A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 71

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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 71.
During her stay at the Mansion, Caroline hadn’t particularly missed her parents.
It wasn’t just that she was used to being apart from them for more than a semester at the Academy; now that she knew this world was a game and everyone was a character without true selfhood, the meaning she attached to her parents had grown thin.
But when she actually sat down with them for a meal, she realized that judgment had been wrong.
‘Just because this is a game doesn’t make my life a lie.’
Even if Caroline was a being assigned only a minor role within a game, her life up to this point wasn’t meaningless.
And the relationships she’d built with other people before learning they too had roles in the game—those connections didn’t lose their color.
Anna and her parents were all precious to her, all sources of comfort in conversation, and they made her feel loved.
At first, she’d wanted to finish the meal quickly and return to the Mansion, but the longer she spent with them, the more she wanted to stay. And yet,
‘Is it right for me to abandon this for the game?’
The thought began to creep in.
Last night, Caroline had spoken firmly to Aiden at three in the morning—that even if failing the game meant losing her life, her resolve to save him was strong.
But that seemed to be because she’d been playing the role of a Player in the Mansion for more than a week. Caroline herself had become so absorbed in her role as his Player that she’d stopped thinking of herself as Caroline August.
Yet outside the Mansion, Caroline could remember again who she truly was.
That she didn’t need to stake everything on Aiden Darvel’s ending—that her own life and sphere also clearly existed and mattered.
Unable to stay at the Academy overnight, she saw her parents off as they departed by carriage well past midnight.
Caroline couldn’t help her expression hardening. Noticing, Anna nudged her sharply in the ribs with her elbow.
“Don’t make that face, Caroline. Tell them to come again once you’re back from the Mansion. Today was a birthday celebration, after all.”
“…Right, I should. But honestly, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you and Mother and Father—I’m glad you got to see me. It just makes me sad to have to leave.”
“What? You’re going to the Mansion of that Aiden Darvel you like so much! I can see you again anytime after that. Still, you must’ve felt lonely there with no one as close as me, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Caroline still believed she had no equal fan as his, and that she knew everything about Aiden.
But this game couldn’t be won on that alone. Riddles, fleeing from servants, reasoning about facts she didn’t know—
It was a game so brutally difficult that the absence of a Player made sense.
‘Can I really do this?’
Yesterday’s confidence had vanished, and she felt unease and doubt seeping in from the depths of her mind.
Was she truly right to stake her life on this?
Before she could decide, the carriage meant to take her to the Mansion appeared before her eyes. The ninth day at the Darvel Mansion had come to an end.
“…I want to go but I don’t want to leave.”
Caroline sighed and began organizing her luggage.
The bag she’d brought and the large gift from Anna. With no one else to see, she was placing it in the bag when—
“Huh?”
Inside the bag, which had been enlarged to match the Doll House, Caroline spotted something strange.
‘Why is it like this?’
She was certain she’d placed all the dolls on the Second Floor and closed the gift box just moments ago.
But now the dolls were scattered in different places.
The white rabbit was on the Third Floor, the two black rabbits on the First Floor and by the Garden respectively.
And the brown rabbit…
“Where did it go?”
It wasn’t visible anywhere in the four-story house.
Had she somehow lost it? Was there a hole in the bottom of the box?
Caroline turned the wrapping over carefully, but found neither the doll nor any hole. Where on earth had the brown rabbit gone?
“But what is this thing even used for?”
If she’d lost the brown rabbit, there was nothing to be done. With an uneasy feeling, Caroline leaned back against the carriage and lowered her head.
The resolve to save Aiden with just one outing seemed almost comical now. It was embarrassing. She shouldn’t have spoken so confidently to him at three in the morning.
Though he, too, had advised her to give up the game.
‘But I don’t want to quit yet.’
Caroline had Paper, and she had the information that she’d be safe from the servants as long as she was with Aiden. And strictly speaking, she had two Hearts, so even if something went wrong once, it would be fine.
The later stages of the journey haven’t properly begun yet, and so far she hasn’t felt any real difficulty.
‘Then I can always give up later if I need to.’
Caroline clenched her fist and steadied her resolve.
After rallying herself like this, she dozed off briefly during the eventful day, and as she passed familiar roads for the first time in a while…
“Welcome, Miss Caroline.”
Caroline had arrived at the Mansion.
Fortunately, checking her watch, she had about ten minutes before midnight. If she’d been any later, the Rules would have prevented her from entering the Mansion, costing her more time.
She handed the empty box and bag to the servant. Caroline stepped down from the carriage lightly.
‘It’s not in the carriage either.’
She checked even the footboard just in case, searching for the brown rabbit, but it was nowhere to be found.
‘There’s nothing I can do.’
Crossing the Garden toward the First Floor, Caroline pressed her hand against her bag with a bitter expression.
“?”
And she froze in place.
Though Caroline had not touched them, the rabbits’ positions had shifted again. And the brown rabbit had reappeared.
‘When did it go in?’
It meant the rabbits were more than mere dolls. The change in position had to signify something.
Caroline observed quietly how the black rabbits stood on the Second Floor, the white rabbit was on the Fourth Floor, and the brown rabbit stood in the Garden.
‘What does this mean?’
Did the contents shift randomly each time she pressed the pouch?
Tilting her head in confusion, Caroline climbed the stairs toward the First Floor. The servants who had lined up to greet her parted to make way.
And the moment she pressed the pouch again to double-check,
“!”
The interior of the pouch had changed once more.
The positions of the black and white rabbits remained the same. But the brown rabbit had moved up to the Second Floor.
‘Why?’
Why?
Only one rabbit had moved, so it wasn’t random.
Then what had changed?
Caroline found the answer quickly. She had just climbed the stairs, hadn’t she?
‘It could be coincidence, though.’
And she turned around and descended back into the Garden.
‘Surely not.’
The moment she pressed the pouch to check again.
Caroline found the brown rabbit had descended back into the Garden. The brown rabbit was a symbol of her own position.
‘That’s why it never showed at all when I was outside the Mansion.’
A chill crept down her spine.
‘Then the black rabbits must be…….’
Caroline gazed at the servants standing in a line before the First Floor entrance.
Their expressions were similar, their appearances alike—it was impossible to tell one from another.
[Fourth. After midnight, only two servants patrol the Mansion. Surveillance throughout the estate diminishes from that point onward. I recommend you venture out of your room during this window and conduct active exploration. However, take care not to encounter the servants. Should they apprehend you, there is no recourse.]
The black rabbits represented the two servants who would patrol the Mansion tonight.

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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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