A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 75

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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 75.
“Do the other personas feel the same way you do?”
“No. I’m the only one who knows I’m a persona, that I’m a personality formed through Aiden’s acting. I’m Aiden’s oldest persona—the one he’s maintained since before adulthood. That’s me.”
James spoke with his characteristic blunt, careless manner, yet his expression brimmed with pride.
“What makes you different from the other personas?”
“Like I said, I’ve existed the longest. And you should understand—Michelle Darvel’s demands originated from my persona.”
“James wouldn’t ask something that stupid twice.”
“Right, I remember.”
Young Aiden had been struck across the face for that.
“Oh, how did you know? Did you overhear? Did someone tell you?”
“…? No. Yes, no—I saw Aiden’s diary.”
“A diary? What’s that?”
Caroline regarded James in silence.
The diary had been the final clue of the first quest. But unlike the three-a.m. Aiden, James seemed unaware of its existence.
‘If knowing I’m a player means knowing the game exists, how can he not know about this?’
James continued, as if he’d read the confusion on her face.
“Explain it to me. I don’t know what mechanisms exist in this game, who you’ve met, any of that.”
“But how do you know about the game at all?”
At the suspicious tone in her voice, James’s expression turned bitter.
“How wouldn’t I know? I remember every moment I exist. Countless players have come through. Each one asked questions they didn’t understand, failed, half-assed their way through, and left….”
James described having witnessed countless players who didn’t take the game seriously, treating it as merely a stage to pass through, only to fail repeatedly. His time had not flowed forward; he met player after player, engaged in hollow conversations, and watched them depart once more.
“The day I first saw you was always set to rain whenever the cycle repeated. When a new player arrives, the daily routine inside the Mansion resets. So I was caught in the rain. It feels good—you know me, after all.”
Caroline nodded.
“I thought you’d leave soon too. What can players with no background knowledge accomplish? They’d only hurt Aiden and be gone. Pathetic.”
James chewed at his lip, his expression sharp with resentment.
“But you stayed longer than I expected. That surprised me. That’s why I said those things, but you took them as actual dialogue, didn’t you?”
Caroline searched her memory, recalling what James had said that night.
“You didn’t leave.”
“I thought you’d start struggling with this place soon.”
“Right. But then you didn’t say the follow-up line. That struck me as odd, and it eventually helped me discover the truth.”
“Wow! You’re definitely not an ordinary person.”
James, holding a glass bottle, raised it toward Caroline like a toast, laughing. He had the brash attitude of a young teenager, yet looked like an old man worn down by something ancient.
“It was strange enough to realize that was scripted dialogue, but to know there was no follow-up line after that…. Who are you? Damn, how could you even do that?”
The question “Who are you?” was something Caroline heard for the first time in the Mansion. The servants hadn’t asked it, nor had daytime Aiden, nor three-a.m. Aiden, nor young Aiden.
It was new.
And Caroline, too, had never stopped to ask herself that question in this place. Recently, she’d thought of herself only as a player, and there had been no opportunity to introduce herself to anyone.
“I’m Caroline August. I’m a fan of Aiden Darvel, and….”
She hesitated for a moment.
“I was one of many supporting characters in this game’s world.”
“So you weren’t a player? Those people seemed to come from outside.”
“I wasn’t. But I became one.”
“How?”
James’s expression turned startled, and he leaned toward her as if captivated by her words, nearly tumbling forward.
“Could you back up a little?”
“Got it. You’re cold.”
“After I came to the Mansion, the System offered me the position of player. It said there were no more players left, that Aiden was in danger of disappearing. So I agreed to save him.”
James’s face went pale. This was clearly the first he was hearing of something that three-a.m. Aiden already knew.
“Why would Aiden disappear? Damn it, the guy’s still alive—why would he vanish? Then I’d disappear too, wouldn’t I?”
“It seems he went into shock after learning he has dissociative identity disorder.”
“….”
Upon hearing the indirect implication that it was partly his own fault, James fell silent, his mouth clamping shut. Like a boy his age, he roughly ruffled his hair, looking visibly confused.
“Damn it, I don’t get it. What this game even is, exactly how it’s unfolding…. What Aiden’s thinking. But there’s one thing I think I understand.”
As the agitated boy lifted his head, Caroline saw his green eyes gleaming brightly, fixed solely on her.
“You’re the key. There’s never been anyone like you before. Since you arrived, the same day hasn’t repeated. After the rainy day, I rarely got a second chance to appear, and I always had to return to the rainy day to come out again. But today’s the third time I’ve appeared. I’ve swum three times.”
He was trembling with excitement.
‘I understand.’
Caroline grasped what his existence had been like. He doesn’t appear every day like daytime Aiden; he only comes out on the day the tea-time conversation turns to the Quiet Graduation.
Because players never last long, his life repeats endlessly. Again and again, meeting only foolish, irritating players, wasting time. Yet he’s forced to engage with them regardless.
Suffocating—until suddenly, new time opened up.
‘No wonder he’s happy.’
Caroline was just opening her mouth to press him further when James suddenly jumped as if struck by electricity, his eyes darting around the room.
“Wait, what time is it now?”
“I’m not sure.”
Caroline opened her bag and checked the servants’ locations. They were still patrolling different parts of the Mansion.
One was on the Second Floor, the other on the Third Floor.
‘So what time is it?’
“I have to go.”
“?”
Caroline’s eyes widened as James suddenly stood. What was he doing?
“Around three in the morning, I just instinctively feel it. I have to go to my room on the Third Floor and sleep.”
It seemed that lying down in bed when Aiden from three o’clock in the morning appeared had become embedded in each character like a kind of subconscious cue.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just… that’s how it is. The other personas do it too.”
“The other personas do it too?”
First: he didn’t know that Aiden at three in the morning existed. He thought he simply fell asleep when the hour came.
Second: he knew what the other personas were doing. How?
“I have to go. I’ll explain on the way.”
Like a man fleeing an invisible beast, James hurriedly gathered his clothes and dressed himself. Then he turned the dial on the Swimming Pool system, draining the water.
Caroline hastily followed him out of the Swimming Pool and retraced the Corridor by which they’d arrived.
‘I still need to explore other areas.’
Now that she’d found the hidden entrance today, she could return to the Basement another time. For now, it was more important to talk further with James.
“Wait, wait. Slow down. Tell me—who are these other personas you’re talking about?”
“Like you know, Friedman, Will, and Ifros.”
“Do you know what they’ve been doing?”
“They wake up and move in their own way. But I have fragmented memories of what they’ve done. Their memories are given to me, in a sense. Though it seems like only I experience this.”
Caroline’s mouth fell open.
“I can feel it. It’s almost three. I have to go, really. Why aren’t you hurrying?”
At his sudden urgency, Caroline scrambled after him. They rounded a corner and were now walking down the straight Corridor that led to the Second Floor.
[Settings Bar]
‘What?’

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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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