While Penny tried her best to get into the role, Emilia had to admit that the petite girl would probably do the industry a favor if she just stayed away from acting in the future.
After all, just looking at the sinister glare in her eyes as she cried ‘pitifully’ was enough to make the boy playing the king gulp in fear. Fortunately, the witch having some resentment for the king was something that could be passed off as ‘in character’, so no one found it too strange.
Of course, compared to the sobbing little witch, the ‘king’ who had to pretend to console her was even more miserable. “Okay, okay, don’t cry, little girl. Can you tell this king where this ‘mother’ you speak of might be?”
From the audience, no one could be sure from his tone if the king genuinely wanted to ‘consult’ the girl’s mother, or wanted to ‘arrest’ a more powerful witch by using her ignorance.
The little witch sniffled. “S-She ran away with some wild woman!”
The crowned man sighed in disappointment. “Oh…”
Penny bit her lip as her sight shifted between Emilia and the ‘king’ before seemingly coming to a decision. “A-As long as you can keep her away from me, I can supply the kingdom with potions and remedies for life!”
The reluctance in her voice was so genuine and heartfelt that it was hard to believe that she was the same clumsy actress from before.
Of course, anyone who knew Penny could tell that it wasn’t the ‘witch being reluctant to work for the king’, but expressing any form of ‘dislike’ for her princess that made the petite girl so reluctant.
But although the princess had a character matching Emilia almost perfectly, that obviously wasn’t the case for Penny and the little witch, so there was no way she could just be herself without ruining the show.
If it made her princess happy and provided her a few more ‘opportunities’, going against her character wasn’t past Penny’s bottom line. After all, if she cared about her dignity, would she have ever been able to do even half of what she had achieved?
Fortunately, no one else could hear her thoughts.
Naturally, the king was tempted by the proposal, and it was evident from both his expression and the fact that he didn’t reject it immediately.
Although they didn’t often go to war, he had already heard about the miracle medicines made by witches that could cure all sickness and even regrow limbs. If the only price he needed to pay was to shelter the witch, it really was too good of a deal.
Plus, the older witch, the so-called ‘mother’, was also supposedly still alive. If she one day returned to meet this daughter of hers, wouldn’t he have a freebie that was even better than this already great ‘deal’?
Unfortunately, his daughter was having none of that.
Princess ‘Emily’ stomped her feet angrily, almost making the ‘dilapidated’ hut collapse in on itself from the force. “You can’t do that, daddy!”
The king waved at his men to get out of the hut first, and then coughed. “As a monarch, there are times you can be willful, but there are also times when you must know to put the interests of the kingdom first—”
The princess naturally knew that this kind of statement couldn’t mean anything good for her, as it was always used before she was being ‘denied’ something.
And as she expected, the king sighed. “Listen, Emily, I’ve already decided on this matter. Although you’re a princess, you cannot unreasonably bully someone like this—”
”Wait!”
He paused at the ‘unexpected’ exclamation from his daughter, and the princess seemed to hesitate for a while before she stood up straight, seemingly making up her mind, and the king immediately had a bad feeling.
”Daddy, remember how you asked me who I wanted to marry before?”
The king was momentarily stunned, not having expected her to bring up such an ‘unrelated’ topic. “Y-Yes?”
Princess ‘Emily’ smiled. “I’ve decided!”
The king chuckled nervously. “H-Have you now? B-But that’s not something we need to discuss now, dear. Let’s just—!”
Emilia grinned as she snatched Penny up from the ground and flung her over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. “I find this little witch quite adorable, and have decided to hand over my heart to her. From this day forth, she is my wife!”
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The curtain closed for a short break, and the audience immediately broke into hushed discussions.
Perhaps due to the unexpected twist, the reaction from the crowd was somewhat mixed.
Some found it quite refreshing compared to the usual fairy tale dramas like this, while others thought that the students were trying to bite off more than they could chew in a futile effort to be different.
Of course, most people were concerned with something else entirely.
”Holy fuck, what kind of props are they using?! I can’t see the wiring and stuff at all from here! How is the princess carrying that little witch around like she’s an empty garbage bag?”
Unfortunately for the man, Penny’s mother happened to be within earshot, and immediately pinned him with a death glare. “The little witch is so cute, how can you call her garbage?!”
The man looked at the woman’s companion for help, but Penny’s father just shrugged helplessly. ‘Fuck only knows what goes on in this woman’s head. Don’t look at me for help!’
With death flashing in front of his eyes, while he was sure it must be an illusion, there was no way that the man would take the chance. It was better to just take back what he said. “T-That’s not what I meant, I-I just wanted to say that the princess is like a gorilla—!”
The words had barely left the man’s mouth when he felt dozens of malicious gazes focus on him, and he immediately tried to backpedal in crisis control. “A-Ah, n-no, I-I meant gorilla stro—!”
”Fuck! You wanna fight?!”
”That’s our princess Emilia, how dare you compare her to anything but an angel?!”
”Hmph, are mere angels worthy of being compared to our princess?!”
Fortunately, Emilia had already expected something like this, and had Penny place many knights in the crowd to control the situation when something went wrong.
”Oh, it’s normal to be surprised, since she looks so pretty and delicate, but our Emilia has received a lot of training in combat since she was young. Knowing when and how to use her strength makes it easier to do things that look tough at first glance, you know?”
”So that’s why she’s the head of the disciplinary committee!”
With their help, the atmosphere that had been heating up into an argument was quickly dissolved, though it wasn’t quite as easy to completely quench the curiosity of people once it had been aroused.
Of course, with the previous examples fresh in their minds, everyone was a lot more careful with their choice of words.
”This ‘Emilia’ girl seems to be pretty popular among the students here, huh?”
”Well, with her looks, it’s not much of a surprise. If she continues to work hard in this field, maybe she can even become a real actress?”
”The name also seems very familiar… wait…!”
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