Chapter 18

Chapter 018

‘If I ever met the tyrannical lady, I should make sure to kill herrr….’

Henry had shared his own story with the lady completely honestly during the exercise called ’emotional memory.’

Upon hearing that, Luisa had said:

‘Then why didn’t you kill her?’

‘Pardon? Me? Kill her?’

‘Yeah. It was your father’s last wish, wasn’t it?’

‘Well, even so….’

‘Why didn’t you? Speak honestly.’

Henry had hesitated.

Honestly? To be really honest….

‘Why should I do that?’

‘…….’

‘Honestly, I hate the thought of killing a person. It’s true I resented you, Lady, but even if you disappeared, it’s not like my life would change. Why should I summon that kind of courage? Is it even worth….’

‘Say more. Just say it!’

Pressured by her demanding tone, Henry had blurted it out despite himself in total nervousness.

‘You’re simply not worth that much effort, Lady!’

Ugh.

He had let it slip.

Why did he always make mistakes like this?

Now, was all that remained for him to be murdered by the lady?

Just as Henry was trembling in fear, Luisa smiled gently and spoke to him.

‘Right. This is who you are. The self you’ve been hiding beneath that gentle face. Show me who you are. Only then can you perform acting that is uniquely yours.’

The lady hadn’t gotten angry. Instead, she had a satisfied look on her face, as if she had spotted potential.

An acting uniquely his own.

A Benvolio uniquely his own.

The lady’s words were always full of riddles.

Although the audience was laughing while watching Henry, he couldn’t feel certain about what his Benvolio truly was.

He was just amazed that the audience found it entertaining.

Without realizing it, he felt excited.

Was that why?

The moment Mercutio on stage asked him like this, a strange feeling came over him.

“Did Romeo not come home?”

In truth, including practice, this was a line he had heard dozens of times already.

Under the sweltering stage lights, he recited his designated lines with a face slightly exhausted from sweat.

Yet today was somewhat different.

The actor delivering that line actually looked like Mercutio to him.

Mercutio.

He was the biggest troublemaker and prankster among the Montagues. At the same time, he was also the person who had best learned the Montagues’ hatred toward the Capulets.

Knowing that, Benvolio… no, I, felt somehow terrified of disclosing that Romeo had gone to enjoy a secret rendezvous at the Capulets’.

Mercutio’s fish-like gaze looked like the eyes of a dangerous teenage boy, and the set pieces on stage looked like the streets of Verona.

In this dangerous city of Verona, he wanted to hide Romeo’s love.

Not because he supported Romeo’s love. But because he hated shedding any more blood.

‘It’s simply not worth it.’

The moment he thought that cynically, his line spilled out. The line that had always felt awkward as if wearing someone else’s clothes naturally rolled out, carrying raw emotion.

“I don’t know.”

“He seems to have stayed up all night, didn’t he? You really don’t know?”

“…He didn’t come back. I asked the servant.”

The desire to shield Romeo, who had spent the previous night at the Capulets’, clashed with the feeling that he shouldn’t lie.

Yet even after speaking, Benvolio subconsciously gauged Mercutio’s expression.

What if Mercutio noticed something suspicious? Benvolio quickly changed the subject.

“Tybalt sent a letter of challenge to Romeo.”

When Mercutio naturally shifted his attention toward the ‘letter of challenge,’ he felt relieved.

At the same time—.

He saw the eyes of the audience.

Eyes that felt relieved right alongside him.

‘Why on earth?’

Why are they sharing my relief just because I feel relieved?

Why are the emotions of all these people being transmitted directly to me?

In that moment, Henry subconsciously felt a chill run down his spine.

All these people and I are breathing together.

From that moment on, he couldn’t tell how time was passing.

He acted while imagining this place and that place along the streets of Verona. Having a relatively small role in the overall play, Benvolio didn’t have many lines, yet Henry’s concentration never broke.

With every single word Romeo uttered, with every single word Mercutio spoke, Henry’s Benvolio responded to each emotion they threw at him.

It was scary, frightening, and ultimately even heartbreaking.

Having witnessed Mercutio die right before his eyes, tears spilled from Benvolio’s eyes despite himself.

Drip, drip.

“Mercutio….”

As if his own father had passed away, the grief of losing someone close pierced straight through his heart.

‘Father. Please don’t die!’

It wasn’t that he loved his father. To Henry, his father was a presence he could never understand his entire life. A belligerent man who loved liquor and fighting.

Yet, even if he couldn’t understand him, it didn’t mean parting ways wasn’t painful.

Don’t die. Mercutio.

It was right when he was muttering that internally.

“……?”

Someone’s tears fell onto the back of his hand.

Benvolio raised his head.

And he saw Romeo.

He was shedding tears with eyes turned bright red.

It was a first.

Unlike Benvolio, who had shed tears a few times during private practice, Romeo—no, this handsome boy—had never cried once, and yet….

He was crying.

“…Tybalt!”

And the moment his body stood up, unable to contain his rage, Benvolio was filled with awe.

‘So this… is your Romeo.’

Then could it be….

‘Is this my Benvolio?’

Wiping away his tears, Henry stepped down from the stage. He immediately sought out Luisa.

“I-I…!”

He didn’t know how to express this heart-pounding sensation.

His heart was beating wildly.

However, the moment he stood before Luisa’s ice-cold face, Henry’s expression settled down slightly.

Was it alright to make such a fuss over just this much?

Wasn’t the fact that Henry felt the audience and felt his fellow actor on stage actually nothing special after all?

Right as doubt was creeping up on him.

Luisa opened her mouth.

“Yeah. I saw it.”

“……!!”

“You feel those kinds of things. You got the hang of it.”

Luisa spoke with complete sincerity.

From the backstage, she had clearly seen Benvolio on stage.

A fellow who performed a Benvolio different from her own, all while executing everything she had taught him.

‘Though here and there he turned into a comedic character far detached from the original work as well as my interpretation….’

Honestly, it wasn’t bad.

Especially a Benvolio who clumsily maintained neutrality while in reality attempting to flee from everything.

He had successfully pulled off the exact interpretation she had wanted.

On top of that, he added his own personal interpretation.

Benvolio had become a character who was somewhat spacey yet said everything he wanted to say.

Just because a character was cowardly didn’t mean they couldn’t be spacey.

They could appear to say everything on their mind while still being timid inside.

Humans are multifaceted, and because of that, an actor’s work is creative and complex.

She taught actors diction, vocalization, and emotions separately, but the moment they aligned, everything became natural.

Just like how Benvolio on stage a moment ago stood there as Benvolio as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He surely must have felt it himself as well.

The fact that his own artistic instinct had opened up.

Perhaps if he were alone, even if his instinct had opened, he would have lacked confidence—.

“Your current feeling is correct. Keep pushing forward with it.”

“…Yes!”

Right now, Luisa was standing right in front of Henry.

A leader who could accurately observe and evaluate his acting.

An actor gains confidence the moment someone else validates what they have felt.

And once a person gains that confidence, from that point on, the more they stand on stage, the more they absorb.

‘Preparing the two-person play might actually be easier than I thought?’

Even Leo Pier’s instincts had opened up, swept along by Benvolio’s emotions.

As Luisa watched Leo’s instincts blossom, she began to genuinely look forward to their future practice.

From the very moment Benvolio stepped onto the stage today, there was a feeling that ‘something was different,’ whereas Leo hadn’t shown any such signs at all.

Yet the moment Benvolio’s acting broke through, Romeo’s acting bloomed as if it had been waiting all along.

He had been stimulated.

It was a fact that when one actor performed well, the skills of other actors rose alongside them. Up until now, Romeo had enjoyed a collateral benefit thanks to Luisa’s—that is, Juliet’s—acting.

Because she conveyed emotions well, it was easy for him to bounce off them.

However, receiving Benvolio’s emotions this time was a little different.

It wasn’t even a scene with crowd lines explicitly exchanged back and forth between the two.

While the other actors, who lacked the eye to notice, didn’t realize at all that Benvolio’s acting had clearly improved, Leo noticed it.

And he had felt a sense of crisis.

‘Up until now, he had been holding back the entire time, trying not to put emotion in.’

It probably wasn’t because he felt embarrassed.

Most likely… he thought it would be dangerous if he put emotion into it.

He was a guy who had lived nine years hiding his identity, experiencing countless betrayals along the way.

He had detected an instinctive sense of danger that if he revealed his actual feelings, the things he had strived so hard to protect might crumble.

However, Leo Pier’s acting had to improve.

In a two-person play, he couldn’t just get overshadowed by Benvolio.

Leo had to stand out.

It wasn’t simply to find the ‘flagship star’ she wanted through the two-person play.

She had another purpose for attending the party. And for that purpose, she had decided to feature Leo in the two-person play.

The two-person play she intended to direct was The Prince and the Pauper.

Leo would be the prince, and Benvolio would be the pauper.

While acting as the ‘prince,’ Leo had to have his true identity exposed to someone at the party.

That someone was none other than the top supporter of the next Emperor, who would be attending the party.

Marquis Burbage.

To catch the eye of Marquis Burbage, who knew Leo’s appearance well, Leo had to show through his acting that he hadn’t forgotten the dignity of a prince, no matter how much he acted like a pauper right now.

Real ‘emotion’ that naturally leaked out despite his best efforts to hide it was necessary.

Benvolio had just provided the clue for that very spark.

Luisa, without realizing it, smiled brightly and reached out to mess up Henry’s hair, only to pause mid-motion.

“You did well.”

At that, Henry bowed his head toward Luisa, only to wear a dejected face.

“Aren’t you going to pat my head, Teacher?”

What did he mean, aren’t you going to pat my head?

Is he a dog?

‘Why are all the people around me weird like this?’

Luisa scowled and wildly messed up Henry’s hair.

“Ugh, aaaah!”

“Teacher, my foot. Why am I your teacher?”

“Then what should I call you? Ever since I learned math from my math teacher at school, I’ve never seen anyone as admirable as you….”

Whether this guy was truly spacey or just said everything on his mind was impossible to tell.

Luisa pondered for a moment, then tilted her head and looked at Henry.

“Director. In times like that, call me Director.”

“Pardon? What does that mean?”

In this world, there was no such thing as a director.

An actor’s performance was directed by an elderly actor called the head actor, the stage was made by a producer, and the script was written by a playwright.

However, what else could one possibly call this special role that mediated between the script and the actor, and connected the audience with the actor?

Thinking so, Luisa flicked Henry’s forehead right on the spot.

“It means exactly what you feel when you think you want to call me Teacher.”

“……?”

“So just call me Director.”

“…Yes, Director!”

Listening to Henry’s answer, Luisa felt a surge of exhilaration similar to what Henry had experienced earlier.

Director.

She had missed hearing that word.