A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 73

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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 73.
“Unless you’d like to be buried here forever, I’d suggest you step back.”
At the gruff voice, Caroline moved aside—and the Carpet beneath her feet began to heave upward like a crocodile opening its jaws. She quickly lifted the Carpet, revealing an entrance that hadn’t existed moments before, connected now to a descending staircase.
“Follow me.”
“?”
And James led the way.
Caroline watched him descend into the Secret Passage toward the Basement with practiced ease and nimble steps, then hurried after him.
How did James know about this Basement beneath the Mansion? This wasn’t part of the script—it was an actual feature of the building itself.
There was no time to wonder. The moment a servant appeared on the Second Floor carrying a Lantern, the Secret Passage sealed shut above Caroline’s head.
“It’s not too dark for you?”
Whether James possessed good night vision or not, he walked steadily ahead of her without difficulty. Caroline withdrew a Lantern from her Bag and hurried after him, sweeping the beam back and forth.
Then the man in front of her stopped abruptly.
“Where are we going? Are you planning to follow me all the way?”
Only after hearing his irritable tone did Caroline realize they’d reached a fork in the passage. She swept the Lantern as far as it would reach, looking around, and finally the structure of the underground space became clear.
When she’d used the Secret Passage with young Aiden, they’d only moved in a straight line—from the maze all the way to the western terminus in a shape like the letter ㄷ.
But now she could see that this straight corridor had a passage branching off to the side partway through. And James clearly intended to go that way.
And on the opposite side of that passage…
“Ah!”
Caroline cried out in alarm, then instinctively covered her mouth.
‘What in the world is this?’
Running along one side of the corridor were cells—underground dungeons so cramped a single person could barely fit inside. Chains and things she didn’t particularly want to identify were fastened at intervals.
‘I’ve heard that aristocratic estates have these sorts of things in their basements. But here too…’
“If you’re going to act like some hothouse flower, you can leave.”
“No.”
Caroline quickly shook her head. James, looking tired of her, started to move on ahead.
“I’m curious what you’re up to, so I’m coming along to see.”
Caroline spoke with one arm crossed behind her back, mimicking Robelian’s manner as closely as she could. James sighed wearily but didn’t object, taking the lead once more.
“Wow.”
Caroline followed James while marveling at the spaces that opened up on either side.
To the left of the passage leading deeper inward was what appeared to be an Armory, and opposite it was a Wine Cellar. In typical aristocratic households, servants frequented such places often, but since Aiden didn’t seem to drink wine regularly, few servants ventured down here.
After passing the two rooms, a sturdy wall greeted them.
James, familiar with this as well, pulled the heavy door open and stepped inside.
“What is this place?”
A long corridor stretched inside, with a low arched ceiling that made voices echo. It resembled a sort of Waterproof Wall, but the Machine Room beyond it revealed its purpose to Caroline.
‘There’s a Dehumidification System and Ventilation System here. Is this a Swimming Pool?’
When James opened the door leading out of this chamber and stepped into the next space, Caroline’s guess proved correct.
A private Swimming Pool lay before them, decorated entirely in blue tiles—the sort of lavish display that screamed wealth.
‘A Swimming Pool in the Basement?’
Admiration escaped her lips.
Strictly speaking, placing a Swimming Pool in the Basement due to humidity issues was inadvisable—even if one did, it required enormous maintenance.
It wasn’t simply a matter of having servants clean it; one needed Dehumidification and Ventilation Systems installed. That was beyond the means of ordinary wealth. In other words, for the aristocracy, keeping a troublesome indoor Swimming Pool in the Basement was, paradoxically, an exhibition of the abundance of resources to maintain it.
‘Both Count Roman and Aiden must be the sort of people who could manage this.’
Caroline clicked her tongue.
Behind her, James made mechanical sounds as he operated some device. Water began flowing into the empty Swimming Pool.
‘He knows this place well. It must be somewhere he practiced scenes.’
“How do you know about this place?” Caroline asked.
James looked at her with a presumptuous expression, then begrudgingly answered.
“I found something nobody else used. All the disinfection equipment, all the dehumidification equipment—it was all running, but no one came here. It was just neglected.”
In “Quiet Graduation,” there was a scene where James entered a Swimming Pool.
Robelian, curious about what James did all day when he didn’t come to school, had followed him for the entire day, lost track of him in the afternoon, and met him again after dark. James wasn’t drinking or getting into street fights—he was at an old, abandoned Swimming Pool, soaking in the water.
“I guess it’s interesting. It’s old, but everything that should work does.”
Caroline spoke Robelian’s line as she examined the equipment. Whether it was well-maintained or not, it was smooth and free of mold or mineral deposits.
‘Did James bring me here to practice acting?’
While James ran the water with a steady flow, Caroline slowly walked around the space, surveying her surroundings. Her eyes caught on a Glass Cabinet mounted on the wall opposite the Swimming Pool.
‘What’s in that Glass Cabinet? There’s something inside.’
The moment she reached toward it, reflected light shimmering off the water.
“?”
A sudden rustling sound made Caroline spin around, her eyes widening.
“What—what are you doing!”
James was pulling off his shirt without hesitation.
Caroline was noisy, and as if irritated by her critical glance, he simply draped his clothes over a shelf and dove into the swimming pool, which had already filled to considerable depth.
Splash.
‘Swift,’ she thought.
Just as Robelian would have described him, James plunged into the water like a dolphin. Unlike Caroline, who could manage only basic survival swimming, he moved with ease in the water.
‘Has he practiced holding his breath so many times here?’
Caroline thought of the scene that would follow next—the one in which Aiden would enter the water and practice most intensely.
‘But wait, is he really going through with it?’
On stage, the swimming pool doesn’t appear as an actual pool; it’s rendered as a large box lined with pale blue film. There’s no reason for anyone to actually enter the water during a performance.
Yet he seemed to have been practicing here in this real swimming pool.
‘Truly relentless.’
The scene that followed was one where James tormented himself, holding his breath underwater for an agonizingly long time without surfacing. Robelian, watching to see what he might do, grew so alarmed that he was afraid the boy would drown and forcibly pulled him out—at which point James grew angry, demanding to know why he’d been interrupted when he could have surfaced on his own.
And Aiden lay motionless on the pool’s deep floor, his eyes closed serenely. He truly was holding his breath.
‘So this is why his breathing seemed so realistic on stage—all this practice.’
Caroline’s expression filled with concern, yet she stepped back so as not to interfere with his performance.
Then she approached the glass cabinet she’d seen before. She set a wooden chair beside it and stretched her hand toward the high shelf.
As she opened it—that apparatus which seemed designed to keep the contents dry—a simple bottled beverage came into view. Did Aiden often take it out to drink after swimming?
Or was it there for the scene that would come next, where Robelian dries off James’s wet body and hands him a drink while they talk?
‘Hm?’
But as she opened the glass cabinet’s front panel fully, there was something else inside.
At the same moment, the bag began to move with a rhythmic thud-thud sound.

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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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