Chapter – 05
It had started raining outside.
The dwarf dragged out the man who had a chain around his neck like an animal, then handed the chain to Alfredo.
Alfredo took the chain, hesitated for a moment, then, as if unable to hold back, spoke to me.
“This is not right. I’ll report this to the Count. Buying a person? Even if you are the young lady, this is strictly forbidden by imperial law!”
I was dumbfounded.
Just how worthless of a person had Luiza been, that in a society with a strict class system, a servant would dare talk like this to their master’s fiancé?
I frowned.
“Insolent.”
At my words, Alfredo muttered with a slightly frightened expression.
“I can’t say it was a good deed to buy a person, can I…?”
“Whether you take the carriage back first or not, do as you please. But before you leave, unlock that chain. I don’t think I could manage it with my own strength.”
I threw the key I had received from the dwarf to Alfredo.
Alfredo caught it with a startled expression.
“You want me to release him?”
“Or should I drag him like a dog as he is?”
The future Emperor of the Empire?
There’s a limit to madness.
As Alfredo muttered, “Of course not…,” and unlocked the chain, I looked at the man’s thin body.
The first thing that stood out were the wounds.
Horrifying gashes—clearly from being whipped, likely with something tied to the end of the lash.
Leo Fier, once the Empire’s First Prince.
Until the sudden and premature death of the previous Emperor—before his brother, not his son Leo, took the throne and became Emperor Callinan.
Callinan was suspected of poisoning the late Emperor, but with the Emperor dying and Callinan already holding power, few could stop him.
Even after ascending the throne, Callinan announced he would keep Leo as Crown Prince.
To avoid suspicion of assassination.
But the suspicion had been true, and Callinan feared his crime would eventually be exposed.
Especially as Leo grew older and resembled his father more and more. The thought that Leo might realize the truth one day and kill him drove Callinan gradually insane.
And on the night his queen gave birth to a son, Callinan decided to kill Leo. Sensing this, Leo escaped the Imperial Palace.
Leo Fier was only ten years old at the time.
“You… how old are you?”
Leo lifted his head at my question.
His jet-black hair, his golden eyes—everything was exactly as described in the novel.
In the original, when Luiza meets Leo, those whip marks had already healed into scars.
Which means that right now, he was nineteen.
One year earlier than the original encounter.
Then, Leo collapsed on the spot.
He fell into the muddy ground without a care, and I frowned down at him.
No matter if you’re the male lead, I don’t feel inclined to pick you up.
Still, since my life depended on this—
Just as I reached out my hand, Leo pushed himself up.
His whole body trembled violently, yet he still hadn’t fainted—quite impressive.
“Nineteen.”
Even so, he answered.
Nineteen years old.
The original Leo meets Luiza at twenty—so I had shortened his wandering-in-a-nightclub life by at least a year.
Would this help Luiza avoid her death, even slightly?
I crouched down in front of Leo.
His golden eyes gleamed.
A murderous intent so clear, as if he could kill me at any moment. I stared at that expression as if looking in a mirror.
Luiza, driven to the stake to be burned, must have worn that same expression.
Pride that refuses to back down, even before someone who could kill you.
“Everything beautiful belongs to me.”
Right. I’ll admit it.
Throughout the novel, I always admired that villainess’s pride.
Maybe that admiration was what led to this damned possession.
Either way, the nineteen-year-old protagonist had a far more pleasing face than expected.
“Just the right age.”
“What are you—”
Alfredo spoke in a confused voice.
I took Leo’s chin. Leo bared his teeth, ready to bite me.
“I like your face.”
“…What?”
Leo stared at me in disbelief.
“Your diction, your voice, your gaze—I like them too.”
You suit Romeo far more than the book cover did.
“Found you. My Romeo.”
I smiled brightly at him.
The stage will lift both of us out of this hell.
* * *
“So, the young lady bought a man?”
Arno signed the necessary documents while listening to Alfredo’s report. Not a hint of disturbance on his face.
Well. A familiar story.
So she sold her grandfather’s sword and used every coin for that.
Running a theater, was it?
“Yes. However—”
“Alfredo.”
Arno raised his head to look at Alfredo.
Alfredo instinctively tensed in front of those emotionless violet eyes.
Exactly like the former head of the merchant guild.
Not a shred of emotion on his face.
When the former guild master had ordered the engagement between the young lady and his son, he wore that same face.
“Get engaged. As for the marriage, we’ll proceed if it seems profitable at the time.”
And what had nine-year-old Arno replied?
“What do I gain from this?”
The former guild master had smiled, impressed by such words from a child.
“The D’Anchais family will give you 30% of the profit we gain through the duchy.”
“40%.”
“35%. No more.”
“Very well.”
What kind of father-son conversation was that?!
At the time, Alfredo was horrified at how the guild master could sell off his son to a notorious young lady through such a simple transaction.
Now, recalling it, another thought occurred.
The subjects of the contract weren’t only Arno—but also the young lady.
If Arno had been nine, then the young lady had been eight at the time.
“Even if I wear a mask, everyone knows who I am. So if I cause any trouble, the entire Empire will be desperate to tear me apart.”
Perhaps the reason she saw everything only in terms of buying, selling, and owning was because of the people around her.
They never saw her, only her value.
As Alfredo wavered with a trace of pity, Arno spoke coldly.
“I’ve heard enough about the young lady. No need for more. If she wants to buy jewels for the man, lend her some money and record it in the books. We still expect payment from her later—”
“No, that’s not it. She didn’t want to buy him jewels—”
Alfredo bit his lip.
“She wants to use him as an actor.”
Arno frowned.
What kind of nonsense was this?
Actors of common birth were everywhere—why buy a slave to make him an actor?
Excuses again.
Sensing Arno’s thoughts, Alfredo quickly added:
“She took him to the theater and is training him. She’s already recruited other actors as well. I believe—”
Arno disliked Alfredo’s hesitation.
Normally decisive and reliable, yet ever since he returned from accompanying the young lady to a night bar, he had been fidgeting like a puppy needing to pee.
“Speak.”
“…Yes.”
Alfredo exhaled deeply.
“This is something a maid overheard—but while treating him that night, the young lady said that if he wished, he could perform in a play, but if not, she would let him go anywhere he wanted.”
“Let him go?”
After spending that large sum to buy him?
Arno’s eyebrow twitched.
“What trick is she playing?”
“Is it a trick?”
“If not a trick, then what?”
Alfredo recalled how the young lady’s first question to the man had been about his age.
‘You… how old are you?’
‘Nineteen.’
The fading look in her eyes at that answer.
Alfredo had sensed deep despair in it.
He thought it had been his imagination.
At least until he heard what the maid said.
“Perhaps Lady Luiza thought that man was in the same situation as herself. Herself and that man. Her grandfather’s keepsake and that man. Both abandoned and sold.”
“What nonsense—”
“Just a servant’s sentimental opinion. Please forget it. I’ve said too much. I’ll take my leave.”
Leaving behind words too emotional to suit him, Alfredo bowed and exited the count’s office.
But his words lingered in the air.
Abandoned and sold.
The Count mulled over the phrase briefly, then picked up his documents again.
“……”
He soon set them aside and pulled out the script the young lady had left behind.
Romeo and Juliet.
A girl almost forced into a marriage by her family.
No way… could this be her own story?
* * *
“A.”
“Ah…”
“A.”
“Ah…”
I glared at the actor, Leo Fier, who stood slouched with terrible posture as he half-heartedly practiced vocalization.
“Vocalization is crucial for delivering lines. How can the audience judge your acting if they can’t hear you?”
I was starting to get furious.
Shin Geurim, the hotshot director in Daehak-ro.
When I studied in New York, I even worked on Broadway productions—and not one actor ever behaved like this in front of me.
Not one!
Even an idol forced into a play by their agency had behaved better than this.
“Master.”
Leo brushed his hair back without correcting his posture.
“How many times must I tell you not to call me that? It sounds like some unhealthy relationship dynamic.”
“But it is an unhealthy relationship. You bought me. I’m yours.”
Hearing that languid voice, I was dumbfounded.
Fine. It had only been a week since I bought him, treated his injuries, dressed him, fed him, and sheltered him, turning him from a beast into a human.
Throughout that week, I had told him repeatedly:
‘If you don’t want to be an actor, then don’t. I’ll release you immediately.’
His face may have been a waste to let go, but it wasn’t as if I couldn’t stage a play without him. I had no desire to incur the future Emperor’s wrath and die.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll work hard, Master.’
Yet with those golden eyes full of some unreadable, seductive atmosphere, he repeatedly said:
He would stand on stage.
And this was how he behaved on the very first day of practice.
I somewhat expected this.
He must have heard of my reputation.
The notorious young lady. The frivolous, extravagant woman.
He must think that if he panders to me a little, he can escape later.
And now—
“You bought me because you wanted me, right? There’s no need to make this so complicated. Even if you’re not the actress and I’m not the actor, I’m still yours. You can….”
Leo’s golden eyes approached, glittering.
“You can kiss me.”
To try “seduction” while looking as if he was kissing something disgusting—
Even while gambling with his life, he wouldn’t throw away his pride.
That was Leo Fier, indeed.
“You really are a Romeo.”
“What was that, Master?”
I pushed his chest away and sat down in the box seats below the stage.
“Vocalization and diction—just practice them in your spare time. Once emotions come, those will follow naturally. When people are angry, their voices carry outdoors, right? That’s because they naturally use abdominal breathing.”
“…And?”
I opened the script.
“Let’s talk about this first. What did you feel reading the script, you arrogant slave?”
Fine.
If the future Emperor wants to be called a slave, let’s indulge that for now.
“A cliché love story?”
Leo said, looking down at me with disdain.
“If you wanted to kiss me, you could’ve said so. That’s why you cast me as the male lead and yourself as the female lead, isn’t it?”
I smirked at Romeo’s response.
That’s right.
He was my Romeo.
I was his Juliet.
Ridiculous, considering he would one day kill me—but there was a reason it had to be this way.
“No. You read something else in this script.”
I liked the arrogance shining in those golden eyes.
I liked the idea that he hated me yet still thought he could seduce me.
That was exactly the Romeo I wanted.
“A successor who has lived his entire life as a Montague, but refuses to inherit the name as it is. A rebellious love against the old men who stand in the way of his ambitions.”
I gave a crooked smile and pointed at him.
“You understood Romeo’s story. Slave.”
Just as I had understood Juliet’s story, so had he. Certainly.
