Charlie and his companions, leaving Alamo, arrived at Luz and inquired about Ella's whereabouts.
And they realized they were already one step behind.
The circus troupe where Ella was had already left Luz and was gone.
So they returned to Vegas.
It was the most rational choice.
Vegas was geographically central among the 6 cities.
Even if Ella appeared in another city, it would be easiest to handle her in Vegas.
Moreover, Vegas was familiar to them.
It wasn't far from Alamo, where their school was.
They used to go on picnics or field trips here regularly.
Of course, most of the ti, the purpose was to watch performances.
Vegas was the largest and most developed city in the eastern region of the continent.
Due to the wealth pouring in from all directions and the population constantly flowing in to find jobs, the city was on the verge of exploding beyond capacity.
Officially counted residents alone exceeded 3 million.
Including travelers staying illegally, the population exceeded 5 million.
There weren't enough residential facilities to accommodate them all.
So, shantytowns continued to expand beyond the city limits into the wasteland, and illegal structures were erected between buildings or on top of them in already constructed areas.
Despite its disorderliness, Vegas, the central district known as the Paradise Zone, was relatively clean and well-organized. This was because it had hotels, auction houses, and casinos for the wealthy.
One of the auction houses here selected a the every two weeks and dealt with items related to it, and this ti, the chosen the was particularly intriguing with Charlie having acquaintances to assist in witnessing it.
It was the circus.
"Yes! The next item is the original of Puzzle Series No. 43, belonging to the renowned escape artist, Lweeni! No. 43!"
With the auctioneer's announcent, a bronze sculpture the size of a fist rose on stage.
As its na suggested, it looked like a puzzle, but Charlie knew it was a combination of five intricate pieces.
Charlie clenched and unclenched his fist as he looked at it.
"Number 43. What was the solution again? Was it like this?"
Charlie reminisced about the tis he and his friends used to compete with escape puzzles.
His master owned a considerable number of these escape puzzle series, so of which were rare to find now.
Thanks to this, school kids would regularly gather to play with them.
"Don't know? Can't figure it out? Shall I teach you?"
Ella had known the answers to the puzzle series since she was young, having lived with her master. So, she often helped friends who couldn't solve the.
The puzzles required unexpected manipulations of the pieces in directions that were hard to perceive visually.
That's why she would grab her friends' hands and directly teach them how to solve the puzzles one by one.
Charlie watched Ella, holding the hand of a boy and guiding him through the puzzle solution.
While she was focused on helping with the puzzle, the boy whose hand she held didn't reciprocate her feelings. He just stared blankly at Ella's face as she leaned in to guide him, with her hair brushing against his nose, making him twitch his nostrils.
Watching this, Charlie felt sothing stir inside him.
The boy wasn't particularly close to him, but he didn't dislike him either. But now, he felt confident that he could punch him in the face if he laughed while doing it.
Charlie looked down at the puzzle in his hand.
No. 43, the Puzzle.
It was already disassembled.
He looked back at Ella.
Every ti her hair touched the boy's face, he cringed and wrinkled his nose.
Charlie gritted his teeth.
He felt jealous.
He glanced at the puzzle that was already disassembled.
What if he reassembled it?
And I speak to her with an embarrassed face.
I just can't figure it out.
"Oh, is the great Charlie asking for help? Huh, then I guess I have to help."
Then she will hold my hand.
I'll try my best to pretend not to understand, dragging out the ti.
He swallowed his saliva.
"All right, let's do it."
But before he could act, one of his friends standing next to him found the disassembled puzzle in his hand and shouted.
"Look at this! Charlie solved a grade 4 puzzle!"
"Wow! Grade 4?"
"Without any help?"
"We've only been fiddling with our puzzle for less than 3 hours!"
"Ella, how long did it take you to solve that the first ti?"
Charlie looked at Ella, feeling a pang of regret.
She was squinting at him with a hardened face, her lips pursed.
"8 hours..."
The children gasped at her reluctant admission.
"Wow!"
"Charlie solved it in 3 hours, while Ella took 8..."
He raised his hand in embarrassnt.
"No, no. I'm three years older than Ella. Ella, you solved this a few years ago, right?"
"Two years ago..."
"See! I was 5 years older than you when I solved this..."
But Charlie couldn't continue speaking.
Ella was already leaving the room with a grim expression.
She had been the leader of the children with her outstanding acrobatic skills at school.
But since Charlie's appearance, she had been gradually losing her position to him.
"Ella?"
He called out to her, but his voice was drowned out by the cheers of his surrounding friends.
"Amazing, Charlie!"
"Can you show us how you did it?"
Charlie awkwardly smiled amidst his friends.
Continuously telling himself that this wasn't what he intended.
"There were tis like that."
Charlie smiled as he reminisced, watching as the original puzzle was auctioned off to soone.
The next item was placed in front of the auctioneer.
It was what was depicted on the banner at the entrance of the auction house.
It was today's main protagonist and the last item up for auction.
Three hours had passed imperceptibly.
Perhaps it was because only sought-after items for circus enthusiasts were coming up, ti seed to fly by.
Seven magical hats of Crazy Hatter, known as the master of hat magic.
The original deck of cards from Diamond Queen, who laid the foundation for card tricks.
And the original escape series from the Escape King which just passed by.
There were mostly items from old magicians.
There weren't many items from acrobats.
It was natural since magicians had been performing at high-class parties and building their reputation for a long ti, but acrobats mainly operated in the streets.
The acrobats started to gain real fa after the ergence of the 'Quintet'.
Wouldn't it have been great if Ella had co with ?
Charlie leaned against the roof and got up.
Dirt and grass fell from his clothes.
"So, the last item is sothing that circus enthusiasts can never miss. Haha, yes. It's the item you've all been waiting for. Did you all read the article yesterday? The 'dust' ntioned there has co up for auction. It's called…."
"Hey!"
"Charlie!"
Charlie looked away from the auction house window.
Two guys, a big guy and a small boy, were approaching him from across the street.
Charlie forced an awkward smile.
The two of them happened to appear just now, reminding him of the unpleasant sight of his friends involved in the seesaw puzzle.
"What's with that smile? It's annoying."
The big guy looked at him with an annoyed expression.
Charlie glanced at his nostrils, which flared depending on his emotions, and then lowered his head.
"No, I was just thinking about sothing else for a mont... So, what's up?"
Instead of answering, the small boy next to the big guy handed him a magazine.
He found a familiar face on the page spread open by the boy.
"Reyna."
The girl with whom he had competed fiercely in the entrance exam four years ago had beco a mature woman, gracing the cover of a magazine.
"Not there. Next to her."
At the boy's words, Charlie flipped the magazine.
Standing face to face with Reyna was a figure they both knew, hands on hips, staring each other down.
"Ella."
He murmured wistfully, almost involuntarily.
Neither the young man nor the boy comnted on the warmth in his voice.
Both of them felt similarly like Charlie.
However, because a friend who would get angry was in their group, they had refrained from talking about Ella so far.
Charlie read the article written below the photo.
It was about Reyna and Ella, who had fought a close battle in the Lekachep entrance exam.
Reyna had won with a score of 13 wins to 12 losses.
Ella lost?
Charlie was montarily taken aback, but he thought it was possible if Reyna was the opponent.
Her talent was comparable to his own.
"Lekachep, is that where Charlie went to school?"
"Yeah. It's one of the six theaters."
The boy turned the magazine over and pointed to a passage in the article.
"Ella's circus is participating in the exam in October."
"It's still over a month away. She'll probably stay there until then."
"What are you going to do?"
'Lekachep.'
Charlie recalled the place he had spent several years.
She was there now.
"What about the master?"
"He's been lying down for a year. Now it seems like he can gradually get up and about. The brothers and sisters working in other circuses and those working here will chip in for the hospital bills, so there shouldn't be any problem."
Charlie sighed at his words.
"Yeah? That's a relief. Compared to him, we're really bad disciples."
The young man and the boy stiffened their expressions at his words.
They understood what he ant.
"Let's go."
The three of them called the remaining two scattered in the city and prepared to leave for Vegas.
The auction house beca noisy as he left.
The highlight of this auction, the last item, had finally found its owner after a fierce battle.
The auctioneer smiled as he watched the casually dressed man in the audience walk up.
The auction he had planned had yielded a much larger profit than expected.
Especially the last item had gone up ten tis the expected bid price.
The auction price had doubled, and then it had risen so much through the confrontation between the two factions.
'Is this item really that special?'
The auctioneer looked at the powders filling the glass jar.
Shimring fragnts that looked like they were made from splitting stars filled it to the brim.
The bidder signed the ownership docunts provided by the auction house.
Two nas alternated.
The na of the signer and that of his employer.
In such cases, the legal representative of the owner often appeared instead of the owner himself.
Especially if the owner lived far away, the probability was high.
The auctioneer confird the owner's na and smiled, imagining the commission he would receive.
"Thank you. With this, the ownership of this item has been transferred to Marquis Slagbrot."
The glass jar was carefully packed and shipped to Yeterinpuurk under tight security.
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