The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 178

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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 178
On the voyage back by ship, Pejin kept breaking into sudden, solitary laughter that unsettled those around him.
Eventually Logan could bear it no longer and asked.
“Why do you keep laughing like that? You’re startling people.”
“I keep thinking about something April said.”
“Ah.”
With the conversation dying there, Pol grew frustrated beside him and pressed Logan.
“Shouldn’t you be asking what she said?”
“If I ask what you said, then you’d say there’s no reason you should tell me. But look—you’re making that face like you’re dying to say it anyway. Since I didn’t ask, you don’t have to hold back.”
Logan’s methodical response made Pol look aggrieved, and even Pejin took Logan’s side just to tease him.
“Logan’s right. If you ask what I said, then I can’t enjoy the moment of wanting to say it.”
“I’ve told you several times now—I’m perfectly normal. It’s you and Logan who are strange.”
Pol grumbled on, but Pejin paid him no mind and said what he wanted to say.
“April said she wants to be remembered smiling, since her smile is pretty.”
Contrary to Pejin’s expectation that they would laugh, both Pol and Logan clicked their tongues in sympathy.
“Poor April—she’s really been influenced by you, hasn’t she….”
Logan sighed and shook his head, and Pol continued.
“It’s true that April is beautiful, but that’s not the sort of thing she’d normally say.”
The focus had shifted from Pol to Pejin. Wanting to turn it back on Pol, Pejin first asked Logan.
“Have you learned any new magic?”
“I have! Would you like me to show you?”
“Sure, show Pol.”
“But you need to see my magic, sir. That’s an order!”
At Logan’s bright, gleaming eyes turned on him, Pol shielded his face with both hands and asked Pejin.
“Isn’t this workplace harassment?”
“It’s harassment incarnate.”
Pejin said so and headed to the cabin for a rest.
Once inside, Pejin began reviewing the report that Pol had organized and prepared.
The Emperor had made extensive preparations to divert people’s attention away from war readiness. The unusually grand court tournament this year was one such measure.
As Pejin flipped through the Emperor’s own schedule, Pol—who had fled to escape Logan’s mediocre magic—knocked at the door. Since Pejin had wanted to speak with him anyway, he granted him entry, and Pol hurried in.
“You didn’t see it, did you? That one was truly the greatest. You absolutely had to see it.”
“At least tell a halfway convincing lie.”
Pejin retorted and set down the report.
Just then Logan, who had followed Pol, secured the open door and entered. He regarded the report and spoke with cheer.
“I think this year will be truly enjoyable, sir. A whole year of secretly ruining other people’s parties—where can you find work this thrilling?”
“Why are you so excited about it? I thought you were quitting the police.”
Pol made the quip, and Logan answered.
“If the ship I invested in doesn’t return, wouldn’t I be left with nothing? I have to work.”
At Logan’s reply, Pejin wondered where Irsa’s merchant ship—the one she’d captained away—might be by now. But there was no way to know from here where that vessel was sailing across the vast sea.
* * *
After Pejin returned to the Empire, April could not know exactly what he was doing.
Yet from the string of incidents and accidents that threw the Empire’s mood into chaos, she could infer that he was behind them.
Late July came, and a brief summer break began. Right Island had a long winter break instead, so the summer break was very short.
Since the heat was never severe enough to trouble the students greatly, the education system had no choice but to extend the cold winter break instead.
Hannah and Fred, throughout the summer break, thought April would be lonely after Pejin’s departure and followed her around all day.
Though both had now grown taller than April, they still remembered her only as a child and treated one another as child and adult.
The weather was too beautiful to waste indoors, so the two children dragged April to a river near Lunos Harbor under the pretense of fishing.
April, too busy to think of anything about herself, complained about wasting time in the carriage, but once they arrived at the riverbank, she showed curiosity about fishing.
“Where did you two learn to do this?”
When April asked, Fred, who had been baiting her fishing rod, answered.
“From our grandfather.”
“I learned from Fred’s grandfather too. People from Right Island are supposed to know how to fish.”
Hannah answered from beside them, threading bait with one hand as deftly as if she’d always used both.
Thanks to Bauman making her the tools including a special brace, Hannah had tied the knot on the fishing line herself using her left hand and right arm.
It was slow, but persistent. That determination to succeed at fishing was admirable.
With the fishing rods cast and the two children focused on their fishing, April gazed at the calm river.
Irsa was supposed to have returned in July, but as the month drew to a close, she had not come back.
The sea looked calm from the harbor, but April couldn’t know what the waters were like where the sailors were, and that uncertainty troubled her.
Still, she prayed each day for the sailors’ return, and as July passed day by day, those prayers grew a little longer.
While she remained lost in worry, Hannah, Fred, and even the servants who had come along began catching fish one by one. Then Hannah pointed at April’s fishing rod.
“The float’s moving!”
“Is it?”
April rose with a start and began reeling in steadily as she’d been taught.
The two children who came running to her sides nagged her relentlessly—reel faster, let out line, reel slowly—so she could hardly think.
While she wondered if this was what it felt like to be a parent raising teenagers, a gleam of reflected light shimmered across the water.
“A trout!”
Hannah excitedly grabbed the fish net.
As the girl said, a sizeable trout was scooped up in the net.
While they fished, the Chef skillfully built a small smoker. Then he arranged the trout around it and began smoking them.
April, who had pretended to have little interest in fishing, now lingered near the smoker and said to the Chef.
“Which one is mine? I can’t let it get lost.”
“I’ve marked it by trimming the tail, so don’t worry, miss.”
With those words, the Chef—normally so taciturn he rarely smiled—let slip the faintest smile.
April felt oddly embarrassed at that smile and said.
“It’s my first time fishing.”
“Of course. You looked so relaxed for once, I smiled to see it.”
The Chef waved her away with a flourish, smoke billowing.
April ended up unable to watch her own trout finish cooking and moved away.
The people from Lunos Residence, who had come running at the word of fishing, happily shared the fish the Chef had grilled.
April found it strange anew how crowded the residence had become with people. For just a moment, she felt as if she’d been transported back to childhood.
When the sailors returned, it would be even more crowded.
April placed her hands together before her meal and offered a pre-meal prayer.
Hannah waited for her lengthy prayer to finish, and as soon as it ended, she asked.
“You were praying for the sailors to come back, weren’t you?”
April smiled silently and nodded.
After finishing their meal, the party spent the night at nearby Lunos Harbor and the next day made the hour-long journey back to the Grand Residence.
It was past ten o’clock when they arrived at the harbor, and the white night was still bright enough that no lanterns were needed. So they could see from a distance that a commotion was stirring down at the waterfront.
April’s heart lurched, and she ran frantically toward where the crowd was gathering.
Reaching the waterfront, she asked the people.
“What’s happened?”
“A sailor from the merchant ship has arrived, miss!”
The focus of the crowd was the Youngest Sailor, showing signs of dehydration, who had come ashore in a small lifeboat that had been carried on the Clipper that Irsa had commandeered.
The crowd forced water and a little honey on the Youngest Sailor despite his protests of weakness.
Though his entire face was crusted with salt and he vomited up the water, they gave it to him again and again, and gradually his condition improved.
As his vision finally cleared, the Youngest Sailor spotted April first and crawled toward her on his knees. Before her, he lowered his head and spoke.
“A week ago the ship—the ship stopped. We hit a terrible storm and the damage was severe, and we were adrift in the middle of the sea—I don’t know where it’s been carried by now….”

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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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