Chapter 010
“Juliet! Where on earth are you!”
The Nurse, whose vocal projection filled the entire theater with a booming ring, appeared on stage.
At her comical movements and exaggerated expressions, the audience members let out snickering laughs.
“I swore on my twelve-year-old virginity that I’d find you! Oh, my aching knees! My lady! Where are you!”
It was then.
Something passed above the facade decorating the back of the stage.
Jet-black hair fluttering like silk.
The audience’s eyes were snatched away by that fleeting glimpse.
Strangely, a brief sight often makes people more curious.
A few spectators cackled while pointing toward the second floor.
“There! She’s right there!”
They were already completely immersed in the play.
The stage became a bit noisy, but the veteran actress, accustomed to such bustling atmospheres, naturally handled the situation and even turned it into humor.
“Where did you say?”
“Over there!”
“Ah, here!”
“No, over there!”
“Ah, heeeeeeere?”
Puhahaha—while the sounds of laughter filled the air, a few sharp-witted audience members realized.
Juliet Capulet.
That woman was the very person every spectator in this room had been waiting for.
Louisa Maecenas.
The ultimate villainess who had sold off the brilliant heritage of the Maecenas Principality for a pittance in this very theater.
The woman who, even after all that, hadn’t come to her senses and stood on the stage herself to perform a vulgar show with those handsome male actors.
Since they say she is beautiful, shall we at least have a look at her face?
It was just as the ugly expectations of everyone could be felt.
The woman poked her face out, not from the second floor of the facade, but from the very top of it.
“……!”
Everyone caught their breath.
There were those who had come prepared with stones and eggs to throw the moment the villainess appeared.
However, even they couldn’t think of a single thing in that moment.
Because she was… too beautiful.
Beneath her finely braided black hair, her snowy skin glowed under the lights.
Her round red eyes shone mysteriously, and her sharp nose and thin lips curled into a wicked smile.
“Stupid Nurse.”
The briefly heard voice was arrogant.
Yet, for some unknown reason, it was also cute.
Truly like a fourteen-year-old girl.
‘That… is the ultimate villainess?’
Elysee, who had lost her soul for a moment, became bewildered.
The Louisa Maecenas in the rumors was not like this.
She was the greatest libertine of the Empire who wrecked every party she attended, had dark shadows under her eyes due to wine and debauchery, and spat out curses with a venomous voice.
So she should have been more wicked than that—at least more than that?
Of course, that face looked wicked for some reason too, but—.
‘What kind of image was I expecting from Princess Louisa?’
Elysee, seeing the villainess’s raw face, was flustered.
Perhaps everyone was.
They had forgotten exactly what the face of the villainess they expected was, and had unconsciously empathized with a spiteful young girl.
It was then.
Young Juliet, wearing a dress, plopped down on the part visible above the roof.
Like a tomboyish child.
Juliet sat there and flipped open a book.
While the anxious Nurse ran here and there below, Juliet secretly enjoyed it while reading her book.
Of course, she was caught soon enough.
“My lady! Your mother is looking for you!”
At the Nurse’s thunderous command, Juliet’s wicked smile vanished, and she returned to being a slightly intimidated young girl.
“My mother?”
“Yes! Come down this instant! Right now!”
“…….”
Juliet briefly looked toward the audience.
In that moment, the people read countless emotions from the actress in just a split second.
It wasn’t because she was acting out many emotions.
It was simply because the fourteen-year-old Juliet was there.
‘That’s right, I was always like that when my mother called.’
A feeling that was annoyingly irritating yet fearful for some reason. The antipathy, fear, and fundamental anxiety that adolescent girls might have.
Elysee was instantly sucked into Juliet, and as a result, her heart sank in the following scene.
“Count Paris seeks you for his wife.”
The moment Juliet’s expression hardened, Elysee bit her lip.
For some reason, Elysee wanted to shout out like this:
‘Sister, don’t marry that man!’
If Count Paris were to marry such a beautiful and young Juliet, what would become of all the actors who appeared before?
Especially Romeo.
He had a face that looked like a male lead to anyone!
Elysee unknowingly waited for the moment the two would meet with an anxious face.
That moment, of course, came quickly.
Soon, a masquerade ball was held at the Capulet household.
Romeo, who had fallen in love with Juliet’s cousin Rosaline, also hid his identity and secretly attended the ball, where he met Juliet.
Amidst the bard’s soft and beautiful singing, the two encountered each other, and as two people who had clearly fallen in love, they secretly went behind a curtain.
‘What are you doing behind the curtain! What are you doing…!’
The moment Elysee thought she wanted to grab both actors by their collars and pull them out, a light turned on behind the curtain.
As the area behind the curtain became brighter than the front of the stage, the silhouettes of the two were reflected.
‘That bridge of the nose! It’s clearer than my future!’
Sister Juliet, Brother Romeo!
Judging by their ages in the play, the two were certainly not Elysee’s sister or brother, but she had unconsciously decided on those titles.
The distinct nose bridges drew closer to each other, closer, and even closer—.
The lights went out.
“……Damn it!”
Curses erupted from the surroundings.
“Shut up! Let me watch the play!”
“I’m just saying it because I’m angry! If you’re going to kiss anyway, do it in front of us!”
Wasn’t that the person who called this ‘this kind of play’ just a while ago?
“That’s true!”
Elysee watched the stage without taking her eyes off it even amidst the confusing dialogue of the audience.
The two finally discover each other’s identities.
“Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; and… have me.”
Even knowing they were from enemy houses, they choose to love each other.
The situation was tragic, but the two are relentless.
Romeo, visiting the friar, says with a rebellious face that there is no reason he cannot love even if she is the daughter of an enemy, and Juliet rebels against her parents for the first time, saying she will marry the person she loves.
But tragedy finds these two.
“A plague o’ both your houses! I shall be worm’s meat tomorrow!”
Romeo’s friend Mercutio is stabbed to death by Juliet’s cousin Tybalt.
“Mercutio’s soul is but a little way above our heads, staying for thine to keep him company, Tybalt!”
Romeo, filled with revenge, ends up killing Tybalt.
Everyone held their breath before Romeo’s eyes smoldering with revenge and the realistic sword fight.
How did the fight of adults push Romeo this far?
How did Romeo, who didn’t even have an interest in the feud of the two houses, change like this?
Everyone held their breath before that tragedy.
Finally, the play races toward the climax as Juliet feigns death to marry Romeo, who was banished far away by the lord, and Romeo, unaware of the truth, commits suicide in front of Juliet.
“O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.”
Juliet, with a face full of rage, looked toward the audience and raised a dagger.
Smoldering red eyes.
A venomous expression.
Juliet’s face as she raised the dagger was more vivid than anyone’s, and it was deeply etched into everyone’s minds.
To think that holding a dagger suited that beautiful face so well.
Everyone marveled, and at the same time, the moment the dagger was thrust into Juliet’s chest, they clutched their own chests as if they had been stabbed.
They were sad that a fateful love was shattered so hollowly, and they pitied that the playful girl from the beginning of the play had changed like that.
‘It was so good at first. It was!’
Elysee was the same.
She had already been sobbing since Romeo died, but at this moment, she cried as if her tear ducts had burst.
‘No…. Don’t die….’
Her heart ached as if it were being torn apart, and she could no longer hide it, sniffing and sobbing.
She wiped her tears with her sleeve in the darkness.
But then.
A strange sobbing was heard from the side.
“…D-don’t die… Louisa….”
It was Elysee’s father, who had seemed to have no reaction until now.
With bloodshot eyes, he was shedding tears until his whole face was glistening.
“Heu-euk… no…. Louisa….”
“Father…. It’s Juliet, not Louisa.”
Thanks to that, Elysee stopped her tears for a very brief moment and wiped her father’s tears.
She was going to say that was Juliet and the real Princess Louisa was alive, but all the words she was going to say flew away at the sound of her father’s wailing.
But there was nothing to be ashamed of.
Because everyone around was already crying together.
* * *
“Haa… haa….”
It’s the curtain call in a hurry.
I, who hadn’t even finished tidying up my tears yet, sat down on top of a backstage box, watching the backs of the actors going out in order for the curtain call.
I need to catch my breath a bit before going out.
‘Because the audience was so immersed, I ended up over-immersing too.’
I was so immersed in the suicide scene that my acting even flared out a bit.
This kind of thing usually happens a lot to actors who are naturally suited for the stage.
Stage temperament.
To put it negatively, it’s called an attention-seeking disposition, but among actors, there are cases where they become several times more brazen in practice than during rehearsal.
They get excessively excited when they receive people’s gaze.
These actors sometimes ruin the stage because their joy and sorrow become excessive in practice.
But even though I am not that kind of case, since the people were watching the stage while pouring out so much energy, I ended up getting excited along with them.
I roughly wiped away the remaining tears and sweat with my sleeve.
My eyes stung from the saltiness.
“Ugh….”
“Stay still.”
Then, a voice was heard from within my faint vision.
From a very close place.
I flinched and drew my body back.
“I know you hate being touched. Just stay still. It’s a handkerchief.”
A handkerchief?
Soon, soft silk touched my eyes.
After a fairly delicate touch passed by, I opened my eyes.
Golden eyes were looking down at me.
“So this is what my Master likes. Not me, but the play.”
Bloodstains from the goat blood prepared in advance were vivid on his face and chest.
Even though I knew it was makeup, I unconsciously got goosebumps.
I unknowingly clenched my fists.
Before I knew it, only Leo and I were left in the backstage.
The outside is noisy, and in a place where no one would come to help me no matter how much I shouted, a man covered in fake blood smiled.
The moment his lips parted, I scowled.
If he does anything strange, I’ll hit him with a wooden club and run.
Contrary to that resolve, Leo’s lips spat out strange words.
“But you know, could you… like me a little bit too?”
This crazy guy.
Another useless temptation.
