The Last Gentleman
Chapter 475: Black and White Mask

[Clown House]

Unlike the Magic Area with its larger occupation of space and meandering corridors connecting multiple rooms, suitable for different types of magic training and assistant cultivation,

the Clown House was deeply hidden within the Circus, without any elevators leading to this location, the only way to arrive was by riding a special ’roller coaster’.

It was like a dimly lit underground region that had two factory buildings,

the left side covered in black and white paint, finely polished as if it were a dance studio,

the right side primarily red brick paired with a kaleidoscope of colors. Although the factory’s specifications were the same as its neighbor’s, it appeared extremely bloated. The bloody graffiti sprayed onto the bricks was violent, swollen, and full of malignity.

Any external applicants for the position of Apprentice Clown, once they passed the initial poker-faced vetting, would be transported here by roller coaster. Without any guidance, they would make the most important choice of their lives here.

If they chose the black and white building on the left, they would be pierced by various wires and suspended as soon as they entered,

if they failed to enter a dream within one minute, they would fail the assessment, and waking from a nightmare within the first hour of dreaming also led to failure,

but this clown assessment was still much simpler than the one next door; at least a few Apprentice Clowns had come out of the black and white factory and served the Circus.

Once someone chose the colorful factory on the right, they would never be able to leave, seemingly permanently remaining inside, with their voices heard occasionally.

They hadn’t died, but existed in another form as Apprentice Clowns, a state of neither being able to live nor allowed to die.

Today was a special day.

Since no newcomers had come to the Clown House, a young woman in black and white stockings walked out from the black and white factory, taking the initiative to pop over to the neighboring building. Compared to the fear she had experienced during previous visits, she now seemed quite at ease.

Slick, pitch-black octopus tentacles grew out from beneath the woman’s skirt, gripping the heavy sliding iron door, making a ’zzzt zzzt’ sound as the rust-covered rollers struggled to slide open.

In the middle of the spacious and empty factory,

sat a loathsome clown filled with malevolence,

holding a needle and thread in one hand, scissors in the other, cutting, trimming, and stitching the flesh concealed beneath his costume, with low moans emanating from within.

"Boss, I’m taking a day off to go play at Uncle Jian’s," she said.

"Reason."

The girl touched her lower lip with her finger, "Hmm, well, it’s because an interesting person has arrived, and it was because of me that he found his way to the Circus.

I thought he would apply to be an Apprentice Clown, but he ended up going to Uncle Jian’s instead.

I’m going to see him, try and see if I can lure him over."

"As long as your performance has been rehearsed properly, that’s fine," the clown said.

"Thanks, Boss, bye now!" she said with a smile, waving her hand as she retreated backward on the balls of her feet.

Just as she was about to leave the factory... Snap! The clown sitting in the middle of the factory suddenly had an uncontrollable explosion of flesh from his back, his swollen and twisted pus-filled tentacles furiously reaching for the girl.

Just as she was about to be curled up and engulfed,

the girl had already lightly stepped out of the factory, using the curved hook of her umbrella and the tentacles beneath her skirt to swiftly close the sliding door.

Her expression unchanged, as if such events were all too familiar.

She hopped onto the roller coaster and headed into the depths of the Circus.

...

[Magic House]

Jian tidied up his sea-blue hair a bit before swiftly taking out a Guy Fawkes mask from an alternate space and putting it on himself.

He was not hiding his face willingly,

but rather using the mask to conceal the abyss-like structure between his eyes to lessen the impact of "Abyss Phobia" on others. Otherwise, before the magic show could even start, the audience would plunge into the abyss, smashing into pieces in their seats, with not even their souls finding peace.

William looked at the Magic Hat badge on his chest, "Am I now a member of the Circus?"

"Barely, but to officially become one of us, you must perform at least once and gain the boss’ approval. Only then will the ’Seed of Fear’ planted in your brain connect to the fear network created by the boss and truly become a member.

Receiving the boss’s praise is one of the greatest honors for us as performers."

"You must prepare well, for if you win the boss’s applause, your path in the circus will become much broader. If you excel, you might even get the chance to have a face-to-face meeting with the boss."

"I’ll work hard." After getting to know more about the circus, William’s interest in this place had grown exponentially.

"Go on, start your training. The other assistants will give you specialized training when they see your badge, until you find the type of magic you are best at."

William sincerely thanked him and left Jian’s magic house.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, it seemed his choice was right. As a well-known magician in the circus, Jian often showed concern for his juniors when he first appeared in nightmares, even going so far as to help Catherine, who was from a different department.

He even made an effort to rescue Catherine while striving to prevent any conflict between the apprentice clown Art and the humans.

Such an ’affable’ superior was the perfect choice for William to start with.

...

William, back in the winding passages, was considering whom to approach for magic training,

when unexpectedly, the skin slave Ulysses, who was supposed to lead the way, was still standing at the entrance of the passage.

"Mr. Ulysses, you’re still here~ Perfect, could you take me to learn some magic?" William seized the opportunity to start with someone familiar, and also to get closer by leveraging Ulysses’s skin slave identity.

"Ahem~ According to the rules, new assistants can indeed request to learn from other assistants. My specialty is the ’Disguise Technique,’ if you’re interested, then follow me."

Ulysses also pretended to be calm; he had not yet understood why this foreign young human was favored by Mr. Jian, to the extent that he even opened the door for him without changing clothes.

While walking, he spoke in a senior’s tone: "Every qualified assistant will be assigned a ’Magic House.’ Once you find the direction of magic suitable for yourself, you can submit an application for your personal magic house to the circus. Then a receptionist will come to help you create a room and provide you with some basic tools.

The initial rooms are very simple,

but once you complete performance after performance, earning fear for the circus and receiving satisfactory evaluations, you’ll get ’currency rewards.’ You can use them to decorate and expand your magic house, and even go to the circus’s Fear Store to buy things."

"Fear Store?"

"Yes, it sells fear products specially produced by the circus, which aid the development of our own ’phobias.’

To occupy a core position in the circus like Mr. Jian, one of the prerequisites is having a unique and mature ’phobia.’

But that’s all later; you should first learn your magic well."

"Hmm..." William committed the important details to memory.

They quickly arrived at Ulysses’s magic room, and upon opening the door, a pungent rubber smell greeted them.

"Welcome to my disguise room. As you can see, my specialty in magic is disguise, and I occasionally perform on stage as a stand-in for Mr. Jian."

At this point, Ulysses was quite proud.

But in reality, he had been Jian’s double only once, and even then for just a few seconds on stage, a brief appearance; most of the time, he was disguised as someone else.

William stepped into the magic house, surveying the one-bedroom, one-living room space before him,

various paints and skin solvent solutions were stacked on the shelves, the source of the pungent smell.

On the wall opposite hung various completed and drying face masks, perfectly crafted without a single flaw.

William’s sharp eyes quickly noticed one mask that stood out among the rest,

a delicate, dark woman’s mask smeared with white foundation.

"Mr. Ulysses, is that mask also yours?"

Following the direction of William’s pointing, Ulysses was somewhat perplexed.

"Hmm? This mask is strange... I don’t remember it. Maybe it was made unconsciously during a creative frenzy."

Ulysses himself was curious,

and as he moved closer to the mask to touch its material and recall the origins of this "skin" mask,

Buzz~ (Thought fluctuation)

he not only touched the mask’s surface but also felt the flesh beneath the skin, and even two should-not-exist pitch-black eyeballs started to grow out from the eye sockets.

At the same time,

all the masks in the room began to come to life, eyes popping out, mouths oozing black viscous fluid, and tentacles writhing through the air.