A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 22

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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 22.
“What is this?”
It looked like a tea bag, but inside the transparent envelope was not tea leaves but paper.
Caroline reached in and pulled out the damp thing.
As she unfolded the paper, creased multiple times inside the waterproof envelope, she recognized the familiar golden ink handwriting.
[The following Rules and Instructions are matters you must familiarize yourself with during your stay at Darvel Manor. Please read them carefully and then dispose of them.
First. Your summer vacation lasts thirty days. You may leave this place at any time before those thirty days end. Should you feel your safety is in danger, you are welcome to stop the Game and depart whenever you wish.
Second. Letters are your only means of communication. They are also the channel through which useful information reaches you. The servants review all letters that enter the Manor, and during this process, letters that might offer assistance are typically discarded. We recommend you wait for the postman’s visit and protect any letters yourself.
Third. If there are beings the Manor does not acknowledge, you must seek their help. We ask that you recognize their existence and listen carefully to their stories. This applies even to those who appear familiar to you.
Fourth. After midnight, only two servants walk the Manor. Surveillance within the Manor decreases compared to earlier hours. We recommend you leave your room during this time and actively explore. However, be careful not to encounter the servants. If they catch you, there is no undoing it.
Fifth. The Maze will drive away the beings that frighten you when you are in danger. However, if you venture too deep, you may not be able to return, so be cautious. Should you lose your way, try to remain where you are. Someone who can help will find you.
Welcome to Darvel Manor.
Enjoy a marvelous thirty days with Aiden Darvel.]
It was similar but distinctly different in content.
Caroline compared it to the original Rules and Instructions several times over.
“Now it’s clear.”
She could see which parts of the Rules given to her initially had been lies or inverted in meaning.
And she gained additional information about the Maze.
The Rules were transparent and kind, without hidden sections. The tone was similar but subtly softer in feel.
“Is this the original?”
The Rules currently in her hands seemed to have been completed based on these.
Enhanced for the Game’s entertainment value.
“Who wrote this?”
If it was made before the System finalized the Rules, then who had been holding onto it all this time?
“Who gave this to me?”
The method seemed odd for something the System would provide.
It hadn’t been given during a mission, and no exclamation marks or arrows had appeared when she received it.
‘I remember something like this happening before.’
Caroline recalled an event that had surely been important, yet no exclamation mark had appeared.
‘That Key.’
The Key she’d obtained on the Yacht while listening to the Music Box.
That it had been there ready for her was proof of an Ally’s existence.
‘It must be the same person, right?’
There was someone helping her from the sidelines, independent of the Game’s flow.
‘Who could it be?’
* * *
As she put the same breakfast menu she ate every morning into her mouth, Caroline settled on today’s topic.
The Maze mentioned in the Rules.
She wanted to know about it.
“Is it alright if I enter the Maze behind the Garden?”
With that first question, fortunately nothing happened.
No exclamation mark, no triangle.
Aiden also set down his fork with a composed expression and answered.
“It’s not a forbidden place, but I wouldn’t recommend entering it. You could easily lose your way.”
This detail had appeared in what looked like the original Rules but was absent from the new one. That must mean whoever altered it wanted the player to be ignorant of the Maze and suffer for it.
‘Or perhaps they wanted me to blunder in recklessly and get lost.’
Given the size and structure of the Maze, Aiden’s words were not false.
“I wonder—was it built for some particular purpose? Or is it just for aesthetic appeal……?”
The appearance of the exclamation mark made clear there was definitely something there.
But just as Aiden sometimes didn’t know she was acting, he might not know this fact, Caroline thought.
“My mother designed the Maze to enhance the Garden’s beauty. It’s essentially a structure of iron frames with various shrubs and flowering plants growing over it. So you can see different flowers each season.”
“……So she found the Maze beautiful.”
“Indeed.”
Caroline nodded with a wry expression.
Aiden’s mother, Michelle Bellota Darvel.
She seemed to have quite an unconventional aesthetic sense.
‘Of course, the flowers blooming atop it are lovely, but…….’
Caroline nodded slowly.
“Have you explored the Maze much? I’m curious if you know your way through it.”
If the Maze were truly a dangerous space, wouldn’t a triangle have appeared the moment Caroline approached?
She thought as much, and suspected there was more to it than that.
Until now, the yellow exclamation mark had only appeared in connection with missions.
‘There must be something I need to do once I’m inside the Maze.’
And to do that, first she had to figure out the way in.
“I’ve been inside quite a few times.”
Again, no indicator appeared.
Instead, Aiden set down both fork and knife, his expression turning distant, as if gazing at something far away.
He seemed lost in memory.
“When I was young, it was a mysterious place to me. I tried to map out the Maze by remembering the way in. I gathered information over two or four days and relied on it to enter, but for some reason, nothing matched up at all.”
!
“After that, I gave up trying to navigate through the Maze.”
Despite the rather eerie story, Aiden’s eyes widened and he laughed like a mischievous boy.
‘A Maze whose structure changes every time?’
Was it really a space one was allowed to enter?
‘And yet he won’t stop guests from going inside?’
Caroline rolled her eyes in exasperation.
“So no one in the Manor knows the entire structure of the Maze.”
“You could say that. Though Mother would have known, of course……”
[!]
Caroline started in surprise and dropped her fork with a sharp clang.
An exclamation mark had appeared.
But it wasn’t a mission.
‘Why?’
As she reached out to take the fresh fork from the servant, Caroline’s eyes flicked toward the pen and paper beside her plate.
The pen was shaking with what seemed like eager insistence, as if demanding her attention.
‘It wants me to write it down.’
So far during her tea times with Aiden, there had been little worth noting down. Most of it was information she already knew.
But this was new material, and it seemed terribly important……
Caroline began to write.
—Only Aiden’s mother knew the structure of the Maze.
‘Though she’s passed now.’
Then how was she supposed to get help……?
‘Ah!’
Caroline immediately understood what she had to do.
She had the Key. And information about the Maze was surely in Michelle’s room.
‘I need to go inside.’

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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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