Chapter – 24
A well-dressed man looked at the social gathering with tired eyes.
Men and women hiding their true intentions and putting on airs.
Their conversations just skirted around the edges, and their voices held no sincerity.
“Wow, really? That’s so funny.”
A lie. It wasn’t funny at all.
He looked at the woman with the airy voice and thought.
She’s really bad at acting.
That woman had approached him earlier.
The entire time he endured her speaking to him in that fake voice, he felt like he was dying of thirst.
‘Alcohol. I need alcohol.’
The moment her desirous gaze turned towards him, he was plagued by a craving for alcohol.
It was a long-standing habit; when the eyes of many people were on him, he sought out drink.
But even without the eyes of many, this was the first time just one piercing gaze fixed on him made his hands tremble and his breath catch.
‘Somehow, it’s not getting better, only worse.’
His primary physician said it was because of the alcohol, but he simply couldn’t give up drinking.
Because without alcohol, there was no means to make him forget ‘those memories.’
Anyway, after he finished an entire bottle of champagne and finally calmed down, sticking close to one wall to stay out of everyone’s sight, a few nobles passed by him, whispering amongst themselves.
“So, that woman is Louise? I heard she had no money and sold off this castle, but for someone like that, she was wearing an incredibly expensive diamond necklace, wasn’t she?”
“I heard her fiancé gave it to her. It’s the most expensive diamond in the Empire.”
“And she still showed up with male actors instead of that fiancé? Wow, she really lives up to the title of ‘Delinquent Duchess.'”
“I heard she’s putting on that play here too? The one where she kissed the male actor on stage…!”
“I heard the play they’re doing today isn’t that one?”
Delinquent Duchess.
He also knew of that woman who was the subject of these people’s gossip. When he was invited to this main castle, he had also heard that the Duchess was coming.
She had supposedly saved a theater, ‘White Friars,’ from the brink of closure by making one play a hit, turning it into a topic of interest for the Empire’s citizens.
He wasn’t particularly interested, but it was obvious even without seeing.
What kind of play? The Delinquent Duchess probably just put handsome men she fancied on stage and put on some decadent show.
Hearing that she was going to do that kind of show here too made him start craving alcohol again.
‘She’ll probably do it on that floor.’
He grimaced while looking at the floor area at the front of the banquet hall.
Before moving to a spot far away from there, he headed towards where the party food was laid out, intending to snag another bottle of alcohol.
And just as he was sneakingly crossing the floor with a bottle in hand…
Someone brushed past him.
“…?”
That person… something about them…
Wasn’t they too handsome?
It was a captivating appearance.
He found himself turning his head without even realizing it. He couldn’t help it.
Baron Jean Pierre—he was a producer who had run a global theater a long time ago, so whenever he saw someone with a unique appearance, his aesthetic sense would kick in.
As he stood there rooted to the spot, he noticed a few others around him were also staring at the man.
The Baron only then realized the man was wearing unique clothes.
A golden top and bottom. The clothes, embroidered with lavish patterns, were the kind you’d expect to see in the royal court of a foreign nation.
Just as he was bewildered, the man flashed a smile, his red eyes gleaming.
“To everyone who has come to my banquet, thank you. I, Prince Edward, shall greet you personally.”
‘……?’
A clear voice, a perfect royal accent, the elegant hand movements holding the glass.
He found his gaze stolen by this strange prince without even meaning to.
Well, of course.
Ordinary people might think he’s some kind of madman, but he was different. He could recognize it at a glance.
This is… ‘acting.’
And not just any acting, but ‘proper acting’ that perfectly controls every single finger, every single toe.
Some actors make unnecessary movements when they perform. If they have a habit of shaking their leg, they shake their leg the same way even when acting.
But a real actor, when performing, sheds their own habits and such and controls their entire body.
For that kind of control, perfect immersion is necessary.
You truly have to get into that role, believe that the cheap dress you’re wearing is a real princess’s dress, believe that the cheap theater is the imperial palace—you have to be deeply immersed in that situation.
And that actor right now was doing exactly that.
He was looking at the people in this banquet hall, yet he wasn’t looking at them.
What that means is, while the people in this banquet hall are gathered for Catherine’s party, that actor is now looking at the people as if they are guests at his party.
At Prince Edward’s party.
He felt goosebumps rise all over his body.
So, they’re starting the play not on that floor, but here?
While he was bewildered…
Prince Edward bowed his head with a dignified face, then raised it almost immediately, his red eyes shining as he spoke.
“To be honest, I wasn’t even very grateful.”
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
The polite prince’s demeanor was gone without a trace, replaced by the aura of a somewhat arrogant and cruel-natured prince.
A few people who felt that chill moved slightly away from the prince.
They seemed bewildered, still unable to grasp what was happening.
Then, someone spoke.
“This… is the play, I hear.”
“…This is it? This kind of thing…?”
Everyone was flustered, and simultaneously, a small empty space formed around the prince in the center of the banquet hall.
A small circular stage for the prince had been created.
Realizing this, the Baron was astonished.
‘This is the stage…? Making a stage here?’
He created a stage purely through acting alone.
Using only the power the actor possessed, he made people accept that this was now a ‘play.’
It was an innovative attempt.
Clearly, the veteran actors he knew would not accept such an attempt.
The one who suggested this attempt couldn’t be the Delinquent Duchess, could it be that actor?
He continued to watch, admiring the actor’s performance and the attempt itself.
Before he knew it, he had forgotten about drinking.
“Banquets in this palace are an everyday occurrence. To be honest, it was boring. Isn’t that true for everyone gathered here?”
He said with a sly smile, approaching the woman closest to him and clinking his glass with hers.
The woman, meeting the prince’s eyes up close, widened her own.
Naturally. He had the kind of beauty that could enchant people.
‘He’s naturally interacting with the audience.’
Within just a minute or two, the Baron found himself rooting for this prince’s performance.
He wanted to see how far he could go.
Just as the mesmerized woman nodded…
A different voice was heard from the floor area.
“My father called for me from the morning. ‘Tom! You rat-like bastard. Where are you!'”
The clear voice focused everyone’s attention on the floor at the front of the banquet hall. But the owner of the voice wasn’t visible.
That’s when it happened.
Someone poked their head out from behind the curtain at the back of the floor.
“I couldn’t answer. Because I was scared of my father.”
Soon, a man with a face covered in wounds and tattered clothes pulled his body out onto the stage.
He hunched his body over, wearing a frightened expression.
The man who called himself ‘Tom’ seemed, at a glance, to be a completely different person from the ‘Prince.’
“My father hit me every day. I prayed every day. ‘Father, I was wrong! I was wrong!'”
Tom continued his soliloquy on stage, then covered his face with both arms as if someone was really hitting him.
“But to be honest, I didn’t think I had done anything wrong.”
However, the moment he raised his face…
For some reason, Tom’s face sent a chill down the spine.
Just as the polite prince from moments before had turned cruel, Tom, who had seemed like a boy in misfortune, also suddenly changed into a cynical face.
“I thought, if I could, I would kill my father, but I didn’t. There was only one reason. Because that person isn’t worth that much to me.”
A cold voice.
‘They’re similar.’
The moment he had that thought, he was bewildered.
Can acting be this similar?
Even if the two had practiced together extensively, matching the tone and manner of their acting to this degree was difficult.
That’s how actors are. When immersed in their own emotions, it’s hard to match tones with their partner.
It’s not something one can do on their own. That required… the intervention of a ‘third party.’
Could that third party possibly be the Delinquent Duchess?
While he was bewildered by such thoughts, the play steadily progressed.
“I said I would go out to get some air, and left the castle walls. I wanted to escape this pretentious banquet hall, even if just for a moment.”
The prince continued his soliloquy, crossing the banquet hall and stepping up onto the stage.
A natural movement, as if he were leaving the banquet hall and going outside the castle walls.
And there, the ‘Prince’ and the ‘Beggar’ meet…
