Episode 96 – The Play (6)

The Play (6)

Elise exited the stage. The script she had been reading ended here.

The remaining scene was the ending, showing the Bard, who had completed his revenge, living again as the Bard.

─…It brings back old memories.

However, The Duke was still on stage.

“?”

Elise looked up at him from under the stage.

Voices from the past flowed from the silver curtain.

─May I make a request?

Bard’s mother, Isabel.

Her words to The Duke.

─If I am alive, my daughter will always be hunted. She will be caught and killed at any time.

Isabel already knew.

As long as she was alive, her daughter, the king’s illegitimate child, would always be hunted by the kingdom. She would be threatened with death for her entire life.

Someday, she would be killed.

So she made a request to The Duke.

─I will offer you my neck, Duke. I don’t know how much a commoner’s neck is worth… but if it gets you what you want, please, spare my daughter.

The Duke, recalling the past, responded.

─I kept my promise.

Shion Ascal’s monologue is hidden as a ‘spoiler’.

Elise watched the last stage that he didn’t tell her about.

─You probably don’t know about my efforts, Isabel.

Numerous scenes flashed across the silver curtain like a zoetrope.

When young The Bard was begging for money on the street, The Duke’s gloved hand reached out to give her a coin.

─At first, it was because of the promise. If the young girl I willingly saved died, I would have failed to keep my promise.

When the Bard was in danger of being killed by a robber, The Duke dispatched a knight to save her.

─Next, it was nothing more than sympathy and compassion.

When she was freezing to death on the street, The Duke personally carried her to the hospital.

─But as the days went by…

Duke kept watching The Bard.

At first, it was because of the promise, then it was out of sympathy and compassion, but the passage of ten years strangely changed Duke’s heart.

─The reason became ambiguous.

In the end, it was not out of sympathy. It was not out of compassion. It was not because of the promise.

The Duke just watched her from afar.

Without knowing the nature of the emotion welling up in his heart.

From when the 13-year-old child became 24, and when he, at 23, became 34.

─But… when I met that child again, who had become a woman…

On the grassy lawn of the royal palace, when he faced Bard…

─I realized it. When our eyes met for the first time…

Duke confirmed his feelings.

─…The human heart is truly strange. I didn’t know it until now, Isabel.

The Duke, who grew up without knowing the human heart, for some unknown reason…

─The daughter, of whom I killed… it seems I’ve come to yearn for her.

He had come to love her.

The Duke chuckled, igniting a flame in his hand and transferring it to the corpses in the palace.

Whoosh!

The bodies ignited like firewood.

Now, his flames would burn the palace and destroy all evidence.

─I must become a traitor.

Amid the flames, The Duke’s monologue moved toward its end.

─The king… the prince… the queen… all of the palace… I killed them, the traitor who dared to plunder the court.

He didn’t want The Bard to die.

He hoped The Bard wouldn’t kill herself.

He prayed that she would live again as The Bard.

─That is my place.

That’s what he had thought from the beginning to the end.

─Your revenge is completed because of me…

The Duke looked at the sword impaled in his chest. A pale smile spread across his lips.

The weapon that almost killed Bard.

With it in him, she couldn’t kill herself.

─…You must live.

Amidst the soaring flames and the collapsing palace, The Duke closed his eyes. He leaned against the throne and welcomed death.

With that, the stage was dyed in darkness.

His act had ended, and the theater fell silent.

“Elise. Get ready. The scene will change soon!”

The primary staff member in the director’s role pushed Elise with a cheerful face.

Perhaps this staff member had been tipped off about Duke’s secret beforehand.

She took a deep breath. It was a bit of a burden.

After all, Duke had just turned the play into a one-man show.

“Go up!”

Elise stepped onto the stage again.

She faced the audience, all of whom were focused without exception.

For them, soaked in some kind of sorrow or lingering emotion, she now had to end this play.

“My story… ends here.”

Elise acted as Bard, shedding a single tear as she thought.

The original “The Bard” that Shion chose was a simple romance.

She thought he had roughened the romance, adding mystery and murder.

She was wrong.

“Am I crying?”

His version of “The Bard” was a detective drama and a romance at the same time.

“Why would the Bard cry? The Bard doesn’t cry even when she’s crying. Don’t be fooled.

The romance was solely The Duke’s love for the Bard.

“…Everyone, please go. My story ends here.”

______________________________________________________________________

After the play ended. Left alone in the dressing room, Elise was looking in the mirror.

Her reflection was beautiful.

Her skin was clean and white as jade, without any blemishes, acne, blackheads, or common wrinkles. Her prominent nose was neither too much nor too little, and her eyes, which are said to have the most significant impact on a person’s impression, were beyond words.

But above all, what Elise was proud of was─ her platinum blonde hair. Typically, it has a white and yellow color, like the flesh of a lemon, but when the sunlight shines on it, it glows brightly like a canary.

The reason she often hears the compliment that she is ‘elegant’ is largely due to the role of this hair, added to her beautiful appearance.

“……”

Elise gently closed her eyes.

Just a moment ago, on the stage of the play, she had thought of Shion Ascal. When she had slightly leaned into, no, slightly brushed against his embrace.

The touch, the warmth, the smell, they were exactly the same as the ‘someone’ who had saved her on the 4th floor of the Nightmare Hotel.

Even if her emotions tried to deny it, her reason was saying so.

Her senses were backing up that claim.

The person who saved her there was undoubtedly── ‘Shion Ascal’.

In such a quiet dressing room, in Elise’s mind, the puzzle was slowly being put together.

The conversation that Yael and Shion Ascal had once had. Shion’s words about being unhappy because he didn’t match her ideal type.

Somehow, his attitude seemed to know about her claustrophobia. The way he pretended not to know even after saving her on the 4th floor.

She opened her eyes again. There was a mirror in front of her.

After combining all these circumstances and looking at her appearance, she had no choice but to admit it.

He, Shion Ascal was……

Suddenly.

The door of the dressing room opened. ‘He’ appeared in the corner of the mirror. Elise let out a small sigh.

“You didn’t leave.”

Shion said nonchalantly, pretending to be indifferent. Elise bit her lip slightly.

“…Ah. What’s with these lenses?”

He fumbled with his eye while looking in the mirror. He couldn’t even take out the lens. Was he stupid, or was he trembling like this?

“Ah. My eye hurts.”

Eventually, looking at him taking out the lens, Elise laughed bitterly.

Now, at this point, there’s no way she wouldn’t know.

There’s no way she wouldn’t notice.

“Hey. I have something serious to say, okay?”

Just then, Shion Ascal also started to get serious. Elise slowly closed her eyes.

“……”

“I told you before that there’s a force trying to kidnap you, right? That’s true. It might seem like a lie-”

“You.”

She cut off his rambling words. She looked at him and chuckled. His golden eyes, wet with moisture, quietly shook.

Elise asked, clicking her chin.

“Do you like me?”

“…What?”

He opened his mouth halfway. He stretched out his neck. He tilted his ear slightly. As if he didn’t even know what he had heard.

“What… what?”

Elise sighed.

“Haah. Control your expression a bit. You look stupid.”

“…This crazy-”

Knock knock.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. The atmosphere was awkward, but it worked out well. Elise quickly said.

“Come in.”

The welcome guest was Professor Beatrice.

“You two! I watched the entire play too.”

She put her hand on her chest with a very moved face.

“…It was such a fine play.”

Elise glanced at Shion. He was still dumbfounded.

Probably because he was hit right on the mark.

Because his deep heart, the intimate emotions he never wanted to be discovered, were exposed, and that too by the person involved.

“At first, I was surprised. The murder case was so explicit… But it was very suitable for the theme of popularizing Latinel. In the end, Duke’s monologue and the twist were so beautiful.”

Professor Beatrice wiped away her tears with her fingers.

“The audience was also immersed in the afterglow for a while. As they slowly made their way out, I heard hundreds of them murmuring, ‘Should I learn Latinel too?'”

The reviews were all positive.

It was good to hear, but it was also uncomfortable for Elise. Her fingers kept fidgeting.

The reward for working so hard on the play could only be received by one of the two.

“So, I don’t think I can choose one.”

Professor Beatrice pulled out two invitations made of gold foil.

“I’ll give it to both of you. You can only get one if you’ve been affiliated with Sermoneus Aerten for 15 years, and I happen to be in my 30th year this year.”

“Ah!”

Elise’s body automatically stood up. As if someone had grabbed her by the hair. In fact, her hair stood on end.

“Please take it. Both Elise and Shion, you are fully qualified.”

Elise reached out her hands cautiously, like someone facing a treasure. The touch of the invitation reached her fingertips. Professor Beatrice gladly handed it over, and Elise slowly accepted it. She placed it on her chest.

Shion Ascal just took it.

“You’ve really worked hard. I’m truly honored to have been able to teach you all……”

Suddenly, Professor Beatrice covered her face with her hands.

“Ah. I’m sorry. I’ll go ahead then.”

The emotionally sensitive professor couldn’t hold back her tears. Elise also pretended to follow her and went outside.

As she did so, she muttered without looking back.

“……I think my message was delivered well. Behave yourself.”

Elise quickly left the dressing room.