The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 2

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

Episode 2
April could easily identify the officers’ weaponry. Those long leather coats always concealed holsters—a fact she’d learned when her family was arrested.
What troubled her more was the unfamiliar emblem stitched into their coats. The Grand Duchy’s police classifications were transparent enough that this new insignia likely belonged to a recently established organization.
When a police organization is newly formed, it usually follows something terrible. And when such an organization comes looking for someone, it’s never welcome news.
April gripped the axe handle she’d set down and the candlestick in her other hand, both tightly.
She heard the approaching officers murmuring among themselves.
“You don’t think a witch actually lit this, do you?”
“If it wasn’t a witch, it makes even less sense. Fire without firewood—it’s impossible any other way.”
As their chatter grew closer, someone spotted April holding the candlestick.
Most halted and flinched, but one broad-shouldered man started forward until his subordinates grabbed him back.
“Sir, what if she really is a witch!”
“Then problem solved.”
“Let me go. We can’t lose the Commissioner like this——”
“If you’re going to shake like that, wouldn’t it be better if I went instead?”
“Please remember my sacrifice.”
With that, one officer stepped forward until he stood before April. He was a man in a long coat with a fastidiously groomed mustache and an oddly polished appearance.
“Are you April, the Family Head of the Lunos Family?”
Family Head.
So that’s what she’d become. Not that there was anything left in the family to lead, but……
April considered this before answering.
“I suppose I am.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Paul Soer, Section Chief of Division One at the Rasa Empire Special Investigation Headquarters.”
With that courteous introduction, Paul produced handcuffs and fastened them around April’s wrists as he spoke.
“You’re under arrest on suspicion of Serial Murder in the Grand Duchy over the past three years.”
“Serial Murder?”
The absurdity of the charge caused April’s tension to evaporate entirely.
So Miller was going to pin every crime under the sun on her now?
But even so, there had to be some logic to it.
“I’ve been locked behind those stakes the whole time. How could I have committed serial murders? You have to at least make sense.”
“We’ll discuss the details at the station. We’ll hear you out thoroughly.”
Though Paul Soer’s words were polite, his manner was anything but—he gripped April’s forearm like any common criminal.
So Miller really was trying to kill her, she thought.
As April was dragged through the grass, she spotted a familiar face among the officers.
Sharp blue eyes with an unsettling opacity.
Black hair, sharp-featured yet handsome.
A face she knew.
Identical in every component to Miller, but with a gentleness that was its complete opposite.
Fejin Dieu—the Grand Duke’s only blood relative, born the same year as April.
Though he’d grown considerably since their last meeting, his face was too distinctive to mistake.
April noticed Fejin lighting a cigarette and narrowed her eyes.
“Fejin, you’re old enough to smoke now?”
At that, Fejin slowly turned his head toward April.
A moment later, every officer—including Paul, who seemed unstoppable—fell silent. Then they all burst into laughter at once.
Fejin seemed unsurprised, finishing his light with an unhurried expression. Once he’d pocketed the lighter, he spoke.
“I’ll be twenty-two in a few days. You already are.”
……
His words made April falter, and she murmured something under her breath.
“I know I’m twenty-two.”
“Looks like you’ve forgotten seven years have passed for everyone else too.”
Fejin was right.
April had let the passage of time slip from her grasp.
In truth, over those seven years, she’d scarcely thought of Fejin Dieu—that contemptible boy who’d fallen in love with the woman who was now his brother’s wife in precisely the same way his brother once had.
The boy burning with first love had left for the capital the moment he finished his schooling in the Grand Duchy.
She vaguely remembered hearing he’d become a police officer, but it was only a small fragment buried beneath countless memories of Miller, the man she’d loved.
April was pulled from the estate by the officers’ hands.
As they went, dry grass left scratches across her arms and face, but none of the cold-hearted noblemen around her noticed.
April climbed into the transport carriage waiting outside the estate, and the door locked behind her.
The absurdity of it all left her gasping for breath.
Strangely, what helped her find composure was thinking of Fejin—at least a familiar face.
He would listen to her, at least. Not that there were any good memories between them.
Her parents had raised her without a single scratch.
Once, when Fejin threw an acorn at her back, she’d run through the grass to catch him—the first time in her life she’d ever run.
She’d hit him because she thought he was bullying Heidi.
Bullying.
That was how high society worked. It was justified.
Justified, she’d poured wine on Heidi’s dress—her fiancé’s beloved.
The problem was that it happened in the Church.
In the Church on Right Island, red was forbidden because it evoked blood. Not even the smallest invisible jewel of a brooch in crimson was permitted.
So what April had done—staining Heidi’s white coat with wine—was a religiously profound humiliation.
It was Heidi who’d had to flee the Church, her white coat defiled by the sacred prohibition. April had simply remained in her seat and continued worshipping.
Seven years of punishment hadn’t helped April reflect on that moment. If anything, the old anger welled up again.
Her parents had been enraged that their most precious daughter had been abandoned by her fiancé in public.
For them, killing the Grand Duke and Duchess was punishment for their daughter’s dishonor. Even at the moment of failure, they hadn’t regretted the attempt.
Had their daughter’s life not hung in the balance, they would never have admitted to the Church that their deed was a “sin” until the very end.
Instead, April summoned pain.
She thought of the moment her parents were executed before her eyes.
When sharp memory clawed through her entire body, she felt better. Because remembering warmth was far more unbearable.
Did others feel this way?
April hadn’t spoken to anyone in seven years, so she had no way of knowing whether this was unusual or if everyone experienced it.

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