The four lead actors were still there, gauging each other’s performance. Some of the other actors also stayed, clearly desiring to speak to the four esteemed actors. However, they were stuck in their own circle.
“Did they say anything about your performance?” Daniel asked.
“Nothing for me,” Yuan truthfully said.
“Me too,” Suho chimed. “We shouldn’t be too worried.”
Meanwhile, Oska couldn’t help but smirk. “He told me to anticipate good news,” he said.
The others turned to him in an instant.
“Congrats,” Suho exclaimed, but of course, he didn’t mean it.
“Nothing is certain,” Oska chuckled, but he already felt like a winner. He moved around, feeling confident of the comment from Daeshim PD. “I do want to work with you, so even if you don’t get the main role, then—”
His sentence was cut short when he bumped into someone. He lifted his head and glared at the hooded man.
Zeno didn’t even spare him a glance and continued walking toward the door.
“Hey,” Oska said. Zeno stopped but didn’t turn around.
“Watch where you’re going, man. You hit me quite hard. A decent man will apologize for his wrongdoings, am I right?” he asked, and the others agreed.
Zeno still didn’t move.
“You were the one who bumped into me,” he merely said before opening the door and entering the room.
The others were stunned by his blunt answer. Oska’s eyes widened, and he turned to the others to see if he had heard right.
“Did he just—”
Daniel, on the other hand, frowned in suspicion. “That voice is very familiar,” he muttered.
“Here he is,” Chachi said as Zeno stood before them.
Annie and Daeshim frowned since he had a hood on, unable to recognize him. However, as soon as he removed it, they were stunned.
“Handsome,” Daeshim couldn’t help but say. His looks didn’t stray far from the top actors that had auditioned a while ago. He looked a little bit unrefined, but that somehow made him appear charming, too.
This was the first time Chachi had seen him, and she nodded in approval. He had lived up to the hype of his looks. Then, when she looked at the screen and at the current Zeno in front of them, she found that he looked even better in real life.
Annie, on the other hand, couldn’t close her mouth.
The man standing beside her… felt like the embodiment of the Hajin Yi in her mind. She had never placed a face on Hajin because she always thought no one was worthy enough. Even the manhwa and anime didn’t do him justice.
However, she felt like she was whiplashed! Hajin was standing right in front of her!
“Zeno Han. 24 years old. From Dreamy Entertainment,” Zeno introduced himself.
Daeshim, who appeared quite disinterested already, nodded. “Go ahead.”
Annie pursed her lips. Still, even if this was the embodiment of her favorite character, she should not be swayed. She still has to consider his acting skills.
Zeno let out a deep breath.
He had read through the techniques of acting.
He had also applied the theory by practicing it with his friends.
And most of all, he had anger in his heart for the Ascendants who have damned him.
With those, he finally started.
A banquet was taking place inside the main hall of the Emperor’s palace. Laughter, clinking bowls, and casual chatter echoed through the open windows.
Servants hustled quietly, pleasing the old, pretentious, and filthy-rich people inside the hall.
Just then, Hajin walked in from the shadows, his robes rumpled and eyes red from holding back his tears.
However, he was smiling—a strange, cracked sort of smile.
Daeshim narrowed his eyes, unable to take them away from the actor. He hadn’t said anything yet, but he was already rooted in place.
Hajin snickered quietly. “Ha… HAH!”
“You know what’s funny, Minister Yoon?
Minister Yoon, seated comfortably inside, glanced up from his cup of makgeolli and groaned.
“What are you doing here?” Minister Yoon asked. “You are not allowed to be here.”
“Oh no. What now, Hajin? Did you come to recite poetry again? The dogs didn’t howl enough last time?” The eldest prince, Seon, chuckled.
Hajin waved a dismissive hand. “No, no. I’ve retired from poetry. I thought I’d try something new… like crashing parties I’m not invited to.”
He stepped one foot onto the threshold, and a servant gasped. Minister Yoon sat upright.
“You know the rules. Illegitimate or not, you do not enter this house. Turn around now.”
“Oh, I would. I really would. Except today, I found out my mother didn’t die of the plague,” he chuckled again, bizarrely cheerful.
“She was murdered.”
The room stilled, and no one was able to refute him.
“And not by bandits. Not by illness. No. By someone here,” he let the sentence hang before his smile vanished.
“Imagine that. My mother, who scrubbed floors with hands that once touched a prince, strangled like vermin,” he spat, a chuckle of disbelief escaping his lips.
“Watch your tongue,” Mr. Yoon quietly said.
“You watch your conscience.”
He stepped all the way in now.
It was a scandal! A blasphemy! The nobles backed away like he was contagious.
“I begged to eat in this house when I was five. Watched my cousins lick the grease off their fingers while I sat in the snow with a rice ball and a rat for company. And do you remember what you said?”
Hajin did not let Mr. Yoon get a word in.
Chachi was rendered silent, unable to say her next line as Zeno continued.
“That a bastard should learn humility,” Hajin smirked.
‘Humility, my ass!’ Zeno thought.
He has been humbled throughout his missions, and yet, they had exploited him through and through!
The smirk left his lips, and now, he displayed the death in his eyes.
“She died humble, didn’t she? And still—that wasn’t enough for you.”
He walked past the table, grabbed a piece of grilled fish with his bare hand, and took a bite.
“Have you lost your mind, boy?” The Crown Prince, his father, exclaimed.
“Oh, I found it actually. Right next to her memorial tablet. Funny what you start to remember when you stand alone in the cold long enough,” he said.
He dropped the half-eaten fish back on the golden plate.
“You people think you’re gods, sitting here. However, you are nothing but scums that do not have an ounce of contention.”
Other ministers began to murmur. Some servants bowed their heads in fear.
“You wanted me small and forgotten, but you made one mistake. You killed the only person who kept me quiet.”
The wind picked up slightly. Hajin stepped to the head of the table—the Crown Prince’s seat.
“That seat is not yours,” Yiku, the youngest, exclaimed.
Hajin smiled coldly. “Not yet,” he muttered. Then, he sat back, enjoying the throne of the future Emperor.
“I am Hajin. Son of the Crown Prince. Son of the woman you tried to erase. And today—I eat first.”
No one moved. One young official glanced around nervously, then bowed his head. One after another, they all lowered their gazes. The royals remained rooted in their place.
“And if the heavens allow it, I will burn this house down.”
I shall show the Ascendants.
“Brick by brick.”
Mission by mission.
“Lie by lie.”
“Until all that remains… is a throne.”