The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 5

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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 5
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Pejin flipped through the statement and clicked his tongue.
The document was crammed with drivel—that after 12:17 he blinked an average of seven times more frequently than before, that the corridor temperature was one degree higher than where April was standing—filling every gap with earnest nonsense.
Pejin picked up the intercom phone on the police station wall. He tossed the statement onto the table and spoke.
“The Capital Police Station is staffed only with officers who’ve grown old but lost their edge. Is this where people come to rest before retirement?”
The Chief of the Capital Police Station replied, uncomfortable.
“Please, don’t speak so harshly.”
“Harsh? It’s the truth. How else should I put it? Haven’t you all grown too comfortable?”
The Chief was Pejin’s senior in both age and rank, but as a police officer dispatched from The Empire and, more importantly, the only blood relative of the Grand Duke, he could not fault the young man’s insolence.
While still on the phone and gazing outside, Pejin caught April’s collar from behind to keep her from leaning dangerously out of her seat.
April turned back, displeased, but he paid no attention and continued.
“Comfortable? Me? To someone stationed in The Empire, separated from family, working as a police officer……—look, just discipline those officers of yours, buy me a drink, and then I’m hanging up.”
Having said his piece and cut the line, Pejin looked at April, who was glaring at him.
“What. Go ahead, glare all you like.”
“Am I a child? I won’t let go.”
“Children always think like that. Inflated egos.”
She was already annoyed at being treated like a child, and his glib response made it worse.
April spoke sarcastically.
“You haven’t changed a bit. Change, would you.”
“Why change when I’m already perfect?”
His shamelessness left her speechless.
She wanted to say more, but after seven years of not speaking, she felt certain she’d lose any argument, so she turned her face to the window instead.
While looking outside again, she asked, feigning indifference.
“The Church wants the trial transferred to them, doesn’t it?”
“Witches are their specialty. Or rather, they think it is.”
“What does Miller think?”
Pejin matched her casual tone with an equally detached reply.
“He’d like to hand you over to the Church.”
“Is he afraid I’ll murder the Grand Duke and Duchess? How would I manage that?”
“No way to know. If you really are a witch, it might be possible.”
At Pejin’s blank expression and indifferent answer, April found herself sighing without meaning to.
Now that she heard it aloud, the situation did seem strange, even to her.
She knew better than anyone that the lights came on daily in that grand mansion where the gas had been cut off.
She’d experienced that Fog herself. She simply hadn’t known that anyone had died in it.
April realized that only if there was no evidence linking these two surreal events could she prove her innocence.
Fortunately, finding such evidence was equally difficult for the police.
It would be easier for them to crack down on organized violent gangs threatening the Grand Duchy’s security or the smugglers who mainly operated along the Coastline.
Finding the poachers who kept reappearing would be simpler.
For Pejin’s own future too, it was so.
He needed visible achievements to advance as a police officer, not waste his time here for seven years questioning a woman who’d been locked away and knew nothing of the world.
April was reasonably confident that Pejin had no interest in this case either, and asked him.
“The Fog……—all three times it was winter, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, right when the cold was just beginning.”
“Other than that, the dates and days were all different.”
“You’ve caught on to as much as the police have figured out.”
His remark was a jab at the local police.
What everyone in the Grand Duchy knew—what even April, imprisoned in her home for seven years, knew—they’d presented as their investigation.
As expected, they could prove no guilt of hers.
April asked.
“Have you experienced the Fog?”
“Not yet. I’ll get to soon enough.”
Pejin had spent all his time in The Empire, and even since coming to the Grand Duchy, there was no reason for him to be here during winter, which was far colder than The Empire.
Soon, Witch’s Night would come, and the Fog with it.
Confirming there was little of substance in the statement, Pejin took his coat from the rack and pulled it on as he spoke.
“Let’s go.”
From April’s memory, the leather coats of the police officers had built-in compartments for weapons.
Though he carried none himself, the mere sight of those spaces filled April with dread. She gripped the windowsill tightly.
“No.”
Pejin buttoned his coat and fastened his belt as he answered.
“Then stay here. I’m going to investigate the Lunos Residence.”
“The Lunos Residence? You meant to take me home?”
“Where else would I go?”
“The Church.”
At her answer—a mixture of wariness and relief—Pejin let out a quiet laugh without even glancing at her.
“No. Regardless of my personal feelings toward you, handing the case to the Church would wound police honor.”
After saying this, he finally looked back at April, and only then noticed her trembling. She was genuinely afraid of being handed over to the Church.
Her lips were pale, her face drained of color, as if standing upright was all she could manage.
Pejin decided to take her back to the Lunos Residence as soon as possible. He strode briskly out of the interrogation room, and April released her grip on the sill, hurrying after him.
As April emerged from the police station, a small stone flew at her from the crowd that had followed the transport carriage.
She narrowed her eyes and glared back, frightening them into retreating.
From within the crowd came the sobs and shrieks of those who had lost family to the Fog.
“Why won’t you hand the trial over to the Church!”
“Witches aren’t a police matter!”
As they shouted, the crowd seized April’s clothes.
Unable to keep pace with Pejin’s rapid stride, April was suddenly pulled in one direction—toward the Church.
Then a gunshot rang out, and the crowd froze, hands over their ears.
April too went rigid, and when she opened her eyes, she knew the shot had come from Pejin’s weapon.
His coat had seemed to hold no weapons, yet here he was with a gun hidden somewhere. So he really had become a police officer.
While Pejin shielded her toward the carriage, April found herself thinking such thoughts absently.
With Pejin’s help, April managed to climb into the carriage, its door already open.
Only after the carriage broke through the crowd and began to move did she finally relax.
She covered her face with trembling hands. She felt sorrow and fear, but what overwhelmed all else was rage.
The desire to restore the Lunos Family filled every vessel of her being.
But was it even possible?
Seeing no path to fulfilling that wish, her mind reeled.
Was she then to carry this unresolved, terrible rage for the rest of her life?
She felt tears threatening to break through at the weight of it, but she forced them back.
She couldn’t let herself cry from anger—it might look like tears of fear.
She absolutely would not appear that way. She would never let anyone see her fear.

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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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