A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 27

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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 27.
Perhaps it was the special Juggling lesson with Aiden.
This tea time had ended later than usual.
‘I barely touched the tea.’
In the ripening afternoon, Caroline shielded her eyes from the sunlight and hurried across the Garden.
The servants were nowhere to be seen—the household was in full bustle.
‘Good.’
She was headed for the Maze.
The Maze wasn’t a forbidden zone, and no one would do anything just because they saw her enter it.
Still, she hoped no one would be around.
‘Just in case they interfere.’
If they did, she’d never make it out again.
[▲]
Caroline stopped at the entrance of the Maze, where a red triangle glowed into view.
Her hand moved toward a bag positioned at the edge of her vision.
“I never get tired of seeing this.”
She pressed down on the thing that jiggled as if demanding attention, and a bird’s-eye view of the bag unfolded before her.
Only a tightly wound ball of String.
Caroline reached out and grasped it.
She planned to tie it to a branch just before the Maze entrance and hold the end as she ventured inside.
She was curious what lay within.
‘Most of all, I wanted to see Aiden’s mother’s room.’
But she’d decided to explore that when surveillance was lighter—at night.
“I’m counting on you, cherry tree.”
Caroline wound the String several times around the base of the cherry tree, whose blossoms had long since fallen.
To make sure it wouldn’t come loose, she even used a knot she’d learned in Girl Scouts.
“There.”
String in one hand, pen and Notebook in the other.
Caroline slowly unwound the String as she stepped into the Maze.
From the start, she sketched the path she took onto the Notebook with her pen, ready to bolt out instantly if anything went wrong.
“It is beautiful, I’ll give it that.”
Inside the Maze lay well-maintained stone paths and walls covered in climbing vines like ivy.
Morning glories in various colors dotted the walls in a patchwork of hues.
She was admiring them as she walked, but only for a moment.
Caroline came upon a dead end.
“That’s as far as this goes.”
Turning back, she noticed a gap on the left opening to another passage.
She marked it roughly and this time followed what looked like the longer path.
“This one too.”
But that passage also led nowhere after a short distance.
The Maze was vast, with a wider span than the Garden itself, and it held countless dead ends.
“Feels like I haven’t even made it halfway.”
Time passed.
Caroline realized that although she’d been in the Maze for a while, she hadn’t made much real progress because of the constant dead ends she kept encountering.
The sketch was starting to grow complicated too, hard to read.
“The Maze is… actually made of two spaces. One flows in a single direction like a continuous line, and the other is impossible to leave without someone’s help.”
When would she reach that second space?
Caroline turned her body back toward what seemed like the not-too-distant entrance.
She couldn’t see it, but she could sense it was close.
But then.
“Huh?”
Caroline stared quietly at the String in her hand.
Her eyes slowly traced the red line it made. She’d definitely tied it to the thick base of the cherry tree.
That meant the String should draw a line rising from below up to her hand.
But the String now showed a line as if drawn from top to bottom, as if it had started somewhere higher than where her hand held it.
‘What’s going on?’
She looked up and saw the sun nearly gone from the sky.
‘A lot of time has passed.’
The sun was about to set.
A sharp instinct flared within her—she shouldn’t go any deeper.
Sensing the danger instinctively, Caroline gripped the string and notebook tightly and began to turn back slowly.
And in that moment, a vibration traveled through the string.
“Oh!”
The pen and notebook fell onto the stone floor.
Whether she noticed or not, the string twanged sharply once more.
Someone was definitely outside.
‘Who could it be?’
She pressed her hand to her chest and thought hard, but nothing came to mind.
With trembling hands, Caroline gathered the items and moved forward.
And in that time, the sun had completely set.
‘I’m scared.’
The Maze had no lighting of any kind.
As the space sank into complete darkness, Caroline ran, relying only on the string.
And the moment she burst out of the Maze entrance where light was spilling through—
“!”
Caroline stopped short.
Beneath a tall Street Lamp, a clown was juggling six balls.
Aiden stood before her in a multicolored costume, shoes with upturned pointed toes, and a flamboyant Clown Hat.
He was the protagonist from the Campbell Cruise incident—Clown Will.
“Ahhh!”
* * *
‘Seeing him at night is pretty terrifying.’
That was her first thought, hand clutching her chest.
The face painted to make his features appear bright and piercing looked threatening even on the handsome Aiden.
And after sunset, beneath the shadow of the Street Lamp—
he looked genuinely monstrous.
‘I can imagine how terrified the people he killed in the story must have been.’
If he came running with that bizarre Clown Hat and puffed-up clothes, wielding a knife—
you’d be so startled you might die of a heart attack.
But Caroline approached him slowly.
[!]
The moment he came within three paces, a yellow exclamation mark floated before her eyes.
‘What’s this?’
Puzzled, she took one step closer, and the man who had been standing still suddenly moved.
‘!’
With an exaggerated gesture, he extended one arm and one leg forward and bowed at the waist.
It was a clown’s greeting.
As his lowered posture straightened again, the Clown Hat on his head bobbed playfully.
Only then did Caroline notice that the end of the string she was holding was tied to the hat’s ornament.
‘When did he untie it from the tree root?’
Exactly the kind of mischievous thing a clown would do.
“Hello.”
“…….”
He didn’t speak.
Will as a clown wasn’t a character who talked.
Unlike Will the host in his sky-blue Tailcoat, Clown Will was merely a character who made audiences laugh with his body on stage.
So he said nothing, only smiled with his painted mouth stretching toward his ears.
“Um, just a moment.”
Caroline carefully reached out to touch his hat.
“Ah!”
At that instant, the clown seemed to sense a threat and stepped back with a startled expression.
“I’m sorry. The string is……. Oh?”
But he quickly removed the hat, turned it so the ornament pointed downward, and held it out to her.
Caroline reached to untie the string from the ornament, but her eyes widened as she saw six red balls inside the hat.
It was packed so tightly there was barely room for a head.
‘Magic.’
In this moment, the man before her was truly a clown.
His guarded expression had vanished, and as Caroline gasped in wonder, he broke into a playful smile, grinning widely.
He exaggerated his expression and pointed with his finger at the string and balls Caroline was holding.
Red balls.
And a bundle of red string.
“Similar, you say?”
Caroline asked in confirmation, and Aiden gave an approving nod with an okay sign.
Then he handed her the hat completely and pulled out a ball.
In that instant.
“!”
“What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Caroline let out a sharp cry of alarm.
Aiden had suddenly contorted his face in pain and bent over.
Alarmed, she reached out to his shoulder, but the clown straightened up with a devilish grin.
“?”
Then he frowned again and lowered his posture.
Caroline, watching him repeat the strange gesture in bewilderment, began to understand.
“It’s heavy, isn’t it?”
The clown gestured sharply as if firing a shot, confirming her guess.
The moment Caroline understood, he pocketed that ball and pulled out another.
This time, the ball was extremely light in concept.
With eyes and mouth wide open, he tossed it high into the air and caught it repeatedly.
Having pantomimed six balls this way, the man soon held three balls in each hand.
And the Juggling began.
As did something else.
[Clear the Mission!]
“?”
‘A Mission?’
Bewildered, Caroline looked around, but all she could see was the impish man and the balls spinning in his hands.
‘I can barely even see afterimages.’
What on earth could this Mission be?
Caroline was growing frustrated when it appeared.
[Choose the correct ball!]
A hint in golden letters shimmered into view for her.

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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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