The Bard (2)
"The villagers, taking pity on us, shared a handful of wheat, a handful of beans, a handful of millet. We made a bowl of porridge and poured it into the mouth of my youngest, who had already breathed their last."
On the stage, the woman’s voice was quiet.
She wasn't bursting with raw emotion.
She was simply calm.
With a trembling voice, as if unsure whether she should even be speaking of such things, she unfolded the events she had endured one by one, her eyes filled with confusion.
The audience, filling the tavern, was instantly thrown into disarray.
'Didn't they say a bard was coming?'
'I came to watch because they said the stories were fun!'
'Last night, a cheerful young man told us a story about a cool knight, didn't he!'
Faced with the young woman's desperate confession, the people couldn't even make a sound; they just gaped, their mouths hanging open, not knowing what to do.
"That was when it happened. When the soldiers burst in."
In an instant, the woman's aura shifted.
She hadn't raised her voice, but the emotion with which she chewed and spat out every single syllable made the people feel goosebumps rising on their arms before they even realized it.
"They said, 'Ah. Look at this. There is grain here.'"
The woman, mimicking the soldier's voice, seemed to have changed her very face.
The woman who had suffered the tragedy was gone, replaced by a creature licking its lips and grinning hideously. For the hot-blooded youths of the North, it was perhaps only natural that their fists would clench tight.
"That's right. Using the handful of grain that had entered the dead child's mouth as an excuse, those soldiers searched the entire village and scraped away everything, even the seeds and grains we were meant to plant when spring came."
"Ahhh-."
And then, the song began.
Only then did the people realize that the woman on stage wasn't telling her own story, but performing a song and a play.
'We were fooled.'
Aiden, too, let out a dry laugh only after the song started, realizing the woman's confession was a fabricated story.
Having memories of living amidst all sorts of pop culture, he had thought, 'What could possibly surprise me in the entertainment of this primitive world?' But he had been properly blindsided.
There wasn't a single trace of grand stage effects or sophisticated performance skills to be found, but this proved the eternal truth that the essence of a performance lies in the actor and the acting.
- In the eyes of a mother with not an inch of land to bury her young, blood and pus well up,
You well-fed soldiers with slick faces, whose land are you going to steal next-.
- Live for glory.
Live within glory.
- So,
Live for glory-.
- Is it not joyous that the King's land grows?
What does a mother's blood and pus matter-.
The voice that had been gentle and quiet while speaking the lines turned into a sorrowful, ghostly wail the moment she sang.
It was the audience who ended up sniffling at the song, sung with gritted teeth, swallowed sobs, and a wavering pitch.
Burly men who looked like they could wrestle a wild boar with their bare hands had bloodshot eyes, biting their lips and choking back tears, and some of the more sensitive women were already clutching their skirts, a mess of tears and snot.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
"······."
"Kuuuugh!"
Without looking far, Jamie, sitting right next to him, was wailing and blowing his nose loudly.
Aiden could only tear at his hair in embarrassment under the gazes of his staff, who were staring at their adjutant's crying spectacle with fascination.
'I'm going crazy.'
I’m the idiot for being dragged here to try out a hobby I have no business having.
Because the giant of a man was crying so sorrowfully, there were signs that the people's attention was shifting from the bard to their table.
Not wanting to become a spectacle in a place like this, Aiden quickly started clapping.
Clap, clap, clap, clap-.
At the sound of Aiden's applause, the audience, finally realizing the bard's song had ended, quickly followed suit, erupting into cheers, whistling, and making a ruckus.
"Thank you, thank you!"
A deep voice came from the mouth of the woman who had shed her rag-like robe.
"...It was a man?"
"I was completely fooled."
"Wow, damn. That's impressive!"
Thinking back, he had pretended to be a woman, but his voice hadn't been particularly thin or delicate.
He was a born actor who could manipulate even his gender at will.
"If you enjoyed the story and the song, I ask for a coin to buy bread for a meal, a coin to drink a glass of beer to go with it!"
The actor was still bowing on the small stage, and the tavern worker was walking around with a sack, soliciting tips.
It wasn't a promotional event where you try it first and pay if you like it; it was a system without fixed prices where you paid as much as you were satisfied with after the performance, and the pockets of the villagers, who had had all their tears and snot wrung out, opened easily.
Clink, clink-.
The sound of coins could be heard from all directions.
Before long, the worker holding the sack approached Aiden's table as well.
"Huuuugh! That was truly the best! How long do you plan to perform? It would be great if you stayed for a long time!"
"I'll be here for at least ten days."
"Uwahaha! That's the most welcome news I've heard all day!"
Jamie laughed contentedly and took out a shining silver coin, dropping it into the sack.
It looked like he was ready to empty his entire paycheck into the bard's pocket.
"Hehe. How was it for you, Administrative Officer?"
The worker slipped a word to Aiden as well.
In any other territory, it would have been a matter of 'how dare a lowly commoner speak to me,' but the villagers near the Lord's Castle tended to have a rather unique affection for their lord.
Knowing this, Aiden also raised the corners of his mouth softly and replied.
"I was quite surprised. I didn't expect a performance of this caliber."
"That's how it is, isn't it? We were so surprised after the first performance yesterday, too. Even the guests staying at the inn came out and laughed until their stomachs hurt."
"Laughed until their stomachs hurt?"
Something was strange.
"Ah, yes! Actually, the content of the performance last night was a bit different from today's. You know, yesterday it was a story about a beggar king who was mistaken for a knight and caused all sorts of trouble, and it was so funny. Hehe, you should definitely watch that one too sometime."
At the worker's words, Aiden's expression turned peculiar.
Since a bard travels around performing, it was only natural they wouldn't have just one repertoire.
Because stories that get good reactions vary by region, culture, and audience.
Being an actor who could act and sing to this extent, he surely had dozens of usable repertoires, but...
'They say the reaction to the first performance yesterday was quite good, but do they usually change it right away?'
They said the audience was rolling on the floor at the story of the cheerful knight.
Then, the people who flocked to his performance the next day would naturally be an audience that had heard rumors of last night's show and gathered to see the same thing.
Thinking about it, the rags he had been wearing were also a bit strange.
Weren't they costumes much closer to the beggar king who became a knight from last night's performance, rather than those of a commoner losing their youngest to poverty and being exploited by soldiers going to war?
"If you enjoyed the performance, might I be able to beg for a lunch?"
"Oh!"
Amidst the audience who had naturally returned to their ordinary lives after the performance ended.
The actor who had been on stage threw off his rags, transformed into a neat appearance, and stood next to Aiden's table.
"······."
As Aiden stared at him blankly, the bard's Adam's apple moved up and down incessantly.
His expressions and gestures had been full of ease, but it seemed that, too, had been an act.
"Oh my, sit down here. No, why are you so good at acting? You fooled us completely. Hehe! And the song was so sorrowful, come, come. Another beer here!"
"Yes, coming right up!"
Jamie loudly sat the actor at the table.
Setting aside any personal liking to become friends with the actor, he could tell just by looking at his superior's face what he was thinking.
'He looks like he has something to say.'
So what could he do? He had to play the fool for his Lord.
"Cheers!"
With a meaningless toast, they each downed a glass of beer and were about to reach for the food that had gone cold, when...
"Might I ask how the Lord found it?"
The bard asked for his impression.
At that question, Aiden put down his fork and tilted his head.
"You can sway people's hearts like this; spreading rumors in the marketplace must be a piece of cake."
"You saw right through me. It will be quite useful."
It was clearly not an impression of the performance. However, the bard’s face brightened, and he couldn't hide his delight.
At the two men's mysterious exchange, the three adjutants stopped eating their lunch and began to rack their brains.
- What is this suddenly about?
- Did we miss something?
- Wait. That bard, did he know our Administrative Officer was the Administrative Officer?
- The inn worker said the performance was different from yesterday.
- Did he recognize our Administrative Officer and change the content of the performance?
- Then the performance he just did was...
- It was a message he wanted to convey to the Administrative Officer!
Again, if you work in the same space for over ten hours every day, this level of telepathy is communicated through eye contact.
The three adjutants, not knowing if they were aware of the ability they had acquired, busily rolled their eyes back and forth, exchanging opinions.
- No, but is the message he wants to give the Administrative Officer about personal revenge or something?
- No, you idiot! The 2nd Prince's forces are spreading the front lines in the south and east, it's a mess. It means there are that many commoners being exploited by soldiers.
- Why to the Northern Administrative Officer?
- Can't you tell just by looking? 'I am someone who can vividly show what is happening far away, even from this far away. Look, am I not useful?' Isn't that what he's saying right now?
- If he knows how to reenact things that happened, he could probably show things that didn't happen convincingly, too.
- Agitation and fabrication. Hmm. It is necessary for politics.
- Then was that performance just now him sending a resume to the Administrative Officer?
- That's about it.
- Man, it would be fun to work together.
Aiden thought as he watched the three adjutants, who were now even clapping and providing commentary on the situation.
When separated, they were smart and capable, but when the three were stuck together, they barely seemed to do the work of one person.
"...You are aware that you are speaking out loud, right?"
"Hup!"
When Aiden added a word, dumbfounded, they immediately clapped their hands over their mouths.
"Hahaha! It was a secret I revealed as carefully as I could, but since there are so many people who can see through it so clearly, the future of the North seems bright."
Though it might have been embarrassing, the bard grinned, stood up again, and bowed formally.
With an elegant posture and a charming smile, he softly crinkled the corners of his eyes.
"I look forward to working with you. I am Cereban. As the North grows by the day, I'm sure there will be much for me to do."
However, seeing the expressions of the four people at the table again, he realized in an instant that things were not flowing as he had thought.
Scrape-.
Aiden rose from his seat.
"Eat your meal before you go. Think of it as the price for the good performance you showed us."
Just as he spoke formally to the residents, Aiden raised his register and walked away as if there was nothing more to say, and the three adjutants followed.
Jamie sighed deeply at Cereban, who was left stuttering, unable to understand what this meant, and whispered a hint.
"Our Lord, you’ve misjudged him quite a bit."
You see, our Lord doesn't like it when people touch his things without permission.