The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 154

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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 154
April approached Pejin to enter together.
Pejin gazed at her, and without quite meaning to, he leaned close and kissed her ear, speaking softly.
“I might not be able to say it later, so I’ll tell you now.”
“Say what?”
“I love you.”
…….
As April turned to look at him, Pejin straightened himself.
The music began, and the Priest, who was officiating, invited the bride and groom to make their entrance.
The wedding ceremony had begun.
* * *
Miller and his wife departed the Grand Duke’s Residence to attend Pejin’s wedding. Joshua, who rode with them in the carriage, slightly parted the black curtains covering the window and peered outside.
Angry crowds lined both sides of the carriage, and white cloths inscribed with charcoal-written words fluttered in the wind.
The complaints were that the Grand Duke’s House had refused to purchase the Dye that April had proposed, and that April had ultimately taken on the Grand Duke’s role instead.
“Stop looking. They’re just people with nothing better to do.”
Miller, noticing his son peering out, spoke and closed the curtains.
Joshua adjusted his posture and asked Miller.
“Why didn’t you buy the Dye?”
“April Lunos demanded an excessively high price.”
“You should have bought it anyway!”
As Joshua’s voice rose, Heidi hurried to soothe her son, speaking.
“It worked out well in the end, didn’t it?”
At her soothing words, Joshua’s expression only grew more dissatisfied. The boy fell silent and turned his seat toward the window, which he couldn’t even see.
Heidi asked Miller worriedly.
“What do we do?”
But Miller did not answer. He was struggling even to manage himself at that moment.
Heidi understood Miller’s nature—that he could never think clearly when faced with unwanted situations. So she knew that now, as she always had since childhood, she would need to comfort him.
Yet in this moment, Heidi herself was gripped by fear and had no composure left to console him.
In the meantime, the carriage carrying the two arrived at the Lunos Family Lake.
Most of the wedding guests were Empire citizens, with Dieusz Grand Duchy nobles—soon to relocate to the Empire—filling the remainder. Apart from those and the three members of the Dieusz Family, it was essentially only people from the Lunos Family.
News had spread that the bride and groom would hold an Empire-style wedding and would be leaving to live in the Empire.
Pejin greeted Miller with an obligatory smile, without a handshake or embrace. That attitude drew the attention of the other guests.
Heidi felt her unease growing at Pejin’s businesslike demeanor—so different from how tender he had always been toward her. Even the small faith she had held, that she could somehow turn his heart around despite any trouble between them, began to fade.
Then the bride arrived, and all the guests’ gazes turned toward the woman of the Lunos Family and the man of the Dieusz Family.
In the afternoon on Right Island, where daylight was impossibly short, the Milky Way flowed across the sky above the Glass Garden building.
Heidi watched the bride and groom enter and recalled her own wedding.
The Grand Duke’s House wedding had been a grand event encompassing the entire Dieusz Grand Duchy, with an enormous budget allocated. Many citizens had come to see it, and for that one day the streets overflowed with flowers and food.
Because no such budget had been poured into April and Pejin’s wedding, the citizens who came out were only those filled with anger, and they vented that emotion on the Grand Duke’s House.
It was certainly not a wedding celebrated by all of the Grand Duchy. Yet the quiet magnificence of this lakeside ceremony was no less than Heidi’s own wedding.
Rather, the delicate beauty—the luxury hidden in each small detail—even surpassed the Grand Duke couple’s wedding.
The beauty of this place revealed itself, and moved the heart, only to those who could look closely enough to see it.
Could the Empire nobility here, from renowned houses, perceive it?
She could not be certain they possessed such discernment.
Yet of all the ornaments present, the most radiant was undoubtedly Pejin Dieusz.
Heidi could not tear her gaze away from the two figures moving along the carpet in the quiet music.
Pejin, who had been grumbling about being tired all day, seemed to brighten instantly after April arrived, and with his characteristic charming expression, he made the April walking beside him on the carpet laugh.
Even if Pejin harbored dark intentions, used April Lunos, and came to the Grand Duchy to obtain what he desired, that did not make this love false.
No one present at this ceremony could deny that Pejin had fallen in love.
When the groom smiled with his beautiful face, the guests too seemed enchanted and smiled along. Following him, they fell in love with the new bride.
Heidi recalled the boy who, on a day when she had been melancholy, held out a small wild flower cradled in both hands. And then, inevitably, jealousy bloomed, and April Lunos’s face—which marred that lovely memory—rose unbidden in her mind.
She should be unhappy.
That girl who had so humiliated her—no, that woman from then.
She should be unhappy.
She had no right to possess such extreme beauty.
Why was the world so unfair?
Heidi could not suppress her sorrow.
* * *
Even after standing before the Priest, Pejin kept looking toward her, so April tapped his arm sharply.
Pejin made an irritated expression, yet even that seemed full of happiness, and anyone among the guests could tell he was playfully exaggerating.
April warned him with a look to face forward, but the groom’s gaze remained on the bride.
Everything was perfectly prepared—a wedding no guest would ever forget.
Soon came the exchange of rings.
April’s ring was brought by Mille Virta, a banker and her good friend, while Pejin’s was brought by Lian Ragnar.
April and Pejin received the rings and placed them on each other’s hands.
With the exchange of tokens complete, the Priest’s Pronouncement of Marriage began.
At the moment when the guests were so captivated by the two that they had no mind to look around them, Joshua—the only young child among those present at the wedding—had his attention drawn elsewhere.
Joshua, who had been gazing at the glowing lake shore in wonder, tugged on Heidi’s arm.
“Mother, the lake is boiling.”
Heidi then straightened her son and spoke.
“Your uncle is getting married—you must sit still.”
“But it really is boiling!”
As Joshua spoke again, Heidi reluctantly looked toward where he was pointing. Then she gasped in alarm and jumped to her feet.
The guests’ gazes snapped toward Heidi as she suddenly rose, and the Priest flinched, stopped speaking, then began reading the Pronouncement of Marriage again.
“Therefore, now…….”
But Heidi had drawn attention, and the other guests too turned their eyes toward the lake. The Priest stopped again and cleared his throat to regain focus.
But then, seeing the guests’ mood becoming excessively unsettled, he finally looked out the window and froze.
The entire vast lake was boiling.
Late into the night, over the surface of the lake—pitch-dark now—came a bubbling sound, and foam erupted.
As if some divine curse were beginning, the guests cried out in panic and rose to their feet.
April and Pejin exchanged one glance, then turned back to back and split in opposite directions.
April rushed to protect her uncle’s family, while Pejin dashed to shield the only young child in the ceremony hall, scooping up his nephew.
Pejin shouted to the police.
“Get everyone out!”
At his command, the police in the wedding hall leaped into action.
“Everyone leave the building! It may be an earthquake!”
“The building is glass—it could collapse! Get out! Move as far from the lake as possible!”
The people of the Dieusz Grand Duchy, already experienced with multiple disasters, moved according to the Empire Police’s protocol.
The Empire citizens, unaccustomed to sudden catastrophe, froze in their seats, gripped by fear.
Pejin sent Joshua out first, then spoke to the Empire citizens still in the ceremony hall.
“Every police officer here is from the Empire Police. We will absolutely protect the citizens of Rasa. Trust the police and come outside!”
At Pejin’s words, the Empire citizens finally began to rise.
Lian Ragnar also assisted him, ushering all the Empire citizens out of the Glass Garden.
When Pejin himself emerged last from the ceremony hall, gas exploded out from the lake.
The Empire citizens, turning toward the sound of the explosion without thinking, were hurled far away by the force, and the Glass Garden, struck by a tremendous volume of water and gas, collapsed with a deafening roar, leaving only its metal frame standing.
An explosion.
Then another explosion, and another.

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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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