The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 44

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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 44
* * *
Soon the party arrived at the Sea.
The waters here were particularly calm, and even after wading far out, the depth remained shallow—a geographical advantage that made it a favored Beach among many nobles during the summer months.
April’s feet sank into the endless white sand, so she removed her Shoes one at a time and held them in her hands.
Pejin then extended his hand to take her Shoes, offered his other arm for her to grasp, and walked beside her at her pace.
The sand on the Beach was so soft it tickled her feet.
April found herself laughing without thinking, and at the sight of her laughter, Pejin spoke.
“You’ll collapse the moment you get home and sleep. You’ve spent a lot of energy today.”
“That’s half the fun of a party—lying in bed for two days afterward.”
“Fair enough.”
“So why did you want to go swimming in the Sea? You’re sensitive to the cold.”
Pejin had grown so accustomed to the Empire’s climate that it was clear he would struggle to adapt to the Grand Duchy’s winter cold once it arrived.
Pejin answered April’s question.
“It’s cool. I’ve wanted to try it since I was little. Children aren’t supposed to go into the winter Sea, after all.”
“That’s true.”
April was certain that Pejin, weakened by the cold, would catch his death of a cold. But she thought that was his problem to manage, so she didn’t bother stopping him.
The servants had gathered firewood on the Beach and set it ablaze, and then the men—led by Pejin and dressed in Night Swim Attire—began rushing into the winter Sea.
Swimming in the Sea made no distinction of rank, so the servants too plunged in as the mood took them.
The women who remained on the Beach watched and laughed, making a commotion.
Just as the security chief had thrown himself in and nearly every guard had ended up in the water, someone approached April.
“April.”
She turned at the voice to find Sara Daeus standing there—one of the Grand Duke’s household.
April remembered that she was the woman who had stood laughing alongside the man who had insulted her parents with a knife.
Sara Daeus, having approached, spoke with formal courtesy.
“I apologize for earlier. I didn’t realize I was such a vulgar person until now.”
“Yes, I didn’t realize people could be so vulgar either.”
Sara Daeus nodded at April’s response and continued.
“I’m not apologizing because I think you’re a witch. I am vulgar, that’s true, but I’m not so foolish as to believe in such supernatural phenomena.”
Sara’s cynical tone prompted an involuntary smile from April.
April had no intention of forgiving them, but she knew well enough that laughter was a form of forgiveness.
Since she had laughed, there was no help for it. April spoke frankly.
“I forgive you. Since I laughed.”
“That’s generous of you, but I don’t understand what was funny about it.”
Sara retorted with a pout.
April thought that at least Sara, who was asking for forgiveness, was better than any of the others muttering that she was a witch.
Within that judgment, the tension eased between them, and as they were beginning to talk more, Pejin emerged from the dark Sea and approached them.
He looked silently toward Sara, and Sara, his cousin, spoke at once.
“Oh, I was just offering an apology. About what happened earlier.”
When she said this, Pejin turned to look at April.
April narrowed her brow and asked.
“Why?”
“Just because someone apologizes doesn’t mean you have to forgive them. What matters is how you responded.”
“I forgave her.”
“Well then.”
Only then did Pejin smile toward Sara and speak.
“I’d almost been disappointed in you.”
“You can be disappointed. I’m already disappointed in myself. I must have spent too long in High Society. To think I was laughing at such low behavior.”
Sara laughed bitterly.
It was true that the disappearance of the Lunos Family had marked a turning point, but the signs had appeared before that.
As the culture of the Empire came to be regarded as refined, contempt and reproach for anything “not of the Empire” became increasingly common in High Society of the Grand Duchy.
Sara Daeus felt it acutely. And she viewed herself objectively as one of those youth who had become part of that trend.
Fortunately, April accepted Sara’s apology with unexpected generosity—a result contrary to the image of April Lunos that High Society had constructed over the past seven years.
Sara’s mind churned with the thought that the April Lunos she had fashioned in her imagination might be nothing more than a phantom, different from the April who stood before her in reality.
As the servants came out from the Beach, they brought an enormous quantity of alcohol with them. While watching those who were swimming, those who remained on shore drank freely.
The amount of alcohol people had consumed on this Beach exceeded all they’d drunk throughout the day. So everyone was drunk, speaking in an unusually boisterous clamor.
Sara too, quite intoxicated, exchanged trivial conversation with April by the bonfire.
Though she felt other people watching her strangely, conversation with April had a bland yet never-tiring quality—an addictiveness that crept up unawares.
Whether April held her alcohol well or poorly was unclear, but her mind remained sharp.
As Sara asked April all manner of questions, other nobles, emboldened by drink, began joining the conversation.
Unexpectedly, April got along with people quite well.
Though she spoke little, having learned Social Conversation Skill from a young age, she knew how to keep topics flowing. It was counted as a very important ability in High Society.
Those who had been swimming came ashore and dried themselves, and the gathering did not end even as they resumed drinking.
* * *
April and Pejin left the Grand Duke’s Residence at a time when sunrise would be unremarkable.
The Daeus household remained at the Grand Duke’s Residence, and the other nobles returned to nearby Town Houses. But the Lunos Family’s Town House was entirely neglected, so they had no choice but to return to the Lunos Residence.
April watched Pejin as he boarded the carriage heading toward the Lunos Residence for the escort and asked.
“Aren’t you exhausted?”
“Not at all.”
Pejin was putting on a brave face, but on this cold day, April could feel heat radiating from him—fever.
Such a gathering was ordinarily anything but a light affair. Though both tried hard to keep their eyes open, they both fell asleep, and when they came to, they had already arrived at the Lunos Residence.
By the time they reached the Lunos Residence—well after sunrise—Pejin had even begun to cough. It was clear he had caught a proper cold.
Seeing Pejin’s flushed face with the fever that only became visible in the bright daylight, April spoke with exasperation.
“So why did someone who’s been living in the Empire the whole time jump into the Sea?”
“It’s cool.”
“Not cool at all. Just like Paul’s beard.”
“That’s not fair, even so.”
“You’re right, it’s not quite that bad.”
April conceded the point, and while coughing, Pejin giggled at the thought of Paul’s beard. The fever seemed to have made him giddy.
April rebuked him.
“Still, it was a stupid thing to do.”
“I know.”
Pejin replied with self-deprecation.
It may have been an excuse, but Pejin thought that if he had continued swimming, he wouldn’t have caught the cold.
The problem was the lingering aftereffect of April disappearing from his sight once.
Worried that something had arisen between April and the other noble women, he had gone back and forth from the Beach, the result being the cold he’d caught. That he remained on his feet while soaking wet in sub-zero temperatures was, if anything, the surprising part.
When he was talking with Sara Daeus, he’d come out thinking she was harassing April.
Finding out she wasn’t, he returned to the Sea, only to realize that April wasn’t the sort to be bullied so easily.
Why hadn’t that judgment come to him then?
He supposed his brain had simply frozen from the cold. Or perhaps the trembling in April’s hand and the warmth of her fever had interfered with his reasoning.

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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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