A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 65

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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 65.
“So until now, I haven’t had much to do. I clean up after the Character State version of Aiden makes his mess, wash off my makeup, and go to bed in my room.”
“Clean up after him? What do you mean?”
“Usually I tidy up whatever room the Character State version of Aiden has torn apart. The set pieces Friedman’s wrecked, the spots where Will got carried away with paint. Things like that.”
“I see.”
He was truly a man who simply finished out his days.
“My routine was always the same. But now that Caroline has found me, I can do other things too. You see, I’m her assistant.”
“Her assistant?”
Caroline’s face lit up. It was clear that his role was to help her.
It had been less than fifteen minutes, yet in his presence she’d felt an odd sense of calm and reassurance. Was it coming from his role?
‘It feels different.’
Among Aiden the conquest target and the servants, the loneliness she’d carried suddenly felt pierced by light.
“Yes. In other words, I’m an NPC. Not a conquest target for the Player, but someone who plays a passive, supportive role—giving advice, providing necessary items, that sort of thing.”
“So you’re helping me now? Or have you been helping me all along, little by little?”
But Caroline grasped the answer before Aiden could speak.
“You’re the one who hid the key on the Yacht.”
Aiden confirmed it with his eyes.
“And you gave me the Original Rules Document?”
Rather than voice his accomplishments, he answered by taking a long drink of Honey Tea, looking almost embarrassed. Caroline realized that all the ambiguous kindnesses she’d received so far had come from him.
“And clumsily hanging charms on the Necklace to mark the numbers—that was you too.”
“Was it very clumsy?”
The man’s ears had flushed crimson.
“It was still pretty, so it’s fine. Oh, but—”
Something came to mind.
<Leave here quickly. Don’t worry about anything.>
The Note she’d found along with the Key on the Yacht.
“Why did you tell me to leave?”
The man seemed to consider what to say.
Caroline waited quietly, lifting her teacup, and then he spoke.
“Strictly speaking, I have two roles. First, to help the Player clear their Quest.”
Giving her the Key fell under that.
Caroline nodded.
“Second, to look after the Player’s wellbeing.”
Wellbeing?
Caroline tilted her head, caught off guard by the word.
“I help the Player navigate the game, but if the risk becomes too great, it’s my role to stop them. For instance, when the Heart cost to Players is too high compared to the reward.”
“Ah.”
“Of course, since these events at Aiden’s Mansion aren’t the main factors of the game, most Players choose to give up rather than push themselves.”
“But Aiden… you do nothing but things for other people.”
Caroline spoke with a slight stiffness in her expression, tinged with pity.
He woke at three in the morning with no free time, cleaning up after the Character State personalities’ messes, then sleeping so the daytime Aiden could exist.
And on top of that, he helped the Player and worried about their safety. He moved for others alone.
“And during the time you’re awake, no one even notices you exist. Not a single person has beaten a Quest to come meet you until now, have they?”
“No. You’re the first, Caroline.”
“…That must have been lonely.”
At Caroline’s bitter words, the man’s expression flooded with shock.
His eyes widened as if he’d been hit with paint, and his body went rigid along with his face. Then he blinked several times and offered an awkward smile.
“…Yes. I suppose it was.”
“I was so lonely in this Mansion. The daytime Aiden is just a conquest target, the servants are mechanical, there’s no one but me, and the people I love outside have no idea what I’m doing. I can’t even tell them.”
Caroline drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them.
It was relatively improper behavior, but with Aiden it somehow felt permissible. Not because he was easy on her—because he seemed the type to gently allow anything, to embrace it all.
“So you must have been lonely even longer and more deeply than me. Being an NPC seems terribly harsh.”
“…But now that I’ve met you like this, I’m fine.”
“What do you mean?”
At the man’s calm declaration that meeting her was enough, Caroline’s cheeks burned scarlet.
He speaks such embarrassing words without difficulty. Is that what being an NPC means?
She narrowed her eyes in reproach, her expression pleading for him to stop teasing, but Aiden met her gaze steadily without changing his expression. A face insisting he wasn’t lying.
What was it? Simply having a companion so kind by her side felt like it.
Caroline felt her body twist with an odd sensation and looked away first. Then, changing the subject as if deflecting, she spoke again.
“Anyway, the point is, I’m not giving up. We were alone, and now we’ve found each other.”
Aiden smiled quietly.
“I understand your heart. But Caroline is different from other players. That’s why I haven’t done this with the others, but I must give an explanation that applies only to Caroline.”
“An explanation?”
“An explanation about your life.”
Life. The weighty word made Caroline’s brow furrow.
“Caroline, the people who participate in this game are not people of this world. For them, coming and going from this place is as easy as watching a play and leaving.”
She knew that already.
Caroline nodded.
“So even if you die here, even if you exhaust all your hearts, it’s fine. You can start over later. But not for you.”
“!”
“You are a person of this world. You cannot come and go from here as you please. So if you exhaust all three hearts―”
“I die?”
Aiden didn’t answer Caroline’s question immediately.
Nor did Caroline press him further.
‘I never expected that.’
“This is my world. No matter how much of an extra I am, no matter how much I’m merely a creature given a role, my love for this place doesn’t change. Don’t destroy the ground where I live.”
She remembered how boldly she’d said that.
Yes, this was Caroline’s world.
A world where she couldn’t come and go as she pleased.
And so it made sense that acquiring the status of a player didn’t simply mean failing in the game, but something far graver.
“For you, this place has become more than just a space for a game. The system knew that, yet encouraged you to become a player for the sake of your love for Aiden.”
……
“So just as I proposed better choices to the other players, or rather―because it’s all the more necessary for you―I would like to propose once more that you quit the game.”
“Quit?”
She was bewildered.
She had never considered quitting the game. She hadn’t even known it was possible.
“Is that possible?”
“Strictly speaking, it’s possible because I haven’t presented you with the next mission. If you accept the next mission I present and play through it, then from now on, it won’t be the system that guides your game―it will be me. The only way for you to freely quit the game is while the system is still guiding it.”
“How do I quit?”
When Caroline asked, Aiden’s expression grew odd.
As if reassured, yet also tinged with a strange sense of resignation.
Perhaps because the two duties of an NPC were in conflict.
“Just tell the empty air that you’re abandoning the game midway. Then a selection window will appear.”
Caroline’s lips remained sealed by anxiety, but Aiden gestured for her to try it.
“……I’m abandoning the game midway.”
Immediately, a window appeared.
[Player Caroline August, do you wish to abandon the game and return to your previous life?]
[Yes/No.]
“What happens if I press Yes?”
“You quit the game.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
Caroline’s brow creased.
[Aiden Darvel and his settings, his performance, this mansion and the places where you performed together, the audience including yourself―and so forth will all disappear. As if they never existed from the beginning.]
Caroline recalled the promise she’d first made with the system.
“At first you said you’d delete this world centered on Aiden. So if I quit the game, that’s the same as saying I’m erasing myself, isn’t it?”
“Would you like to check the fine print?”
Judging by Aiden’s gaze, he couldn’t see the window.
Yet as an NPC, he knew perfectly well what content would be given to Caroline.
[Because Player Caroline August has cleared the mission to uncover the past of Aiden Christian Darvel, we recognize her efforts and this world will be maintained. However, only the stage centered on Aiden Christian Darvel as the target character will be renewed.]
‘The world will be maintained? That would be a relief…….’
“What does renewal mean?”
“It means reconstruction. Your life and that of most others will be preserved, but Aiden’s stage will be deleted, and a new stage centered on a different character might be prepared instead.”
“Aiden will be deleted?”
“Well, so to speak…….”
The Aiden of 3 a.m. chose his words carefully, his expression troubled.
“You must know that the stage centered on Aiden was unpopular. Therefore, the game company is considering deletion. Most likely, a new stage will open with the same world setting, but with the narrative and characters centered on Aiden replaced.”
The explanation was long.
Despite being an NPC, and despite being Aiden Darvel himself, he showed remarkably little disturbance at the prospect of his own deletion.
The fact that this confirmed his lack of a self made Caroline’s feelings peculiarly complicated.
Even the person in question seemed unbothered by his own erasure.
Caroline herself jumped into the role of Player, not to save her own character state, but to bring her actor to life.

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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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