A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 47

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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 47
“!”
Caroline’s hands trembled.
[Congratulations, Caroline. You have passed the first stage. Please proceed to Will’s Room to collect your reward.]
“Will’s Room?”
Following the system’s instruction, she moved to the first room—Will’s Room—and a new window materialized before her eyes.
[Will, the clown and host, is quite adept at posing riddles. Caroline, would you care to check the top of the dressing table?]
Upon hearing this, she found a small paper note resting on the dressing table.
When she unfolded it, the message written in bold red letters read as follows:

‘A riddle.’
[You will be given three riddles, Caroline. You must solve each one and bring back items that serve as the answers. Once you have solved all three correctly, the mission will be deemed complete.]
[Now then, Caroline. I shall present you with your second mission in order to obtain the second riddle. Will you accept?]
“Yes, please.”
[Open Will’s Wardrobe.]
‘The wardrobe again?’
The moment she heard the system’s instruction and opened the door—
“Eek!”
A shriek escaped Caroline’s lips.
She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, and with her other hand pressed to her chest, she looked again to confirm what she’d seen: a mannequin.
A featureless mannequin head with eyes, nose, and mouth—neither male nor female.
‘What is this?’
[The character of Will, played by Aiden, inhabits a story that demands supple physical control as he shifts between clown, host, and murderer. But there is something even more important than that.]
[It is the face.]
Caroline let out a sigh as she anticipated what the mission would entail.
[A clown’s gleeful visage emerging from darkness. Makeup of colors and shapes that transcend the human.]
[Using the items on the dressing table, recreate Will’s makeup on the mannequin exactly as it appears. You have five minutes.]
[Complete the makeup within five minutes, then place the hat and wig from the wardrobe on its head.]
[5:00]
[4:59]
The timer began its merciless countdown, accompanied by an impossibly vague explanation.
Caroline felt her head spinning.
‘This damned game!’
There was no time to complain.
Unlike rearranging coat hangers, five minutes was woefully short for makeup work.
Caroline rushed forward and set the mannequin on the dressing table.
Then she irritably yanked open both drawers.
“I can barely do my own makeup!”
For someone without a shred of artistic talent, this was hopeless.
‘But I have to try.’
Caroline bit her lip hard and searched for white pigment.
The first step was to paint the entire face white.
In the left drawer lay puffs meant for applying pigment with dabbing motions.
In the right drawer sat a palette with ten different hues.
Caroline dipped a puff into the white pigment and began pressing it frantically against the mannequin’s face.
In moments, the face had turned a pristine white.
Her hand was so heavy-handed that the mannequin seemed to blink occasionally mid-dabbing, though that was surely just her imagination.
Next, Caroline picked up the palette with trembling fingers.
“A brush!”
Tweezers, countless puffs, square brushes, drop brushes—an array of tools scattered across the left drawer as she rummaged.
After digging frantically, she found a suitable brush and dipped it into black pigment.
Around Will’s eyes was an oval of black pigment.
And…
“Ah!”
Caroline barely stopped her hand.
The black pigment formed ovals, and beyond them, large stars in sky blue and orange adorned either side of his eyes.
To accomplish that, she would need to paint the stars first.
‘This is driving me insane!’
Stars—the difficulty was far beyond her skill.
Perfectly precise stars drawn with unwavering straight lines.
‘What should I use?’
Caroline picked up a short, broad flat brush and reached for the sky-blue paint.
‘Oh no!’
One problem after another.
There was no sky-blue paint.
[4:00]
Checking the time, Caroline gritted her teeth and began mixing white and blue.
‘Lighter.’
‘Too murky!’
‘A bit more blue.’
As she finally mixed the color and began to apply it, her hand trembled so badly she couldn’t paint the star properly.
With a feeling like she might cry, Caroline finished the rather plain star and rinsed her brush in water.
Since she’d already done it once, the orange star came relatively easily.
[3:00]
“And…….”
Next came the lips.
She had to draw them large enough to cover the entire mouth, yet sharp enough that the corners extended all the way to the cheekbones.
Without needing to mix anything, Caroline painted with the bright red and found herself lost in thought.
‘How closely does it have to match?’
Did it need to be exactly the same as Aiden’s makeup?
‘Would a slightly different shape be acceptable if the meaning came through?’
She’d never realized makeup art could be this difficult.
That something requiring only five minutes could be this challenging.
‘During the performance, Aiden wiped it off and reapplied so quickly that I never really saw it properly.’
Since Will the clown and Will the host appeared alternately, he must have done it multiple times.
‘So the Will I saw back then—that was Aiden doing it himself.’
Did he sit at this very dressing table and do his makeup directly?
[Two minutes remaining.]
“Ah!”
There was no time for distractions.
Caroline let out a small cry and used the end of a cotton swab to sharpen the corners of the mouth.
“And…….”
She dipped a ball-tipped brush into the sky-blue and orange she’d mixed earlier, then dabbed small dots of color below the stars.
Will had reversed the colors of the left and right stars, placing small circular marks beneath his eyes.
Orange, then sky-blue.
“Next…….”
Caroline rummaged through the drawer without even thinking about what came next.
A round red powder container came into view.
And two more similar powder containers rolling around as well.
‘Ah!’
Will had black shading along his cheekbones and jawline, emphasizing his facial structure.
‘These are practically essential tools.’
Caroline picked up a large, fluffy brush and opened the silver circular container.
“Ugh!”
Glittering powder scattered down.
That clearly wasn’t the right one.
She quickly grabbed the white circular container, and inside she found what she was looking for.
She hastily applied shading along the contours with swift strokes.
‘That should be everything!’
[00:30]
Caroline gripped the mannequin’s neck to move it into the wardrobe.
And as she went to lift it—
‘?’
A strange feeling washed over her.
She’d matched every part of Will’s makeup.
Yet something felt off, as though this wasn’t quite him.
‘Is it just because my hand wasn’t steady enough?’
Caroline was seized by a nagging sense of déjà vu.
The mannequin seemed to be staring at her as if insisting she think harder.
‘What else am I missing?’
The moment she raised her eyebrows as if to say, “Well, go on.”
‘Ah!’
Caroline gasped and pressed her fingers to her own brows.
The answer was the eyebrows.
Narrower and more sharply arched than any natural human eyebrows, two black crescents had been drawn across Will’s forehead.
It was that detail which made his expression all the more terrifying.
‘How could I forget that!’
[00:20]
Caroline drew two C-shapes with trembling hands.
[00:10]
She barely managed to preserve the delicate, precise line.
[00:02]
At last, the makeup was complete.
[00:00]
Caroline exhaled the breath she’d been holding.
“This damned game!”
[Well done, Caroline. Now move the mannequin and secure the makeup, then close the wardrobe door.]
Caroline placed the wig and hat — nowhere near as beautiful as Aiden’s golden hair — atop the mannequin’s head.
[Had the makeup not been executed properly, the mannequin would have been in pieces when you opened the wardrobe. Your mission to find Aiden’s room would have failed.]
Caroline imagined the result and shook her head.
‘Brutal.’
[Now, Caroline. Shall we confirm the mission results?]
Her heart fluttered slightly, but Caroline felt no doubt.
She’d seen more times than she could count.
From the second floor to take in the entire play; from the back rows of the first floor as well.
To study Aiden alone, she’d watched from the front-right corner of the first level where he stood most often — more than once.
She couldn’t possibly not know his makeup.
Drawing it exactly was a matter of skill, but nothing more.
So when she opened the wardrobe door.
“?”
Nothing had changed.
The mannequin still wore the face Caroline had painted.

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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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