The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 83

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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 83
Kayani explained in detail what had happened at the bank.
He recounted how they learned that Mille’s father had fought for the Lunos Family, and thus how the Merrow couple, discovering that April trusted Mille despite her being no ordinary banker and had entrusted funds to her, came to place their wealth management in Mille’s hands.
“Well, that worked out nicely. Yes, it would be strange for one of our family to entrust money to someone outside Birta.”
“Indeed.”
After hearing the account, April’s face bloomed with undisguised relief and joy.
When Kayani rose to leave following the conversation, April spoke to him.
“Before you go, though—Kayani, I have a favor to ask of you on your way back.”
“Of course, anything at all.”
April met Kayani’s bright, keen gaze and spoke softly.
“You know there are Twin Mountains to the north of our territory.”
“Yes, there are.”
“Do you remember what they were used for?”
“I remember visiting them as a child, but as for what they were for… I’ll return and ask my father about it.”
“Yes, only—”
“—keep it secret from outsiders. Yes, I understand.”
Kayani nodded, and then, as if he could no longer contain it, he voiced the question that had truly weighed on him the entire journey.
“How did you manage it?”
“Manage what?”
“Extending your hand to the Merrow clan.”
Kayani’s jaw tightened as he asked, as though he were bearing April’s fury on her behalf.
Yet despite the weight that the questioner carried, April’s voice remained steady.
“The Lunos Family have always been wary of sailors—and they loved them. Even knowing that every sailor on Right Island was a pirate, they trusted them and loaded them onto merchant ships brimming with brilliant jewels.”
……
“I’m simply doing the same.”
“Doing the same as…?”
“Being wary, and loving them.”
As she answered, her face was as serene as her voice.
Kayani’s gaze was captured by her golden hair, luminous even in winter, until it found her eyes—red and gleaming like the sun. Then he smiled faintly.
“I know it’s disrespectful to my elder, but… your eyes are sparkling so brightly right now.”
“Yes, that is disrespectful.”
“My apologies.”
Kayani bowed with a smile and departed the residence.
Shortly after, April herself left the reception room and made her way to the study where Mille was waiting.
By the study window stood two chairs positioned some distance apart, with a small table beside them for tea. Bauman had arranged it that way.
Since they would be discussing financial matters, Kayani had advised that it would be better to speak while drinking from individual teacups on separate tables rather than sharing from the same vessel.
April found this perfectly reasonable.
When April appeared sooner than expected, Mille couldn’t hide her surprise.
“Is it because of me that you sent Kayani off so quickly? Didn’t he say he’d been waiting here all day?”
“The men of the Lunos Family don’t keep women waiting.”
“Forgive me, but Kayani is from the Merrow—”
“Does that matter right now?”
“No, not at all.”
Mille made a dismissive gesture, as though to sweep away her own words, and then caught sight of the teacup at her place. She let out a small exclamation.
“I’ve never seen a cup this large!”
“Bauman made it. He has many colleagues with kilns, so he went to one and had it fired.”
“Please sell some of these in front of the bank.”
“That’s exactly what it was made for.”
The bankers of the Central Bank had a motto: “A banker who dies at work can go to the Paradise of Warriors.”
Mille had always thought her father’s habitual recitation of that phrase was truly pathetic.
But now that she’d worked at the Central Bank, she understood. This was that kind of place. Where money was synonymous with the Paradise of Warriors.
At the Central Bank, a Saint was someone who brought in a great deal of money for the company.
Mille Birta was gradually joining that current herself.
When she thought about it, everything her father said was true. A banker needed to be heavy-bottomed—she was growing accustomed to it, bit by bit.
As bank tasks were gradually assigned to Mille, she, like the other bankers, had begun drinking coffee, filling a whole cup at once rather than rising and sitting repeatedly to fetch it.
To such bankers, the enormous teacup that Mille held in both hands would surely prove remarkably effective.
April watched as Mille poured coffee to the brim of the teacup and spoke.
“Of course, I’m not selling them—I plan to give them as gifts.”
“A gift?”
“Who else would buy them besides the bankers? I’m trying to win their favor.”
At April’s casual remark, Mille felt a peculiar sense of admiration.
Commerce, after all, was about understanding what remains in one place and what is needed elsewhere. Like her ancestors before her, April possessed a certain instinct for such things.
Mille nodded.
“I’m confident their hearts will shift entirely. You’ve saved them one less trip to fetch coffee.”
“Honestly, they’re mad, aren’t they?”
“I won’t argue with that.”
With those words, they shared a laugh, and Mille broached the main subject.
“As you likely anticipated, the gas payment has been settled. By the second young master of the Dieusz Family.”
“Does he have that kind of money?”
“I cannot divulge information about other clients. The handling banker would never share such details with me, in any case.”
“Ah, yes. Of course.”
April accepted Mille’s reasoning and sighed.
“I’ll ask Pejin about it when I see him.”
“And here are all the costs for the funeral service.”
April examined the funeral expenses Mille had provided—a ceremony into which she had invested most of her savings.
She nodded, then asked Mille:
“Would you like to see the funeral hall? We’ve made considerable progress in the preparations.”
“I’d prefer to see it on the day itself. Would that be all right?”
“Yes, of course.”
Mille checked the time and rose first.
“Then I should be going. There’s much to attend to.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
April stood as well and sent Mille off with a small gift loaded onto the carriage.
After that, April moved to write a letter to send to the Grand Duke’s Residence to resolve the most pressing matter concerning the funeral.
April entered her father’s study, a room into which she had not ventured for a very long time.
The study had been meticulously repaired by Bauman’s hand. It was much as it had been when her father was alive. Truly, those were magical hands.
April saw the many papers of all kinds that Pejin had given her.
“… It’s a shame to use them.”
“And I like it a little.”
She remembered the words she had spoken to Pejin, and her eyes squeezed shut.
“I’m mad.”
Why had she said such a thing when there was nothing to be done about it?
No—thinking about it more, it was Pejin’s fault.
He’d suddenly spouted nonsense about how white suits her, and so of course such words had tumbled out of her own mouth.
April sighed deeply and took up a single sheet of paper, sitting at the desk. She intended to write a letter requesting the return of her parents’ remains.
Seven years ago, they should have been moved to the Lunos Territory Cemetery long since, but Miller Dieusz had not done so. The fact that she now had to write this letter first infuriated her, but there was no help for it.

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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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