The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 135

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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 135
Pejin let out a hollow laugh and asked.
“You’re afraid, aren’t you? How does ‘I borrowed it’ come from someone who was scared?”
“Fear and this are separate matters. I never authorized anyone to build a factory here.”
“True enough. The previous Head of the Lunos Family opposed it from the start.”
“Right. Surprising to hear sense from you.”
April, having answered thus, fell silent again, her expression complicated. Pejin spoke to her.
“You don’t trust me?”
April turned to face him without answering, and Pejin added an explanation.
“Because you think I’m from the Empire.”
“I didn’t think that first. You’re the one who said it.”
“Fair point.”
“And beyond that. As for you… I can’t trust you anymore.”
Pejin nodded, and April continued.
“It’s not the first time either. Even when we were young, you had no credibility. One day you suddenly started hating me.”
……
April was right.
Pejin had, one day without warning, begun to hate April Lunos.
Now Pejin wondered why his heart had changed. She had been this kind of person before, and she hadn’t changed now.
Yet why had he hated her then, and loved her now?
Pejin recalled yesterday’s events.
“Just before coming here, I saw my nephew. Joshua. You’ve seen him, haven’t you?”
“Yes. I saw him. He resembled Heidi.”
“That boy didn’t like you.”
At Pejin’s words, April nodded as though it made perfect sense.
Pejin went on.
“So I told him that his parents had broken the betrothal, and he got quite angry about it.”
“How would a child that young even understand that?”
“He did. He was shocked for a moment, then forgot about it right away. Being a child, after all.”
Pejin nodded and spoke in a low voice.
“Seeing my nephew reminded me of when I hated you in the same way he did.”
The conversation stopped there, though they stood in that place a while longer. Afterward, the two of them left the factory floor.
They tried to open an office where documents might be kept, but the locks were beyond what their keys could manage. In the end, they needed help from someone inside.
The two soon returned to where Leon Kiss, a factory employee, was located.
Pejin gestured toward him with his chin and spoke to April.
“Aside from the locked doors, to read those gas readings and such, we’ll need that man’s mind.”
“How do we convince him? He was hostile to us.”
“Why convince? Just beat him senseless. Easy.”
“Perhaps.”
When April surprisingly agreed, Pejin laughed.
“I thought you said things shouldn’t be simple?”
“I was joking.”
“You meant it as a threat.”
Pejin’s remark was tinged with reproach.
Leon Kiss seemed to have regained some consciousness, and when April agreed with Pejin’s suggestion about beating him, his face went deathly pale.
Pejin spoke to April.
“I’ll do the convincing.”
“Will you threaten his life?”
“No, I’ll talk to him first.”
As he said this, the moment Pejin freed Leon’s mouth, he began pouring out words.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, Inspector. I won’t say a word. So let’s just say today never happened……”
Even in such a frightening situation, the way he spoke suggested Leon wasn’t likely to move easily on behalf of unwanted visitors.
April was carefully considering how to persuade him when Pejin lowered himself onto one knee in front of Leon. Whether from the pain of the knife wound, Leon shrank back as Pejin drew near, his eyes wavering.
Pejin opened his mouth.
“I know why you resist persuasion.”
……
“We’ve spoken of it before. Your upbringing was similar to mine.”
“……I’m not nobility, and I was raised in poverty. You didn’t even grow potatoes. How is that similar?”
“I misspoke. My apologies. In any case, the part about crossing to the Empire as a child and growing up there—that much is tenuously similar.”
“……Yes, that’s tenuously so.”
Leon nodded in acknowledgment.
He had been born into dire poverty, yet had a remarkably sharp mind. When his exceptional aptitude for learning became apparent in school, an Empiresman who visited his home one day made him an offer.
Leon’s parents seized the opportunity. Together with Leon, they left Right Island and set their course for the Rasa Empire.
Thus Leon crossed over, received his education in the Empire, and after graduation returned to the Grand Duchy to begin working in service to the Empire.
Pejin spoke in a measured tone.
“That’s why I know what you think of yourself.”
“Know… what do you mean?”
“When you first went to the Empire as a child, you think: I must cast off the shackles of being from Right Island. I must escape that land forever. We’re still young then, so we believe that’s the only answer, and we live by it.”
……
“But then, after struggling with all your might, when you become somewhat like the Empiresfolk, you realize: I can never become one of them.”
……
“They will forever think of me as an exotic toy brought from a colony.”
April stopped, watching Pejin.
Pejin held Leon’s gaze and continued.
“When you try to forget that truth, the Empiresfolk remind you with their words. ‘Know your place,’ they say. ‘You’re not like us.’ We keep struggling, and the more we do, the deeper we sink. Eventually, we give up.”
……
“In the end, this is my life. Standing right before the shore with barely one hand raised above the water, sinking to the neck—that’s where I belong. I’ll never climb out from here, but if I stay still, I won’t sink any deeper.”
Leon said nothing. His body began to tremble with fury, but fear kept him from expressing it.
Pejin rose to his feet and spoke to him.
“But I’ve decided to struggle from now on.”
……
“I’m going to swim in the opposite direction, away from the shore.”
……
“Even if my destination sinks, I’m going to try.”
There was no hesitation in Pejin’s voice. Perhaps because of it, Leon’s trembling—a mixture of rage and fear—gradually subsided.
Pejin did not press him, and neither did April.
The two waited for Leon’s decision.
In the meantime, April leaned against the wall, lost in thought.
For over an hour, Leon remained deep in contemplation. Yet neither of them urged him forward.
At last, Leon spoke.
“……I didn’t want to cross to the Empire in the first place, Inspector.”
“Neither did I.”
“People in the Grand Duchy don’t favor Primary Colors, do they? Because so much snow falls.”
“It seems the things you brought were all disposed of.”
“Yes. To the Empiresfolk, Primary Colors are nature’s colors, and refinement is nearly synonymous with white. The few possessions I had were insulted and discarded. They were small, but……they were still memories.”
“You get dressed completely from head to toe in different garments.”
“Even for someone of the Dieusz Family’s standing?”
“Even more so for me.”
“I imagine so.”
April closed her eyes briefly.
She recalled how Pejin kept giving her gifts in white or very pale beige. It was connected to his own upbringing. He had come to prefer white.
After thinking for a while longer, Leon spoke.
“I don’t wish to stake my life for the Grand Duchy, nor for the Empire. If I’m not useful, you’ll kill me, won’t you?”
“That’s the plan.”
“I’ll help you. Tell me where you need to go.”
As he said this, he looked at April, but she was lost in thought and didn’t answer immediately.
“April.”
When Pejin called her name, she finally responded.
“There was an accident management department. Can you open that door?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ll try.”
Leon said so and led the way forward.
Pejin spoke to April.
“When did you even see an accident management department?”
“When you were looking at my face.”
“If you showed me your face more often, I wouldn’t become so obsessed.”
“It’s the same face anyway. What good is seeing it?”
“So I can remember. So I can recall it when I’m back in the Empire and want to see it.”
Pejin spoke this as a taunt, and kept watch over Leon’s movements to ensure he didn’t lose focus midway.
Watching the two of them lead from a step behind, April found Pejin’s words echoing in her mind.
“I’m going to swim in the opposite direction, away from the shore.”
His words sent ripples through her heart.
If they did so to her, how much more would they to Leon Kiss, who like him had crossed to the Empire at a young age.
April had resolved not to trust Pejin anymore, yet those words spoken moments ago felt almost like sincerity.

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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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