68: Stage Actor Brandon / More Light / Highly Nutritious Spicy Soup 4

It had been overwhelming, to say the least.

Jill had honestly underestimated it a bit.

She had watched stage plays many times during her time living in the royal castle. She never found them very interesting. The purpose of the performances had been to please the king and queen or to avoid displeasing them, and they were not meant for the other audiences.

The content had been peppered here and there with praise for the current royal family and policies, and frankly, it would not have been unreasonable to call it “flattery.” Jill had never seen anything else. In that case, the stories Conrad read aloud to her had been far more interesting.

Because of that, Jill had not held much expectation for the stage. She had only thought, “Well, it should be more interesting than when I was in the royal castle,” and that notion had been completely betrayed.

“That was amazing……!”

“Yes!”

“Yeah… I was sort of swept away by it. It ended before I knew it.”

Jill nodded with Carol and Maureen, faces flushed with excitement.

She realized that she was more excited than she had expected, but she wanted to share the emotion.

“I never imagined it would be such a wonderful story…… You could never see something like this in the royal capital……!”

The story began when a woman whose husband had been killed handed the murderer over to a knight and accused him. But it had not been a trivial murder. As she examined her husband’s belongings, the woman gradually learned the motive behind the murderer’s crime, and also the hidden past of the deceased husband.

The husband’s purpose for approaching the woman had been revenge. The husband’s father had originally served her family as a servant, but he had been falsely accused of “breaking a vase bestowed by the king.” In truth, it had been the woman’s parent who carelessly broke it. After that, the father led a poor life and died along with his wife.

The man, having seen the miserable end of his parents, became utterly corrupted. He had no qualms about deceiving people and using violence. Then ambition arose. Using his wits and violence, he took money from people, slapped wads of bills at impoverished nobles, seized their estates, and gained status. Having gained leisure, the man devoted himself to study and rose even higher.

As the man climbed up, a marriage proposal involving the woman arose. The man smirked. The chance for revenge came to him. However, unfortunately, the woman’s parents—his intended revenge targets—had died in an accident. The man regretted that, but he intended to toy with the woman to vent his frustration.

Here, the gears went awry.

To gain the woman’s trust and then cast her down, the man showered her with false love without hesitation. The woman sincerely appreciated this. With her parents dead and her family on the verge of collapse, she could not help but hold affection for the man who gallantly appeared and helped her. Moreover, at that time, another lecherous noble, famous for his lust, persistently tried to take the woman as a concubine.

The man became angry: “There’s no way I’d let such a worthless person steal my revenge target,” and he outwitted the lecherous noble. As a result, the woman felt even more grateful. Their distance narrowed, and the man grew accustomed to the situation. He felt a peace in the woman’s sincerity that he had never experienced before. Making excuses to himself like “There’s no need to rush,” he postponed his revenge and enjoyed the false married life.

But the man failed to notice that the retribution for the sins he had committed so far was creeping up on him little by little. Until the very end, he never realized there was someone entrusted with the thoughts of those he had trampled on, someone who decided to take revenge on a mighty human enjoying the peak of his life.

…Such a complex story of revenge, intrigue, and romance emerged through the testimonies of the murderer, the lecherous noble, and the servants she had trusted.

In it, Brandon portrayed the man’s entire life vividly. His innocent and good-hearted childhood. The boy who threw away his childhood after his father’s death awakened his thirst for revenge and ambition. Then, finally facing the sins he had committed, the man realized he was no different from those he deeply hated, and pitifully begged for forgiveness. Jill was moved by the ever-changing expressions Brandon showed.

In the theater, the excited audience, still not calmed down, was leaving while talking in hushed tones about their surprise and emotion. Just when Jill thought it might be time for them to start moving as well, a short, black-haired man approached.

“Excuse me, would you be Miss Jill?”

“Yes. What is it?”

“I apologize for the late greeting. My name is Chris, and I serve as the manager of the Kanaria Troupe. It seems Brandon from our troupe suddenly visited you the other day…….”

“No, thank you for coming to the store.”

“That… was it all right?”

“All right?”

Jill asked blankly, and the man looked troubled.

“Well, Brandon generally behaved himself, but when it came to the stage and work, he suddenly became pushy. He was overly particular about stage sets and costumes, so someone like me had to step in.”

“Ah…… It sounds tough.”

“It truly is, yes.”

Jill let out a voice of understanding and hastily covered her mouth.

Chris continued with a wry smile.

“Do you have any plans after this? If it’s all right with you, Brandon would like to invite everyone to a meal.”

◆

Jill and the others were made to wait for a while.

That said, in another small hall, troupes other than the Kanaria Canary Troupe were performing plays, or there were guitar and trumpet players performing outdoors right near the theater, so there were countless ways to pass the time. They did not even feel as if they were being made to wait.

“Sorry for the rush! How was it!?”

They had been summoned again by Brandon’s manager, and the place they were taken to was a private room in a restaurant attached to the theater. The hefty ebony table and the paintings of flowers hanging on the walls were notable, but otherwise it was a neat layout. The midday light shining through the window was dazzling, and in contrast to the theater’s gorgeousness, it had a very calm atmosphere.

“It was incredibly entertaining!”

When Jill nodded with a warm, delighted face, Brandon also smiled happily.

“Right? This was a performance we had done many times, but it kept gaining popularity. It’s just been revivals over and over. Ah, but each time we review and change the direction and such.”

“I thought both the acting and the direction were wonderful.”

“But I want to try even more ingenuity in terms of production. This time’s play was easier because we kept the cast and scenes subdued, but I also want to do more complex ones. I’ve been talking with the scriptwriter and director, but we lack the power to devote to art. Hey, you think so too, manager?”

“Calm down, Brandon.”

Just like last time, Brandon started speaking in a torrent. When the manager cleared his throat, Brandon smiled wryly and stopped talking for the moment, but once he got to talking about something he loved, his brakes broke again. This aggressiveness felt somehow nostalgic. People engrossed in what they loved were Jill’s kind of companions.

But as the conversation heated up, Jill suddenly noticed.

Brandon’s plate had not decreased at all.

He had only taken a small bite, then just sipped his tea.

“By the way, aren’t you eating anything?”

“Hm? Ah, on performance days I don’t feel very hungry.”

At those words, the manager made a suspicious face.

“Are you all right? You didn’t eat much in the morning either, did you?”

“I’m fine. When I’m focused, I’m like this.”

“No, before a performance, you used to eat quite a bit.”

“Health can change. It’s not like I’m feeling bad.”

Suddenly, the two of them started arguing, leaving Jill and the others behind.

But Jill felt this was no ordinary argument.

The harshness in the manager’s face and voice was not irritation.

Rather, it felt so earnest it was almost tearful.

“Don’t tell me… you used that again…? You said it wasn’t contraband this time!”

“I’m not lying. I just mixed in a little. I didn’t like the color.”

“That’s as good as a lie! You said you wouldn’t use that powder anymore…….”

The term “contraband powder.”

And Brandon was an actor.

What these two clues indicated was obvious.

“H-Hey, Brandon!?”

And Jill’s bad feeling proved correct.

Brandon, who had stood up and argued with the manager, suddenly collapsed as if his knees had given out.