A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 82

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 82.
Blink. Blink.
Struggling to wake from that drowsy half-sleep, Caroline looked upward and noticed, as her vision gradually sharpened, that it was Ipros—with three yellow squares floating above his head.
[□□□]
‘What?’
It didn’t take long for confusion to shift into alarm. She recognized those floating markers above him as Affinity Markers, the result of settings she’d adjusted.
“!”
Caroline gasped and bolted upright from her crouch. At the sudden movement, Ipros caught her wavering arm firmly and drew her close.
Her face landed against his chest, which carried the scent of soap.
“I’ve… missed you.”
Blond hair brushed against Caroline’s neck like a puppy seeking affection. It was she who’d been embraced, yet somehow it felt the other way around.
Even absorbed in her character role, Aiden was holding her tenderly and behaving so affectionately. Heat flooded her cheeks.
“I’ve searched everywhere for you, Isaha.”
‘Searched everywhere?’
Held so tightly she could barely breathe, Caroline felt a vague unease stir within her.
It made sense that Ipros would search for Isaha. But the fact that he’d found her here, in this place, was strange.
It meant he knew the location and layout of the basement. And the fact that his belongings were here in the first place was equally odd.
“I’ve never been here before. Didn’t know a place like this existed. But how did you find me? Did you already know about it?”
“I discovered it while exploring around on my own while Isaha was busy. There are many useful things here, and interesting ones too. I wonder… what kind of person left this place behind?”
James and Ipros both knew about the basement.
Did that mean all the personas knew about it?
“Someone wealthy, I’d guess. Especially with a Wine Cellar down here.”
Caroline pulled away from Ipros’s embrace and patted his shoulder, continuing naturally. She was trying her best to seem like Isaha.
‘Oh no!’
She suppressed the image of herself as a fan whose heart raced wildly in Aiden’s arms.
“There’s a Wine Cellar? Isaha would love that. I only knew about the Underground Prison and the Armory down here.”
“?”
Ipros’s eyes widened as he looked at her.
From the sound of it, he didn’t know about the Wine Cellar or the Swimming Pool. Then did James, who yesterday went straight to the Mechanical Room and Swimming Pool without hesitation, not know where the Armory was?
‘It’s different by character role.’
They were using the space differently.
With that realization, Caroline suddenly looked around. How long had she slept?
‘I need to meet the 3 a.m. version of Aiden.’
“What time is it?”
“It’s… about 3:10 now. Why?”
“!”
To summon the 3 a.m. Aiden, she’d need to put Ipros to sleep. More precisely, she needed to get his head back on a pillow.
Caroline grabbed Ipros’s arm and pulled. She was aware of the Diary in her bag, but right now getting to him took priority.
“It’s gotten too late. It’s dangerous to be outside at this hour.”
“There aren’t many wild beasts around here, and I didn’t sense anyone nearby.”
“Still, you never know. Let’s go to the room.”
“…….”
Caroline resisted, unable to agree, but then she noticed Ipros staring intently at her when she suggested going to the room.
Ah.
“Of course, today isn’t Wednesday, but… let’s just lie down together anyway.”
“Okay.”
Ipros seemed to regard her with puzzlement for a moment, but then he was satisfied. They walked hand in hand, leaving the Armory and making their way out of the basement.
“I’ve been here many times, but this is Isaha’s first time and yet you know the way so well.”
“When it comes to Spatial Perception, there’s no one who could keep up with me.”
“That’s true.”
Ipros nodded in agreement.
“And that’s why I can’t help but love you, Isaha.”
As they walked out holding hands like lovers, tender and familiar, her face grew warm. She felt the genuine affection he was giving her in this moment.
Ipros was just a character role, and Caroline was playing Isaha to manage him—but he didn’t know that. Seeing him speak like this without that knowledge, guilt began to creep in.
So Caroline said nothing, pretending ignorance.
Yet Ipros didn’t mind and spoke again.
“It feels good when Isaha holds my hand. That doesn’t happen very often.”
Her heart ached again, a dull, persistent pain.
Caroline had never experienced such absolute affection before. Looking at Ipros expressing his love—so fragile, so pure in the way he leaned on Isaha—her resolve wavered.
If she were truly Isaha, she would have told him to stop talking nonsense and let go of his hand. But she didn’t let go.
“Don’t make a fuss. If you keep it up, there won’t be a next time.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry.”
Ipros answered quickly, threading his fingers between Caroline’s.
His hand was long but solidly built—unmistakably masculine—and it nearly swallowed hers as he held it. Caroline strode forward with the air of a teacher or guardian, yet the size of his hand stood in stark contrast to that impression.
She’d known Aiden was large. But seeing him always on stage, it had felt like someone else’s problem.
Now that she’d spoken with him directly, held him, felt his hand in hers, the difference became strikingly real.
If he hadn’t been so gentle, if his nature had been threatening instead, it truly would have been…….
‘Like Friedman.’
Caroline shook her head, remembering when her emotions had flared and that red triangle marker had appeared. When she’d met Friedman, she’d felt like prey.
By contrast, at Aiden’s side at three in the morning, she felt profoundly at ease.
A smile formed without her willing it.
“…….”
Because of this, Caroline didn’t notice Ipros watching her quietly, lost in thought beside him.
As they climbed the Rope Staircase and stepped onto the carpet of the Second Floor, they passed a servant coming down from the Third Floor.
“My apologies for the interruption, sir.”
The servant bowed in a perfect right angle, then vanished. Aiden, in Ipros’s form, merely acted as if he’d seen nothing at all.
Still gripping his hand firmly, Caroline strode up the stairs to the Third Floor in Isaha’s manner, then led Ipros into the room with yellow wallpaper and toward the bed.
But he didn’t lie down at once—he sat on it instead, like a child waiting for a lullaby.
“……Why?”
“I don’t know why it feels like I haven’t seen Isaha in so long.”
“We see each other every day, though.”
“I know. And yet…… this moment, just being together like this, feels so precious. I don’t want to just let it slip away in sleep.”
Caroline looked a little taken aback.
As she studied Ipros’s face slowly, he gazed at her with an aching tenderness—as though green stars were set in his eyes.
“But it’s time for sleep now. If I don’t rest, I’ll be tired tomorrow.”
“Then I can’t watch you sleep?”
Caroline bit her lip hard.
Ipros wasn’t listening. Among Isaha’s methods, she could have used coercion, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that to him—not when he looked at her with eyes so full of love.
“I wish you’d lie down with me. We could sleep together for just six hours and wake up.”
“I don’t need sleep, you know that. That’s why Isaha doesn’t usually bother telling me to set an Alarm Clock and enter Hibernation Mode. So why today?”
Ipros was a machine; he had no need for sleep.
But he could set a timer and enter Hibernation Mode, ceasing his operations for a designated period.
To Isaha, who managed Ipros efficiently as a machine, it was a wasteful function.
His expression shifted from frustrated to visibly displeased, and a hint of resentment began to surface on his doll-like face.
Caroline felt a moment of vertigo, as though a red triangle marker were flickering before her eyes. The mere change in his expression made her blood run cold.
Was this an aftereffect of Friedman?
“……Who are you?”
“What?”
“Who is it you want to meet while I’m asleep?”
Good heavens.
Ipros had reached a serious misunderstanding.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————