A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 111

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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 111.

‘Aiden has a consciousness.’
Everything that had made her feel so strongly grounded in his presence—all those human sensations she’d never detected in his other personalities—suddenly made sense.
Caroline shot to her feet.
She hadn’t been pathetically in love with some game target she could manipulate at will. She hadn’t staked her life on a mere role, a character with no substance beyond his script.
Aiden is alive. However faintly his consciousness emerges—barely a whisper across twenty-four hours—he exists.
‘Everything has changed.’
She had no intention of running now.
Not now that she knew the truth. Not now that she knew he was real.
In this game-world, Caroline and Aiden both possessed consciousness—both were equally real. She couldn’t let him vanish into nothing while she lived on in comfort in a world without him.
‘Let’s survive together. If we die, we die together.’
If he had written to her seeking help, then she would answer with everything she had. Just as he’d first hoped—she would pour every scrap of knowledge she possessed as a devoted fan into enduring this game.
Caroline steadied herself with a new resolve and turned back toward him.
But there was a problem.
‘I’m trapped.’
Behind her lay a barrier of dense undergrowth; ahead stood an iron door with a hand-shaped statue frozen upon it.
Given the nature of this space, she couldn’t go backward. Only forward lay any choice at all.
‘What happens if I step outside?’
The thought terrified her—that the moment her feet crossed the threshold, everything surrounding Aiden’s Episode might dissolve into nothing. The Maze wouldn’t let her back in, and before she could devise a new strategy, the system would assume she’d abandoned the game and erase him without hesitation.
‘There has to be another way.’
Caroline tore at the undergrowth with her hands, trying to wedge her body through the gaps.
But the branches clung to each other with iron strength, woven as densely as a mattress. She couldn’t find purchase to push through.
‘Even if I broke through the brush, whatever space lay beyond might already be gone.’
She rummaged frantically through her bag. Glasses, Green Juice, Mirror, Lantern, Acorn, Water Gun—nothing but useless trinkets in a situation like this.
She wished she’d known ahead of time.
‘No. At least I know now. That’s something to be grateful for.’
There has to be a way. She clung to that thought, refusing to surrender to despair.
Her body couldn’t break through. Her items were no help either.
‘Then…’
Caroline gritted her teeth and studied everything visible in her field of vision.
There had to be some function available to her as a Player. The game had been cruel to Caroline, but surely these beings—who arrived and vanished without responsibility or expectation—must have something.
And then her eyes caught on the Heart displayed in the upper right corner of her vision.
[♥♥]
‘It’s been so long since I looked at this properly.’
Only two red Hearts remained, dwindling from what had been there before. Caroline reached up and touched it.
A window appeared—one she’d seen before.
[When all Hearts are depleted, gameplay will end.]
“Yeah, I know that much.”
Caroline exhaled sharply. Then, filled with frustration, she tapped the window hard.
“Huh?”
A new window unfurled—one she’d never seen before.
[Players may restart the game by sacrificing one Heart. Gameplay will resume at the most recent Variable Save point.]
[Do you wish to restart? (Yes / No)]
“!”
The solution she’d been searching for all this time—it was right here.
‘Why are you only showing me this now?!’
This cursed game.
Though, to be fair, the window had always been there. It was only now that Caroline had finally opened it. If it had simply announced itself without waiting to be triggered, she would have appreciated it far more.
‘If I sacrifice a Heart, I can escape this place?’
She wasn’t certain what “most recent Variable Save point” meant exactly, but she suspected it meant returning to wherever her last action had been completed.
The Maze’s second space—where the iron door stood—hadn’t seen an action fully conclude, so it would likely skip past it. She’d probably end up in the Maze’s first space, or back in Aiden’s Room.
‘Can I survive on a single Heart?’
Although he’d hidden the truth from her, what Aiden at three in the morning had said wasn’t a lie.
“You belong to this place, Caroline. You can’t come and go as you wish. So when all three Hearts are consumed…”
“Do I die?”
Perhaps. Perhaps she would.
Having crossed many such thresholds already, the meaning of his words came through all the more vividly now.
‘But look on the bright side. Even if I die, I’ll be with Aiden. He’ll disappear along with me.’
Caroline decided to think positively—that where else could a fan find an actor willing to share her fate?
Besides, she was the only person who had ever been given the chance to attempt this.
‘Aiden called me here directly. I can’t run away now.’
Caroline bit her lip hard and moved her finger.
[Do you wish to restart? (Yes/
No)
]
The small Heart in the upper right corner then lifted away from its place and floated slowly toward the center of her vision.
[One Heart will be consumed. Restarting from the last Variable Save point. Remaining Hearts: 1]
And the entire world turned white.
When she came to, Caroline was lying on a vast expanse of bare earth.
‘Right, of course.’
Her eyes opened to a star-studded sky. She could tell she was still in the Maze.
[Settings Bar]
The moment she pushed herself up, a weeping boy-shaped Fountain greeted her. Caroline rose unsteadily and leaned against it to steady herself.
Her body had shifted so suddenly that she felt a touch of vertigo.
And the moment her hand made contact, the Settings Bar unfurled its menu as expected.
[Background Sound – OFF/
ON
Triangle Mark – ON/
OFF
Exclamation Mark Display – ON/
OFF
Aiden Tracking Enabled – Disabled/
Enabled
Personality Intimacy Display – Enabled/
Disabled
What Aiden Sees – Locked
System AI Version Settings – Locked]
There was nothing crucial, but Caroline’s gaze lingered for a moment on the Personality Intimacy Display.
“There was a reason why that square marker never appeared above the 3 AM Aiden’s head.”
It was proof that he wasn’t a character with any particular role in this game.
“But then why did he masquerade as an NPC and appear before me? Did he simply want to help me?”
Yet for all that, hadn’t he even acted as a sort of guide, telling her what she had to do next?
‘I won’t know until I meet him and speak with him face to face.’
Caroline nodded to herself, gathered her things, and began making her way out of the Maze.
She retraced yesterday’s hastily scrawled path in reverse, slipped quickly into the passage leading to the Basement, and crossed it at a faster pace than before. Her head emerged onto the Second Floor carpet of the Mansion.
At that moment.
Thump.
[▲]
A Triangle Mark appeared.
“!”
She heard the footfalls of two Servants entering the Mansion in measured rhythm. One was on the First Floor, and one was about to ascend to the Third Floor.
At this rate, she’d be caught.
‘No, no, no!’
She had only one Heart left. She couldn’t afford this.
Caroline ran at full sprint, heedless of the noise she made. She bolted up the Second Floor stairs toward the Third Floor, didn’t so much as glance back to see if the Servant was coming, and simply flung open the door to Aiden’s Room.
And there she found the actor she loved.

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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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