A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 62

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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 62.
‘Besides…….’
He was already repulsed by how much he’d changed since childhood.
When Regina met him ten years later, she recoiled from what he’d become, pitying him even as she did.
Even as Friedman shouted and committed brutal acts, something inside him was rotting away.
After watching the scene more than ten times, Caroline could finally understand it.
‘So that’s why.’
Caroline blinked rapidly.
‘I don’t know why I feel this way every time I see Friedman.’
Like a wounded animal growing fiercer from pain.
Whenever she watched Friedman behave badly, compassion welled up in her.
So now too, she couldn’t bring herself to speak the next line—she could only stare at him.
“……Those eyes.”
“?”
Caroline had opened her mouth to deliver her next line when she froze. It was clearly her turn next, but Aiden—in Friedman’s form—had cut her off.
‘Why have you changed so much?’
That was the line Regina should have spoken.
But instead, Aiden wearing Friedman’s shape stepped closer, crossing the space between them.
A large hand, calloused and weathered, pointed at Caroline like an accusation.
“You pity me.”
“!”
Caroline swallowed hard.
Though the line had been cut short, no Triangle Warning appeared.
That meant her deviation from the original scene was itself in character.
It meant she hadn’t broken Aiden’s immersion in the Acting.
“Ah, I mean, I—”
“Why? Didn’t you know I was living like this?”
Friedman’s voice sharpened with agitation as he closed the distance.
The gap narrowed until their shoe tips nearly touched.
Caroline’s eyes fell, and she took a step back.
The space between her slipper and his shoe, which had just widened, shrank again to a fingernail’s width.
“?”
Another step backward.
But Friedman pressed forward again, toe to toe.
As he repeated the movement, she felt the hard wall of the set press against her back.
Caroline felt the man blocking out all light, casting her in shadow, and caught the rich fragrance that poured from him.
Rose and oyster—elegant, androgynous, layered with depth.
‘Unusually strong.’
Will carried the faint powder of stage makeup; Ephros, the light fruity notes of lip gloss.
She knew Aiden adjusted his scent to match each Character State, but Friedman’s was distinctly more intense.
There was reason for it.
‘Friedman’s fragrance had been released as merchandise perfume.’
“What right do you have to pity me? What makes you better than me?”
“It’s not like that.”
The timing of her response was wrong.
Friedman’s eyes grew colder, more venomous, as he stared down at Caroline.
It was suffocating. Even when James looked at her with defiance, his gaze had never been this sharp.
The man who always spoke with grace, who carried himself with calm composure—where had Aiden gone?
In his place stood someone terrifying enough to tremble, staring at Caroline as though he might strike her down the next moment.
“A fugitive dares to pity me.”
“I said it’s not like that.”
[▲]
‘Why?’
Caroline stared at the Triangle Warning that had appeared before her eyes.
The Acting was flowing according to character. So why had a Triangle Warning emerged?
‘Because I didn’t follow the script?’
Caroline clenched her eyes shut and searched through her own mind.
She had to deliver the next line.
“No. I need your help to survive here. I’m in a position where I need your assistance—how could I possibly pity you, Friedman?”
Her voice trembled with urgency.
But Friedman kept his eyes wide open, staring intently at Caroline’s face.
‘Ah.’
She was caught.
Caroline realized from her own expression that he had glimpsed not Regina’s thoughts, but her own.
Not Regina’s pity and compassion—hers. And now it was visible to Friedman standing right before her.
‘What do I do.’
She wasn’t an actress.
Immersing herself in Regina, acting like her—it was nearly impossible. And now the limits of that performance had been exposed to Friedman for the first time.
‘This is dangerous.’
In the narrowing space between them, Caroline instinctively sensed the threat.
The moment she pushed back the man’s approaching shoulder and raised her hand, her wrist was seized immediately.
“Ugh!”
His grip was devastating.
A force that made her wince.
[▲▲]
And two triangles appeared before her eyes.
Caroline thought she understood why.
What she needed to do for Aiden in his Character State was to keep time with his prepared performance—to follow his lines, not to break from them and drown in emotion.
His state had grown far too aggressive, veering away from the actual flow of the scene.
The red triangles that appeared were genuinely a warning about Caroline’s safety.
‘What should I do?’
Her breath came in gasps.
The memory flashed back to the day she learned this world was a Game—a Player with Friedman’s hands around her throat.
If one more triangle appeared, Caroline would have only a single Heart left.
‘What happens then?’
One Heart remaining meant only one chance left.
And if that Heart disappeared,
‘I won’t be able to play the Game anymore.’
No more chances. None.
[▲▲]
Caroline looked again at the triangles floating in the upper right of her vision.
She needed to calm Friedman down and move the scene forward. The man before her was far too agitated, transformed into violence.
Her wrist, gripped so tightly, throbbed as if it might break.
“……It hurts.”
“!”
At the soft whimper from Caroline, Friedman flinched and took a step back.
But that was all.
He remained angry, still pinning her menacingly against the wall.
Then it happened.
‘?’
Caroline noticed her Bag at the lower edge of her vision trembling again.
‘What is it?’
She pressed the Bag with her free wrist, and its contents came into view.
‘Please. Please. Anything…….’
A book, a Key, a Light, an Acorn, a Mirror, a Green Potion and Glasses, and…….
A Peppermint Candy.
The cheapest snack Regina and Friedman could afford as children. That thing they’d eaten countless times back then—the item that runs through the entire scene.
‘Ah.’
Caroline pulled the Peppermint Candy from her Bag.
And in the moment Friedman’s grip weakened, she shoved him back. Quickly pressing the tube that had emerged like a slide, the flat, oval Peppermint Candy shot out from the green container.
“?”
Friedman’s brow twitched as he saw the object laden with memory.
Caroline swiftly pushed the Peppermint Candy into the man’s mouth.
“!”
The man started to protest, but hastily sealed his mouth shut so the candy wouldn’t fall out.
‘Now!’
How did it feel, tasting again after so long that Peppermint Candy you used to share with Regina as a child?
In the moment of his bewilderment, Caroline shoved him away swiftly.
“Wait—”
And with all her strength, she ran and entered her room on the opposite side.
Bang!
She shut the door and checked the lock before collapsing onto the carpet.
‘Thank God.’
The Triangle Warning had vanished.
Feeding candy to an enraged man was such an absurd act that even she found it shocking—but apparently it had lowered the danger rating.
‘At least I didn’t actually upset the character Friedman.’
Caroline pressed a hand to her chest and took a deep breath.
She tried to stand, but her legs gave way and she crumpled back down.
‘My legs won’t hold me.’
More than a week she’d spent with Aiden.
She’d been a fan for so long that she’d seen plenty of his Acting, and she’d watched enough of his ordinary moments to feel familiar with him.
But seeing Friedman in front of her with an air far more sinister than any stage character—that terrified her. A tall man with broad shoulders raising his voice: there was nothing strange about her fear.
‘A frightening Aiden. I’m not used to that.’
Now, having met that look he showed to others on stage through her own Character State and dialogue, something felt odd about it.
‘All right. Let me organize my thoughts.’
Caroline pushed herself up with effort and moved to her desk.
She opened her notebook where she’d written down everything she’d learned so far, and added what she’d discovered today.
‘If I become too absorbed in a Character State and the situation doesn’t progress, I can lose a Heart.’
At the same time,
‘If a Character State becomes too intense and I end up in actual danger, I can lose a Heart.’
Just like that fair-haired Player who’d had her throat pinned by Friedman.

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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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