The person he pointed to was a bodyguard. The man grimaced and glanced at the young master. Only after the other man nodded did he slowly step forward.
He deliberately kept his distance from the Magician, apparently unwilling to end up like the blond Player, unable to move even a muscle before he was "disappeared." But the Magician, now standing straight again, curled a finger, and the bodyguard was instantly moved stiffly in front of the paper boxes.
The Magician, two meters away, produced the little ball again. This time, he put it inside the black paper box.
The two boxes moved rapidly, then stopped ten seconds later. The Magician once more held them up as if they were weightless and asked the bodyguard, "Please choose the box containing the ball."
The bodyguard swallowed and quickly scanned the two boxes back and forth. One of his hands had regained its freedom by then. After waving it over the boxes as well, he suddenly reached out and slapped the black one, then tried to be clever: "I guess there's no ball in this box!"
The black paper box slowly unfolded, and just as he'd said, there was no ball inside. Just as he thought he'd guessed correctly, the Magician let out a strange laugh, raised his right hand high, and snapped his fingers.
The bodyguard disappeared just like the blond Player!
"What gives?" the young master shouted angrily. "Did he guess wrong?"
The Magician replied with feigned regret, "The rules of the performance are to choose the box with the ball. Did our audience buy tickets just to look at an empty box? A magic show that can't stir the audience's emotions is a failure!"
The Players were furious but dared not speak up. The Magician, however, didn't care how these