Chapter 35

With an exhausted and empty expression, he stood in the center of the stage, hunching his body.

And hastily, he tried to eat something he held in his hand.

No, he was ‘trying to eat’.

He opened his mouth to chew something, but he ended up spitting out whatever had entered his mouth.

His hands trembled as if tightly clutching something precarious.

His upper body leans forward involuntarily. I could picture what he was doing.

He’s holding a fish in his hand, and he’s spitting out the scales that are in his mouth.

I looked down at the script for the assignment.

It read

(Pinocchio sneaks up behind an old man who is trying to eat a raw fish. He recognizes the face and is greatly surprised. He leaps at the old man with a mixture of joy, sadness, and disbelief.)

I covered my mouth with my hand.

The subject of this action cue is Pinocchio. So, most of the people who chose this assignment ignored this part and continued acting from the next paragraph, where Geppetto’s lines begin.

Because of that, I too had forgotten that there was such an action cue.

I didn’t realize that it should have started from this point…

He struggled for a moment, then suddenly gasped, and his center of gravity tilted backward.

A little boy ran up to him and hugged him with joy and delight.

Anthony was clearly alone on the stage, but for a moment, he could clearly see the imaginary boy clinging to him.

The old man’s eyes widened.

His eyes, which had been seemingly unmotivated, widened in dumbfounded amazement.

“What am I seeing?”

He asked in a small, mesmerized voice.

But it came through loud and clear to me, Becky, and Katarina in the audience.

Becky shuddered slightly at the resonance of Anthony’s first line.

I didn’t even look up. My eyes were too focused on him to even blink.

Unconcerned with our reactions, the old man on stage continued.

“My dear little Pinocchio, is it really you?”

Amidst the excitement and joy, there was a hint of fear.

Fear.

‘Good interpretation.’

I set my jaw and stared at him.

What follows is a scene where they explain to each other what happened while they were separated.

The lines are so long that for someone who is seeing the script for the first time, it’s inevitable to get stuck.

With so little time to memorize, many actors would either forget the lines halfway through, or if they did, they would be so eager to spit out the long, breathy lines that they would give up on getting the message across.

Anthony Brogo, however, was different.

“To tell you my story,” he says, “one day there was a storm, and the ship capsized, and since then…….”

With no stage set, no soundtrack…… or even opposing characters, the old man on stage sucked me in.

With his gestures and story, the flow of the events he had experienced was vividly depicted in front of my eyes.

The ship swallowed by a shark, Geppetto’s desperate life sustained by the remaining materials on the ship…

“But now all I have left is this tiny candle, which will soon be extinguished.” ……

After the skillful delivery of a perfectly memorized story, there’s a dreary, desolate atmosphere.

Geppetto, whose only possession is a single candle that will soon be extinguished, his helpless frustration is as unsettling as the candle flickering from its short life.

“We’re about to be engulfed in complete darkness.”

The future of a rich man barely reunited with his family is dim.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“…Good job.”

That was the end of the assignment.

I dropped the pen I’d been holding to take notes and threw it onto the paper.

What was that?

I couldn’t understand it.

I couldn’t understand why someone so brilliant would hesitate to apply.

He was so perfect!

I looked at him with a puzzled expression.

After silently remaining as Geppetto for a while, Anthony straightened his waist and greeted me, Becky, and Katarina.

His gaze locked with Katarina’s in the air.

After he disappeared down the backstage aisle, Katarina let out a long breath. She must have been holding her breath for a while.

Her mouth opened with difficulty.

“I can’t believe this is happening. I had no idea.”

“You had no idea?”

“That man, I knew him.”

“You knew him?”

“Yes. He was in the Crestwell Grand Theater. I’ve seen him around, but I’ve never seen him act.”

I looked at the application.

Sure enough, it listed the Crestwell Grand Theater on the resume.

‘Oscar, what are you thinking? ’

He’s been nervous about the talent drain since losing Katarina. To crush my theater from the start.

Shouldn’t you keep someone like that on a tighter leash and treat him well?

Katarina gritted her teeth.

“I had no idea he was such a talented actor! I only knew him as the old man backstage. Just a person who couldn’t get any roles, just occupying space…”

“He couldn’t get any roles?”

My eyes widened in disbelief.

To waste such acting talent?

Not just acting talent. How smart he was—even just reading a short script, he knew exactly what to say.

But realization came to me in an instant.

‘Ah.’

What Oscar sells is a fictitious world, leaving behind only beauty. A glamorous daydream…

“There are no old people in the plays at the ……Crestwell Grand Theater, because the company’s tagline is “a world of onstage fantasy that’s different from reality.”

There’s no place for an old man.

I remembered arguing with Katarina, so I must have remembered, but Anthony’s flawless acting momentarily made me forget.

My head spins at how I didn’t realize it.

“Even if that’s the case, it would be surprising for someone as old as me to come. There’s no role suitable for an old man like me. The stage is a glamorous world.”

Now I understand Anthony’s statement that I heard from outside.

With mixed feelings, I sat down with the two of them and began to organize the list of successful applicants.

At the top of the list, Anthony Brogo’s name was unanimously chosen.

* * *
The first day of practice was shortly after we had assembled the cast.

The weather was nice, so I was walking down from the theater, two blocks away.

While enjoying the presence of Roche, who was like a cat, following me silently, suddenly an unexpected voice reached my ears.

“Poor Countess Balthus.”

My head snaps around reflexively at the sound of my name.

The terrace of a café.

Three ladies were chatting under a parasol.

I don’t think they said my name by accident.

It was a little too loud for a casual conversation.

They must have seen me passing by and did it on purpose.

Roche must have heard my name too, because he stopped with me and stared at me.

I smiled at Roche and continued to listen to what they had to say.

“I don’t think she realized she was creating a garbage theater company when…she decided to pursue the industry.”

“Oh, that’s a bit harsh, Gwyneth.”

“Was I too direct?”

Hmmm.

I stood there, studying the ladies’ faces.

Sure enough, all three look familiar.

People who used to flatter me to get closer to the Duchy of Crestwell

They used to support me.

Now that Oscar and I are so far apart, they’re gossiping about me.

I wonder if they think Oscar will look out for them.

I gave them a hard look.

‘Oscar will feed their vanity with his praise and caresses, but he will not return the favors they seek.

He’s petty and ruthless.

He might use them without their knowledge.

But those who don’t know any better are busy gossiping behind my back.

“I’m sure Countess Balthus was happy when she won over Katarina Blanchette.”

“She must have thought she could do anything.”

“It was just short-sighted arrogance. What can she do about it…….”

The ladies acted as if they hadn’t noticed my presence.

But I could see their ears prick up.

Do they expect me to rush up to them and act like an asshole?

To ruin her reputation and discourage her from the theater business.

Maybe that’s the “strategy” Oscar has been covertly instructing them to use.

Oscar Crestwell couldn’t stay quiet and kept annoying others?

As I listened, they seemed to get a little impatient. They seemed to want a reaction.

“Well, Katarina Blanchette was a bad choice, too. I hear the Duke of Crestwell made her a very good offer, and she turned it down.”

A low chuckle.

“She’s probably hitting the ground right now and regretting it.”

Seeing that I had heard enough, I decided it was time to intervene.

I walked briskly toward the café terrace, where the three noblewomen were chatting loudly.

They were gossiping so loudly that other patrons in the café were uneasily coming out and glancing at them.