The courtroom theatre exuded an authority and solemnity not found in other theatres.
Constructed of marble, with the weightiness emanating from it, towering roofs, and gigantic stone pillars supporting it, it exuded an imposing presence that made people involuntarily feel intimidated.
Above all, what distinguished this place from other theatres was the giant staircase leading to its entrance.
While other buildings tried to make entering as easy as possible, perhaps fearing that the audience might turn away, the courtroom theatre was different.
The stairs were very high, demanding that visitors climb them directly.
Where we arrived after tearing our tickets was not at the entrance of the building, but under the stairs.
"The execution ti is three minutes away!"
Security officers stationed throughout shouted.
Three minutes was barely enough ti to climb the stairs.
As I hurried along the path, I noticed Ella's gaze was directed in the wrong direction.
She was looking towards the square.
Despite the festive atmosphere everywhere else, the central square was particularly noisy.
Sounds of shouting, singing, cheering, and musical instrunts could be heard from all directions.
I knew what was happening there.
The competition the patrol officers ntioned they would participate in was in full swing.
We would go there in a little while, but not now.
"Ella, we don't have much ti left."
At my words, she snapped out of her daze.
"Oh? Oh, right! This isn't the ti. Let's go quickly!"
We hurriedly climbed the stairs.
But despite the urgency, Lumie struggled to keep up with our steps, much like when we climbed ruins.
With each three steps I took, Ella took two, and Lumie struggled to take one.
"It's too high! When will we reach the top?"
She exclaid and then glanced at .
Realizing what she wanted, I sighed slightly and stooped down.
"There's no choice. Ride on my back."
She awkwardly placed her arms around my slender torso—this felt really strange.
Her other arm wrapped around one of my shoulders.
As she did so, even Ella, who had been walking briskly, stumbled in front of .
"Uncle, too! too!"
"Seriously! Alright, Ella, you're on this side!"
And so, I carried the two won on my back and climbed the uphill road.
The road was wide and clear.
"But strangely, there aren't many people around."
"Yeah. Maybe because the stairs are so high?"
"Isn't punishnt pretty scary? Like being publicly shad or sothing."
At Lumie's words, Ella and I burst into laughter.
No matter how much we thought about it, it didn't seem like sothing that would happen in Wonderland's atmosphere.
Still, thanks to the absence of people blocking the path, we managed to enter the theatre just before the closing ti.
"It's a bit uncomfortable carrying two people on my back while running."
"But still, carrying Ella was more comfortable, right?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? It's obvious given the height difference."
I laughed at their conversation.
"To be honest, carrying Ella made more comfortable."
At my words, Lumie narrowed her eyes at and glared.
"Isn't that your way of getting back at earlier?"
"What are you talking about? Ella evenly distributed her weight, making it comfortable to sit. In contrast, Lumie, you were hanging onto my shoulder with all your weight."
Lumie looked embarrassed.
Considering Ella's tightrope walking skills, such a difference was natural.
"Still, it was really comfortable! How about you beco my ride from now on? Honestly, it's too hard to keep up with your strides."
"You want to be your ride?"
My expression distorted at the absurd request.
She shrugged as if to say what's the problem?
"In the Card Sun, fairies find it difficult to use their powers. Everyone hires rides a lot, you know?"
I rembered seeing people or animals carrying loads of fairies on their backs while passing by.
Was that what it was about?
"Anyway, even if…"
Before I could refute, Ella spoke up.
"It looks like it's starting."
Thousands of spectators were already in the execution hall.
It wasn't a large number.
It didn't even fill one-tenth of the seats.
The host ascended the central stage.
His persona was quite ridiculous.
Judging by his attire, he was definitely a magician, but he was wearing dozens of hats piled on top of each other over a blue ethereal body.
He looked around the audience and spoke in a serious tone.
"Then, as announced, we will execute the punishnt for the intruders."
As he gestured, security officers erged from the corners of the hall, dragging the prisoners with them.
They were draped in veils, but glimpses of their skin revealed they were mountain people.
"Hey, who are those people?"
Ella asked, tilting her head as she looked at them.
They were mountain people, indeed, but they weren't part of our group.
Then, the host announced their cris.
"These individuals attacked the 'Council of Saints' a few days ago."
Hearing this, I recognized who they were.
"Do you know them?"
"They're the ones who caused the terror here a few days ago."
"Because of them, you were misunderstood."
"Thank goodness they're not from our side though."
After reading out their cris, the host introduced himself.
"I am the 'Crazy Hatter,' the saint in charge of executing this punishnt."
"Crazy Hatter!"
Ella shouted as if she knew him.
Lumie also nodded beside .
I had heard of his na before.
While experinting with starlight, I tracked the whereabouts of starlight that appeared elsewhere.
Being iconic in the circus industry, news of him often appeared in magazines.
Several vials of starlight ca out of Hippodro, and one of them was auctioned off in Vegas a few weeks ago.
The identity of the buyer was not disclosed by the auction house, but so of the prominent items were revealed.
Among them was sothing belonging to Crazy Hatter.
A master magician who had been active decades ago.
I didn't delve into his details much as my interest lay solely in starlight.
But judging by Ella and Lumie's reactions, he seed to have been a renowned magician, perhaps even a apostle of Kirku.
Crazy Hatter proceeded, tilting his tower of hats above his head and deftly balancing them as he went along.
"They have confessed to their cris. They invaded Wonderland under the command of a group of witches called the Voodoo, but the leader's na remains undisclosed."
He raised his hand.
The guards escorting the prisoners removed the covers from them.
"Today's punishnt is both a penalty for past cris and an interrogation to extract information. And at the sa ti… it will be an entertaining show for our audience."
There was no trace of laughter in Crazy Hatter's voice, yet the audience burst into laughter.
It was inevitable.
The sight of the uncovered prisoners was too absurd.
"Hahaha!"
"What's that?"
"Disgusting! Haha!"
They were ordinary n and won in their thirties and forties.
There was nothing unusual about their appearance.
The problem lay in their attire.
They wore sailor suits with exposed navels, mini skirts, fishnet stockings, and high heels.
Additionally, they had applied thick lipstick on their lips and tied their hair into twin ponytails.
Middle-aged n and won with protruding bellies were dressed up like modern teenage girl idol groups.
It was a bizarre sight.
While the three of us froze at the sight, the other spectators clutched their stomachs and laughed heartily.
"What a spectacle! What a spectacle!"
"I ca to the judicial theater just to see this!"
"Start! Start!"
Excited by the strange fervor, the people shouted.
Crazy Hatter looked at the prisoners with a serious expression.
"From now on, I have full authority on this stage."
With a flick of his hand, lively music filled the hall.
"Shall we start lightly? First… writing your nas with your buttocks!"
As soon as his command was given, the prisoners stretched out their buttocks towards the audience and began writing their nas.
The audience burst into laughter.
The Voodoo mages faces turned crimson as if they were about to explode.
But they couldn't resist and carried out Crazy Hatter's commands.
"This is nothing. Shall we continue?"
Crazy Hatter, unable to lift his head, instructed the gasping prisoners with the next order.
As the punishnt progressed, the laughter of the audience grew louder.
The sound of feet rolling on the floor echoed throughout the hall.
Crazy Hatter's commands beca more relentless.
He made them speak blasphemy against the deities they worshiped, made them fight and insult each other, and even made them sprinkle each other with dirty substances.
He made them perform actions that would make them feel ashad and humiliated.
So of it was so obscene that it was almost impossible to utter.
They accomplished all of that while being ridiculed by thousands.
I covered Ella's eyes completely.
She buried her face in my hand and exhaled slowly, trembling.
I felt like I was going to vomit as I looked at the stage.
I felt like I was choking on the laughter of thousands.
When I glanced sideways, Lumie was also staring at the stage with a stiff expression.
I wanted to tell her to stop if she felt distressed, but my mouth was sealed shut.
Crazy Hatter confird the faces of the prisoners, now sared with despair, and paused the music for a mont to ask them a question.
"All right, answer . Who is the leader of the Voodoo?"
"Grrr!"
"These damned spirits serving that mad Kirku!"
"Do you think we will tell you!"
Most of the Voodoo mages responded to his question with curses or spitting.
Though they had been enemies in the ga, I felt sympathy for them now.
With an indifferent face, Crazy Hatter passed by them and stood in front of the last prisoner.
His face looked as if it could collapse into a puddle of mush at any mont.
"Do you have anything to say? Who's your leader?"
"That, that's…."
"Nothing, huh."
Crazy Hatter turned away.
Then, the prisoner shouted.
"Wait! Just a mont! I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Crazy Hatter slowly turned to him.
While the other prisoners shouted at him, when Hatter gestured to silence them, they only muttered under their breath, unable to make any sound.
"Speak up."
"Th-that… that's…"
He trembled his voice, looking around at his colleagues.
Then, after swallowing a gulp of saliva, he opened his mouth.
"Wow, Wonder…."
I looked at the prisoner, suppressing a groan.
Surely I wouldn't get caught here.
Especially with these two around.
Fortunately, he stopped speaking there and closed his mouth firmly.
Then he looked down at the ground, seeming to ponder sothing.
And after a while, he raised his head and shouted fiercely at the Crazy Hater.
"Hey, you Wonderland… bastards can go to hell!"
Boos erupted from the audience.
His animosity was so intense that it was hard to find elsewhere in Wonderland.
"Take a break for a mont."
The Crazy Hater said so and got off the stage.
It seed he judged that interrogating wouldn't proceed properly in this atmosphere.
We couldn't say anything, still shocked by the sight, when we heard a strange sound from beside us.
Squelch
squelch
Squelch
They were yellow spheres the size of fists.
On their smooth surface, there were crescent-shaped holes, from which eerie sounds emanated, as if laughing or mocking.
"What's that…?"
At Ella's words, I finally rembered to breathe and replied.
"It's a Keekling. A spirit of laughter."
Lumie also coughed loudly and responded to my words.
"It's said they appear when sothing amusing happens. They're scattered all over Wonderland."
Our eyes t.
We realized we both had the sa question in mind.
"…Really?"
Ella said so and looked down.
During the break, the audience ca down from the stands and crowded in front of the stage.
They taunted and cursed at the prisoners, defying the guards' warnings.
Lumie gently wrapped her arm around Ella's shoulder and said.
"Shall we leave now?"
"…Yeah."
As we left the hall, cheers and applause erupted behind us.
It seed that Crazy Hater had returned.
We didn't say anything until we completely left the building.
The view of the spacious square caught our eyes.
We both took a deep breath at the sa ti.
"I never knew punishnt was like this."
" neither."
Ella glanced around the judicial theatre once and then pursed her lips for a mont before speaking.
"Our people will need to be rescued no matter what. Facing such things could lead to dying of sha."
I scrutinized Ella's face.
She was wearing an expression she hadn't shown in a while.
Anger, contempt.
It used to be directed at .
"Elphi, you seem really angry."
"Do I?"
She hugged her overcoat and stood in front of the stairs.
The steep slope and the rough wind blew.
The back of her overcoat fluttered in the wind.
"Yeah. I'm angry."
She spat out those words and then lowered her voice coldly and continued.
"I don't know how serious the cris those people committed are, but that's not a performance. At least you shouldn't call that a performance under the na of the Kirku! The laughter of the audience was more like mockery, contempt, rather than joy. That kind of thing… that kind of thing…"
Ella stopped there and pressed her lips tightly together.
Lumie smiled bitterly and continued what she intended to say.
"It's closer to the original monster show."
Author Note: I would like everyone to rember the Voodoo. They are important.
Reviews
All reviews (0)