The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 61

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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 61
Shaper spoke to April as she descended the narrow staircase to Basement Level 2.
“What makes you think you can take twenty men down there without fear?”
“I know you. You care about rules more than you’d admit.”
“What could you possibly know about me?”
Ignoring Shaper’s shout, April continued down the stairs until he suddenly seized her arm and wrenched her body toward him.
The abrupt spin sent her foot skipping across a step—she nearly tumbled down the full length, but Shaper’s Demonic Strength held her fast.
Yet for a moment with nothing solid beneath her feet, April felt her heart drop into an abyss of primal terror.
Shaper pulled her close against his chest and spoke.
“When someone talks to you, you answer.”
“That didn’t sound much like talking.”
Before April could finish, Shaper heard a heavy thud from behind.
He turned to find one of his men collapsed on the stairs, fingers clutched at his throat.
Before Shaper could make sense of what was happening, April spoke.
“You were right.”
“Right about what?”
“I’m a Witch.”
As April said this, Shaper’s attention caught—and behind him, his men fell to the ground one by one, gasping for air.
Shaper himself felt something tightening in his chest, but his body still held enough strength to remain standing.
He scrambled up and down the stairs, dragging his men toward the exit, while April stood with folded arms, watching his frantic efforts.
“Why don’t you go deeper and look for proof that I’m a Witch? That’s what I want too. It would be good if someone discovered the truth.”
As Shaper kept ascending and descending, his vision began to blur.
April looked down at Shaper as he staggered and collapsed, then drew a Short Sword from his belt.
“I don’t think what you came here to do to me was wrong, exactly. The sorts of things our parents did.”
She raised the blade to his throat as if to strike, then lowered it without finishing the motion.
The Short Sword clattered against the hard floor with a sharp ring.
April continued.
“So it’s not guilt that’s stopping me from killing you right now. It’s that there’s nothing to gain. I don’t see how your death would improve my life one bit.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
Shaper watched April disappear up the stairs. He felt no gratitude for being spared.
April’s path led to the Temporary Police Tent where the officers were stationed.
“Is anyone here?”
A voice called out from the direction of the Escort Carriage parked beside the tent.
“Over here!”
Peering through the iron bars of the prisoner transport carriage, April saw three investigators from Division 3—the main investigation unit—and only two Police officers.
Five people total, clearly overwhelmed by Shaper’s gang of twenty.
April turned to one of the officers.
“Where’s the key?”
“On the ground there, ma’am.”
The officer gestured, and April spotted the key lying in the snow outside the bars.
After retrieving the key and opening the carriage, April spoke to the officers.
“Shaper went down to Basement Level 2 and collapsed. If you leave him, he’ll die—move him to the carriage for transport.”
“All twenty of them, ma’am?”
“Yes.”
“That’s going to be difficult, moving twenty men…. We’re sorry. We didn’t do our job properly.”
The officers apologized to April, then moved the Escort Carriage to the front of the Residence and, donning Masks, headed back down to Basement Level 2.
Among the investigators was Kritz, whom April had encountered before.
Kritz blocked April’s path toward the officers and pointed to a chair on the Porch.
“We need to check on your condition, Miss April. You look fine on the surface, but you could be in worse shape than we think, couldn’t you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with my body. And you’re not a doctor anyway.”
“That’s true, but…”
“You just want to know why I was fine in the Fog.”
“…You’re right about that.”
Kritz admitted it readily.
She continued with a serious expression.
“Of course, if we understand why you were unharmed in the Fog, we’ll simultaneously understand why the Fog is dangerous.”
“I’m willing to help, but.”
April studied Kritz with a sharp gaze before continuing.
“I think this will be a question from you as a scientist, not as Police.”
“That’s…true.”
“Then I need your promise not to cooperate with the Police.”
……
Kritz swallowed hard.
Since the Police Headquarters had suggested monitoring April Lunos, Kritz already knew something about who she was—that she wasn’t someone who would only give without getting something in return.
Kritz spoke.
“I’ll think it over.”
“Fine. If I don’t have an answer within two weeks, I’ll consider it a no. And I need proof that you won’t side with the Police.”
“Yes, what kind of proof would you want?”
As Kritz asked, April took a deep breath and fell silent for a moment.
Her gaze flickered with something that looked like an emotional tremor—Kritz would reflect on this later, after hearing what came next.
“I think Pejin is behaving strangely.”
“In what way?”
“He’s unusually kind, which is odd.”
“That could just be affection—”
“The strangest part is that he’s not doing anything.”
……
“Pejin’s changed as he’s grown, that’s true. But the boy I remember would go mad with frustration if he didn’t finish whatever task he was given quickly.”
April turned toward the basement door and continued.
“If this were the Pejin Dieuous I know, he would have torn that basement apart by now trying to figure out why the Gas Lamps light by themselves. He’d have smashed the walls.”
……
“So I’m curious why he’s doing nothing.”
She turned her gaze toward the frozen Kritz.
“There’s only one explanation: he already knows why the Gas Lamps light by themselves.”
They wary of each other. Suspected one another most.
Kritz thought it likely that Lunos and Dieuous harbored genuine affection for each other.
Perhaps that was why April’s pupils trembled.
Kritz spoke with resolve.
“I’m just an investigator, so I don’t know the Police Inspector’s exact intention.”
“I see.”
“So I’ll look into it. As thoroughly as I can.”
At Kritz’s words, April nodded.
* * *
Shaper Mayer regained consciousness only after the Escort Carriage arrived at the Capital Police Headquarters.
His gang had been taken somewhere else; he alone remained in the carriage.
“Open this thing right now!”
At Shaper’s shout, footsteps echoed from far down the corridor.
They didn’t hurry.
From the sound of that gait alone, Shaper knew it was Pejin.
Within the Police, only two people wouldn’t rush to answer Shaper’s command: his father, and Pejin.
Had it been his father, he would have been barking orders from a distance by now. These unhurried footsteps belonged to Pejin alone.
Shaper laughed despite himself and spoke.
“Making an enemy of a military man won’t do you any good, Pejin. You’re just Police.”
“Is that so.”
Pejin arrived at the carriage with an unhurried pace and stood before the bars.
Shaper gripped the bars and threatened him.
“Open it.”
“Relax. I’ll open it.”
Pejin withdrew a key and opened the iron bars.
The moment Shaper stepped out of the carriage, he lunged at Pejin and seized him by the collar.
Shaper had only childhood memories of a scrawny young Pejin—so he was startled by the unexpected resistance under his grip. It felt like pushing against a wall.
Pejin didn’t yield an inch as Shaper pressed him backward with all his strength.

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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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