#081 My Little Old Boy
On the fifth day of preparation for the play, I approached Clara.
“Clara, what are you doing?”
“What, what!? He suddenly started talking… !”
“I’m just curious.”
This time too, Clara reacted with surprise when she saw me.
Clara’s condition has been very strange recently.
She didn’t even make the characteristic ‘ho-ho-ho’ laugh, and her conversational skills also decreased significantly.
She is the one who prepares the props needed for the play, so even when I try to talk to her and ask if she needs anything, she just avoids me.
Should I say that I am strangely more wary of my surroundings these days? It didn’t feel like this originally.
“… She is making props for a play.”
She was currently sitting at her desk making a wooden prop.
“Wow, did you make it yourself?”
I saw it, admired it, and naturally sat down next to it.
“That’s right. “It’s not that difficult.”
The process of making small items in an instant with small hands was fascinating, so I kept watching without realizing it.
‘Good skill.’
As I stared, Clara must have been bothered, and she spoke bluntly.
“… Don’t you need to memorize at least one more line at a time like this?”
“There’s still time until the play. “I’m going to take it slow.”
“Hmph. “Do whatever you want.”
With her skillful work, she cut her strips and then glued the green paper together to complete one of her bushes.
“Can I help you?”
When I gave her a burdened, sparkling look, Clara sighed and handed me her grass.
“… Under. “Then, please help me glue it next to you.”
“Yes!”
When I painted the glue, Clara glued colored paper on top of it.
Although it looks simple, the paper plate is quite large, so it was more difficult than expected.
“Clara, have you been doing this alone all this time? “Something like this?”
“Yes. Do you have any problem?”
“I think we can finish it faster if we do it with more people… “
At my words, Clara shook her head and said.
“It is easier to do such delicate work alone. Momo and the other children can’t even use scissors properly… Plus, there will be lines to memorize.”
“… These days, I think Clara is more like a manager than Lady Ruby.”
Then Clara put down what she was holding and refuted.
“What are you talking about…?” !? “Ruby, you don’t dare compare yourself to me!”
If you look closely, Clara has never once said a bad word about Ruby from past to present.
“… Clara, why do you like Lady Ruby so much? “Is there some reason?”
“That person… “
Clara thought for a moment, and then he spoke slowly.
“That person has been my idol since I was young.”
“Idol… ? But Clara has never met Ruby, right?”
If it had existed, I would have remembered it.
“Not directly. However, I saw Ruby at a concert I attended when I was 10 years old.”
When I was 10 years old, I hadn’t even met Ruby yet.
“At the concert I saw that day, I couldn’t believe that he was the same age as me.”
“How was Lady Ruby?”
“The dignity of an aristocrat emanated from his gait and even the slightest actions. It felt like she was born with that.
‘Is that so…? ?’
As someone who has always watched from the side, I have never really felt that way.
“I would say I came to admire that. “Someday, I want to have the same dignity as Ruby,” He said.
“Is that so? I don’t know… “
“That’s because you appeared next to me. “Amber, you are influencing Ruby, whether you know it or not!”
“Me?”
“Yes! So, why would the dignified Ruby do such a foolish thing with you? “
Clara continued talking until that point, then covered her mouth with a surprised expression.
“What a nonsense?”
“… It’s nothing. “You just keep gluing.”
“What is it? “Curiously.”
“Go ahead and glue it!”
I kept asking persistently after that, but Clara never answered.
***
After class, I made the most of the time I had left and memorized the lines written in the script.
I had a hard time memorizing it because of my cursed memory, but the bigger problem was saying the lines out loud.
After confirming that there was no one around, I timidly recited the line.
“Princess, I will sacrifice my life to protect you…” “
“Oh my, really?”
“Ahh!”
Someone spoke to me from behind and I was startled.
When I turned around in surprise, Dia smiled and asked.
“Are you practicing acting as a knight?”
“Be surprised… that’s right. “A line that was in the script.”
“Are you willing to do something?”
“No. I can’t do it alone, but it would be amazing to do it in front of people. “I’ll probably die of a heart attack.”
“hehehehe, I guess I should at least give him artificial respiration then.”
“… “
I felt like he was saying this sincerely, so for some reason, I felt a little scared.
“And, I can’t really immerse myself in the character of a knight.”
“Why?”
“I am a weakling, weakling, and a coward, but the person I am supposed to portray is the perfect iron man himself.”
“Are you saying that the character is difficult to understand?”
“Yes. “I have no idea how to act.”
If I had approached it with vague determination, I would have been laughed at in front of everyone.
Dia listened to my concerns very seriously and said,
“Amber, who knows the characters here best?”
“… “Who are you?”
“Creator! “Koral wrote this script, so why not get some help?”
When I think about it, that’s right. Coral is like the writer and director of this play, so I felt like she could give some information about the character of the knight.
“I understand. “I guess I’ll have to ask Coral.”
Dia smiled brightly, nodded his head, and he said as he left.
“Okay. Well, I’ll be looking forward to it. “Driver?”
“… After.”
When Diamond, who plays the princess, said something like that, it felt like the tension that would be felt on stage was coming indirectly.
As soon as class was over, I went to Coral with the script.
As expected, Coral was stuck in the library again today, concentrating on something.
She moved her pen eagerly over her paper and repeated her crumpling again.
“Coral, what are you doing?”
When I called her, Coral looked at me and she said.
“Amber… ! Let me rewrite the script… !”
“Huh?”
What on earth are you talking about, rewriting the script after writing it all down?
“Listen. Obviously, my writing seemed very interesting when I was writing it, but when I slowly looked at it again today, I couldn’t see anything other than what needed to be corrected… !”
“Coral, calm down first… “
“I can’t let this stuff out into the world.. My writing sucks, Amber!”
Probably, Coral seemed to be suffering from ‘sickness.’
Naegulguryeo disease is a disease of unknown cause that is common among writers. It has the effect of rapidly increasing the burden of thinking that everyone is looking forward to one’s writing.
There is no exact treatment method for Naegulguryeobyeong.
In times like this, it was best to just divert Coral’s interests elsewhere as much as possible.
“Coral, it’s too late to change the script now.”
“But, my writing is so embarrassing…” “
“It’s because I feel too much pressure. “How about emptying your thoughts by writing a completely different story?”
“… Are you asking me to write my next project?”
“You never know. “Maybe what I wrote down could be used in next year’s play?”
From Noble mtl dot com
Coral seemed to think for a moment, then his eyes sparkled and he spoke.
“Okay… That’s a good idea! What should I write about this time? Change the atmosphere and make it a heartwarming romance… “
Fortunately, Coral seemed to have regained his energy with his thoughts on his next project.
In fact, if this became a habit, she might develop a disease where she would constantly want to write something new, but for now, it was inevitable that she would leave the current script alone.
Coral asked me, having regained some of her composure.
“But, wasn’t that what you came to say? Amber?”
“That’s right… I’m talking about the character called the knight in the script you gave me… “
I told her that her knightly persona did not seem to suit me.
“It’s so different from me, I don’t know how to act. “I would say it’s too immersive.”
“Aha, you want to know what kind of person the knight Phrygia is?”
“That’s right. “I wonder if you have at least one thing in common with me.”
Coral placed her fingers on her desk, clicked them, and spoke lost in her thoughts.
“What would Phrygia say…? “She appears to those around her as a very strong person, but she is actually an incredibly soft-hearted person.”
“… Are you soft? Nonsense.”
A person who crushes a thief’s head with a single kick is weak. It was an unbelievable story.
“Phrygia has a very soft heart, so if she doesn’t pretend to be strong, even if only on purpose, she won’t be able to endure. Because if she lets go of tension, she won’t be able to do rough things anymore. “That’s why she tries to look so strong.”
Based on the lines in the script, I thought he was an empty person who was only interested in achieving his goal.
After listening to Coral’s explanation, it seemed a little humane.
“More than anything, I had no choice but to become stronger in order to save the first princess who had turned into a monster.”
‘Monster… ‘
Her words reminded her of the last scene of the script she saw yesterday.
A scene where a knight kisses a monster and turns it back into a human.
Her face grew hot as she pictured the scene in her head, and she asked Coral.
“… Coral, I’m talking about the last scene.”
“Huh?”
“Here we kiss each other…” It says so. “You really don’t have to do it, do you?”
Coral responded to my words with a smile.
“What? Of course! All you have to do is pretend to do it.”
“Aha, as expected…” “
I felt a little embarrassed because I felt like I was the only one worrying for no reason.
“If you have anything else to ask, come by anytime. Amber.”
“Yes, I will.”
For the time being, I need to erase things like the kissing scene from my mind and just focus on memorizing the lines.
