Chapter 007
<Episode 7>
Late at night.
Normally, it would have been the time when the lights in the Count’s office would have been turned off.
Arno Dience was a man who made it a habit to go to bed at a certain time and wake up at a certain time, unless it was for business purposes.
Arno’s iron rule was that trust is the most important thing in business, and self-discipline is the top priority to maintain trust.
“What are you worried about?”
Alfredo asked worriedly as the light was on in his office.
Arno put down the document he was looking at and looked at Alfredo.
“I have a lot of work to do.”
A lot of work?
Because he stayed up all night last night, he checked almost all the documents and gave instructions for various tasks.
Thanks to this, Alfredo was dying while handling the matter, and was unable to keep up with the princess’s play practice.
So, it was as if the Count had almost no work to do now.
“Where on earth did this come from….”
Before Alfredo could finish speaking, there was a sound near the window.
It was the sound of a carriage.
At the same time, Arno’s eyebrows rose.
“You’re finally here.”
“Well, I’m just asking just in case.”
Are you waiting?
Before Alfredo could say those words, the sound of the front door opening was heard. A withering voice could also be heard coming from the office near the front door.
“I’m tired. Give me and that kid some snacks. I would appreciate it if you could upload it. Because we have more to read from the script above.”
“We?”
At that time, Arno’s cold voice echoed through the office.
Alfredo shivered as he felt the air in his office becoming even lower.
Meanwhile, Arno passed Alfredo and opened the office door.
“It’s late at night. Is it too difficult for the princess to keep the advice to go home early even for the count’s honor?”
‘You want to fight.’
This time, Alfredo immediately realized the Count’s intention.
He glanced urgently at the maids nearby.
“Ah….”
Louisa smiled inexplicably as she watched the maids around her ebb and flow.
Arno’s face hardened when he saw that smile.
These days, she laughed more often than she got angry, and every time she did that, Arno’s mood hit rock bottom.
“Okay. That’s right. The honor of the count. I had something to say about that, but I was busy and forgot.”
“What do you mean?”
“Today’s play practice ends here. Let’s do the rest of the scenes tomorrow.”
Louisa said to the man behind her.
Man.
Yes, Louisa referred to the boy she had bought as ‘that boy’ to the maids.
He says he is nineteen, but his body is a fully grown adult, so calling him that makes him a ‘child’ rather than a man.
If Louisa had let that guy into her bedroom and done something strange, Arno wouldn’t have cared so much about that guy.
But she didn’t.
I didn’t see her often in the mansion because she was rehearsing for a play, but I saw her briefly yesterday morning.
He was reading a book in the study, and didn’t seem to notice Arno was there.
She looked up from reading a book.
It was then that the angry, sometimes languid eyes of a cat looked beyond the window.
To be precise, I was looking at the slave doing chores in the garden beyond the window.
At first, his eyes were calm, as if he was appreciating a work of art, but strange emotions began to appear in his eyes.
Awe.
Why is Louisa afraid of the slaves she bought?
He could never figure out the answer.
Bang.
At that time, Louisa entered the Count’s office and closed the wooden door.
“It’s bigger than I thought. I closed it because I felt like it was something that no one should hear. Are you okay? It would be suffocating if you two were in the same room with me.”
These days, Louisa has developed a strange speaking habit.
Arno said irritably.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay. Then tell me.”
Louisa stood in front of the door with her back straight.
He wanted to invite her to sit down, but before he could, Louisa spoke up.
“If this play does well, I will be able to repay my debt.”
I guess so.
Arno gave up on inviting her to sit down and picked up the teapot.
Louisa said while pouring her share of tea.
“Then we will break off the engagement.”
His hand stopped.
The tea was not even half full in the glass.
Arno raised his head.
“What?”
“Ah, but don’t worry. The play always goes well. So we will definitely break off the engagement. Count.”
Louisa’s slightly fallen hair swayed gently.
The wind was blowing from somewhere.
* * *
I thought this was probably the answer I was trying to give.
‘How do you know whether a play will be good or not?’
Arno Dience is a cold-hearted businessman, so he may not trust uncertain promises.
Then I’ll have to ask him to come see the rehearsal at least once.
Judging by Leo Peer’s performance today, it won’t be long before he gets to a level that is quite worth watching.
Of course, the reason Leo is growing so fast is not because he is an acting genius, but because I am a directing genius.
‘First of all, the mask is just like Romeo.’
When the image given from the outside matches the role too well, the actor’s acting ability sometimes appears to have increased by 200%.
This is the case when a new actor emerges like a comet, but then gets evaluated as to where his acting in his first film went as he wasted his next film and next film.
For my first film, I used the actors very well, from casting to acting direction.
At such times, the actor speaks his lines as if he were in real life, rather than acting, like a ship with sails in a favorable wind.
Leo showed the potential to do just that today.
No matter what he said with his rebellious mask, he showed a young and energetic Romeo.
If there is that much potential, it can soar with the direction of Shingeum and I.
Moreover, it’s not just the good vibes of the mask.
‘You’re handsome.’
Since the standards of beauty are different for each person, there is no one person who is 100% good-looking in everyone’s eyes.
But there is such a thing as a public face.
That’s him.
The most popular face among the rebellious faces.
A face that will make anyone passing by look back.
There will eventually be female audiences who come to see the show for the second or third time just because they want to see that face.
If you want to let Arno know that fact, make sure you practice until the rehearsal.
“Why?”
“Huh?”
I was taken aback by the answer that was slightly different from what I expected.
Arno Dience looked across and for some reason his usual arrogance had disappeared and his face was very stiff.
“Why do you suddenly want to break off the engagement?”
Suddenly?
In fact, it was from the beginning that we decided to break off the engagement.
Of course.
Even though Louisa spread numerous rumors of an affair, she clung to Arno and prevented the break-up of the engagement.
Then, in the end, an auction was held, and because of the auction, Arnault announced the breakup of the engagement.
However, even after that, Louisa continued to make a lot of stories about her broken engagement, so the Count Dience family was treated as a family that had abandoned trust with the dukedom for a while.
Thanks to this, she incurs the wrath of Arno Dietze, and later Arno testifies against her at her trial.
This cold-blooded man, a man who regards time as gold, took the time to take revenge on Louisa.
In order to reduce Arno’s anger even a little, the engagement must be broken off.
After I received some recognition for my play, I did it in a way that did as little damage to Dienche’s reputation as possible.
“I thought about it. Why did you buy that slave and not lift a finger? Could it be that you care about me now? That can’t be possible. You said it confidently when you first saw me. This marriage is a profitable business only for me.”
‘You ran a lucrative business. Pretty one.’
Okay.
This crazy villain said something like that.
To a 10 year old kid, when he was 9 years old.
‘Other than having a lot of money, your family is nothing more than a bunch of city officials. Do you know the greeting method of nobles?’
Thinking about that, I could understand why Arno despised me so much. I also understand why Arno desperately wanted to contribute to Louisa’s death.
“Okay, this script.”
Arno lifted the script of Romeo and Juliet from his office desk.
Why did you put it in a place where you can get your hands on it like that?
This slight puzzlement did not last long.
“It was unexpected. The script you wrote. The love story also seemed quite desperate. So I almost got fooled for a moment. Maybe you are in love. Aren’t you afraid of falling in love with that slave? I’m afraid that love will ruin you.”
Arno took off the glasses he was wearing. Purple eyes shone beneath the glasses he had removed.
It was my first time seeing Arno Dietze lose his composure.
“But no. After hearing about the breakup of the engagement today, I understand. With this play, you want to break off the engagement at the moment when everyone believes you’ve fallen in love with someone?”
“That….”
I pressed my temples.
Meanwhile, why is that person’s diction so good?
“You want the sympathy you get from ultimately breaking off my engagement. This state of being hated by the entire empire is unbearable. Because you are a cultured mecena. If you get dumped by a shabby old man just because you made a play about a love story, you can turn public opinion around!”
Arno looked at me with an angry face.
So, that is the real face hidden behind that calm mask.
A feeling of inferiority, having lived his whole life being regarded as a wealthy family and being looked down on by nobles. Victim consciousness.
That’s what stimulated me.
The princess from a ruined country whom he was taking in was talking about breaking off the engagement.
Now, Louisa Mecenat thinks that since she is a mere princess, anyone can do something like this.
Everyone was like that.
When Luisa Mecenat was burned at the stake, her guilt was inflated.
He tried to seduce the emperor and hand over information to the enemy, had affairs with numerous men while leaving his fiancé Arno behind, and even sold his grandfather’s urn.
Even though Louisa was too stupid to be a spy for an enemy country, even though she considered men a luxury, even though she didn’t like him touching even a single finger, and even though her grandfather was always strict with her, even though she kept his urn deep under her bed until the end.
Only by doing so will everyone feel at ease.
Because a wicked woman being burned at the stake should not be sympathized with at all.
“That’s why you want to break off the engagement….”
“When I was 9 years old, my parents died in an accident when their carriage overturned. Grandpa told me to get engaged to you the night after the funeral.”
In the novel, the childhood of Louisa, who was always a psychopathic collector, appears only once.
A drunk Louisa reveals to Rudy the story of how she became a collector.
“I said no. When I was young, I thought marriage was something you should do with the person you love.”
“…….”
“But my grandfather slapped me and said, “You are something to be sold.”
Arno’s brow furrowed.
“How dare you honor the deceased….”
I laughed and held my head.
I guess you think it’s a lie…
“You don’t have a choice. For the sake of my family, I have to marry Dienche, who has a lot of money. The only legacy left behind by your weak parents, that is the only value that Luisa Mecenat has. If you don’t like it, I’ll kick you out on the street right now and tell you to go out and starve to death.”
“Princess….”
“From that day on, I felt sorry for myself. I hated living my life adorning myself in the name of Mecenat, which I didn’t want to do. So, I lived by giving expensive clothes, expensive shoes, and expensive men to this poor person.”
“That’s an excuse now….”
“Whether you believe it or not, do whatever you want.”
And soon he raised his head.
I felt like I knew what my face would look like the moment I raised my head.
It must have been a mess.
Because I became overly immersed without even realizing it.
A little girl of 9 years old.
Exchange unwanted wealth and fame for someone you love.
This is so….
It reminds me of Shingeum.
I traded the picture-perfect life I didn’t even want for my mom. No, my mom did that. Because my mother sold me to a chaebol family.
Did you say you signed a contract after giving birth? When my child enters elementary school, I will never see his face again. Instead, we will provide unlimited support for entering Hollywood.
Okay.
The day I went to see a play with my mom.
Since then, I have never seen my mother’s face.
Arno’s breathing was heard in the blurry vision.
I wiped away my tears, curious about his face.
In his clearer vision, Arno just looked a little embarrassed.
Even though I knew that would happen, it felt a little strange.
“But I have to say this. Have you looked closely at the characters in this play? Then you know what this means.”
“…What….”
I walked to Arno.
Arno took a step back, but I stood close enough to hear him breathing. And I snatched the script from his hand.
“The reason I broke off my engagement is not because of another man. It’s because of you.”
This script has some differences from Shakespeare’s original.
That is the setting of Juliet’s fiancé, Count Paris.
In the original work, Count Paris lusted after the 14-year-old Juliet and tormented Romeo to the end, but in this script, Count Paris is like a young boy like Juliet and says this to Juliet.
‘I want you to be as happy as I am. Tell your parents that you can’t get married if you don’t want to.’
Of course, those words had no power, but they were a great comfort to Juliet.
“I bet you pity yourself as much as I pity you. How pitiful it must have been for you to marry an unwanted princess. So I wanted Paris to be as happy as Juliet. This is why I want to break off the engagement. Count.”
“……!”
At that moment, the Count’s face…. What should I say?
A face that was never depicted in the original work?
A face that has become stupid after being hit hard on the back of the head with a club.
Yes, that was it.
