A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 105.
She had obtained the Key of Ipros, but made no move to open the diary.
It was merely a tool to navigate the labyrinth and exit through the doors beyond—there was no need to know its contents.
‘If I knew, my heart would waver all over again.’
Caroline secured both the key and the diary deep within her bag, then made her way to today’s Tea Time venue.
The servant led her somewhere indoors for the first time in a while.
Beyond the Garden and the Lakeside, the space chosen for today’s Tea Time was, surprisingly, the Dining Room where she and Aiden had finished their meal not long ago.
‘What is this?’
As she stepped inside, the long table before her was laden with flour, fruit, sieves, knives, and an assortment of other ingredients—a setup perfectly suited for two people to bake together.
‘Baking?’
Still somewhat puzzled, Caroline noticed that Aiden had discarded an unwieldy apron, apparently recovered enough to appear before her. She took the seat across from him.
Baking, of all things.
From the look of it, she could venture a guess at today’s Tea Time theme. It had to be “The Oyster Man.”
After Regina returns to town and clears up her misunderstanding with Friedman, the two finally become lovers and begin going on dates like any ordinary couple. One such scene involves them baking cookies together at Regina’s home.
‘But judging by today’s ingredients, I don’t think we’re making cookies.’
Above all, the fresh strawberries and rose petals caught her eye.
If she remembered correctly, what Regina and Friedman had made was a cookie studded with walnuts and cinnamon—nothing like these beautiful ingredients.
The meals she had shared with Aiden so far had been abundant and elegant, yet it seemed they were about to prepare something even more elaborate.
“This is the first time we’ve held Tea Time in here, I believe, Caroline.”
“That’s true. Actually, I quite like it. It did seem a bit chilly outside today.”
Even without the apron, the man’s face remained drawn. It was better to keep him in the relative comfort of the indoors.
“I thought we might prepare a dessert suited to today’s weather together. Do you suppose you could guess the play from this alone, Caroline?”
“…Is it ‘The Oyster Man’? Though unlike in the play, I suspect we won’t be making cookies.”
“Exactly right.”
Aiden’s tired face brightened with a smile of quiet recognition.
“The middle portion of the play overflows with warm, intimate scenes. Regina invites Friedman to her home and suddenly holds a baking lesson, and he struggles clumsily with his rough hands trying to shape the cookies. Then Regina teases him, and they suddenly kiss in the most absurdly comical fashion imaginable.”
Caroline recalled how in the play, Aiden had ended up covered almost entirely in butter and flour. Beneath his stern appearance, he had been utterly foolish.
Even now, the memory made her smile despite herself.
‘Wait—did Aiden practice baking separately just for that scene?’
Flying kites, rowing boats, juggling even…
Remembering his repertoire of uncommon skills, Caroline asked hurriedly.
“Did you actually study Baking separately because of that scene?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t. Since I needed to portray someone struggling and uncertain, I thought it best not to learn it beforehand. So I’m still quite poor at it. But today’s creation comes from a very accomplished baker’s recipe, so you needn’t worry.”
“Who would that be?”
“My mother.”
Caroline fell silent for a moment.
For some time now, there had been no mention of his mother during their Tea Times, meals, or conversations. To have her resurface now, unexpectedly, in connection with baking was startling.
“…I only knew vaguely that your mother was a quite renowned dancer. So she was also skilled at baking?”
“Not to that degree. It’s simply that the dessert she made was extraordinarily fine. I remember it distinctly—only once in my entire life, long ago before I began acting, did my mother bake a Strawberry Rose Pie for me.”
In that moment, Aiden seemed to drift into a time Caroline could never reach. His green eyes, looking past her, were deep as a dream.
“She never set foot in the Dining Room of this Mansion, yet one day I found her moving busily about the Kitchen. Unaware of my presence, she labored over something, and then set down a delicate pie adorned with strawberries and rose petals glazed in sugar.”
Caroline found herself drawn into his memory. Through his voice alone, the space and the two figures came alive before her.
“I thought it so beautiful that I cut a slice to taste it, but was struck across the cheek. She must have been making it earnestly for someone else, not me.”
Caroline’s expression darkened in an instant.
‘What kind of person strikes a child?’
Seeing her fierce expression, Aiden laughed aloud—as if unprepared for her reaction—and waved a hand as if to console her.
“Yet after tasting the cream of the already-cut slice, she seemed upset, saying it wasn’t the flavor she had given as a gift long before. She pressed the rest of the pie into my hands and left the Kitchen. After that, I never saw her in there again.”
Caroline began to understand.
So Michelle had once given Roman a Strawberry Rose Pie while they were courting. And years later, it seemed, she had attempted it again—only to fail.
“…That taste was so precious to me that I kept an entire pie to myself, savoring it alone.”
Aiden’s languid words trailed off as he emerged from his reverie.
“So today, I thought we might make a Strawberry Rose Pie together, Caroline. I wanted to share that taste with you as well.”
And so the two of them, with the servants’ assistance, began to cook.
Facing the pre-made dough, egg wash, strawberries and sugar, lemon zest, rose-scented water, and countless other ingredients, Caroline felt entirely lost. Aiden approached her directly and began to help.
“First, let’s roll the pie dough thin. Then place it in the mold and lift just the edges up slightly, about an inch.”
Caroline followed his instructions clumsily but earnestly. Next came the task of pricking the bottom with a fork.
‘Prick it?’
But Caroline was a novice at baking.
Crack!
Watching her move as forcefully as a brigand stabbing meat, Aiden drew near with a low laugh and, with the utmost naturalness, placed his hand over hers.
“!”
Warmth bloomed between them, and he began to dance lightly across the pie dough, his footsteps quick and certain.
It was barely a touch.
Yet as Caroline brushed egg wash over the pastry and slid it into the oven, she found herself startled by how that small contact—his presence, her own response—had shifted into something that no longer felt negligible at all.
“…Did you know that after Friedman baked cookies, he distributed them to others instead of keeping them?”
“?”
Caroline shook her head.
That detail never made it into the script. And given Friedman’s nature—the way he’d treasure something Regina had given him—why would he do such a thing?
“It was originally written that way, but it was cut from the final draft. Friedman couldn’t bring himself to eat Regina’s love-filled cookies. He’d agonize over them, knowing that if he left them untouched, they’d spoil. Yet he still couldn’t bear to put them in his own mouth.”
“That sounds like Friedman.”
“So just before they go bad, he wrestles with the dilemma, then steps outside and hands them out one by one to the homeless on the street. It’s perhaps the first time Friedman has helped another person since becoming an adult.”
Caroline tilted her head thoughtfully. She couldn’t quite grasp why Aiden had brought this up now.
“I believe Friedman carried the desire to help others throughout his entire life. But the prejudice that he was like his father, combined with his position as an organized crime member—these things made it impossible for him to act on that impulse.”
‘Ah.’
Now she understood. What Aiden was sharing now was character detail—his vision of who Friedman truly was.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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