Thief Marigold

10.

“What should we usually do in a situation like this?”

Lancel wasn’t well-versed in the operational aspects of a theater troupe that couldn’t perform at the Central Theater.

The oldest actor raised her hand in response to his question. She usually played eccentric noble old women.

“The usual method is to perform at noble social parties and gather letters of recommendation.”

“Letters of recommendation…”

“Yes. That’s how we initially worked our way into the Central Theater. If you collect over three hundred letters of recommendation, you can have your audition reviewed again.”

“Lame, so lame.”

Lancel clicked his tongue and crunched the candy in his mouth.

‘Not like we’re clowns.’

A theater troupe putting on a passionate performance at parties frequented by nobles?

That wasn’t a performance anymore, but rather a clown’s flattery and whining; it was far closer to entertainment than art.

Lancel had no intention of reducing Marigold’s troupe to such a pathetic group.

Once he decided to do something, he would make Marigold the best actress of this era, no matter what.

Yes.

Absolutely.

“We’re going to the street theater.”

“Pardon?”

Lancel recalled memories from the war era.

During the times when the Empire was noisy with war, theater troupes would visit the frontier territories to boost the morale of the troops about three or four times.

The performances weren’t that great since they were held on makeshift stages.

But he remembered that the soldiers at the time certainly enjoyed them.

“We’ll rent a corner of the plaza in the Western District and set up a stage. There’s no need to go begging to those nobles who are so full of themselves. We’ll just have them come to us, right?”

“That’s right, Lancel!”

“Mary, are you confident?”

“I’ll become famous and spit in the faces of those stuck-up nobles!”

“…Okay.”

It was a relief that she seemed so motivated.

“Street stage… a stage outside…”

“Will people come to see it…”

The reaction was half worry, half anticipation, but the decision had already been made.

Lancel added the money he secured from dealing in stolen goods to the money he extorted from Baron Ibil Shen and rented an entire plaza.

A large stage platform was set up there, and an unfamiliar device was installed.

“What is this, Lancel?”

“A rotating device.”

Lancel grinned at Marigold’s question. This was an idea he had brought from the stages of the 21st century.

Usually, theaters used large wooden panels as backdrops, but changing them every time was quite a chore.

Lancel had replaced them with a large cylinder. It was a common format on 21st-century stages, but it didn’t exist here yet.

Thanks to this, a total of eight backgrounds could be changed at once with a single pull of the pulley.

And most importantly.

“Change the background to a palace.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rumble-!

As soon as the cylinder started turning, the theater troupe members covered their mouths and exclaimed in admiration.

“Wow…!”

“So magnificent…!”

It wasn’t just a painted background.

The three-dimensional rotating stage was brilliantly adorned with chandeliers and stairs. It was even designed so that people could climb on it.

“Change it to the sea!”

“Yes!”

This time, the stern of a large ship appeared.

“Hoo-ah!”

“Unbelievable…!”

“Change it to the Imperial Capital street!”

This time, tall buildings appeared.

On both sides, there were even real buildings made of wooden panels that people could enter.

“Worth the money I spent.”

Lancel smiled.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of his master plan.

“Did you call for me, Lancel?”

The person Lancel had been waiting for arrived just in time.

“Jang Sirreul, I’ve heard you’re the best writer on this continent. Would you like to work with me on something?”

“I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. I am merely a wanderer. Settling down in one place to write goes against my principles…”

“Five gold coins in advance.”

“……”

“Two gold coins a month.”

“……”

The writer ‘Jang Sirreul.’

In a past life, Lancel had kept him by his side and made him write travelogues about seafood.

The purpose, of course, was to have him touch up this cheap, third-rate romance story a bit.

No matter how good the stage was, the story was so bad that it wouldn’t become a sensation.

Unfortunately, Lancel had no writing talent whatsoever, so he had to rely on someone else in this area.

Jang Sirreul was a future great writer and a talented author capable of striking a chord with the sensibilities of the Imperial Capital citizens of this era.

“…Traveling requires a lot of expenses.”

“Good thinking.”

And so.

The third-rate romance script, ‘The Sorrows of Lisanne,’ which no one knew who had written, was reborn as ‘The Empire of Flowers’ under the hand of the great writer.

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“A street theater, how vulgar.”

“Please consider it a stepping stone to returning to the Central Theater, Mrs. Ox.”

“Hmph.”

On the day of the first performance.

Mrs. Ox seemed to be in a bad mood from the start.

It was hard to find any nobles at the street theater where the large stage was located.

Thanks to the fact that it was still free to enter, even beggars were secretly taking up spots in the corners.

Mrs. Ox frowned and covered her mouth with a fan.

“The smell. It’s better made than I expected, but I really don’t understand why it has to be a street theater. I’m starting to think it was a mistake to trust Lancel.”

The reason she hadn’t left immediately was thanks to the surprisingly magnificent stage.

“Since Sir Lancel worked so hard to create it, why don’t you watch it once? It’s my first time seeing it properly too, but the stage is really amazing.”

Baron Ibil Shen was also busy sucking up to her.

“If it’s not to my liking, I’ll have the stage dismantled immediately and pretend this never happened, so let him know that.”

“As you wish.”

Lancel joked.

“It’s about to start. Please see for yourself.”

“Hoo, it’s hard to breathe with all these commoners around… Oh my!”Kwaang-!”

Mrs. Ox’s shoulders flinched at the loud noise that erupted from the stage.

“Hiyak!”

“That scared me!”

Even Baron Ibil Shen let out a girlish scream.

Kwah-ahng-! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, a woman appeared on the stage where the sound of thunder was heard in succession.

Marigold.

It was Marigold as the main villain of the story.

“I killed her!”

Her acting was still awkward, but it was okay. Her acting would improve as she continued to perform.

“I snuffed out her life!”

Marigold tore at her hair and screamed at the voice of an unseen being.

“Gyaaaaak!”

‘Great acting, Marigold.’

Lancel barely managed to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.

Everyone except him was focused on the play.

“Speak plainly, Noé! Who did you kill! Who are you saying you killed!”

“Was she a noble and a commoner, a princess and a slave, a budding dawn and a helpless dawn at the same time… the name of the erased flower…! Calling me from the darkness of this empire and tempting me… the name of my old original sin!”

“Are you going to ramble on with your fantasies, Noé! Speak plainly! Who is the woman you killed!”

“A demon! No… an angel of God… a demon?”

“Can’t you come to your senses!”

“She is…”

“Speak plainly!”

“She is…!”Thump thump thump.”

Bang bang bang.

The loud noises that had been erupting from the stage stopped all at once.

In the silence, Marigold, with a dazed look in her eyes, opened her mouth.

“Lisanne.”

Rumble-!

The stage rotated, instantly changing the background.

From the damp and gloomy prison of a sinner to the dazzling imperial ballroom.

Numerous actors in party attire were waiting on the stairs on both sides.

“Hoo-ah!”

“Oh my…!”

Mrs. Ox and Baron Ibil Shen exclaimed in astonishment.

Lancel smiled inwardly.

He had already anticipated how the people of this era would react when they first encountered the 21st-century stage ideas.

Everyone in the street theater was staring blankly with their mouths open, completely drawn into the stage.

“Lisanne!”

“Lisanne!”

With the appearance of the protagonist Lisanne, the full-fledged story began.

It was the birth of a classic that would turn the performance culture of the Imperial Capital upside down from its roots.

11.

In fact, the initial reaction was a bit dubious.

This was probably because the words of the people who witnessed the first stage, the ‘premiere,’ spread too fantastically.

“Lightning struck from the sky with a thud, and suddenly the heavens and earth were transformed!”

“I’ve never seen anything like that in any play I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“Does that mean that something even more amazing than that is happening every day at the Imperial Capital Theater! Damn it! I want to be rich too! I want to be a noble!”

If a stranger heard it, it was such an overreaction that it would be easy to be cynical.

However, with each performance in the Western District every Saturday, people’s perceptions gradually changed.

Like an epidemic, everyone began to shout the name of Lisanne.

“Lisanne! Kuaaaaak!”

“My original sin, Lisanne!!!”

“Kuaaaaak!”

From that point on, admission fees began to be charged for the performances, but the visits of commoners did not stop.

It took less than a month for the rumors to spread beyond the Western District to the entire Imperial Capital.

“Street theater?”

Of course, the nobles’ reactions were still cold at that time.

“Is a theater where commoners come even a theater?”

“Mrs. Ox is doing something strange again.”

“The Dante Troupe… is it the Dante Family?”

“The Ox Family and the Dante Family. Well, it’s true that these two families, who only know how to wield swords, can’t understand such noble art and culture.”

Ridicule.

Ignorance.

Mockery.

“…What on earth is it…”

However, there were quite a few nobles who were crazy about performances and theaters.

There was no way that these people could overcome their curiosity about the rumored performance, ‘The Empire of Flowers.’

“Let’s just watch it once. Just once. It’s bound to be a miserable and clumsy performance anyway, but just once…”

It took exactly two months for the pursuit of art to surpass the pride of the nobles.

They arrived there, thoroughly concealing their identities so that no one would see them.

“Lisanne!”

“The flower that bloomed from death, Lisanne!”

There was something there that would change the era.

“Ah… ah ah…!”

An overwhelming stage.

All the noble theater enthusiasts who were intoxicated by its power knelt down. Their trembling legs and waists would not listen to them.

Awe.

An emotion beyond tears, something that captivated those sensitive noble theater enthusiasts at once.

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—When I opened my eyes, I realized that my heart was already in their hands. In the repetition of tightening and loosening, I dare to realize that I am merely a speck of dust before this great art…!

※The Imperial Capital’s art enthusiast, Marquis Selburton’s review, is spreading throughout noble society! A perfect score of 10! Highly praised! Dignity, charm, sex appeal UP!!

==========

It was the moment when art transcended the walls of status and spread.

“The nobles who go to the Central Theater are third-rate, and watching plays at parties is an eyesore. Real art exists somewhere in the Western District!”

Every Saturday.

The day the performance ‘The Empire of Flowers’ was held.

Noble carriages busily roamed the streets of the Imperial Capital.

Their destination was only one.

“Hurry up! If we’re late, the butler will be held responsible!”

“Y-yes, I’ll drive at maximum speed! Miss!”

“Get ahead of Miss Daks over there!”

“Yes!”

The area in front of the stage was crowded with people from early in the morning.

Baron Ibil Shen’s servants, who had been granted exclusive sales rights, were busily walking around selling souvenirs and food.

The best seats where the performance could be seen most clearly.

In the middle of that spot, which Lancel had named the VIP seats, was Mrs. Ox, who had now cast aside all doubts and wore a broad smile.

That was because.

“You won’t regret it, Your Highness.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Hehehe…”

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—Encounter Event: Third Princess Claria Arild Phrygia has arrived at the Dante Troupe’s performance.

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The situation in the Western District of the Empire had finally reached the point where even a member of the Imperial Family had come to visit.

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“Ah, I’m so tired these days because so many people recognize me.”

It was around that time that Marigold’s nose began to rise to the sky without knowing how high it was.

“It’s so tiring to be popular. The other day, the Princess even left a letter. Ah, I’m tired, I’m tired. Being a celebrity is painful, Lancel.”

“……”

Lancel wanted to ask him.

‘Marigold…’

His role, ‘Noé,’ was an incredibly popular role even within the performance ‘The Empire of Flowers.’

He was essentially the protagonist, unfolding the narrative of the entire story, and he was the main villain, yet he was also a bewitching man… so he was popular among women, regardless of whether they were commoners or nobles.

Perhaps he was the most popular role. After all, women were much more enthusiastic about performing arts.

As a result, a mountain of gifts and letters piled up in front of his mansion every day.

Noble young ladies were loitering in front of the main gate at this very moment, just to get a glimpse of Noé (Marigold)’s face.

But.

Why.

‘Why hasn’t he stopped stealing yet?’

Marigold.

His behavior had been strange lately.