I Became A Playwright In Medieval Fantasy

“I heard the news that you returned to the capital. I figured this was the only place you would come.”

“……”

“Did you do that too? You completely split it in half.”

Gabi remarked while looking at the X-shaped split rock.

It was the very stone that Maya, who awakened her Sword Aura, had cut in half with one strike.

“Impressive, isn’t it? You’re about to turn 18 tomorrow and you’ve already reached this level. I couldn’t even imagine this at your age.”

When she was young, Maya had climbed to the capital holding the hand of her master who saved her life.

The very spot where she received her sword as a gift and began her first training was this clearing.

From the moment she started her rigorous training, she had always gazed longingly at that rock.

As if by slicing it with her sword, all her anguish and pain would resolve.

She had aimed her sword at that rock every single day and had finally sliced it in two.

However, despite achieving the result she had pursued since childhood, there was no joy or sense of achievement on Maya’s face.

“……How do you remember my birthday?”

She asked in a flat, emotionless voice.

Seeing her old student after some time, Gabi smiled brightly.

“You’ve certainly grown wittier since we last met. Is there really a master who forgets their student’s birthday?”

“We haven’t seen each other in years. But how do you still remember? It’s natural to forget if they’re not around.”

For Maya, who felt her mind was broken, this was a perfectly reasonable question.

Once the thread of relationships is severed, it never looks back again.

Maya also had not lingered over the past since becoming a hero candidate.

Except for the teachings of her master that might help her survive.

Hadn’t she wiped everything else from her memory as if it were just a given?

……But Gabi’s thoughts were completely different.

“Even if we’re not together, valuable ties don’t break, Maya.”

Gabi said while gazing at the swaying shadows of the willows by the long stream flowing beyond the clearing.

It was a nostalgic spot where the master and student would sit side by side enjoying a peaceful break after training.

“You might think you left everything behind, but there’s always been an empty space where you should be by my side. A poignant absence that I couldn’t possibly forget or ignore.”

Upon hearing Gabi’s words, Maya lifted her head quietly.

She gazed in the same direction as her master, where the stump of the willow stood, and softly asked.

“I watched The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort. Both the first and second parts.”

“Yes. I see.”

“I heard you also participated in the production. So you wrote the second part?”

Shake. Her right hand gripping the legendary sword, Eternal Ice, began to tremble slightly.

With her empty gaze staring into the void, she coldly stated.

“Did you write the script in that way just because you wanted me to see it?”

“Of course not. I only played a consulting role.”

After forming a bond as a priest, Gabi gifted her a butterfly-shaped pearl hairpin.

While gazing at her eternally braided blue hair just like her master used to do, she explained.

“The script was completely written by the hero candidate, Phantom. From the first part depicting Xiang Yu’s prime to the second part showing his downfall, it was all his work.”

“……”

A heavy silence fell between them once more.

The student stubbornly kept her mouth closed, while the master accepted the student’s stubbornness.

Like a heavy snowfall, with buds blooming — simultaneously cold yet warm stillness.

“……I thought having power meant anything was possible.”

It was Maya who finally broke the calm.

“If I had power, I wouldn’t need to be cowardly. If I had power, I wouldn’t need to be afraid. If I had power, I wouldn’t need to compromise. And if I had power……”

I wouldn’t need to lose anything at all.

Believing that, she had lived a life devoted solely to the sword.

Because her broken mind whispered the same words every day.

The helpless child who watched her parents die a miserable death.

A child who might have suffered the same fate if Gabi hadn’t saved her.

If only she had had power, such tragedies would never have occurred, she thought.

However, the second part of The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort delivered a profound shock to her.

“Really…… it’s not a script written by Gabi? The one who wrote the first part, Phantom, actually wrote it that way?”

“Yes. I didn’t lay a finger on the script. You’ve seen the first part, so you know well, Maya?”

“……”

“You know how well Phantom understands the essence of ‘power.’ How much stronger one can become through power, how one can shake the world through power, and……”

With a somewhat bitter expression, Gabi let out a quiet sigh.

“……how relying solely on power can lead to losing everything.”

Only relying on brute strength, Xiang Yu tied his own legs and brought about his downfall.

Only trusting in brute strength, Xiang Yu lost everything he cherished.

It was an all-out contradiction to Maya’s beliefs yet an unfolding she couldn’t help but absorb and accept.

Of course, it wasn’t simply that The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort’s script was interesting and delicate.

The obsession that tainted Xiang Yu’s spirit, and the cruelty that led him to bloodlust.

It was eerily similar to her own.

The impulse that had always lingered in her mind, urging her toward slaughter and violence.

The deception that mocked her weakness, claiming it was why her parents had died.

“……”

Suddenly, a memory floated up of the debate between Divergent King Xiang Yu and Liu Bang atop the Guangwu Mountain.

Xiang Yu, who was holding Liu Bang’s father as a hostage, vividly echoed Liu Bang’s words in her mind.

“Xiang Yu! Aren’t we sworn brothers? If my father is your father as well, how dare you threaten my parents? This rotten unfilial brat, do as you wish! But if the pot bubbles well, make sure to send me a bowl of its broth!”

……Of course, Liu Bang’s fiery retort was impressive in its own right.

There were many among the less-insightful fans who shook their heads, thinking, “Is that really needed?”

But what truly captured Maya was precisely what followed in the unfolding drama.

The original line inserted by playwright Phantom to enhance the drama.

“I’ll kill, I’ll kill, I’ll kill! That wicked tongue really can’t be stopped! Didn’t you say you drew your righteous sword to survive in this cruel world?”

When Xiang Yu threatened he might not be able to cook Liu Taigong alive, Liu Bang sternly rebuked him.

“Yet now you just swing your sword to kill others when things don’t go your way! Answer me, Xiang Yu! Do you kill to live? Or do you live to kill?!”

To live to kill. To kill to live.

The moment she heard it, a small crack formed in Maya’s heart.

The shell she had worn to protect herself from the shock of her parents’ death. Her stubbornness to do anything for her obsession began to crumble.

“I’m a hero candidate.”

“I know, Maya.”

“I’m not like those villains who killed my mom and dad. I’m a hero candidate. I took up the sword to protect what’s mine.”

Maya mumbled in a stiff tone as if talking to herself.

Suddenly exhausted, she turned to Gabi and asked.

“Is Xiang Yu wrong? Is pursuing power bad? No matter how much power I gain…… can I not protect what’s mine with power?”

“Nothing in this world is purely evil, Maya.”

Flap!

The empty sleeves waving gently in the wind.

Gabi moved in front of Maya, kneeling down. She then reached out a proper arm to gently stroke her old student’s cheek.

“It’s only natural to grow stronger to protect something precious. The world can be unforgiving and cruel, and without power, one might suffer harm from the evil ones.”

“……”

“But if you only try to resolve everything with just that, problems will arise. The more you obsess over one thing, the narrower your perspective on life becomes, and when your perspective narrows, you can’t make wise decisions. Life isn’t that simple.”

“……I hated the evil that took our parents.”

“I know.”

“I was scared of losing something again. So I came to a conclusion. Just kill all the evil in front of me. I’ll become strong enough that I won’t lose anything. If I endure the evil I see, then surely……”

Suddenly finding her voice blocked, Maya stopped speaking as if choking while trying to eat meat or rice.

“Why didn’t you forget about me, Gabi?”

“……”

“After saying such harsh words and leaving. I left you, promising never to return. Why?”

“I’m sorry, Maya.”

Instead of a lengthy answer, Gabi warmly hugged Maya in her seated position.

With only one working arm, yet even more affectionately than if she were using both.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t understand you. I’m sorry I couldn’t lead you down a good path. I’m sorry I couldn’t grasp your pain. It’s all my fault for not teaching you properly.”

“……You’ve gotten a lot smaller.”

“Hehe, it’s you who has grown. I’m glad you’ve grown up safely without injuries.”

A conversation that transcended master and student, nearly reaching the bond between parent and child.

At this, Maya said nothing in response. But neither did she try to escape the warm embrace of her old master.

Truly after so long, being held by her master felt just as soothing as the nostalgic embrace of her parents.

[Oh God, please forgive the evil of Xiang Yu.]

[Please don’t forget. You were never alone.]

In the midst of being cast away by Xiang Yu, Fan Zheng, who worried about his student until the end, had died.

The one who had devoted her life to freeing her beloved from the wrong path, Wu He.

In that moment, their figures overlapped with one another, and something rolled down Maya’s cheek.

Why it flowed, or how it happened, she didn’t know. Yet, she couldn’t help but let that tear flow freely.

Does having power mean losing nothing?

Ironically, that belief had been wrong from the beginning.

In her pursuit of power, she had left the capital and severed her ties to everything with her own hands.

She thought she had lost everything, but what she hadn’t realized was that she had another set of parents who had always been by her side.

“Will you take me back? If I say I want to stay with Gabi again…… will you allow me?”

Xiang Yu, who was trapped in obsession, had forever lost the chance to see his master again.

Recalling that image, Gabi replied in a gentle tone.

“I missed you, Maya. Thank you for coming back.”

The bond between Fan Zheng and Xiang Yu, which could never reconcile in reality, intertwined beautifully in this foreign world in a completely different form.

Through the two plays written by Balthazar, Professor Gabi’s student.

<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>

“Are you Phantom, the great playwright? I-it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise, it is an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”

In the lavishly decorated private room, the boy gazed at me.

Sitting across from him, I tried to hide my embarrassment and responded politely.

He was Prince Wolfgang von Clausewitz, the son of Emperor Heinrich and the younger brother of Princess Diana, with quite a gap in age.

He was the little boy who had raised the syndrome of the debut work of playwright Phantom, Admiral Lee.

The combination of his jet-black hair resembling his father and lime-green eyes taking after his sister was quite impressive.

At only 12 years old, he carried himself maturely, definitely exuding the demeanor of royalty.

……But the droplets of rage welling up in his eyes undermined all that dignity.

“I’m sorry to bring this up on our first meeting, but isn’t it a bit much what you did? To Xiang Yu, of all people……”

“Are you talking about Xiang Yu?”

I suddenly clammed up, taken aback.

Thinking about it, none of Phantom’s protagonists had reached a happy ending, except for Exodus and Chaplin’s Comedy.

General Yi Sun-sin perished from gunfire in battle.

Caesar was assassinated after he went to a meeting.

Socrates refused to escape and drank the poison.

And now even the seemingly triumphant Xiang Yu was dead?

From the prince’s perspective, I must have seemed like a psychopath enjoying massacring protagonists.

Perhaps that’s why he summoned me to the imperial palace? To personally interrogate me about why I keep killing off the protagonists?

“Ugh! My, my treasure number one, the Twin Dragon Sword……!”

The little boy rubbed his puffy eyes, forgetting his status.

He clenched his little fists and muttered in a voice filled with indignation.

“I bought the prop from the first showing of Admiral Lee at a private auction! You can’t find it for money now!”

“……What?”

The Twin Dragon Sword?

What the hell is this development? Please don’t just cry, explain a little.

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