I Became the Ringmaster of a Circus in a Mysterious World

In a desperate world ravaged by a century of warfare and plague, a farcical disaster has brought the fighting to a halt: nobody is growing food, and corpses litter the land. The vengeful spirit Elliott answers a mysterious summons. He arrives at the “Reborn Circus,” a pointed tent redolent of rosin and rust, whose glamorous exterior conceals endless horrors.

Six other “freaks” trapped there greet him: Arthur, an elegant musician hiding deep fear; the cold Kyle, who manipulates wooden puppets carved with indistinct human faces; Soren, a clown whose manic laughter sends chills down the spine; Theodore, a haughty magician who can transform his robe into a person; Jasper, a lively acrobat; and Sonny, a short-tempered, sleepy rabbit whose careless words can touch on taboos. A testing stele identifies Elliott as an “actor” with a rare talent and appoints him the circus's new ringmaster, the only hope the others have of escaping this gilded cage.

The price is a crushing contract: Elliott must fulfill his obsession with ending the world's conflicts and uncover the circus's secrets to set everyone free. If he fails or misses his annual targets, he will suffer inhuman torment until his soul is annihilated. To earn a new body, Elliott endures the excruciating pain of water forcibly shaping his flesh and bones inside a room in a distorted space.

Still weak from his recovery, he uses his wits to settle a dispute among the members over who gets to “take care of him,” then chooses to stay in the equally eerie ringmaster's quarters. Before he can catch his breath, a black beam shoots from the stele, the embodiment of the circus's will, and forcibly inscribes a cold, absurd set of targets into his mind. Burdened with a curse and impossible tasks, how will this ringmaster-turned-actor survive in a devastated wasteland?