I Start with a Bad Hand!

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Let’s have a kiss of love.”

“Sure, on the cheek?”

“No, how about on the lips? Let’s do it now… Ah, it’s so boring I can’t stand it.”

“Thanks. Your acting really sucks so bad I want to quit.”

The spring ball had ended. Now, the exam period was really just around the corner. I could somehow manage the other subjects, but I saw no answer for this playwriting class.

The midterm evaluation in the playwriting class was conducted in a manner where partners would act out monologues I had written. Passing the performing arts class was a matter of meeting the basic criteria, unlike other classes, but it was unclear if I would pass at this moment.

“This is serious.”

To maintain the scholarship I received for being second in my class at admission, I had to rank above a certain level each semester. That meant I had to pass in performing arts, where generally everyone exceeds the benchmark.

Unfortunately, every time I saw Agnes’s acting, I had this bad feeling that I could fail that midterm evaluation, where everyone passes unless you don’t set the stage on fire with your script.

“Of course, my script sucks too.”

However, Agnes’s acting had the power to make my lousy script look even worse. Yet, my partner was earnest about feedback on the script, demanding corrections for every part she couldn’t understand.

“So why does Juliano love Romiet?”

“Does love need to be convincing…?”

“You’ve written more than twenty lines explaining how Verona is a commercial hub because it’s a transportation nexus!”

I was a bit annoyed, but it made sense, and the revised part was better, so I had to agree to change it. Agnes seemed to have more talent in writing plays than acting.

“Hey, you said let’s practice together. What if we stop in the middle?”

Agnes asked to practice together up to the monologue part to revise it further. I wasn’t too keen on reading my creations aloud, but I had to force myself to partner up, or I might really fail.

However, while acting with Agnes, I discovered unexpected talent. Agnes’s acting was so bad that my mere reading of the script seemed decently good.

“What the heck is a ‘kiss of love’?”

“Do you want to kiss someone who talks about a ‘kiss of love’?” Agnes grumbled. Contrary to her innocent first impression, she was rough with her words and very straightforward. From our second meeting, when she bluntly said, ‘Is this really boring? Did you write this as a joke or seriously?’, it was evident. But it was this frankness that made our conversations more comfortable.

“Is it because you act so weirdly?”

Agnes, one of the few students from a commoner background at the academy, was far from any kind of formality or etiquette. Additionally, being the youngest of three siblings from a family that runs a large trading company in the capital, she proudly talked about enjoying her life since her sister and brother would take over the family business. She was a girl who never felt the need, nor had the inclination, to impress anyone.

For me, who struggled to maintain the fine lines of noble etiquette, having someone I could speak with openly was a relief.

Agnes didn’t seem to blend in well at the academy due to her brash personality and somewhat prickly manner of speaking. But then again, I didn’t have many friends either. Irene was a friend but also a year ahead, which couldn’t be ignored.

Klaus still felt more like Irene’s younger brother than a friend to me. Yuri was still trying hard to be respectful to me.

The second prince… I paused my thoughts and looked at the flowers laid gently on the handkerchief on my desk.

Since that day, I hadn’t seen the second prince. He hadn’t attended the classes we used to go to together. There’s a saying, ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,’ and his absence made the classes feel awkward. However, the professor didn’t mention anything, which suggested there was a reason for his absence. I tried to shake off the memories and emotions of that day as I looked at Agnes before me.

Agnes might speak harshly, but she seemed to have a good heart. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have boldly claimed she’d rather quit the class than deal with this hopeless script.

“Try acting more tenderly. Love’s ki…ss… But it really is strange, isn’t it?”

Exactly! Agnes leaned back in her chair, frustrated, flipping through the script. After a while, she looked straight at me and asked,

“Why did you even join the playwriting class?”

“There are classes for instrumental music, choir, painting, even drama. But why playwriting of all things? It seems like you’re torturing yourself writing this.” Agnes leaned forward, genuinely curious.

However, I couldn’t tell Agnes that I saw this failed script as a chance to strike it rich, nor could I admit that attending the classes might mean running into Roxanne. Just as I was about to fumble through an answer,

“Well, I’m a mess, but I’m still pushing through.”

Her response was unexpected. Agnes’s acting was odd, but she always overflowed with confidence. I had thought this confidence stemmed from ignorance of her own acting flaws, but Agnes seemed more aware of her condition than I expected, which surprised me. I asked back,

“Then why did you join the drama class?”

With genuine curiosity, I asked, and Agnes readily responded,

“I saw a really impressive performance. It was so impressive that it made my heart race, and I thought I wanted to be part of that crowd. It was the first time I’d had such an experience.” Her answer was more serious than expected. I was struggling to find a response when someone knocked on the door of my dorm room. I was inwardly relieved as I headed towards the door.

“Senior!”

It was Irene, as expected. Unlike usual, Irene stood outside my dorm room, holding her backpack as if she had just stopped by.

“Do you have a moment?”

“I have a friend over right now… but please, come in.”

Thinking it would be just for a moment, I let Irene in. She walked over to the table, and Agnes greeted her as she approached.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

Then the conversation awkwardly stopped. Irene wasn’t one to force conversation when there was nothing to say, and Agnes wasn’t the type to be overly friendly with someone she just met. The silence was suffocating, and I almost wanted to leave my own dorm room.

“…”

“…”

“…”

‘Please, someone say something….’

Just when I thought it might be better if I left, Agnes stood up first. She said she’d leave since we had done enough practice for today. After Agnes left, Irene relaxed her stiff posture a bit and then pulled a heavy bundle of papers out of her bag and handed them to me.

“What’s this?”

It seemed Klaus had run to Irene to talk about my meeting with Hayden. Irene couldn’t stand it, judging by her grave expression as she handed me a bundle of papers listing the nobility of the empire with their personal details. Looking at the daunting amount of personal information that seemed more appropriate for an errand center, I looked at Irene with wide eyes, and she…

“You’ll have to enter society eventually.”

…said, avoiding my gaze. We both knew it was an unthinkable task for Dietrich, coming from a humble rural baronial family. But hearing that a freshman like me was mingling with Hayden seemed to prompt her to look out for me in this way.

Irene added snidely that anyone in the empire’s nobility would share this kind of information. I had no choice but to accept the bundle of papers.

“Thank you, I’ll refer to it well.”

I spoke carefully, word by word, hoping my gratitude would come across.

And thus, the bundle of papers Irene handed me became an unexpected stumbling block in my studies. The nobility register, meticulously prepared by Irene, contained excessively detailed information, even including family trees among the nobility—it was as if it included a genealogy book, which was more information than I ever wanted to know. Especially that noble genealogy was truly… more than I ever wanted to delve into.

If I were to put it in terms, it’s like how a certain descendant of the Miryang Park clan married a descendant from the Gimhae Kim clan, and their offspring then married into the Jeonju Lee clan, and so on. Stuff like that.

Memorizing the biographies of all these nobles, regardless of their utility, was an activity that brought on a profound sense of skepticism. Moreover, while surnames like Miryang Park were at least short, memorizing surnames as hard to pronounce as ‘soy sauce factory manager’ was no easy task.

‘I definitely thought so….’

The problem was that reading them during the exam period turned out to be quite interesting. It was a strange phenomenon where studying became so undesirable that even reading someone else’s family tree became interesting. In fact, among the personal details that Irene had prepared, there were some genuinely intriguing parts. Really, reading anything seemed better than the ‘Understanding the Thomple Region through the Modern Conflicts of the Cabaluna Continent’ reference books for translation.

Eventually, after browsing through Irene’s materials for an hour or two, I suddenly realized the sun was setting and snapped back to reality.

‘This is going to ruin me….’

I had intended to study in the dorm because time was precious, but I kept getting distracted by the registry, stopping my study to flip through one page after another. Finally, lamenting my weak will, I was on my way to the library.

“Dietrich?”

Someone called my name. I turned around to see two students with unfamiliar faces.

“Who…”

“You’re Dietrich from the playwriting class, right?”

The two students, who introduced themselves as second-year drama class members, had somehow come close and were standing in front of me as if blocking my way.

‘…Are they trying to shake me down?’

At the academy? I watched them tentatively and then nodded.

“Your midterm partner is Agnes Bardi, right?”

“Yes.”

“Any trouble with the practice?”

“Yes, just… well…”

“Sorry to hear that as seniors in the drama class. Agnes must be quite lacking.”

“Not really….”

Frustrated by my lackluster responses, the student who had introduced himself as a senior in the drama class quickly got to the point.

“I’ll be blunt. How about you do this midterm evaluation with us?”

“It’s said you came in second, right? You need to pass this midterm to maintain your scholarship,” he said, making a very tempting offer.