The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 58

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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 58
He kept checking his watch until the exact moment of midnight, when the new year arrived, and then he spoke to April.
“Happy New Year.”
“Mm…….”
“The first person I see this year is you…….”
April opened her eyes slightly and glanced at him sideways, so Pejin quickly continued.
“No, that’s good. Because it’s you.”
“…….”
“I mean it.”
After saying so and laughing, Pejin tried to leave the bedroom when April grabbed his wrist.
April looked up at him with half-closed eyes. She didn’t voice the plea not to leave, but the light in her gaze and the grip of her hand conveyed enough.
Pejin sat down on the edge of the bed and spoke.
“What do you want from me? Sitting beside you talking is one thing, and sleeping at your side is another.”
“…….”
“All right. I won’t leave until you’re asleep.”
Only then did April’s face show satisfaction.
She closed her eyes with that expression, and just as he thought she had drifted off into silence, her voice came again.
“……Why did you come tonight?”
“…….”
“Why did you come here?”
He’d arrived here after midnight, walking up the hill with no particular purpose.
Instead of answering, Pejin released his own wrist and caught April’s hand as it slipped down, placing it on his own.
“You have beautiful hands.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“To offer New Year’s greetings.”
“…….”
“I wanted good things for you this year.”
At his words, April, still with her eyes closed, let out a soft scoff.
“I wanted bad things for you.”
Pejin laughed at April’s murmur.
Listening to his laughter, she fell into sleep.
* * *
Pejin found it frustrating that April had fallen asleep so quickly even while he was watching her.
“Really? A man who looks like this is watching, and you don’t feel a flutter?”
Pejin rose, grumbling as if he couldn’t understand.
Her hand, which had been holding his, slipped away, and he caught it almost without thinking.
It felt like holding a handful of snow.
It seemed it would melt away from his grasp.
She had been pale from the moment they first met, and she remained so.
April had been born with a silver spoon and raised in a golden cradle, giving her a childhood similar to his in some ways. Yet their perspectives on family diverged sharply—he was the second son, and she was the Lunos Family’s only child.
Had Pejin faced April’s circumstances after completing his confinement, he would have immediately sold his estate and left the Grand Duchy for the Empire.
It would have been easier than living under ill rumors and the Grand Duke’s displeasure.
When Pejin first came to the Grand Duchy, he had devised a plan to bind her to this place, prepared for the moment she might leave.
Yet April had resolved from the beginning to protect her family.
Watching her choose the opposite path at every turn—never the easy way—he came to understand his own nature.
He had chosen to save many by sacrificing one, to preserve the present by abandoning the future. Pejin Dieudeus had made that choice.
In the end, the Grand Duchy would fall.
He was merely postponing that fall, day after day.
The fog would grow thicker, the Empire would become the Grand Duchy’s root system, rendering it incapable of sustaining itself, and finally this Right Island, severed at its base, would become part of the Empire.
When he had first arrived in the Empire as a boy, his despair had not come from seeing the Empire’s strength, but from witnessing the Grand Duchy’s severed roots.
From seeing the tragic state of his homeland—unaware it had lost the ability to sustain itself, greedily swallowing the poison offered by others.
He harbored no illusions that April could do anything against such circumstances.
She didn’t know she was a flower placed in a vase for decoration, yet she struggled with all her might to bloom again, to bear new blossoms.
Even if by chance a flower bloomed from her stem, it would soon wither and die.
He thought that if April ever managed to launch a trade ship, he would have to send her away from this Grand Duchy.
To find some distant place where she could truly live…….
* * *
He needed to reach the Sunrise Viewing Spot in the east of the Grand Duchy before dawn, but a glance at the time showed that was impossible now.
The people of Right Island loved drink and were quarrelsome, and they were all built enormously large.
The brawlers, fattened on beer, were especially massive, and they possessed the strong arm strength characteristic of Right Island natives.
There was a saying: never match leg strength with a Left Islander, and never match arm strength with a Right Islander. Thus Left Island had developed sports where people kicked balls with their feet, while Right Island had developed sports where people threw balls far using arm strength.
In any case, Right Islanders, who preferred hard liquor even over beer, made it impossible to predict what kind of trouble they might cause.
A death or two from fighting was unavoidable, but the real problem was when the intoxicated rushed up the nearby Mountain Range.
Just beyond the foothills lay the Primeval Forest, and because the view from it was spectacular, drunk men would scramble up toward it whenever they caught sight of it.
The Primeval Forest was a place even armed hunters wouldn’t venture into.
To prevent a major catastrophe, every available Police officer was mobilized, and since things had grown late, he could only trust that Pol was handling his part properly.
Pejin left quietly down the pre-dawn path, avoiding anyone he might encounter.
The snow immediately erased his footprints behind him.
Walking through snow piled up to his knees, Pejin knew in his mind that time was running short, yet he found himself looking back at the Lunos Residence several times.
Even through the heavy snow, the gas lamp lights of the Lunos Residence shone brilliantly.
From outside, the light was so bright it looked like a haunted house. It was no wonder the people of the Grand Duchy thought a witch lived there.
* * *
Pejin missed this year’s sunrise.
But he had no time to regret it, as things truly became dire after the sun rose and the serious drinking began.
At the Sunrise Viewing Spot, both local Police and those dispatched from the Empire were working hard to maintain order.
“It’s a complete mess.”
Pejin agreed with Pol’s assessment.
The drunk were causing simultaneous disturbances everywhere.
Police officers wielded their batons trying to suppress the chaos, but there weren’t enough of them. Pejin, wishing the day would pass quickly, issued orders to the officers in a flurry of activity. Just when some had drunk their fill and collapsed to sleep on the beach, and others had headed home, some semblance of calm returning—a small hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Pejin’s arm. It was his nephew, Joshua Dieudeus.

“Mother says you should come with me, Uncle.”
“Seems like since there haven’t been any major incidents, the Police don’t have much work to do.”
“That’s not quite it.”
Joshua tugged at Pejin as he spoke.
Thinking of how many police resources must have been spent getting this small child, barely six years old, all the way here, a wave of irritation rose in him, but Joshua was his nephew and had an endearing quality about him, so he swallowed his annoyance.
Pejin lifted Joshua into one arm and gestured to his subordinates to accompany him.
Joshua wrapped both arms around Pejin’s neck and asked.
“What wish are you going to make, Uncle?”
“For help finding what I need.”
“What do you need? I’ll buy it for you!”
“Even as a second son, I have more money than a child.”
Pejin teased him and walked toward the Lighthouse where the Grand Duke and his wife awaited, crossing the Breakwater.
The child asked.
“What’s your wish then?”
“I’m not curious.”
“You wouldn’t tell me anyway. Great-Uncle Shaper told me to keep it secret.”
“That bastard’s probably plotting something rotten.”
Shaper Mayer was the son of Pejin’s uncle, Devin Mayer.
As the eldest son destined to inherit the Mayer Family, Shaper Mayer was a naval officer of twenty-five this year, and whether young or old, he caused trouble constantly.
Since his mother was a princess of the Empire, Shaper Mayer had solid backing for his misconduct.
Every time Shaper Mayer behaved arrogantly, relying on his mother, Pejin felt acutely why his brother Miller had to marry the Lunos Family’s daughter.
If Miller had married April instead…….
“Uncle!”
Just then, Joshua interrupted Pejin’s thoughts.
Pejin suppressed his irritation and asked.
“What?”

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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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