a smug smile.

But she wasn’t as angry as Ella.

After all, her father had tried to insult Lekachep first.

Clara felt the gaze of the two on her but ignored them.

She spoke with a slightly regretful voice.

“The bamboo sometimes breaks. It might be the first time for the students here, so they might not have proper control over their strength. So, please don’t criticize others too much.”

She said so and then addressed Merren, who was preparing to jump again.

“Please stop, Merren. What will you do if you get hurt again?”

“No, if I try one more time…”

“I am responsible for everyone’s safety… I can’t give another chance to injured Merren.”

“Ah…”

Disappointment flashed across Merren’s face.

With her skills, there was a high chance of success if she tried again.

But Clara didn’t allow her to try again.

Using the pretext of concern for her safety and her responsibility, she refused Merren’s attempt.

“If there’s no one else to try, please come up the stairs. We’ll be late for the schedule.”

There were a few tightrope walkers here who were as skilled as Merren.

But witnessing Merren being mocked just now made them fully aware of the atmosphere here.

It was a task that had an uncertain chance of success even in a supportive and positive atmosphere.

But it seemed daunting to try here, with hostile people all around.

‘If you get hurt, what then?’

As everyone turned to head towards the stairs, one person stepped forward.

She wasn’t from the first group of elite acrobats or the second group who scored high on the entrance exam.

Maya walked out of the third group that Clara classified as losers.

At first, the students thought she was a mannequin.

Her expressionless face and fair skin gave that impression.

“What’s she doing?”

“She doesn’t look like she’s been exercising at all.”

The children gathered here had been training their bodies since they were young.

Of course, the physique demanded by acrobats was different from that of soldiers or laborers.

Most of them were slim and muscular.

But there was no such trace on Maya’s body.

With her petite figure, hands without a single blister below the sleeves, and skin that looked like marshmallows, her appearance was that of a pampered rich girl.

“Maya!”

Ella called her name, but Maya didn’t react and walked straight to the 5th-floor window where Clara was standing.

She didn’t stop walking.

She kept walking, higher and higher through the center of the garden.

“What is she doing?”

“Is this some kind of illusion?”

“It’s cheating.”

The students murmured angrily like a swarm of bees.

The students watched her actions as if enchanted.

She was walking in the air.

With each step she took, a staircase-shaped illusion formed.

She lightly ignored the bamboos blocking her path.

As if she had no interest in such things.

“What’s that?”

“It seems like an illusion magic.”

“There’s no way someone could infuse physical force into illusion magic.”

“Yeah, right. Maybe it’s Inspira. Or maybe it’s a magical tool.”

Maya finally stepped onto the ledge of the 5th-floor window.

Clara, momentarily forgetting she should welcome her, shouted in panic.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Hurry up.”

Despite Clara’s cold tone, she hesitated for a moment but continued speaking.

“B-but why not use the jungle gym…”

Maya replied as if genuinely puzzled.

“Why should I?”

“Y-you? You should, of course, demonstrate your, your talent…”

Clara’s words were met with Maya’s response in an unyielding voice.

“My talent is this.”

Maya’s words were one of the common phrases used by professors.

The students of Lekachep often forgot their essence while chasing grades.

That they were acrobats who delighted the audience with their talents on stage.

They focused on raising the level of their skills vaguely to gain an advantage in Lekachep’s system, neglecting to develop their own unique something.

This contrasted with the children who spent their teenage years in the field.

They strived to develop stimulating and individual talents to attract the attention of passersby for survival.

Thanks to this, Lekachep graduates often became unpopular compared to those they meet in the field.

So professors urged students to develop their own skills, called “my talent is this.”

Maya’s words felt like a rebuke to them, who believed in only one skill and underestimated those who honed their skills in their own fields.

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Chapter 174: Demon in the Bottle – 13