Chapter 011
I was a bit flustered by a temptation that was far more earnest than anything I’d seen so far.
Asking if I couldn’t just like him.
To anyone else, it would sound like a genuine plea for affection.
But the purpose of this temptation was singular.
To lower my guard, ensure his own safety, watch for an opportunity to return to the Imperial Palace, and exact revenge for his father.
I looked at the face of Romeo as he took revenge on Tybalt and felt certain.
‘That is the face of the protagonist I knew.’
Those eyes filled with a thirst for vengeance that I had seen on the cover.
I had almost forgotten for a moment.
The fact that the slave I bought was a cold-blooded monarch who, as soon as he ascended the throne, purged his uncle, his aunt, and his cousins.
And that’s not all.
The people who sold him to a slave trader when he was wandering outside the palace, the humans like Rudy who bought him while he drifted as a slave, and Louisa…
He burned them all alive, ensuring not a single bone fragment could be recovered.
Of course, after the revenge is over, he experiences a void, but that empty heart is healed by the female lead.
With her exquisite beauty and gentle speech.
‘Was the female lead’s name Elena Burbage?’
The adopted daughter of the Marquis of Burbage—the family that searched for the protagonist incessantly for ten years—she is the owner of a pure and fragile beauty.
According to the original story, they wouldn’t meet for another year and a half, so it wasn’t time to worry about it yet.
But the two will eventually be joined.
Whether in the original work or now, in this version “adapted” by me.
Because that is advantageous for Leo Pier.
The Marquis of Burbage becomes the Emperor’s sturdy support, and Elena is the saint who prevents the protagonist’s mental collapse.
Initially, the protagonist rejects Elena’s love.
‘There will be a separate match suitable for the young lady. Someone younger and more beautiful than I; I shall look for one as well.’
Because Leo had been worn down by meeting filthy and hideous humans for ten years, he forcibly pushes her away.
Of course, Elena, with her spunky Candy-like personality, is more likely to linger around than be hurt by his rejection, and Leo eventually falls for her.
Therefore, this transparent temptation is a lie.
“If you’re going for the curtain call, you’d better go out right now.”
I replied irritably and stood up from the box. Then Leo grinned and laughed.
As if he knew I would react that way.
This brat has figured me out.
He realized I hate “contact.”
I wondered why the temptation was getting bolder, and this was it.
He saw through the reason why I hadn’t touched a single fingertip of the slave I bought—it was because I hated physical touch.
Shin Seong-hyun was a major reason for my dislike of physical contact.
That lunatic had put his hands on me many times.
To me, or rather to Shin Geurim, “contact” was always violence.
After contact, red marks were left, filthy wounds remained, and the experience of having humiliation and shame etched onto my body as scars.
But now, I’m Louisa Maecenas, not Shin Geurim.
Louisa Maecenas.
The Empire’s greatest villainess.
I have no reason to be tormented anymore by a half-brother who tried so hard to bring me down out of jealousy.
I can perform any play I want, I can do musicals, I can become famous, and I can do even dirtier things.
Yes.
I am free.
“Juliet! I want to see your face!”
“Mercutio, look this way and smile!”
The sound of people cheering could be heard from outside.
The people who laughed and cried exactly as I intended.
The people who wailed in unison when Juliet died.
The reason I overacted was that.
The audience had completely liberated me.
The tingling sensation in my fingertips made me stop in my tracks as I headed for the stage.
“Why did you ask the other day why we don’t actually kiss?”
This brat had asked me such a thing before.
As if he were dissatisfied with the various directorial devices I used to avoid kissing.
I turned around.
And I looked straight at Leo behind the curtain.
His golden eyes were gleaming.
“Yes. If we actually kissed, surely we could have been more immersed. Even now, enough…”
Leo hesitated uncharacteristically.
“…I was immersed, though.”
It was the moment he unknowingly looked down at his own hands.
I grabbed Leo by the chin.
Leo looked up at me in surprise.
The first contact in this world.
‘You filthy bastard girl.’
Shin Seong-hyun’s voice echoed vividly in my ears.
It was always Shin Seong-hyun who grabbed my chin, but just once, I had touched that bastard’s jaw too.
I had been attending a boxing gym in front of the house behind his back.
I intentionally swung and missed a few times to measure the distance, and when I thought the bastard was off guard, a straight punch in one go.
Thwack!
“……!”
I brought my lips to Leo’s as if colliding with them.
Hot lips rubbed messily against mine.
As I pulled back the curtain I was holding, the cheers of the audience erupted.
“Aaaaah~!”
“The two of them are kissing!”
A powerful sense of elevation filled my body.
The joy of the audience was transmitted to me.
The day I first put my hands on Shin Seong-hyun’s body.
The day I knocked his teeth out.
I was beaten by the madam and couldn’t sleep all night.
It wasn’t because it hurt.
It was because I was happy.
Because it was so fun.
I pulled my lips away. I saw Leo’s face, colored with shame and humiliation.
I laughed, looking at his brow, which was deeply furrowed in displeasure.
“This is why I said we couldn’t kiss, slave. Because you’re such a greenhorn who doesn’t know how to hide a single emotion.”
I didn’t care how much of an ugly villainess I looked like right now as I laughed.
At least in this moment, I was perfect on stage.
I laughed even more brightly.
Countless people were applauding me.
Not a single person left, everyone was enjoying the curtain call.
Seeing me laughing brightly, the face of Leo Pier, which I thought would be even more unpleasantly distorted, somehow stiffened.
As if he were flustered.
As if he were overwhelmed by seeing something incredibly beautiful.
Then, Leo wrapped his arms around my waist. He drew closer, pressing our lower bodies firmly together.
Our faces grew close.
Seen from very close, the pupils in Leo’s golden eyes narrowed like a snake’s.
“Stupid Master. This isn’t a kiss.”
Leo whispered shortly and then kissed me.
His lips parted and his tongue entered.
I almost struggled without realizing it, but instead, I closed my eyes.
‘This crazy son of a bitch.’
Well, for now, I don’t know either.
* * *
Arno Deintze was sitting in a second-floor balcony seat.
Below on the first floor, about two hundred audience members were cheering.
‘Oh, but don’t worry. The play will definitely do well. So, we will certainly be breaking the engagement, Count.’
It was true.
This play was going to be a guaranteed success.
Princess Louisa’s words had not been an empty boast.
From the second-floor balcony, he occasionally checked the reactions of the audience on the lower floor.
Countless people sniffing when the sad story of the two leads came out, and unknowingly craning their necks to watch during the battle scenes.
The reaction was enthusiastic.
People who had come out of curiosity about the antics of a notorious villainess all fell into the love story.
When he read the script, he actually just thought the Princess surprisingly had some writing talent.
Some expressions were remarkable, and it was fascinating how she pulled off a story that was more plausible than expected.
But to be honest, he thought the content was closer to a noble lady’s romance.
Because noble ladies are always falling into sad love stories and wanting to play the tragic heroine.
Of course, when he heard that Louisa also dreamed of such love, he felt strange.
‘I wanted Count Paris to be as happy as Juliet.’
When he heard those words, his heart raced uncharacteristically.
Just like that day when he foolishly saw the Princess for the first time and his heart raced.
The ten-year-old Arno Deintze—a young boy who was teased in social circles for being a street parvenu—the day he dared to desire the Princess who sparkled like a star in the sky.
But now, more than ten years had passed, and during that time, Arno had thought of that wicked Princess as a woman who didn’t possess a single grain of emotion.
She was a person filled only with desire.
Expensive jewels, flashy shoes, handsome men—I want them!
For someone like her, who seemed filled only with such thoughts, to dream of love.
How ridiculous.
But that wasn’t bad either.
Regardless, the Count was about to purchase the theater at a high price.
Even if the notorious villainess spouted a preposterous story about how she actually dreamed of love, people would still come to see it.
Perhaps… they might even come to understand her just a little bit.
That she was also a child when it came to love.
Because even Arno Deintze had started to think that way a little.
The Count knew well that even though Louisa played around with many men, she had never actually touched them properly.
Louisa merely decorated her side with those men, like jewels or shoes.
And perhaps, through Louisa’s tears, he realized that the nine-year-old Louisa Maecenas—the Princess of Maecenas, who was called the star of social circles—was also a little lonely.
So, it wasn’t bad for her to make such excuses for herself.
It wouldn’t have a negative impact on the Deintze business either.
That’s what he thought, but—.
‘This wasn’t a love story.’
He saw things that were not readable in the script at all.
Romeo and Juliet, who seemed only like innocent boys and girls, had become a rebellious new generation opposing the older generation.
The family war was depicted not merely as a device to create tragic lovers, but as a wall that the protagonists of the new era had to break through.
Among them, Juliet was particularly and surprisingly venomous, and surprisingly pure.
There were moments when her antipathy toward her parents and resentment toward the world burst forth like a flood.
It was to the point where it seemed pathetic that he had worried about how the worn-out Louisa could play a fourteen-year-old girl suffering from the fever of first love.
Watching that performance, the Count realized.
The reason Juliet loved Romeo.
She wanted to love a man who could most effectively spite these godforsaken Capulets.
If it had been anyone else besides Romeo, as long as they were a Montague, she would have been able to love them.
And no matter how wonderful a man Count Paris was, she would not have been able to love him.
Arno felt an unknown thrill the moment he realized that.
I can never love you.
In front of a performance that was no different from such a declaration, he felt a tingling sensation for some unknown reason.
It wasn’t just because of the expectation that this play would turn the theater acquisition into a profit.
To think Louisa Maecenas was such a woman.
To think that woman was my first love.
It was the first moment that love, which had always been merely humiliating, shone brightly.
You were right.
‘You’ve made a profitable deal, gorgeous.’
“This engagement was a profitable deal for me.”
Though it won’t be anymore.
Since the play had been made such a success to this extent, there could be no pretext to refuse the breakup she desired so much.
This profitable deal was over.
Arno thought so as he tucked his monocle into his jacket’s front pocket and stood up from his seat. No, he tried to stand up.
Until Juliet revealed herself amidst the people’s chanting.
Until the two who came out for the curtain call shared a kiss they had never done during the play.
“Woooooah!”
The stage heated up intensely, and Arno’s face stiffened.
Arno, who had stood up abruptly, went to the railing.
The two faces that had briefly pulled apart were joined again. Watching the passionate kiss, Arno gripped the railing tightly.
As if he were about to crush it right then.
That was it. He had forgotten for a moment.
This crazy woman is Louisa Maecenas.
The Empire’s greatest villainess.
Breakup, my foot.
He had to tie that woman to his side somehow and make her repay all the money she had squandered.
He spoke to Alfredo, who was waiting behind him.
“Scrape together all the money Princess Louisa has spent. Draft a debt repayment schedule immediately.”
“Pardon?”
“And…”
Arno continued, looking down at the Princess with a flustered expression and the slave with eyes full of desire below the railing.
“Increase the investment in theater facilities. Double, no, triple it. We should at least provide a way for her to repay her debts, shouldn’t we?”
