The Villainess Directs Rofan - Chapter 7
Late at night.
Normally, the Count’s office would definitely be dark at this time.
Arno Dience was a man who, unless it was business-related, went to bed at a set time and woke up at a set time.
In business, where trust is the most important thing, Arno’s principle was that self-discipline is the top priority to maintain that trust.
“What are you worried about?”
Alfredo asked worriedly, as the lights were on in his office.
Arno put down the documents he was looking at and looked at Alfredo.
“I have a lot of work to do.”
A lot of work?
Because he stayed up all night, he checked almost all the documents and gave various orders.
Thanks to that, Alfredo was dying from all the work he had to do, and he couldn’t keep up with the princess’s play rehearsal.
So the Count had almost no work to do right now—.
“Where on earth did all this work come from…?”
Before Alfredo could finish his sentence, a sound came from the window.
It was the sound of a carriage.
At the same time, Arno’s eyebrows rose.
“She’s finally here.”
“I was just asking in case—.”
Have you been waiting?
Before Alfredo could say those words, the sound of the front door opening was heard. A fading voice could also be heard coming from the office near the door.
“I’m tired. Please bring some snacks for me and that child. We have more scripts to review upstairs—”
“We?”
At that moment, Arno’s cold voice cut through the study.
Alfredo shivered as the air seemed to grow colder.
In the meantime, Arno passed Alfredo and opened the study door.
“It’s getting late. Is it too difficult for the princess to keep her promise to respect the honor of the Count’s family and arrive early?”
‘You want to fight.’
This time, Alfredo finally realized the Count’s intentions.
He glanced anxiously at the maids nearby.
“Ah…”
Louisa, with an unreadable expression, smiled as she watched the maids disperse like the retreating tide.
Arno’s face hardened at the sight of her smile.
Recently, Louisa had been smiling more often than she had been angry, and each smile seemed to drive Arno’s mood further into the depths of frustration.
“Yes. That’s right. The honor of the Count’s family. I had something to say about that, but I was busy and forgot.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s stop the rehearsal for today. We’ll finish the remaining scenes tomorrow,” Louisa said to the man standing behind her.
Man.
Yeah, Louisa referred to the one she bought as “that child” when speaking to the maids.
Although he claimed to be nineteen, the way she called him “that child” made him seem more like a child than a man, despite his clearly adult appearance.
If Louisa had brought him into her bedroom and done something strange, Arno wouldn’t have cared so much about him.
But she didn’t.
Yesterday morning, he had briefly seen Louisa, who was usually so engrossed in theater rehearsals that he rarely saw her around the mansion.
She was reading a book in the study, and she didn’t seem to notice Arno.
When she looked up from her book, Arno saw her with her cat-like fierceness and occasionally languid eyes, gazing out beyond the window.
To be exact, she was looking at the slave who was doing chores in the garden beyond the window.
At first, her gaze was calm, as if she were appreciating a work of art. But then, strange emotions began to surface in her eyes.
Fear.
Why would Louisa be afraid of the slave she had bought?
He couldn’t figure out the answer.
Bang.
At that moment, Louisa entered the Count’s office and closed the wooden door.
“It closes more loudly than I expected. I closed it because it seemed like something that shouldn’t be overheard. Is that alright? It might feel suffocating with just the two of us in here.”
Louisa has developed a strange way of speaking these days.
Arno replied irritably, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay. Then tell me.”
Louisa stood at the door with her back straight.
He wanted to invite her to sit down, but before he could, Louisa spoke up.
“If this play goes well, we’ll be able to pay off our debts.”
That must be so.
Arno gave up on telling her to sit down and picked up the teapot.
As he poured her tea, Louisa continued, “Then let’s break off the engagement.”
His hand stopped.
There was not even half a cup of tea left.
Arno looked up.
“What?”
“Oh, but don’t worry. The play will definitely go well. So we’ll definitely break off the engagement, Count.”
A few loose strands of Louisa’s hair swayed gently.
A wind blew from somewhere.
* * *
I thought the answer he was going to give would be something like this.
‘How do you know if the play will be successful or not?’
Arno Dience, being a cold-hearted businessman, probably wouldn’t trust an uncertain promise.
Then I should tell him to come watch the rehearsal at least once.
Judging by Leo Pier’s performance today, it won’t be long before his acting reaches quite a watchable level.
Of course, Leo’s growth is not because he is a genius in acting, but because I am a genius in directing.
‘First of all, the mask is exactly Romeo.’
When an actor’s appearance perfectly aligns with the character they’re portraying, it can sometimes make their performance seem like it’s 200% more powerful.
This is often the case when a rookie actor bursts onto the scene like a comet, only to flop in their next projects, leaving people wondering where the brilliant performance from their debut went.
The director of the first work used the actor perfectly from casting to directing the acting.
At such times, the actor delivers their lines as if it were real, not just acting—like a ship with sails catching the wind.
Leo showed the possibility of doing that today.
With his rebellious look, he portrayed a young, passionate Romeo, no matter what he said.
With just that level of potential, he could soar high under my direction, Shin Geurim.
In addition, it is not just the atmosphere of the mask that is good.
‘He is handsome.’
The standard of beauty varies from person to person, so there’s no such thing as someone who looks handsome to 100% of the people.
However, there is such a thing as a popular face.
That is that guy.
The most popular face among rebellious faces.
A face that makes anyone passing by look back.
There will be female viewers who come to see the show a second or third time just to see that face.
To let Arno know that fact, first, I have to practice thoroughly until the rehearsal—.
“Why?”
“Mhm?”
I was taken aback by the slightly unexpected answer.
Arno Dience, who I looked over at, had a stiff face, his usual arrogance gone for some reason.
“Why did you suddenly want to break off the engagement?”
Suddenly?
In fact, the decision to break off the engagement had been made from the beginning.
It’s natural.
Despite spreading numerous rumors and scandals, Louisa clung to Arno to prevent the annulment of the engagement.
Eventually, they held an auction, and Arno declared the breakoff because of the auction.
However, Louisa made a huge fuss over the breakup, causing the Dience family to be viewed as a house that had betrayed its alliance with the Duke’s family for a time.
As a result, Arno Dience was angered, and later, he even testified against her at her trial.
This cold-hearted man, who values time as gold, took the time to take revenge on Louisa.
In order to reduce Arno’s anger even a little, the breakoff of the engagement was absolutely necessary.
After I gain some recognition through the play, I will break off the engagement in a way that causes the least damage to the Dience family’s honor.
“I’ve been thinking. Why have you bought that slave and not lifted a finger to touch him? Could it be that you’re suddenly concerned about me? That can’t be the case. You were so bold when we first met, saying that this marriage was a profitable deal for you alone.”
‘You made a profitable business, pretty.’
Yeah.
That’s what this crazy villainess said.
To a 10-year-old kid, when she was 9.
‘You and your family are nothing more than commoners with money; that’s just Dience. Isn’t that how nobles are supposed to greet each other?’
Thinking about that, I could understand why Arno despised me so much. I could also understand why Arno wanted to contribute to Louisa’s death.
“Yeah, this script.”
Arno picked up the “Romeo and Juliet” script from his desk in the office.
Why did he leave it in such an accessible place?
Such small curiosities didn’t last long.
“It was unexpected. To think that you wrote the script. The love story seemed quite touching. For a moment, I almost believed it. Could it be that you’ve fallen in love? Could it be that you’re afraid of falling in love with that slave? Could it be that love will ruin you?”
Arno took off his glasses. His purple eyes shone beneath them.
It was the first time I saw Arno Dience lose his composure.
“But no. After hearing about the breakup today, I understand. Do you want to break off the engagement at the moment when everyone believes that you fell in love with someone through this play?”
“That’s…”
I pressed my temples.
Amid all this, why is this guy’s diction so good?
“You want the sympathy you get from breaking off the engagement with me. You can’t stand being hated by the entire empire. You, as the cultured Messenna, could turn public opinion around if you’re abandoned by some shabby rich man just because you did a love story in your play!”
Arno looked at me with an angry face.
So that’s the real face hidden behind that calm mask.
The inferiority complex of living as a nouveau riche family and being ignored by the nobles. The victim mentality.
That’s what was triggered.
To have a fallen noblewoman you’re taking care of talking about a break off the engagement.
Now, Louisa Messena was a princess in name only, so anyone could do this to her.
Everyone did.
When Louisa Messena was executed by burning, her crimes were exaggerated.
She was accused of trying to seduce the Emperor, passing information to the enemy country, having affairs with numerous men while engaged to Arno, and even selling her grandfather’s remains.
Even though Louisa was too stupid to spy for the enemy, even though she considered men to be luxuries, even though she hated touching them, even though her grandfather was always strict with her, she kept her grandfather’s remains deep under her bed until the end.
Only by doing so would everyone’s minds be at ease.
Because villainess being burned at the stake shouldn’t be sympathized at all.
“That’s why you want to break off the engagement…”
“When I was nine, my parents’ carriage overturned and they both died. My grandfather told me to get engaged to you the night after the funeral.”
In the novel, Louisa’s childhood as a psychopathic collector appears only once.
When a drunken Louisa reveals to Rudy the story of how she became a collector.
“I said no. When I was young, I thought that marriage was for someone you loved.”
“….”
“However, my grandfather once slapped me and said, ‘You’re just a thing to be sold.’”
Arno’s brow furrowed.
“How dare you disgrace the honor of the deceased…”
I laughed and covered my head with my hands.
He thought it was a lie—.
“You have no choice. You have to marry the rich Dience for the sake of your family. The only inheritance your weak parents left behind, Louisa Messena, is worth nothing. If you don’t like it, I’ll throw you out on the street right now, so go out and starve to death.”
“Princess…”
“Since that day, I’ve felt sorry for myself. I hated living with the name of Messena, which I didn’t want. So I lived by giving expensive clothes, expensive shoes, and expensive men to this poor me.”
“That’s an excuse now…”
“Believe it or not, do as you wish.”
Then, I lifted my head.
I had a sense of what my face must have looked like the moment I lifted my head.
It must have been a mess.
I became overly immersed without realizing it.
A 9-year-old girl.
To exchange unwanted wealth and honor for love.
This is too much…
It reminds me of Shin Geurim.
I traded a life I never wanted for something like a picture-perfect existence with my mother. No, it was my mother who did it. She sold me off to a wealthy family.
Did she say she signed a contract after giving birth? That she wouldn’t see me again once I started elementary school? In exchange, they would provide unlimited support for her Hollywood debut.
Yeah.
That day when I went to see a play with my mom.
Since then, I haven’t seen my mom’s face even once.
In the hazy vision, I could hear Arno’s breathing.
I wiped away my tears, wondering what his face looked like.
When my vision cleared, Arno just seemed a bit embarrassed.
I knew it would be like that, but I felt a little strange.
“But I have to say this. Have you looked closely at the characters in this play? Then you should know what this means.”
“…What…”
I walked up to Arno.
Arno flinched back, but I stood close enough that I could hear him breathing. Then I snatched the script from his hand.
“The reason I’m breaking off the engagement isn’t because of another man. It’s because of you.”
There is a part in this script that is different from Shakespeare’s original.
That is the setting of Juliet’s fiancé, Count Paris.
In the original work, Count Paris is a character who torments Romeo by desiring Juliet, a 14-year-old girl. However, in this script, Count Paris, like Juliet, is portrayed as a young boy and says this to Juliet.
‘I hope you find happiness just like I do. Tell your parents that you can’t go through with an unwanted marriage.’
Of course, those words had no power, but they were a great comfort to Juliet.
“As much as I pity myself, you must have pitied yourself too. How unfortunate it must have been for you to marry a foolish princess. That’s why I wanted Paris to find happiness just like Juliet. That’s why I want to break off the engagement. Count.”
“…!”
At that moment, the Count’s face was… what should I say?
A face that was never described in the original work?
A face that had been hit hard on the back of the head with a club and had become dumb.
Yeah, that was it.
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