A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 19

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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 19.
“Come here.”
Caroline gathered the Key and rose from her seat.
When she extended her hand to the young child, the Boy took it without hesitation.
She would follow the Rules. She would take this child—whether ghost or spirit, she couldn’t say—up to the Third Floor Room.
The Boy followed her in silence.
At least, until they reached the Third Floor West Room.
“……I don’t like it here.”
The child tugged at her hand, voice barely a whisper.
Caroline looked down at him without speaking.
She couldn’t see his expression beneath the Hat, but his unease was unmistakable.
‘What’s wrong with this room?’
The Third Floor West Room was vastly larger than the others.
That’s why only one room occupied the entire western side.
‘It must be divided into several spaces inside.’
“If I go in there, Mom will punish me. Please let me go.”
It was hard to refuse such a plaintive plea.
Suppressing her wavering resolve, Caroline withdrew the Key and inserted it into the lock of the door handle.
Click.
The Key turned smoothly, and the door swung open as if it had been waiting.
‘It hurts my heart. But if I don’t follow the Rules, they might take another Heart from me.’
Then only one choice remained.
After taking a deep breath, before moving forward—
Caroline checked on the Boy.
‘He’d probably try to run if he could.’
Despite showing such obvious reluctance, the child neither released her hand nor attempted to flee or hold his ground.
He only gazed at her with pleading eyes.
‘I’m sorry.’
She didn’t know what role this child played in the game.
But the way she already felt affection for him suggested he possessed some charm—some ability to captivate people.
Caroline resisted the urge to release his hand and stepped into the room.
“!”
The first thing that struck her was an enormous display space.
Photographs and bookcases crammed with volumes, display cabinets holding countless trophies and certificates.
Against the deep brick-colored wallpaper, each element had been arranged with obvious care, drawing involuntary admiration.
The moment Caroline moved toward a nearby display cabinet—
“I’m sorry, please let me out…….”
A voice came, trembling with desperation.
Through their clasped hand, she felt his body trembling.
‘Can I really do this?’
Whatever he was, her heart rebelled at treating something wearing a boy’s form so harshly.
Eventually, Caroline lowered herself and removed the worn Hat, revealing the child’s face.
When she brushed back his tousled hair, a clammy forehead appeared. No tears fell, but his small face held complete despair.
‘All I need to do is leave him here and walk out.’
If she returned to this fascinating space after a day had passed, she would be safe.
Yet Caroline found she lacked the courage to do so.
To the child, of all things.
‘He looks so much like Aiden.’
She couldn’t bring herself to follow the Rules with a boy whose face kept reminding her of an actor she seemed to love.
‘Do I really have to follow the Rules?’
With conflicted feelings, Caroline wiped the moisture from the child’s forehead.
She couldn’t decide.
At last, as if resigned, she opened her mouth.
“What happens if I leave you here and go?”
“I disappear.”
The Boy tightened his grip on her hand even further.
“Then I can’t help you.”
Her mind turned slowly at his words.
‘Help me, he said.’
The one who’d guided Caroline back to the Mansion on a rainy night past midnight—
After telling her about the Key, he worried about her.
‘If she really is helping me…?’
Then why the Rules?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Caroline recalled the instant she’d met James—when the Heart vanished.
She had truly done exactly as instructed.
‘What if that was the problem itself?’
What if the Rules were lies?
[Fifth. If Aiden Darvel seems drastically different from his usual state when you meet him at the Mansion, do not be too alarmed. Do not respond to what he says; instead, call out Aiden Darvel’s name and tell him to come to his senses and return to reality. He will soon return to normal.]
She must not reveal to the character-made-up Aiden that he was Aiden Darvel.
[If you have already conversed with him several times, take the Boy to the Third Floor West Room. Use the Key to open the door, place the Boy inside, and lock it. When you return a day later, the Boy will be gone. And he will never appear again.]
She had to talk to the Boy before her, and could not bring him here.
Caroline felt as though she’d taken a blow to the head.
“……I’m sorry for bringing you here. Let’s get out right now.”
She pulled the Boy’s hand and rushed out through the door.
Caroline caught sight of her reflection in the mirror hung within the room.
The woman in the mirror was grasping at empty air.
No one stood beside her.
* * *
The moment Caroline released his hand outside the door, the Boy stared at her, then darted away and vanished beyond the staircase.
“……Take care.”
It was all she could say.
Even as a long time passed after sending the Boy away, her Heart did not diminish.
When dinnertime came, two Hearts still remained.
[♥♥]
“A short nap seems to have refreshed me. I hope you spent the afternoon after tea time well, Caroline?”
‘Your face still looks haggard, though.’
He still appeared exhausted—what was he talking about?
Caroline swallowed her thoughts and answered composedly.
“Yes, I explored the Mansion again today. There were so many beautiful artworks and fine furnishings to see.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“But Aiden, you told me not to enter the locked rooms. Today I saw a locked room on the Third Floor.”
[▲]
“……Did you enter?”
A red triangle appeared.
‘Is it dangerous?’
Or was it a warning not to reveal that she’d done something forbidden?
Before Aiden, whose voice had turned glacial as he fixed his gaze on her, Caroline hastened to explain.
“I didn’t enter. But it was so large—I was curious what it was for. Is it your room?”
The moment she said she hadn’t entered, the triangle vanished.
‘How eerie.’
Aiden, whose eyes had been fixed on her, relaxed his expression and resumed cutting his food.
Only when she saw the servant’s eyes roll away did Caroline realize how perilously close she’d just come to danger.
“It is my mother’s room.”
Aiden’s mother, Michelle Belota Darvel—a woman who had died of chronic illness before reaching fifty, and not long before Aiden retired.
Not long before his retirement at all.
“Ah…… I’m so sorry.”
Caroline quickly averted her gaze.
“Not at all, Caroline. Please don’t trouble yourself. It is already a well-settled matter.”
“Still……”
“Truly, it’s fine. It’s not as though you actually entered.”
The last sentence rang with a chilling undertone.
Fork and knife in both hands, Aiden regarded Caroline in silence for a moment.
“So please, do not worry yourself.”
He smiled with both eyes crinkled, then brought the food he’d been cutting to his mouth.
‘What was that cold feeling that just brushed past me?’
Sweat pooled in her palms.
If he discovered she’d entered the locked room, something truly terrible would happen.
‘Will I lose a Heart?’
It was a disturbingly plausible theory.
Caroline decided to change the subject immediately.
“Oh, I saw something curious today, Aiden. A room without a door.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. We were discussing what Sylvia left behind earlier, and just then I happened to see a room decorated like the set from that very play. What are those rooms for?”
“Ah, so you found them.”
Fortunately, no triangle mark appeared this time.
Aiden wiped his mouth with his napkin and answered calmly.
“My mother had those rooms built for my acting practice. Being inside them, surrounded by the familiar set, seems to help me immerse myself more deeply in a role.”
That made two questions now.
Caroline pondered what to ask with her final one, then thought of the boy’s young face.
She asked Aiden as he brought food to his mouth.
“This is just a question, but…… are there ghosts in the Mansion?”

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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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