A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 76

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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 76.
A window flashed past in an instant.
He’d been walking too fast to see which one it was attached to. She thought about turning back for another look, but Caroline remembered that she could only be protected from the Servants when she stayed close to Aiden in his current character role.
“Stay right next to me.”
“Why? That’s creepy.”
“If I’m not with you, the Servants will grab me.”
“Really? That’s interesting.”
They climbed the Staircase connected by rope and opened the entrance to the Secret Passage hidden beneath the carpet. James went up first, poking his head through, and one of the remaining Servants spotted them.
!
Caroline froze reflexively. It was the Servant who had chased her before, who’d lost her in front of Will.
“I apologize for interrupting the performance, sir.”
The Servant bowed politely with hands clasped, then quickly descended the Staircase and vanished.
James, watching him go, let out a small, amazed sound.
“Wow, what was that?”
“Without you, he’d kill me.”
“If you’d gone up first, it could’ve been bad.”
Caroline dragged James’s arm to the door. He was in a hurry, muttering that it was almost 3 o’clock, but she caught his sleeve again.
“What now?”
“The Key.”
“What?”
“The Key to your Diary. The one that opens it. Where is it? I found your Diary at the Swimming Pool.”
At her words, James’s eyes narrowed as if he were thinking. Then he slowly withdrew his arm from her grasp and took a few steps back.
“I don’t think you need to look for it.”
“What?”
“I think you already have it.”
What was he talking about?
She was asking because she didn’t have it. Just as Caroline was about to press him on this cryptic remark, James headed straight up the Staircase.
“I’ll be going now!”
“…Hey, wait a second!”
Caroline cried out desperately without meaning to, then quickly covered her mouth. Embarrassed, she stepped into the room.
‘Since when.’
In just this one meeting, she’d grown deeply attached to the personality of James. Never mind that James himself didn’t really exist—the body he inhabited belonged to Aiden Darvel, the very actor Caroline adored.
‘Still, it seems like James will be useful to me.’
He was aware this place was a Game, and even had scattered memories of the other personalities. Being cooperative with her besides, he’d certainly be valuable if difficult situations arose.
With that thought, Caroline dragged her drowsy body to the desk and sat down.
“But what did he mean, I already have it?”
That was the most puzzling part. What had James seen that made him think she had it?
And how could she possibly have it in the first place?
Caroline patted herself down doubtfully, searching inside her shoes, in her pockets, between the folds—but found nothing, as expected.
‘Then it’s in the room?’
Someone couldn’t have snuck it here. This was her room; no one else should have access to it.
She hadn’t picked up any Keys from the Mansion and brought them here, nor had she brought anything related to James.
‘Besides, I couldn’t have brought a Key. That’s Aiden’s.’
Caroline shook her head and opened her bag.
A Lantern, an Acorn, a Mirror, and the Key to Aiden’s Room that she’d received from young Aiden.
‘This is too big to fit inside a Diary.’
Then a Mint Candy Tin, Will’s Book, a Bell, Glasses, a Green Potion, and….
“Huh?”
Caroline pulled out the merchandise from “A Quiet Graduation”—the last thing she’d put in her bag. The Fountain Pen that Robelian had given to James as a parting gift.
“But this is just merchandise.”
This Game never stops leaving me bewildered. Caroline sighed and was about to put the Pen back in her bag when something caught her eye.
It was different from the merchandise she had at home.
An engraving in elegant gold lettering.
—James, everything you need is inside here.
It sounded like something Robelian would say.
‘Everything I need is inside.’
At those words, Caroline began to disassemble the Fountain Pen as if possessed, handling with care this already-expensive merchandise that had become even more valuable as an engraved Pen from Aiden’s Room.
She unscrewed the cap and twisted the body.
And what came out was….
“Oh!”
Caroline let out an exclamation, her eyes drawn to the elongated oval object in her hands as though spellbound.
A luminous metal studded with tiny jewels.
Arranged as neatly as a pair of chopsticks, she pulled it apart like scissors to form a cross, then tugged the protruding section—
Click.
Click.
“…Wow.”
A key emerged—quite unlike the one that opened Aiden’s black diary.
A small white jewel at its end bore a relatively large emerald-green droplet-shaped stone, marking it unmistakably as James’s.
‘A diary.’
Today really was her lucky day. To find both a key and a diary at once.
And since she’d found items belonging to the same character role, the pieces fit together perfectly.
Despite her exhaustion, her spirits soared. Caroline quickly retrieved James’s green velvet diary, noting how the cover—damp from the swimming pool—felt subtly moist to the touch. She reached for the lock attached at the top.
She inserted the key into the middle of the latch mechanism that ran along the book like a clasp.
Click.
As the key turned with a sound of perfect alignment, the lock fell away from the diary.
“!”
What lay inside?
Caroline drew a deep breath and opened the diary with trembling hands.
— Adults have no idea how transparent they are. They live such false lives that they’ve grown accustomed to it, never noticing how obvious they are to children. That director—I hate him. That actor—I’m jealous of him. Their falsehood is so plain to see, yet they still pretend to be good people.
— I think I understand why Aiden acted the way he did now. If I could, I’d want to curse too. I’d want to fight on the street. I’d want to grab anyone by the collar and shake them.
— When I think about it, Aiden didn’t have to live under all this stress. If this place is all a game to begin with, then isn’t everything a lie? We were just acting inside lies all along.
The diary’s entries were scattered across dates—some written in neat, careful handwriting, others rough and hurried where anger had seized the pen.
The early entries focused on what Aiden had felt while playing James as a teenage boy. In young Aiden’s eyes, people were nothing but deceivers.
Michelle Darvel had played the loving, devoted mother, fully supportive of her son.
The director he’d worked with labored under the delusion that he was an artist, grinding up the people around him while desperately trying to dress up his own cruelty as something noble.
‘He really suffered from such an early age.’
She’d suspected as much, given that he’d started his career as a child actor.
But learning the specific details through his words—what he’d endured, what he’d felt—made her heart ache. How much had his spirit been worn down?
Then gradually his handwriting shifted into something written by ‘James’ himself.
He began to refer to the name Aiden in the third person, as though discussing a stranger.
Now that he’d recognized this place as a game, his entries grew filled with James’s distinctive voice—lament and regret about the game, frustration and bitter humor.
He wrote far less frequently than Aiden had, and his last entry was from two years ago.
‘How long had he been awake like that, conscious of the game?’
Her mind reeled. Over two years, James had been living like that.
Countless Players arriving. The same weather and incidents repeating. Meaningless questions pouring down.
It was beyond infuriating—enough to drive anyone mad.

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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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