A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 49

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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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Chapter 49.
“No. It doesn’t have to be dead.”
Could I offer something living instead?
But what would be suitable?
‘Should I go myself?’
Yet the space wasn’t conducive to that.
Even if I wanted to place a small animal there, I’d have to venture into the Garden to find one.
A bird, a mouse…….
‘Catching one would be its own ordeal.’
Caroline rested her chin in her palm, lost in thought.
The game wouldn’t have posed such a riddle just to demand she do something like that.
The heart of it lay in solving the riddle itself.
Just as she’d brought a lamp to a riddle whose answer was light—the answer didn’t need to be the literal word itself.
‘Is there something that looks like a heart?’
A heart-shaped Brooch, for instance.
A Jewel cut into a heart shape.
‘A Jewel?’
Caroline turned to look behind her.
Michelle Dearbelle’s room was right there.
‘The problem is, I don’t have the Key.’
Did that mean failure from here on?
It shouldn’t be.
When she’d received the Key to Michelle’s room, it wasn’t something that could fit into her bag.
That meant there would be no need for it at an unexpected time.
‘It has to be in one of these rooms.’
She would be able to find it.
‘Let me try Ifros’s room first.’
It was intuition.
Missions had unfolded in Will’s room, Friedman’s room, and James’s room alike.
But Ifros’s room had been different.
That’s why Caroline suspected there was something inside it.
“There’s really nothing here.”
And in truth, the yellow room she’d entered—Ifros’s room—held almost nothing.
True to his character as a desolate world and a mechanical man, he possessed almost nothing.
The wardrobe contained only standard clothes, and the drawers were bare.
The vanity’s surface was also empty.
Opening the left drawer revealed only Mascara and Lip Gloss.
The right drawer was…….
“What is all this?”
It contained a dusty heap of miscellaneous items.
A small Spanner.
Nails, Screws.
A Driver, Nippers…….
Coins and Nuts.
“Leaves, Pine Cones……? An Acorn?”
Caroline’s hand stilled.
An Acorn.
“What Sylvia Left Behind” is set in a time when the desolation of nature has caused countless to starve, classes have divided, and plunder between people has become frequent.
Following the traces of their mother Sylvia, Isaha and Ifros embark on a journey.
Meeting countless people along the way, they discover the truth about a plant capable of restoring the earth’s natural power.
The Healing Oak.
From the moment its seed is planted, it absorbs and filters the earth’s contamination; and as it grows into a tree, it possesses the power to detoxify all manner of pollutants.
Yet it has gone extinct, leaving no trace behind.
‘In the depths of that despair, Ifros confesses.’
That the seed of that oak—an Acorn—seems to dwell within his own chest.
It was the fuel that made him function.
Something that Isaha’s mother Sylvia had placed in the hollow space of his chest.
Now only a few remained, suggesting that even he had a lifespan.
The world’s last hope—the final seed to save a poisoned earth—rested not in the body of something born from that land, but in his.
And because of that, Isaha began to see Ifros, for the first time, as a living being.
‘Heart.’
Caroline picked up the Acorn.
Ifros, surrendering the very thread of his existence to Isaha, fell still.
It was his life.
The source that kept him alive.
“This is it.”
Caroline lifted the dust-covered Acorn.
She didn’t bother searching further. If not this, then here was the boundary of her understanding.
This was all her mind could arrive at.
And so she placed it upon the final Engraving.
[Proceed with verification?]
“Yes.”
Without hesitation, she closed the wardrobe door.
Click.
Eyes squeezed shut, she drew a deep breath.
When she opened the door again, Caroline found a keyhole where the Engraving had been.
In that instant, as if waiting for her cue, the bag trembled.
“This must be the last thing I need.”
The beautiful silver Key with its fine Relief—the one young Aiden had given her.
“So it was this.”
He had left her a path to reach the Aiden he was now.
Caroline drew the final Key from her bag.
It slipped into the keyhole with perfect smoothness, and turned lightly without any force needed.
Click.
The clothes hanging in James’s wardrobe parted to either side.
The back panel that had been the wardrobe’s rear now opened as a door.
‘This is Aiden’s room.’
What lay inside?
With her heart quickening, Caroline carefully climbed atop the wardrobe.
But beyond the open door lay impenetrable darkness.
As she hesitated, anxiety crawling through her, the bag trembled again.
‘What?’
Yarn, a Red Book, a Mint Candy Tin, a bell, a Lantern, a Hand Mirror, an Acorn.
The three objects she’d just submitted to the Engraving had reappeared in her bag.
‘Incredibly useful.’
Caroline seized the Lantern.
And threw herself into the unknown space.
The moment she entered, her first thought was how impossibly cramped it was.
She’d stepped through where the room’s width should be, but the depth was so narrow that the space resembled a cell. Furniture was crammed against the walls in suffocating layers.
The far end of the table mounted on the right wall overlapped the bed against the left wall, while the vanity on the left was wedged against the bookshelf on the right.
Could this really be a habitable room?
That was when.
As Caroline swept the Lantern’s light around, she noticed a Lever protruding beside the wardrobe door through which she’d entered.
‘What is this?’
Overcome by curiosity, she pulled.
Clank!
A tremendous grinding sound erupted as massive gears turned, and light flooded the room.
Then the entire room began to move.
‘Oh!’
Caroline staggered, fighting to keep her balance.
The room’s depth was expanding.
The floor split down the middle, and space opened between the furniture that had been pressed so tightly together.
The deafening sound that might have woken sleeping residents below finally ceased.
Caroline surveyed the room more clearly now.
It was somewhat larger than the other characters’ rooms she’d seen, and the furnishings were finer. The bed was broader, the vanity more delicate.
Two tall bookshelves stood side by side, both lined entirely with scripts and books on acting.
Original novels, and…… countless letters that looked like fan mail.
“Of course.”
Caroline nodded knowingly and turned her attention elsewhere.
Beside the vanity stood a separate desk and chair.
And beside it was a display cabinet that seemed to hold various items he used frequently.
“Hmm?”
Without warning, the bag jostled again.
Caroline narrowed her eyes and stepped toward the display case.
It was maintained so meticulously that her reflection appeared in the glass, and two items caught her attention inside.
“This?”
Caroline opened the display case and lifted out a glass bottle filled with Green Liquid.
She placed the oddly familiar substance in her bag, and what remained was a pair of Glasses.
‘They don’t seem to be props.’
Were they personal treasures?
She didn’t understand why she was meant to take them, but Caroline tilted her head uncertainly and added them to the bag as well.
Only then did the bag settle into silence.
Caroline turned her attention back to Aiden’s desk.
A Fountain Pen, Gold Ink.
A small Notebook and documents related to the Mansion.
And…….
A thick journal bound in black velvet.
It matched the Red Book inside her bag.
‘The red one is Will’s, the blue is Friedman’s, the green is James’s, the yellow is Ifros’s.’
The black one must be Aiden’s.

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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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