The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 216

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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 216
After deciding to inform the citizens about the bombing of the Southern Factory, Pejin summoned the press and hastily mobilized the police to convey more detailed information to April.
While they were in motion, April too had a decision to make.
In the midst of the Lunos Grand Residence where police rushed about in disarray, she sat quietly, lost in thought.
Logan, who brought her the materials to review first, asked her a question.
“Are you deliberating over the speech?”
April shook her head and gestured for him to sit in the chair beside her before speaking.
“I’ve already decided on the content.”
“Then what are you troubled about, if I may ask?”
“I’m wondering whether I should use the title Grand Duchess.”
“Hmm, that’s something you should discuss with His Highness, but if you’re willing to deliberate with me, I’m honored.”
Logan answered and promptly sat down beside her. He continued with a slight grin.
“For what it’s worth, I think I understand why you’re not consulting with him. He’ll just pester you relentlessly to include the title Grand Duchess anyway.”
“Exactly. It would just be exhausting.”
“I can just picture the delighted look on his face at the very fact that you’re considering it. Not something I particularly want to see.”
“You think the same way I do.”
Teasing Pejin together like that, the two of them shared a moment of genuine laughter.
Logan, the police officer who visited the Lunos Grand Residence most frequently after Pejin, had grown close to April as well, and was also an investor who trusted in her shipbuilding venture and had poured considerable money into it. With him, April shared her thoughts. Logan spoke.
“Of course you’ll write Head of the Lunos Family first, but you’re wondering whether to add the title Grand Duchess after that, aren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“And the crux of your worry is which?”
“Which, you say?”
“Whether it’s a procedural issue—that the marriage vows haven’t been formally completed. Or whether the real problem is that your feelings toward His Highness remain unsettled.”
Though it was mainly Paul who said so, Pejin too often spoke of Logan this way: “He was pitiful and adorable when he was young, and so we still indulge him.” Even as Logan scrambled upward with persistent effort, the memory of his pitiable, endearing childhood self would overlay itself, making it impossible not to look out for him.
But April, who had never seen Logan in his childhood, did not agree with their assessment. Logan was not someone they indulged—he was someone who had figured out on his own how to be loved. That pitiable and adorable image everyone remembered was likely Logan’s own clever strategy, April believed.
And now Logan had organized April’s thoughts perfectly. As if she’d just realized something, April murmured.
“Yes, that’s it. That was…… the real issue. Which of the two is keeping me stuck.”
“Yes, that’s my thinking.”
“Thank you. That really helped.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Logan left with a cheerful farewell, and April, left alone in her seat, sank into deep contemplation.
Once she’d sorted through the threads of her thinking, the answer came surprisingly easily.
Shortly after, the journalists arrived.
The Lunos Grand Residence had a dedicated press room for this sort of interview. It was a spacious venue that spoke to the former dignity of the Lunos Grand Residence.
Bauman’s employment at the Lunos Grand Residence had been tremendous good fortune for the estate. Bauman had begun maintaining this press room from long before there was any need to use it.
Bauman loved the Lunos Grand Residence even more than April did, and so there was no space within it that he considered unimportant.
If this Grand Residence were to be destroyed, it would be physically dangerous for Pejin, April thought, but psychologically catastrophic for Bauman. She had no wish to wound the already fragile heart of this architect.
April sat in the press room chair facing the assembled journalists. And she began to explain the situation.
Whether the citizens would actually listen to her, as Pejin suggested, was unknown. She thought it possible that the Capital City, already in upheaval from evacuation preparations, might grow even more turbulent. But she believed this was something that had to be communicated regardless, so she delivered it.
* * *
[Citizens.
Even now, some of Rasa’s vessels are heading south. They will attack Right Island from the north and the south simultaneously. As you know, we will not be able to stop them completely. We will lose some. Among those losses will likely be the factory on the Southern Coast.
If that place is destroyed, Right Island may be engulfed in fog once more. As it was before, those physically weak are likely to lose their lives there. If fog develops, everyone must help the weak evacuate first.
We have experienced fog more than they have. In it, the people of Rasa will not be able to defeat us.
I declare that I will leave my hill last of all. No fog will be able to kill me.
The weak will go first, then the rest of the citizens, and I will come last.
From my hill, I will cast an eternal, unbreakable curse upon Rasa. My God will aid me.
The enemy is many, and we are few. Therefore, every single life is absolutely necessary to us.
So I ask of you!
From this moment, please cross the Gorge. As you pass through this hill, lend your strength to my curse, and after that, simply survive safely and certainly.
I, April Lunos, will wait on this hill for your safe return.
We are strong, and so we will eventually face the moment when April’s still-cold wind drives the fog away.
When this fog of death passes, let us meet again.
—From April Lunos, Head of the Lunos Family and Grand Duchess of the Dieusz Family.]
After finishing the speech, Pejin’s gaze halted at the words “Grand Duchess.”
It was remarkable that April had chosen to use this term herself.
To survive safely and certainly.
This speech was a powerful plea for survival.
And he knew something else.
That word “Grand Duchess” here was a signal meant for him. A signal to survive at all costs, and also a grace she was bestowing upon him.
Once he read that signal, he could not bear it.
Heat rose through him. Love for her overwhelmed his entire being.
And he wondered. How much space did he occupy in her heart? He realized, for the first time, that he was greedy for that space.
While Pejin remained unable to look away from the article, April, having finished her duties, entered the bedroom. Seeing him reading the paper, she asked.
“What do you think?”
“It’s good. And I’m curious about how the citizens will react.”
“So am I. Curious and a little scared.”
Saying so, April sat down on the bed. And with a gesture indicating they should sleep now, she beckoned Pejin. But unable to rise immediately, Pejin remained seated for a moment, looking at her, before he spoke.
“You wrote Grand Duchess.”
“Yes. Wasn’t it right?”
“No, it’s good. It’s good, and…… I realize I really don’t want to die.”
Looking at Pejin, who gazed at her as if stating the obvious, April understood something in his expression.
“Do you want me to have lived?”
At Pejin’s question, April nodded without hesitation.
“Yes. I want that.”
“You…… why do you?”
“Why what?”
When April asked back, Pejin, driven by a desire to understand the depths of her heart, found himself asking almost provocatively.
“Why do you do it? Why do you say you’ll trade everything you have for another’s life? When you’ve built all of this yourself.”
“Another’s life?”
Seeming to bristle at the word “another,” April’s expression darkened.
“Am I another to you?”
“No, I didn’t mean our distance. I meant the broader lives of others that you’re trying to save.”
“Hey!”
April’s voice suddenly burst out at his words. Pejin faltered at the force of it, and April continued.
“It’s different! It’s not the same! Do you think I’m some saint? Do you think I’ve lost my mind wanting to save everyone? I don’t want you to die! I want you to live, you idiot!”
At her shout, Pejin’s thoughts stopped for a moment in shock, and then, his face flushing belatedly, he began to ask.
“What, was it something special? I mean, I did wonder why you weren’t just some universal philanthropist……”
Pejin was stammering out anything that came to mind, burning with emotion, when April walked toward him, grabbed his collar, and pulled his face to hers in a kiss. The words stopped in his throat.
After the kiss, April caught her breath. And when Pejin tried to speak, she blocked his mouth with her hand.
“Be quiet.”
Pejin nodded obediently. And everything fell silent. Pejin, April’s breathing—all of it.
In that silence, April’s voice emerged.
“I’m telling you again: I want you to live. With the exact same heart I had when I said I wanted only you to succeed.”
Listening to her words, Pejin’s lower lashes trembled slightly.
“I love you.”
“……”
“That’s why.”
Perhaps because these were words he’d dared not hope to hear.
The way her words reached his heart moved at an oddly slow pace. But eventually they did reach him, and in that moment, Pejin found himself suddenly sitting upright without thinking.

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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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