21st Century Necromancer

Stage drama refers to the art of theater that can be presented on a stage, which can be divided into opera, ballet, drama, mime, puppetry, and so on.

However, in Japan, stage drama usually refers to musical theater.

As for why Japanese musicals are translated as stage dramas, this goes back to translation issues during Taiwan's enthusiasm for Japanese culture.

What Chen Yu had booked for the evening was a very classic piece, "Rokumeikan," whose original work was by the famous Japanese writer Mishima Yukio. "Rokumeikan" is also one of his representative works.

In the Meiji Era, Japan sought to extricate itself from unequal treaties. Diplomats held European-style balls overnight at the Rokumeikan to entertain envoys from various countries, aiming to obtain a status for equal dialogue. This period was also called the Rokumeikan era, represented by Kaoru Inoue, Japan's then foreign minister, and Hirobumi Ito, the prime minister.

The story narrated in "Rokumeikan" occurred during this period, and the protagonist, Count Kageyama, was modeled after Kaoru Inoue, who pushed for Rokumeikan diplomacy and advocated the westernization of Japan.

However, it was clearly not viable for a country to gain equal dialogue opportunities and its own international status through balls and westernization, catering to the Western powers, without the support of strong national power.

Rokumeikan diplomacy ended with Kaoru Inoue's unsuccessful negotiations to amend the unequal treaties and his subsequent resignation in disappointment, and the once glorious Rokumeikan was demolished along with it.

The amendments to the unequal treaties that Inoue had always wished to achieve were not realized until the Sino-Japanese War, when Japan defeated Tsarist Russia and gained international recognition.

In the story written by Mishima Yukio, Count Kageyama is a person who is ruthless and sinister to the point of sending chills down one's spine, using any means necessary to achieve his goals. Yet the Japanese stoicism he embodies and the burden he carries resonate with the audience.

On one hand, he wanted to promote the revision of the unequal treaties, freeing the nation from the sad fate of becoming a colony of the great powers; on the other, he was misunderstood and even denounced as a traitor by so-called "patriots" within the country. Count Kageyama was a strong character caught between reason and madness, relentlessly pursuing his goals with a firm will.

And in the story of "Rokumeikan," revolving around such a man who would stop at nothing to achieve his aims and the love and hatred between him and his wife, lies the spiritual core that was especially esteemed in Japan during the Showa Era—sacrifice and dedication.

The original author of "Rokumeikan," Mishima Yukio himself, was also similar to a figure like Count Kageyama. To propel what he called the patriotic plan—to preserve Japan's traditional samurai spirit and protect the Emperor—he planned and executed the kidnapping of a division commander of Japan's Self-Defense Forces' Eastern Command.

After a successful kidnapping, Mishima Yukio gave a speech on the command's balcony to more than 800 Self-Defense Forces officers, calling for "true samurai" to join him in staging a coup, to overturn the Constitution that denied Japan an army, and to make the Self-Defense Forces a real military to defend the Emperor and Japan's traditions. However, no one responded.

Mishima then withdrew from the balcony into the room and committed seppuku, a traditional Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment; he was then decapitated in the traditional manner by an accomplice.

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From such a drama, what Chen Yu felt was the obsession and madness Count Kageyama was willing to endure to realize his ideals.

But for Jounouchi Hiromi, she felt the sorrowful fate of Countess Kageyama bring pain.

Countess Kageyama was once a geisha, she fell in love with the leader of the Freedom and Civil Rights Movement and had a child, but because of her origins, she married a minister of the Meiji Restoration. Years later, when she saw her son again, she discovered that he intended to kill his father, with her husband being the manipulator behind the scenes.

At the banquets around Rokumeikan, Count Kageyama intended to eliminate the leader of the Freedom and Civil Rights Movement; the countess's son planned to kill the father he loathed; but the countess hoped to protect her son, even if just once.

For this, she broke her own steadfast principles and wore the Western clothes she had always rejected, hosting the banquet at Rokumeikan as the lady of the house, all to prevent her son from enacting patricide.

However, under Count Kageyama's orchestration, everything ultimately unfolded as he had scripted: the son raised a pistol against his father and pulled the trigger.

And yet, the one who fell was the countess's son whom she had hoped to protect, but had never once embraced.

Seeing this, Jounouchi Hiromi couldn't help but express the same sentiment as the countess, "Men have only their careers in their minds, never considering a woman's feelings."

"Perhaps it's because men carry more on their shoulders, to the point where they can't attend to the feelings of those around them, or maybe they keep their love hidden in the depths of their hearts, only able to express their emotions through harming themselves and the ones they love." Watching the performance unfold on stage, Chen Yu didn't understand why Jounouchi Hiromi felt this way, but he still responded.

However, this brought Jounouchi Hiromi's gaze upon him, she turned her head and, grasping Chen Yu's chin, twisted his line of sight towards herself, "If that's the case, then what are you carrying, dear husband?"

"Me? If I had to say, at first, it was my own ideals. After meeting you, it was the responsibility of being a man," Chen Yu gazed tenderly at his wife, unfazed by Jounouchi Hiromi's actions, "Perhaps in the future I will carry more, but I can assure you of at least one thing, that I will not neglect your feelings."

"Really? Have you truly not neglected my feelings?" Remembering her recent gloominess, Jounouchi Hiromi pursed her lips, questioning unhappily.

Hearing Jounouchi Hiromi say this, Chen Yu's eyebrows involuntarily twitched; her words clearly indicated that her bad mood today was due to him neglecting her feelings on some matter.

This revelation surprised and baffled Chen Yu; what had he done to neglect her feelings?

Chen Yu believed that he always paid close attention to Jounouchi Hiromi's feelings. Although he couldn't say he always gave in to her, he respected her wishes. What could he have overlooked that made her so unhappy, brewing silently in discontent?

After reviewing his recent experiences, Chen Yu couldn't help but realize an answer that struck him as both amusing and absurd.

With a wry smile at his wife, Chen Yu raised his hand to stroke Jounouchi Hiromi's hair, and asked her, "Hiromi, do you want to have a child?"