Chapter 012
The actor playing Benvolio.
Henry Schofield stepped down from the stage, drenched in sweat.
“Haa… haa…”
He was a commoner who had been working as the youngest kitchen hand at Rudy’s night tavern.
At least until Rudy suddenly walked into the kitchen with a sour expression.
“Our Princess’s taste is certainly complex. She’s looking for a noble son who’s gentle and cute, yet looks like he’s never done a day of manual labor in his life—and I have to find him here?”
At that time, Rudy was out of his mind trying to present the men Louisa wanted.
Then, something fell in front of him.
Clatter!
“Aaaah! I’m sorry! I’ll fix it, Chef!”
Henry Schofield, the youngest hand who had just entered the kitchen, had dropped an empty oak barrel.
He said it was his first time doing kitchen work, as his father, who ran a fairly profitable shop before the Duchy fell, went bankrupt along with the downfall of the Maecenas Ducal House.
‘He definitely shows a lack of work sense.’
The head chef was already pestering Rudy to fire him. But where would he find another person? These days, the Duchy was in such a grim state that finding people wasn’t easy…
It was as Rudy picked up the oak barrel while thinking those thoughts.
Rudy looked at Henry, who was cowering and bowing profusely, and dropped the barrel again.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“You… are handsome?”
That was the story of how Henry Schofield was cast.
Initially, the male actors cast alongside Henry all had only one thought.
‘Seduce the Princess and make a fortune.’
Louisa Maecenas.
The famously delinquent Princess of this Duchy where Henry Schofield had lived his whole life.
She truly had an excellent eye for handsome men, just as the rumors said.
Why else would she gather only handsome men and not use a single experienced actor while claiming to put on a play?
‘…I shouldn’t make eye contact.’
Naive Henry tried his best not to look the Princess in the eye.
Although he had applied to be an actor to pay for the medical expenses of his mother, who had been bedridden since his father passed away, he didn’t view the profession of an actor very highly.
That was largely due to the influence of his father, who considered actors to be mere clowns.
‘Tch, filthy clowns. Even the priests won’t look after them when they die.’
It was true.
Priests did not preside over the funerals of actors. It was natural since the entire Holy Empire loathed them.
The Saintess even went as far as to declare that plays were inflammatory and lewd acts.
To think that a Princess herself would personally plan such a play.
‘As expected of the delinquent Princess…’
It was when Henry was thinking that.
One of the extra male actors approached Louisa familiarly. For some reason, he had been shirtless since a while ago.
“So, what should we do now?”
Regardless of whether he was shirtless or not, Louisa told the actors to ‘keep warming up’ and sat in the audience seats, looking at a notebook.
Later, Henry had caught a brief glimpse of that notebook; on one side, the script was pasted, and on the other, mysterious words were written.
-Ensure the subtext is clearly understood.
-Light on here.
-Light fade out.
At first, Henry thought the things written in that notebook were something like a witch’s incantations.
There was a reason for Henry’s thought.
After the fall of the Maecenas Duchy, the atmosphere of the Duchy was grim.
As businesses connected to the Maecenas Duchy went bankrupt one after another, it naturally became difficult for the citizens to make a living.
The enraged citizens initially aimed the blade of their anger at the current Emperor.
It was a natural thing.
The bankruptcy of the Duchy was largely due to the current Emperor’s declaration that the Imperial Family would not repay the enormous debt owed to the Maecenas Duchy.
Of course, there was a justification.
It was that the Duke had plotted treason.
The Duke, who was deep in old age, plotting treason.
With that justification that no one believed, Maecenas met a great crisis in an already declining situation, and eventually, the Duke died and the Duchy plummeted.
‘That’s also when my father passed away.’
Henry recalled his father, who lost all the money he had invested in businesses in the Duchy and died from the shock.
Even when his father died, everyone hated the Emperor.
Everyone talked about how the fall of the Maecenas Duchy was a conspiracy by the current Emperor.
It was around that time that strange rumors began to circulate.
‘Actually, the downfall of the Maecenas Duchy was all because of the extravagant Princess!’
That before the Duchy fell, the Princess had bought jewels worth the Duchy’s entire annual budget.
The rumors grew more detailed.
There were even claims that she kidnapped beautiful boys to the dungeon to do filthy things and drank the blood of young children to maintain her beauty.
The simmering public sentiment turned directly toward the Princess.
Hating the Emperor, whom they had never even seen, sitting atop the Imperial Palace far away and ruling this vast Empire.
It was much easier for the citizens to hate the Princess, whom they had occasionally seen in the Duchy and who provided wicked and entertaining stories.
Furthermore, the Princess had gone as far as holding an auction to sell off Maecenas’s heritage and comfortably used that money to buy men.
Just like now.
‘I guess the rumors are true after all.’
While Henry was thinking that, Louisa, who was sitting askew with her chin resting on one hand while looking at her notebook, raised her head.
“Are you all done warming up?”
“Yes, of course.”
Why is that actor’s gaze filled with expectation?
Henry wanted to go home.
“Then let’s practice vocalization.”
“Pardon?”
The male actor asked back with a face that had somehow lost interest. Seeing that, Louisa spoke lightly.
“Say, ‘Ah’.”
“Ah.”
“Louder.”
“Ah!”
At that moment, Louisa firmly pressed just below the male actor’s navel with the notebook she was holding.
“……Aack!”
“Yes, just like now. Exactly like now, relax your neck and make the sound come from your stomach.”
Louisa stood up from her seat while saying those words.
Her gaze as she looked around at the male actors was somehow chilling.
“I don’t expect you guys to act well. Don’t you expect it either.”
She looked down at the actor who was baring his chest as if he were pathetic.
“Look at this. How can a person who can’t even seduce properly act on stage?”
“……!”
“But at least you can make sure this excellent script is delivered clearly to people’s ears. From now on, as we practice vocalization, take my words to heart.”
Louisa stepped onto the stage in one leap.
Wearing baggy pants, a loose shirt, and her hair roughly rolled up—where on earth did she keep all the jewels she bought? Henry became curious.
But there was no time for that.
Because Louisa was glaring fiercely, they had to start vocalization practice immediately.
Ah—.
Ah—.
From then on, Louisa practiced with them every single day. Most of the actors’ eyes were glazed over by evening due to the grueling schedule that started at ten and ended at ten.
Initially, Louisa taught them something called ‘blocking’.
But she didn’t teach the dance-like movements seen in ordinary plays.
“You can move freely in this part. But you must come forward around here. And when you say this line, do it while looking at the audience seats.”
And she made them memorize the script and the blocking all at once.
If they couldn’t memorize it, Louisa would say in a cold voice:
“Useless bastard…”
She didn’t throw anything as in the rumors, nor did she scream, but at that voice that sounded like she was talking to herself, the actors even shed tears.
Those who had gathered to become the Princess’s favorite concubine and make a fortune all took turns shedding tears.
However, when the next day came, they all gathered at ten and began practicing together.
There was the money they had received, and they knew that if they ran away without spitting that money back out, Rudy would chase them to the ends of the earth.
And on a certain day when all the actors had perfectly mastered their respective blocking and scripts, Louisa added something new.
“Again.”
Again.
That terrifying word started then.
“Do it again. Again. You’re not focusing at all. Don’t put stress in strange places for no reason. Don’t chew up your pronunciation. Don’t dance. Don’t sing either. Just feel it.”
‘Is this how play rehearsals usually go…?’
In the plays Henry had seen behind his father’s back, most of the actors shouted and pretended to cry exaggeratedly.
So that everyone could ‘see’ the actors’ sadness rather than ‘feel’ it.
But Louisa was different.
She didn’t teach them ‘how’ to act. She just explained the script.
“Benvolio is someone who has been raised as a noble since childhood. Deep down, his desire to protect what is his is very strong. The reason he tries not to get involved in the fight between the two houses is largely to avoid upsetting the Lord. But you’re acting needlessly righteous.”
As if Benvolio were a living person.
“Then… should I put the emphasis on this word here?”
“Do that as your emotions dictate. He’s your Benvolio.”
Henry was confused.
What is ‘my Benvolio’?
And why is this woman doing a play with such sincerity?
Why, instead of admiring these handsome men, does she only say things like ‘That’s terrible acting…’ with a dissatisfied face every time?
Henry, who initially found Louisa scary because she seemed like a witch, now felt she was like a stern teacher.
“If you still don’t get it, I’ll show you my Benvolio. It’s right for you to create your own Benvolio, but we don’t have time and your skills are poor, so if it doesn’t work, at least try to imitate me.”
His heart ached at the words ‘poor skills’.
Louisa showed her acting in front of Henry. No, to be precise, she showed her Benvolio.
Probably every actor present at that rehearsal scene will never forget that moment.
Because even the actors who were practicing their lines with her found themselves focusing unknowingly.
Even those who dreamt vain dreams of seducing Louisa felt her as Benvolio rather than a delinquent Princess in that moment.
That’s how naturally Louisa stood there as Benvolio.
‘That’s what an actor is?’
Henry became curious about the kind of acting that could pull that off.
He wanted to try that acting that he felt he could never achieve.
Of course, even so, the play began while remaining far below Louisa’s level.
Henry was frustrated and trembled below the stage.
Louisa briefly approached such a Henry.
“Are you nervous, Benvolio?”
“…I think people will look at me and laugh, Princess.”
“They might.”
“……!”
It was when the hurt Henry became quiet.
“Or they might not. There are people whose skills suddenly improve once they step onto the stage.”
“R-really?”
“Stage temperament.”
Louisa said another mysterious thing.
“There are people whose bodies heat up once they step onto the stage and receive the gaze of the audience. People whose hearts race and fingertips tingle as they feel emotions that didn’t come out during practice.”
Louisa glanced at the empty stage. There was affection in those eyes. An affection she had never shown to the actors.
“Those people eventually end up protecting the stage. Until the end.”
Stage temperament.
When Louisa said those words, he didn’t know. Exactly what that was.
But Henry realized what it was exactly a few minutes after stepping onto the stage.
‘The trembling disappeared.’
Strangely, his body became comfortable.
His speech became stable, and as the tension left his neck, his vocalization improved.
And above all—.
All of it was ‘felt.’
Henry came down from the stage, breathing heavily, and looked back at the stage he had just stepped off.
I want to go up again.
An intense desire enveloped him.
