Ch.213Chapter 213: Beauty Under the Moonlight (1)

The “minor trigger” that was crucial in the original work was indeed the core of this play.

And the scenes leading up to it perfectly served as excellent seasoning to heighten the atmosphere of the play as it moved toward its climax.

During the brief intermission for scene changes, I reflected on the scenes I had just witnessed.

The play, which had officially begun with a man’s desperate cry, unfolded the original story in a form befitting the vast stage with unrelenting intensity.

The man, who had lost his chance to die after repeated cries of despair, vented his anger and resentment toward the goddess who had taken away the death he should have shouldered, his eyes filled with emptiness.

Then, seeing the goddess’s expression falter at his unexpected reaction, he realized that the deity before him was not deserving of his one-sided anger, and softened his demeanor.

The calm voice of the goddess, apologizing for the man’s suffering in ways she hadn’t anticipated, guided the mood of the stage.

The man’s expression gradually softened.

When the intense, directionless anger that had been etched on the man’s face disappeared, leaving only a pitiful desire to lean somewhere and cry endlessly,

Toward the goddess who pleaded in a desperate voice to prevent the tragedy of his homeland from repeating in another world,

“…Very well. However…”

Just as he accepted her request by grasping the goddess’s outstretched hand with a firm voice, but was about to set some condition,

The curtain fell on the stage, bringing a brief silence.

As the flow of the original work required a stage change,

The curtain was drawn to prepare for the next scene.

In this moment of brief respite given not only to the staff of the theater but also to the audience—not to mention the actors immersed in the play—

A very faint murmuring reached my ears in the theater, far from any commotion.

It was mostly brief impressions about the scene that had just unfolded,

And the mainstream of those impressions was about the performance of the actress who, with her shimmering silver hair, had melded the contrasting concepts of dignity and gentleness into a single voice.

“Wow…”

“How could she…”

Most were praises close to gasps.

Though all audience members observed basic etiquette, keeping their whispers so quiet during the brief intermission that they wouldn’t disturb others’ enjoyment of the play,

My senses, sharpened through diligent training even after reaching superhuman levels, were honed enough to catch even such trivial whispers.

‘This is troublesome.’

I barely suppressed the slight twisting of my lips as I calmly turned my head toward the source of the sounds.

At the source were, without fail, male audience members.

Interestingly, most were watching alone, without accompanying members of the opposite sex.

Occasionally, there were tactless fellows who, seated next to women who appeared to be their partners, unconsciously savored the previous scene,

But such fellows invariably paid the bitter price of facing the sharp glares of their companions seated beside them.

In such cases, I thought it might be quite amusing to see what would unfold by the end of the play, given how they had fallen completely for the actress’s beauty without considering their partner’s feelings.

But rather than wasting time on such thoughts, it was better to turn my attention back to the stage and focus on the play that would soon resume.

So I pushed aside the fleeting idle thoughts in my mind and concentrated on the play once more.

Well, though I dismissed it as trivial,

I could understand the male audience members’ reactions, overwhelmed by the performance of the actress playing the female lead.

Though I wasn’t particularly well-versed in theater, knowing little beyond what I’d heard in passing,

The actress playing the female lead was a star among stars, renowned as the finest in both acting skill and beauty since the Imperial Grand Theater opened a century ago.

When I heard from fellow knights during duty chatter that many male fans would come to see this play just because this actress was appearing, even if they didn’t know the original work,

I had thought, “Surely it can’t be that extreme,” but now I realized that prediction wasn’t wrong.

Is being drawn to beauty an instinct that humans possess?

Perhaps so.

After all, I too am faithful to the instinct of being drawn to beauty.

Of course, unlike them, the beauty that pulls at my heart is not on that stage, but…

“The actor’s performance is truly amazing. It feels like the original work is unfolding right before us…”

It lies with my goddess right beside me, who keeps muttering to herself with a perpetually happy expression while focusing on the play.

I dare say, while I acknowledge that the actress’s beauty and performance brilliantly illuminate the stage,

I firmly believe that if my goddess were to simply step onto that stage without even acting, countless people would gasp and offer endless praise.

So I turned my head toward my goddess and offered my own form of praise with a gentle smile.

As Shizu, who had been deeply engrossed in the stage about to resume, briefly turned her eyes toward me,

“…!!”

I could see her cheeks flush slightly before she hurriedly turned her gaze back to the stage.

…Why is she so embarrassed?

I often heard from the other knights that my smile didn’t look like a smile at all, that it was even intimidating.

Yet here she was, her face flushing at what they called a fearsome smile.

*SWOOSH!!*

The stage, which had depicted a pure white palace, transformed instantly.

It changed into a garden scene with a vivid full moon hanging in the pitch-black ceiling representing the night sky, so realistic it made one wonder how they achieved it.

In the past, changing a stage backdrop required tremendous manpower moving noisily about, barely managing the change,

But seeing it transform so quickly in less than five minutes, to the point where my eyes widened in amazement,

I was filled with admiration for how magical engineering technology, which had continuously developed during my three years as an Imperial Knight, was being integrated into everyday life.

*Thud, thud*

With heavy footsteps dominating the quiet stage,

“…”

The scene unfolded with the expressionless male protagonist wandering aimlessly under the night sky.

It was merely an ordinary walking scene, but

From the audience watching the actor who faithfully portrayed the original work’s description of a man whose emotions had withered away after enduring harsh trials over many years,

“Oh.”

“Wow…”

“Ah…”

Gasps and sighs from female audience members poured out, tickling my ears.

It was fortunate if they only sighed; when I turned my head toward the sound and examined the audience, many had slight blushes on their faces.

The actor, who had been described since casting as the spitting image of the male protagonist—portrayed as an exceptionally handsome man in the original work—had caused all the female audience members to lose themselves in his emotional performance as he walked slowly.

Among those female audience members was one who had glared at her partner earlier when he was distracted by the actress,

But fortunately, this time her partner was too absorbed in the stage to notice her reaction.

…You might get caught eventually, so how about showing some restraint?

Pushing away these unnecessary thoughts, I turned my attention back to the stage.

Even from my perspective as a man, the performance of the actor playing the protagonist was infused with soul, with a deeply moving emotional line that justified such an expression.

The bottomless anger from the sense of loss at having his place of death taken away.

The emptiness felt upon realizing that the one who took it was too admirable to deserve such anger.

The depression born from containing that directionless anger within himself.

And the actor’s handsome features displaying these emotions with both passion and restraint.

Just as the Imperial Knights were born for martial arts,

That man on stage could be called a being born for theater without exaggeration.

“Haah…”

The actor’s performance, expressing years of pent-up resentment in a single sigh, gave me many insights.

The exquisiteness of releasing compressed emotions in one measured breath

Had something in common with the Imperial swordsmanship’s teaching that considers the balance of stillness and motion as the ultimate principle.

…To think I’m having thoughts about swordsmanship even in a place I came to enjoy and forget my hardships.

Is this the side effect of constantly pushing forward without rest to prepare for the future?

[It’s good that you’re gaining insights about what you do by observing other things, but I find it curious that you see connections between that actor’s performance and your swordsmanship. Perhaps it’s because I’m bound to the sword physically but have no affinity with it.]

Pafnir’s voice echoed in my mind, breaking the long silence, offering something like consolation by saying it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I should still exercise restraint.

Meanwhile, every time the male actor opened his mouth or moved his body, tiny exclamations continued to flow from the female audience members.

I was curious about how Shizu, seated beside me, would react to the actor’s performance.

Would she respond similarly to the women whose voices tickled my ears?

Or would she remain purely focused on the play itself, as she had during the overwhelming performance and beauty of the actress earlier?

With a gaze mixing curiosity and concern(?), I turned my head toward Shizu.

“…”

Contrary to my concern, Shizu wasn’t letting out any sighs; she was simply focusing on the stage with sparkling eyes.

“…Important scene…”

The whisper from her lips actually revealed that she understood well the significance of the scene currently unfolding on stage in the original work.

‘Phew…’

Breathing an inaudible sigh inwardly,

I felt a subtle sense of relief at seeing Shizu purely focused on the stage despite the overwhelming performance by an actor who even I, as a man, found handsome.

…Though I felt self-loathing for feeling such cheap relief,

What could I do? It was simply because I knew my place.

Even though I’ve been told lately that my expression has softened somewhat since I rarely scowl these days,

There are still fellow knights with weaker dispositions who look frightened when I scowl even slightly depending on the situation.

My fierce appearance, which I couldn’t deny if someone called it ugly to my face, still hasn’t faded.

Yet you smile brightly whenever you see me, and knowing that you won’t look elsewhere even in this situation makes me happy enough.

“…Ah.”

That was the moment when a sigh filled with indescribably complex emotions burst from the lips of the male protagonist who had been taking lonely steps on stage.

It was the moment when the trivial trigger that would change the relationship between the two characters—which had remained dry after one misstep in the original work—unfolded before the male protagonist’s eyes.

Though the full moon hung overhead, something in the protagonist’s surroundings, still shrouded in darkness, was illuminated by the moonlight at his feet.

It was a flowerpot.

Rather shabby for something in the goddess’s garden where flowers bloomed even at night.

It was a pot with a cactus planted in it, but

The actor’s excellent performance, faithfully reproducing the original text’s phrase that the protagonist’s expression became distorted in a complex way upon seeing it, something that would leave no doubt about its significance,

Overwhelmed the stage,

And captivated every single audience member in their seats.