A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 9

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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 9.
Above the translucent window, deep red letters floated into view.
‘What is this?’
Before shock could settle over the absurdity unfolding before her eyes, her gaze swept swiftly across the text.
[Welcome, Carolyn August. I am the AI System of the Game “East Island.”]
“A game?”
[Yes, that is correct. This concept will be unfamiliar to you, Miss August. Allow me to explain for your understanding.]
Above the window that had introduced itself as a system, hands and unidentifiable objects came into view.
The overlaid window resembled a theatrical performance captured by magic. Carolyn watched as people moved across the translucent surface, touching a small rectangular device before her eyes.
[A game is when people from outside this world create secondary avatars—extensions of themselves—and explore within this world.]
“Outside this world…?”
[The place where you live, Miss August, is the world created by someone’s imagination. And from beyond this world, people are enjoying games that use this created setting.]
The window shifted, and the guests Carolyn had seen thus far within the Mansion appeared in succession.
Seven people in total: the woman in the blue dress, the woman with red hair, the woman with golden hair, and four others.
“Those people…”
[You seem to have sensed something suspicious about them. And rightly so—those seven women, like you, are not inhabitants of this world but beings from beyond it. We call those who wander this world, sending in their avatars to seize what they desire, “Players.”]
“What did they come to seize?”
[They seek rewards that bring wealth or satisfaction. And you, along with the others here, are “NPCs” or “conquest targets” who exist to aid the Players in their progression. Fundamentally, you possess no “self-awareness.”]
Beings that exist for Players, without self-awareness.
Carolyn felt revulsion before confusion at the system’s words.
[Miss August, do you remember when you began to love the actor Aiden Dairbell?]
‘Of course I do.’
“From the day I received a diagnosis that I could die, when my parents took me to see his performance.”
[Then do you remember who the doctor was that gave you the diagnosis?]
A slight defiance rose in her, and the moment she began reading the system’s text, she meant to answer—but her lips sealed shut. Silence stretched long.
She could not remember.
Not the doctor’s face, nor even whether they were male or female, nor the sound of their voice. Nothing came back to her.
What exactly had that diagnosis entailed?
It was then Carolyn realized she was imagining, not remembering. There was nothing to recall.
Because she had never received such a diagnosis in the first place.
[You have never received such a diagnosis, Miss August. You have no memory of being nursed by your family while lying in bed ill. You never experienced any such thing in reality.]
“Then why am I thinking of it that way? If such a thing never happened, then why am I…”
The system told her she was not misremembering. It was merely a character setting assigned to Carolyn.
Carolyn was playing the role of one audience member viewing Aiden Dairbell’s performance in this world.
“I don’t understand. Explain it in a way I can comprehend.”
[Think of this world as a stage, Miss August. And you are merely one extra upon it. A light extra with no occasion to even interact with the Players.]
As Carolyn read the system’s words, the world turned white.
Then thunder crashed.
In the window that brightened for an instant, Carolyn caught the reflection of the Oyster Man staring at her from the darkness—a fierce man wearing Aiden Dairbell’s face.
“Then what of Aiden Dairbell? What is he in all this?”
[He is a sort of supporting character. A conquest target within a stage the Players pass through.]
After that, Carolyn abandoned any attempt to take in the system’s lengthening discourse. She could barely grasp only that conquering involved gathering information and resources to complete missions.
[Aiden Dairbell and this Mansion were but a fraction of the grand narrative the Players experience—a single chapter, no more. The Players were meant to conquer Aiden and escape the Mansion. However, because it required considerable effort while offering little entertainment or reward, the Game Company had intended to delete this episode.]
Entertainment, rewards, deletion.
At that final word, Carolyn’s face went ashen.
“Then.”
She bit down so hard her lips tasted metallic, and she barely managed to part them.
“If you say deletion, does everything disappear? From where to where…”
[Aiden Dairbell and his settings, his performances, this Mansion and the places where he performed, the audiences including you…everything vanishes. As if it never existed to begin with.]
“That’s a lie.”
How could that be possible? Carolyn August exists here, now, in this place. She has spent years watching Aiden Dairbell.
A hollow laugh escaped Carolyn, and the moment she turned her head, she froze.
The room vanished, and all that remained was white space stretching endlessly in every direction.
[I do not lie, Miss August.]
Ah.
“How… how is this possible…”
At the sound of her trembling voice, the boundless white space shifted back to her room as easily and naturally as turning over a page. So smoothly. So effortlessly.
‘I’m shaking all over.’
What had existed moments ago vanished in an instant, then reappeared. What just occurred was not confined to her room alone.
‘I really could disappear. This entire world could disappear.’
Her entire body felt heavy, as though weighted down by invisible anchors. Something in the floor seemed to be pulling her toward it.
The System Interface before her eyes, this room, the entire space of the Mansion—all of it pressed down upon her like a physical force.
“Let’s go back to what we were discussing. You said you were trying to delete the Episode centered on Aiden. The fact that you were trying means you’ve decided not to go through with it now, doesn’t it?”
[Indeed, Miss Carolyn August. While considering Episode deletion for efficient Game server operation, we discovered you. I refer to yourself—no longer bound by your original role, having accepted Aiden’s invitation, and existing on equal terms with the Episode’s Players.]
Now Carolyn could finally comprehend what had happened to her.
Aiden, who stubbornly insisted there were only seven guests despite eight people sitting at the table.
The servants who had never offered her a place setting.
[For reasons I cannot fathom, Miss Carolyn—uninvited though you were—developed self-awareness and proved capable of acting freely in accordance with the Episode. Now that all the Players have either failed or concluded their conquest of this Episode, only you remain.]
[If there is no Player left to clear this Episode, the story will draw to a close. What profit is there in running a service with no users? But tell me, Miss Carolyn—can you accept this decision?]
“No.”
The people beyond this world. The Players.
Or what the System chose to see in Carolyn and the beings of this place mattered nothing to her.
But this world was precious beyond measure—it was the only home she had ever known.
“This is my world. Even if I’m nothing but an Extra, even if I’m merely a role given form, my love for this place remains unchanged. Don’t destroy the world in which I live.”
[But Miss Carolyn, even knowing that all these people are fabrications? Even knowing that Aiden Dairbell lacks self-awareness, that he is merely a mechanical entity performing the role of an actor in a Game—can you still love him?]
Carolyn fell silent, lost in thought.
‘Why did I come to care for him? No—never mind how it started. Why do I love him?’
Darkness brushed across Carolyn’s mind.

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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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