A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 96

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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 96.
It felt as though she’d become someone bathing a large retriever, or an older sister blow-drying her younger brother’s hair.
‘Even though I’m the younger one.’
A clean, pleasant scent emanated from him. As Caroline pressed her palms firmly against his damp hair and quickly toweled it dry, she felt an odd lift in her mood.
When else would she get a chance to dry the hair of an actor she adored?
Smiling to herself, Caroline suddenly became aware of a gaze upon her.
“……?”
She lifted her head and found a mirror positioned directly before the bed. In its reflection, Aiden looked back at her with wide, childlike eyes that blinked innocently.
“!”
Was this how an NPC always looked at a Player—with such tenderness?
That affectionate gaze she’d felt countless times before suddenly struck her with full force. In a move almost like striking back at him, she hastily threw Will’s diary and key at him.
“……?”
“Open it.”
“Am I permitted to do so?”
“Open it and tell me what you find.”
Caroline turned her gaze away coldly as she spoke, and Aiden carefully picked up the key.
The rounded key slid smoothly into the lock.
He pushed it in all the way and turned it. Click. The lock fastening the diary snapped open, its clasp spreading to both sides.
The scarlet velvet diary fell open. The man gazed at it for a moment, but rather than read it, he gently took hold of Caroline’s hand, which rested atop his head.
“?”
“You read it first, Caroline. Your hair is nearly dry now. Thank you.”
Caroline set down the towel and accepted Will’s diary from him. Aiden’s expression seemed to darken slightly, but it was probably just her imagination.
Unlike James’s diary, which was filled with hasty, free-flowing script, Will’s was written in quite neat handwriting. Yet its contents proved far more intense than James’s.
‘I wish I could have lived an ordinary life like everyone else. I think Will would have done well in his studies and social life. If only he had been born a noble, he would have become someone incomparably greater than others.’
‘Why must I live like this? I envy other people. Those who live freely. Those untouched by resentment or bitterness.’
‘Both Will and I were born as Jesters. Or was I born to it? I’m not sure if I took this path because I had a talent for it, or if I was simply shaped into it. Sometimes I think of the other lives I could have been given. If Will had been given the same, I think he would have run a cocktail bar. But that’s just another choice Will might have made. If Will had been properly educated and raised among good people, he would have excelled at anything—accounting, law, teaching, anything.’
‘Today during rehearsal, I thought about killing the director, who was spouting his usual nonsense as always. I don’t know if I can’t escape Will’s influence, or if I share that same tendency with him.’
Aiden’s handwriting remained sharp and elegant, as ever.
Yet it carried within it regret, imagination, and anger and resistance toward the people he’d met while playing Will. Caroline’s trembling hand reached out to caress the paper marked by his script.
“……What do you think?”
Aiden stood tense, his hands clasped together as he watched her.
“It seems you felt a strong sense of kinship while playing Will. You thought yourself similar to Will, who lived as a Jester, and to yourself, who has performed the roles others wanted since childhood. So perhaps you became somewhat absorbed into the character while acting. Or maybe Will drew out emotions that were already buried within you…….”
“For instance?”
“Will is fundamentally an angry person, and he has an inferiority complex. He despises the nobles when he sees them, yet wishes he’d been born like them. He always wanted to escape his life as a Jester, but continued down that path by his own choice. He pities himself, yet views himself as violent, sick, and hopeless.”
“…….”
“It seems that while playing Will, you became deeply absorbed into his emotions without realizing it. Sometimes it seems you found it painful—wanting not to immerse yourself so fully, yet feeling as though you truly became him.”
It was already uncomfortable to read a diary containing someone else’s thoughts, pain, and private life.
But seeing Aiden’s emotions woven through those pages pained her heart too deeply to continue. Caroline closed the diary and placed both it and the key in her bag.
“How wonderful it would have been if Aiden had felt a sense of release while playing Will—freedom to fully express his own heart. Instead, it seems you suffered from the very kinship you felt. That troubles me.”
“……Indeed, you’re right.”
“Every time I watched you perform as Will, you truly seemed to be him. The moment when you’d shift from a pleasant, genteel host to a cold, ruthless murderer—it was so convincing. No matter how many times I saw it, I was always shocked.”
“Well, you’ve seen the same play more than ten times, Miss Caroline. And yet it affected you that way?”
“Of course. The design details of the murder weapons even changed slightly from year to year. There were times I didn’t notice those changes because I was too absorbed in watching your performance.”
Caroline chattered on without thinking, then noticed a clock deep within the room.
It was already four o’clock.
“Oh no, how did it get so late? I should go. I’m sorry for intruding on your room and keeping you up so long.”
As she hurriedly scrambled out of bed, Aiden quickly moved to support her.
“Not at all. No matter how late it is, I’m always pleased when Caroline comes to see me. Only…….”
Aiden regarded Caroline quietly.
“It concerns me that you wander the Mansion at such late hours and exhaust yourself. You seem more tired than usual today. Are you truly all right?”
His words were correct.
She’d been sleeping late for days now, and just recently she’d even fallen into cold water. The aftereffects hadn’t fully faded, and even today her head throbbed intermittently.
But if she told him this, the Aiden of three in the morning would surely worry terribly about her. And she feared he would guide her toward abandoning the game entirely.
‘That itself isn’t the problem.’
Even if Aiden suggested she quit the game as he had before, she could simply refuse to listen.
But Caroline knew her own heart—that if she heard his suggestion, she truly would want to flee. The fear she’d carried since meeting her parents at the Academy, since falling into the water, since meeting Friedman, since being briefly trapped by Will—it would overwhelm her and make her surrender to that choice.
“I’m fine. I’ll just sleep a bit more……. Ow!”
The sudden loudness of her voice made Aiden quickly release his hold.
His hand, which had been supporting her elbow, had brushed against her wrist—the very wrist Will had seized and dragged toward the warehouse. She hadn’t noticed it then, but it had been gripped so firmly that a bruise had formed.
“……Are you truly all right?”
“Yes, well… I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll find something new and bring it along.”
“Caroline, is there anything—”
Caroline waved a hand at him and slipped quickly through the door. Only then did she notice the Doll House in her bag, and caught sight of everyone heading downstairs to the First Floor.
She hurried back to her own room on the Second Floor before finally allowing herself to sink onto the bed.
‘There was no need to rush like that.’
She’d left so abruptly that Aiden would surely be bewildered.
‘But if he hears what happened with Will, he’ll worry himself sick over me.’
His concern warmed her heart and made her feel as though someone in this Mansion truly had her back.
Yet in a situation where she herself felt threatened, the urge to escape the game entirely seemed to pull harder.
It was already late, so Caroline moved her tired body onto the bed. Tomorrow, she hoped, she might find the keys to the other personalities. With that thought, she was just beginning to drift toward sleep when—
“Well, didn’t you watch that same play over ten times? And you still did that?”
‘When did I ever tell Aiden something like that at three in the morning?’
Before she could find the answer, her eyes fell shut.

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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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