A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 77

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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 77.
‘Did the Aiden at 3 AM know?’
Was James’s knowledge that this was a game a proper setting, or was it a bug in the game itself?
Did the Aiden at 3 AM know that James wasn’t simply a personality trapped within a character role?
‘I should ask him.’
While she was at it, she ought to brag about finding James’s key and diary.
Caroline wondered what expression he’d wear seeing her progress—whether he’d praise her for achieving so much in a single day. Even drowsy, her desire to meet him had grown stronger.
‘Where are the servants now?’
Caroline opened her bag and checked the dollhouse Anna had given her. Both servants were in the Mansion. One was already on the third floor.
As time passed, they would switch from the second floor, and the other would go up to the third, so she had no choice but to wait.
Still, if she washed up and prepared for bed while she waited a little longer, it would be fine. With that thought, Caroline didn’t even realize sleep was coming—she simply collapsed into slumber right there on the bed.
“Miss Caroline, breakfast is ready.”
“……?”
At the servant’s knock and announcement, Caroline bolted upright.
‘What?’
Glancing around with a bewildered expression, she realized the truth only then. She’d been waiting to meet Aiden at 3 AM last night, but she’d fallen asleep instead.
“This is driving me crazy.”
If that moment had been around 3 AM, she’d gotten less than six hours of sleep.
Between going to bed late and insufficient rest, a dull ache had settled into her head. It made sense too—back at the Academy, she’d always slept a solid eight hours every night.
Here at the Mansion, fatigue was clearly accumulating.
“So it’s morning of the tenth day.”
After collecting the complete set of diaries and keys for the mission, she didn’t know what would come next, but Caroline thought she was doing well enough.
Only a third of the time had passed. She’d already collected one set, and couldn’t she gather the other three within a week? That would leave her plenty of time to meet the deadline.
“……Today I’ll have tea time, then head down to the cellar.”
A space she hadn’t examined yesterday when she’d come up in such a hurry with James.
And that window from the Settings Bar she’d thought of earlier, and the Aiden at 3 AM she hadn’t met. Having mentally noted all she needed to do today so she wouldn’t forget, Caroline made her way downstairs to the first floor with sluggish, weary steps.
Aiden was already down, sitting quietly across from where she would sit.
He’d dressed neatly in a pale green shirt and white trousers, and as soon as Caroline sat, he gestured for her to eat.
‘When you’ve slept so little, food doesn’t even taste good. But Aiden lived like this every day, didn’t he?’
Waking near 3 AM and cleaning up after each character would put him around 4 AM—had he really been sleeping only five hours each time?
Thinking about how they both must have gone to bed even later if they’d met yesterday, Caroline’s brow furrowed.
‘This game is driving him into the ground.’
Caroline too, having wandered the Mansion unable to sleep after midnight, was being worn down—but thinking of her actor living such a hectic life in this exhausted state, anger kindled in her chest.
‘A healthy body houses a healthy mind. Aiden’s exhaustion with life, the birth of his character role—it’s all from being so worn out.’
What sleep deprivation does to the human mind became clear during exam season at the Academy.
Everyone’s eyes lost their sparkle, jokes and laughter vanished, and nerves frayed. They’d bicker over trivial things and grow negative about everything.
Just as Caroline was glaring at the game settings that had been driving Aiden so hard, stabbing at her food with her fork—
“Miss Caroline, you don’t seem well today. Are you all right? Did you lose sleep?”
“Oh, just a little…….”
The sudden kindness in his voice carried concern for her condition.
Tears welled up.
‘Foolish man—he doesn’t even know his own state, yet he worries about me.’
This person didn’t even realize he was nothing but a character. In her frustration and hurt, Caroline pressed her lips tightly together.
“If you’re very tired, I can cancel today’s scheduled tea time so you can rest in your room.”
“No, no!”
Cancel tea time?
That couldn’t happen. In the remaining twenty days, Caroline needed to gather information more urgently.
She quickly waved her hand in denial.
“It’s not that serious. I can rest in my room until tea time and be fine.”
“……Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course!”
“We’re planning to have tea time outdoors, so I’m concerned…… but if it becomes difficult, please tell me then.”
“Thank you.”
Aiden had worried about her.
She’d nearly lost tea time, but the simple fact that he’d shown kindness lifted her mood. The glare from earlier vanished, and a sincere smile bloomed at the corners of her mouth.
‘Oh, that’s right!’
Three questions.
There was no point asking about the diary and keys since he’d have no knowledge of them. Rolling her eyes in thought, Caroline decided to ask about the cellar she still hadn’t figured out.
“By the way, Aiden. That sweet wine I had yesterday was really delicious. Things like that are usually kept in a wine cellar, aren’t they? Is there a special place where you keep it?”
The first question was a sacrificial one. Launching directly into talk of the cellar seemed too risky.
“Oh, I’m delighted you enjoyed it. We’ll bring it out more often for dinner from now on. The wine you had yesterday came from the dining room storage on the first floor, but the Mansion does have a wine cellar. It’s in the basement, though—we don’t access it very often.”
“Oh, I didn’t know the Mansion had a basement.”
Caroline acted with an expression of pleasant surprise.
“In truth, the basement’s existence isn’t particularly familiar to me either. I have little reason to visit it except through the servants. Even the servants rarely go down there unless they’re fetching wine—and since we’ve taken to storing everything in the storage room now, they almost never venture in.”
“So neither Aiden nor the servants visit it often. Is the place mostly empty, then?”
“Yes, likely so. The wine cellar goes unused, and the swimming pool and armory where the hunting equipment is kept also go unused. It’s probably a place the servants don’t clean very often.”
Cleaning it rarely? That caught her off guard.
Caroline recalled the scene she’d witnessed last night. The swimming pool had been immaculate. The water was pristine, and the filtration system ran perfectly.
The table where she’d sat with James was dustless and gleaming.
‘Could it be the 3 AM Aiden?’
He’d said he always cleaned up after the messes the character roles made. So did he come down to the basement regularly and tidy everything up?
‘He knows the basement exists, then. And what’s in it.’
Caroline nodded slowly.
Now it was clear. She’d rarely encounter the servants in the basement, and as long as no one saw her going down there, she’d be safe.
‘And now only one last question remains.’
Caroline studied Aiden intently.
Having spent all of yesterday at the Academy, this was the first time she’d seen the “daytime Aiden.”
“Something urgent came up yesterday, and I had to go out. Thank you for allowing it. How did you fare while I was away?”
The man smiled with a gentle expression.
“I was here, organizing my belongings in the Mansion. Did your matter get resolved?”
“Yes, fortunately. Though I thought going out from the Mansion was absolutely forbidden.”
“Normally, it would be forbidden, but… Well. I’m not entirely sure.”
His face, which had worn a thoughtful expression moments before, suddenly went blank. Then he rushed to end the conversation with those words of uncertainty.
‘What was that?’

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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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