Chapter 011

<Episode 11>

I was a little taken aback by the temptation, which was much more sincere than before.

Can’t you just like it?

Anyone who hears this will know that you really crave affection.

But this temptation has one purpose.

By making me let down my guard, I was able to guarantee my own safety and take the opportunity to return to the imperial castle.

And to avenge my father.

I was convinced as I looked at Romeo’s face as he took revenge on Tybalt.

‘That’s the face of the main character I knew.’

The vengeful eyes I saw on the cover.

I almost forgot for a moment.

The slave I bought was an iron-blooded monarch who purged all of his uncles, aunts, and younger cousins as soon as he ascended the throne.

That’s all.

The human he sold to a slave dealer when he left the imperial castle and wandered around, Rudy and Louisa who bought him while he was wandering as a slave, etc.

They were all burned alive and not a single bone fragment could be recovered.

Of course, he experiences some emptiness after completing his revenge, but the female protagonist resolves his emptiness.

With beautiful looks and friendly speaking skills.

‘The heroine’s name was Ilena Burbage.’

She is the adopted daughter of the Marquess of Burbage, a family that has been constantly looking for the main character for the past 10 years when the main character disappeared, and has innocent and lovely looks.

Of course, according to the original work, we will only meet the Burbage family a year and a half from now, so it is not a stage to worry about yet.

But the two will eventually end up together.

Whether it’s the original work or now that the original work has been ‘adapted’ because of me.

Because that’s advantageous to Leo Peer.

The Marquis Burbage family becomes the emperor’s strong allies, and Ilena is a good person who protects the protagonist from mental breakdown.

At first, the protagonist rejects Ilena’s love.

‘There will be a partner suitable for you. I will also look for someone who is younger and prettier than me.’

Leo was worn out after 10 years of meeting dirty and ugly people, so he was forced to push her away.

Of course, Ilena, who has a spirited personality like Candy, rather than being hurt by Leo’s rejection, becomes more indifferent, and Leo eventually falls to Ilena.

So, the temptation that is clearly visible right now is a lie.

“If you’re going to say hello to the stage, you’d better leave right away.”

I responded angrily and got up from the box. Then Leo smiled brightly.

As if he knew it would happen.

This bastard has caught me.

I found out that I hate ‘touch’.

I was wondering why the temptation is becoming more and more bold, and this is it.

I realized that the reason I bought a slave but didn’t even touch it was because I hate skinship.

Shin Seong-hyun was a big reason why I dislike skinship.

Because that crazy guy touched me several times.

To me, or rather to Shin Geum, ‘contact’ has always been violence.

When contact ends, red marks remain, dirty scars remain, and humiliation and shame are engraved on the body as scars.

But now I’m not Shin Geum, I’m Luisa Mecenat.

Luisa Mecenat.

The Empire’s greatest villainess.

I no longer have a reason to suffer from a jealous half-brother who is trying to bring me down.

You can do whatever play you want, you can do a musical, you can become famous, you can do even dirtier things.

Okay.

I am free.

“Juliet! I want to see your face!”

“Mercutio, please look at me and smile!”

I could hear people cheering outside.

People who laughed and cried as I wanted.

People who cried together when Juliet died.

That was the reason I overdid it.

Because the audience completely liberated me.

I stopped walking toward the stage when I felt a tingling sensation in my fingertips.

“Did you ask me last time why I didn’t really kiss you?”

This kid asked me something like that the other day.

As if they were dissatisfied with the fact that they were using various production devices to prevent kissing.

I turned around.

And then he looked straight at Leo from behind the curtain.

Golden eyes smiled.

“Okay. I definitely would have been more immersed if they had really kissed. It’s still enough….”

Leo hesitated, uncharacteristically.

“…I was immersed in it, though.”

It was the moment when he unconsciously looked down at his hands.

I grabbed Leo’s chin.

Leo looked up at me as if surprised.

First contact in this world.

‘Dirty bastard bitch.’

Shin Seong-hyeon’s voice rang vividly in my ears.

Shin Seong-hyeon was the one who grabbed my chin every time, but I also touched his chin just once.

I went to the boxing gym in front of my house without him knowing.

I took a few missed swings on purpose to measure the distance, and when I thought he had let his guard down, I gave him a straight shot.

Puck!

“……!”

I put my lips against Leo’s lips.

Hot lips were rubbed against mine.

As I removed the curtain I was holding in my hand, I heard people cheering.

“Aaaah~!”

“You two are kissing!”

A powerful sense of elation filled my body.

The audience’s joy was conveyed to me.

The day I first touched Shin Seong-hyeon’s body.

The day I shook off that damn corn.

I was so upset by my wife that I couldn’t sleep all night.

It wasn’t because it hurt.

Glad.

Because it was so fun.

I parted my lips. I saw Leo’s face filled with shame and contempt.

I laughed, looking at his frowning eyebrows as if he were displeased.

“This is why I said you can’t kiss, slave. Because you’re such a kid who doesn’t know how to hide your emotions.”

It didn’t matter how ugly and evil my smiling face looked like now.

At least in this moment, I was perfect on stage.

I smiled brighter.

A lot of people were applauding me.

Everyone was enjoying the curtain call without anyone leaving.

Leo Peer’s face, which I thought would become even more unpleasant when he saw me smiling brightly, somehow hardened.

As if he was embarrassed.

It was as if I was overwhelmed by seeing something so beautiful.

Then Leo wrapped his arms around my waist. He came closer, pressing his lower body tightly together.

Our faces got closer.

When I looked very closely, the pupils in Leo’s golden eyes narrowed like a snake.

“Stupid master. This is not a kiss.”

Leo whispered briefly and kissed me.

I parted my lips and my tongue came out.

I almost struggled without knowing, but I closed my eyes instead.

‘You crazy bastard.’

Well, first of all, I don’t know.

* * *

Arno Dience was sitting in the balcony seat on the second floor.

Below the first floor, about 200 spectators were cheering.

‘Ah, but don’t worry. The play always goes well. So we will definitely break off the engagement. Count.’

It was like that.

This play definitely does well.

What Princess Louisa said was not a lie.

From the balcony on the second floor, he took his time watching the reactions of the audience downstairs.

Many people sob when the sad story of the two main characters is told, and when a fight scene is shown, they crane their necks to watch without realizing it.

The response was enthusiastic.

Everyone who came because they were curious about the eccentricities of a rare villainess was immersed in the love story.

When I read the script, I actually thought that the princess had a surprising writing skill.

Some of the expressive skills were surprising, and it was amazing how the story was more plausible than expected.

But to be honest, I thought the content was just a noble girl’s romance.

Noble ladies always want to fall into sad love stories and play tragic heroines.

Of course, I felt strange when I heard that Louisa also dreamed of such love.

‘I wanted Count Paris to be as happy as Juliet.’

When I heard that, my heart was strangely racing.

Just like that day when I foolishly saw that princess for the first time and my heart skipped a beat.

That was the day when 10-year-old Arno Dietze, a young boy who was often teased in social circles for being a street boy, dared to covet a princess who twinkled like a star in the sky.

But now, more than ten years have passed since then, and Arno has always thought that the vicious princess was a woman who did not have any emotions at all.

She was just a person filled with desire.

I want expensive jewelry, fancy shoes, and a handsome man!

She, who seems to be filled with only such feelings, is dreaming of your love.

How funny.

But that’s not bad either.

In any case, the count paid a high price to buy the theater.

Even if a rare villain tells a ridiculous story that she actually dreamed of love, enough people will come to see it.

Perhaps…. I might be able to understand her just a little bit.

At least when it came to love, she was a child too.

Arnaud Dience also had some similar thoughts.

The Count knew full well that even though Louisa played with so many men, she never touched her properly.

Louisa simply adorned the men next to her like jewels and shoes.

And maybe 9-year-old Luisa Mecenat.

I learned through Louisa’s tears that the Princess of Mecenat, who was known as the star of society, was also a little lonely.

So, there is no harm in making your own excuses to that extent.

It’s not like it will have a negative impact on Dience’s business.

I thought so-.

‘This wasn’t a love story.’

I saw things that had never been read in the script.

Romeo and Juliet, who only seemed like innocent boys and girls, became a rebellious new generation against the older generation.

The family war was depicted as a wall that the protagonists of a new era must break through, rather than simply as a device to create unlucky lovers.

Among them, Juliet in particular was surprisingly cruel and surprisingly pure.

There were moments when antipathy toward my parents and resentment toward the world burst out like a torrent.

It was almost pathetic to wonder how the worn-out Louisa could play a 14-year-old girl suffering from the fever of her first love.

Looking at the smoke, the Count realized.

Why Juliet loved Romeo.

She wanted to love the man who could fuck this bastard Capulet the most.

She could have loved anyone other than Romeo if it had been Montague.

No matter how wonderful a man Count Paris was, she would not have been able to love him.

The moment Arno realized this, he felt an unknown shiver.

I can never love you

In front of a performance that was no different from such a declaration, he felt an exhilarating sensation without knowing why.

It was not simply because of the expectation that this play would turn theater purchases into a surplus.

Louisa Mecenat was that kind of woman.

That woman was my first love.

This was the moment when the love that had always been shameful shone for the first time.

You were right.

‘You ran a lucrative business. Pretty one.’

“This engagement was a lucrative business for me.”

Not anymore, though.

Since the play has been successful to this extent, there is no reason to refuse the break-off of the engagement you so desperately want.

This profitable business is over.

Thinking like that, Arno put the monocle in the front pocket of his jacket and stood up. No, I tried to get up from my seat.

Until Juliet appeared in the crowd.

Until the two people who came out to greet the stage kissed, which had never been done before in the play.

“Wow!”

The stage heated up, and Arno’s face hardened.

Arno jumped up from his seat and went to the railing.

The two faces that had separated for a moment met again. Arno gripped the railing tightly as he watched the passionate kiss.

As if he was going to burst it at any moment.

It was like that. He had forgotten for a moment.

This crazy woman is Luisa Mecenat.

The greatest villainess in this empire.

What is a broken engagement?

I had to tie that woman to me somehow and make her pay back all the money she had spent extravagantly.

He spoke to Alfredo, who was waiting behind him.

“Get all the money that Princess Louisa has spent so far. Please fill out the debt repayment table right now.”

“Yes?”

“And….”

Arno continued speaking, looking down from the railing at the princess with a bewildered expression and the slave with lustful eyes.

“Increase investment in theater facilities. Double, or even triple, what it is now. Shouldn’t we at least provide a way to repay the debt?”