Chapter 277: Theater Conflict
The curtain fell in Longsong Stronghold to a noise that could only be described as the audience releasing something it had been holding for a long time — whistles, clapping, shouts, a kind of undirected joy.
May wiped the sweat from her face and found Irene watching her, luminous with excitement, practically trembling with the need to be told that yes, it had gone well.
May gave two short nods.
That was enough. Irene cried out and lunged forward and wrapped both arms around May’s shoulders with a force that was genuinely surprising for her size.
“I really can play it! I really can do it!”
May disentangled herself. “You’ve made some progress. Enough to take the stage on your own.”
Rosia, still in costume from her witch role, approached cautiously. “Miss May… how was I?”
“You have a long way to go.” May did not soften it. “Your expression is stiff. Your movement is sluggish. Your delivery has no feeling behind it. You made two errors in the second act. In the fourth act you drifted from your mark — that’s a script-memorization problem.” She looked at the others gathering around her. “The audience’s enthusiasm does not change my assessment. Most of them have never seen a live performance. Show them a monkey turning circles and they’ll applaud. These commoners came in on free tickets.”
She paused. Softened nothing. “The road of an actor does not permit satisfaction with temporary success. Only continuous improvement earns you a real foothold on any stage.”
Everyone lowered their heads. “Yes. Thank you for your guidance.”
May exhaled. I am not this company’s drama tutor. Yet she was too tired to repeat that fact again, and what she would say instead would be worse. “All right. Work hard. The Witch Diary runs at minimum until September — you have many more performances to develop in. Don’t waste them.”
“Yes!”
In the backstage lounge, trouble was already assembled and waiting.
May recognized the woman leading them before she reached the door. Bella Dean. Famous, as certain people are famous — by proximity to those who had achieved something, by remaining visible in a city where visibility was currency. Some nobles compared her to May, said she was the true competition for the Star of the West title. May had never found this convincing.
More than a dozen actors ranged behind Bella in a loose formation. They stepped forward as May appeared, positioning with the practiced ease of people who had rehearsed conflict.
Bella walked past May entirely and moved toward Irene, slow and deliberate. “Well. Look who’s come back from the countryside.”
Irene blinked. “What did you say?”
“She doesn’t even know her own station.” Bella covered her smile with one hand, and the group behind her laughed. “Let me be direct. A city like Longsong Stronghold is not the place for people of your quality. This theater does not want a third-rate performance. What is the Witch Diary — a pack of stray dogs howling about their suffering? Who wants to watch drama that spoils one’s appetite? Go back to Border Town. The sooner the better.”
Irene went red. “Third-rate? Did you hear that applause—”
“Applause.” Bella’s voice climbed a register. “From people who work with hoes and sit next to furnaces all day? Catch some monkeys and teach them tricks and they’ll applaud too. Half these people only came because the tickets were free. Would they spend real money to watch you perform? The theater’s revenue has fallen consistently since your company occupied the stage every Wednesday. The nobility won’t come when they have to share the space with commoners and sit in chairs smeared with workshop grime.” Her voice rose further. “As long as you and your play continue here, this theater loses its audience.”
“I—” Irene opened her mouth and found nothing in it.
She came to pick a fight. May assessed the situation with the detachment of someone who had been in difficult performances in difficult rooms before. Bella hasn’t been hurt by our presence — the theater kept her schedule intact. She’s here because our arrival cost her the Star of the West title she was building toward. If my company backs down, she wins without having to earn it. And I become a stepping stone.
“The theater’s revenue,” May said, cutting in. “Are you sure you’ve thought that through?” She kept her voice pleasant. “The manager and His Royal Highness and Petrov reached a contract agreement. Border Town’s City Hall covers the revenue shortfall. This is a business arrangement, not a charity. You may want to use your brain before your imagination.”
“You’re—that’s—”
“The nobility not attending,” May continued. “I once performed at the King’s City Grand Theater. Open-air. It rained on the day of the show. The nobles came anyway, and filled every seat. You’re telling me they won’t attend Longsong Stronghold’s theater because of commoners? No. They won’t attend because your company does not give them a reason to come.”
Silence. Not the uncomfortable silence of transition — the silence of a room that has just heard something accurate and does not know how to dispute it.
May smiled. Small, precise. “Finally — you described the Witch Diary as vulgar and third-rate. Stray dogs, I believe you said.” She watched Bella’s face. “His Highness wrote the story for the script. You’ve just called the Prince’s ideas low-grade. Insulting the royal family is punishable by removal of the tongue.” She turned her gaze to the people standing behind Bella. “Does anyone want to clarify their position on this point?”
One by one they stepped back.
“Enough.” Bella’s teeth were clenched. “You left Longsong Stronghold, May. You should have stayed away. Don’t pretend I don’t know the real reason you went to that broken place in the first place — it wasn’t for that idiot Irene. It was for Morning Light.”
The slap came before May had entirely decided to deliver it. A clean flat sound, and a red handprint appeared on Bella’s left cheek.
The room held its breath.
“You— you actually struck me—”
May exhaled. That was impulsive. She had always known that impulse was her weakness — not cruelty, not malice, just the speed at which she moved before she had finished thinking. She breathed and kept her face still.
Two of Bella’s company stepped forward. “Miss May. You’ve gone too far.”
“An actress’s appearance is part of her instrument. The minimum required is an apology.”
Apologize. Which would mean accepting blame. Which would make her position wrong. May looked at the two men — oily hair, powdered faces, the practiced concern of people who had discovered that moral posturing was useful — and remembered what Carter Lannis had told her once, almost offhandedly, about fighting opponents larger than yourself.
Don’t assess their strength. Look for the vulnerability. Eyes, throat — or lower. Act fast and decisively. You can bring down a man much bigger than yourself.
She wasn’t sure this situation called for that, exactly. But she had already shifted her weight, settled into something she could move from quickly, and was watching their hands —
The lounge door slammed open.
An armored knight entered, soldiers with pikes behind him, and the pikemen immediately spread and leveled their weapons at the crowd.
“I’m informed,” the knight said, looking the room over steadily, “that someone slandered His Royal Highness in this lounge. That a group conspired against him.”
May stared.
She blinked. Kept staring.
Carter Lannis — in full armor, with soldiers, in the backstage lounge of a Longsong Stronghold theater — caught her eye and offered the smallest possible secret smile.
Chapter 277 Theater Conflict
Longsong Stronghold, theater performance hall.
The curtain fell to the sound of the audience’s endless whistles and cheers. May wiped the sweat from her forehead and saw Irene’s gaze, full of excitement and expectation, lingering on herself; she gave two slight nods in response.
This acknowledgment made Irene cheer out loud, the moment the curtain hit the ground, she could no longer stop herself from rushing over, and forcefully wrapped May into a hug.
“Hahaha, I really can play it!”
So troublesome, May gave her a supercilious look and pushed her away, “At last you have made some progress and can now take the stage independently.”
“Miss may, then… what’s with me?” Rosia, another actor that was playing a witch cautiously asked her.
“You still have a long way to go,” she answered without hesitation, “Your expression is still stiff, your movements are sluggish, you also didn’t put any feelings into your lines. During the second act you made two mistakes, and during the fourth act you’d positioned yourself incorrectly, which is a typical mistake if you don’t memorize the script.”
“Haha, Miss May is indeed really strict,” Gheit awkwardly scratched the back of his head, “However, the audience’s response seems to be very good, if you listen, you can hear that the applause has yet to subside.”
“Most of these people are civilians who have never been to the theater, so seeing a play such as this is still a new thing for them,” May interjected
bluntly. “If this had been a regular show, those several mistakes would have been sufficient for the nobility to all let out hissing sounds.” She paused, “If you want to go down the actor’s road, you are never allowed to be satisfied with temporary successes, only by continually improving yourself will you be able to gain a firm foothold on the stage.”
The surrounding people all simultaneously lowered their heads and said, “Yes, thank you for your guidance!”
May sighed, here we go again, I definitely cannot be considered as the drama tutor of this group of people. But in the end, she was too lazy to care about such a trivial matter and merely said, “All right, everyone carry on with your hard work. The ‘Witch Diary’ will be shown at least until September, so there are still many plays during which we can develop further. This is a rare opportunity; no one should miss out on it.”
“Yes!”
One month ago May had received a notice from the Ministry of Education, the members of the theater team were instructed to go to Longsong Stronghold and perform. These so-called members were those inferior performers she had met at the start of her journey to Border Town, and Irene Eltek.
Perhaps it was because His Highness the Prince and acting Duke Petrov had reached an agreement with the theater to let them free its schedule, so that the crew could perform the “Witch Diary” trilogy. And so, with this group of amateur performers, together with the newly added actors who also couldn’t be considered as well-known actors, were now openly performing on the stronghold theater’s biggest stage. At normal times, they might not even be selected as a substitute for a supporting role. Now however, not only were they able to play the role of an important character on stage, but they could also perform hand in hand with the Star of the West, which made a lot of people lament about the impermanence of destiny.
When May returned to the backstage area, she couldn’t refrain from puckering her brows.
There at the lounge, she saw a group of people disturbing everyone with their noise, seemingly trying to start a dispute. The moment they saw May appear, more than a dozen followed the leadership of one woman as they stepped forward and began to surround her.
These people were all actors of the theater. May also recognized the woman leading them, she was called Bella Dean and was a famous actor that belonged to a different group. Some nobles even went so far as to say that she was May’s biggest competitor for the position as the Star of the West, but in fact, whether it was her acting or fame, she had never been able to pressure May.
“Guess who I’m finally able to see?” Bella bypassed May and slowly started to walk over towards Irene one step at a time, “A group of inferior actors who’ve sneakily returned from the countryside.”
“What did you say?” Irene asked with a bewildered face, Gheit, Rosia, and the other’s faces all turned stiff and they couldn’t stop themselves from taking two steps back.
“Pfff,” Bella covered her mouth and said, “She doesn’t even know her own identity and status.” These words aroused a burst of laughter from the group, “Then let me say it directly to you, a big city such as Longsong Stronghold isn’t a place where people like you should come to perform. Moreover, the stronghold theater also doesn’t welcome such a vulgar and third-rate performance. What ‘witch diary’? it’s just a few stray dogs all howling in grief. Who could ever be interested in seeing this kind of drama that’s bad enough to spoil one’s appetite? The earlier you get lost and return to Border Town, the better.”
“You,” Irene suddenly turned red, “What do you call a third-rate performance? didn’t you hear the applause of the audience?”
“Ha, audience?” Bella sneered sarcastically, “You call those people who work in the mud, and come in contact with hoes and furnaces every day, an audience? Don’t make me lose a tooth from laughing! Just catch some monkeys and make them run in circles and they will also be cheering loudly!
If it hadn’t been for the free tickets, would they ever have the spare money to come and see you perform?”
“I…” Irene opened her mouth but didn’t know how to properly refute.
“The theater already has to deal with a continuous fall in revenue since you came to perform on the big stage every Wednesday. Furthermore, even we are being affected, as long as you and your drama keep on playing here, the nobility will not come!” Bella raised her voice, “Who would be willing to sit on greasy and dirty chairs covered with mud bits? I in turn, also do not want to come into a messy theater that your group of country bumpkins have left behind.”
The other side has apparently came to pick a quarrel, May thought, with the sudden appearance of Border Town’s performers, many people from the theater crowd have indeed lost their chance to appear, but by no means is Bella Dean suffering under this effect. According to the news I’ve received from some acquaintances, after my departure from Longsong Stronghold, the theater deliberately tried turning her into the new Star of the West, so they naturally cannot cancel the drama she’s starring in.
Looking at Bella’s action from this point of view, her purpose was clearly evident. Even though it seems she was scolding Irene and the others, in reality, her attack is directed against me. If these people shrink back, I alone cannot perform the Witch Diary and will have no other option than to go back to Border Town in shame. In this way, by defeating them, it is equal to defeating me. Moreover, by recovering an opportunity for the other actors to play, her prestige is also bound to rise; in that way establishing her place as the new generation’s Star of the West.
But I will never become the stepping stone for someone else!
“The theater’s income is falling, are you serious?” May turned and said thoughtlessly, “How can you come up with such a naive judgment as to think that the theater is unable to make ends meet just because of giving away free ticket. The theater manager has undoubtedly reached an agreement with His Royal Highness and Petrov, concluding that the loss of revenue would naturally be paid for by Border Town’s City Hall. This is a business
contract, not someone playing house. You really should use your brain rather than rely on your imagination to start shouting and screaming.”
“You… are only talking nonsense!”
“In the end, the decrease of the income is merely because of you and this group of inferior actors with no status.” May showed a faint smile, “There was one time when I was performing at King’s City Grand Theater, which is an open-air theater. It just so happens that on the day of the show it was raining. However, the nobles still came and filled even the last seat. So, you’re saying it is because of the commoners that the nobility is unwilling to watch your show? No, it’s simply that they do not enjoy coming over to watch a play that is performed by a group of monkeys.”
“…” The scene fell into a strange silence, not only did no one step forward to blame them further, they weren’t even trying to find an excuse.
“Finally, you said that the ‘Witch Diary’ is of inferior quality and vulgar; a story about stray dogs struggling and howling in grief?” The corners of May’s mouth rose, her voice however, was bone chillingly cold, “I may have forgotten to tell you, but it was the Prince who wrote the story for the script. Do you want to tell me that His Highness ideas are low-grade and vulgar? Insulting the royal family is a crime punishable by cutting off the tongue; are you still going to stick with your point of view now?” She looked at the crowd standing behind Bella, “Or do any of you want to give it a try?”
One after another, the more than a dozen actors under her gaze backed away.
“Enough!” Bella clenched her teeth and hissed, “Since you’ve already left for Border Town, you should never have come back! May, do you think I don’t know! The actual reason why you went to that broken place was not to see that idiot Irene, but Morning Light.”
“Slap!“
Bella’s voice stopped with a grunt; a bright red hand print was glowing on her left cheek. She touched her face, not daring to believe what had happened just now, “Y-you actually dare to str-strike…”
Fuu~ in the end, she had acted on impulse, so she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. If it went on like this, it could cause some trouble for her later on.
Sure enough, two actors behind Bella stepped forward, “Miss May, you are going to far.”
“Do you know the importance of appearance to an actress; I think that at the very least you need to apologize to her.”
Apologize? Isn’t that the same as saying I was the one in the wrong? May couldn’t help but to grimly start laughing from the bottom of her heart, the urge to act impulsively returned, but the thought to apologize never even surfaced.
With a calm and collected expression, she sized up the two men with their oily hair and powdered faces, and could not help but think of what Carter Lannis had once told her.
“Do not look at a man’s strength, they also have many weaknesses, attacks towards their eyes or throat will make them instantly lose their resistance, of course… there is also the place between their legs. As long as you act decisively and quickly it is not impossible for you to knock down a man much stronger than you.”
Although she wasn’t sure how far this could be applied to the current situation, she had already placed her feet into an attacking position, just waiting for the two men to come closer…
However, at this moment, the lounge door was brutally pushed open, an armor wearing knight came in followed by several soldiers with pikes in their hands. As they entered the room, they immediately pointed the pikes at the crowd.
“I heard that somebody had slandered His Royal Highness, and that a whole crew is conspiring against him.”
May couldn’t help but stare blankly, thinking that what she had seen had to be an illusion, she forced herself to blink. However, nothing changed, the man standing in front of her showing her a secret smile was indeed the knight Carter Lannis.