A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 4

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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 103.
I should never have followed Ifros, even if I couldn’t get a hint about the Key.
It was a mistake to continue this Game at all. I should have run when Aiden at three in the morning told me to escape. I wanted to punch the foolish version of myself from the past, the one who’d spouted confidence without knowing what the future held.
I’d stepped forward vowing to save Aiden with my life on the line, only to find myself about to lose it.
‘I wish there had been some way to quit this Game right then and there.’
No such thing existed.
I’d squeezed myself into the deepest corner of the Underground Dungeon and tried to sleep again. How much more time had passed since then?
“……Caroline.”
When I woke to that whisper-soft voice, I could see a man holding a Lantern standing before my cell. It was Ifros, crouched low, peering in at me in the darkness.
“!”
I curled my body into a tight ball, seized by terror. In that instant, the man’s face twisted in pain.
“Caroline, it’s me.”
The way he called my name, the gentleness in his voice.
A man in rumpled blond hair and blue pajamas looked down at me with worry. Only then could I understand.
Aiden at three in the morning had come to find me.
For a moment I thought I was dreaming.
But when the man in front of me set down the Lantern and reached for the cell door, the metallic clang that followed told me it was real.
‘How?’
While I sat there, unable to grasp what was happening,
Aiden at three in the morning opened the Underground Dungeon door and walked toward me. When he saw the Handcuffs clasped around my wrists, he frowned, then unfastened them without hesitation.
“Did Ifros do this?”
The man’s expression was angrier than I’d ever seen it, and the moment he asked, I pulled his neck into my arms. The tears I’d been holding back spilled over.
I couldn’t even define what emotion it was myself. A tangle of many feelings. Joy, relief, gratitude, shock…….
‘I’m alive now. Aiden came.’
I buried my face in his chest, finally overwhelmed by the liberation I’d been granted.
The man stood frozen for a moment with his arms open, caught off guard, before drawing me close. His embrace was larger and stronger than the grip I’d tightened around him.
Aiden’s large hands wrapped around my back and began to pat gently, slowly. It was like the touch of a mother soothing a child to sleep.
“It’s all right. I’m here.”
He seemed like someone who had comforted many people before. He whispered in a soft tone while holding me tight, stroking my back tenderly.
I collapsed into Aiden’s arms like falling onto a plush bed, trembling and weeping for a long time. Though we were in the cold, dark basement, the mere presence of Aiden at three in the morning made it feel like the safest place in the world.
Soon my crying subsided and my breathing steadied.
Then shame washed over me. How pathetic a figure was I making in front of Aiden?
‘I’m insane!’
I quickly pushed myself up. The movement was so sudden I almost headbutted his jaw, but I turned my face away and wiped my tears as if nothing had happened.
“……How did you know to come?”
It was a question meant to deflect, but Aiden answered graciously, pretending not to notice.
“You told me yesterday. That you’d come see me again today.”
“Tomorrow I’ll find something new and bring it to you.”
I dimly remembered the words I’d spoken yesterday. This man had believed in something even I could barely recall.
“Your words stayed with me. Of course, you might not have come, but it really seemed like you would show up today with something new. But as time passed and you didn’t appear, I took a walk around the Mansion. That’s when—”
Recalling what happened then, Aiden bit his lip tightly. His shock at that moment was transmitted to me.
“Your room light was on. Even as I circled the entire garden. Yet I thought there was no way you wouldn’t come to me.”
“So when you saw that, what did you think happened to me?”
“It seemed odd, and I wanted to see you. I began searching through every corner of the Mansion just to meet you, and to find you here—it’s fortunate I came quickly.”
As he said this, Aiden’s hand brushed the wisps of hair at my temple, tucking them gently behind my ear.
In that moment, I felt the relationship had shifted somehow. The man before me was a celebrated actor who had me as an ardent fan—someone who received passionate devotion. But now it felt as though I was the one being cherished with such profound care.
Then my heart ached in one corner.
‘I should tell him I’m quitting.’
The way Aiden looked at me with such tenderness made the words I was about to speak feel even more painful.
“……Aiden.”
“Yes.”
“I want to quit.”
The lips forming those words felt like they didn’t belong to me.
I watched Aiden’s reaction carefully. The man, who had been frowning with a worried expression, looked at my face and pondered for a moment before nodding.
‘Why does he look relieved?’
He seemed to have grown calm hearing my words. I couldn’t understand his psychology.
“Ifros has… frightened you greatly, it seems.”
“It’s not just because of Ifros.”
I told him everything that had happened so far.
How I’d gone to the Academy for a while and felt there how precious my life outside the Mansion was.
Friedman’s emotions had nearly spiraled into danger. Will locking her in the Underground Dungeon.
Falling into the Lake during a boat ride—she’d nearly drowned.
As Caroline spoke of the dangers that had befallen her at the Mansion, dangers she hadn’t mentioned to Aiden, the man’s face grew increasingly pale. He looked as though it were he himself who had faced those perils, his expression etched with anguish.
“So all this time, you never told me……”
“I thought I might lose myself. I was afraid I’d give up the Game. I tried to hold on, but I can’t anymore. Before you arrived today, I was so, so frightened.”
Aiden’s expression clouded with guilt—as though he’d failed to reach her when she’d needed him most.
“Don’t look like that, Aiden. This isn’t your fault.”
“But……”
“Then hold me again.”
Caroline spread her arms, exaggerating her nonchalance. She felt Aiden reluctantly gather her close, drawing her against his chest.
“This feels strange. I’ve never been held like this at the Mansion before. It’s so… steadying. I can almost feel sleep coming.”
“I wish I’d been able to do this for you sooner.”
“Really?”
Caroline tilted her head up with a playful expression.
She’d expected Aiden to smile back in jest, but instead he offered only a faint smile before lifting his hand to gently brush her cheek.
In that moment, Caroline became acutely aware of how close their faces had drawn—so near that a kiss would be entirely possible.
As she stared at him in a daze, Aiden seemed to register the fact as well. Beneath those luminous green eyes, his aristocratic features began to flush.
It was time to change the subject, quickly.
“……Um, right. Tell me how to leave. Since it’s you giving the Mission now, not the System, I can’t just walk out the way I used to, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
Both of them drew back as though nothing had happened. Yet Caroline couldn’t help but notice that she was still sitting atop Aiden’s firm thighs.
‘There’s nothing I can do.’
If she struggled to stand now, it would only make things more awkward.
“I told you to collect the Diaries and Keys of four Personalities, remember? At the end of the Maze, there are six doors in sequence. Insert the Diary and Key belonging to each Personality into their corresponding door, and it will open. Once you’ve opened the sixth door, you should be able to leave the Mansion.”
Caroline recalled the Blue Iron Door she’d seen today. This must be what Aiden was describing.
“The first door belongs to Friedman. The order of the remaining five is unknown to me. But since they include the doors of your four Personalities, myself, and Aiden, the specific sequence shouldn’t pose a serious problem.”
“You have a door too? But you don’t have a Diary.”
“I have neither Diary nor Key, but I’ll need this instead.”
As Aiden spoke gently, he removed the Ring from his left hand—something Caroline had never even noticed existed until now, so focused had she been on his face.

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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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