Chapter 20

Chapter 020

Watching Arno’s face contort in real time, I regretted everything.

I should have known better than to share a meal with these bastards.

One is the guy who will kill me directly. The other is the guy who will hand me over to be executed.

For some reason, I felt as though I were already standing right under the gallows.

It was just as I sat down, trying my absolute best to pretend I hadn’t heard Leo’s nonsense. Arno spoke in a voice so heavily suppressed that a muscle on one side of his face twitched.

“He must truly be a valuable piece of property to you. Since you’re even taking him along to tomorrow’s party. A party held right at the main Messina estate, no less.”

“Ah, about that—”

“Without a single word to me.”

“…….”

He was right. I hadn’t even mentioned going to that party to Arno.

My line of thought was that telling him would bring me zero benefit.

Arno, who was still my fiancé, was bound to hate the idea of me taking male actors along to a party.

I had planned to tell him after I came back.

If I went to that party and showcased the two-person play, everyone there would learn that I was a human being with uses other than simply rolling around in bed with male actors.

“Why on earth didn’t you tell me?”

“That’s because….”

“I suppose you simply didn’t want to bring me along to the main Messina estate.”

Bring who?

I silently stared at Arno, who was now tearing apart his bread with a furious face.

Don’t tell me he thinks I didn’t want to bring him along?

Why?

Ah, don’t tell me—.

‘Is it because of the difference in status?’

In truth, both Arno and Luisa were nobles just the same. However, the Dience family was a merchant household that operated outside the Empire before expanding into it to settle down, using that money to buy the favor of the Emperor at the time and become nobles.

In short, to the Empire’s nobility, it was a family with neither honor nor history.

And this fact had influenced Arno in the original story as well.

Specifically, driving him to brutally murder Luisa, who had looked down on him.

‘Damn it.’

I have to clear up the misunderstanding piling up here.

On the surface, the current situation seemed like Count Arno throwing a tantrum out of spite because he couldn’t be his fiancée’s partner. In reality, however, my words and actions were poking directly at Arno’s insecurity.

“The reason I couldn’t tell you in advance, Count…”

“Because we decided to perform a play there. You’re a completely useless existence when it comes to plays, aren’t you?”

Right then, Leo, who was cutting into a steak beside me, chewed on the meat in his mouth and answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“…….”

“…….”

I could feel the atmosphere over the dining table turning ice-cold.

Shut your mouth. Stop talking.

The moment I was about to say that, Leo flashed a bright smile and looked at Arno while holding the knife he was using to cut the meat.

“While I’m a useful existence.”

Fuck.

Watching lethal intent seep into Arno’s eyes, I shouted on pure impulse.

“The Count is the most useful existence to me!”

“…….”

“…….”

In an instant, the gazes of both men snapped toward me.

One gaze was razor-sharp, while the other looked starkly bewildered. Looking at Arno’s bewildered face, I quickly tried to fix my words.

“Because he’s the sponsor of the play. Without the Count, I can’t put on a play.”

“And he’s also the person taking away money in return, isn’t he?”

Yet Leo didn’t leave it at that.

With a hateful face pretending to be completely innocent, he pointed at the meat he had cut and spoke.

“How much is this worth, Count? Isn’t every single piece of this piling up as our Master’s debt?”

‘I cast him as Romeo for nothing.’

His rebellious teenager act sure is top-tier.

“I seem to have brought a rat into my house.”

The Count’s icy voice echoed through the dining room.

“How dare a mere creature eavesdrop on the conversation of its masters?”

“I didn’t eavesdrop. I saw it. The scene where the maids walk all over the place, calculating every single thing Master and I eat and wear.”

Looking at Leo speaking with sparkling eyes, I realized what this bastard was trying to pull.

Sowing discord.

In short, he’s trying to drive a wedge between me and my fiancé.

He thinks that’s the easiest way for him to seduce me.

Yeah. That tactic of yours seems to be working far too well.

“If you knew that was debt, shouldn’t you stop leeching off the Count estate’s assets and get lost?”

“You’ve said those kinds of words to our Master too, haven’t you? Multiple times.”

“When on earth did I ever…”

“With your gaze, with your expression, with your tone of voice.”

Right at that moment, Leo glared at the Count with a face overflowing with lethal intent.

If anyone saw him, they would think he was genuinely enraged. That was absolutely not the case.

This was ‘acting’.

“You learn it when you perform in plays. Humans don’t just speak with words; they speak with their voice, their expression, and their gaze. You especially do so. Why do you think she isn’t taking you to the main Messina estate? That place is filled entirely with fellows whose only thought is to tear our Master apart. Not just Catherine, the host of the party, but also the collateral branches and noble families tied up in money problems with the Messina family—every single one of them wants Master to be disgraced there.”

Unexpectedly, he grasps the essence of tomorrow’s party remarkably well, doesn’t he? This fellow.

On top of that, while pulling off this ‘acting,’ he had gotten so thoroughly immersed in the lines he was reciting that he dropped his previous boorish behavior and was maintaining flawless table manners.

Even a single stroke of his knife carried elegance.

His gaze overflowed with lethal intent.

Every single expression exuded the unmistakable air of someone who had received royal education since early childhood.

‘…A prince.’

Right now, this guy isn’t Romeo. His rebellious face had vanished entirely somewhere along the way, turning him into a prince.

I felt a strange sensation wash over me.

Up until now, this fellow had never gotten this immersed in the image of a ‘prince’—.

Only then did I realize something.

‘He was hiding it intentionally until now.’

Because he thought he shouldn’t reveal the image of a prince.

Thinking about it, it was only natural. Leo currently trusts absolutely no one.

Although it was written in the original story that Leo’s face had changed a lot over nine years, causing many people not to recognize him, several nobles recognized Leo right away.

Especially someone like Marquis Burbage, who had observed Leo closely from up near.

Therefore, to Leo, this upcoming performance was naturally a play where he couldn’t lower his guard.

Romeo and Juliet was strictly a play meant for commoners in a large theater.

Although nobles came, they merely watched the costumed Romeo from afar.

However, since this two-person play would take place on a small stage in a banquet hall—a space awkward to even call a stage—he thought the possibility of his identity being exposed was high.

Even more so because his role was ‘the prince.’

Yet, I had a separate reason for attempting to take Leo along and perform despite such risks.

Because the person who would help Leo in the original story would appear right at that place.

“Yet there’s no need for you to add yourself to that mess, Count.”

Leo gritted his teeth tightly as he looked at the Count. In an instant, strength surged into the hand holding his knife.

His appearance looked just like an Emperor holding a sword.

I stared blankly at Leo’s form before opening my mouth.

“Stop it.”

I had almost lost my focus for a moment, but I had to quickly resolve the situation.

This ridiculous situation where a mere slave dared to talk back to his master.

“Stop. The Count is…”

I turned my head to look at the Count.

Yet something was a bit strange.

“The Count is my benefactor simply for taking me in. I can’t ask for anything more than that.”

For some reason, the Count had a completely dazed face.

I expected him to get angry at Leo, but instead of doing so, he merely stared at me in silence.

As if he were someone who felt genuinely hurt.

* * *

“Why on earth did you say those things?”

Stepping out of the dining room, I caught hold of Leo for a moment.

Throughout the meal, the Count had maintained a stiff face for some reason, focusing entirely on his food. He stopped reacting to any of Leo’s provocations altogether.

‘He got upset.’

Although I failed to soothe the Count, there was something I had to settle with Leo.

Right as I was thinking that, Leo suddenly thrust his cheek forward.

“…?”

“Whatever the reason, you’re going to slap me anyway, aren’t you?”

Ha. Right. This is precisely the current standing of Luisa Messina.

A villainess who would think nothing of slapping someone when angry.

Feeling utterly dumbfounded, I glared at him silently.

“Why would I?”

“Because I spoke harshly in front of the fiancé you care so much about pleasing, even to the point of crying.”

“…The Count is a person who can throw both you and me out of here.”

“Even so, there’s no reason for Master to cry in front of him.”

Ah, stop it with that crying talk already.

I was about to say that, but bit my tongue upon seeing Leo’s expression. He looked genuinely annoyed.

“Master isn’t the type of person to cry just because you get kicked out of a mansion. Unless someone threatened to take away plays from Master, perhaps.”

“……!”

Somehow, it felt like he had hit the bullseye.

“Either way, thanks to this slave acting insolent, the Count couldn’t bring himself to say anything about whether you should perform at that party or not, right?”

At his continuing words, I tilted my head.

“Did you act insolent in front of the Count just so I could perform the play?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

When you don’t even like plays.

When you didn’t show even a tenth of that performance during practice.

“Because you like it.”

Leo smiled seductively as he looked at me.

“Because I like you.”

Ah, really.

What on earth should I do with this guy?

How should I, ‘as a director,’ deal with this fellow who acts twenty-four hours a day yet never shows his true performance?

I pondered for a moment.

“I like it too.”

The moment I said those words, Leo’s expression froze.

Watching his face warp in instant fluster, I knew I had hit the mark.

I decided to target the exact moment hatred and contempt welled up in that face that had been pretending to like me.

Of course, I could have pretended to really fall for this guy.

I could have made him lower his guard by acting as though I had fallen in love with him.

However, I have zero interest in ‘love.’

When acting out something you have no interest in, it inevitably shows.

‘I love you.’

Those words had become nauseating to me ever since I was very young.

So this time, instead of ‘acting,’ I inject ‘sincerity.’

Because real acting stems from the real ‘me.’

“I really like the acting you do.”

“…….”

Strangely enough, disappointment washed over Leo’s face.

I was sincere.

Throughout reading the original story, I liked his acting. The male lead of the original story deceived countless people while hiding his identity.

That sight of him manipulating everyone skillfully was truly beautiful.

He ‘controlled’ them perfectly.

“The stage is a world I can control perfectly. Within it, even people’s hearts depend on my hands. Because I can make their hearts stop. The gaze of the Count who held contempt for me changed after watching the play. All those people in that castle who hold contempt for me will change as well. Because we’re going to control those people.”

I looked at Leo.

I curled up the corners of my mouth and spoke. This time, I approached him as if tempting him. Yet I didn’t touch a single hair on his body.

“You like it too, don’t you?”

The taste of the stage.

I was the person who saw Romeo shed tears on stage.

This guy definitely saw it too. The taste of that stage. He’s simply trying his best to deny it with his head.

‘However, the head cannot win over the heart.’

The firm resolve that he mustn’t reveal his identity cannot win over a beating heart.

‘It’s only once anyway, and there’s no guarantee that someone who recognizes me will come there. So let’s show myself. Just once. Let’s properly show the self I’ve been holding back.’

I am going to plant this exact desire into this fellow’s heart right now.

Because to elevate his acting, I had to control his heart.

Please…. Trust me. Leo Pier.

Because this play will definitely be to your benefit.