I Start with a Bad Hand!

Unexpectedly, we turned out to be a fairly cohesive team, evident from everyone’s silent presence.

Even after Irene arrived and we were all gathered, no one ventured to introduce themselves first. We all sensed that formally introducing ourselves at this juncture would only add to the awkwardness, given our vague mutual acquaintances.

Although it was the first meeting between Agnes and the Second Prince, the extreme shyness evident on Agnes’s face made it clear that a forced introduction was out of the question. Similarly, perhaps because of too many awkward moments with Klaus, the Second Prince too remained silently seated. Irene watched the two with an expressionless gaze.

Klaus might have been the one to lift the spirits, but just before coming, he had been battered by Irene’s cold words and looks until he was nearly shredded, over the ordeal with the pocket watch. I felt a twinge of sympathy listening to them, to the point of almost tearing up. Moreover, Klaus was outnumbered in terms of mood.

Taciturn, shy, aloof, listless.

The thick darkness created by the four of us, excluding Klaus, was overpowering his usual cheerfulness. Finally, a somewhat subdued Klaus just sat there, shrinking a bit more than usual in this suffocating atmosphere, truly looking as if he was suffocating.

But I had to lead somehow. This was… my karma.

It was when I was about to return the watch to Irene. I had just scolded Klaus severely when I inadvertently blurted out in front of everyone, “We still need two more people, this is serious.”

“…Why didn’t you ask me?”

Irene looked at me a bit resentfully. It seemed like she wanted to add that even Klaus had a role. At that glance, I felt compelled to offer some excuse.

“I thought it would be too presumptuous to ask you, given your busy schedule, and also….”

“It’s fine. The student council has been supplemented since you left.”

Irene said this with a slightly discontented expression. Before I could say anything else, she announced she had a student council meeting and would join the drama practice afterward, then disappeared. I was left standing with Klaus and the Second Prince, watching Irene leave.

The Second Prince, having followed us and observed all that had transpired, was an amusing character. Watching him now heading towards the drama practice with Klaus, the Second Prince quietly followed us.

“Do you have something to do in this direction?”

I asked as politely as possible, essentially meaning ‘Why are you following me?’ But it seems I was too polite.

“It seems we are one person short.”

I realized too late that one must be direct with those who are oblivious. He walked alongside us, expression unchanged, as if nothing was amiss.

“Really? That’s fortunate, isn’t it.”

Klaus laughed next to me, seemingly enjoying this more than I was. This guy… doesn’t he know… All the way to the drama club, I tried indirectly to shake him off, but he skillfully dodged my rejections with various excuses.

Thus, the Second Prince and I sparred verbally for a while, and eventually, we reached the drama club.

I had no choice but to resort to the last measure. My only option was to ward off the Second Prince with my script… However, I belatedly realized that my scripts were taken by Agnes, my sole actress, citing practice as the reason. And this perennial latecomer had once again left the three of us waiting alone at the drama club.

It seemed as though we might end up watching the sunrise without anyone speaking. Finally, I broke the silence.

“So… let’s start with the roles. Agnes will play Romeyet, Klaus will be Julian, and Senior Irene will be Lady Montague, Romeyet’s mother. And the Second Prince…”

I took a deep breath.

“Lord Capulet, Servant 1, Servant 2, the Priest, a Knight of the Montague house, the Coachman, and a friend of Julian.”

“…What?”

He seemed profoundly impressed by the lavish casting.

“There’s nothing we can do. We have too few people, so one must play multiple roles.”

“But don’t worry too much, apart from Lord Capulet, the lines are mostly just one sentence each.” Seeing his reluctant expression, I replied with a sense of schadenfreude.

“What’s the basis for dividing the roles?”

The Second Prince asked discontentedly, wondering why Klaus got the main role while he was assigned Lord Capulet and six other minor roles. The truth was simple. The reason the Second Prince was given minor roles was so that if he happened to be absent, anyone could fill in without a problem. I answered indifferently.

“Since there would be no problem with the final evaluation even if Your Highness suddenly left the play. After all, you were absent from the academy for quite a while recently.”

Damn, I should have used this reason to refuse earlier! The right responses always come to me too late. Regretfully, I looked at him as I bit my lip.

“Recently?”

He frowned and looked at me. I nodded. However, soon he sighed and said, understanding,

“There was a death notice. A comrade’s mother passed away.”

He had asked me right before he died. To take care of his mother’s funeral if he passed. The Second Prince said this nonchalantly, but the moment I heard ‘death notice,’ I realized I had been too harsh.

To entrust the prince with his mother’s funeral, and for him to willingly miss school for it, meant they were very close… Hearing about the deaths of both people at once left me unable to speak for a while, just moving my mouth silently before I finally managed to say,

“I’m… sorry. That’s unfortunate.”

The Second Prince waved his hand as if to say it was okay, but the atmosphere had sunk deeper into gloom. We fell into silence again. Apparently unable to bear such moments, Klaus eventually intervened as a relief pitcher.

“Ha… haha. By the way, Dietrich, could I see the script?”

“Ah… right. Just a moment.”

Gratefully, I handed out the scripts with each person’s part. Klaus received it with an excited expression and began flipping through.

“Oh―”

Klaus started with a bright tone, but as he read on, the pitch of his exclamations lowered. The Second Prince, from a certain point, was silently pressing his forehead with his hand. Unlike Irene and Agnes, who were used to such things, the two men seemed shocked.

“Oh… um…”

Klaus’s admiration eventually faded away. It was just when I was about to jokingly comment on the cringeworthiness of my script.

“Klaus, if you have something to say, say it directly. Don’t react rudely like that.”

There was no need to go that far. But Irene, belonging to a ducal house, seemed to have a stern sense of responsibility to properly manage her brother. Irene’s frosty advice left Klaus visibly crestfallen, and he eventually apologized to me in a small voice.

The Second Prince still couldn’t take his eyes off the script, his forehead creased in focus. With the atmosphere thoroughly mired in awkwardness, I felt responsible and decided it was time to shift gears.

“Shall we at least try running through the script now? Let’s read through it and then call it a day.”

Phew, I sighed inwardly. Eager for practice to end and for everyone to disperse, I glanced at Agnes, whose line was first. She had been silent, just listening to our conversation. Sometimes silence truly is golden, I thought as I waited for her to speak.

“I. Love. You!”

Her brief yet intense line plunged the two men back into shock. Klaus, who was supposed to respond, was at a loss for words, and the Second Prince looked at Agnes, questioning if he had heard right. Only Irene and I watched Agnes’s performance unfazed.

Actually, it wasn’t bad at all… I thought to myself, giving Agnes a thumbs up. Seeing this, the expressions of the two newcomers grew even colder.

Klaus, completely thrown off by Agnes’s pace, botched his part, and Irene concluded that matching the script would only be possible after individual practice. Thus, our meeting ended.

There were too few rowers, yet the boat was heading towards a mountain. No, not a mountain. We were digging towards the underworld. They were using the oars given to them as shovels, diligently digging tunnels. Everyone contributed earnestly to an atmosphere beyond salvation. With an even lower energy than when we had first gathered, we left the drama club in silence, scattering in all directions.

The collective gloom fueled the express train to hell for our final evaluation. It was the birth of the strongest team.