The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 35

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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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Episode 35
Beneath the Grand Duchy, scattered in various locations around the Lunos Mansion, lay deposits of Fuel.
The moment Miller Dieu realized the Grand Duchy lacked the technology to extract this Fuel, he attracted Rasa’s factories—those that possessed such capability.
By Miller’s decision, the Grand Duchy reaped considerable profits and achieved remarkable development over the past seven years.
But the problem surfaced several years later.
During the Fuel extraction process, it was discovered that Toxic Gas, which had been buried alongside the Fuel, began to leak out in small quantities.
The volume was negligible under normal conditions, but when the cold season arrived and both the Empire and the Grand Duchy consumed enormous amounts of Fuel, the quantity of escaping gas increased dramatically.
This gas then mingled with the emissions from the Grand Duchy’s factories, and at some point, it formed a fog that engulfed the city.
The Researcher spoke.
“Give it five years. That’s all we need to find a method to liquefy that gas and prevent it from escaping. We simply need to lower the temperature. That’s the method we’re seeking.”
“Five years at most, then.”
“Until then, we merely need the Fog Witch to exist.”
“And after that?”
“The witch loses her power.”
“She can’t stop being a witch.”
“No—because this fog was never the Empire’s doing. It was always the witch’s fault.”
The citizens of the Grand Duchy, ignorant of the fog’s true origins, suspected April Lunos. Given the proximity of the factories, perhaps it was inevitable.
That faintly leaking gas had become the Fuel that burned brilliantly in the Lunos Family’s gas lamps, and that firelight made April the fog’s primary culprit in their eyes.
The Emperor organized the Special Investigation Bureau.
The humanitarian order was the second: to minimize casualties during those five years of research amid the fog. The first order was to pin the stigma of causing this fog not on the Empire, but on April Lunos.
Fejin gazed at the flames blazing within that fog.
The Researcher spoke.
“And this liquefied gas, too, will make excellent Fuel. It’s a shame April won’t receive compensation for all the Fuel she’s provided so far.”
The Researcher joked and laughed pleasantly. For the Empire’s people, the sacrifice of a single woman from the Grand Duchy stirred not even the smallest pang of sympathy.
Fejin smiled as well.
To prove his loyalty to the Empire.
* * *
April gazed out the window at the falling snow.
She thought the ship that went to Left Island might never return. The ship Fejin was aboard.
She looked at the Jewelry she had selected and the frozen Dahlia from the cold place.
Perhaps it was for the best. The mere thought of stepping into that party made her heart shrivel.
She had no confidence facing Miller Dieu’s face, Heidi Dieu’s face.
Sitting by the window with complicated thoughts as darkness quickly fell, April sipped her tea when a sound like the prelude to thunder rumbled from outside.
When she opened the window, it was the engine’s roar.
Watching the car approach and stop near the porch, she saw Fejin step out.
He had the Dieu Family servants who came with him unload the luggage.
“Why is there so much luggage?”
April murmured absently, turned her body, and was about to head straight downstairs when she stopped herself and sat back in the chair.
Shortly after, Bauman spoke.
“Eve from the Dieu Family has arrived.”
“Please show her in.”
As April spoke, Eve entered through the door Bauman opened.
The woman, whose hair was just beginning to gray, was someone April had known since childhood—a familiar face.
Originally she had entered the Grand Duchy residence as a handmaid of the previous Duchess Dieu, and after the Duchess passed away, she now enjoyed a leisurely life in the Dieu Family, which had only two sons.
Since the new Duchess also came with her own new handmaids, Eve remained—bored, even—in a life of excess idleness.
April greeted her.
“It’s been a long time.”
“It has indeed.”
Eve answered with her characteristic expressionless face.
She still could not believe that she had been asked to assist in dressing April, who had intended to harm Miller Dieu, her former mistress’s eldest son.
Had the request not come from Fejin, she would have cursed and refused outright.
Though displeased, she snapped her fingers at the handmaids to unfold the Dress imported from the Empire, determined to complete the task she had been asked to do.
Since Dahlia was the flower of the charity gala for fog victims, Fejin had purchased a Dress in deep crimson to match, along with a Black Fur Coat to wear over it.
April examined the Dress and opened her Jewelry box.
Eve gazed downward, inspecting its contents, and spoke.
“The Jewelry seems fine.”
“Yes—you would know the Lunos Jewelry better than anyone, wouldn’t you?”
There was an edge to April’s words, and Eve gave a soft snort.
Since the previous Duchess and Lady Lunos had long watched each other warily in society, it was only natural that Eve knew Lady Lunos’s Jewelry collection perfectly.
Eve hastily twisted April’s hair up and had her change into the Dress, speaking as she worked.
“As you may know, the previous Duchess greatly disliked Lady Lunos.”
“My mother said she didn’t dislike her.”
“Yes—because she loved her too, in a way.”
At Eve’s words, April turned to look at her.
Eve kept her gaze on the Dress and continued.
“The previous Duchess despised and admired Lady Lunos in equal measure. It differs little from love.”
“My mother did not…”
“Neither despise nor admire. I know. But could the previous Duchess have experienced anything worse?”
April closed her mouth and merely nodded.
As her thoughts turned to both women and she bowed her head, Eve narrowed her brow, grasped April’s chin firmly, and lifted it up.
“A woman of the Lunos Family must never lower her head in any place.”
“I wasn’t lowering it. I was simply lost in thought.”
“You may think with your chin raised.”
Eve spoke tersely.
April’s dissatisfaction began to mount at Eve’s stubborn, even coercive attitude.
But what truly troubled her was not the attitude itself.
When Eve finished dressing her, April caught sight of herself in the mirror and could not suppress a hollow laugh.
What lay in the mirror resembled a portrait of her mother in her youth.
Though she favored her father in appearance and looked different, from her hair to her toes she was the very image of Lady Lunos as she had shone endlessly in society.
“Is this the current fashion? It resembles my mother’s portrait.”
“Yes. Fashion does tend to return.”
Eve said so, but April could not help but feel that Lady Lunos’s presence still occupied a space in Eve’s heart.
Eve gazed at April’s reflection in the mirror.
April could not precisely discern what that gaze meant, but she knew it did not harbor only negative feeling.
Eve fastened Earrings that hung precariously just above her shoulders, speaking as she did.
“In some ways, you resemble Lady Lunos.”
“In what way?”
“Your expression. Rather strongly, in fact.”
Eve’s hands were not cold, nor were the Earrings.
April realized Eve was taking care that nothing cold touched her. Her manner was endlessly chill and discourteous, yet it held, at the same time, a kind of longing.
It was worse.
April could not bring herself to fault Eve for her behavior.

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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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