A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 113

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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 113.

“I shouldn’t have done it. I should have known that I was dragging you into the mire to save myself.”
“What are you saying? You did the right thing.”
Aiden shook his head helplessly, like someone who had witnessed the horrors of a battlefield.
“No. From now on, Caroline will resent me too. There’s a story you didn’t know.”
When Aiden wrote that letter to Caroline in golden script, he was innocent. But immediately after, he learned the truth.
He had not written the letter to Caroline to escape the System’s sight.
The System had been watching his actions all along. And it was deeply satisfied that he had brought Caroline into the Game.
“Why is that a problem? The System knew I would help you anyway.”
“No, it’s the opposite. The System wanted you to fail as well, wanted us both to die together.”
Caroline stepped back in shock at his startling words.
Aiden gently guided her to sit on his bed, then retrieved a teapot and tea leaves from the cupboard and began brewing tea.
“From the start, the System gave you the status of Player without even offering sufficient explanation. That alone was clearly deliberate.”
“Why would it? I thought it was merely an entity that served the actual Game administrators. Why would it harbor malice toward me?”
Caroline furrowed her brow.
It didn’t make sense. Aiden’s Episode was merely one among countless others in the Game—he was hardly significant.
Caroline herself was only an observer, without any status to speak of.
So why would it want to kill them both?
“Because we possess what you might call a ‘Self.'”
Aiden turned, holding the tray.
Steam rose from the teapot upon it, fogging the room momentarily.
According to what Aiden went on to explain, the System was an entity that exercised considerable control over this Game. To its eyes, an Aiden who possessed a Self was an eyesore.
Since he even attempted to escape his own fate, the System sought to erase Aiden under the pretext of the Game Episode’s popularity.
‘And in the process, it planned to throw me in and eliminate us both together.’
Caroline was not a figure of significance, but to a System that regarded any being with a Self as an enemy, she too was marked for removal.
Thus the System orchestrated her entry into the Game under the pretense of saving Aiden, planning for her to meet her death alongside him.
“I didn’t know of that plan at first. That’s why I invited you. But the System hoped you would also fail, that I would fall into despair. However, it seems… you performed far better than expected.”
The System had hoped Caroline would grow exhausted as she progressed through the Game and withdraw her affection from Aiden.
That Aiden’s past as revealed in the Game was deeply personal, that she felt as though his shabby truths were being exposed carelessly—even that emotion was born of the System’s intent.
Contrary to the System’s wishes, when the Game’s guide changed as a result of Caroline’s success, Aiden had learned of the System’s plan and proposed that she abandon the Game.
The System, recognizing Caroline’s capability and realizing this would not do, chose to erase Aiden instead of setting her free.
“… I genuinely felt this Game was absurd. It’s only because I was me that we resolved it at all. I thought ordinary Players would simply fail and drop out.”
That too was because the System, wary of her, had designed the Game to be more difficult.
“You have no idea how hard I fought to obtain you.”
As Caroline spoke with wounded indignation, Aiden’s face suffused with an odd joy.
“What’s with that bright expression?”
“It’s nothing. I’m shamelessly delighted that Caroline wanted me so much.”
“Feel free to be happy. Don’t harbor guilt. You couldn’t have known it would come to this.”
“Is that so, Caroline?”
Aiden erased the smile that had just bloomed like a budding flower, and shook his head again with a darkened face.
“I may be a far more wicked man than I thought. Even as I believed I should let you escape safely, every time I saw you striving while thinking of me, I was utterly enchanted.”
With those words, Aiden bowed his head like a condemned man awaiting punishment.
It seemed he expected Caroline to grow angry. Perhaps to resent him.
“… Then I’m relieved.”
And at Caroline’s words, Aiden looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“I think it’s enough that you felt loved because of me. I had thought you were merely an NPC without emotion or humanity, so I never expected this.”
“… You’re not resenting me?”
“How could I!”
Caroline clenched both fists and roared with the force of a lion’s cry.
At the sight, Aiden gave a wry smile.
“The System is like a god within this Game. It can change everything. How does something that isn’t even alive, that lacks all humanity, know how to wound the human heart so precisely?”
At those words, Caroline felt her breath catch.
It was as though she were being swallowed by the countless ages this man had endured alone.
‘How lonely it must have been.’
And how painful it must have been when he discovered the truth.
He said the System had approached him at first as if helping, even breathing hope that visitors from Players would be of aid.
But ultimately, he’d been planning to delete him with cruel precision.
‘I won’t let that happen.’
She had no detailed plan, but Caroline clenched her teeth. In all her life, she’d never harbored such vengeance toward anyone.
“Then there’s no way to overcome the System? No way for me to clear the game and set you free?”
“I believe your abilities are sufficient, Caroline. However…….”
His green eyes burned bright with the conviction that he was not dismissing her.
Yet Aiden gently took both her hands and shook his head.
“The System possesses countless means to obstruct you. It will torment you endlessly, place you in danger, alter its rules, and exhaust itself in pursuit of its goals.”
Her chest seemed to cave in.
Caroline remembered the night she’d learned this place was a game—the moment the System had erased her entire room in an instant.
A space bleached white in a heartbeat, without edges or corners.
And Caroline standing alone upon it.
“……And my heart can endure no longer.”
Speaking those final words, Aiden bowed his head until his forehead rested against the back of her hand.
It was the posture of penance before something sacred.
“What are you doing? Get up. Hurry!”
Caroline brushed her hand up and down, trying to pull him to his feet, but Aiden wouldn’t release her.
“……I know how dangerous my personalities are. Friedman, Ipros, Will—each in their own way will surely hurt and frighten you.”
“I can manage.”
“A lie. I remember you trapped by Ipros, weeping in my arms. I wanted to die as quickly as possible then. It hurt worse than when I fell from those high stairs.”
Caroline felt wetness seeping onto the back of her hand.
She fell silent for a moment, looking down at him.
At first, she was simply astounded. Aiden’s affection for her ran deeper than she’d imagined.
She’d thought she alone harbored such vast love for him, never expecting to be cradled by a feeling so profound in return.
Second came rage—at the System for doing this to the man she loved. The fury roiling inside her was almost unbearable.
“……Get up, Aiden.”
But the man remained immovable as stone.
“I said get up.”
Even when she spoke again, he didn’t budge. Caroline bent her head close to the back of her hand and whispered softly against his perfect ear.
“……Lift your head, my love.”
It was a cunning choice. Immediately, the man with those doe-like eyes rose to his feet.
Gripping her hand tightly, as if it were a rope to save him.

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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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