The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 117

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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 117
Board games were always Pejin’s downfall. He grumbled to the Emperor.
“Can’t I stop playing this? I’d actually enjoy it if I won once in a while.”
“As it stands, I’m not enjoying myself.”
“Then I’m quitting. I’m too disheartened.”
Pejin rose as he spoke. The Emperor glanced over the game board, which he’d dominated, and said:
“If you wish, bring April here.”
“Yes, I’ll do that if I can. She’d be a worthy opponent for Your Majesty.”
“Now that’s something I look forward to.”
“But if you call her ‘April’ at your first meeting, you’ll get an earful.”
“An earful of what?”
“She hates it when people she’s not close to use her first name. You should call her Lunos to avoid trouble.”
The Emperor, amused by this tidbit, laughed warmly.
“A woman with clear boundaries, then.”
“I’ve never seen anyone so adamant about boundaries in my life. Rigid, cold…….”
Pejin murmured as he contemplated April Lunos.
“……vivid. That’s what she is.”
Why had that word come to mind?
Struggling to understand what he himself had said, Pejin turned the word over in his thoughts—that word, vivid.
It didn’t take long to arrive at an answer.
April Lunos was vivid to him. Rigid and cold, yes, but unmistakably clear. Whether he searched his heart or looked before his eyes, she appeared in vivid detail.
It was then that Pejin, for the first time, understood that moment when April had found him even behind a Mask.
Because she was so vivid.
Even with his eyes closed, he often saw her.
There must have been a time when he was that vivid to her as well.
But it would fade soon enough.
* * *
The daylight on Right Island was growing longer.
The people of Right Island, who preferred vivid colors to grayscale, had taken it upon themselves to grow flowers rarely seen in the Grand Duchy’s sparse climate.
When April stepped outside, she found the streets flooded with people dressed in all manner of beautiful colors.
Before entering the Dye Factory owned by Eleonore Merrow, April dressed carefully for the occasion—not only donning a Mask but also changing her clothes entirely, at Eleonore’s insistence.
“When it comes to Dye, no amount of protective gear is excessive.”
“Even ordinary dyes are like that?”
“Of course. You really know nothing about Dye, do you?”
“I’ll learn from now on.”
“You answer well, at least.”
Eleonore jabbed at her with her characteristically sharp tongue, yet she still wasn’t satisfied with April’s Protective Suit. She cinched the cord one final time, so tightly that April thought the only way to remove it would be to cut it clean through.
After all that preparation, when they entered the factory, it was humming with activity.
Eleonore’s face grew pleased, and she spoke to April.
“Even the Lunos Family proves useful to me sometimes.”
“It’s a technique I can only entrust to people I trust.”
April answered and watched the Dye intently.
The first method Eleonore selected was the conventional one—creating color using Lapis Lazuli.
She took the raw stone they’d brought, ground it into powder, and processed it to create Dye. Simple, but breathtakingly expensive.
April spoke.
“We’ll need to charge handsomely for this.”
“Honestly, only nobility could afford to use it.”
“Yes, that’s what it looks like.”
“Which is why I don’t think they got all of this from just that mine to paint the walls of Lunos Residence. They must have sourced it from somewhere else.”
April agreed with that assessment.
She spoke to Eleonore, as if she’d been waiting for this opening.
“We should be able to set sail by September.”
“Not ‘should be able to.’ If we don’t go then, there won’t be another chance.”
“Yes, the season doesn’t allow it.”
“You’ve loaded enough gold and silver?”
“Yes. We have investors now.”
April nodded as she answered.
The fast ship that would undertake a long voyage searching for a lost route was to be laden with considerable cargo. With investors secured, that quantity had only grown.
The ship, which hadn’t set sail for far too long, was in terrible condition, and there wasn’t much time to repair it.
Yet as Eleonore said, the ship had to launch in September—no question.
October, when the Sea of the Grand Duchy turned into a hellscape, had to be avoided at any cost.
Following Eleonore’s instructions, they dyed fabric and confirmed the dyed cloth hung on clotheslines outside the factory to dry. April deliberately requested that these dyed fabrics be hung somewhere many people could see them.
And she made it known to the factory workers that “this Dye will not be sold to any ordinary citizen, only to Miller Dieusz.”
The factory staff carried word home, and “the treatment for Fog” reached the ears of every person in the Grand Duchy within moments.
After finishing her inspection of the factory, April accepted a small bag containing an Ink Bottle sealed tightly with Dye inside and tucked it into her satchel.
When she stepped outside the factory, there were exactly as many Grand Duchy citizens gathered at the gates as she’d anticipated.
The coachman employed by the Lunos Family spoke to April carefully.
“There are so many people in front that I don’t think the carriage can pass through. Moreover, if we open that iron gate, they might rush in.”
“True.”
April nodded and turned toward the iron gate.
Beyond the metal bars of the tightly closed gate, she met the eyes of an angry citizen.
April moved toward the gate and faced the citizen.
Ever since Pejin had severely punished a citizen who’d harmed April, those who’d freely cursed at her or thrown things had vanished.
She’d thought that suppressing them like that would only make their anger grow—but it was the opposite. Fear, paradoxically, had dampened the citizens’ rage.
Come to think of it, it was the same for April herself when it came to Miller Dieusz.
Even as she felt anger toward him, there was always, somehow, a ceiling to that anger. It was because fear lived inside her.
April looked at the citizens and spoke.
“I’m not saying I won’t sell it, and I’m saying I’ll sell it all to the Grand Duke. Why are you angry? Should I have just given it to everyone?”
“You could, couldn’t you? If you had a kind heart!”
“Don’t you remember how many people came to watch when the Head and Headmistress of the Lunos Family were executed? Why were you all so entertained by the news that my daughter’s betrothed had fallen in love with another woman?”
The citizens froze at April’s caustic tone.
She continued.
“I have not the slightest reason, not the least bit of desire, to care for the people of the Grand Duchy.”
“…….”
“The fact that I’m selling it to the Grand Duke at a high price is my generosity—understand that. And move. Keep blocking this gate and I won’t sell him the Dye either.”
As she spoke, she gestured for the carriage.
The carriage moved toward her. The coachman opened the door, helped April in, and closed it again.
Shortly after, the iron gate opened and the carriage passed through. No one was blocking its path anymore.
* * *
Upon returning to the Grand Duchy, Pejin first sought April, and was told she’d left the Dye Factory and was heading for Merrow House.
Since he’d meant to visit Merrow House anyway to speak with Jeff Merrow, Pejin made for the residence as soon as he’d set down his things at Police Headquarters.
At Merrow House, only Jeff sat in the study, and he didn’t emerge even when told Pejin had arrived.
Pejin was shown by the butler to the Patio to wait for April.
Not long after, April arrived at Merrow House. Upon hearing Pejin was on the Patio, she sought him out at once.
Pejin, cradling a small bag containing an Ink Bottle, asked when he saw April appear.
“What is it that you’re carrying so carefully?”
“Dye.”
“Ah, something precious indeed.”
To Pejin’s understanding response, April asked:
“You really haven’t told Miller or the Empire about the Dye?”
“No. I said I wouldn’t.”
“You said something about honesty and three months, right?”
“How do rumors spread so fast?”
Pejin grumbled, and April set the bag down on the table. Then she checked with a glance that no one was nearby.
She pulled a chair close to Pejin and sat, asking:
“Is keeping quiet about the Dye the kind of thing that deserves Honesty?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I’ve been investigating my brother lately, and that got found out too. It’s only natural for family to be curious about each other, so why is it suspicious? If anything, someone I know would be curious, not someone I…….”
“Pejin.”
Pejin, who’d been rambling thoughtlessly, turned to look at April, who’d called his name.
“What?”
“The Fog’s cause was the Empire.”
“…….”
And there, Pejin went utterly still.
He hadn’t expected April to broach this subject first.
“The Empire is killing the people of the Grand Duchy, Pejin.”
April Lunos, already vivid, became even more so.

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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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