The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 10

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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 10
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When police officers collapsed and streamed out of the Mansion Basement where I had spent seven years, April found herself gripped by an indescribable weight of pressure.
The one hopeful thing was that Fejin Deus, who controlled those police officers, regarded the act of “entrusting the investigation to the Church” with utter contempt.
I never thought there would come a day when I’d owe that child a favor.
In any case, I couldn’t afford to rely solely on Fejin’s convictions.
To avoid being dragged before the Church later, or if dragged there, to bribe my way out, I needed to recover at least some portion of my assets.
April brought the eggs as she did every day, tended the chickens, finished her meal, and then took out a dress to wear.
Her mind raced with urgency.
First, she needed to understand the scope of her assets, so she planned to visit the Bank. It had been seven years since she’d stepped outside on her own feet.
Yet when she arrived at the Bank, she was met with refusal before she could even cross the threshold.
“You cannot enter.”
April made no attempt to hide her shock at being stopped by a police officer at the Bank’s door.
She had expected it wouldn’t be easy, but she had never once doubted her right to do so. She needed to know how much of the Grand Duke’s frozen assets remained.
“What do you mean I can’t go in? How long has House Lunos conducted business with this Bank?”
“It’s a matter of security.”
“I’ve already buried my brother. I’m here to claim what’s mine from the Bank—why are you stopping me?”
In the face of April’s pressing questions, the officer who had nothing to offer beyond “security” simply fell silent.
She also needed to locate the whereabouts of the Trading Ship that House Lunos had owned.
April had been fifteen when House Confinement began, and she knew nothing whatsoever about her family’s affairs.
She didn’t know where to begin or how to reclaim what was hers, but one thing was clear: she had to account for every asset she possessed.
Yet there at the Bank’s entrance, that fundamental first plan had been blocked.
April looked at the police officer approaching to seize her. She recalled how Fejin’s subordinates had fled in terror, and instead of panic, she forced her anxiety down.
Once she resolved to do something strange, her actions followed without hesitation.
April placed the Bonnet on her head and opened the Parasol she’d brought. Since the sky was overcast, she’d brought it folded, unwilling to open it for sun protection—so tattered it was scarcely fit to unfold.
Just as expected, several officers who believed her to be the Witch of the Mist recoiled in fear at the mere sight of the Parasol opening. And oddly, the heavens themselves seemed to take her side.
As they stood at a standoff, rain began to fall, one drop at a time, from the gray sky above.
“I’m… changing the weather…….”
The Witch of the Mist.
So the rain was hardly surprising. Only terrifying to those who watched.
The police officers dared not approach her further and retreated, hesitant and wary. April stepped into the Bank building, still holding the Parasol over her head.
Even indoors, rain dripping from the open Parasol above her, she looked more like a madwoman than a witch—though to those seized by fear, the distinction was meaningless.
Having entered the Bank safely, April moved forward with an anxious tension, unsure whether anyone would block her path.
The banker who handled all of House Lunos’s business bore the surname Birta.
“Take me to Birta,” April said to the attendant.
But the attendant didn’t move a single step from her post.
April soon saw her face. It was familiar.
As expected, the attendant spoke.
“I—I’m Birta.”
“You were supposed to be a banker, not an attendant.”
“I… my father was the banker.”
Birta spoke with visible discomfort.
The children of magistrates became magistrates; the children of bankers became bankers. Though not nobility, they possessed the intellectual wealth to claim honor equivalent to minor aristocracy. Such was the standing of a banker.
The daughter of the banker Birta, the attendant Birta, stood at the door to greet visiting nobles and escort them to their assigned banker.
It was respectable work, certainly—but she was no banker herself.
“……Your name is?”
When April narrowed her eyes and asked, Birta answered urgently.
“It’s Mille. Mille Birta.”
April tried to recall her memories of visiting the Bank with her father.
He was a banker so tall he seemed to touch the ceiling, with cheeks sunken thin as bone. And beside him, a young woman learning the work—a girl now April’s own age—the memory came without effort.
“Ah.”
Now it came to her. That was indeed the daughter of the banker Birta, who had learned the work beside her father and greeted the young master of House Lunos who would one day inherit and take over.
Mille Birta spoke.
“I can introduce you to another banker. Though it will take some time…….”
“No. House Lunos has entrusted its banking affairs to the House of Birta for generations. And you learned under my father. I remember clearly.”
At April’s words, Mille Birta tensed and swallowed hard.
April’s assertion was typical of an aristocratic household’s thinking.
A noble family entrusted matters of money to one banker’s house alone.
While April had been confined to her home, significant changes had occurred in the Bank’s operations. But April knew nothing of these changes, and even if she had, she would refuse them as any proper aristocrat would, insisting on the methods she had known.
House Lunos was a family that made great fortunes through trade, lost them, and made them again—so her conservative stance was hardly difficult to understand.
The problem was that House Lunos no longer had its banker in House Birta, yet here was April looking for one.
Mille Birta, at a loss, excused herself briefly and asked something of an elderly-looking banker.
She soon returned to her place and spoke.
“Banking affairs are not my responsibility.”
Before April could press the point, Birta continued quickly.
“I still have my own duties to complete, so I cannot help you during work hours. You’ll need to wait until four o’clock when my shift ends—would that be acceptable?”
The walk here had been unavoidable, but on the way back, she should be able to withdraw at least some money from the Bank and hire a private carriage.
Though her return journey gave her some worry, April consoled herself with this thought and answered.
“I’ll wait.”
With that, April positioned herself to one side of the Bank and waited for the day’s business to end.
True to Birta’s word, work finished at four, but after tidying up and enduring a bit more advice, it was nearly five o’clock.
Mille hurried back to April.
Since Birta had no desk of her own, they settled on a sofa in one corner of the Bank to talk.
Mille placed a stack of documents and a cup of coffee before April and spoke.
“You’ve come to check the remaining assets of House Lunos, haven’t you? This is what remains of House Lunos now.”
April drew the papers closer and began turning through them one by one.
While April, unprotected and young, could do nothing, everyone with any connection to House Lunos had spirited away every Trading Ship. It was called the Inheritance Pretext.
The ruin of House Lunos seemed to stem from more than just the matter of the Grand Duke’s marriage.
To the Grand Duke, House Lunos was a dangerous entity that ought to be bound through matrimony.
If that binding failed, they would become a rival faction—so he had abetted the systematic stripping of House Lunos’s wealth.
As April slowly examined a document with a red line drawn through it—meaning April no longer existed—and below it the names of those who had taken what was hers, Birta spoke with quiet apology.
“I’m sorry. What I was able to protect…… was only this last sheet.”
April checked the names listed below the red line, one by one, and turned to the final page Mille had mentioned.
On the last page remained Bills of Exchange issued through the Bank—monies owed to House Lunos that had been abandoned as inheritance because the debtors were too troublesome to pursue.
“Difficult money to collect.”
“Yes. And…… there’s this much left as well.”
Birta pointed to a single receipt tucked between the Bills of Exchange.
It was a single ship—one that had entered construction after a down payment was made, but which could not be collected because the remaining balance had not been paid.

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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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