A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 24

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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 24.
“Ahhh!”
Caroline flinched at the shadow that fell across her.
For the first time in ages, the boy in the hat stood backlit against the sun, watching her.
“Don’t lurk there in the shadows. Come sit here.”
“Okay.”
She quickly pulled the boy down beside her and scanned the surroundings.
Never knowing when a servant might spot them, she decided to read the letter quickly.
[Aiden,
I was startled when I read your letter, but I understand your feelings. Still, there’s no need to carry such guilt. For me, a masterpiece absolves everything.
How should I put it. I’ve watched you live as a child actor since you were young, and I know how singularly devoted you are to your craft. And I know that your relationship with your mother, who shared that beginning with you, is inseparable from your acting.
Passion that doesn’t spring from within—even stars know that feeling well. And yet, I believed that after your mother passed, you would finally set that burden down. Perhaps you’ll face a shadowed period soon, but when you do, I hope you’ll keep this letter close.
The plays we made together will always be my pride.]
It was a letter from the Director, who had worked with Aiden on both Oyster Man and The Incident at Campbell Cruise.
“So that means……”
Aiden had lived his daily life immersed in his roles.
And this immersion had caused friction in his relationships with others, which is why he’d written the letter to apologize.
‘Living immersed in roles, could it be that he’s fallen into acting like this without even realizing it lately?’
Yet his passion for acting didn’t seem to originate from him alone.
Hadn’t the Director written something similar in his letter to what had come through in Quiritz’s?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Only then did Caroline fold the letter and turn her head to the boy sitting beside her.
“Someone else’s letter. If anyone finds out I read it, we’re done for.”
“But you said stealing is wrong.”
“Strictly speaking, this is a letter he wasn’t supposed to read anyway. He probably doesn’t care about it.”
“So then it’s all right?”
The child regarded her with the expression of someone learning something for the first time.
“But I stole something from this Mansion that hardly anyone cared about, and I still got punished for it.”
“Maybe it was worth too much money. It must have been the sort of thing someone would definitely notice.”
The boy nodded and accepted her words without further question.
Caroline observed him slowly, still gripping the letter.
‘Who on earth is he?’
A being who cast no reflection in mirrors, whom the people of the Mansion denied.
[Third. If there are beings within the Mansion whom it does not acknowledge, you must seek their aid. I ask that you recognize their existence and listen carefully to their stories. This applies even to those who wear familiar faces.]
But according to the Rules, Caroline received help.
And a being she must listen to.
Caroline decided to listen to the boy’s story carefully.
“Why did you steal the dish?”
“To sell it.”
“Why?”
“I have no money. It’s barely enough to eat.”
“Even though you knew you’d be punished?”
“I can’t starve. Not me, and not my sister.”
Caroline abandoned her hypothesis that he was a servant.
If he were the child of a housekeeper, the people would know of him, and mirrors would surely show his reflection.
‘Could he be a Spirit bound to this Mansion?’
Judging by his clothes, he didn’t seem to be from such an ancient time.
‘How could someone bound to this Mansion have no money?’
The Mansion was so lavish—paintings and sculptures everywhere, and even a yacht on the Lake.
‘Unless all the money for eating had been squandered on luxury.’
“But doesn’t your mother provide you meals?”
“Mother has no interest in what I eat or what she eats. She cares only for the Mansion.”
“What?”
Caroline’s brow furrowed.
How could someone neglect the meals of a child not even ten years old?
That was a failure of parenthood.
“Let’s go meet your mother. We need to talk.”
It was partly born of anger at what she’d heard about child-rearing, but also because she was curious about the boy’s identity.
If she saw how he spoke of his mother, she could understand what kind of Spirit he was and why he had become one. But the answer that came was not what Caroline had expected.
“You can’t meet her.”
“……Why?”
What could she mean, we can’t meet?
Caroline asked again, but the boy’s lips sealed shut, offering nothing.
“You really won’t tell me?”
‘He doesn’t want to reveal anything about himself or his parents.’
But if that were true, what could she possibly gain from this child?
“Who are you?”
“…….”
“I’ve wondered for so long. You appear and vanish without warning, and your reflection never shows in the mirror.”
The boy flinched, his shoulders rising sharply.
“No one knows you exist. Do you have any idea how frightening that’s been for me?”
As Caroline spoke her thoughts aloud, she kept her eyes fixed on the child, searching for any sign he might flee.
“But you told me you could help me. That means you know what role I’m meant to play here, doesn’t it?”
Doesn’t it?
Caroline posed the question, and the answer didn’t come at once.
Just as she thought he might close his mouth again, the boy slowly nodded.
“Good. I won’t press you further about who you are. But tell me this—what information can you give me?”
The boy appeared to be thinking.
Caroline recognized it wasn’t a negative sign.
The boy in the hat seemed less unwilling to speak than genuinely uncertain what words to use.
“Aiden Christian Dearbell’s childhood. And things about the Mansion.”
Just as he’d told her that the 3rd Floor West Room belonged to Michelle, he possessed knowledge of the Mansion itself.
“Then you know about the Maze too?”
The boy nodded.
“What’s inside it?”
“The Maze…… is actually composed of two distinct spaces. One where the path flows in a single direction, like a Single Stroke Drawing, and another from which you cannot escape without the help of others.”
Cannot escape without the help of others.
“So if you have help, anyone can get out? If you help me, I can escape?”
The boy shook his head.
“You need the help of many people. More precisely, the objects they give.”
“What kind of objects?”
“……I don’t know that either.”
Even the boy before her had gaps in his knowledge.
Then who could tell her?
“The first space is merciful. Even if you enter, as long as you remember the way back, it offers you a chance to escape whenever you wish. But the second space……”
Caroline bit her lip hard.
“It’s a space where giving up is impossible.”
“You can’t give up? What does that mean?”
“No matter how difficult, you can’t turn back. You can’t retreat.”
Caroline tried to imprint his cryptic words into her mind as firmly as she could.
The moment she was about to ask more, the boy dusted off his hands and stood.
“I hear a servant approaching. You should hide the letter.”
“Wait, just a moment……”
Caroline instinctively sensed he was about to disappear entirely.
She hurriedly crumpled the letters and shoved them into her pocket, calling after him as he rounded the corner to vanish.
“Your name, at least tell me your name! I need something to call you!”
“Toby. Call me Toby.”
And the boy rounded the corner and vanished in an instant. Caroline, too, confirmed the servant’s position and hastily rose from her seat.
She returned to her room, tucked the letter between the pages of her notebooks, quickly penned a reply to Anna’s letter and handed it to the postman who hadn’t yet departed.
As she descended the stairs toward tea time.
Caroline had forgotten that she hadn’t read the one remaining letter.

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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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