People were standing in front of the VIP seats, surrounding the Crown Prince. The Prince, who had been sitting with a blank expression, suddenly stood up at that mont.
He strode toward the railing on the second floor and leaned forward.
"Damn. What the hell is this?!"
Startled, Leonard tried to stand, but the conductor stopped him.
The conductor, who was also the music teacher at Saint Gloria Private School, spoke with a stern expression.
"Don’t worry, he’s not human. Just keep playing."
Not human.
The conductor casually said sothing that sent chills down Leonard’s spine.
Leonard, with a reluctant expression, sat back down at the piano and tilted his head.
The Crown Prince had looked like a human, hadn’t he? Was it just sothing that only he had seen?
As Leonard tilted his head and raised it again, there was no one on the railing. It seed that, as the music teacher had said, it was just a fignt of his imagination.
But the real strange events began then.
The curtain rose, and the actors began to co on stage. Leonard doubted his eyes.
The opera singers who he knew should have co on stage were not there. Instead, there were won dressed in black nun’s habits, densely packed, standing with their backs to the audience.
From the orchestra pit below the stage, they too had their backs turned, so their faces were hidden.
Leonard felt a chill, but followed the conductor’s instructions and continued playing the piano.
The opening song of the opera was dark and grand, expressing the evil spirits that were boiling over the city. The black nuns began singing the introduction of the song.
The problem was,
“Yoseharokdohaksokgyejuyoungomaljisukyeongshinininairamsapichaeo.”
They began singing strange lyrics.
‘Wait, this seems familiar...’
The words that the black nuns were singing were the sa as what the conductor had said to Leonard earlier, but reversed.
For a mont, Leonard was filled with horror, and his fingers slipped. One note was wrong.
At that mont, the black nuns on stage simultaneously turned their heads and stared at Leonard.
They had all been facing the audience, but their heads had twisted around to stare at him, who was below the stage.
Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
No one in the audience seed to react to this bizarre sight.
After the opening song, the actors began their lines.
"Isn't there a strange sll?"
"Yeah. It slls like human. I think soone is hiding among us."
"Who could it be?"
"I think it’s coming from the orchestra side."
This ti, the people in the audience all turned to look at Leonard at once.
Leonard lowered his head and checked the cross necklace around his neck.
Fortunately, the cross was still hanging safely around his neck. He couldn’t believe how relieved that made him feel.
Another relief was that the lines were familiar.
The opening started with evil spirits wandering the city, searching for human scent and hunting humans.
He had never heard of the black nuns changing to black habits, but still, when the play began with the ❀ ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) storyline he knew, he felt a bit reassured.
He glanced up, and the black nuns were now moving normally on stage, sniffing the air. That too seed in line with the play’s content.
After experiencing so many ghost stories recently, Leonard began to wonder if he had overreacted to what he had just seen. Surely, it was just a hallucination.
‘Still, I shouldn’t let my guard down. lody and the Student Council President are supposed to be here in the theater. Everything should be fine.’
But even so, sothing still felt off.
The opening definitely started with the evil spirits wandering, but that was supposed to be portrayed by the actors playing the spirits, not nuns.
Leonard, feeling anxious, started trembling again.
He swallowed a dry gulp and focused his mind.
At that mont, the voice of the first violinist from behind him ca.
“Leonard. Act normal. You need to pretend they’re real. You’re the only one who can see them.”
Only then did Leonard look away from the keys and glance at the cellos and contrabasses opposite him.
The orchestra mbers’ faces were pale, and only then did he notice that they were desperately staring at their music stands, continuing to play without raising their heads.
At this point, Leonard thought soone would have fled, but everyone was sohow holding their ground.
The strangest of all was the conductor, the music teacher.
‘Why is he conducting like that?’
The conductor’s hand movents with the baton seed odd. It looked as if he was conducting in reverse, from bottom to top, in the wrong direction.
Just then, the piano part had a break, and Leonard pulled his hands away, carefully watching the conductor.
The conductor suddenly looked at Leonard and silently mouthed sothing.
“Dnaorehaedonghaenggeureobseunyeo.”
Not human.
Leonard realized the conductor wasn’t human either and hastily turned his gaze back to the sheet music in front of him.
Were the orchestra mbers the only humans here?
What about the audience? Were they all pretending not to see these monsters, just like the orchestra mbers?
Leonard quietly turned his head towards the audience.
The first-floor seats were completely filled with no empty seats, and the audience was all staring at the stage without a single movent.
They didn’t seem to be bothered by the strange events happening on stage.
They were all watching intently.
Then, through the orchestra mbers, he saw a woman.
She was definitely one of the black nuns from the stage.
"Where are you?"
She seed to be searching for soone, moving through the orchestra.
Leonard felt paralyzed, unable to move. He couldn’t escape.
Now he realized why no one in the orchestra had run away.
They couldn’t.
Everyone in the orchestra, including Leonard, thought one thing desperately.
Please, soone help us.
The sound of footsteps echoed precisely between the music. It was like the sound of bare feet stepping into a puddle.
"Where are you? I can sll you."
The voice kept calling, searching.
Leonard tried his best to ignore her and focused on staring at his sheet music.
The footsteps kept getting closer.
Step. Step.
They were getting nearer, closer, and then—
Step.
There was a sudden silence right in front of him.
Sweat, which had been gathering on his temples, slid down to his chin.
Just as a drop of sweat fell onto the keyboard, a voice whispered in his ear.
"What are you doing? Play the piano. You need to act like you’re not human."
Just then, the conductor waved the baton. It was Leonard’s turn.
He swallowed hard and began to play the piano. The black nun quickly lost interest in him and turned away.
"Where are you? Where’s Sister Gloria?"
The people in the audience seed to think this was part of the performance, watching with tense faces.
Leonard gritted his teeth and continued playing, sweat running down his face.
He had to hold on. Until lody ca.
It was the first ti he had wanted to see lody this badly.
‘Where are you, lody?’
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