TOPWL 226

‘Did she see it?’

Despite his calm demeanor, Yudit’s heart was racing. Everything else looked thin, yet only his stomach was swollen, so it would look strange. Was it discovered? Yudit pretended to get angry and spoke.

“I said I could wash alone.”

“Your care is my duty. If it isn’t done properly, I’m the one who will be punished.”

“I sang on the street. I do know what shame is.”

“Aren’t you afraid your secret might be discovered?”

Yudit froze at the maid’s scornful words. How did she know? When Yudit looked at her with wary eyes, the maid let out a short laugh.

“I knew from the start. I gave birth to four, and if I didn’t know, I’d be a fool.”

The maid carefully examined Yudit’s body. She checked behind his ears, the nape of his neck, and even his nails, then she stood up.

“Men don’t know. Because they’re fools. So if you’re going to deceive them, deceive them to the end.”

“……”

“I’ll have to choose your clothes again.”

The maid, muttering to herself, left the bathroom. A drop of water slid down from the back of Yudit’s head as he was left alone again.

***

After bathing, Yudit received a massage for the first time in a long while. When he tried to refuse and pull away, the maid said it was fine and told him to accept it. Yudit gave up and let her massage him. After drinking tea that helped blood flow and being massaged with scented oil all over his body, then sleeping for a while, his complexion changed so much it was almost shocking. His pale skin now glowed with a rosy tint, and his nails and hair shone. Even though the hair was a wig. The maid looked satisfied when she saw Yudit’s condition. She said the other maids told her it was a rare thing.

When everything ended and he came out, the clothes he was to wear were hanging on a rack. It was a thin silk dress embroidered with gold thread, and since layers of light fabric hung down from below the chest, it could hide his belly while giving a mysterious impression. It took half a day just to choose jewelry and shoes, and Yudit was exhausted before it even started. He walked toward the waiting room, all dressed up.

When the ornaments jingled, Bagon and Shane, who were seated, looked toward Yudit at the same time. Something flickered in Bagon’s eyes when he saw him.

“I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Yudit sat down after adjusting his wide skirt. He felt so tired he thought it would’ve been easier to perform twice in the square. “You look so beautiful,” Bagon flattered him, and Yudit glared at him. Bagon smiled mischievously and played with Yudit’s dangling earrings. Then he suddenly whispered in his ear.

“There’s someone watching this room. It seems to be a check to see if there’s anyone suspicious.”

So that was why he’d felt uneasy. Yudit nodded and slapped Bagon’s hand away.

“You are perverted.”

His tone made it sound like Bagon had just harassed him. Bagon quickly caught on and laughed loudly. The guards had also been invited to watch the traveling troupe and were devouring all the food in the waiting room. Edmond frowned at the sight of a guard stuffing bread and cookies into his mouth. As Yudit watched him nervously, Bagon hit the back of Edmond’s head at the perfect moment.

A loud smacking sound echoed, and Edmond jumped up holding his head.

“Why, why did you hit me!?”

“Your eyes were insolent.”

Edmond huffed in protest but wisely sat back down instead of talking back. Sometimes Yudit thought he had matured a lot, but whenever he saw him losing his temper with Garen, who cared about him, he realized there was still a long way to go.

Yudit quietly looked out the window. The sky was slowly turning orange, and carriages were arriving one after another. The lord held a grand banquet twice a month, seemingly to spread drugs among the nobles and show that the territory was still thriving. Since it was such a large event, Yudit’s troupe wasn’t the only one hired. Many other groups had been brought in and were waiting in other rooms. Because they were being watched, they kept the talk on the surface while passing time, when Carmen staggered in. Carmen’s complexion looked fine, but she still seemed extremely tired.

“Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not……”

Carmen dropped onto the chair and slumped over the table. Her clothes wrinkled, and her pinned-up hair loosened a little. The maids who stood a short distance away looked at Carmen with displeasure. When Carmen sensed their gaze, she quickly stood and straightened her clothes again. Yudit quietly laughed when he saw Carmen watching the maids, who were half a head shorter than her. At that moment, footsteps came from the next waiting room, and soon the sound of a lively violin and a clown’s cheerful voice followed. It seemed the party was about to begin.

“Listen carefully to your seniors’ voices.”

“……Yes.”

Edmond and Garen answered weakly to Bagon’s words. Edmond and Garen were not as elaborately dressed as Yudit or Carmen, but since their bodies had been scrubbed clean, their skin tone looked different. Their clown outfits looked playful, but the fabric was fine and their builds were good, so a few maids glanced at them and smiled. But Edmond and Garen shuddered and avoided their eyes, as if they had suffered some kind of torture from them.

“We can’t go out for another two hours anyway, so eat whatever you can.”

Bagon bit into the sandwich in front of him. The party usually started in the evening and ended at dawn. They were to perform in the middle of the banquet and also take the closing part.

“Ah right, about the sword we use for the sword dance.”

Bagon spoke as if it was nothing.

“It was taken away.”

Yudit’s eyes widened. Bagon grabbed a handful of grapes, and the popping sound of grapes bursting in his mouth followed.

“Then what should we do?”

“……Yes. ……Right.”

“What?”

Bagon chewed the grape seeds loudly and spoke.

“What else? We’ll just do it.”

“But there’s no sword.”

“They said they’ll give us the sheath. Use that if you have to. Guess they’re nervous.”

Bagon said it in a mocking tone to provoke the head maid. But the maid did not even blink and snorted.

“If you got paid that much, you should be satisfied with just the sheath.”

It seemed the maid had not received the money the lord promised them. When money was mentioned, Bagon clicked his tongue. The maid had won. Yudit understood why Bagon had said it. It meant they had no swords left. The thought of entering enemy ground with no weapon at all made the back of his neck stiff from tension. Carmen offered him food, but Yudit could not bring himself to eat even a single cookie and simply passed time.

“Get ready to enter.”

When the moon was high in the sky, the maid opened the door and spoke. Bagon and the others picked up their belongings and stood. Yudit quietly took a deep breath. When they reached the end of the corridor, the guards on both sides opened the doors. The massive doors swung open, and light leaked through the gap.

Originally, Yudit and Carmen were supposed to perform last, but since all weapons had been confiscated, many acts they could do, like piercing an apple with a dagger, were gone, and their turn was moved to the middle instead.

Yudit leaned against the wall and thought about how he should perform the sword dance. Edmond and Garen rode unicycles and juggled while spinning around. They had learned it through the night, but the audience’s reaction was dull. They had received at least some response in the square. Edmond’s playful face slowly turned tearful as he saw the crowd’s reaction. Yudit watched their act with an anxious heart. Bagon seemed to think this was not going well, so he gestured to the musicians to speed up the music.

“Since the preview is over, we’ll now move to the main show. Next is the pride of our traveling troupe, the tightrope performance. Oh? But where’s the rope? I’m sure I set it up.”

At Bagon’s words, people murmured and looked around. Then someone pointed to the ceiling.

“It’s up there!”

They all looked up. Gasps and sighs resounded together. The hall was built open up to the third floor, and the rope was stretched tightly between the two pillars at each end of the third floor. It was the third floor, but since the ceiling was high, it was about the height of a fifth floor in other buildings. A fall meant death. Why did they go that far? Yudit barely managed to hold back a scream. Shane stepped onto the rope without even tying a safety line.