Chapter 189 (1/2)

Chapter 189 Stars and Flowers

The play didn’t have a theater curtain, nor an introduction, their preparation area was separated from the stage by a board, their stage was simple and crude, and for most of the cast it would be the first formal performance of their lives.

“This story takes place in the capital of a kingdom. Within the outer city, there lived a beautiful and kind-hearted girl…”

Accompanied by the sound of the narration, Irene slowly walked onto the stage. Her whole attire was a filthy gray gown, the hair on top of her head was a hideous mess, and her face was covered with dust.

Swinging the broom in her hand, she was carefully cleaning the ground, from time to time even bending down to wipe the difficult to remove dirt using the end of her gown.

After several days of rehearsal, Irene had thoroughly memorized the whole story’s process in her heart. The story was quite simple: a civilian girl had lost her mother, and was now constantly being bullied at her home, but because of the girl’s kindness she was then rescued by a witch, who used her magic power to give the girl the opportunity to participate in the prince’s party, where the prince and she fell in love the first moment they saw each other.

But since the witch’s magic was only effective for a limited time, she was forced to leave the ball in a hurry, and in her panic she left behind a crystal shoe. In order to find the beautiful girl, the prince had the whole city be searched. Ultimately, he found her in the outer city, and from then on the two of them lived happily ever after.

The story was simple and easy to understand, yet its plot completely broke away from the former description of a princess and a prince’s love, by allowing a common girl, who due to her kind nature gained the assistance of a witch, be able to to win the prince’s favor. As the Cinderella of this performance, the part where the character gathered up her courage to resist the oppression she had to face her whole life, would be the actress greatest highlight of the performance.

So Irene had never imagined that May would give the leading position to her.

Irene was already euphoric enough that the star of the Western Territory was willing to share the stage with her. Moreover, as the pillar of the stronghold’s theater, May had enough pride and confidence to play the leading role in all kinds of theater stages, yet in “Cinderella” she took the initiative to play the supportive character of the half-sister.

This was somewhat hard to believe for Irene, until the other side repeatedly emphasized that this was a performance of new kind of character, and that Irene had the talent needed to play Cinderella.

In the next rehearsal, she gathered all of her strength, not only to repeatedly practice every scene, but also when lying in her bed, even after the candles had gone out, she would still be going through the acting skills taught to her by May.So as not to fail to live up to the other side’s good intentions.

Fortunately, Irene was not without experience, so being on stage while having the eyes of countless people on her, she relaxed her body, and let the repeatedly practiced actions reappear one by one. Until now, she felt that she was in good shape and hadn’t made any errors. She even encouraged Rosia, playing the witch, with her eyes when the other had forgotten her lines.

“I split the wheat porridge in half, but do not eat too quickly; it is still very hot.”

“Thank you for your kindness, young woman, I will surely repay you.”

When Rosia bent her back and crookedly walked backstage, one after another the masses began to applaud – making Irene feel relieved. After all, she knew that, when someone forgot their words during a formal performance at the stronghold’s theater it would count as an utterly intolerable error. The nobility would immediately begin to boo and ridicule the actor, rather than trying to encourage the artist with applause.

At this point, it was May’s debut.

This part of the story was about the conflict of the mean older sister and Cinderella. Under the bullying and humiliation of the older sister, Cinderella could only hide in the basement and begin to tearing up as she held the portrait of her birth mother in her arms.

But now, as May stood before her, Irene suddenly felt that the atmosphere had completely changed.

She was no longer the quiet and taciturn theater star she had been during the rehearsals. Instead, she had turned into the ruler of the stage. With her lofty manners, her just perfectly executed body movements and unhidden contempt in her eyes, she placed Irene under a strong feeling of oppression.