“You… are only talking nonsense!”
“In the end, the decrease of the income is merely because of you and this group of inferior actors with no status.” May showed a faint smile, “There was one time when I was performing at King’s City Grand Theater, which is an open-air theater. It just so happens that on the day of the show it was raining. However, the nobles still came and filled even the last seat. So, you’re saying it is because of the commoners that the nobility is unwilling to watch your show? No, it’s simply that they do not enjoy coming over to watch a play that is performed by a group of monkeys.”
“…” The scene fell into a strange silence, not only did no one step forward to blame them further, they weren’t even trying to find an excuse.
“Finally, you said that the ‘Witch Diary’ is of inferior quality and vulgar; a story about stray dogs struggling and howling in grief?” The corners of May’s mouth rose, her voice however, was bone chillingly cold, “I may have forgotten to tell you, but it was the Prince who wrote the story for the script. Do you want to tell me that His Highness ideas are low-grade and vulgar? Insulting the royal family is a crime punishable by cutting off the tongue; are you still going to stick with your point of view now?” She looked at the crowd standing behind Bella, “Or do any of you want to give it a try?”
One after another, the more than a dozen actors under her gaze backed away.
“Enough!” Bella clenched her teeth and hissed, “Since you’ve already left for Border Town, you should never have come back! May, do you think I don’t know! The actual reason why you went to that broken place was not to see that idiot Irene, but Morning Light.”
“Bang!“
Bella’s voice stopped with a grunt; a bright red hand print was glowing on her left cheek. She touched her face, not daring to believe what had happened just now, “Y-you actually dare to str-strike…”
Fuu~ in the end, she had acted on impulse, so she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. If it went on like this, it could cause some trouble for her later on.
Sure enough, two actors behind Bella stepped forward, “Miss May, you are going to far.”
“Do you know the importance of appearance to an actress; I think that at the very least you need to apologize to her.”
Apologize? Isn’t that the same as saying I was the one in the wrong? May couldn’t help but to grimly start laughing from the bottom of her heart, the urge to act impulsively returned, but the thought to apologize never even surfaced.
With a calm and collected expression, she sized up the two men with their oily hair and powdered faces, and could not help but think of what Carter Lannis had once told her.
“Do not look at a man’s strength, they also have many weaknesses, attacks towards their eyes or throat will make them instantly lose their resistance, of course… there is also the place between their legs. As long as you act decisively and quickly it is not impossible for you to knock down a man much stronger than you.”
Although she wasn’t sure how far this could be applied to the current situation, she had already placed her feet into an attacking position, just waiting for the two men to come closer…
However, at this moment, the lounge door was brutally pushed open, an armor wearing knight came in followed by several soldiers with pikes in their hands. As they entered the room, they immediately pointed the pikes at the crowd.
“I heard that somebody had slandered His Royal Highness, and that a whole crew is conspiring against him.”
May couldn’t help but stare blankly, thinking that what she had seen had to be an illusion, she forced herself to blink. However, nothing changed, the man standing in front of her showing her a secret smile was indeed the knight Carter Lannis.
Chapter 278 Combat Plan
The conflict soon ended.
When they saw the knights threateningly closing in on them, none of them dared to speak up. It was fair to say that the majority of actors were people who moved whichever way the wind blew, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a dispute to begin with. It wasn’t like everyone had the courage to stand up and confront her, the all too famous May. And now that the situation had completely turned around, Bella was escorted away by the two men as they immediately left the lounge.
Soon after, Carter and Border Town’s theater group were the only ones in the huge room.
“Thank you for your help,” Gate and the others said as they bowed.
“You were really… too fierce! Two or three of your sentences were already enough to turn her completely speechless.” Irene said, grasping May’s hands, “Furthermore, that slap, she looked so perplexed, she couldn’t do anything but cover it with her hand in her disbelief.”
She then turned towards the Chief Knight and saluted, “Sir Carter, for what reason are you in Longsong Stronghold?”
“About this point, I’m also very curious,” May said while shrugging with her shoulders, but within her heart, she felt relief.
“Because of His Highness’ orders,” Carter answered and then asked in return, “Can I invite you to a drink?”
…
“This is… the place where you live?” The Chief Knight appeared somewhat reserved while he surveyed the room.
“Yes, very ordinary, right?” May took a bottle of white wine from the cupboard and poured him a small cup. “The taverns only open at night, so just regard this cup as my invitation to you.” Irene and the rest of the group had quickly slipped away, one by one they suddenly remembered something they had still needed to do. Which left only her and Carter in the group by the time they’d reached the residence.
“Yes, indeed… quite ordinary,” Carter coughed twice, “I’m unaware about your family…”
“My mother passed away when I was still young, I got my father a job in the theater, where he had to do all kinds of easy chores,” May stated serenely, “But I think he will come back in the evening.”
The location of the small cottage was within a dark alley of Longsong Stronghold’s inner city, but she had actually spent all her savings after becoming the Star of the West to purchase it. Even though the house was small and old, but by moving away from the outer city, she at least could get away from harassment and the disturbing peeping Toms.
“Uh… sorry.”
“It’s nothing,” May answered, and gave herself a small cup, “Did His Royal Highness let you come in order to rectify the theater’s social order and solve the disputes between the actors?”
“No, of course not,” Carter repeatedly waved his hands and said, “Timothy has sent some people to the Western Territory to cause some trouble again, because of this, His Highness Roland along with the majority of the Army are currently on the road. I instead took Small Town and arrived beforehand to arrange the Second Army, reinforce the night watch, and alert the Honeysuckle Family as I do so as to prevent someone from raiding the gates and the like.”
“These matters, you shouldn’t have told me,” May said shocked while shaking her head.
“You asked, and it’s not like this is a secret operation,” Carter drank the wine, “rest assured, I still have a sense of discretion.”
“Good,” she answered, curling her lips, “So, how did you get to the theater?”
“After I took care of the matters at hand, all of the sudden I happen to hear about your play and suddenly had the desire to come and see you perform on a real theater stage, wondering what it would look like. And it was just like I thought, even though I could only see the last part of the play, your performance was still wonderful.” the Knight praised. “So, I went to backstage intending to invite you to a drink, but I didn’t know whether I should come in or not. Thus, I was indecisively wandering in front of the door when I heard the argument inside…”