Memoirs of the Returnee
chapter-68

Script (2)

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

In the library where the second hand moves quietly, it’s a late night past midnight, and Elise is still studying with ‘Cookie’.

“……”

Exactly at 2 a.m., she quietly stretched.

She stumbled a bit because of the college board, but it seemed she had managed to overcome it.

She turned on her smartphone. There were many unread messages.

She quickly scrolled through messages from guys offering hollow condolences, and messages from those who scratched her heart while pretending to console her, then she got up from her seat.

[Layla: Elly, it’s urgent! Call me ASAP!!!!]

It was because of Layla’s fussing text.

Thud-

Something caught on her elbow and fell to the floor.

“……?”

[The Bard].

The script by Shion Ascal.

Elise looked at it and pondered for a moment, but soon shook her head.

She didn’t have time to waste on such things now. She didn’t even have enough time to memorize the script right now. She shouldn’t be swayed by Shion Ascal.

She went to the balcony of the library. She made a call to someone while facing the cold wind.

Ring, ring-

The guy picked up quickly.

“I read the text. What’s going on?”

—Elly! No, Elly! Elly, it’s a big deal! Kain and Asher are fighting!

“……”

Layla spoke urgently and turned off the screen.

—Because of you, I’m stuck in the middle rank too!

—Wow, this guy is unbelievable. Was that a situation I could control? Were you such a selfish guy?

It was Asher and Kain.

—No, I know that! Admit that you’re scared, you bastard!

—It’s not that I’m scared, it’s just unfamiliar!

The two were fighting seriously, beyond bickering. They were fiercely exchanging fists and magic.

—Look at them! They’re fighting!

Layla pointed at them with a desperate face, no, a face enjoying the situation. Elise sighed.

“……Where are you guys.”

—At the villa~ Oh, but Elly! I’m really pissed off!

Layla suddenly got angry.

—Aw, that damn Ascal bastard! He gave hope and took it away! If it weren’t for that bastard, I could have been in the top 10!

Elise looked at her with a blank face.

Top 10.

Even Layla is in the top 10.

“……Handle it yourself.”

Elise had nothing to say. She didn’t have the leisure to stop Asher and Kain. She felt depressed again because her grades were lower than Layla’s.

She hung up the phone abruptly and returned to the library…?

“Huh?”

There was suddenly one person in the library.

Gerkhen Kal Doon.

Elise quickly hid Cookie at her seat. She glanced at the books he had piled up. [Rail Kanen’s Theory of Human Relations], [Understanding Geopolitics], [State, Reality, and Individual]……

Is his dream to be a politician?

More than that, Elise had something she was curious about.

Hmm.

She coughed and approached him, then casually asked.

“Hey”

Then Gerkhen Kal Doon slightly raised his head.

“Were you the first place?”

Elise knew that the last two people left were Gerkhen Kal Doon and Soliette, but neither of them were the type to spread their rankings around.

“No.”

He simply denied it.

“…Unexpected.”

Moreover, Gerkhen Kal Doon was one of the candidates who had saved her.

No matter how she thought about it, a person who could move freely in that terrifying corridor on the fourth floor—and this was the most important part—who ‘kept his mouth shut’ was very likely to be Gerkhen Kal Doon.

If it had been the top-ranking guys like Asher, Kain, or Mel, they would have subtly boasted about what they had done.

“Then Soliette must have been first.”

Elise speculated again.

“I don’t know that either. I was taken down before I could see.”

“By whom?”

When she asked as if leading him on, Gerkhen Kal Doon silently handed her a notebook.

“This. Did you drop it?”

Elise took a quick glance. It was a notebook titled [The Bard].

Gerkhen Kal Doon said,

“I read it unintentionally.”

Elise twisted her lips and shook her head.

“It’s not mine-”

“It was well written.”

“…”

“I only read half of it out of conscience.”

Well written? What did that mean?

Elise’s brow furrowed slightly. She didn’t understand purely.

“Can I read more?”

In the midst of this, Gerkhen Kal Doon asked for permission.

Elise looked at him, floundering like a turtle that couldn’t grasp the situation.

“…Surely.”

She soon snorted and grabbed the corner of the notebook.

“There’s no way.”

She pulled it sharply.

It didn’t get pulled.

Gerkhen Kal Doon was not letting go.

“What are you doing?”

Elise pursed her lips. She put strength into her fingers gripping the notebook, but Gerkhen Kal Doon didn’t let go easily.

“Stop messing around and give it back.”

“…Didn’t you just say it wasn’t yours?”

Gerkhen Kal Doon looked skeptical.

“…It’s not mine, but I received it. Let go of this.”

Their eyes locked. Sparks flew for a moment.

“Alright.”

Soon, Gerkhen Kal Doon let go first.

Having retrieved the notebook, Elise packed up and left the library.

Prestige, a top-tier apartment in Edsilla.

As soon as Elise returned home, she placed two items on the desk in her bedroom.

One was [The Bard], written in a cheap notebook.

The other was [The Cunning King – Author Elise], produced in a high-quality hardcover.

Of course, she hadn’t read [The Bard] yet.

—It was well written.

However, Gerkhen Kal Doon’s words kept coming back to her. Along with his face that really didn’t want to give it back.

“That’s nonsense. There’s no way it could be interesting. It’s the most bland, shoddy, and mediocre play among the 23 works of Latinel.”

“…I have to read it at least once to critique it.”

Elise muttered as she sat down in her chair. She swiftly turned the pages of Shion Ascal’s dirty, hand-stained notebook.

──────

Characters

1. The Bard

2. Duke

3. The King

4. The Queen

5. The Prince

6. Count Zolang

7. Palace Minister

8. Palace Maid

──────

There were a total of eight characters. Elise, with her chin resting on her hand, turned the page.

[Bard: You’re inviting me to the palace?]

[Count Zolang: Yes. Is there a problem?]

[Bard: Not at all. It’s just so sudden…]

At first, it was dull. She read through the pages of the notebook, flipping them dismissively, as if it were all a joke.

[Palace corridor. The palace maid looks around nervously in the darkness, a note clutched in her hand.]

[Palace Maid: Who on earth…]

[Suddenly, eerie footsteps rush from behind. The palace maid turns around.]

[Palace Maid: Aaaahhhhhhhhh——!]

[A heart is pierced, and the scream is cut off.]

Suddenly, someone died.

Not in reality, but in the play.

The palace maid, stabbed in the heart and even her neck cut, is hung in the middle of the palace corridor.

“…What is this?”

Elise was dumbfounded, but her hands and eyes moved on their own.

Her fingers found the next page. Her eyes read the sentences.

After the palace maid was murdered, the palace minister was also killed during the investigation and deduction process.

Two characters had died in the first act.

In the next act, two more were killed, and from the moment half of the characters were wiped out in no time, Elise found herself unknowingly engrossed.

[Prince: The murders began after that Bard arrived. Isn’t that right? Then who should we suspect?]

When the prince suspiciously accused the Bard, I was the one who got angry.

[Bard: The Bard tells stories through songs. Among those stories, there are tragedies and comedies. I tell comedies as if they were tragedies, and tragedies as if they were comedies. That’s all. I’m just a Bard, one who tells and retells the stories I’ve once heard and experienced.]

At the Bard’s mature response, I nodded in agreement.

[Duke: Bard. I found this button in the grass.]

When the Duke threw out something suspicious, of course, I thought the Duke was the villain.

However, when all the murders led to the latter half where everything fit together like cogwheels…

“…”

She blankly looked at the clock. It was already 4 a.m.

In two hours, she had read the entire book in no time.

Without taking a break. Forgetting the flow of time, she was completely immersed in it.

She silently put down the notebook.

—Meow!

Cookie on the desk spoke up. Elise murmured softly as she looked at it.

“It’s… interesting.”

The variation of romance into a thriller, the reinterpretation of The Bard’s character, the plot of a revenge play, and the final twist were all incredibly good, to the point of disbelief.

How could such literature come from that bastard?

“……”

Elise brought her hands together on her lap.

Again, she alternated between looking at her neat hardcover and the shabby notebook.

She had to put one of them away.

If she insisted, she might be able to push through with her own [The Cunning King]. She could discard this script called [The Bard], and exclude Shion Ascal from the entire play process, pretending she didn’t know.

She picked up her hardcover of [The Cunning King].

Swish- she turned the pages. She smelled it one last time.

She threw it in the trash can.

“……Haah.”

A sigh slipped out. Leaning back in her chair, she tilted her face upwards.

She lost again.

Not to the College Board, but here too, there was someone better than her.

This time, she felt the difference in talent.

And that too, from the guy she hated the most.

Elise didn’t want to admit it.

Not just to Shion Ascal, but to the fact that there are ‘others’ who are superior to her in some ways all over the world.

She wanted to be the most talented among her peers.

Is it a natural curse? Or simply greed? Or perhaps, a blessing that leads her to the pinnacle.

“……”

Elise forced herself to get up. She picked up the cheap 1 Ren notebook and went out to the living room of her room.

A servant approached her and asked.

“Miss, do you need anything?”

“This. Copy and bind it. Ten copies. Neatly.”

She handed over [The Bard].

“Yes!”

The servant quickly took it and made ten copies of the script.

[The Bard]

It was much cleaner than the shabby notebook. She wanted to add a leather cover to it, but she decided to buy that later and add it on.

She placed The Bard back on her desk. She took out a highlighter and multi-colored pens from her pencil case. She turned the cover.

—I’m The Bard. Sometimes I cross the line at the tavern, climb to the moon, and recite a melody. I express the senses as stories.

Elise analyzes and studies everything. Perhaps that in itself is her hobby.

This time is no different.

Although her pride is hurt, it’s a really good script, so she needs to study hard.

—(Showing a faint expression on her face) Why does the Bard cry? Even when the Bard cries, it’s not crying. Don’t be fooled.

“Make the expression complex and subtle.”

Elise delved into the script.

Not only following the character descriptions faithfully, but also thinking about what expression to make and what appearance to show as she reinterprets it. While noting where to accent when speaking the lines and how to correct the speech. Drawing double lines on important parts and highlighting them.

Only for ‘Sermones Laeterni’…….