The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 67

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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 67
Eleonora, who had been listening and kept her emotions plainly written on her face, frowned.
“What do you mean by that?”
Jeff lifted his head and looked up at Eleonora as she asked.
Even after seven years of holding her tongue, Eleonora could read her husband’s gaze.
“This is something I’m not meant to hear either?”
“In my judgment… yes.”
The reason Miller had to be sent out was because this matter involved the Dieusz Family.
And the reason Jeff wanted Eleonora—an imperial citizen—to leave was that the Rasa Empire was implicated in this story.
Eleonora nodded.
“Call me when the conversation is done, April. I have quite a few things to discuss as well.”
“Yes, Aunt.”
After Eleonora had left, April spoke to Jeff.
“Now, please tell me. What you meant to say.”
“I don’t know all the details myself. Your father and mother—they didn’t tell me the full truth, worried that others besides the two of them would be swept up in it.”
At his words, April paused to think before asking.
“Are you saying that both of them intentionally excluded the other members of the Lunos Family?”
“Yes. Both of them must have already known of their own deaths. If they could save only you…”
April found no words to respond to this.
Jeff continued, understanding her silence.
“I don’t know the details, but Miller must have borrowed the Empire’s power. There’s no other way he could have brought down the Lunos Family.”
Jeff let his words trail off slowly, startled by the gleam in April’s eyes as she listened.
Her irises shifted—warm, then cold, then fierce again.
Could the same shade of red contain such a wide spectrum?
Jeff continued.
“It’s a wise decision to hold a funeral. Many among the Lunos Family will want to attend.”
“But they’ll fear the Grand Duke.”
“They will.”
“Then there’s no choice but to compel them.”
“Compel them?”
“Yes. I’ll have to make it so they come out of fear of me.”
Jeff stared at April in silence for a moment, then smiled.
“How is it that you favor both your parents so equally?”
“Is that so?”
“The things I admired in each of them… they’re in you.”
When wind is strong, grass bends but trees break—yet a person born as wood cannot bend even if they know it would be safer. A person born as wood cannot do otherwise.
His brother was born as wood, found a wife like himself, and had a child who took after them both. A tree unable to bend even when the wind blows, stubbornly standing firm by nature alone.
When the wind blows again and all the other members of the Lunos Family bend, April Lunos will break. As others do.
Or, if fortune favors her, she might endure. In that case, she will live.
Jeff spoke again.
“That child grew up in the Empire, didn’t he?”
“You mean Pejin? Yes, that’s right.”
“Watch him carefully. He’ll have the answers.”
“Answers?”
“He’s from the Dieusz Family, one who reached for the Empire’s power. Moreover, he grew up in the Empire itself. The Emperor will surely find Pejin useful. There will always be purpose behind his actions.”
April turned to look toward where Pejin had gone.
She knew it too. That Pejin carried some clear purpose she didn’t understand.
She nodded.
“I’ll look into it.”
If the investigators at Headquarters did as she wished, April could find her answers.
After finishing her conversation with Jeff, April found Pejin.
He seemed uncomfortable being alone and had gone out to the Garden.
April approached Pejin and spoke.
“Why are you out here? You hate the cold.”
Pejin replied with a weary expression.
“Are you really going to mock me for catching a cold once?”
Pejin chided her, took another drag from his cigarette, and stubbed it out in the ashtray.
“Once you’re done talking, let’s go. While we take you back to the Lunos Residence, we can take a walk.”
“A walk? In this cold?”
“Just dress warmly. Drink something warm too.”
“Fine, then. All right.”
April agreed and was about to go pack when she turned back to Pejin.
“Aren’t you curious what we talked about?”
“You wouldn’t tell me anyway.”
“Right.”
“So I’m not asking.”
April accepted this and went inside the residence.
She returned to the Study to bid Jeff farewell and received Eleonora’s send-off.
Eleonora spoke.
“Come often. If you have anything to tell me, send word through Kayani.”
“No. Until that child finds his footing, the Lunos Family cannot pull at his ankles. We have to be enemies for now, Aunt.”
At her words, Eleonora’s voice wavered with emotion.
“That won’t do. How can you bear it alone?”
“I’m betting on the future. Someday we’ll all gather together and celebrate the new year.”
Understanding that Eleonora shouldn’t press further against April’s resolve, she relented and nodded. She then held April close and soothed her, before pointing toward Pejin waiting by the Carriage and speaking.
“If that boy causes you any grief, tell me about it. We’ll have a drink and curse him together.”
“Even though he’s just a friend?”
“Even so.”
April smiled and nodded.
“I will.”
With their farewells complete, April returned to Pejin, who escorted her and boarded the Carriage together.
As the Carriage departed, the two sat in silence for a moment.
Pejin could guess much of what Jeff Merrow had told April.
He didn’t know how much she understood or what all had been said, but he was certain of one thing: she’d been warned to be wary of him—himself, a Dieusz Family member and an imperial police officer.
April gazed out the window at the blue sky that had emerged now that the snow had finally stopped.
The two had mountains of questions for each other, yet neither could easily voice any of them.
Pejin sat with his legs crossed, looking straight ahead, not even glancing at the scenery beyond the window.
It was April who broke the silence first.
“Where are we going to walk?”
“The market.”
“The market?”
“The Winter Market, you know. Near the South River.”
“That’s still around?”
“Yes, just outside the Territory. And it’s gotten even bigger.”
The Winter Market had come into being when trading ships began sailing up the South River to unload cargo.
The best goods were sent first to the department stores and shops in the Capital City. But the miscellaneous items that were awkward to sell in such establishments—goods for which no clear category had been determined—began to be sold there at cheap prices. That was how the Winter Market started.
Originally located within the Lunos Territory, the market had moved south of the river as the Lunos Family declined, becoming one of the Grand Duke’s revenue sources.
Now, riding on the Winter Market’s popularity, it had flourished tremendously. What was once merely piled onto hand-carts and sold was now being sold in properly constructed small shops built to regulation. In time, it had grown into a tourist destination even imperial citizens enjoyed visiting.

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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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