A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 74

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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 74
‘A book.’
A book with a cover of green velvet—glancing at its spine, she found the name “James” written in slanted script.
Caroline quickly stuffed it into her bag. As she reached for the glass bottle inside and was about to step down from the chair,
‘!’
Caroline realized the chair she was standing on was far too narrow.
The glass bottle wasn’t the problem now. Her body was tilting backward.
The chair swayed, her center of gravity crumbling. She clutched at the glass cabinet as if dangling from it, but it was too small and thin to grip properly.
‘What happens if I fall like this?’
Do I lose a heart?
Falling backward would certainly crack her skull, so she wouldn’t get away with this lightly.
‘What do I do!’
In the end, even her feet slipped from under her. She felt the chair spin sharply.
The moment she squeezed her eyes shut.
“What are you doing?”
Wet hands wrapped around Caroline’s waist. After the initial touch of cold water, she felt the solid firmness of warm fingers.
“!”
James, his tone dripping with exasperation, lifted her down from the chair in both arms as if removing a mischievous cat, setting her on the floor. The dizzying sensation that had been spinning beneath her vanished in an instant.
‘That frightened me.’
Hand pressed to her chest, Caroline looked at James.
“……Thank you.”
He made a disgruntled expression and reached his hand into the glass cabinet. It seemed what Caroline had needed to stand on a chair to reach came far too easily to him.
And from inside, he withdrew a green towel.
Watching him dry the water from his upper body and wring out his hair, Caroline found herself murmuring without thinking.
“……But you’re not supposed to be out yet.”
Caroline had spent less than a minute standing on the chair rummaging inside. James was supposed to maintain silence for nearly three minutes, which should have startled Robelian,
but he’d emerged far too soon.
‘And I was supposed to give him the towel too.’
“What are you talking about?” James raised an eyebrow, his expression saying ‘don’t talk nonsense.’ Then, as his damp hair dried, he pulled two bottles of beverage from inside the glass cabinet.
‘I was supposed to hand those over too.’
Caroline stood still in confusion, blinking.
Bewilderment took precedence over the embarrassment and flutter of being held in the arms of a half-naked Aiden. It wasn’t uncommon for a character role to perform actions not in the script. Ipros had taken his position guarding the stairs at Caroline’s direction, and Friedman had performed similar actions but different lines.
But could the deviation be this dramatic?
Emerging from the swimming pool earlier than scheduled, fetching the towel and glass bottles that Robelian was supposed to provide, moving as if he’d simply come to swim rather than perform. It didn’t feel like acting at all.
And furthermore…….
‘The way he caught me.’
Robelian was male and, within the narrative, slightly taller than James. After reaching adulthood, roles of that type had become difficult to find, which was partly why Aiden’s stage time had diminished.
If James were helping a man larger than himself, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to support his limbs rather than wrap around his waist and lift him?
‘When playing Will, he even performed acting against invisible animals.’
It was difficult to attribute this to flexibility in acting.
Caroline, though she knew it was an unrealistic thought, wondered if James wasn’t seeing her as Robelian right now.
It made no sense. Every character role she’d observed so far had seen her as a fellow actor or a character. Will had even treated her as a fan before seeing her as Jane.
“Won’t you sit down?”
But the subtle shift in his demeanor—tick-tocking with irritation yet somehow softened, inviting her to join him—was unlike James.
James would simply leave Robelian standing before him while he drank what he wanted. Especially within the context of the play, this was early in the scene, not yet the point where they’d grown close playing chess together.
‘No, I must be mistaken.’
With so much to carefully search for within the mansion, Caroline felt herself becoming acutely sensitive.
Perhaps that’s why she found meaning in trivial things when there was none.
So she sat down in front of James.
“……Why are you still here? When are you leaving?”
“You told me to sit down―”
Ah.
That wasn’t what he meant. Caroline realized James had just delivered a line.
He was asking why she was still at school. It suited James—the one who believed Robelian, a product of wealth, would fail to adapt here and flee.
“I’m not leaving. I’m going to stay here and watch you graduate.”
James let out a “pfft” and chugged the bottled beverage. The liquid dribbled down his chin.
Messy. When she tried to help wipe it, he made a sullen face and gestured for her to back off.
“And you’ll eventually run away anyway. You have no idea how many people like you I’ve seen.”

“…….”
“Following me all the way here—you’re persistent, aren’t you? But it won’t change anything. You’ll just hurt me and leave like everyone else does. Everything will go back to the way it was.”
“……?”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed.
He sat there calmly, like the most stable man she knew—Robelian—listening to the child’s complaint. Angry eyes, drink dribbled beneath his chin that he’d wiped away carelessly, the face of someone who didn’t trust adults, mouth pouting out three lengths too far.
From those lips came a word that felt strangely unfamiliar to her.
‘Hurt me?’
He said he’d hurt, and then leave. But James would never admit to being the one wounded.
“Whose hurt? And what do you mean everything goes back to the way it was?”
“……!”
When Caroline pressed him, James frowned and clamped his mouth shut. The face of a child who didn’t want to reveal something and hated that the other person had figured it out.
Caroline furrowed her brow.
The one standing before her was definitely James. Every word choice, every habit, every gesture had that slight immaturity—that prickly, spiky quality that was unmistakably him.
‘Even Aiden is impressive.’
But why did Caroline keep sensing something off?
It wasn’t just today—all the vague unease she’d felt until now came crashing down like waves.
For instance…….
“It’s better to leave before you fail badly. Staying around half-committed will only get you hurt.”
Caroline recalled the second time she’d met James.
Before she’d misunderstood the Rules, before she kept making him realize he was Aiden and he lost his Heart—James had delivered that exact line.
It was the original script word for word, and after Caroline had nodded, James was supposed to have said something else.
‘Oh, so you want to be known as that rich teacher from a lousy school who’s trying to educate the kids?’
Like that. But he hadn’t said it back then.
Aiden didn’t mess up lines. It was hard to believe James had simply forgotten what he was supposed to say.
Then why had he done that? And why were these strange deviations happening only with James?
And that earlier line.
“You didn’t leave.”
“I thought you’d find this place hard to bear soon enough.”
‘……Surely not.’
Maybe she was losing her mind from sleeplessness until dawn. But Caroline formed a hypothesis.
And she began to untie the sash of her one-piece dress, her eyes fixed on James’s face to gauge his reaction.
“……! What are you doing!”
The face of the man sipping pink lemonade with a sullen expression turned beet red. His cheeks, his ears, his neck—all of it.
If this had been Robelian, he would have fixed her with a contemptuous glare. There’d be nothing to be embarrassed about—they were the same gender. But right now, James’s reaction proved he was aware Caroline was a woman.
The moment she confirmed his expression, Caroline tied the sash back up.
What if that line James had spoken wasn’t meant as dialogue from the script? What if it was something he’d actually wanted to say to Caroline?
His reaction just now transformed her doubt into certainty.
“You know who I am.”
“You’re you. What else?”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
James only furrowed his brow and stared at her silently. Was she wrong? She knew that speaking carelessly could shatter her immersion in the role, causing real damage. But her instinct was rushing toward one conclusion.
Caroline gathered her courage and spoke.
“That I’m a Player.”
James’s expression hardened.
“…….”
“What are you talking about?”
A moment of silence fell.
“You haven’t been seeing me as Robelian. You’ve been looking at my actual height, my actual face. Even your lines came out hesitant, like you were speaking to me—not to Robelian. You’re not looking at Robelian. You’re looking at Caroline August.”
“That’s not true.”
“…….”
James, who had been glaring at her sullenly, finally let out a low chuckle at the unwavering steadiness in her gaze.
“You figured it out, in the end. But you got one thing wrong. I didn’t know your name. I just knew that you were my conversation partner.”
‘I was right.’
Caroline swallowed hard and sat down in the chair across from him.
“What are you exactly?”
“I’m James.”
The answer came without a moment’s hesitation. Caroline was taken aback.
Even while aware this was a game, even while recognizing his relationship to her, he insisted that he was James?
“You’re Aiden. Or wait—if you are, wouldn’t that make a triangle appear?”
As Caroline stammered incoherently, James, who had been watching her with an amused expression, let out a soft laugh.
“Ah, you’re a funny one, really. It’s fine, though—back then it was dangerous because you didn’t know I was aware of it, but that’s not the case anymore.”
“…….”
Caroline regarded him in silence, confusion written across her face.
“That’s right—this body is Aiden’s. And I’m also aware that I’m James, the character role of Aiden’s persona.”
“You’re aware of it?”
Caroline couldn’t help but echo his words in astonishment. Multiple personality—
That he knew his own role as a character, that he knew Aiden was the primary self. It was something she truly hadn’t foreseen.
“Yes. But regardless of whether Aiden is the dominant personality of this body, I am James. I wear James’s form, and James’s nature runs through me. So I ask that you continue to treat me as James.”
“……I understand.”
Caroline nodded, lifting the pink lemonade set before her and taking a long drink.
She grasped what he meant. Even if she knew he was one of Aiden’s personalities, he existed distinctly as James—that was clear enough.

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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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