As the crowd's enthusiasm gradually subsided, the leader of the Golden Lark Troupe first removed his hat with his right hand and placed it in front of his chest, extended his left hand behind him, and bent his right knee, giving the King a standard greeting. After receiving a hand signal from Todd, he straightened up and loudly proclaimed to the audience: "In the name of the Holy Son, I declare the evening officially open! First, the troupe's renowned Miss Barbara will perform a solo for you all!"
A woman dressed in a brightly colored corset, looking like a bard, gracefully walked onto the stage carrying a Soltrie lyre.
As is customary, she first bowed deeply towards the second floor, then sat on the long bench that had been prepared and began the final tuning of the strings.
The "Spotlight" alien gathered light in its hand and shone it towards the performer in the center of the stage; the assistant holding stained glass made the light colorful and extremely dreamlike.
Unlike the ornate and extravagant musical styles of the western plains, or the solemn and dignified chanting of the eastern sacred region, Barbara, who hailed from the southern Lone Rock City, possessed an ethereal and otherworldly quality in both her music and singing, as if she could slowly guide one's soul into a dream.
I traveled far to the west on a pilgrimage.
"I offer a bouquet of sea dianthus flowers to those on the other side of the sea."
A bright blue knight's longsword, born in the flames of war.
Please let me return to my homeland, regardless of life or death.
"With a profusion of sea dianthus flowers, adorning the front yard of my hometown."
Barbara played and sang on her instrument, but her gaze passed over the audience and landed on a familiar figure at the edge of the hall.
Randall, the "Lone Wolf," leaned against the wall, arms crossed, disappearing into the darkness. This hero, known to all the people of Muxi, was locked in a silent gaze with the singer on stage.
In the corridor not far from him, Rachel carefully read the report in her hand and asked in a low voice, "Has Terence recovered from his injuries?"
A young woman dressed as a scholar nodded in response, “That’s right, and not only that. The Emerald Society has jointly submitted an application requesting that Terence be granted a separate department within the Twilight Academy, with a primary focus on physics and heterogeneity studies, and inviting His Majesty to serve as the department president, with Terence himself as vice president. And…”
Seeing the angry expression on Rachel's face, the woman unconsciously lowered her voice and eventually stopped talking.
"what else?!"
The woman dared not look Rachel in the eye and said in a low voice, "The Emerald Society hopes to get involved in the affairs of the biochemical factory, claiming that the kingdom can use their academic abilities to increase the factory's output and upgrade its technology."
Rachel's face turned ashen. With her 'telekinesis' activated at full power, the paper in her hand instantly turned into powder.
The woman lowered her head, her eyes fixed on the ground, and continued her report: "Lord Rachel, there are a few more things. A village of mutants, hidden in the northern mountains, has moved to Twilight City, hoping to find refuge; also, Sidney's autopsy report is out..."
White scraps of paper fell like snowflakes. Rachel turned and left the corridor, tossing out a sentence: "Keep a close eye on those guys from the Emerald Society! You can handle the rest yourselves!"
When Barbara finished her song, thunderous applause erupted in the theater lobby.
People rose to their feet and paid their sincerest respects to this renowned performer and singer in Twilight City.
During the ten-minute break when the host was joking around, Barbara went offstage to rest briefly before returning to the stage with the rest of the theater troupe.
The play performed by Jin Yunque is titled "The Wanderer in Paradise." The gist of the story is that a devout peasant woman, mistaking a glib-tongued wandering scholar for a messenger from heaven, asks him if he has seen her deceased husband. The scholar tells her that her husband is impoverished in heaven, so the peasant woman gives the wanderer ten silver moons, asking him to pass them on to her deceased husband.
When the peasant woman's current husband returned and learned of this, he was furious. He rode after the scholar, but the scholar also tricked him into giving up his horse. He struggled home through the swamp, and ashamed to tell his wife, he told her that he had entrusted the horse to a wanderer to be given to his ex-husband. The peasant woman was overjoyed and told him, "Even after you die, I will not mistreat you."
This play is witty and humorous, with many parts that can make people burst into laughter. It is a very popular work in Twilight City.
However, the work subtly satirized religious utilitarianism and secular ignorance, and was criticized and condemned by many church personnel.
The director of the Golden Lark Company once considered replacing this work with another version of "The Divine Comedy," but this was strongly opposed by Barbara, the company's most popular lead actress. As a last resort, he had to add an epilogue to the end of the play, revealing that the wanderer really did come from heaven and brought the peasant woman's deceased husband to her.
While this approach disrupted the structure of the play, it minimized the "religious risk."
After all, His Holiness the Holy Son is watching, isn't he?
Every actor in the Golden Lark Troupe would steal a glance at the second-floor terrace as they went on stage. Each told themselves that the legendary King Muxi was watching their performance. The performers gave their all, delivering their best performances, complemented by excellent props and a superb script. Cheers and laughter frequently erupted in the hall, and even some of the guards on duty occasionally murmured their approval.
In the audience, compared to Sabrina's focused and absorbed performance, Clarence seemed somewhat uninterested.
The former glanced at the latter and asked, "Don't you think tonight's play was pretty good?"
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