The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 102

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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 102
* * *
April found herself reflecting anew on the fact that the Lunos Family was a trading house.
The people gathered at the funeral under semi-compulsion seized the opportunity of this unwanted assembly to buy and sell things they needed from one another.
Until now, fearing the Grand Duke’s displeasure, they had avoided meeting each other; and with little chance of gathering again in the future, they meant to settle everything today.
She had expected that if she offered drinks, she might hear stories from her parents’ days in the Social Season, but those tales ended quickly, and they continued speaking only of money.
April kept time with those conversations appropriately before turning toward Mille.
Mille, finally able to speak with her, said:
“The funeral, Miss. It was truly a brilliant idea. A legal way to draw funds into the main house.”
“Yes, though I feel some guilt toward my parents for using it this way.”
“They will be pleased. With just the money we can use immediately, we can repay all the debts owed against the Fiefdom as collateral. And there is still money left over to send one ship out to the distant Sea.”
“So we can send a ship now.”
“Yes, we can send a ship, Miss April. But finding a crew…”
Mille trailed off with concern, and April answered:
“We’re looking. Putting candidates to the test.”
“I see.”
Mille nodded, then drew a breath that seemed to release a chest that had been heavy with worry until this day arrived. She extended her hand and spoke:
“You did truly well this time, Head of House.”
April gazed at Mille’s hand for a moment, then slowly raised her own to shake it.
Because she was young and because the Lunos Family had no one else but her, no one had ever called her by that title.
Yet by summoning her relatives to this gathering, she had secured that name from someone who would manage her assets.
April answered calmly:
“I haven’t even reached the starting point yet. The Lunos Family truly begins the moment we launch the ship.”
“That’s true. We’ll need to see the ship’s condition. For that… we really do need a trustworthy captain.”
“Yes.”
As she answered, April looked in the direction where the Empire lay.
“That will have to be left to fate now.”
If the Navigator brought Irsa, she intended to make her the captain.
Irsa had sufficient experience, but her left-handedness had prevented her from holding a steady berth on any ship. She was the finest sailor April could find.
Late into the night, April saw off the mourners as they departed one by one.
Standing all day in unusually high heels, walking about, and talking had left her feeling, by the time dawn approached, as though her body no longer belonged to her.
“April, wouldn’t you go inside and rest now?”
Jeff asked with concern, and April answered:
“I should see off those who came from afar to the very end. I can manage.”
“Even so, your face has gone quite pale…”
“Once all the guests have gone, I’ll rest all I like.”
When she insisted, Jeff looked to his wife as though asking for help.
Yet Eleonore, contrary to his intent, took April’s side.
“Why are you telling a girl who says she can to go inside?”
“I’m afraid it’s too much for her…”
“It’s just one day. You’re worried a girl barely past childhood can’t endure even that one day?”
Eleonore pulled Jeff closer and continued:
“She’s the one who gathered the entire family here. She’s a strong child—let her make her own decisions. Just be ready to help when she needs it.”
At Eleonore’s words, Jeff’s face brightened with realization.
“You’re absolutely right.”
He nodded in agreement, then spoke to April:
“Still, April, let me worry about you. I… may not be able to take my brother’s place, but we want to be parents to you when you need one.”
As if they had already discussed it, Eleonore nodded.
April nodded, then embraced them both in turn.
Eleonore spoke:
“From now on, send any suitors first to the Marrow Family. You said a suitor came to you right away? That makes no sense.”
“Well, about that…”
The moment April heard her uncle and aunt’s words, a complaint escaped her involuntarily, and she gave a slight laugh before continuing:
“It was a complete disaster when the suitor arrived.”
“But I heard you handled it well. You used Pejin to get rid of him, didn’t you?”
“Well, ‘get rid of’ might not be quite the right phrase…”
“You can be honest with us. Does the Head of the Lunos Family marry into the Grand Family? That makes no sense.”
“But there was an inheritance coming in the form of a ship.”
“In any case, you’re just like a true member of the Lunos Family—obsessed with ships.”
Eleonore spoke as though exasperated, and April laughed along with Jeff beside her.
April found it strange that she was laughing. And it struck her as strange too that, despite how long it had been since seeing them, they felt truly like family.
As dawn broke the next day, the carriage of the last mourner departed the Fiefdom.
April had begun to collapse into sleep when she suddenly opened her eyes at the thought that she had never thanked Pejin.
While she had been at the Convent, the Dieusz Family had returned home, and Pejin had likely left at that time as well.
Indeed, given the history between the families and though he had come seeking to understand the situation, it was strange that the Dieusz Family had stayed so long.
* * *
Miller had spent the night even more on edge than April.
He knew what kind of gathering the funeral was—a method of obtaining funds for the Lunos Family’s head of house under the guise of condolence money.
Unlike when it was impossible to predict how much would be collected, the moment people conscious of their common lineage gathered, the way they looked at the Grand Duke’s house changed.
The fourteen-year-old April Lunos they remembered had grown into a woman standing in that place.
Her still-girlish, doll-like face gazed at the priest with a sorrow that did not seem sorrow at all, and stubbornness emanated from her pressed lips.
As the master of this Grand Fiefdom, Miller had arranged a front seat for her as though she were a chief mourner, and her face was visible to him in a way that grated on his nerves.
He turned to look at her several times, but April never glanced in his direction.
The April of that day did not seem like someone who would meekly step back from something she could not hold in her hand.
Instead of appearing grief-stricken or pitiful, she chose to seem resolute—like someone who, unable to restore the Lunos Family of old, would burn it all down instead.
She appeared, unmistakably, like a witch in the grand mansion atop the hill, its windows flooding with gas lamp light.
The sharpened edge of this head of house united the family. And the more united they became, the more they exaggerated their own strength. In the end, they even began to regard the Dieusz couple as enemies.
When she summoned a banker and openly demanded condolence money, it seemed absurd, and yet he understood—the family took pride in it.
It was natural that when a head of house gained power, the relatives branching from her would gain momentum as well.
He had no way of knowing how much April had raised.
The uncertainty itself was troubling, yet on another level, he thought rationally that the probability of her actually beginning trade was absurdly low, and the likelihood of her succeeding at it was not even one in a hundred.

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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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