The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 4

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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 4
He continued a moment later.
“Just joking. You know I have plenty to do.”
“Pejin.”
Miller finally rose to his feet. He stepped closer to Pejin and spoke quietly, so no one else would hear.
“That witch—we’ll have to kill her, won’t we?”
“Even if she is a witch, we can’t kill her without proving murder.”
“How do you prove a witch’s murder? It’s impossible.”
Pejin studied Miller intently before answering.
“Impossible?”
“Yes. Without the Church’s help. So hand the trial over to the Church.”
“The Church? Are you dismissing the Rasa police?”
“That’s not what I meant—”
“The Church doesn’t hold trials. The judge does. The police conduct the investigation. And besides, the Rasa police don’t need the Grand Duke’s permission.”
Pejin paused and glanced toward the Grand Duke’s Residence.
His eyes met Heidi’s, who hesitated uncertainly about how to ease the tension between the brothers, and his expression softened.
Seeing his brother’s mood suggested there was no reason to stay longer, Miller clutched Pejin’s arm and spoke rapidly, eager to finish.
“I heard your grades were excellent. If our parents were still alive, you’d have received far more praise. I’m sorry I can only give you this.”
Pejin let out a weary sigh and asked.
“What would make you accept that I’ve grown up?”
“It’s not that I think you’re a child. The Grand Duchy has great expectations of you. Be the bridge that connects two islands, Pejin Dieuss.”
“I know that better than you need to tell me.”
Despite his answer, Pejin bowed respectfully to the couple and turned to leave.
Miller called out after him.
“We’re having a party before this year ends, Pejin!”
“Do as you like. I’m not going.”
Pejin spoke flatly as he departed.
Miller sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, resigned even to receiving such a curt reply.
“He was so cute when he was little. I wish my sons would never grow up.”
“I know. I wish every day wasn’t taking him further away.”
Heidi agreed with him. Then, as if she couldn’t quite believe it, she asked.
“But is it really true that April has something to do with the Night of the Witch?”
“I don’t know. But if it’s that woman, she’d do anything for her malice.”
Miller clicked his tongue, recalling the young girl who used to follow him around.
The eyes of someone who had received whatever she wanted from the moment of her birth.
The thought of spending a lifetime with that confident April Lunos, who was certain nothing could go against her will, made him want to bury his head somewhere and die.
After the trial to dispose of her fiancé ended in Miller’s victory and her parents were executed, April had been nearly mad.
He recalled her—disheveled, crouched in an iron cage, cursing herself.
“In seven years, I’ll come for you. I won’t leave you alone.”
The way she had clenched her teeth as she spoke conjured the image of a witch all too well.
* * *
The Grand Duchy’s police headquarters was familiar to April Lunos. She had been there countless times over the course of more than a year of trial proceedings.
The officers had searched obsessively for evidence that April had conjured the fog, but in dealing with a supernatural event, they found nothing of substance.
In the meantime, Pejin returned from the Grand Duke’s Residence.
He clicked his tongue at the news of their fruitless search and stepped into the interrogation room.
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, April sat calmly without causing any trouble.
Instead, she was observing the view outside the police headquarters windows. Someone who had been confined in a cell for seven years was bound to find anything remarkable, so there was nothing strange about her amazement.
The Grand Duchy’s last seven years had been a period of development at a pace wholly different from its history until now.
The technology that came from the Empire had created an enormous gap with the Grand Duchy. It had transformed the right island into a new world.
Unaware of Pejin’s entrance, April was examining every scrap of landscape visible from where she sat.
Pejin asked a Grand Duchy police officer standing in the corridor.
“Shackles are necessary when there’s a flight risk, but why put them on April Lunos? Are you afraid she’ll grab a sword and attack?”
“W-well, sir, you never know. If she uses Sorcery—”
“So shackles prevent Sorcery. How clever.”
At Pejin’s sarcasm, the red-faced Grand Duchy officer hastily produced his keys with both hands the moment Pejin extended his hand.
Pejin took the keys and approached April, then unlocked her right wrist from the shackles connected to the table.
Startled by the footsteps she’d only just noticed, April was reassured—then immediately glared at him with blazing eyes.
“Did Miller tell you to kill me?”
“I’m Imperial Police. I don’t take orders from the Grand Duke.”
“So it was purely your own judgment that brought me here?”
“See? That’s what clever looks like.”
Pejin spoke sardonically to the Grand Duchy officer waiting by the door.
April drummed her now-freed right hand on the table and asked.
“How long do I have to stay here? Let me out.”
“Ah, so someone came to visit.”
“Are you idiots? How could I have killed someone? How did you even become police with that mind?”
“The police will insult the police. If you don’t stay quiet, I won’t unlock you.”
As Pejin gestured toward her left wrist, April’s expression twisted sharply and she turned her head toward the window.
Still the same—throwing a tantrum when things don’t go her way.
Pejin thought this as he unlocked her left wrist.
The moment it came free, April grabbed the water cup beside her and splashed it directly into Pejin’s face.
Pejin blinked in shock, momentarily stunned. He cursed and wiped the water from his face with his hand.
“Seven years of confinement and even a mad dog would come to its senses.”
“Unlike a dog, I have intelligence. Which is why being locked up for something I didn’t do only made me angrier.”
“Your parents tried to kill my brother. You couldn’t have been unaware, but even if you truly were, it’s a capital crime.”
April faltered at Pejin’s quiet voice.
Pejin continued.
“You lived because you were young back then. Since you claim to have intelligence, you should understand that much.”
April answered in a strained voice.
“Your brother didn’t die. I lost my parents.”
“It was through Due Process.”
At Pejin’s response, which showed no trace of sympathy, April lost the will to continue and fell silent.
Pejin moved to the window and leaned his back against the frame, unfolding a Statement Record as he gestured toward it with his chin.
“Go ahead and look. While I read this.”
……
April was taken aback by his composure, but she didn’t want to lose out to him over her anger.
After a while of touching her wrists, which had been immobilized so long, she rose and walked to the window.
With her hands on the windowsill, April murmured bitterly.
“You’ve really changed so much.”
The world had become completely different from seven years ago.
The continuous noise she’d been hearing was the sound of engines running, and a tourist tram was making wide loops through the square.
Everything had become cleaner, everything had advanced. The buildings themselves remained, but every detail in between had changed.

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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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