Extra arc 『The Stage Ghost’s Cappricio』 Chapter 5
Edited ver:
私とフランデルト様が劇場に足を踏み入れると、すぐに劇場支配人が現れて私たちを客席の方へ行くよう案内してくれた。
When Frandert-sama and I entered the theatre, the theatre manager quickly appeared and showed us to the guest seats.
Since this theatre manager is also indiscreet, the instance he saw us, he started thanking us for the capital that both our families have provided. I feel like this person always talks about money.
They were getting the lighting and sounds checked on this stage for the sake of commencing the dress rehearsal after this.
Miria was already on the stage and when she noticed us, she gave but a small wave over at our direction.
I surveyed the unoccupied seats around us and when I found a certain face I recognized, I narrowed my eyes a little.
これだけ席が空いているというのに、わざわざ後方の座席に座った老紳士。
An elderly gentleman sat expressly behind us even though there were so many empty seats available.
He had a scowl on his face as if to say 『I was completely forced into this』 while staring at the direction of the stage.
そんな顔をするくらいならば舞台稽古など見に来なければいいのに。でも、彼にとってはそれも仕事のうちなのだ。
If he’s going to make that face, then he shouldn’t have come to see the stage dress rehearsal. But then, that was also part of his job.
Ronald Beret.
He was a union member of the Royal Theatre Association and also a well-known drama critic. His criticisms are accurate and I had once really looked forward to reading his commentaries. It’s unfortunate but I feel like he made a lot of slightly biased articles recently.
Watching dress rehearsals is linked to his job as a union member. The Royal Theatre Association is an organization for the various theatres in the capital that looks out for the basic health and welfare of its members on the stage.
While that was quite a respectable job to do, if I were to describe him in a few words, I’d say he was a bullheaded, ill-tempered, nagging old geez– pardon me, I meant grandfather. (1)
『今や王都でも有名なミリア・ガラントが舞台の上で事故にでも遭えば組合の名折れ。人ならぬ身で面倒な仕事を増やしてくれるものだが、仕方がない』というのが、ロナルド・ベレご当人の談である。
『It will be a stain for the union if Miria Galant, who’s now famous even at the capital, has an accident on stage. It’s something that’s bound to increase my already inhuman and troublesome job, but it can’t be helped』 , those were the words said by the man himself, Ronald Beret.
Since the way he said it sounded really sarcastic, to keep my cool, I’ve made it a habit to change his lines in my head.
『H-hmph. It’s not like I’m worried about you at all, okay?! It’s just that if an accident happens on stage, it will be a minus for the union… that’s why I’ll come and check from time to time! But that’s all, got it?!』
よし。
Ok!
そんな私の、口論などせず穏便にやり過ごそうという努力を知らないロナルド氏は、氏から遠い席を選んで座った私たちの元までわざわざやって来た。
Mr. Ronald, who was unaware of the great pains I took just to quietly let it go without complaint, purposely came up to us who picked and sat on seats far away from him.
「Good day, young miss. You sure are enthusiastic」
He simply calls me by 『young miss』. I wasn’t offering up my family name.
I guess it’s unfair that he only knows my given name when I know his full name. But I don’t want to be thought of as little girl who talks big just because she’s sheltered under the authority of her duke family and I especially don’t want to be able to win an argument or something for that reason.
By the way. Despite the fact that Frandert-sama and I were here as a pair, he puposely came to talk only to me. This was because he disliked my attitude on our very first meeting. That is to say, we ended up nearly butting heads.
While replying with a 「Yes, good day」, I’d finished preparing myself for a fight.
「I love seeing her perform so much that I’d watch both practice or public performance everday if I could. Miria’s voice is really wonderful and I can’t get enough no matter how much I listen to it… but you don’t seem to agree」
「Hmph. It seems young miss is dissatisfied with my review yet again」
「If this is about the critique you made regarding Miria’s new performance, I don’t believe I can call that a review. You went too far ending it with 『it was such a boring performance』 after all the nitpicking you made. Even though it was such a moving performance and got a splendid applause at that, seems like it hadn’t reached your ears, huh?」
「It’s your aesthetic sense that’s dodgy, young miss. Since you only listened to your own extremely enthusiatic applause, I bet you hadn’t bothered to look around. Blind supporters are defined by their lack of sense」
I huffed in anger but I couldn’t let myself get heat up in an argument any further at a place where the dress rehearsal was about to take place.
I decided to try converting the words Mr. Ronald said just now in my head.
『There’s no way someone like you understands Miria’s good points! I know about Miria way better than you! It’s because I want that girl to grow that I speak to her harshly!』
本人の前では素直になれないツンデレっ子（ライバルに釘をさしちゃうver）。
A tsundere who can't be honest in the presence of the actual person (telling a rival off version).
Mr. Ronald, who had no way of knowing what I was thinking, took my silence as a sign of victory and wore a smug look.
I drove my thoughts about Mr. Ronald from my mind and tried to concentrate on the dress rehearsal that will start at last.
The rehearsal they were practicing right now was Miria’s new play that came up in the current conversation.
I hear one of the backers had interrupted the performance when it was already starting its show. And in a hurry, rumours has it that they needed to change the lines though just a bit, leading to this dress rehearsal with the real performance in mind.
I only heard it as a story, but something like that does happen.
Anyway, I can’t make anymore fuss when I was given this opportunity to specially observe such a practice with Miria’s help. There was also the exclusive troupe playwright that was rumoured to hate people and hard to please present in today’s practice. Since he was someone who never shows his face in public, this will be the first that even I’ll meet him.
A person like that had spoken with Miria. He was a tall, thin man whose face I couldn’t see very well from the place I was at.
「That’s the playwright」, Mr. Ronald told me even though I didn’t ask.
「He’s a well-known misanthropist. It’s mainly because of the rumour that no humans stood on this stage that he accepted employment in this troupe. …Heard he got cruelly dumped by his lover when he was young. So his favourite type is, of course, 『a pure woman who devotes nothing but earnest love to another』」
Mr. Ronald said that sort of slander in a small voice only I could hear.
Before now, I would’ve taken a firm attitude thinking 『That’s this person’s opinion, not mine!』 no matter what Mr. Ronald told me, but my cheeks spontaneously stiffened at these words.
しかし、ミリアがこれまで常に『ひたすら一途な愛情を相手に捧げる、純情なヒロイン』を演じてきたのは知っていた。それが王都ではミリアの代名詞のようになっているのだ。
In regards to the plays Miria performed, I’ve actually only seen the play where I saw Miria for the first time and the one she’s performing right now. In other words, I only know of two works. But, so far, I knew that Miria has always played the part of 『a pure woman who devotes nothing but earnest love to another』. In the capital, it was becomming synonymous to Miria.
Even the plot of the story of which the practice was about to start right now evidently had that sort of feeling.
Burning with a single-minded passion for her first love, even though the object of her affection was just a sheltered noble who was only good with words, the heroine couldn’t stop her earnest thoughts. Even after finding out he had a wife and children of all things, she offers her heart and in the end, dies after getting stabbed with a knife that had been meant to be thrusted into the cheating man’s heart.
Even as the audience asks why do it for that kind of man, they could not go without tears at her earnest love. It had been that sort of performance.
But, what if that was the reflection of playwright’s preference? What if he was writing only girls like that because of backlash in the past where he was dumped by the woman he loved?
（それはちょっと……ほんのちょっとだけ……。い、いや、でも、もしも私生活の苦しみを芸術作品として昇華しているというならば、それは芸術家としてこの上なく素晴らしいことのはずで――）
（That’s a little… just a little… n-no, but if he were elavating his personal anguish as an artwork, it should be supremely wonderful as an artist, rig――）
私の心を読んだように、ロナルド氏はにやりと意地悪く笑った。
As if reading my heart, Mr. Ronald gave a nasty smile.
「女々しいと思っただろう？」
「Girly, ain’t it?」
(1) I couldn’t find a word that can quickly define a person who loves to scold, so I used the word “nagging” here. This sentence is basically: “…he was an extremely stubborn, ill-tempered old geezer grandfather who loves to scold”.
Firi: Lol, a tsundere jiji.