Chapter 007
Late at night.
Normally, it was a time when the lights in the Count’s office would certainly have been extinguished.
Arno Deintze was a man of habit; unless it was for business purposes, he fell asleep at a set time and woke up at a set time.
It was Arno’s ironclad rule that trust was paramount in business, and to maintain that trust, self-discipline had to be the top priority.
“Is something troubling you?”
Alfredo asked worriedly, seeing the lights still on in his office.
Arno set down the documents he had been reviewing and looked at Alfredo.
“There is much work to do.”
Much work?
Because he had stayed up all night yesterday, he had reviewed almost all the documents and given out various work orders.
Thanks to that, Alfredo was currently dying while handling those tasks, and he hadn’t even been able to accompany the Princess to her play rehearsal.
So, for the Count, it was practically the same as having almost no work left to do—.
“Just where is all this work springing from….”
Before Alfredo could finish his sentence, a sound came from the window.
It was the sound of a carriage.
At the same time, Arno’s eyebrows arched upward.
“She has finally arrived.”
“Uh, I’m asking just in case—.”
Have you been waiting?
Before Alfredo could even utter those words, the sound of the front gate opening was heard. Faint voices also drifted into the office, which was near the gate.
“I’m exhausted. Give me and that child some snacks. I’d appreciate it if you could bring them upstairs. We have more of the script to look over up there—.”
“We?”
At that moment, Arno’s cold voice echoed through the office.
Alfredo shivered, feeling the air in the office drop several degrees.
In the meantime, Arno brushed past Alfredo and threw open the office door.
“It is late. Is the request to keep early hours, if only for the sake of the Deintze family’s honor, truly too difficult for the Princess to follow?”
‘He’s looking for a fight.’
This time, Alfredo realized the Count’s intention instantly.
He hurriedly signaled the nearby maids with his eyes.
“Ah….”
Louisa smiled with an unreadable expression as she watched the surrounding maids recede like a ebbing tide.
Seeing that smile, Arno’s face hardened further.
Lately, she had been smiling more often rather than getting angry, and every time she did, Arno’s mood hit rock bottom.
“Right. You’re right. The honor of the Count’s family. I had something to say about that, but I forgot because I was busy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Let’s end today’s rehearsal here. We’ll do the rest of the scenes tomorrow.”
Louisa said to the man behind her.
The man.
Indeed, Louisa referred to that fellow she had bought as ‘that child’ when speaking to the maids.
Though he claimed to be nineteen, she called that fellow—whose body was fully that of an adult—by such a name, as if calling him that turned him into a ‘child’ instead of a man.
If Louisa had taken that guy into her bedroom and done something strange, Arno might actually have cared less about him.
But she hadn’t.
Because of her play rehearsals, he rarely saw her face in the mansion, but he had caught a brief glimpse of her yesterday morning.
She had been reading a book in the library, seemingly unaware that Arno was there.
She had looked up from her book.
It was then that her eyes—sharp like a cat’s, yet sometimes languid—looked out the window.
To be precise, she was looking at that slave performing chores in the garden beyond the window.
At first, her gaze was calm, as if admiring a work of art, but then a strange emotion began to dwell within it.
Fear.
Why would Louisa be afraid of the slave she had bought herself?
He simply could not find the answer.
Thud.
Just then, Louisa entered the Count’s office and closed the wooden door.
“It closed louder than I expected. I shut it because I thought this wasn’t something others should hear. It’s fine, right? Even if being in a room alone with me feels suffocating.”
Lately, Louisa had developed a strange way of speaking.
Arno said irritably.
“It does not matter.”
“Good. Then I’ll tell you.”
Louisa stood before the door, her back straight.
He wanted to invite her to sit, but before he could, Louisa spoke.
“If this play goes well, I’ll be able to repay the debt.”
As if.
Arno gave up on inviting her to sit and picked up the teapot.
While he was pouring tea for Louisa, she spoke.
“Then, let us break off the engagement.”
His hand stopped.
The cup was not even half-filled with tea.
Arno looked up.
“What?”
“Ah, but don’t worry. The play will definitely be a success. So we will certainly break the engagement, Count.”
The fine hairs near Louisa’s temples fluttered slightly.
A breeze was blowing from somewhere.
* * *
I thought the answer he would give would be something like this:
‘How do you know if the play will be a success or not?’
Since Arno Deintze was a cold-hearted businessman, he wouldn’t trust an uncertain promise.
Then I should tell him to come and see at least one rehearsal.
Judging by Leo Pier’s acting today, he will reach a fairly respectable level before long.
Of course, the reason Leo’s growth is so fast isn’t because he’s an acting genius, but because I am a directing genius.
‘First of all, his mask is perfectly Romeo.’
When the image projected by one’s appearance fits a role so perfectly, there are times when an actor’s performance seems to increase by 200%.
This is often the case when a rookie actor appears like a comet, only to ruin their next and subsequent works, leading people to wonder where their acting from the first work went.
It’s because the direction of the first work used the actor perfectly, from casting to acting coaching.
In those moments, like a ship with a following wind, the actor delivers lines not as acting, but as reality.
Leo showed the potential to do exactly that today.
With his rebellious mask, whatever he said, he portrayed a young and hot-blooded Romeo.
With that much potential, meeting the direction of me, Shin Geurim, he can truly soar.
Moreover, it’s not just the atmosphere of his mask that’s good.
‘He’s handsome.’
Since the standard of beauty varies from person to person, there is no one who is 100% handsome in everyone’s eyes.
However, there is such a thing as a ‘popular’ face.
That’s exactly what he has.
The most popular kind of face among those with a rebellious vibe.
A face that would make anyone passing by turn back for a second look.
There will definitely be female audience members who come for second or third viewings just to see that face.
To let Arno know that fact, I first need to practice thoroughly until the rehearsal—.
“Why?”
“Huh?”
I was taken-aback by an answer that slightly deviated from my expectations.
Arno Deintze, whom I looked across at, had his usual arrogance replaced by a heavily stiffened face.
“Why have you suddenly come to want a broken engagement?”
Suddenly?
Actually, I had decided on the breakup from the very beginning.
It’s obvious.
While Louisa went around spreading numerous rumors of scandals, she clung to Arno to prevent the breakup.
Eventually, things progressed to the point of an auction, and because of that auction, Arno declared the engagement broken.
But even after that, Louisa went around selling her sob story about being dumped so much that the Deintze family was treated for a while as a family that had betrayed their faith with the Ducal house.
Thanks to that, she earned Arno Deintze’s wrath, and later, Arno even went so far as to give unfavorable testimony at her trial.
This cold-blooded man, who valued time as gold, actually took the time to seek revenge on Louisa.
To reduce Arno’s anger even a little, the engagement must be broken.
After I’ve gained some recognition through the play, and in a way that minimizes damage to Deintze’s honor.
“I’ve been thinking. Why would you buy that slave and then not lay a single finger on him? Could it be that you’re worried about me now? That can’t be it. When you first saw me, you told me confidently. That this marriage was a profitable deal only for me.”
‘You’ve made a profitable deal, gorgeous.’
Right.
This crazy villainess had said something like that.
To a 10-year-old kid, when she was 9.
‘Your family is nothing more than street thugs except for being rich, Deintze. Do you even know how nobles greet each other?’
Thinking about that, I could understand why Arno despised me so much. I could also understand why Arno desperately wanted to contribute to Louisa’s death.
“Right, this script.”
Arno lifted the script of Romeo and Juliet from the office desk.
Why did he put that in such a reachable place?
This minor curiosity didn’t last long.
“It was unexpected. A script written by you. The love story seemed quite poignant. So I was almost fooled for a moment. Could it be that you’ve fallen in love? Could it be that you’ve become afraid because you’ve fallen in love with that slave? Afraid that that love might ruin you?”
Arno took off the glasses he was wearing. Beneath the removed glasses, his purple eyes shone.
It was the first time I had seen Arno Deintze lose his composure.
“But it’s not that. Hearing about the breakup today, I understand. You want to break the engagement at the very moment everyone believes you’ve fallen in love with someone?”
“That’s….”
I pressed hard on my temples.
In the midst of this, why is this man’s diction so good?
“In the end, you want the sympathy you’ll get from being dumped by me. You can’t stand being hated by the entire Empire. Because you’re a cultured ‘Maecenas.’ If you’re abandoned by a grimy nouveau riche for the reason that you put on a play about a love story, you’ll be able to flip public opinion!”
Arno looked at me with a face full of rage.
So that is the true face hidden behind that calm mask.
The inferiority complex of having lived his whole life being regarded as a family of nouveau riche and ignored by nobles. A victim mentality.
That has been provoked.
Because a mere princess of a fallen kingdom, whom he is taking in, spoke of a breakup.
Because he thought everyone believed that Louisa Maecenas was now a princess in name only, so anyone could treat her however they liked.
Everyone was like that.
When Louisa Maecenas was burned at the stake, her crimes were exaggerated.
That she tried to seduce the Emperor to pass information to an enemy country, that she had affairs with numerous men while having Arno as a fiancé, that she even sold her grandfather’s funerary urn.
Even though Louisa was too stupid to act as a spy for an enemy country; even though she regarded men as luxury items but hated even a fingertip touching her; even though he was a grandfather who was always strict with her, she had hidden his funerary urn deep under her bed until the end.
Because only then would everyone’s hearts be at ease.
Because the villainess being burned at the stake must not be afforded even a shred of sympathy.
“Is that the reason you want to break the engagement….”
“When I was 9, both my parents died in a carriage overturn accident. On the night the funeral ended, my grandfather told me to get engaged to you.”
The childhood of Louisa, who was always a sociopathic collector in the novel, appeared exactly once.
When a drunken Louisa revealed to Rudy the story of how she became a collector.
“I said I didn’t want to. Even at that young age, I thought marriage was something you should do with someone you love.”
“…….”
“But my grandfather slapped my cheek and said. You are a product being sold.”
Arno’s brow furrowed.
“How dare you insult the honor of the deceased….”
I chuckled and clutched my head.
He must think it’s a lie—.
“That you have no choice. That for the sake of the family, you must marry a Deintze who has a lot of money. That the only value of the sole inheritance left by your weak parents, Louisa Maecenas, was that. If you hate it, he’d kick you out onto the streets right now, so go out and starve to death.”
“Princess….”
“Since that day, I’ve pitied myself. I hated living while decorating myself with the name Maecenas, which I never wanted. So, I lived giving myself—this pitiful self—expensive clothes, expensive shoes, and expensive men as gifts.”
“As if that becomes an excuse now….”
“Believe it or not, do as you please.”
And then I raised my head.
I felt like I knew what my face would look like the moment I raised it.
It must have been a mess.
Because I had unconsciously become over-immersed.
A 9-year-old girl.
Trading unwanted wealth and fame for someone she loves.
This is too….
It reminds me of Shin Geurim.
I traded a picture-perfect life I didn’t even want for my mother. No, my mother made it that way. Because my mother sold me off to a chaebol family.
Did she say she signed the contract after giving birth? That once the child entered elementary school, she would never see my face again. In exchange, she would be given infinite support for her Hollywood debut.
Right.
The day I went to see a play with my mother.
Since then, I haven’t seen my mother’s face even once.
In my blurred vision, I heard Arno’s breathing.
I wiped my tears, curious about his face.
Within my cleared vision, Arno’s face was merely one of slight bewilderment.
Even though I knew it would be like that, I felt a bit strange.
“But I must say this. Did you look closely at the characters in this play? Then you’ll know what these words mean.”
“…What….”
I walked toward Arno.
Arno flinched and stepped back, but I stood close enough to hear his breathing. And I snatched the script held in his hand.
“The reason I’m breaking the engagement isn’t because of another man. It’s because of you.”
In this script, there is a part that is different from Shakespeare’s original.
That is precisely the setting for Juliet’s fiancé, Count Paris.
In the original, Count Paris was a character who desired the 14-year-old Juliet and tormented Romeo until the end, but in this script, Count Paris is a young boy just like Juliet and says this to her:
‘I want you to be as happy as I am. Tell your parents that you can’t go through with an unwanted marriage.’
Of course, those words had no power, but they became a great comfort to Juliet.
“As much as I pitied myself, you must have pitied yourself too. How pitiful you must have been, married to an unwanted, reckless princess. So I wanted Paris to be as happy as Juliet. That is why I want to break the engagement. Count.”
“……!”
At that moment, the Count’s face… what should I call it?
A face that had never been described in the original?
A face that had turned stupid after being struck hard on the back of the head with a club.
Yes, that was it.
