Chapter 017
<Episode 17>
After the duchy’s tumultuous fall, Luisa Mecenat was always the center of attention among the principality’s citizens.
During meal times, the entire family would sit around and gossip about Louisa.
Most of the rumors about how vicious she was, and how strange she was doing this time, were so ridiculous that it was almost impossible to believe that Louisa would soon grow a horn on her left cheek.
And here.
The same was true for the family of the innkeeper Cutter, who ran a fairly large inn in the principality.
“Maybe kids these days don’t think that way. Well, it doesn’t mean that people gathered like a cloud to see ‘that performance’. Edith. Most of them are girls your age!”
The ‘performance’ my father, Cutter, was referring to was “Romeo and Juliet” recently performed at White Friars.
As soon as her father finished speaking, Edith burst out laughing and vomited half of the potato soup she was eating.
“Cough! Cough, cluck!”
“What’s wrong, honey?”
My father frowned.
“Yes? No. No, just…. I’m amazed that there are people in the world who go to see such a vicious princess perform.”
Carter’s famous daughter, Edith, answered.
Edith, the innkeeper’s daughter, who was born as a commoner but was wealthy enough to help out with a large business, was wearing a new dress and braiding her hair beautifully.
Recently, with the collapse of the principality, the number of merchants coming to sell goods to the principality has decreased significantly, and Carter’s inn’s income has been reduced by half.
To make matters worse, Carter’s health was deteriorating, and nineteen-year-old Edith was learning to act like a grown-up lady.
So today, Edith elegantly wiped her mouth with a napkin.
The face looked calm and noble, but the inside was not like that.
‘The person who goes to see the evil princess’ performance is me…!’
It was like that.
Edith decided to go to the White Friars Theater with her friend Elise again today.
It was my 7th viewing.
‘Father, I’m sorry!’
“Don’t say it. Forever. Because of that princess, the number of people at our inn has decreased so much.”
“By the way.”
“……?”
“Maybe it’s not necessarily because of the princess, father. In fact, it is not easy for that young princess to destroy the principality by herself. The princess is only 22 years old now, and the principality has already started to fail 10 years ago.”
The princess was just a victim of imperial politics.
Like Romeo and Juliet caught up in the war between Capulet and Montague.
She almost said that without even realizing it. Until my father said this.
“Edith. You talk like someone who saw a play and was bewitched by a princess.”
“Yes? No, I-.”
Edith was so angry that she put down her spoon. Carter saw that and sighed.
“They say kids these days are naive. Some say that the princess is now close to the emperor. The traitor who overthrew not only the late Emperor but also the First Prince and took his place…. That’s right!”
While cursing the emperor, Carter looked around even though he was inside the house.
As Carter continued, Edith sighed inwardly.
While working in the inn business, my father heard many rumors, and he sometimes believed them too blindly.
“I will stop eating now. It’s almost time for my appointment to go to the bookstore with Elise.”
Edith got up from her seat, feeling frustrated.
Carter told her with a smile.
“Uh, okay. Hurry up and go. Oh, indeed!”
“Yes?”
“You didn’t forget that Peter decided to come over this weekend, right?”
Edith’s face crumpled at the mention of Mr. Peter.
Peter was a glass merchant who started his business while his father was in the lodging business.
He had a black face and even blacker inside, and although he was fifteen years older than Edith, he always glanced at her with a sinister look at meals.
Edith tried to ignore the look in his eyes, but it is true that now that her father’s health continues to deteriorate, she and her father need a reliable successor to the Carter Inn.
“Yes. I didn’t forget. Father. I’ll go out and see.”
She sighed and left the house.
“Let’s see the performance on the weekend too! It will definitely be fun to see again!”
Elise, who was completely immersed in the performance of <Romeo and Juliet>, asked Edith to buy tickets for the weekend performance as soon as she met her. I know someone who wants to sell weekend tickets.
“If I miss the opportunity, someone will show up to buy the ticket in less than an hour. Let’s go together. Please!”
Elise seduced Edith.
Edith announced about Peter’s visit with a dark face, and Elise’s face also darkened.
The two of them arrived in front of White Friars after talking harshly about Peter.
Then, I saw a lot of female audience members already standing around to get in a little faster and get a better seat.
“Ugh! It’s late today!”
Elise sighed. Elise said she saw this performance once or twice more than Edith.
It was Elise who first persuaded Edith to go see the performance.
Edith initially refused.
Of course, she was reluctant to sell tickets for Louisa, who was hated by the public, but in fact Edith had no expectations at all about the performance of the spoiled princess.
Edith, who has lived her entire life in a separate building at her father’s inn, has seen numerous actors performing from one inn to another.
The plays held in the back yard of the inn were similar.
A story of a great warrior, a story of a dirty nobleman, and a noble love story. It was one of these three.
The story was simple and the acting was exaggerated.
When I was very young, I enjoyed watching them imitate war by swinging swords exaggeratedly, but as I got older, I realized that acting was just acting, so I lost interest.
Because I saw hundreds of performances, my eyes naturally grew higher.
There was only one actor in Edith’s 19-year-old life who even caught her eye.
An actor from a famous theater company who performed at White Friars.
Molière White.
He appeared on stage like a comet at the age of 19 and captivated countless people with his incredible acting.
After only two performances, he rose to become the leading star of the troupe and the White Friars, and according to rumors, even the queen secretly came to see his performances.
Edith, who was a commoner but wealthy, held her cousin’s hand and paid a high price to see him perform several times.
She was fascinated by Molière’s acting each time.
But since Molière announced his retirement at the age of only 22, she has never met an actor who caught her eye.
Not even once-.
“Stupid nanny.”
Since Molière, there has never been an actor who has captured attention like this with just his first appearance.
There was no actor who radiated an aura that took my breath away.
That faintly smiling face was as relaxed as a cat. At the same time, he looked down at the other person as if it were ridiculous. That face was definitely not a good one.
It was mean.
He makes fun of his old nanny and actively seduces the next head of his enemy’s family.
She makes the man who loved her cousin hers in one night, and then confronts her parents.
However….
‘It’s refreshing.’
Without realizing it, she was immersed in Juliet’s sadness, anger, and pain that were shown in parts.
Having gone through, or rather going through, the tumultuous adolescence, she began to regard Juliet as her friend.
Juliet is 14 years old, immature and full of rebelliousness, no different from herself on the verge of being sold to Peter.
However, Juliet was much more courageous than herself as she waited helplessly for the day to be sold to Peter. I thought I would win love.
It was like that.
For Edith now, Juliet’s story was not just a doomed love story.
This was her story.
Before she knew it, she was crying along with Juliet, and it seemed like the sky was falling in front of Juliet’s corpse.
Only after watching the play frantically did she realize that what she had seen was a ‘play.’
“The second time I saw it, I thought the lighting was really amazing. When Capulet appears, it is red, and when Montague appears, it is blue. How do you feel, Edith? Since you’ve seen a lot of plays, have you ever seen a play like this? It’s my first time seeing it! Because you know more than me….”
Elise stood next to me, her eyes shining, waiting for her friend’s review. But Edith had nothing to say.
I was so immersed in it that I couldn’t evaluate it as harshly as I would when watching other plays.
I couldn’t even leave a good review.
I was just swept away as if I was being swept away by a huge wave.
This was inevitable.
It was something I had to see again.
This was my 7th viewing.
Actually, I didn’t intend to see the play this many times. I also thought that there was no need to see another play about something I knew anyway.
But this was a bit strange.
The second time I watched it, the acting was different from the first time.
“Stupid nanny. Look here! Fool. Fool!”
Juliet even changed her lines at times, and even skilled middle-aged actors performed differently accordingly.
Moreover, Juliet came out wearing different clothes.
One day, she came out wearing a gorgeous red dress, and it was so pretty because it perfectly matched the color of Capulet’s symbol.
There Juliet…. No, Louisa really likes red.
‘It’s because of the color of the eyes!’
With a red dress that matched her red eyes and a necklace of beautiful sapphires, the person herself looked like a human sapphire.
It is said that people who already have money order sapphires from jewelers.
‘They should try sapphire, it’s sapphire on a pig’s neck!’
But she also thought that way, and if she had the money, she would want to buy that sapphire right away. It was because I wanted to get even a little closer to Juliet.
‘To be honest, if it’s not Juliet, there’s no reason to see this play.’
Some foolish audience members waited in front of the dressing room for good-looking male actors to come out, but in her eyes, the other actors were terrible.
It seemed like she didn’t have enough practice, and she didn’t act as sincerely as Juliet.
Since I couldn’t sympathize, I didn’t show affection.
‘No matter how handsome he is, if the actor can’t act, it’s over.’
But…?
“Don’t fight! Are you going to disobey the lord’s orders? We’re all going to get caught. Please!”
Benvolio’s performance caught her eye for the seventh time.
Benvolio.
It was a minor role that I thought was just a coward.
But today Benvolio was a little different.
Benvolio, the pink-haired actor, was originally an herbivore, and his acting only matched the aura on his face.
Kind, gentle, and a little cowardly.
But today he-.
“Love stops time? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Isn’t it because you don’t have a watch?”
Strangely fierce.
A strange character who is stubborn but says everything he wants to say.
Laughter erupted from the audience.
And Edith also burst into laughter.
At that moment, Benvolio looked at the audience as if startled.
“……?”
Why are you smiling?
Henry truly thought so, but the people who took it as an act laughed even more.
“……?!”
Henry, who almost lost concentration for a moment, wrinkled his face in embarrassment.
But at that moment, I heard someone’s voice in my ear.
‘If the audience laughs, let them laugh more. Connect with the audience. You can’t feel like you’re with a real audience if you’re only focused on your acting. Play is about being with the audience.’
Henry realized as he looked at the faces of people giggling at him.
These people are not laughing at me, but are having fun with Benvolio.
‘My’ Benvolio.
