Chapter 43

“Yes, yes, the leap of change is dazzling.”

The overly ornate rhetoric deliberately employed felt hollow.

“We can’t copy what the Crestwell Grand Theater does, so the Balthus Theater must be different, look.”

The Duke of Lopez, who had been staring pointlessly into the air, turned his bitter face toward me.

“We’ve also secured Anthony Brogo, a renowned actor who was a symbol of the old Creedwell Grand Theater.”

I winked playfully.

Duke Lopez chuckled at my audacious remark about inheriting Keiran’s legacy instead of Oscar, his son.

But he didn’t seem entirely displeased.

After all, who wouldn’t appreciate someone willing to preserve the traces of Keiran that Oscar was erasing?

The Duke of Lopez spoke up, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

“That said, I understand that Countess Balthus is also preparing something quite daring.”

“News travels fast.”

“I have many ears; now, is it true? So, is it true? That you’re casting a diva like Katarina Blanche as a wooden puppet?”

I nodded, seeing no reason to deny it.

The Duke of Lopez sank deeper into the single-seater sofa.

“After passing the audition, Anthony came to me happily. He told me an amusing story.”

I let out a light chuckle.

Anthony must have done it on purpose.

He’d gotten the best critic in the kingdom to say something about my play.

I would be grateful if he just acted well, but he did something like this.

“Mr. Antony Brogo… truly radiant.”

The unmistakable presence of a talented person…….

The Duke of Lopez’s eyes are filled with curiosity as he gazes at me.

On top of curiosity, a sharp insight was gleaned.

“The protagonist is a boy, isn’t he?”

“Have you realized that?”

“If it’s a play for adults, wouldn’t it be more fitting for the protagonist to be an adult as well? Is that the kind of play Countess Balthus is going to produce, one for children?”

“Oh.”

I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Even if Anthony had spilled the beans to the Duke of Lopez, that would only be part of the synopsis.

At most, he would have told him who the main character was and who his character was.

To deduce this much from such limited information.

Indeed, someone who has spent their life immersed in literature and stories might be different from others.

“Is Countess Balthus planning to degrade her own theater to a third-rate level?”

Hmm, isn’t that a bit harsh?

But I wasn’t surprised. Duke Lopez, who usually used elegant circumlocution, using rude words meant nothing but, ‘I’ve set the stage for you to refute it. Let’s see how you do. Got it?’

It felt like a professor trying to kidnap an undergraduate to a graduate program.

“What I’m aiming for is first-rate children’s theater, Your Grace.”

The Duke of Lopez’s one-eyed glasses glinted sharply.

“It’s unfair of you to dismiss my play as third-rate without even seeing it in the first place.”

“The fact that no one else has tried it means it’s a risky gamble, are you sure, Countess?”

“Oh, yes.”

We don’t know yet, because there’s no active market for children in this world.

In this world, the children’s market might not be as vibrant, so Duke Lopez might not know how much the Disney stories earned.

But I do.

I grinned at the Duke of Lopez.

Watch carefully how the tables turn.

* * *
“Ha, home.”

That subtle tension at the Duke of Lopez’s wasn’t fully resolved until I got home and laid down on the couch in the common room.

The velvet feels like it’s clinging to my back.

I don’t get to spend much time at home these days, so moments like this are all the more precious.

A gentle breeze blew through my hair.

I opened my eyes to find Roche unfolding a piece of paper and gently handing it over.

I gave a small laugh.

“Stop, or I might fall asleep.”

“It’s okay if you do.”

“I have to supervise rehearsal later. Katarina still seems a little lost.”

Of course, objectively, her acting was excellent.

But neither she nor I am satisfied with that, as we both strive for perfection beyond “good”.

“She still seems too human. She needs to move more unnaturally, like a wooden puppet, for the dramatic moment when Pinocchio becomes human at the end…”

“Countess.”

Roche interrupted me on a rare occasion.

“I think you’re thinking too much about work.”

I tilted my head and looked up at him. Roche hesitated for a moment, then extended his palm and placed it over my eyes.

His hand felt cool like my face had heated up from the tension.

I let out a pained sound that was more like a sigh and closed my eyes.

His palm twitched against my lashes.

Roche was right.

My mind was too full of thoughts about the performance.

Even though I was prepared, juggling the roles of stage director and theater owner was pressing me down with an unimaginable workload.

‘Oh, now I have to finalize the premiere date and advertise it properly…….’

“Oh, now you’re thinking about work again.”

“……How did you know?”

“Your eyes were moving, you know, the way they do when you’re thinking.”

“What.”

I smiled as I got up. Roche stared at me, his expression serious, then familiarly knelt beside me on the floor and rested his head on my knee.

Without realizing it, I reached out and tousled his soft hair.

“Come to think of it, why did you do that?”

“What?”

With his head resting on my lap and his neck relaxed, Roche lazily asked.

“You seemed upset until we arrived at Duke Lopez’s mansion. Why was that?”

Roche’s body, which had been completely relaxed, tensed for a moment.

For some reason, he didn’t like it and pressed down hard on his upper body as he tried to stand up.

Only when his muscles relaxed did a smile tug at the corners of my mouth.

He pursed his dry lips.

“Is it hard to say?”

“No, I thought it might be uncomfortable for you to hear, My Lady.”

“What is it?”

I wondered what he was going to say.

Roche was like a docile puppy in front of me.

He’s loyal to the person who saved him after losing his memory.

I never expected such a bold question.

“I thought you received the flowers from Duke Lopez with ‘romantic intentions’.”

“What?”

My head spun at the shocking statement.

Roche’s ‘romantic intentions’ were those things a man has for a woman, like…….

“That’s ridiculous!”

Roche quickly added, just before I jumped to my feet in disbelief.

“Misunderstandings were cleared up as soon as I met Duke Lopez in person.”

“R-Right. You can’t have such misunderstandings once you see the real person. Duke Lopez is my father’s peer…”

Although the misunderstanding was cleared up, I still felt dizzy. Ah, the aftermath of this…

Roche straightened his upper body and leaned slightly toward me.

“However, My Lady.”

“Huh?”

“Are you thinking of remarrying…… in the near future?”

Before I could recover from my dizziness, I was hit with a double whammy.

What’s going on? This isn’t like you!

I grabbed my head, which was starting to throb.

“Oh, no. Not at all. I’m too busy with theater work right now to even think about remarriage.”

“I see.”

I probably should have scolded him for asking such a question.

But Roche, who was usually not like this, seemed to catch me off guard with his sudden behavior change.

In my confusion, I ended up answering him straightforwardly.

Upon hearing my answer, Roche sounded oddly satisfied.

“I was wondering what would happen to me if the Countess remarried,”

“Uh-huh. I see.”

I could understand the concern.

My remarriage to whoever it might be, and the merging of my household with his, might make Roche’s status ambiguous.

Naturally, he’d be worried.

Somehow convinced, I cleared my throat.

“But you’re not opposed to marriage, right? Since you’ve been married before…”

“Roche!”

“If you’re going to remarry, it’s going to have to be someone of your class.”

Alas…….

My head is spinning and I can’t say anything.

I firmly asserted.

“I’m not planning to remarry anytime soon. Don’t worry about it.”

“……aah.”

So that’s how it is.

Roche’s long, drawn-out voice is somehow ethereal.

It doesn’t sound happy.

I just couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

Earlier, he said he didn’t want me to remarry.

So, shouldn’t he welcome my words just now?

“What are you thinking?”

He turned his head without a word.

Somehow, his ears were a bit redder than usual.

Why on earth?

In this labyrinth of a conversation, I could only raise question marks. It was the first time I felt this way in a conversation with Roche.

I stared at his face, which turned away from me, for a long time without saying anything.