Chapter 03
Arnaud’s next business venture was this.
A theatre.
Or rather, to be precise, an exhibition disguised as a theatre.
“The last princess of the duchy unveils the lavish theatre she decorated with extravagant luxury for all to see.”
At the moment, the entire Empire was abuzz with talk about Princess Messena.
On the surface, it was outrage directed at the princess who had disgraced the House of Messena.
But if one looked beneath that façade, it wasn’t quite so simple.
Watching the duchy—once the cultural heart of the Empire—be torn apart piece by piece until it collapsed, people felt a strange thrill they couldn’t quite explain.
The legacy of a fallen duchy.
Those words alone stirred an oddly voyeuristic fantasy within them.
It evoked a faint sense of melancholy, yet at the same time there was the satisfying thought that, thanks to the princess’s madness, “Perhaps it deserved to fall.” And despite themselves, they couldn’t help admiring the splendour that still remained.
The greatest relic left behind by the ruined duchy.
The wayward princess.
He wanted to put her on display.
“If I told you that even I have something precious—something I treasure despite selling everything else my family owned… would you believe me?”
The moment she said those words…
The moment he saw an expression on the princess’s face that he had never seen before…
He had almost believed her.
He had almost believed that the princess truly meant what she said.
No—
He had almost believed that Luiza Messena was even capable of sincerity.
But the instant he returned to the mansion and heard that the princess had immediately demanded the account books recording the proceeds from everything she had sold…
Everything snapped back into place.
That woman is only thinking about spending the money as soon as she gets it.
Buying dresses.
Buying jewels.
Buying hats.
Purchasing the theatre had simply been another impulsive whim.
Treasured memories?
Ridiculous.
And yet…
The expression she had worn while speaking about the memories she shared with her grandfather lingered in his mind.
Those eyes.
That voice.
The atmosphere surrounding her.
Arnaud had built his career making deals.
Few people could match his confidence in exposing another person’s lies.
Yet that moment…
That had not been a lie.
But that did not necessarily mean it had been the truth either.
She was, after all, nothing more than a bundle of desires with no sincerity at her core.
Still… she’s a bundle of desires worth selling.
So the very next day, he invited the princess—who had apparently overslept—to lunch.
Normally, Arnaud avoided conversations with the mad collector whenever possible.
Every discussion inevitably ended with jewels, men, or dresses.
Today, however, he had an important business proposal.
And at that luncheon—
“Princess.”
“…”
“Princess.”
“…”
“Luiza!”
“Hm?”
Luiza jerked awake.
Indeed.
To his utter disbelief, Luiza Messena had been dozing off in the seat across from him.
The same crazy woman who normally spent every meal completely absorbed in staring at his face.
“…Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
“At this hour? It’s basically dawn for me. Besides, I stayed up reading for a while, trying to figure out the situation… and, more importantly, going through the account books. Oh, right. What were we talking about again?”
Reading?
He had never heard that the princess enjoyed books.
And since when had she started speaking to him so casually?
When they were children, the princess had always bullied him with arrogant arrogance.
But after the duchy began to crumble, she had become pitifully polite, addressing Arnaud with exaggerated respect in a desperate attempt to win his favour.
So why, all of a sudden—
His puzzlement didn’t last long.
It vanished the moment she mentioned the account books.
So she had stayed awake all night thinking about the money she was about to receive.
Of course.
Feeling irritated by the fact that he had unconsciously been staring at her sleeping face for far longer than he should have, Arnaud replied,
“We weren’t discussing anything. We were just about to begin.”
“Oh, was that it? Then…”
Still displaying impeccable table manners, Luiza set down the knife she had been using to cut her steak.
Although she had been born and raised as nobility, the princess had always been strangely hopeless when it came to table etiquette.
He had assumed it was because she’d grown up as her grandfather’s pampered granddaughter and had never been properly taught.
But now…
So it wasn’t that she couldn’t do it.
She simply chose not to.
Slightly dumbfounded, Arnaud waited for her to continue.
“I’ll go first. I spent the whole day yesterday looking through the ledgers.”
I’m sure you did.
“I thought my head was going to explode doing all the calculations…”
Calculations?
The very notion that the princess even understood such a concept surprised him.
“I’ve worked it out. If I want to repay the debt I took on when I bought the theatre, then it doesn’t make sense to leave it sitting unused. I’d like to actually run the theatre myself—if you’ll allow it.”
“…?”
Arno’s expression froze.
Beside him, even Alfredo’s hand trembled as he poured the water.
It was hardly surprising. Other than drinking and meeting handsome men, the princess had never once done anything remotely productive.
That was why Arno had never expected her to run the theatre. He had only intended to let her help decorate it a little.
He thought that if he approached it that way, Luisa’s love of luxury might persuade her to cooperate.
Her extravagant taste was indispensable to the project, so he had even planned to tempt her by offering to forgive her debt.
In truth, the price of the theatre was equivalent to the annual finances of an average noble house.
But the Di Enche family was anything but average.
Besides, although the princess had claimed she would repay the money, Arno was convinced she possessed neither the ability nor the determination to do so.
Since it was money he never expected to recover anyway, he had intended to use the debt as bait.
She actually says she’ll repay it? By running the theatre herself?
Arno stared at Luisa in disbelief.
When his grandfather’s illness had begun to worsen, he had done everything in his power to teach Luisa how to become the head of the family.
One of those efforts had included entrusting her with various businesses throughout the duchy.
Every single time, Luisa had wasted her days partying and drinking until the venture collapsed.
And now that woman wanted to manage a theatre?
He couldn’t believe it.
At the same time, however, he had no intention of letting good fortune slip away after it had rolled right into his lap.
So he decided to play hard to get.
“What reason do I have to trust you with my theatre?”
“I figured you’d say that.”
As if she had been waiting for those exact words, the princess pulled a notebook from inside her coat.
When she turned her head with a lazy yawn, Arno noticed something strange.
Instead of her usual elaborate hairstyle, her hair had been gathered into a rough bun, held together by nothing more than a quill pen.
He had never seen her look so untidy before.
She had always cared obsessively about her appearance.
“Businessmen always love investing in art, but they’re stingy when it comes to actually opening their purses.”
She even muttered a bizarre remark under her breath.
“So I wrote a script. I even drafted the concept, the characters, the setting, and a rough budget. And I think…”
The exhausted-looking Luisa glanced down at the script she had written before flashing a confident grin.
It was the first genuine smile Arno had ever seen from her.
Not the carefully cultivated smile of a noblewoman—
but a real one.
So that’s what she looks like when she smiles.
She’s unbelievably arrogant…
…and somehow, she still looks like a young girl.
Once again, Arno found himself unable to look away.
“I think this is going to succeed.”
A script?
Luisa knew how to spend money.
She certainly didn’t know how to write.
As a child, she had probably spent more time flirting with actors backstage than actually watching plays.
“How can you possibly know whether it’ll succeed?”
“You’ll know once you’ve read it.”
“The script is perfect.”
Her confidence was strangely overwhelming.
Without realising it, Arno accepted the manuscript she offered.
On the front page were written four simple words.
Romeo and Juliet
“…Romeo? Juliet? Are those the protagonists’ names? Rather rustic names.”
“…”
The princess said nothing.
She merely looked at him as though he had said something absurd.
After spending the entire night reading books, she still couldn’t get used to the fact that Shakespeare simply didn’t exist in this world.
* * *
I was honestly surprised by how easily Arno gave me permission to run the theatre after reading the script.
His explanation, however, made perfect sense.
“To be honest, there isn’t much to running a theatre. The youngest troupe member will handle ticket sales. Alfredo will keep the accounts. The actors will do the acting. As for the script… it’s actually quite good. It seems the late Duke’s efforts to expose you to culture weren’t entirely wasted after all.”
His tone was unmistakably sarcastic.
Still, permission was permission.
The reason was simple.
This novel’s world was clearly modelled after Europe during Shakespeare’s era.
I had already suspected as much while reading the novel, but after spending all night reading literature in this world, I became certain.
Back in Shakespeare’s time, running a theatre required only three essential elements:
an investor,
a playwright,
and actors.
The concepts of a producer or a stage director barely existed.
Popular scripts spread by word of mouth, much like the Korean tale Chunhyangjeon, and were performed all over the country.
Whether Chunhyang became a memorable heroine depended not on a director’s guidance, but on the individual skill of the actress portraying her.
In fact, scholars believe that not all of Shakespeare’s plays were completely original creations either.
Some were adaptations of stories already circulating among the people.
In other words, Shakespeare himself had probably been closer to an actor-playwright than a modern director.
So what Arno had acknowledged wasn’t me.
It was Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Or perhaps, to be more precise…
…he acknowledged the symbolic value of Luisa Messena.
In the original novel, Count Arno Di Enche had been a ruthless businessman.
The kind of man with neither blood nor tears.
Almost like Shylock from The Merchant of Venice.
When he decided to invest in the theatre, he probably valued neither art nor literature.
What interested him was the notorious princess of a fallen duchy.
Me.
Right now, I was the Empire’s hottest topic.
Its greatest villainess.
If someone like me suddenly bought a theatre and staged a performance, people would flock there out of sheer curiosity.
If nothing else, they would come just to insult me.
Arno hadn’t spared a single thought for how humiliating that would be.
Cold-hearted bastard.
Still…
He was undeniably intelligent.
Whether Luisa Messena was mocked or not, the performance itself would undoubtedly become a sensation.
Ticket prices would skyrocket.
But I wasn’t the real Luisa Messena.
I had no reason to feel hurt because he treated his fiancée like nothing more than a marketing tool.
No reason to feel wronged, either.
My only job was simple.
To make everyone who came intending to ridicule me leave the theatre in awe.
To change the villainess’s doomed fate.
And to repay Count Di Enche’s debt.
To do that…
I would stage my own version of Romeo and Juliet.
“First things first.”
“I need to meet the actors.”
I pulled on the hat Luisa herself had chosen and left the estate.
Behind me, Alfredo followed with an anxious expression.
“Do you truly intend to visit… him?”
Ah.
The actor I intended to cast had a history with Luisa.
Or rather—
“Using the Count’s money…”
After cautiously checking his surroundings, Alfredo lowered his voice.
“…you’re planning to offer a theatre role to your former lover?”
Former kept man would be more accurate.
Looking at Alfredo’s horrified face, I smiled brightly.
“Whether he’ll actually be cast is another matter.”
“But if I’m looking for the male lead in a romance…”
“…shouldn’t I start by going where the handsome men are?”
Ah.
Why does acting like a villainess come so naturally to me?
If I’d landed roles like this in my previous life, I might have won a Tony Award instead of constantly chasing after Shin Seong-hyeon’s productions.
