The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 146

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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 146
* * *
August Lilyhil found it curious the way April greeted him with such an at-ease expression.
Perhaps it was audacity—for as soon as she had offered her greeting, she turned back to Pejin and half-concealed herself behind him.
In Pejin’s reports all this while, April had been a truly unremarkable person.
The April Lunos in his reports was someone already incapable who, after seven years of confinement, had become even more incapable—utterly beyond saving.
The reports filled several pages with nothing but praise of her beauty. Nothing else, they insisted, was there to say.
[She is docile. Or rather, she has become docile. She displays a highly obedient temperament, and thus cannot undertake any major initiative.]
Before meeting April in person, August Lilyhil had doubted that assessment.
Regardless, she was of the Lunos Family, who once wielded command of the sea routes around Right Island.
Had she not even attempted escape from the laboratory?
The docile and obedient do not attempt such things.
Yet the April Lunos who arrived in the Imperial Capital was genuinely demure. She merely smiled like a doll, all dimples and sweetness, as though her pretty face were the sum of all she possessed.
There were no such ladies in the Empire. Now that he had seen her face, he understood perfectly why Pejin would defy opposition to marry her.
Perhaps his concerns had been needless.
Moreover, the name of the Lunos Family could prove a considerable asset to Left Island.
As merchant vessels sailed to distant seas, August heard the family’s name again and again.
Though they pursued reckless investment, continually sending ships to ever more distant horizons, the actual wealth accumulated in the Lunos coffers was modest.
But those intangible assets…
Countless sea routes, and the goodwill earned along every one of them—a fortune astronomical enough to reshape an entire world.
Though April Lunos possessed little now, the name Lunos itself would bring vast wealth to Left Island in time.
His appetite grew. And besides—did not the man himself contradict his own consistent reports from all his time on Right Island?
Perhaps Pejin had simply been consumed by her charm.
Pejin gave April a gentle push on the back.
“Greet him again.”
“Again?”
“He didn’t find it charming. Show him what you do best.”
At Pejin’s command, April stood before August Lilyhil once more, embarrassed and shy. She offered only a clear, soundless smile, and that was all.
This time, August sided with April instead.
“Pejin, you’re comfortable here in the Capital. Miss Lunos is struggling.”
“Why are you taking her side? You’re my father-in-law—shouldn’t she learn to manage?”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side.”
“You are now. You’re doing it quite obviously.”
Pejin grumbled, then drew more firmly on the arm of Emily, who had linked hers through his.
“Her Majesty the Empress should be on my side.”
“Of course—it’s obvious. I simply don’t understand why you’d want to marry a girl like that in the first place.”
Emily looked up at Pejin with evident frustration and continued.
“I selected all the bridal candidates for you.”
“And I rejected them all.”
“Because you were difficult about it.”
“…That’s just how I am.”
“I wish you’d told me a lie or two.”
“No—how could I lie to someone I’m going to marry? You are on my side, aren’t you?”
As Pejin and Emily continued their exchange with wounded protestations, August drew April’s arm through his and spoke.
“Now then, Miss Lunos. Shall we take dinner and discuss the rest?”
“Yes, I’d like that.”
“So after you marry, you intend to come live in the Capital entirely?”
“Yes, Pejin said to give myself about a year to put the Lunos Family estate in order. He’ll come collect me then.”
“A year will be enough?”
At August’s question—which bore in mind that April ought to remain on Right Island longer, playing her part in the fog—she hesitated.
“If we have children, it might take a little longer…wouldn’t it?”
At April’s shy remark, August laughed—and this time, so did Emily. Only Pejin, standing behind Emily, seemed unable to tolerate what he saw as April’s transparent pretense.
During the banquet that followed shortly after, April performed her role flawlessly.
In the warm glow of the gathering, April discerned one reason why Pejin would go so far as to travel to the Empire to press forward with this marriage.
Should the Emperor’s restraint upon April Lunos weaken, Pejin could evade that piercing gaze even after his departure and the arrival of a new commander at headquarters.
And there was something more.
Through the Emperor’s ambitions toward the Sea, she came to understand the boundless potential of her own family.
Permission for the marriage was granted without difficulty, and they returned home.
* * *
The moment they arrived, April vomited up everything she had eaten—none of it had digested.
It was a marvel to Pejin, watching her suffer beside him, how she had endured that interminable banquet at all.
Pejin sat beside April where she lay collapsed on the bed, brushing back the sweat-dampened hair from her exhausted face.
“You act well. You could be a stage performer.”
“I had a clear purpose… You should lie down too.”
“Here?”
“Anywhere.”
When April unexpectedly permitted it, Pejin asked no questions and simply dropped beside her.
She seemed utterly worn out by the Elevated Railway—and in the wake of that terror, she appeared to value his return all the more.
Lying on her side, April closed her eyes without watching Pejin as he settled across from her, their faces level.
Pejin held her gaze for a moment, then closed his own eyes and spoke.
“Let’s build one too.”
“What?”
“The Elevated Railway. If you like it, let’s build one of our own.”
“We have so much land we don’t need to.”
“It’s the romance of it.”
“My romance is building a bridge across the Gorge. An enormously grand bridge.”
“Perfect—tomorrow morning we’ll fit you for a dress, and then we’ll go sightseeing by the river. There’s a very large river, and there’s a bridge across it. A suspension bridge built at great expense.”
“Let’s go see it. I’ll sketch it for Bauman.”
“What’s there to sketch? There are plenty of photographs. We’ll buy them.”
“That’s better. I can’t actually draw.”
At April’s sudden confession, Pejin burst into laughter.
After a long while of laughing, he carefully pulled her into his arms and spoke.
“You did well today. The hardest part is over.”
“The explosives are the hardest part.”
“What’s hard about that? Just proceed in order. Smile and coquette in front of the men you want to kill. That’s what’s hard.”
……
“It will work out. You’ll have that factory. And with the fuel you get from there, you’ll send ships farther, reclaim the trade routes, and like that…”
……
“Like that, you see…”
Pejin could not resist the tide of sleep washing over him, repeating the same words before drifting off.
After he slept, April raised herself on her elbows and lit a small flame, studying his face.
She could see his pale face, no longer able to reach toward her as his condition worsened, his body merely inclined in her direction.
April hesitated for a long while, then stroked his hair and spoke softly.
“You must have been so scared, doing this alone.”
She saw that small boy as he had been when he first arrived in the Empire.
That boy, terrified beyond measure—even more fearful than she herself had been, crushed beneath the Elevated Railway by a moment of horror.
Pejin slept deeply that night, unmoved by whatever April whispered beside him, whether she stroked his hair or pinched him—nothing woke him.
The next day, after sleeping in late, they fit April for a dress and visited the Suspension Bridge. They attended parties in the Social Season to announce the marriage and extend invitations.
Over the four days they spent in the Empire, they hurried through an exhausting schedule.
Each night, Pejin fell asleep on the sofa or carpet in her room. Given how busy they were, April said nothing of it.
After finishing their time in the Empire, they returned to Right Island and began preparing for a flawless false wedding.
As the wedding drew near, so did winter.
The Grand Duke’s Dominion, where the fog might begin at any moment, grew steadily more ominous in atmosphere.

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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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