A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 18

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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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Chapter 18.
“I’ve had rather a lot of sweet tea, and now I’m quite drowsy. I think I need a nap.”
With those words, Aiden announced the end of tea time.
In the same instant, the pen and paper that had been beside Caroline vanished.
‘I didn’t think of that at all.’
Information she already knew unfolded alongside details she’d never anticipated—revelations that left her unprepared to so much as consider them.
With time remaining until evening, Caroline set out once more through the Mansion, searching for places marked by a yellow Exclamation Mark.
‘Yesterday it was the 1st Floor.’
She’d found no Exclamation Mark on the 1st Floor, and on the 2nd Floor yesterday she’d caught only a glimpse before spotting James and fainting.
‘My heart…….’
Swallowing the bitterness, Caroline climbed to the 2nd Floor.
As she examined the rooms in order nearest the staircase, a space she’d failed to map yesterday—obscured by James’s presence—suddenly caught her eye.
‘Oh?’
The layout was familiar.
A doorframe from which the door had been violently torn away, and beyond it, a backdrop she recognized.
“This is totally a theatrical set, isn’t it?”
The flooring, the ceiling, the props inside—all of it resembled what Caroline had seen more than once before.
.
Though she and Aiden hadn’t discussed it over tea, Caroline knew this play intimately: the story of Will, a circus ringmaster and clown invited aboard a nobleman’s cruise, and the events that unfold. The Circus Troupe’s leader himself.
And this room had been decorated to closely resemble Will’s private quarters.
“How fascinating!”
Yesterday’s warehouse from , and now this place.
‘Did they set it up deliberately for a performance?’
It resembled a theatrical set brought to life.
‘Come to think of it, an Exclamation Mark appeared there yesterday too.’
Could there be one here as well?
Wondering, Caroline drew close to every element of the room, rifling through them.
And her suspicion proved correct.
[!]
“Hm?”
The object bearing the yellow Exclamation Mark was a Ferris wheel–shaped Gacha Machine.
By turning the Ferris wheel by hand and then pressing the button on its round face, snacks inside the wheel would pop out.
A familiar item that had been sold as merchandise for the play.
[Complete the Mission!]
‘Do I just do it?’
Yesterday’s Mission had required the correct tools and a specific sequence.
“But this—surely there’s no particular tool or order to it……?”
As Caroline leaned close to the Ferris wheel with five compartments, she noticed it differed from what she’d expected.
Usually, opaque Gacha Machines contained only invisible snacks inside.
But this one was transparent, and inside lay objects shaped like tiny figures.
‘This is…….’
“Will?”
The clown character Will, master of this room.
A palm-sized clown doll sat in the first compartment.
‘What’s in the next one?’
Shifting her gaze to the compartment below, she spotted a familiar necktie.
And a sky-blue shirt.
‘That’s James.’
The next compartment, and the one after, held Friedman with a vicious scar marring his face, and Ifros wielding a spanner.
Every role Aiden had taken on as an adult was contained within.
‘But there are five compartments.’
What was in the last one?
Caroline gave the Ferris wheel a gentle push with her hand to see the final compartment hidden behind the button.
The moment she registered something far smaller than the others nestled inside, a window appeared.
[Time Limit: 15 Seconds]
And the Ferris wheel began spinning wildly.
‘Are you serious?’
Caroline jerked her hand away in exasperation, but she was already too late.
Fortunately, however, she had already glimpsed what lay in the final compartment.
‘It was a tiny child.’
It was noticeably different in size from the others.
It seemed to be a child role that Aiden had played,
[Time Limit: 12 seconds]
“No, wait!”
She cried out, but it was no use.
The button lit up as if urging her to press it at once.
‘It can’t be just any role. It has to be that small supporting part—different from the others in category.’
[Time Limit: 10 seconds]
“Ugh!”
Caroline watched the carousel spinning so fast it left only afterimages, her face gone pale.
‘Can I catch it?’
No—yes, I can.
[Time Limit: 8 seconds]
Caroline clenched her teeth and fixed her gaze on the carousel.
If she watched the features and timed it right, she could press the button. She could do this.
She’d played similar Gacha Machines several times before to get Aiden’s autographed merchandise.
‘Call up the memory.’
[Time Limit: 5 seconds]
Necktie, clown hat, scar, wrench.
Necktie, clown hat, scar, wrench.
Necktie, clown hat, scar, wrench.
[Time Limit: 3 seconds]
The item appeared at the top, then vanished toward the button in just under a second.
[Time Limit: 2 seconds]
[Time Limit: 1 second]
Click!
[Time Limit: 0 seconds]
[Complete]
The window in front of her disappeared.
Caroline stood frozen before the stopped carousel and watched the cylinder inside it clatter out through the opening.
What would be inside when she opened it?
‘Maybe a snack?’
Caroline split the cylinder in half and opened it.
[Clear!]
The first thing that caught her eye was a doll.
‘What…?’
Though she’d seen Aiden’s plays as an adult more often, Caroline clearly remembered the child role he’d performed.
A worn brown hat, worn blue overalls—that role never existed.
‘In fact, this is…’
“Ah!”
Reflexively shifting her gaze as the thought struck her, Caroline gasped and dropped to her seat.
“You, when did you…?”
The servant’s son.
The boy who had helped Caroline enter the Mansion and yesterday gave her a hint about the Key.
That boy.
The doll was now sitting beside Caroline with a serene expression on his face—it was the boy.
‘Why is he here?’
Though bewildered, Caroline quickly made sense of the situation.
After all, she had succeeded in the Mission. That meant the objective was to select this child.
Not to select him for any particular reason, but because unlike the other four roles, he wasn’t a role at all.
‘So they put him in because he’s completely unrelated.’
Which meant this doll didn’t seem particularly meaningful.
“When did you get here? You startled me.”
Caroline spoke casually, shifting her gaze to the cylinder the doll had been holding.
A Paper Note similar to the one she’d seen yesterday lay inside.
“You just disappeared on your own yesterday too…”
As she unfolded the paper, the familiar golden ink came into view.
[Third Rule. Within the Mansion exist only the adult Aiden and the servants. No children exist in the Mansion. Should you discover a child or boy within the Mansion, do not speak to him and keep your distance.]
Caroline’s gaze slowly rolled to the side.
The shabby-looking boy was blinking his green eyes, staring right at her.
A chill crept through her chest.
Despite the summer heat, her skin prickled with cold, gooseflesh rising along her arms.
‘What is that child?’
If the Rules denied someone’s existence, then that boy was a presence she should never have allowed close—of that she was certain.
‘A ghost? A spirit?’
Yet Caroline had already felt his small fingers grip her sleeve, had already grasped his sleeve in return.
‘And I’ve already spoken with him.’
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Fear coiled in her stomach.
She felt the weight of his wordless gaze upon her, but she lacked the courage to meet it.
‘Act as though nothing is wrong. Stay natural.’
Yet she could not stop the gulp that worked down her throat.
Caroline opened the Rules with trembling hands and continued reading the rest of the passage.
[Should you find that conversation has already taken place multiple times, please take the child to the West Room of 3rd Floor. Use the Key to unlock the door, place the child inside, and lock it again. When you open it again after one day has passed, the child will have disappeared. He will not appear again.]
The Rules were remarkably thorough.
They forbade and, simultaneously, provided the solution.
‘Lock him away in a room and he vanishes—it’s like something out of a wardrobe horror story.’
Yesterday’s conversation flickered through her mind.
‘Do you know which rooms in the Mansion are locked?’
‘……The West Room of 3rd Floor.’
‘Only someone with the Key can go in.’
‘Don’t steal it. Return it at once. Otherwise you’ll be punished.’
Now she understood why the boy had looked so anxious when the Key was mentioned yesterday.
He had known that if that room existed, he would disappear into it.
And his repeated warnings not to steal it—those were his attempt to keep the Key away from her hands.
Caroline carefully slid her hand into her pocket.
‘I gathered it today without knowing any of this.’
The cold surface of the large, beautiful Key met her skin.

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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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