A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 43

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 43.
Caroline could see Aiden’s eyebrows rise, his expression tightening with tension.
“Why do you suddenly want to know that?”
“Well, since it’s a room I’ll never have reason to enter anyway, I was curious what it’s for.”
The answer seemed adequate enough — the red triangle didn’t increase.
…….
Aiden dabbed his mouth with the napkin and spoke.
“It’s my room.”
‘What?’
“My mother’s room and mine, along with the Mansion owner’s — they’re all locked.”
“I see. Where is it located?”
Curiosity about that place she’d never glimpsed made her words tumble out faster than she’d intended.
The moment the question left her lips, she didn’t realize another red triangle was being added.
[▲▲]
If even one more triangle appeared now, she’d lose a Heart.
Then only one would remain.
Caroline swallowed hard.
“You needn’t worry. There’s no reason for you to ever go there, even by accident.”
Aiden’s usually gentle tone had turned defensive.
An indirect refusal dressed as an answer to her question.
Caroline sensed that if she pressed further, the triangles would only multiply.
“Ah, I understand.”
Besides, the second question wasn’t particularly crucial anyway.
Aiden would go in and out of his room on his own.
All Caroline needed was to catch the right moment when he entered.
‘Both sleeping and his character costume work — he probably does both in that room.’
Yet despite her acquiescence, the two red triangles refused to vanish.
“But why were you curious about that in the first place?”
It was clear that Aiden continued to harbor suspicions about her.
‘How do I get out of this?’
As Caroline pondered, an answer came to her.
‘Ah.’
Turn the tables and attack instead.
“Say, did your conversation with that guest earlier go well? It was a shame we couldn’t finish tea time.”
As she redirected the topic, she guided him toward feeling guilt.
After speaking, Caroline quickly studied his expression.
She watched it gradually soften.
And…….
[▲]
[ ]
The triangles vanished.
“I apologize, Caroline. I’m afraid I showed our guest an unpleasant side of myself. As you were concerned, that matter has been resolved well.”
‘Resolved well, my foot.’
Caroline already knew the answer.
She had seen it while holding the key the young Aiden had given her, gazing out the window.
The old gentleman’s automobile pulling away from the Mansion.
But she saw no servants loading luggage behind the car.
Which meant Aiden had ultimately lost.
He’d accepted the inheritance from a man he refused to acknowledge as his father — his heart must be utterly shattered.
‘It must be hard.’
He was only a character who didn’t even remember his conversation with her.
Yet as Caroline redirected the subject by playing on his guilt, a bitter feeling crept into her chest.
* * *
After finishing her meal quickly, Caroline rose before Aiden.
She stepped outside to the Garden under the pretense of taking a stroll, peering through the First Floor windows from beyond.
Aiden finished his meal.
The moment she saw him rise from his seat, she too entered the Mansion again, walking deliberately slowly.
‘If I followed Aiden right after eating, it would look suspicious.’
She moved naturally, keeping a subtle distance between them.
First, Aiden left the Dining Room and climbed the stairs toward the Second Floor.
‘Is the room not on the First Floor?’
The First Floor was the largest space, but it was unlikely to have personal quarters.
Caroline nodded and followed him.
Only after the sound of Aiden ascending the Second Floor stairs faded did she follow him up.
Aiden began climbing the stairs toward the Third Floor again.
‘Not the Second Floor either?’
The Second Floor had guest rooms, so the odds of his chamber being there were slim.
Caroline lingered on the Second Floor, pretending to look for a room, and waited.
Finally, when she no longer heard footsteps climbing the stairs.
‘Now’s the time.’
Caroline hurried up the stairs.
‘But where on the Third Floor could Aiden’s room possibly be?’
The thought had occurred to her while climbing, but she’d arrived on the Third Floor regardless.
She wanted to see which door he disappeared into——.
‘There’s no sound.’
Nothing was visible in this space.
‘Where did Aiden go?’
Caroline looked toward Michelle’s room on the western side.
The lock was still fastened in place.
That meant Aiden hadn’t entered there.
‘Then here?’
Caroline moved toward the western section of the Third Floor.
The place where she had first encountered Aiden doing his Will Acting since arriving here.
Caroline stopped before those four rooms arranged in a row, like the interior of a cruise ship.
‘This is Aiden’s room?’
It didn’t seem like it.
None of them were locked.
From what Caroline remembered, the very first room’s door had simply been open.
The remaining rooms without locks would be the same.
‘Aiden must be inside one of these.’
Caroline decided to crack open each door slightly and look inside.
Since she wasn’t touching a forbidden room, even if Aiden noticed her, nothing serious would come of it.
So Caroline opened the first door.
‘?’
The space she’d seen on the first day.
There was no one inside.
‘This isn’t it?’
Caroline closed the door, stepped back, and opened the next one.
‘?’
No one here either.
What stood out was that this room was decorated somewhat differently from the previous one.
‘The wallpaper is green.’
Caroline unhesitatingly closed the door and opened the third one.
‘……?’
A chill crept down the back of her neck.
Aiden wasn’t here either, despite the blue wallpaper adorning the space.
‘Then?’
Caroline grasped the handle of the fourth door with trembling hands for reasons she couldn’t explain.
She’d already exhausted the unlocked rooms, so she should have found his chamber by now.
Yet she felt an odd sense of dislocation.
And when Caroline opened the door.
Aiden wasn’t in there either.
He had come up to the Third Floor and simply vanished.
He’d clearly climbed these stairs.
So where had he gone?
‘Could it be……?’
Caroline looked back toward Michelle’s room once more.
The executor of Count Roman’s Inheritance who had arrived today.
Because of him, had she begun to think of her mother, who had desperately wanted the Count?
‘Is he in there?’
But the lock was engaged.
Caroline opened the four doors in succession, checking each one again.
She stepped inside and examined the beds and bathrooms, but found no one.
‘This is starting to feel unsettling.’
Where on earth had he vanished to?
She continued searching and even waited a while, but Caroline found no trace of Aiden.
‘If I keep wandering around like this, I’ll only look suspicious.’
She resolved instead to search for him after midnight.
Caroline returned to her room.
‘I should sketch out the layout.’
Caroline picked up her notebook again.
She wanted to locate where Aiden’s room might be.
The Mansion was D-shaped in structure, spanning three floors total.
The First Floor contained a lounge, a recreation room, and a space modeled after the stage from .
There was also a room modeled after .
Since there was no mission attached, she hadn’t explored it yet.
‘I should go check that one too. There might be books there like Will’s.’
And there might be another Key as well.
“Next, the Second Floor.”
The Second Floor had a study modeled after Robeliane’s from ,
and a preparation room modeled after Will’s—the place where she had once been saved by Aiden.
The Third Floor contained Michelle’s room and four other rooms with different wallpaper.
‘What were those for?’
They weren’t used as guest rooms.
Narrow spaces with only a bed and a small wardrobe, plus a bathroom.
A space optimized for efficiency alone isn’t the sort of quality you’d offer a guest.
It looked designed solely for the purpose of sleep.
‘Was it just the wallpaper that was different?’
Caroline narrowed her eyes and traced back through her memories.
She’d only confirmed whether Aiden was present or not, without noting the details.
But…
‘The feel of the space was different. It wasn’t just the color.’
Think about it.
On the first day, Will had used the first guest room.
That room’s wallpaper was red.
The same red as the books she’d brought down from the Second Floor.
‘Ah!’