The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 116

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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 116
Once Kritz had sobered completely, he pulled April into his arms.
“Please, think calmly about this, April. You said you wanted to launch a trade ship, didn’t you? Without one, food supplies would be cut off.”
……
“Then we must launch the trade ship and maintain relations with the Empire until we find another channel to bring in provisions. So, April…….”
April sank into thought in Kritz’s embrace, where he seemed prepared to hold her until she gave him the answer he wanted.
After a long moment, she spoke.
“I understand that we can’t let our relationship with the Empire fall apart completely until food supplies are stable.”
Only then did Kritz release her. April continued.
“But Miller needs to know.”
“Pardon?”
“The head of the Grand Duchy should know the truth.”
April’s eyes looked as though blood might spill from them at any moment.
“This is a problem for the entire Grand Duchy, so Miller Dieusz’s strength will absolutely be necessary.”
Kritz had never been so curious about another person’s heart in his life.
* * *
“Logan.”
“Yes?”
“Is there any magic we can use in a situation like this?”
“That wouldn’t be magic—it’s an enormous current we can’t escape.”
At Logan’s brisk answer, Pejin clicked his tongue.
The moment Pejin heard that he was supposed to report to Miller and the upper ranks of the Empire Police that he had “found nothing,” Paul, who had warned him against it from the start, added a word.
“I warned you. I said it wouldn’t work. Now you’re going to face disciplinary action for negligence of duty.”
“Will there be punishment?”
“It depends on how you answer at the hearing. Please, speak carefully. Please.”
“I received a good education in other things, but not in that one. How to speak prettily.”
“Are you boasting about that? Logan, what should you say at the hearing to come out of this with minimal damage?”
Then Logan, who had been practicing Coin Magic, answered.
“Because you did it for April’s sake, tell the truth. That’s the best approach.”
“How is that the best?”
“Well, if you go on about loving her and reminiscing about your youth, there’s a good chance they’ll let it slide. Honestly, anyone who knows April’s face would understand…….”
Logan, speaking thoughtlessly, felt Pejin and Paul’s eyes fall on him simultaneously and looked up.
“The captain might understand, but why are you glaring at me, sir?”
“You have no right to compliment her.”
“It was just thinking aloud.”
While they were saying such pointless things, the carriage carrying the three of them arrived at the Empire Police Headquarters.
The three men who stepped out of the carriage looked up at the building simultaneously.
It was an enormous structure made of white brick. Empire people often joked that the Imperial Police Headquarters building looked like the Stock Exchange. In reality, the exterior of the two buildings was not significantly different.
Pejin entered the room where police officials had gathered for the hearing.
While waiting for Pejin, Logan and Paul wandered nervously through the police headquarters’ break room.
Paul kept sitting down and standing up without rest, then for a while couldn’t even remain seated before asking Logan a question.
“What do you think the odds are that the captain will answer eloquently and get off with just a reprimand?”
“Without question, they’d be very low.”
While they waited talking like that, Pejin returned from the hearing to where they were.
His expression was so refreshed that it gave them false hope—might the impossible have happened?
“How did it go?” Paul asked, gathering what little hope remained.
Pejin answered him.
“Three months’ suspension.”
“Suspension?”
It was the worst outcome.
They had thought at best a reprimand, or at worst a pay cut.
On a junior police officer’s salary, one could afford a shabby boarding house in the Imperial Capital and get by adequately, and with Pejin’s rank, one could live somewhat better than that.
If calculating by the Grand Duchy’s standards, one could even buy a fine estate, but since Pejin had inherited considerable money and regularly invested it well at the Stock Exchange, the sum meant little to him—so a pay cut had become a way of saying “we’ll let you off easy.” Suspension, however, was different.
But suspension was another matter entirely.
“Suspension……. God, suspension.”
Paul covered his face with his hands.
With this, he had definitely fallen behind Lian Ragnar in the competition for the position of Empire Police Commissioner. Suspension was the maximum disciplinary action possible for negligence of duty.
While Paul looked as though the sky were falling around him, Logan—who seemed instead to have reached some kind of enlightenment—remained oddly calm. Paul turned to him and asked.
“Why are you so composed? Do you have something to trust in?”
“Yes, I do.”
“You do?”
“I’ve invested in April’s trade ship. April will take responsibility for my second life!”
“You’re only just twenty—where do you get off talking about a second life? And did you not know the Lunos Family has sent six or seven trade ships on each voyage? Large vessels have such a high probability of running aground on reefs.”
“Of course I know. But if we’re talking about probability, I’ve never seen April lose at gambling.”
“That’s her personal ability; this is different.”
“Still, I’ll place my faith in it. Her gambling luck.”
Paul grew exasperated with Logan’s reasoning, then furrowed his brow and asked.
“Are you going to leave the police?”
“If Ragnar becomes the Empire Police Commissioner……. Or even just the Capital Police Commissioner, I’d have to resign anyway. I need to find a place to invest.”
“Then I’m coming with you to talk you out of it. What happens to me if you’re just looking out for yourself?”
“You think he’s the kind of man who’d listen to being talked out of something?!”
Pejin watched the two of them bicker in front of him and clicked his tongue, then abruptly turned away.
Paul and Logan followed him but didn’t stop arguing. The headquarters officers glanced over at the three of them making such a racket.
Still arguing, the three made their way back to Pejin’s Residence.
June in the Imperial Capital brought weather of almost unreal beauty. Cheap, excellent fruit flooded the markets, and every tree burst into remarkable bloom.
The three stretched out beneath the shade of the trees, finding comfortable spots.
After a long silence, Paul finally spoke.
“How do you plan to manage?”
“I’ll do my best.”
At Pejin’s answer, Logan raised his torso and spoke.
“Putting you on suspension now means the Special Investigation Bureau will be dissolved soon. Someone else will take over those duties, and from that point on, I can’t guarantee April’s safety.”
“I know.”
“Stopping one dye leak won’t save the Grand Duchy.”
At Logan’s words, Pejin looked up at the trees for a moment, then murmured.
“I’ll place my faith in gambling luck too.”
* * *
With suspension pending, Pejin stood before August Lilyhil, the Emperor of the Empire.
The Emperor and Pejin sat facing each other across a table and began a traditional Empire board game. For a while they exchanged pleasantries and threw dice as they played, and the two men gradually turned to the main subject.
August spoke.
“You failed the investigation because you didn’t want to touch the dye?”
“It’s supposedly toxic.”
Pejin continued with visible distaste.
“I had no desire to conduct such an intensive investigation while risking contact with a poison.”
The answer was so quintessentially Pejin Dieusz that August sighed.
“Your height is wasted. You can extract it and make clothes and wallpaper from it, yet you’re afraid of a mere dye, you fool?”
“Your Majesty, look at these fine hands of mine. Wouldn’t it naturally be a shame if they were even slightly damaged?”
Pejin protested as if bewildered.
“I genuinely fail to understand why I was suspended over something so trivial.”
“I wouldn’t have given you such a punishment just for that.”
“That’s what I thought. What else could I possibly have done wrong?”
“I hear you’ve been conducting a background investigation on the Grand Duke.”
At that, Pejin casually laid down a card and answered.
“Yes, somewhat. I’ve been displeased with what my brother’s been doing lately.”
“What did you find to make you act so petulant?”
“I haven’t discovered much yet. Since I can’t command the Grand Duchy Police.”
At his words, the Emperor smiled without comment.
He won today’s game too, just as always, overwhelming Pejin by a vast margin. After his victory, the Emperor spoke to Pejin.
“I’ll send someone else to the Special Investigation Bureau shortly. There will be some time while I’m vetting candidates, so gradually put your Grand Duchy affairs in order.”
“I suspected you’d say something like that.”
Pejin answered thus and conceded the game.
The Emperor spoke.
“Be grateful that I didn’t cast you out to the Grand Duchy but brought you back here instead.”
“I’m always grateful for that, whether you say it or not.”
“I’ve even found you a marriage prospect. When you return, go meet her right away.”
“I have a poor personality despite my appearance, so please warn her about that before the meeting.”
“I know that better than anyone, so don’t worry about it.”
The Emperor seemed genuinely pleased at the thought that Pejin would be returning to the Empire entirely.
He continued with a smile.
“I was worried about your brother. He’s a willful man who fell in love and married the governess’s daughter. So there were times I hoped you’d become Grand Duke instead……. But the more I see of him, the more Miller seems suited for the position of Grand Duke.”
At those words, Pejin found himself smiling without thinking.
“I think so too, from what I can see.”

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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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