The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 36

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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 36
After finishing her preparations, Bauman appeared with a warm expression, the complete opposite of Mrs. Eve.
“Do see this, Miss. Young Master Pejin sent a Potpourri Bottle as a gift to hold——ah, how beautiful you look.”
Bauman had brought the bottle and marveled at April once she’d finished dressing, but there was no time for lengthy admiration before Mrs. Eve’s rebuke came down on him.
“The gift should be presented on a Silver Tray. Surely you have one?”
“But it’s already in a box.”
“Place the box on the Silver Tray and bring it out. Do I really need to explain this to someone working in the Lunos Household?”
“I’ll fetch it right away!”
Bauman hurried back down the stairs.
Mrs. Eve clicked her tongue with obvious disapproval and turned to April.
“Do sit for a moment, Miss. The gentleman will be up to escort you shortly.”
“I’ll head down right away.”
“The gentleman will escort you downstairs.”
After Mrs. Eve spoke with finality and disappeared, April had no choice but to remain seated. Going to a party after so long was proving to be nothing but exhausting.
She was waiting with a sigh when Bauman reappeared, this time with the Silver Tray in hand.
“She was terribly frightening.”
“Just mind her for tonight, will you?”
“Of course, Miss.”
Bauman laughed pleasantly at April’s words.
He didn’t seem upset by Mrs. Eve’s scolding at all; if anything, he looked as though he’d found the whole affair entertaining. It was hard to believe that such a good-natured fellow could have quarreled with the architects and ended up here.
April picked up the Potpourri Bottle that Pejin had given her with one hand and opened the lid with the other to examine it.
As she was inspecting it this way, Pejin entered through the door.
“Let’s go.”
When Pejin called, April set down the bottle and spoke.
“Thanks for the gift.”
“Can’t show up empty-handed.”
From the tone of his reply, he seemed disinclined to discuss the gift any further.
April accepted this and, holding a single Dahlia, looked at Pejin while wondering where to place it.
Pejin was wearing formal evening attire, and April found no suitable place to tuck the flower, so she gestured with her hand.
“Bend down.”
As Pejin lowered his head at her gesture, April placed the Dahlia above his ear.
“Mm, it looks nice.”
April laughed aloud at her own playfulness.
When Pejin entered through the door with his head tilted back, standing there in his Tuxedo, she felt a strange discomfort in her chest.
She wished he weren’t a man.
She wished he wouldn’t be perceived as one.
She hated that the Tuxedo pleased her.
With the Dahlia ornament tucked above his ear, Pejin straightened and gazed into the mirror on the vanity she’d been sitting at.
“I can’t tell which is the flower.”
“What do you mean? It’s obvious.”
“Ah, the flower suits you wonderfully.”
Having grown accustomed to Pejin’s ways, April merely sighed and shook her head at his shamelessness.
After admiring his own face without a trace of embarrassment, Pejin turned to April and spoke.
“Come on, let’s go ruin this party.”
“You’re alright with this?”
“Yeah, and I’m hoping this is the last time I’m ever invited to a party.”
“Good to hear you’re getting something out of it too.”
April spoke while taking the hand Pejin extended to her and rising to her feet.
The two sat in the back seat, and the car soon departed.
The car traveled smoothly along the cleared road, but snow continued to fall beyond it.
Pejin glanced back at the snow accumulating on the road and asked.
“We won’t be able to return to the estate even after the party. Would it be alright to stay at the Town House?”
“The Town House?”
“Yes, the Lunos Family’s place.”
“Ah. Right. We had one, didn’t we?”
“The way you answered makes it clear it’s not being maintained at all.”
As they spoke, the car reached the coast.
April wanted to ask how Pejin had crossed this snow-covered winter sea, but as they drew closer to the Grand Duke’s Residence, the anger and fear rising in her chest tightened her throat and she could speak no further.
Fortunately, when they arrived at the Grand Duke’s Residence and stepped out of the car, the Dahlia was still tucked above Pejin’s ear, and the sight of it eased her tension for a moment.
April got out first and turned to Pejin, who had opened her door for her.
“You’re going to keep that in, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you embarrassed?”
“Not at all.”
From the start, simply attending a party with her would have been a considerable obstacle for Pejin.
So wearing a flower in his hair was nothing to him. His escort’s shamelessness, oddly enough, didn’t displease her today.
April exhaled a trembling breath and, placing her hand in Pejin’s, stepped out of the car.
Night was beginning.
The party guests wore expressions as though they’d encountered a natural disaster.
Struck by their excessive reaction, April turned to Pejin with a question.
“Is it because of the Police Officers collapsing in the Basement?”
“That too. But there’s also the one who caused a carriage accident in that fog.”
“Ah, that reckless fool from the Heshan Family.”
At merely hearing the name, April’s displeasure was evident, and Pejin nodded in agreement.
“‘Reckless fool’ couldn’t describe him better.”
“He caused the accident himself, and then he had the audacity to play the victim.”
April recalled the image of the young man from the Heshan Family screaming for someone to save him in that fog.
Remembering how he’d raged because she wasn’t the first to rescue him, it was hardly surprising that he harbored such malice toward her.
It was easy to imagine how he had exaggerated and vilified April’s image—walking through a fog where even trained officers had collapsed, without a mask—to the other guests. She could hear them speaking without restraint.
“Why did those two come together?”
“Well, Pejin is a Police Officer, isn’t he? He’s accompanying her. It’s amusing that a Suspect under investigation wants to attend a party, but——”
When April heard their whispered, trembling voices, she found that her own fear was actually subsiding. There was no reason to fear those who feared her.
Pejin had once mentioned that if people knew the Lunos Household’s fortune—whether great or small—was guarded only by a female head, an elderly woman, and two children, intruders would appear.
This vicious rumor, exploiting the word “Witch,” had constrained her, but simultaneously it had become nearly her only weapon as April Lunos.
They even came to their own conclusions about why Pejin was accompanying her, and for that she was almost grateful.
April moved forward under the gazes of strangers, looking up at the ballroom of the Grand Duke’s Residence—a place that had once felt like her own domain.
Of all the large and small ballrooms within the Grand Duke’s Residence, the one April loved most was here: a small ballroom nestled in the garden.
Small though it was called, it was quite spacious. Nicknamed the “Summer Ballroom,” this place was prepared to make the most of the Grand Duchy’s brief summer.
Most of the walls consisted of glass windows, framed by the garden’s trees.
Even now, in the depths of winter, hosting a garden party surrounded by snow, the ballroom remained beautiful.
The dresses of the party guests heading toward the ballroom looked like flowers blooming on the snow.
Among them, the scarlet lining visible beneath April’s Black Dress under her Fur Shawl stood out distinctly.
Because Pejin had had the dress that was currently fashionable in the Empire shipped on a vessel at once, even this attire drew unique attention, standing apart from the rest.
On behalf of April, who kept her eyes forward, unwilling to meet anyone’s gaze, Pejin took note of the stares and asked.
“Is the dress too conspicuous?”
“Even without it, they’d stare at me. Don’t worry about it. I like it.”
“Good. I was afraid I’d chosen something you’d dislike and catch flak for it.”
“Mrs. Eve would’ve been angry first.”
“You wouldn’t have come to the party at all. Mrs. Eve would’ve said she couldn’t let you leave looking like that.”
Pejin seemed tired of Mrs. Eve’s fussiness, though his affection for her was separate.
Relieved that the dress was acceptable, Pejin paid no further attention to the surrounding stares.
April found Pejin’s audacity—or shamelessness, depending on how one looked at it—reassuring in a way it hadn’t been before.
Even as they entered the ballroom, Pejin remained focused solely on his interests. At least, that’s how it appeared to April.
Pejin had spotted Heidi Daeus, radiant and beautiful in a pristine Fur Shawl. And he held her gaze for some time, now that she’d noticed him.
In that brief moment, April felt as though his world had stopped.

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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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