Law of Space and Time

Chapter 26: Stage Play

However, the chessboard was no different from a battlefield, and sympathy had no place here. On top of that, Sim was very much looking forward to beating Erwin to see what his reaction to the loss was going to be.

With Sim seeing through Erwin's final roll of the dice, the game was completely hopeless for Erwin.

Everyone thought that the rest of the game would just be a one-sided slaughter from Sim, but to their surprise, Erwin was able to put up admirable resistance. Even though he only had a magician and a missionary left, he was still trying to fight for a draw.

Only after around a dozen more turns of intense battle did Erwin finally lose.

It had truly been a breathtaking game to behold.

Everyone was left feeling a little bit dazed in the wake of that game, as if they had just awakened from a dream.

Erwin was staring blankly at the chessboard before him, seemingly still yet to register his own loss. He couldn't even remember the last time he had lost a game of battle chess. Back in Sarus, it was extremely rare that he encountered anyone who even dared to play against him.

"Well played." Erwin put on a nonchalant facade, praising Sim with a smile before getting up to depart.

"Hold on a minute," Sim also rose to his feet as he laid a hand onto Erwin's arm. "I still don't know your name yet, young man."

"My name is Erwin Friar," Erwin replied in a concise manner before departing from the casino with Onean, Theresa, and Turan.

Sim looked on as Erwin departed, and he couldn't help but heave a faint sigh to himself. "So you're Erwin Friar..."

Not many people in the casino had heard of this name, but the game that was played between Erwin and Sim quickly became a hot topic of discussion among the patrons of the casino.

After all, it had been many years since anyone had managed to last so many turns against Sim.

...

After emerging from the Pinnacle Casino, Erwin was clearly in a very foul mood, as evidenced by his dark expression.

However, Onean wasn't fazed in the slightest as she pinched him on the cheek.

Erwin was just about to flare up with rage, only to see that it was Onean, and he could only forcibly suppress his own temper. Onean and Lana were the only ones in this world who would dare to mess around with Erwin while he was in such a foul mood, and they were also the only two that Erwin couldn't get mad at.

"What? Are you waiting for me to console you?" Onean asked as she took a glance at Erwin.

"It's just a game, it's not big deal," Erwin said in an indifferent voice.

"If you really had such an open mind, the dark clouds in the sky would clear up right away," Onean said with a disdainful expression as she prodded Erwin's chest with her fingertip.

Theresa was rather amused to see Erwin's reaction. He was clearly displeased, but didn't dare to say anything. However, at the same time, she was also feeling a little sad. In her eyes, Onean was the only person that he was willing to tolerate to this extent. It seemed that no matter how intimate she tried to become with Erwin, there was no way she could take Onean's place in his heart.

"How about we go watch a stage play so you take your mind off the game?" Turan suddenly suggested. "I just so happen to have a friend who's working at the theater as a director, and he should be able to grant us free entry."

"You think I don't have the money to buy tickets? What am I, a charity case?" Erwin immediately snapped. "It's just a stupid game! I don't need to go watch a stage play just because I lost!"

Turan and the two women couldn't help but burst into laughter at the sight of his childish tantrum.

Thus, the group was led by Turan to the Naran Theater in the southern part of the city. Funnily enough, shortly after Onean made that statement about the dark clouds clearing up, the rain really did stop, and the dark clouds gradually faded to allow the sunlight to filter through.

There was an elderly man at the entrance of the theater who looked even more disheveled than Turan did after a night of intense writing, and he immediately approached Turan to greet him. "I didn't think you'd ever show up again, Turan."

As soon as the elderly man opened his mouth, the foul stench of alcohol immediately wafted through the air, and there were heavy bags under his bleary eyes. On top of that, his hair was so greasy that it had formed clear clumps, and he truly epitomized the appearance of an impoverished intellectual.

Onean and Theresa took a few steps back discretely to avoid the foul stench coming from the elderly man.

Erwin was no stranger to drinking, so he had a far higher tolerance for something like this. Back then, he and his friends often drank late into the night before falling asleep, and the next morning, their breath would stink no less than the elderly man's breath here.

"This is Shaw. Do you remember how we heard his name outside the Dreambind Pavilion a few days ago?" Turan asked as he gestured toward the elderly man. "He writes the scripts for the stage plays here."

Upon hearing this, Erwin and the others immediately recalled that one of the poems that had been thrown out of the Dreambind Pavilion during their visit had been written by none other than Shaw.

"You'll never miss an opportunity to insult me, will you?" the elderly man grumbled. "What am I supposed to do if they raised their standards and no longer accept my crappy poems."

He then turned to Erwin with a serious expression as he praised, "Your poem was truly exceptional. It's very difficult to imagine that someone of your upbringing is willing to speak for the sake of common folk like us."

Erwin was rather taken aback to hear that Shaw had remembered what he looked like, given that there had been quite a large crowd gathered in front of the Dreambind Pavilion.

As for why Shaw was able to identify Erwin's background, he had dealt with many nobles throughout his career, so it wasn't a surprise that he knew a noble when he saw one.

"Why are you spouting all this useless nonsense? Just admit that you're not as good a poet as he is," Turan jeered. "Let me put it this way for you: this here is the leader of our Universal Church Freedom Army, and not only is he exceptional on the battlefield, he's also an excellent poet and artist."

Erwin felt rather embarrassed by this sudden flattery from Turan.

Shaw was naturally aware that Erwin was quite an extraordinary character, but even so, he was still feeling quite indignant. He had spent most of his life studying the art of writing, yet he was somehow still inferior to this hobbyist poet who was several decades his junior. He knew that this was a rather unreasonable sentiment, especially toward a young man, who was far more than just a poet. He was placing Erwin under intense scrutiny and treating him as almost a rival, yet Erwin was completely looking past him and didn't even have any intention of competing with him, and that was a very sad realization. However, even though She knew that he was being unreasonable and irrational, he still couldn't suppress these feelings.

At this point, Shaw had already fallen completely silent, and Turan knew that any further mockery would be going too far. He was well aware of what Shaw was thinking and feeling. At their age, they shouldn't have been developing emotions like envy toward the younger generation, but one simply couldn't help but lament how unfair life was at times. Even Turan himself was often struck by the same feelings that Shaw was experiencing when interacting with Erwin.

How was it fair that someone could possess such exceptional looks and talents in equal measure? How was it fair that he was always surrounded by the most beautiful women? Unbeknownst to all of the envious onlookers, all of these endowments from fate came at a price, and one couldn't help but wonder whether those envious onlookers would still wish to be in the shoes of someone like Erwin if they knew what the price they had to pay was.

"Don't be so glum. Look at how much business I've brought to your theater," Turan said in a joking manner as he patted Shaw on the shoulder.

"Don't expect me to give you free entry. I can tell by looking at these people that they have more than enough money to spare on tickets," Shaw chuckled.

"Of course! We weren't planning on freeloading anyway."

The two elderly men continued to converse with one another as they led Erwin and the others through the entrance of the theater.

Right at this moment, a woman that was holding the skirt of her dress with her hands approached them as she complained, "What are you doing hiding here? Have you drunk so much that you've lost your bearings?"

Erwin couldn't help but be amused to hear this. It seemed that Shaw was a serial drinker on the job.

"This is Lola, the most beautiful actress in our troupe and the main female lead in this musical," Shaw introduced with a smile.

"Those two are the real beauties here. Compared with them, I'm just an ugly duckling," Lola said with a smile as she cast her gaze toward the pair of young "men" behind Erwin.

"Oh? You have quite a keen eye," Erwin remarked with a surprised expression.

"May I ask who this is?" Lola asked as she cast her gaze toward Shaw.

"This man is Mr. Erwin Friar, the one who's constantly been on your mind these past few days," Shaw said with a slightly disgruntled expression. "You're always going on and on about that poem of his, aren't you? Well, you get to see him in the flesh now. Are you happy?"

If the average woman had been in her place, they would've most likely already been blushing from Shaw's teasing. However, Lola was an actress who was accustomed to being in the limelight, so she naturally wasn't going to be embarrassed by something like this. As soon as she heard that the handsome young man before her was Erwin Friar, she immediately turned to him with bright eyes.

"You're Mr's Erwin?" Not only was Lola not embarrassed in the slightest, she was being very bold and direct.josei

"I am." Looking at the woman's glowing eyes, Erwin wondered if she had fallen in love with him over his poem, and his foul mood from losing that game of battle chess was immediately lifted significantly.

"Would you be able to write a musical for us?" Lola asked with a hopeful expression.

Erwin's mood was immediately plunged back into the abyss upon hearing this, and his expression fell noticeably.

The two women behind him were both quite amused to see this. It seemed that his handsome looks didn't work on all women.

What they failed to notice was that Shaw was even more dejected than Erwin was, so much so that he was hanging his head in shame and indignation. Turan had to suppress his own amusement as he patted his old friend on the shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Upon seeing Erwin's reaction, Lola hurriedly said, "I know this is a rather abrupt request, but if you can write a musical for us, I'm sure our troupe will quickly become a rising star in the entire Fulway Empire."

"I don't know anything about musicals at all, how am I supposed to write one?" Erwin was not very open to the idea.

"This is a genre of stage play that has only recently grown popular. A while back, our troupe made a visit to the Fano Dukedom in the south, where we discovered musicals, which are quite popular over there and consist of both performance and singing, and we decided to adopt it ourselves," Lola explained.

"Performing while singing?" Erwin tried to imagine what that would look like in his mind. "I've never seen something like that before."

Theresa also found this to be quite a refreshing concept, and she urged Erwin to buy the tickets so they could go in and watch, but Lola was quite generous and offered them free entry.

However, Erwin shook his head as he said with a serious expression, "All fruits of labor deserve to be respected, and that applies to the artistic fields as well."