CHAPTER 281: CHAPTER 208 HAVING IDEAS IS NOT A BAD THING

A few days later, not long after lunch.

Okabe Iyayama’s wife, Ahu, got out of the carriage in front of the "Wanjin Theatre."

Today was New Wanjin’s rest day—something they only learned existed after coming to New Wanjin, or rather, it was only after arriving in Wanjin that they realized even commoners could have rest days. On rest days, New Wanjin always bustled with excitement, and right now the plaza in front of the Wanjin Theatre was packed with crowds.

Little shopkeepers and peddlers doing business, street performers showing off their skills, visitors from out of town who had come for the lively scene—altogether, the crowd was a noisy, chaotic mix, but there was a vibrancy here that other places lacked. It wasn’t unpleasant at all.

Ahu looked around and found herself a bit fond of this place. But she quickly called for her younger sister, Aca—also Okabe Iyayama’s wife, for the sisters had married the same husband—and her daughter, Aku, telling them to stay close, then gracefully followed Princess Dog’s little maid through the side door into the theatre.

Yes, there was a new play premiering at the Wanjin Theatre today, and Princess Dog had invited them to watch it together.

This was already their second visit to the theatre, but they still marveled at how extravagant Wanjin was—actually building such a large house just to watch plays, like a miniature Rock Fortress, and the building itself was rather unusual in style.

This theatre was open-air, oval-shaped if viewed from above, or rather like a capsule, with a passage and backstage area dividing it into eastern and western semicircles, and tiered seating for the audience running along the arcs on either side.

The design was originally Harano’s. But with his modern mindset, he had meant to build a square structure with a roof, much like the movie theaters of the 1980s and 1990s. In the end, though, Uozumi Hikoshiro, the "theatre troupe leader," couldn’t help himself and got up the courage to ask Ah Man to approach Harano with a suggestion—if there was a roof, you couldn’t use natural light during performances.

If they had to keep torches burning for lighting all the time, never mind the effect, just the cost for lighting alone would add up to quite a sum for the troupe in the long run.

Only then did Harano realize this was the Middle Ages, and vaguely recalled that when Shakespeare was a playwright, the troupe he served played in open-air theaters and the audience watched while standing.

He wasn’t the type to refuse to admit mistakes, and knew he wasn’t cut out to be an architect anyway, so decisively withdrew his design draft and let Uozumi Hikoshiro handle it himself. The New Wanjin construction team just built the house; as for what kind of theater was needed, that was up to Uozumi Hikoshiro and the other actors. He would just toss out a suggestion or two about acoustics, that’s all.

In the end, after Uozumi Hikoshiro tinkered with things for a while, the New Wanjin Theatre turned out like this, but to his credit, he still told people that Harano was the designer of the grand theater.

The new play was premiering in the east section today. Ahu brought along her sister and daughter to the east section’s boxes, where they met Princess Dog.

Before Ahu could bow and greet her, Princess Dog reached out and warmly took her hand, inviting her to sit, and gestured for Aca and Aku to be seated as well. In recent times, Ahu had met Princess Dog a few times and understood that she had a gentle personality, so she wasn’t overly nervous or formal, but simply sat down as the princess wished.

Princess Dog was now about twelve or thirteen, already showing a bit of a young lady’s charm, though she was still petite. After seating Ahu, she smiled and asked, "Madam Ahu, how is everything at home?"

Ahu replied with true gratitude, "Thanks to Your Highness’s kindness, all is well... Ah, I still haven’t thanked Your Highness—Zuo Cilang and Aku have both started school. We’ve really troubled Your Highness."

She especially wanted to thank her for letting her daughter Aku go to school. Okabe Iyayama thought it didn’t matter whether their daughter studied, and figured she might as well learn housework at home. But Princess Dog paid no attention to such things and pushed both of her children into school. Right now, both children were in first grade at Wanjin Third Elementary, doing quite well; likely, after a month or two, once they’d gotten used to school life, they could skip a grade—since both already knew some characters, and at ten years old, they had a big advantage over most age-appropriate students.

Princess Dog didn’t try to take credit, just covered her mouth and chuckled, "It’s nothing, Madam Ahu. Children are supposed to go to school in the first place—that’s what my Lord Saburo says."

"We must thank Lord Yehua as well," Ahu said sincerely.

"No need to be polite, Madam Ahu. Lord Okabe has helped us a great deal here in Wanjin; Lord Saburo keeps reminding me to take care of you and your family."

Princess Dog had grown less shy over the past two years thanks to Harano’s "training," but she still wasn’t good at talking in circles. Harano had told her, whenever she could, to look after Okabe Iyayama’s family, so she dutifully did so, always sending them all sorts of things, and even spoke bluntly about it.

Ahu didn’t mind. With someone like Princess Dog, she felt at ease, not scared at all. She turned to bring her daughter Aku forward—a ten-year-old little girl—so she could show herself more in front of Princess Dog and deepen her ties with her.

Yes, at this age, ten wasn’t all that young anymore. She was already worrying about her daughter’s marriage. Now that she found New Wanjin to be a great place, she was considering marrying her daughter here in the future. From any angle, letting her daughter spend more time with Princess Dog and earn a bit of favor would only be a good thing.

The two of them, along with Princess Dog, chatted a while longer with Aku. Only when Aku got so shy she began to stammer did they let her go.

Ahu then turned her curiosity to Princess Dog. "I heard Lord Yehua... will also be coming today?"

This wasn’t prying into secrets—the theatre had advertised it themselves. Uozumi Hikoshiro had been shouting about it for days, making sure everyone knew that Harano would be present at the premiere. He’d probably continue to promote it after the premiere, marking the show as "personally favored by Lord Yehua" in order to boost ticket sales.