The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 208

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

Episode 208
* * *
Basas, a sailor and interpreter from Liuru, found himself recalling his recent meeting with Pejin Dieusz after arriving at the harbor of the Rasa Empire.
From the perspective of Liuru’s people, Right Island and Left Island were two entirely different nations.
Right Island was the home of the Lunos Family, a long-standing trading partner, while Left Island had suddenly flourished, amassing economic power that surpassed even Liuru itself.
In any case, regardless of whether Left Island continued to grow, the current situation brought little profit to Liuru, so they had no choice but to hope for the Lunos Family’s survival.
Above all, hadn’t April Lunos said it casually enough?
“If Right Island is ever occupied, I’ll burn everything related to the brewery.”
So the message was clear: help ensure that never happens. She was exactly the sort of woman who would do precisely that.
The people of Liuru had come to love the Lunos Family’s spirit, Knok, from the very first cup—so much so that they’d sent ships to bring it even in this brutal winter. Any interruption in that supply was unthinkable.
After bringing back the detained people from Right Island, Pejin opened his residence to all the Liuru sailors, throwing a lavish party where they enjoyed Knok and slept in fine bedding.
Among them, Pejin Dieusz the Grand Duke singled out Basas, the one Liuruian with whom communication was possible, extending a separate invitation and presenting him with a gold ring said to be beloved by Liuruians, then asked a question.
“How did you come to learn this language?”
“My family has been trading with the Lunos Family for generations. Everyone in the household learned to speak the local language.”
“You must have felt the loss keenly during all those years when trade was interrupted.”
“There was some of that, yes.”
As they continued clinking glasses, Pejin spoke.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“If it’s dangerous, we end this conversation now.”
“It’s not dangerous. When you go to Rasa this time, you’ll need to speak with soldiers to search for Daisy’s body anyway, won’t you?”
“Yes.”
“While you’re there, simply buy them a great deal of spirits. You needn’t even leave the harbor. Information will come to you naturally.”
“You’re… telling me something this confidential?”
“There’s no other way.”
Pejin refilled Basas’s glass as he spoke.
Basas found Pejin Dieusz the Grand Duke thoroughly appealing. Raised not from childhood as a Grand Duke, he was free-spirited.
The Lunos Family people possessed a distinctive hauteur, but this man did not. More than anything, he was strikingly handsome.
Basas spoke up.
“Then I have something I want as well.”
“What is it?”
When Pejin asked again with deliberately softer inflection, trying to win favor, Basas gestured toward his face.
“Let me take a photograph of that face. They sell well, those photographs. They’ll fetch a very high price. We Liuruians believe a handsome face brings in money.”
Pejin laughed despite himself, finding the request absurd, then said:
“Well, if it helps, do as you please.”
With that, the conversation ended, and they crossed the Strait.
Basas went ashore on Left Island and, following Pejin’s instructions, threw open a grand drinking session.
With relations between the two nations severed, trade had halted as well. The disadvantage fell upon Right Island, yet for the people of Rasa too, the cutting off of that spirit they loved so dearly—so much so that even in times of hardship they’d smuggled it past the law—was a fatal blow.
The profit that arose from such circumstances went to the Liuruians, with April Lunos’s permission. Their ships arrived heavy-laden with Knok, and the Empire’s people, faced with exorbitant prices, had no choice but to pay them, however reluctantly.
When it was offered without charge, soldiers came running with eyes wide as saucers in numbers beyond counting. What’s more, Basas had filled the warehouses with Dark Ale—the kind the brewery didn’t normally sell at all, claiming its flavor degraded with distance from the distillery.
Yet no matter how freely the spirits flowed, it did not lead the soldiers to share any information that might actually help Right Island.
Watching such valuable spirits wasted to no purpose, Basas thought that Grand Duke Pejin Dieusz might excel at police work, but he had no head for commerce.
* * *
After Pejin moved his residence to the Lunos Family Estate, a life began where they woke each morning to find each other at their side.
April, waking first in Pejin’s arms, studied the beautiful face of the man lying opposite her for a long moment before rising.
“…How did living together adapt so quickly in just a few days?”
Pejin, apparently already awake, heard her words and chuckled softly, opening his eyes. Then he pressed his lips to her forehead and asked:
“Isn’t it because I’m taking such good care of you?”
“Well… I suppose so.”
April grudgingly admitted it.
In truth, since living with Pejin, there were no particular drawbacks. At first she’d considered his needless frequent kisses a disadvantage, but she’d adapted to that soon enough.
For one thing, April liked falling asleep beside him, and she liked waking up with him too. When even trivial things became advantages, finding faults became all the more difficult.
Finding April’s reluctant acceptance endearing beyond measure, Pejin suddenly wrapped both arms around her and pulled her close.
“God, living together is so wonderful. Please don’t throw me out…”
“We haven’t even been living together a week yet. Why are you already thinking about being kicked out?”
“But it’s so brief. How brief is it?”
“Well, a…”
“No, don’t give me an exact number.”
“…What am I supposed to do then?”
“Just keep me with you for the rest of your life.”
Pejin murmured this and immediately tried to return to sleep.
Held so tightly, they could hear each other’s breathing. At some point, their breathing rhythms began to match.
April asked softly.
“Asleep?”
“…”
“You heard.”
“…”
“If you heard, answer me.”
“…I was trying to fake sleep.”
The moment he heard “you heard,” Pejin’s heartbeat quickened noticeably, making it impossible not to know he’d been listening.
Pejin grumbled.
“Ah, I was hoping to slip past unnoticed and later insist in your sleep that you’d told me to stay forever.”
“That’s a bit underhanded.”
“How much do you think I enjoy living with you, to scheme like that?”
Since it was time to rise, she pulled herself from Pejin’s embrace. Bauman, protecting their privacy, had not opened the door but merely signaled that there was a letter, slipping it beneath the door as he left. April picked it up.
She waved the letter at Pejin and spoke.
“A letter has come from House Dieusz.”
At any rate, since they had held the ceremony, no one among the Lunos Family servants objected to the two living in the same house.
Hannah and Fred, who had returned to the Lunos Family Estate, also welcomed Pejin. It was the result of Pejin having frequented the school long enough to have already won over the hearts of the two children.
But that did not mean the family elders had accepted it.
The Dieusz Family elders who had not left Right Island felt that way, and likewise the elders of the Lunos Family who had returned with the intention of defending Right Island did as well.
Pejin first examined the lengthy letter from House Dieusz, which insisted he complete the interrupted Priest’s Marriage Declaration, then handed it to April.
“The elders of both families certainly have much to say.”
“There’s only elders like that left, really. And bearing a family name is just how that goes.”
“Have you lived like this since birth?”
“Yes.”
“That must be suffocating.”
“When it’s been that way from the beginning, you don’t even know it’s suffocating.”
It was natural that April, the sole heir of the Lunos Family, should have endured intense pressure since childhood.
Though she had not attended school, she had learned what was necessary for society from before she could properly walk, and primarily studied the nations with whom they traded.
The true value of that education revealed itself after the success of the first merchant ship, when word of the Lunos Family’s resumed trade reached other lands. She had learned how to conduct commerce with foreign merchants whose bones were seasoned by long years in trade.
If the Grand Duke’s harbor faced Left Island, the Lunos harbor looked out toward the vast sea and the trading nations beyond it.
Merchants who had crossed that sea began arriving at Lunos harbor one by one.
As a result, the sailors’ quarters, the empty guest rooms within the Grand Residence, and the banquet halls were always bustling with people.
An environment where people were everywhere was nothing strange to Pejin, who had grown up in the Grand Duke’s Residence where all manner of nobles came and went.
After finishing the letter full of nagging, April asked Pejin, who was looking out the window.
“What are you staring at?”
“Cargo wagons.”
At Pejin’s words, April set the letter on the table and walked to the window where he stood.
To the right of the Lunos Grand Residence lay a well-maintained space for parking cargo wagons. There, the merchants’ wagons stood in neat rows.
Pejin’s face lit with joy at seeing the landscape he’d last glimpsed in childhood now recreated.
“It’s just like the Lunos Grand Residence I remember from when I was little.”
“Has a lot recovered by this point?”
April too gazed at the sight with satisfaction.
Turning to look at her, Pejin spoke.
“You’ve worked hard. You’re remarkable.”

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