The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 196

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 196
Pejin had barely stepped off the ship when he sought out April first. And there he found two women locked in heated conversation.
Pejin released Heidi’s arm, which he’d been gripping, and walked slowly toward April instead, speaking to her.
“I’m here.”
“Where did you come from, all of a sudden?”
“I was on the ship the whole time, but the first one to arrive hasn’t finished disembarking yet, so I just got off. Why is this harbor so small?”
“Lunos Harbor’s traffic increased, so we closed down most of this one. You could have just come to Lunos Harbor in the first place.”
“It’s closer to home this way. I didn’t realize I had this much baggage myself. I never want to move again. Well, if it’s absolutely necessary, I suppose I’d have to.”
“Without even a message.”
“I was trying to surprise you by coming unannounced. That failed since you were at the harbor anyway.”
He said this, then turned his head and slowly surveyed the harbor on all sides.
He saw Heidi’s startled expression, Miller gazing out at the sea, and the bitterly cold weather with its accumulated snow.
He clicked his tongue at the sight of his homeland and turned to April.
“This island has no merits besides you.”
“Then why did you want to come?”
“Because that merit is too great.”
Pejin shrugged his shoulders.
Rather than picking at his words, April simply nodded and extended one hand, offering him a handshake.
“Welcome home.”
At that, Pejin smiled and shook her hand. Then he pulled her toward him and held her firmly in his arms.
Heidi stared blankly at Pejin’s back as he embraced April.
He’d grown so much that he no longer had that cute look from childhood, and April, held in his embrace, seemed to vanish completely from sight.
A headache throbbed in her temples, without clear cause.
It was only long after Heidi had left that Pejin finally released April and spoke.
“Let’s go. It’s cold.”
“Where?”
“To your family’s house. Would you come if I asked you to go to mine instead?”
“Where is your house?”
“The Grand Duke’s Residence, obviously.”
Pejin said this, then addressed Miller, whom he’d been ignoring as though invisible until now.
“When will the Grand Duke’s Residence be vacant?”
“Within a month, if you pick up Grand Duke duties quickly enough.”
“There didn’t seem to be much to it. Is there really something to learn?”
“It’ll be harder than you think, managing a fiefdom.”
“I know it’s difficult—I married into the Lunos Family, and Lunos is Head of House. My saying there’s nothing to it isn’t an absolute judgment; it was relative. Especially compared to someone particularly skilled, though I can hardly complain about that.”
After delivering these barbs in succession, he turned to April with a question.
“So. All I need is for you to take me to Lunos Family Estate?”
“Yes.”
At April’s answer, Pejin climbed into the carriage she’d arrived in.
The moment the carriage with the two of them began to move, April spoke.
“For Miller to settle in Rasa, there must have been a price.”
Pejin let out a quiet laugh at the fact that April was thinking exactly what he’d been thinking. But his expression darkened quickly.
Pejin nodded.
“The Emperor wouldn’t simply allow his settlement without resistance.”
“You don’t know? Why the Emperor didn’t stop Miller from stepping down as Grand Duke.”
“I tried to find out but failed. It seems the two of them must have spoken face-to-face. But honestly, it’s predictable enough.”
“Predictable?”
Pejin’s expression hardened as he looked at April.
“He’ll try to use you as leverage.”
“Me?”
“The Emperor is most wary of the Lunos Family, and as Head of House, that’s you.”
“How cautious of him.”
“You’re a significant figure.”
Pejin’s stern expression wouldn’t ease, troubled by the thought that Miller might strike at April at any time and place.
As he clicked his tongue and pressed his forehead with his hand, April grabbed his arm and yanked him sharply toward her.
Pejin turned back in bewilderment, and April lifted her chin and spoke.
“You met me legally.”
“So?”
“So?”
“Well then, what should I do for you?”
“Show more enthusiasm.”
At April’s words, Pejin finally broke into laughter and buried his face in her shoulder.
He drew in a few deep breaths and murmured.
“You smell wonderful. Like the scent of a snowy plain.”
“Perfume.”
“You chose something that suits you perfectly.”
Pejin was thoroughly satisfied at the thought that whether he lived or died, he would do so here, and that he could now visit her whenever he wished.
No matter what the future held, whenever he wanted to see her, he could go to her.
In the carriage, he thought to himself that he was someone who could be content with very little.
Yet not long after he’d stepped out of the carriage, he realized he’d been deceiving himself. He was not someone who could be satisfied with little things.
It was because Bauman and Eve had warmly offered tea, and not long into his time drinking it with April, Shaper Meyer suddenly appeared.
“April.”
The moment he abruptly opened the door to April’s bedroom where the two were sitting, Pejin’s expression crumpled.
Of course, both of them had called for Shaper to attend a meeting once they’d left the harbor. But that didn’t make the displeasure disappear.
“Are you mad? How do you just open the bedroom door of a Lunos Family woman?”
At that, Shaper replied with an aggrieved look.
“I opened it because you two are together! That’s not the point—you called me over. Said you needed a meeting.”
“That’s exactly the point. Regardless of the circumstances, one maintains propriety—like a gentleman. Though you, of course, are far removed from gentility.”
“This bastard, barely any time together and already worse.”
Shaper, riled up, made to grab Pejin by the collar as he drank his tea with offensive nonchalance.
At that, April slammed the table and spoke.
“Don’t fight in someone else’s bedroom, either of you.”
At the words “either of you,” both Pejin and Shaper turned to look at her at once.
“How is it either of us? He started it!”
“I was the one about to have my collar grabbed. I’m the victim, honestly.”
Her head throbbing from the two of them fighting the moment they met, April pressed her temples firmly with both hands.
At the sight, Pejin clicked his tongue and gracefully conceded the fight. Shaper, likewise thinking it improper to start a quarrel in someone else’s bedroom, threw himself into a chair, folded his arms, and spoke.
“What kind of tea is this. Bring out some alcohol.”
“That’s a matter of my hospitality.”
“I’ve traveled a long way. Give me some alcohol.”
“Go get it yourself.”
At April’s permission, Shaper went to the cabinet on his own and retrieved his preferred bottle of spirits.
At the sight, Pejin frowned and looked between the two of them alternately. Then, unable to challenge April about it, he questioned Shaper instead.
“How do you know exactly where her alcohol is kept?”
“I come here often.”
“And why do you come so often?”
“I’m distributing April’s alcohol throughout the Rasa Empire, aren’t I. I also oversee security at Lunos Harbor. Of course I have plenty of reason to visit and report.”
“Since when have you been living as the Lunos Family’s lapdog?”
At Pejin’s words, Shaper clenched his fist and asked April.
“That’s enough to warrant a hit, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“Ah, I feel like a dog myself now.”
Shaper spoke and set down two crystal glasses, one each for April and himself. Then he poured both and looked at Pejin pointedly, at which Pejin let out a scoffing laugh.
“Still childish even as you age.”
“Don’t fight. I’ll get it for you.”
As April began to stand, both men grew serious and blocked her simultaneously.
“Why are you getting up?”
They spoke the same words, then both shuddered at the fact that they’d said exactly the same thing. In the end, Pejin went to the cabinet and retrieved his own glass, then filled it.
With a policeman and a soldier growling on either side, April, growing even more exhausted, drank deeply. Then, refilling her glass, she spoke to Shaper.
“Both Pejin and I believe there must have been a price for the Emperor permitting Miller to relinquish the Grand Duke position and relocate to the Empire.”
“What price?”
“That’s what we’re about to figure out.”
“Don’t tax yourself thinking—exclude me from that. In exchange, I’ll put my body to remarkable use.”
What followed would normally be Pejin’s moment to taunt that his body was even better used, so April made eye contact with him and shook her head. It was a signal not to let the conversation go any further.
Pejin merely clicked his tongue once and drank. Then, refilling his empty glass, he spoke to April.
“The Emperor was most furious about you importing food. So there’s at least some chance the target is food supplies.”
At that, Shaper’s brow furrowed as though he couldn’t believe it.
“Does that make sense? That a Grand Duke might try to cut off food meant for his own people?”
“People are such that everything else seems small before their own safety.”
“Not me. I’ve never been that way.”
At Shaper’s resolute reply, Pejin turned to look at him.
He wondered why April forgave Shaper and worked alongside him like this, why she held in such regard someone who seemed utterly insignificant to his eyes.
Yet the better he came to know April Lunos, the more that question answered itself.
Apart from any personal affection she might have for Shaper Meyer, he was someone worthy of April’s trust.
A man capable of offering his very life for a cause he believed in.
And conversely, April was important to Shaper as well.
Because she was the one who let him run freely without restraint.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————