The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 42

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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 42
Soon those who would participate in the game made their way to the Game arena.
Though the temperature had fallen well below freezing, it was mild enough for the people of the Grand Duchy to move about comfortably in a coat.
The Grand Duke’s Residence in particular was warmer than other regions of the Grand Duchy, never dropping below minus fifteen degrees even in the harshest winters.
Considering that some areas of the Grand Duchy plunged to minus thirty degrees, it was reason enough for the old royal house to have settled here.
Miller walked slowly and extended his hand to April in greeting.
April did not accept it, but Miller, as if he had anticipated this, offered her a smile.
After a moment, he asked.
“What did you tell Pejin?”
At Miller’s question, April turned to face him.
Even as seven years had passed, he still carried that characteristic softness in his lips.
She had never found it believable that he and Pejin were brothers, and it seemed even less so now that they’d grown. Pejin was like a beast prowling the nocturnal fields, while Miller still belonged in the daylight of a party.
April answered.
“There’s no romantic sentiment involved in my meeting with him, so don’t concern yourself.”
“Romantic sentiment?”
It was an unexpected word, and Miller laughed despite himself.
Seeing that laughter had truly escaped him, April found herself smiling faintly in return.
April realized just how vast the difference was between herself and this gentleman in how they accepted the same event.
The fact that all the incidents entangled with the engagement had been anything but shocking to Miller Dieus was enough to draw laughter from her as well.
If you laugh, then so will I, she thought.
At her answering laughter, Miller found his brow furrowing slightly without his notice. He seemed puzzled by her laughing at him.
Yet he showed no interest in understanding the reason for that laughter, and Miller continued speaking.
“True, I suppose that’s possible. Between a man and a woman, who can say what might unfold? It’s not as though anyone can truly know.”
“Quite right. Even if someone were to object, there’s little they could do about it.”
…….
“From experience, trying to discourage such things only adds fuel to the fire.”
April answered while watching the game of the players across the way, rolling their balls.
Pejin thought the thorns in her words were rendered with particular clarity, yet it struck him as thoroughly characteristic of April.
The gaming room was one of several private chambers adjoining the Banquet hall. The hall contained numerous such chambers, each outfitted with tables for various card games including Bridge.
However, games could not be observed by just anyone. Only those accredited as being within a certain degree of closeness to the players were permitted to enter the same chamber.
Those allowed into the chamber where the Grand Duke and his wife and the head of the Lunos family sat were exclusively those with direct or indirect ties to the Grand Duke family, or those who could claim such a relationship with the Lunos family.
Pejin understood that April had spoken of “Gathering the clan,” so he was not surprised that she participated in this game even knowing that the party would inevitably spawn gossip from every corner once it ended.
As suggested by its name, Green Ball, all the balls used in this game were green, and play took place within a Game arena bounded by a black fence that rose to knee height.
The game itself was simple: using a Long wooden mallet to strike a White ball, which would then hit seven scattered Green balls and spread them across the arena, after which the White ball was used to sink all seven balls precisely into seven holes, at which point the game ended.
Six teams, each composed of one man and one woman, participated in the game.
Because the Fence was tall, escorting the lady across it was itself the beginning of the game.
After three teams, including Heidi’s, played first, Miller rose to escort April.
Miller’s brow furrowed slightly as he watched April place her hand in his.
Miller Dieus possessed relatively strong patience. Therefore, he could extend his hand to a woman who, without exaggeration, was perhaps the person he most despised in all the world.
He also recognized that the hatred April harbored was vastly greater than anything he carried.
Yet she accepted his escort nonetheless.
Her expression showed no particular pleasure, but even as a child, April had never been prone to smiling.
She had grown.
Whether the sharpness from her youth had softened with experience, or whether all the turbulent emotions of adolescence had passed and now revealed her true nature, he could not say.
Yet Miller’s inclination leaned toward the latter, for he too knew of the Lunos Duchess—a figure known to anyone who had set foot in High society.
In April, he was beginning to glimpse the image of that Duchess.
That image seemed incongruous in this Banquet hall, and in fact she was somewhat behind in several matters of culture.
Yet at the same time, it stirred a nostalgia he had not known he possessed.
April climbed over the Fence and stepped into the Game arena.
The onlookers held their breath as they watched. Both April and Miller had learned games from an early age, and so the two were more practiced at Green Ball than anyone present.
Those watching discovered an unexpected fact: the two moved with a striking coordination in the game.
“Should we play that one first?”
“No, this one.”
“Ah. In the direction of number three?”
The two concentrated on the game as a means to forget their mutual hatred, and that concentration rapidly drew the balls in the arena toward the holes.
Though Pejin had known April only briefly, he found himself recalling the fact that she had never lost at any game.
Even on days when there had been fog, the police at Police headquarters would often invite April to play card games, yet he had received word that none had ever defeated her.
Even before House arrest, April had possessed a strong competitive spirit. But never with the attitude of absolute determination to win as she showed now.
Pejin recalled what April had said about the reason for her victories.
“Because I concentrate on winning.”
At that time, she had said she competed fiercely to win.
Few were those who approached games held in High society with the resolve to absolutely win.
Therefore, April won. Carefully accumulating victory after victory.
Pejin watched April in the game. He observed how she built small wins, one upon another.
In the end, the outcome of a game was always a matter of probability.
The winning odds her small victories created might, in turn, bring great victory to Lunos.
Precisely as she desired.
As Pejin was thinking this, laughter erupted from a table where some of the other players sat.
Before Pejin could turn to look, Paul, who had already turned, rose with a darkening expression.
The moment Paul stood, Pejin issued a command.
“Sit.”
“Please look at that, Inspector.”
Paul sat, but urged Pejin, who turned to look at the source of the laughter with an expression of indifference.
The two seated there were both members of the Grand Duke family—distant cousins to Pejin.
Pejin saw his cousin, seven years his senior, holding a Knife between thumb and forefinger, waggling it idly.
He recognized that his distant cousin was mocking April’s parents, who had been executed by guillotine.
At that moment, April too turned to look toward the laughter. Then, she gauged the Green balls remaining in the Game arena. Two remained.
Miller, his expression hardening, spoke.
“This has crossed a line. I’ll address it.”
“Don’t.”
April caught Miller’s arm to stop him from leaving the Game arena as she continued.
“Finish the game. Win.”
“How can this petty game matter now?”
“It does.”
April looked up at him.
Her words and gaze seemed to bristle with thorns. Her eyes shone like those of a nocturnal animal.
The light was one that inspired an uncertain dread—that even if she were no witch, she could certainly cast some manner of spell.
“I will win. At every game.”
…….
“I will never lose again. Not to anyone.”
A dark spot.
Did something like a dark spot that devours stars truly exist?
Miller was certain such a thing would never occur. Yet he could not entirely dismiss the thought that there were exceptions to everything in this world.

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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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