The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 11

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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 11
Birta, a banker, had been uncooperative with those seeking to carve up the Lunos Family’s fortune, and as a result, after protecting the final ledger, he had to leave the bank.
In the end, his daughter, who had been learning banking, never became a banker herself.
After confirming the final ledger, April asked a question.
“Once I settle all these promissory notes, will I be able to pay the balance on the ship?”
At her words, Birta shook his head with regret.
Birta pulled out an abacus and spoke.
“With Lunos, it’s all about the Trade Ship, so I understand your desire to keep the vessel. But by any calculation, it’s impossible. The balance payment has already fallen too far behind. If you don’t sell it as quickly as possible, it will become a debt instead.”
……
There was no way for April to produce the balance payment now.
April had no choice but to agree to selling the ship.
Fortunately, the proceeds from selling the ship were enough to maintain the mansion and allow April to live out her remaining years quietly.
After finishing the business and leaving the bank, it was already past eight o’clock, and the sun had completely set.
Though the immediate funding problem was resolved, her heart felt heavy knowing she could not save even a single Trade Ship—the very symbol of the Lunos Family.
April pressed her temples with her palms, feeling a headache from the guilt, and stood at the Plaza Carriage Station, waving her hand to catch a passing carriage.
But whenever one stopped in front of her, the driver would recognize her face from newspaper photographs and, seized by panic, would flee.
When April stepped into the road and waved her hand more frantically, this time a carriage came hurtling toward her as if intent on running her down.
As April froze, unable to move before the galloping horse, someone’s hand suddenly yanked her body away.
The carriage continued on without stopping, and April exhaled a trembling breath moments too late.
As she slowly turned around, Pejin, still holding her body in his arms, looked down at her with a furrowed brow.
April looked up at him and asked.
“Why?”
“Why? Can’t you read the situation?”
Fair point.
April herself found her own question strange.
She pushed against his body with her arms and stepped away from his embrace, saying.
“Fearlessly.”
“You’ve been talking strangely since just now. Since when am I fearless?”
“Then what is it? You watched the police fall with your own eyes and you’re still helping me? That’s reckless, not fearless.”
When April, unable to accept unconditional kindness, instead criticized him, Pejin’s expression twisted.
“Better not to speak at all. You’d be more appealing with your mouth shut. You’d be prettier if you stayed quiet.”
“You’re the one who shouldn’t speak. You’re ruining the compliment.”
“Which part of what I said was a compliment?”
“That I’m pretty.”
“That’s just a fact. It’s not even my type anyway.”
As Pejin spoke, he let his eyes run across April’s face.
April was exasperated by his gaze, which clearly intended to hurt her feelings, and sharply turned her head away.
Of course, she was aware that she was the one who had picked a quarrel with her rescuer first.
Was it because he was the first ‘person she knew’ she’d met after her confinement?
When she saw Pejin’s face, the extreme tension that had parasitized her body for the past seven years eased just a little.
And then she would whine like a child sprawling before someone who cared for her.
Never mind care—he probably harbored something closer to hatred.
He’d even said her face wasn’t his type.
In any case, she was sorry about picking the quarrel, but the comment about taste left a bad feeling.
She knew all too well what kind of face Pejin liked. The brothers’ taste was identical, after all.
When speaking of taste, Pejin had probably conjured up Heidi Deus’s face again.
The rain had not yet stopped, and by the time April had struggled to catch a carriage, it had grown too late for any more to appear.
Pejin checked the Clock Tower on one side of the plaza and spoke to April.
“I’ll lend you my carriage.”
Pejin said this and began searching for his gloves, pulling them on.
Seeing that he was only now putting on his gloves, April realized that Pejin had not happened to pass by and help her by chance.
He must have come running without even the presence of mind to put on his gloves.
How strange. As a child he’d thought of nothing but himself, and now he thought of others.
April followed him somewhat awkwardly, but dragging her long dress through the mud made it impossible to keep pace with his swift stride.
During the seven years when April had no one to walk in step with, he had been among the hot-blooded youths of the Military Academy. That pace could not be matched.
“Pejin, wait.”
When she called to him, Pejin stopped and looked back at April. Then, bewildered, he asked in return.
“Why are you following me?”
“You said you’d lend me your carriage.”
“Why are you walking through this mud in that dress? Just stay there. I’ll be right back.”
Having said that, he started to go toward the carriage, but then Pejin, unable to understand something, returned with his expression thoroughly contorted.
“Wait. I don’t want my clothes to get dirty.”
Pejin said this, then placed one knee over her instep. And he began tying the loosened laces of April’s shoes.
“It’s a miracle you didn’t fall.”
April started at his unexpected action, but realizing it was for her sake, she soon calmed herself.
There was no particular weight felt on her instep. It was truly just because he didn’t want his clothes to get dirty, and somehow that struck her as oddly funny.
He could’ve left the shoelaces alone, but they’d need to be tied again anyway.
Finding it amusing, April standing in place covered her mouth with her hand and began to laugh.
Through the gaps in her delicate fingers, her laughter inevitably leaked out, and Pejin lifted his head to look up at her.
“What’s so funny?”
“You.”
“Ah, so I’m the type whose face makes people laugh just by looking at it.”
At his words, April began laughing more openly, with a clear, bright sound.
Strange—tears came as she laughed.
It had been so many years since she’d truly laughed with joy.
All she knew for certain was that it must have been when her parents were alive.
April covered her entire face with the hand that had covered her mouth.
Tears rolled down her palms. The rain was falling anyway, so it wasn’t particularly noticeable.
Having finished tying the shoelaces and risen, Pejin spoke.
“Are you laughing or crying?”
“Laughing.”
“You cry quite a lot when you laugh.”
Pejin then pulled out a handkerchief.
He unfolded it and tied it around April’s wrist, which she held covering her face with both hands.
“Wait a moment.”
Pejin said this and moved toward the carriage waiting for him.
April stood in place briefly, barely composing her tears, and looked at the handkerchief tied around her wrist.
In the meantime, a carriage stopped before her.
The driver was troubled by the reality of having to drive April through the dark night, but defying Pejin’s order was a practical pressure he couldn’t resist, so he’d brought the carriage reluctantly.
Pejin, who had been sitting beside the driver, descended and opened the door, speaking.
“I’ll be conducting another investigation of Lunos Mansion. Once a date is set, I’ll inform you first.”
“As you wish.”
April spoke and gestured for the carriage door to be closed.
That night, when April returned to the grand Lunos Mansion, it took her a long time to fall asleep.
Over the past seven years, she had harbored similar thoughts, but today every thought that came to mind was different from her usual ones, and that was the problem.
Guilt over disposing of the ship, fear of the church—things like that.
And strangely, among all of these, what rose most vividly in her mind was the sensation of his knee against her instep.
Looking back now at why she’d laughed so hard at that, she felt oddly embarrassed.
When she tried to erase the tender things from her mind, that small weight broke through her chest instead.
April tried to forget that weight. Fortunately, when she recalled her resentment toward his brother, that intense emotion gradually dimmed it.
That night, her parents came to her in a dream. When she apologized for disposing of the ship, they smiled and said there was nothing in this world more precious than her.
She complained, and she took walks in the still-beautiful Lunos Territory.
It was a dream where she heard only what she wanted to hear and did only what she wanted to do. It was her first pleasant dream since her parents had passed away.

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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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