The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 31

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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 31
“……This is oddly irritating.”
The fact that she had to ask Peijin for something—and not just some simple favor like “move aside,” but this—stirred up an indescribable sense of grievance, displeasure, and annoyance.
And knowing that he would certainly refuse made writing this letter of petition all the more unbearable.
But there was no help for it.
For her now, the mere fact that she could know Peijin Dieus was a great stroke of fortune. She had to accept that reality.
April suppressed her dissatisfaction and continued writing the letter.
Because of how much she despised writing it, the letter that felt like it took an eternity to complete was finally finished, and since she had to deliver this letter herself, April began preparing to head to the Police Headquarters in the Capital.
She found a dress and put it on, then retrieved a bonnet that didn’t quite match. Since she wasn’t in a position to be choosy, she wore what she had and instead took out some jewelry she’d found in her mother’s jewelry box.
Fred, who had gone out and procured a carriage, accompanied her on the journey to the Capital.
Fred sat with the pot that he’d been told to bring back home balanced on his lap, chattering away beside her.
“There was a bell-shaped hothouse or something by the Lake. Did you see it? Grandfather Bauman said it can’t be fixed and has to be rebuilt from scratch.”
Just as Fred said, the building that had originally been a hothouse had deteriorated so badly over seven years without maintenance that it needed to be rebuilt entirely.
In the Grand Duchy, maintaining such glass structures was inevitably a difficult task. During heavy snowfall, if the snow wasn’t properly cleared, the weight would eventually crush and collapse the structure.
April nodded.
“Yes, I heard about it.”
After answering thus, April wiped some charcoal from Fred’s nose with her handkerchief as she spoke, noticing his keen interest in the glass hothouse.
“The people of Lunos called that hothouse the Swan House.”
“The Swan House?”
“The swans that were kept in that lake would come and go through it. Eventually we left the doors open and let it be the Swan House. After that, all manner of migratory birds began passing through.”
“Ah, no wonder it looked like such a grand birdhouse!”
“Then you saw it properly.”
“If lots of birds fly in, Hannah would love it. She likes animals.”
“She would.”
Fred’s face was suffused with dreaming.
April smiled. There was something not unpleasant about watching someone nurture a dream.
“Then tell Bauman not to build it yet—to wait.”
“Why?”
As Fred tilted his head in confusion, April spoke.
“When you’re a bit older, I’m going to entrust it to you.”
“Really? I get to design it?”
“You’ll have to do it well, though. It can’t be mediocre. We don’t build mediocrely designed structures in Lunos territory.”
At April’s words, Fred’s face fell with disappointment.
“I can’t even draw well yet…….”
“When you turn fourteen, you’ll go to school and study more.”
April said this, and as the conversation ended, she turned her gaze forward.
Then she felt Fred gripping her arm tightly with both his small hands. His joy transmitted through that small grip.
‘If he wanted to go to school, he should have said so…….’
April thought this to herself but chose not to voice it.
* * *
When April arrived at the Capital with the letter, she stood before the Police Headquarters and simply stared at the doors.
She’d come this far, but she couldn’t bring herself to step through. An uneasy premonition clung to her—the feeling that once she went in, she might never come out again.
Soon, a policeman approached with suspicion, eyeing the figure with a parasol pressed down low over her face.
“May I be of assistance?”
His voice was very gentlemanly.
Even when she lifted her head, the policeman did not recognize April Lunos, and merely met her gaze with a concerned expression.
April felt a small measure of relieved resignation wash over her as she opened her mouth.
“Could you call Peijin Dieus for me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
The policeman blinked in bewilderment at her words.
Though the silence was not brief, April was fortunate enough to realize during that interval that the rank difference between this policeman and Peijin Dieus was far too great for him to summon such a person.
April spoke.
“Then could you call any police officer from the Special Investigation Bureau?”
“Ah, officers from Division 3 are around somewhere over there.”
Looking where the policeman pointed, April saw people who hardly looked like police at all gathered near the plaza, eating sandwiches.
April spoke.
“What do Division 3 people do?”
“Ah, they’re investigators. Various professions conduct preliminary investigations. Their structure and ranks differ from what we have in the Grand Duchy, so we find it quite interesting.”
“I see. Thank you for explaining.”
With that, April moved toward the Division 3 officers.
She hadn’t expected meeting Peijin to be this difficult, but at least she’d gained an opportunity to learn more about what he did.
Peijin knew everything about her through his investigation, yet she knew nothing about him.
“Excuse me.”
April tapped a female investigator on the shoulder, and the woman turned around. Then she spotted April and dropped her sandwich right onto the ground.
“Miss, Miss Lunos…….”
The investigator naturally recognized April at once—she was the subject of their investigation.
When the investigator glanced back at the others for help, all the other Division 3 personnel were deliberately avoiding eye contact.
April understood that they felt guilty about investigating her in secret.
If they’d been police, they could have justified it as necessary for their work, but these people were not police. The guilt had to weigh on them.
April continued.
“I’m not here to question you about the investigation, so don’t run away. I just need to find a way to meet Peijin.”
“Oh, I see? In any case, the Commander won’t be visiting the Lunos estate for a while…….”
At the investigator’s muttered remark, April’s eyelids fluttered rapidly without her meaning to.
She had never once considered the possibility that Peijin would no longer visit the Lunos residence.
Peijin appeared at the estate periodically—and now that she herself had taken the first step to meet him, she realized there stood between them a towering wall with a door only on his side. She understood this only now.
The investigator continued.
“Then let’s go to Division 1 with me. The Commander travels with Division 1.”
“Is Fred also in Division 1?”
“Yes, probably.”
“Probably?”
“They don’t tell us the exact organizational structure of the Special Investigation Bureau, so we can only guess. They say there are simply too many secrets among those people.”
The investigator grumbled.
If even other divisions within the same bureau saw them as secretive, then it stood to reason that April would know nothing. Somehow, this relieved her.
April headed to Division 1 with the investigator.
The investigator’s name was Kritz, and she served as scientific advisor to Division 3.
She had majored in physics at university and, in her final year, deferred graduation to volunteer for the Investigation Bureau, applying to Division 3.
Kritz continued speaking.
“Our university has been conducting extensive research to solve this fog. Please bear with us a little longer, Miss Lunos.”
“So Kritz doesn’t think I’m the cause?”
“Of course not. How could a scientist believe in something like a witch? Besides, even without being a scientist—the Commander himself stated outright that there’s no such thing.”
April nodded.
Peijin clearly had not entertained the slightest notion of handing the investigation over to the Church. That was no small reassurance to her.
Yet he had witnessed her standing in the basement while countless police collapsed.
She could not be certain whether, despite that, he still denied the existence of a witch.

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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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