The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 71

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 71
Jonah Tabishi showed no sign of concealing the fact, fanning himself with his hand fan despite the bitter cold as he continued speaking.
“An amount like this should be manageable with the funds you currently possess.”
This influential businessman never entertained the assumption that he wouldn’t be able to extract a gas bill from a girl who knew less of the world than her peers.
Jonah Tabishi was certain of it.
This was a deal that would work.
April, who had heard rumors about Jonah Tabishi in her childhood, noticed the figure on the bill and understood that he would extract payment by any means necessary.
She wished she could stop the investigation, but her body wouldn’t move. The Grand Duchy Police had rendered her completely rigid.
She remembered the time when they had investigated the charge that the Lunos couple attempted to murder the Grand Duke Miller Dieusz, when the Grand Duchy Police had torn through the residence and left it in chaos.
Throughout the long investigation, the Grand Duchy Police had attempted to extract from the lips of April and the Lunos couple the fact that April Lunos had participated in the murder conspiracy.
April recalled the Lunos couple heading toward the execution ground.
She knew they had endured far greater pressure than what she herself had experienced, but she had tried her best to forget it. She had tried to look away.
And now that buried memory had been resurrected all at once by the Grand Duchy Police, who had appeared to trample on the Lunos Grand Residence once again.
The police knew that members of the Investigation Headquarters and Shaper Meyer’s group had collapsed on Basement Level 2, so they all wore masks.
When the officers went down to inspect the gas pipes, April overheard them speaking.
“What’s happening with the investigation the Empire Police conducted?”
“We’re in their investigation space and they haven’t said a word. They authorized it—from their end too.”
April felt all strength drain from her body, and she had to concentrate everything on the act of standing upright.
Just then, frightened Hannah and Fred ran to her.
“Miss!”
“I’m scared…….”
When April saw the two children crying, she clenched her teeth hard.
The sight of these children made her realize she needed to pull herself together.
Even though they were other people’s children, seeing Hannah and Fred, who were now her responsibility, gave her this thought.
April recalled the faces of the Lunos couple, who had struggled with all their might to protect themselves.
“It’s alright.”
April comforted the children.
“It will be alright.”
Without any certainty, she spoke those words to them. Even a temporary comfort would do. She believed it was her role as an adult to offer that reassurance.
* * *
The Grand Duchy Police created quite a commotion in the Lunos Grand Residence.
Bauman brought out a measuring pole used for surveying and brandished it at the officers.
“The investigation is already finished, so what are you doing here making a mess of everything!”
“Th-this is dangerous! You can’t brandish weapons at the police like this!”
The officers immediately scattered in alarm at the sudden threat of the pole.
But once they had put some distance between themselves and the Lunos household, they quickly prepared to draw weapons as a show of force.
April, noticing the officers’ readiness to draw their guns at any moment, grabbed the agitated Bauman.
“Bauman.”
“Miss, those bastards—I—I——.”
Bauman wanted to throw down the officers immediately, but when he saw April’s face, he could say no more. The person who should have been most anxious maintained the calmest expression of all.
She spoke with firmness.
“I won’t let them take our property.”
“Miss…….”
“I won’t lose it.”
She was not unaware that she had no other recourse, but words, once spoken into the world, carried a power all their own.
April’s voice, delivered with force to inspire belief in herself, affected Bauman’s heart as well. In that moment, the young April seemed like an adult to him.
Bauman slowly suppressed the anger that had been rising in him.
“You’re right, Miss. We don’t owe that swindler a single coin.”
“Of course not.”
Once Bauman relented, the officers resumed their investigation of the Lunos Residence.
April gazed steadily at the people moving in and out of the basement, then turned to Bauman again.
“For the past seven years, I tried not to think about my parents. But when I had to arrange their funeral, I couldn’t help but remember them.”
“I see.”
As Bauman offered only perfunctory agreement, unsure what April was getting at, she continued.
“I began to remember things my parents said. One of them was not to look at the left side of the island, but to look to the right.”
“To the right?”
“Yes—to venture to the Sea rather than rely on Rasa.”
“Ah! That befits a family engaged in commerce. And what was the second?”
“The second was about pirates…….”
April recalled the day she had returned from the church after pouring wine for Heidi, remembering her father’s comforting words.
“April, do you know how we managed to get our merchant ships through those pirate-infested seas to reach the trade routes?”
At her father’s question, April clamped her lips shut and shook her head.
Then her father continued.
“Because they were our neighbors. Our neighboring pirates protected the ships laden with gold on their return voyage.”
“…….”
“I’m sure you’d rather deny it, wouldn’t you? But that’s how it was.”
“But neighbors who help like that will just steal again the moment they see something they fancy, won’t they? They’re thieves to begin with.”
“Yes, so you have to calculate the cost of that lost gold too.”
At that, her father laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
“Deterrence costs enormous sums, but the profits born of trust run deep. Deep enough to justify bearing the risk.”
April closed her eyes.
Would the ancestors of the Lunos Family have trusted even neighbors like those brigands?
She wanted to ask, but there were no parents in the world left to hear her question.
April watched as officers who hadn’t bothered to wipe their shoes tracked mud through her home’s entrance.
She pondered again what the Grand Duchy Police had said.
They said the Empire Police were turning a blind eye, allowing the Grand Duchy Police to conduct this search.
The Empire Police answered only to Pejin Dieusz’s orders, so this investigation was possible only through his implicit authorization.
Therefore, by April’s reckoning, the reason the Grand Duchy Police moved for the gas businessman’s profit and Pejin closed his eyes was one of two things.
Either there was direct intervention from the Empire, or it was a direct order from the Grand Duke Miller Dieusz.
April thought she would need to act differently depending on which order it was, but at this moment, there was no way to determine which.
If it were the latter—that is, Miller’s order—she could actually take some comfort.
Miller might be able to move the Grand Duchy Police, but he couldn’t overturn the conclusions the Empire Police had already reached in their investigation.
But if it were the former, it was different.
If the Empire’s direct hand was behind it, then overturning the Empire Police investigation was possible.
The problem, as April saw it, was that the former seemed more likely. The Empire Police were nowhere to be seen in the territory.
It would be difficult for Miller alone to yield this much ground to the Grand Duchy Police, with whom he had never been on good terms.
With this reasoning in mind, April became certain the Empire Police investigation would be overturned, and she handed Bauman a single key.
“Bauman, I suspect the investigation results will be reversed.”
“What?”
“A conclusion will come out that we’ve been lighting the residence using gas from the Jonah Tabishi Company. After that, the police will arrest me. I won’t be paying them.”
Bauman listened carefully to April’s explanation and nodded, marveling at how she could maintain such composure in her judgment.
April continued.
“If I end up imprisoned for a long time and all my assets are frozen, please sell all the jewels in the jewelry box inside my cosmetics dresser. That should be enough for you to buy a small house and for Hannah and Fred to attend and graduate from school. As for university……they’ll have to earn their own way.”
“Oh, Miss!”
“If we hand over the property to the gas businessman, the Lunos Family will have no way to recover.”
April squeezed Bauman’s hand, the one holding the key, firmly once.
Through that grip, she conveyed her resolve.
“In this situation, there is no safe method for me. I have no choice but to gamble.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————