Chapter 68
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Script (2)
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Tick-tock... Tick-tock...
In the quiet library where the second hand moved silently, Elise was still studying with "Cookie" well past midnight.
"......"
Right at 2 a.m., she quietly stretched.
She had slightly exceeded her quota because of the College Board, but it seemed she had overcome it without much difficulty.
She turned on her smartphone. There were many unread messages.
Messages from friends offering lame consolation, and messages from those pretending to console while trying to poke at her sore spots—she swiped through them dismissively and stood up from her seat.
[Rae: Elise wake up call quick!!!!]
It was because of Rae's over-the-top message.
Thud.
Something caught on her elbow and fell to the floor.
"......?"
[Minstrel].
Sion Askal's script.
Elise stared at it for a moment in contemplation but soon shook her head.
She had no time to waste on something like this anymore. She barely had enough time to memorize her own script as it was. She couldn't let herself be swayed by Sion Askal.
She headed to the library balcony. Facing the cold night breeze, she called someone.
Ring ring...
The other person picked up right away.
"I read your message. What's going on?"
—Elise! No, Elise! Elise, big trouble! Kain and Esher are straight-up fighting!
"......"
Rae spoke urgently as she turned the screen toward them.
—Because of you, I got shoved into the mid-ranks too!
—Holy shit, this guy's unbelievable. Was that a situation I could control? Were you always this selfish?
It was Esher and Kain.
—No, I get that, but admit you're scared, you bastard!
—I'm not scared, I'm just not used to it!
The two had gone beyond bickering and were genuinely fighting, fiercely exchanging punches and bursts of mana.
—Look at these guys! They're fighting!
Rae pointed at them with a panicked face—no, a thrilled one. Elise let out a sigh.
"......Where are you guys?"
—At the villa~ Oh, but Elise! I'm seriously pissed off!
Rae suddenly exploded in anger.
—Argh, that damn Askal bastard! He said giving hope and then snatching it away is the worst! If it weren't for that jerk, I could've made top ten!
Elise stared at her with blank eyes.
Top ten.
Even Rae was talking about top ten.
"......Handle it yourselves."
There was nothing Elise could say. She didn't even have the spare energy to stop Esher and Kain. She'd just get depressed again comparing scores to Rae.
She abruptly hung up and returned to the library...?
"Huh?"
Someone had appeared in the library before she knew it.
Gerkken Kal Dun.
Elise quickly hid her Cookie from her spot. She sneakily scanned the stack of books he had. Rail Kanen's Theory of Human Relations, Understanding Geopolitics, The State, Reality, and the Individual......
Does he aspire to be a politician?
More importantly, Elise had something she was curious about regarding him.
Ahem.
She cleared her throat and approached casually.
"Hey."
Gerkken slightly lifted his head.
"First place... you?"
Elise knew that the last two remaining were Gerkken and Soliet, but those two weren't the types to spread rankings around.
"No."
That was all he said.
"......Unexpected."
Plus, Gerkken was one of the candidates who had saved her.
No matter how she thought about it, he was the most likely person who could move unharmed through that terrifying fourth-floor hallway—and, most crucially—keep their mouth shut about it.
If it had been one of the top guys like Esher, Kain, or even Mel, they would've subtly bragged about what they'd done for her.
"Then Soliet must've been first."
Elise tried floating the idea again.
"Don't know about that. Got done in before I could see."
"By who?"
When she probed leadingly, Gerkken silently held out a notebook.
"This. Did you drop it?"
Elise glanced at it. It was a notebook titled Minstrel.
Gerkken said,
"Ended up reading it unintentionally."
Elise bit her lip and shook her head.
"It's not mine—"
"It was well-written."
"......"
"Out of conscience, I put it down after reading half."
Well-written? What did that mean?
Elise's brow furrowed slightly. She genuinely couldn't comprehend.
"Mind if I read more?"
And in the midst of it, Gerkken was asking for permission.
Elise blinked at him like a turtle unable to grasp the situation.
"......No way."
Soon, she let out a hollow laugh and gripped the corner of the notebook.
"As if."
She yanked it.
It didn't budge.
Gerkken wasn't letting go.
"What are you doing?"
Elise mumbled through pursed lips. She gripped the notebook tighter, but Gerkken didn't yield easily either—grind.
"Don't do anything weird and hand it over already?"
"......Didn't you just say it wasn't yours?"
Gerkken gave her a suspicious look.
"......It's not mine, but I received it. Let go."
Their eyes locked. A spark flew.
"Fine."
Gerkken released his hand first.
Having retrieved the notebook, Elise packed her things and left the library.
* * *
Edshila's top-class apartment, Prestigeum.
The moment Elise got home, she placed two items on the desk in her bedroom.
One was the cheap notebook scrawled with Minstrel.
The other was the deluxe bound edition of The Cunning King - Author: Elise.
Of course, she hadn't read Minstrel yet.
—It was well-written.
But Gerkken's words kept coming back to her. Along with that reluctant face as he handed it over.
Ridiculous. It couldn't possibly be entertaining. It was the most bland, shoddy, mediocre play among the 23 Latynel classics.
"......To critique it properly, I have to read it at least once."
Elise muttered as she sat in her chair. She flipped open the grimy pages stained with Sion Askal's touch.
──────
Characters
1. Bard
2. Duke
3. King
4. Queen
5. Prince
6. Baron Jollang
7. Palace Chamberlain
8. Head Maid
──────
There were eight characters in total. Propping her chin on her hand, Elise turned the page.
[Bard: You're inviting me to the palace?]
[Baron Jollang: Yes. Any problem?]
[Bard: Of course not. It's just so sudden...]
At first, she was indifferent. She flipped through page after page with amusement, deeming it lame.
[Palace corridor. In the darkness, the head maid anxiously glances around. A note is clutched in her hand.]
[Head Maid: Who could've left this...]
[Then, eerie footsteps approach from behind. The head maid turns.]
[Head Maid: Aaaahhh——!]
[Her heart is pierced, and the scream cuts off.]
Suddenly, someone died.
Not in reality, but in the play.
The head maid, stabbed through the heart, even had her head severed and hung in the middle of the palace corridor.
"......What is this."
Elise was dumbfounded, but her hands and eyes moved on their own.
Her fingers sought the next page. Her eyes devoured the text.
After the head maid's murder, during the investigation and deductions, the palace chamberlain died too.
In Act 1 alone, two characters were dead.
In Act 2, two more followed, and from the moment half the cast vanished in an instant, Elise found herself unwittingly immersed.
[Prince: The murders started after that bard arrived. Isn't that right? Then who should we suspect?]
When the prince suspiciously targeted the bard with his slimy tone, she got angry on his behalf.
[Bard: A minstrel sings stories. Among those stories are tragedies and comedies. I tell comedies as tragedies and tragedies as comedies. That's all. I'm just a minstrel who shares the tales I've heard and witnessed, giving them back to the world.]
She nodded along to the bard's mature response—mm-hmm.
[Duke: Bard. This button was found in the garden.]
When the duke threw out something suspicious, she naturally pegged him as the villain.
However, as all the murders clicked together like gears in the latter half...
"......"
She blankly checked the clock. It was already 4 a.m.
In two hours, she had devoured the entire script without pause.
Without a single break. Forgetting the flow of time, completely absorbed.
She silently set the notebook down.
—Ang!
At that moment, the Cookie on the desk spoke up. Looking at it, Elise murmured softly.
"It's... fun."
Turning romance into a thriller, reinterpreting the minstrel character, the revenge plot, and that final twist—all of it was ridiculously good.
How could something like this come from that scatterbrain?
"......"
Elise clasped her hands on her lap.
She alternated glances between her pristine deluxe edition and the shabby notebook.
One of them had to go.
If she dug in her heels, she might be able to push her Cunning King. She could discard this Minstrel script entirely and exclude Sion Askal from the entire play process, pretending ignorance.
She picked up her Cunning King deluxe edition.
She flipped through it—swish—and took one last sniff.
She tossed it in the trash.
"......Haa."
A sigh escaped her. Leaning back in her chair, she tilted her face upward.
She'd lost again this time.
Not the College Board, but here too—someone better than her existed.
This time, she truly felt the gap in talent.
And to the one guy she hated most.
Elise didn't want to admit it.
Not just Sion Askal, but that "others" superior to her in some way existed everywhere in the world.
She wanted to be the pinnacle of talent, at least among her peers.
Was it a born curse? Simple greed? Or a blessing guiding her to the top?
"......"
Elise forced herself to stand. She grabbed the cheap one-ren notebook and headed to the living room.
The maid approached her.
"Miss, do you need anything?"
"This. Copy and bind it for me. Ten copies. Make it neat."
She handed over Minstrel.
"Yes!"
The maid quickly took it and returned with ten crisp copies.
Minstrel
Much cleaner than the shabby notebook. She wanted to add a leather cover, but she'd buy one later and attach it.
She placed Minstrel back on the desk. She pulled out highlighters and colored pens from her pencil case. She flipped the cover.
—I'm a minstrel. Sometimes I jump rope by the docks and recite rhymes to the moon. I express the five senses through stories.
Elise analyzed and studied everything. Perhaps that was her hobby in itself.
This time was no different.
It stung her pride, but it was truly an excellent script, so she needed to study it diligently.
—(With a faint expression on his face) Why is the bard crying? Even when the bard cries, it's not crying. Don't be fooled.
"Make the expression subtly complex."
Elise dove into the script.
Not just faithfully following the character descriptions, but reinterpreting them herself—imagining what expressions to make, what gestures to use. Noting where to place emphasis in lines, how to refine the speech patterns. Marking foreshadowing, highlighting key parts with fluorescent pens.
All for the sake of Sermones Aeterini......