A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 57

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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 57.
Caroline’s eyes opened as she stirred awake.
No servant had come to rouse her, yet she’d woken early regardless.
Rubbing her unusually stiff limbs as she sat up, memories of yesterday flickered across her mind in quick succession.
A Mission wagered with her final two Hearts.
A statue, a mirror, a wardrobe—and beyond them all, Aiden’s Room spread out before her.
‘That’s right.’
Caroline shifted her gaze to her desk. Aiden’s Black Velvet Diary lay open where she’d left it yesterday.
“All of that really happened yesterday.”
Caroline pressed her bag, feeling its contents through the fabric.
A Lamp, a Mirror, an Acorn. And the Green Glass Bottle and Spectacles she’d taken from Aiden’s display case stood out against the rest.
Caroline reached out to touch the Green Glass Bottle.
[A vegetable juice for good health.]
‘Hm?’
[But someone will believe this to be a sleeping draught.]
“And who would that someone be?”
If a person believed it was a sleeping draught, could it then act as one for them?
Next, Caroline reached for the Spectacles.
[Spectacles belonging to Michelle Darvel.]
“Hm?”
[The wearer will be mistaken for Michelle Belota Darvel. However, be warned that this does not work on certain individuals, including 3 AM Aiden.]
This was quite useful.
Though she didn’t know the full extent of who these ‘certain individuals’ included, being able to evade the servants’ watchful eyes would certainly prove valuable.
“But wait—”
Still, if she went about impersonating a dead woman, that would create its own set of problems.
Caroline squinted at the item whose purpose remained unclear and shut her bag.
‘It said “including 3 AM Aiden,” didn’t it.’
[As a reward, you are given 3 AM Aiden.]
3 AM Aiden—could that be another personality of Aiden’s?
Though being offered as a reward made it sound like an object, 3 AM Aiden was almost certainly a person—unless it was some unique term for an item, which seemed unlikely.
The one thing she could be certain of was that nothing had changed since the System announced this reward last night.
As Caroline took her breakfast, she observed the Aiden before her closely—the same as ever.
‘If it says 3 AM Aiden, then maybe the reward is given at 3 AM?’
Did that mean she’d have to stay awake until then to meet him?
Lost in thought, Caroline’s mind cleared the instant her eyes met Aiden’s during the meal.
“!”
Memories of last night came flooding back.
The man who had darkened his lashes with mascara and glossed his lips until they gleamed, making them impossibly soft.
His dependent demeanor toward the woman he’d thought was Isaha.
And, in the end, that kiss.
‘I’m insane!’
Caroline felt her face ignite as she quickly dropped her gaze.
‘Get a hold of yourself.’
Though complete composure seemed impossible—she’d kissed his cheek when she entered his room with his diary last night, after all.
Caroline forced her mind to turn elsewhere.
In any case, this was breakfast time now.
She had three question opportunities.
‘What should I be doing?’
She needed to think about what information she ought to be gathering.
The System had only offered her a reward; it hadn’t given her a new Mission.
‘Why is that?’
There were two possibilities.
First, she finds it herself.
Second, she receives it from 3 AM Aiden—most likely another personality of Aiden’s.
If it was the latter, she could find out at 3 AM tonight. If it was the former, then—
‘What could there be?’
Caroline turned her thoughts to what else she ought to be doing in this situation.
Information about Aiden could be found through his Black Velvet Diary, discovered in his room. She had also obtained Will’s Red Velvet Diary from his room at dawn, though she couldn’t open it yet since she didn’t have the matching Key.
Will’s name had been written on its cover.
‘That’s right—the diaries.’
And yesterday, Caroline had been able to deduce, from the rooms on the Third Floor where each character corresponded to a specific wallpaper color, that the same color diary might exist among the other characters as well.
Red belonged to Will, blue to Friedman, yellow to Ifros, and green to James.
‘The diaries fit inside bags, and they were locked.’
Which meant they held some significance for Caroline.
‘Then let’s focus on the diaries. What sort of things do people typically write in them?’
Caroline carefully steered the conversation, taking care not to bring up the red triangle.
“Um, Aiden.”
“Yes, Miss Caroline.”
“I was writing in my diary yesterday and realized I’ve already been here for a week.”
“Oh, you’ve been keeping a diary? Yes, it’s been a week since we welcomed you. How have you found it so far?”
“It’s been enjoyable. I’ve particularly enjoyed our tea time together.”
That was the truth.
Despite the cursed game making it somewhat painful, the time with Aiden had been genuinely pleasant.
“So my diary entries have become quite lengthy. But do you keep a diary as well, Aiden?”
“A diary?”
Fortunately, no alert appeared.
“Yes, though not every day. I’ve written in diaries in various ways over the years. Though I scarcely do anymore.”
Aiden set down his fork and knife, lost in thought.
“Did you typically write about Acting?”
She was using her second question.
Caroline waited for a meaningful answer to surface.
“Yes, I did. That’s why I kept separate diaries for each character. I primarily wrote performance feedback in them, but when I was playing two or more roles simultaneously, it became somewhat confusing.”
“Ah, so during seasons when you were portraying a specific character, you used that character’s diary.”
“Exactly.”
“But how wonderfully professional of you, writing about your craft like that! I usually just jot down what I felt, what I enjoyed, what I ate—that sort of thing.”
She wanted to hear more detail.
Caroline guided him toward elaboration without exhausting her questions.
“I think that’s faithful to the true purpose of a diary.”
At that moment, Aiden offered a bitter smile.
“I only reflected on my day for the sake of performance feedback. I’ve been educated that way since childhood.”
Caroline didn’t ask who had educated him.
‘It must have been Michelle.’
“So you only wrote feedback about things like dialogue pacing, emotional immersion—that sort of thing? ‘Today, I regretted this aspect…’?”
“Ah, it wasn’t limited to just those elements.”
Caroline leaned forward attentively.
“Those were there, but I also wrote down the personal emotions I felt while performing—what I was thinking as I acted, what experiences I recalled to embody the character.”
And what aspects allowed me to immerse myself in the character.
At the continuation of his sentence, Caroline’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
She had exhausted her questions, but it seemed she had obtained a reasonably meaningful answer.
Aiden’s dissociative identity disorder had arisen because he had immersed himself excessively in acting and identified with his roles.
The diary seemed to be a window into the process of how he had become so deeply drawn to performance.
‘I need to ask how to open them.’
She also needed to find out where the Key was.
“Do you often revisit those entries and reflect on your emotions from that time?”
Please answer.
“Ah, that is…”
Aiden’s words trailed away.
His eyes rolled awkwardly, and his expression grew troubled before he laughed sheepishly.
“I actually don’t know where the diaries for those roles are.”
“You… don’t?”
He wouldn’t know that one of them was in Caroline’s bag.
Caroline nodded as if utterly oblivious.
“I put a sort of locking mechanism on each diary to avoid confusing the roles. They require a Key, but… I don’t know where those are either. I think I carried them with me whenever I performed those roles, but…”
There was nothing more to be gained from this line of questioning.

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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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