The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era [BL]

ASTRID began his day with some light exercise, followed by a hearty breakfast. After that, he opened his copy of the script for the [Blind Justice] movie. With only five days left before filming started, he wanted to make sure he was completely familiar with all of his lines and scenes.

Since he had already done his cleaning the day before, and considering the unexpected situation from two days ago, he decided to dedicate his next five days of free time to just reading the script and beginning to immerse himself in the role.

Even though he had already played the character of Noa before, he felt he still needed to work hard to do an even better job. This was especially true because Noa had a much deeper and more complex story in the movie.

So, as he sat on his comfortable couch reading the script, he kept adding notes in the margins. He highlighted important keywords and also jotted down his thoughts about Noa’s motivations and emotional state in each scene.

After three hours of focused work, Astrid stretched his arms and back. He rolled his neck to work out the stiffness. Then he poured himself a cup of tea and drank it. He found himself wishing his apartment had a balcony. It would be nice to get some fresh air and sunlight while he read his script.

Now he kind of wished he had not rushed to renovate his apartment. He probably should have just followed his original plan to renovate after he earned more from the release of [The Shadow Within]. That way, he would have had a bigger budget for the work. He could have added a balcony then.

But he had really wanted a bigger space for himself and Reas, specifically so they could have their own rooms. He did not mind sharing a room with his brother, and he was sure Reas felt the same. The two of them did not even spend much time in the apartment, anyway. But having your own personal space was a different thing entirely. He was certain that Reas would prefer to sleep in a proper, bigger bed whenever he came back from a week at the military academy, instead of just using a bed on the floor.

It had even seemed like the perfect time for renovations, since both of them were away, with Reas going back to Delryria and Astrid busy with filming.

In any case, maybe one of his neighbors would move out soon. Then he could start renovating again and make the place bigger.

Astrid was about to start reading the script again when a call from Ellis came in. He closed the script and answered the video call. The first thing he noticed when Ellis’s face appeared on the screen was how excited she looked. It made him curious about the reason. Had she received some good news?

“Astrid, I just got a call from Crown Atelier,” Ellis began in an energetic voice that was unlike herself.

Astrid paused for a second, and then quickly understood why Ellis was so excited. Crown Atelier was the name of Valentine Davis’s personal management company. It was like a one person agency that handled an actor’s endorsements, schedule, public relations, and overall career management. Most top actors established their own personal company once they became successful enough to operate without a large entertainment agency.

Ellis’s excitement obviously came from the fact that Valentine’s company had contacted her, most likely for a professional collaboration. His guess was confirmed when she added, “It seems that Valentine Davis wants to appear on a program with you.”

Instead of sharing her excitement, Astrid’s brows drew together slightly. If this had happened before, he might have felt the same way. After all, this was Valentine Davis, the current number one actor. But after everything that had occurred two days ago, his impression of Valentine was no longer positive. Thinking about it, he could not help but wonder why Valentine Davis would want to appear on the same program with him.

He did not believe this was unrelated to what happened two days ago. Could it be that Valentine had become curious about him because of his connection to Wulfric? No, that did not seem right. Based on his brief observation of the man, Valentine seemed like the type who would only be interested in things directly involving the emperor. So why this?

A suspicion flashed through his mind. Valentine must be planning something. It could not be that he intended to use Astrid to get some kind of revenge on Wulfric, could it?

If that was the case, then that’s truly disappointing.

Ellis seemed to finally notice that Astrid was not reacting the way she had expected. So she asked him carefully, “Do you not want to work with Valentine Davis?”

Astrid blinked and then smiled. “Of course I do. I’m just surprised that someone like Mr. Davis would want to work with someone like me.”

He lied smoothly because he could not tell Ellis what had really happened two days ago. It would have been one thing if it only involved Wulfric and the Emperor. Since Ellis already knew about his relationship with Wulfric, telling her he had met the Emperor in VirtualNet would have been surprising, but it would have still been understandable. But including Valentine in the story was different. That would require explaining why Valentine was there.

Although it was never stated directly, Astrid had a strong feeling that the relationship between the Emperor and Valentine was not a normal one. If he had to guess, they were probably lovers.

How could he just tell that to Ellis? He was not the type of person to spread gossip, especially not about the Emperor’s private life. So yes, he had no choice but to lie to her.

“What is the program we’re supposed to appear on together?” he asked, steering the conversation away.

“It is called [Stage of Two],” Ellis answered, clearly forgetting her earlier question for the moment. “Do you know this program?”