A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 13

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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 13.
“Do you remember James finding the early game tedious?”
“He said the only thing he could use was a pawn.”
“It was striking how he compared his situation and his classmates’ to a pawn.”
Aiden’s eyebrows lifted.
It was a sign to continue, so Carolyn moved a knight to an empty square as she spoke.
“‘A pawn can’t retreat when it’s afraid. It can’t run away when things look bad. Because it’s the lowest, most worthless piece.'”
“‘Even when you put what you want right in front of it, it can’t take it. It has to move sideways and strike at empty air.'”
As if he’d been waiting for her words, Aiden picked up the monologue.
It was the moment when James—the worst delinquent in the district—spoke his mind to Robelian for the first time.
That scene’s dialogue and staging had been so dramatic that Carolyn remembered it vividly.
“I recall that Ankeite didn’t have this moment ranked.”
“Well, people generally prefer the scenes with Robelian and his fiancée Idis.”
Perhaps it was because Carolyn watched the stage centered on Aiden.
She valued the moments where James appeared over the lead Robelian and his lover Idis.
‘The people at Ankeite really lack insight.’
According to Carolyn’s interpretation, this play wasn’t meant to center on romance, even if it contained it.
A temporary teacher enters a school in a backward district that even the city overlooks, and the play’s primary concern is how he transforms apathetic townspeople and rough children.
James—representing the children who transform—changing from a fighter and budding thief into a writer with sharp prose was one of the play’s key attractions.
“Well, your knight’s been captured, Carolyn. What will you do?”
Had she become too absorbed in recalling the play?
Where the white knight had been moments ago, now only a black bishop remained. To the bishop’s left sat a pawn; directly before it, another bishop.
Carolyn glanced around quietly, then hastily moved a rook from the diagonal direction of the black bishop.
“The Quiet Graduation Ceremony is the longest play I’ve ever done.”
It was a sentence that felt slightly disconnected from the conversation they’d just been having.
Carolyn looked up at Aiden, who delivered the prepared words with an untroubled, comfortable expression.
Since this was her first Tea Time alone with him, she’d been utterly absorbed until now.
‘It was a game after all.’
Only now did the real Tea Time feel like it was beginning.
Tea Time felt more about information exchange than a meal ever could. Aiden would introduce a play and conversation would start, questions were far more active, and she could take notes.
Carolyn glanced sideways at her paper and pen beside the chessboard, then clicked her tongue.
‘Was he telling me to write it down?’
“From age sixteen when I first received the James offer until I was twenty-four, I acted. It remained genuinely enjoyable to play a youth even as time passed.”
Aiden wore the expression of someone lost in memory.
“How old are you, Carolyn?”
“Twenty-one.”
“What was your adolescence like?”
Carolyn’s eyes widened at the unexpected question.
She hadn’t expected him to ask her anything as the player.
“I went to school, studied, played with friends my age… like that.”
Not knowing quite how to put it, she laughed awkwardly, and Aiden nodded gently with a soft smile.
“That must have been enjoyable. I envy you.”
Envy?
She’d never thought of her life as particularly special.
But with what came next, Carolyn could understand him.
“I’ve never attended school, Carolyn.”
Aiden spoke without the slightest hesitation.
“I have no peers.”
“Oh…”
She knew Aiden had been acting since very early childhood.
‘Then of course it would have been difficult for him to have a normal childhood—why didn’t I think of that until now?’
“To live as a beloved actor, such things are perhaps inevitable. The fact that I couldn’t go to school and had no opportunity to make friends because I was so busy is a blessing, after all.”
Having finished speaking, Aiden signaled with his eyes that it was her turn.
Carolyn moved a chess piece hurriedly without even properly looking at the board.
“Life has its advantages and disadvantages for everyone, but I find myself quite curious about your childhood, Carolyn. I envy it enough to want to experience it myself.”
As he said this, Aiden offered a smile like a single flower.
In his eyes lay a faint bitterness, and Carolyn’s heart grew heavy.
How much had the early start to his career and earning money weighed on him?
‘He must have wanted to live like an ordinary child his age sometimes.’
It was pitiful.
When Carolyn bit her lip in frustration, Aiden, speaking without hesitation, shook his head apologetically.
“Please, don’t think that way. I didn’t mean to dampen the mood. Living as James wasn’t altogether unpleasant, you see.”
Carolyn found herself fixating on every movement of his lips.
Because of this, her hand moved across the board almost unconsciously.
“For nearly ten years, living as James was genuinely entertaining. I never attended school myself, but I could imitate it well enough. I doubt anyone else has worn the same uniform for so long.”
As he spoke, Aiden laughed like a child.
James’s signature was the Blue Necktie and the Light Blue Stripe Shirt—Aiden’s only uniform across all those years.
“It was fortunate that James was a delinquent. If he’d been a well-behaved student with many friends, how could I have pulled off the imitation without knowing anything?”
There were now precious few pieces left on the chessboard.
Carolyn paid no mind to her own pieces, which were overwhelmingly fewer than Aiden’s. She simply moved mechanically while keeping her focus entirely on his words.
“Wasn’t it difficult, living as James?”
“Every role is difficult.”
Aiden smiled wryly.
“But many people helped me, including the actor Quiritz. Thanks to them, it went well.”
‘Thank goodness.’
Carolyn clasped her hands together and nodded.
“Living as James was rather fascinating, Carolyn. When else will I get to live as a delinquent? Besides, while being James, I could legitimately adopt a rebellious and defiant attitude.”
Aiden sent her a playful look and wrinkled his nose.
“It’s a relief that it was worth trading for an ordinary adolescence.”
“Of course. It was an experience you can’t buy with all the money in the world.”
Carolyn nodded in agreement.
Though her heart ached, the knowledge that he’d had a good time during those years brought her some comfort.
“But Carolyn.”
“Yes?”
“Checkmate.”
“……?”
Like someone surrendering, Carolyn raised both hands and lowered her head to examine the board.
Even at her awkward gesture, Aiden waited patiently for her.
Before her King stood his Queen, and diagonally from it sat Aiden’s King.
From the middle of the game onward, she’d grown careless with her moves while listening to his story. But how had things come to this so swiftly?
Her Queen, wherever it moved, would fall to his White Bishop or Black Knight—there was no escape.
“I’ve lost, Aiden.”
So the actor Quiritz helped you, didn’t he? That was a lie, wasn’t it?
As Carolyn whispered the question, he laughed again like a child.
“I’ll leave that to your imagination, Carolyn.”
Despite the weariness he carried, his face remained luminous and open.
The curve of his eyes and the wind-touched quality of his laughter were lovely.
Had she ever seen her actor smile so freely?
And never like this—just the two of them, close enough to touch.
Though it was only part of the game, Carolyn found her mood shifting as she realized she was spending this intimate time with the man she loved.
A simple, unscripted conversation—a moment without artifice or role.
Feeling somehow connected to Aiden, Carolyn deliberately looked away and brought the teacup to her lips.
The tips of her ears burned.

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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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