Juliet’s Survival - CHAPTER 2 - Part 1
CHAPTER 2 (Part 1)
Indeed, the Masterpiece was a powerful piece of magic. Most attempts I conceived to prevent the ideas from materializing ended in failure. Still, there were a few things I learned, like
Directly stating things like ‘Don’t write a sad ending’ was impossible, and conveying such messages through writing, such as letters, was also not feasible. Nevertheless, it was a significant achievement to realize that what couldn’t be said verbally also couldn’t be written. It allowed me to experiment with what I could and couldn’t say without meeting William.
I couldn’t say anything directly related to writing, like ‘don’t write bad endings’ or ‘stop writing stories’. But I could say indirect things like, “I don’t like sad endings,” or “It breaks my heart to read about someone dying’.
“Nanny, tidy up my hair a bit.”
After changing my clothes, I called my nanny. The nanny did as I asked and deftly touched my hair. My hair was rolled up to expose my neck, and I wore a butterfly ornament, which had gotten me the most compliments in social circles.
William already seemed to like me, but I wasn’t going to sit around stupidly waiting for him to give up writing because of his feelings for me. I had to make him fall for me so hard that he couldn’t imagine killing me, even in writing.
I’ve never been one to play with people’s emotions, but this was no ordinary matter; it was a matter of life and death. To survive, I was willing to do whatever it took.
I had done as much as I could on my own. Today was the day I was going to see William once again.
“You’ve come again.”
William said with a pleased expression. I looked into his eyes and smiled back.
“Yes. I couldn’t resist the curiosity about the next part.”
“Ah, in that case, let me take you straight to my workspace.”
William immediately led me to his workspace. His demeanor was more confident than before. As I read the script he handed me, I finally understood his confidence.
‘Romeo! Where are thou, Romeo? Renounce your name. If you won’t, just swear your love to me, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’
So goes Juliet’s long line in the play. It was the most famous scene of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. William looked at me expectantly. I was frozen in place, feeling like the ground had given way.
William had written this scene down, which meant that sooner or later I would be speaking those lines. I was already getting goosebumps
The fact that William wrote this scene meant that I would soon have to speak those lines. It was already a chilling feeling.
“How romantic.”
I managed to say, forcing my lips to move. William’s face lit up with joy, almost like a dog wagging its tail. He looked so much like an enthusiastic puppy that I was tempted to pat his head.
“William, you’re truly amazing.”
“Thank you.”
The tips of William’s ears turned red as he replied. His innocent reaction tugged at my conscience.
If it weren’t for ‘Romeo and Juliet’, I might have genuinely liked him. There was no reason not to. He had a handsome face, the talent to gain recognition as a playwright abroad at a young age, and he genuinely liked me, as evident in his affectionate gaze. He was an ideal man who could have stepped out of a children’s storybook.
But he was William Shakespeare. If his ‘Romeo and Juliet’ weren’t a masterpiece, I would never have come to meet him.
I would have tried to live a life that would never be tangled up with anything that reminded me of the original work. Perhaps that was a reason why I couldn’t grasp his palpable feelings from the beginning. How should I express it? He didn’t seem like someone from the same world.
I decided to put aside unnecessary speculations. It was time to gradually proceed with the plan. I looked at William and began to speak.
“I love romance. So, I really enjoy the play you wrote, William. However, I can’t stand tragedies. After enjoying a story, all the joy turns into sadness.”
So please, don’t kill me. I muttered the words that wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
While I couldn’t tell him not to write tragedies, expressing my dislike for them was entirely possible. For some reason, William seemed a bit more deflated than before. Was he considering concluding the story with a tragedy after all?
“I also love cheerful and happy stories. Because, after reading, I can end it with pleasant imaginations.”
William said, and the anxiety that had emerged began to subside. Unlike William Shakespeare who wrote the original play, it seemed like this William didn’t even know if he intended to write a happy ending.
“But I’m not averse to tragedy, either. I want to write something that leaves a strong mark on a person’s heart in some way, and that mark may be in the form of a happy one, or it may be in the form of a scar, but one way or another, I want there to be an emotion that is stirred deep inside of them when they think of my writing.”
Shakespeare answered earnestly. It felt like I was witnessing his sense of professionalism up close. A vague sense of guilt pricked at my chest.
“With someone as impressive as you, Juliet, as an inspiration, I suppose I’m already halfway there.”
William smiled shyly. But my heart did not relax.
The “Romeo and Juliet” he was writing could indeed become a Masterpiece, and I was attempting to interfere with that by sabotaging his work.
Achieving a Masterpiece was no easy feat. Among a hundred scripts, only about ten would gain some level of fame, and among those, only one or two might reach the status of a Masterpiece.
This could be William’s last chance to write a Masterpiece.
His words about wanting to write something that leaves a strong impression on people’s hearts stuck with me oddly.
Of course I’m not giving up. It was a matter of life and death, after all. But I can’t help but feel a strange sense of guilt.
As I walked home from Shakespeare’s mansion, I couldn’t shake the feeling.I felt like I had become a bad person ruining someone else’s life.
“Juliet!”
As I was about to enter the Capulet mansion, someone called me. It was Romeo. Mercutio, his friend, was by his side, apparently trying to restrain Romeo from lingering around our house. Ignoring Romeo, I turned my steps toward the mansion, my body bending to my will, and I knew this wasn’t a scene from the play.
“Juliet, don’t go.”
“Romeo, let’s go back.”
Romeo called me again, but Mercutio tried to hold him back.
Since the day I met Romeo at the ballroom, my heart raced every time I saw him. It was the power of the masterpiece. Perhaps that’s why Romeo comes to me even when he’s not forced to.
If I had met him without knowing anything, I might have fallen in love with him under the enchantment of the Masterpiece. So, I could understand why he came to me. What he feels must be a death-defying tremor and excitement. William had written so.
But I already knew where these emotions came from, and I knew how it would end. It was foolish to risk my life for a manufactured feeling that wasn’t even real love.
“Why don’t you go to Rosaline?”
The words came out sharper than I’d intended. I hoped it didn’t sound like jealousy.
“I’ve already broken up with Rosaline.”
“What?”
It was a surprising answer. They were a couple I thought would eventually get married. If I felt jealousy towards Rosaline, it was all because of manufactured emotions. I had never genuinely wished for them to break up. Romeo and Rosaline were real. They were genuinely in love.
Everything was falling apart. Because of William’s Masterpiece.
I had to pull myself together. I needed to temporarily set aside my guilt. I thought maybe I was ruining William’s life by interfering with his writing, but it might be the right thing to do.
But Masterpiece was trying to ruin everyone’s life. What wrong had Rosaline done to deserve losing her lover?
I felt sorry for William, but his Masterpiece had to disappear. I hardened my resolve once more.
I ignored Romeo and walked into the mansion. I could feel his insistent gaze on my back.
“Don’t be so sad. It will all be forgotten.”
I could hear Mercutio soothing Romeo, and he was right. These were all feelings that would disappear if the spell were broken. I closed the door.
That night, Romeo came to the Capulet mansion, and I was forced to recite the most famous lines from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, without missing a word. It was a dreadful time.
It didn’t matter that I said no to tragedy. I needed a new tactic, and fortunately, an idea came to mind, thanks to Mercutio’s appearance yesterday.
Although William’s writing is fiction, the characters were based on real people. Their personalities and relationships in the play are not entirely unrelated to the real individuals.
While not enemies, the animosity between Capulet and Montague was real, and Tybalt was genuinely hot-tempered. In other words, there might be exaggeration, but the story wasn’t entirely far-fetched.
In that case, how about introducing a character with a relationship entirely different from the content of ‘Romeo and Juliet’?
It would be best to show Romeo and I as enemies, but that would be impossible. Romeo was already completely under the influence of the Masterpiece.
Even if I picked a fight, he would forgive me, and then William would make up a story about Juliet trying to abandon Romeo for her family, and that’s not what I wanted.
But what if there’s a character who hasn’t appeared yet?
Yesterday’s Mercutio’s unexpected appearance turned out to be a stroke of luck. Thanks to that, I could come up with this plan.
The decisive moment that led to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was Mercutio. From the moment when Tybalt killed Mercutio, the wheels towards tragedy began to turn.
If Tybalt hadn’t killed Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet would have been safely married. That was terrible as it was, but it was the next best thing. If things didn’t work out, there was also the option of divorcing after William completed the script. As long as William didn’t insert sentences like ‘The two lived happily ever after,’ it was possible.
Moreover, Mercutio had not yet appeared in William’s story, which meant that he was still free of the Masterpiece.
The emotions derived from the Masterpiece were all fake, but they were more vivid than real emotions. Unless you know the original story like I do, you wouldn’t be suspicious of sudden emotions. In that regard, it was a great advantage to have a character who hadn’t been introduced yet.
Although Tybalt had already appeared, it was only the Montague family that he had antagonized. Fortunately, Mercutio was the son of a lord. Except for being Romeo’s friend, he had no connection with the Montague family.
It would be very difficult to get Mercutio and the Tybalt to get along, but it would not be impossible without the influence of magic. And it was about showing William the intimate relationship between the two. Developments like Tybalt killing Mercutio should be unthinkable. I’d have to meet William and flirt with him a bit more, too, so that he wouldn’t think of killing Mercutio. It was a perfect plan.
Thus, the operation with the code name ‘Hoping for a Friendship between Tybalt and Mercutio’ began.