Chapter – 10
“Miss Juliet! Where on earth are you!”
The nurse, her voice booming through the entire theater, appeared on stage.
With her comical movements and exaggerated expressions, people chuckled at the familiar stage acting.
“I swore on my virginity from when I was 12 that I would find the young lady! Oh, for goodness sake! Young lady! Where are you!”
It was then.
Something passed over the facade decorating the back of the stage.
Silky, flowing black hair.
In that fleeting moment, people’s eyes were captivated.
Strangely, seeing something for just a brief moment only makes people more curious.
Some audience members pointed to the second level, giggling.
“There, there she is!”
They were already deeply immersed in the play.
The stage became a bit noisy, but the veteran actress, accustomed to such bustling atmospheres, smoothly navigated the situation and even sublimated it into humor.
“Where?”
“There!”
“Ah, here!”
“No, there!”
“Ah, heeeeeere?”
While laughter erupted, a few quick-witted audience members realized.
Juliet Capulet.
That woman was the one everyone in this place had been waiting for.
Louisa Messena.
The notorious villainess of the century who sold off the brilliant heritage of the Messena Duchy in this very theater for a pittance.
And despite that, still not coming to her senses, the woman who took to the stage herself to perform vulgar plays with those handsome actors.
They said she was beautiful, so maybe they should take a look at her face.
Just as everyone’s ugly expectations could be felt.
Not from the second level of the facade, but from the very top of the facade, a woman popped her face into view.
“……!”
Everyone held their breath.
There were people who had even prepared in advance to throw stones and eggs when this villainess appeared.
But even they, for that moment, couldn’t think any such thoughts.
Because she was… too pretty.
Beneath her neatly braided black hair, her snow-white skin glowed under the lights.
Her round, red eyes shone mysteriously, and her high nose bridge and thin lips curved into a wicked smile.
“Stupid nurse.”
Her briefly heard voice was arrogant.
Yet, for some reason, it was also cute.
Like a real 14-year-old girl.
‘That… is the notorious villainess?’
Elise, who had momentarily lost her senses, became puzzled.
The Louisa Messena from the rumors was not like that.
She was the empire’s greatest wastrel, who caused a scene at every party she attended, had dark shadows under her eyes from alcohol and a debauched life, and spewed curses in a venomous voice.
So, she should have been worse than that, at least worse than that?
Of course, she did somehow have a face that looked wicked-.
‘What kind of appearance had I expected from Lady Louisa?’
Elise was bewildered, having seen the villainess’s true face.
Probably everyone felt the same.
Forgetting what exactly they had expected the villainess’s face to look like, they unknowingly projected themselves onto the mischievous young girl.
It was then.
The young Juliet, wearing a dress, plopped down on a spot visible above the roof.
Just like a tomboyish little kid.
Sitting there, Juliet opened a book and held it up.
While the nurse fidgeted and ran around below, Juliet subtly enjoyed it and read her book.
Of course, she was soon caught.
“Young lady! Your mother is looking for you!”
At the nurse’s sharp cry, Juliet’s previously wicked smile vanished, and she reverted to a somewhat cowed little girl.
“Mother is?”
“Yes! Come down at once! Right now!”
“…….”
Juliet briefly looked at the audience.
In that moment, people read a multitude of emotions from the actress in an instant.
It wasn’t because she acted out a multitude of emotions.
It was simply because a 14-year-old Juliet was right there.
‘That’s right, I was always like that when my mother called me.’
That feeling of being annoyed and scared for some reason. The antipathy, fear, and fundamental anxiety typical of teenage girls.
Elise was instantly sucked into Juliet’s world, and as a result, her heart sank in the following scene.
“Count Paris wishes to take you as his wife.”
The moment Juliet’s expression hardened, Elise bit her lip.
For some reason, Elise felt like shouting.
‘Sister, don’t marry that man!’
If Count Paris married such a pretty, young Juliet, then what would become of all the other actors who had appeared so far?
Especially Romeo.
He had a face that looked like the male lead to anyone who saw him!
Without realizing it, Elise waited anxiously for the moment the two would meet.
That moment, of course, came soon.
A masked ball was being held at the Capulet house.
Romeo, who had fallen in love with Juliet’s cousin Rosaline, also attended the ball in secret, hiding his identity, and ended up meeting Juliet.
Amidst the soft, beautiful singing of the minstrels, the two locked eyes, and anyone could see they had fallen in love. They slipped behind a curtain.
‘What are they doing behind the curtain! What are they doing…!’
Just as Elise thought she wanted to grab the two actors by the collars and pull them out, a light turned on behind the curtain.
The area behind the curtain became brighter than the front of the stage, revealing their silhouettes.
‘That nose bridge! It’s clearer than my own future!’
Sister Juliet! Brother Romeo!
Given their ages in the play, they were absolutely not Elise’s sister or brother, but she had unknowingly decided on those titles for them.
The distinct nose bridges drew closer, and closer, and even closer-.
The lights went out.
“……Darn it!”
Curses flew from the surroundings.
“Be quiet! Let us watch the play!”
“It’s just something you say when you’re angry! If they’re going to kiss anyway, they should do it in front of us!”
Wasn’t that the person who earlier said, ‘This kind of play’?
“That’s a fair point!”
Amidst the chaotic conversation of the audience, Elise never took her eyes off the stage.
The two finally learned each other’s identities.
“Romeo, why must your name be Romeo? Deny your father and refuse your name. And… take me.”
They decide to love each other even though they know they are from feuding families.
The situation was tragic, but the two were undaunted.
Romeo, going to the Friar, says with a rebellious face that even if she is the daughter of his enemy, there’s no reason he cannot love her. Juliet, for the first time, rebels against her parents, saying she will marry the one she loves.
But tragedy befalls them.
“A plague o’ both your houses! I shall be worm’s meat tomorrow!”
Romeo’s friend Mercutio is killed by Juliet’s cousin Tybalt.
“Mercutio’s soul is waiting for you to accompany him, Tybalt!”
Romeo, burning with vengeance, kills Tybalt.
Before Romeo’s vengeful eyes and the realistic sword fight, everyone held their breath.
How did the adults’ feud drive Romeo to this point?
How did Romeo, who had no interest in the feud between the two families, change like this?
Everyone was breathless before the tragedy.
Finally, the play races towards its climax: Romeo is banished far away by the Prince; Juliet fakes her death to marry him; Romeo, unaware of the plan, commits suicide before Juliet’s (apparent) corpse.
“O happy dagger, let thy sheath be my heart.”
Juliet, her face filled with fury, looked at the audience and raised the dagger.
Her blazing red eyes.
A venomous expression.
Juliet’s face, holding the dagger, was more vivid than anyone’s and was deeply etched into everyone’s minds.
Who would have thought that beautiful face would suit holding a dagger so well?
Everyone marveled, and at the same time, the moment the dagger plunged into Juliet’s chest, they clutched their own chests as if stabbed.
It was sad that such a fateful love could break so futilely, and it was regrettable that the playful girl from the beginning of the play had changed so much.
‘It was so good at first! It was like that!’
Elise was the same.
She had 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 being torn apart, and she could no longer hold back her sniffles.
In the darkness, she stealthily wiped her tears with her sleeve.
But then.
A strange sniffle came from beside her.
“…P-please, don’t die… Louisa….”
It was Elise’s father, who had seemed to show no reaction until now.
His eyes were red, and his face was glistening with tears.
“Ugh… No…. Louisa….”
“Father…. It’s not Louisa, it’s Juliet.”
Thanks to that, Elise managed to hold back her tears, if only for a brief moment, and wiped her father’s tears.
She was about to say that it was Juliet, and that the real Lady Louisa was still alive, but her father’s wailing made all the words she was about to say fly away.
But there was no need to be embarrassed.
Because everyone around them was also crying.
* * *
“Huff… Huff….”
It was a hurried curtain call.
Still unable to properly compose myself, I sat down on a box backstage, watching the actors line up to go out for the curtain call.
I needed to catch my breath, even just a little, before going out.
‘The audience was so immersed, I got overly immersed along with them.’
In the suicide scene, I got so into it that my acting even became a bit exaggerated.
This kind of thing usually happens to actors who are ‘stage creatures’.
Stage creatures.
Put negatively, it’s called being an attention-seeker, but among actors, some become several times bolder in actual performance compared to practice.
They get overly excited when receiving people’s attention.
These actors can have exaggerated emotions in real performances, sometimes ruining the stage.
But I’m not that type, yet the audience was pouring so much energy into watching the stage that I got excited along with them.
I roughly wiped away the remaining tears and sweat with my sleeve.
My eyes stung from the saltiness.
“Eugh….”
“Stay still.”
Then, a voice was heard in my blurry vision.
From very close by.
I flinched and pulled my body back.
“I know you don’t like being touched. Stay still. It’s a handkerchief.”
A handkerchief?
Soon, soft silk touched my eye.
After a rather delicate touch passed over, I opened my eyes.
Golden eyes were looking down at me.
“So, this is what our Master likes. Not me, but the play.”
The goat blood I had prepared in advance left vivid bloodstains on my face and chest.
Even though I knew it was makeup, I got goosebumps without realizing it.
Unknowingly, I clenched my fist.
Without me noticing, only Leo and I remained backstage.
It was a place where, no matter how much I screamed amidst the commotion outside, no one would come to help me. The man stained with fake blood smiled.
The moment his lips moved, I grimaced.
If he does anything weird, I’ll hit him with a wooden plank and run.
Despite that resolution, Leo’s lips uttered strange words.
“But, you know… Could you maybe… like me a little too?”
This crazy bastard.
Useless temptation again.
