The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 84

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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 84
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Throughout the Foundation Day Festival, Pejin’s expression never once relaxed—he was too busy being harassed by the Empress.
The Empress, Emily Lilyhil, who was enjoying the festival with her arm linked through Pejin’s, spoke with undisguised happiness.
“What leverage does someone have on you to drag you to all these gatherings?”
“I actually enjoy these things.”
“It’s written all over your face—you look ready to die of boredom.”
At Emily’s words, Pejin turned back to her with a look of mild indignation.
“Then why do you drag me along if you can see that?”
“Because your reactions are amusing.”
“And yet Your Majesty approves of this troublemaker?”
“The Emperor marries for love? No—it’s arranged, so you do it.”
“I’ve seen someone with a fixed marriage right beside me, and I can tell: if they’re unhappy, it shows. If they’re happy, that shows too.”
Pejin gestured toward the Emperor with his chin as he spoke, and Emily burst into childlike laughter, swatting his arm playfully.
“In any case, how do people tolerate such an insolent creature as you?”
“You’re talking about yourself, aren’t you?”
“Yes, that’s my point, you brat.”
The Empress had always thought that both her sons struggled to truly communicate with others. Pejin, by contrast, remained routinely irreverent yet listened well to what Emily said.
Moreover, he didn’t merely let her words pass in one ear and out the other—he remembered them. Her own sons had forgotten her birthday entirely, yet Pejin had gifted her a brooch fashioned after the flower she’d once mentioned loving.
The Empress had long believed that the people of the Grand Duke’s territory took pride in their savagery. She had once seriously wondered whether their economic struggles stemmed from that very barbarism.
But Pejin was different. He was an excellent man. For that reason, he should settle in this land. She had hoped he would be incorporated into the Imperial Family.
Fortunately, the Emperor had many siblings, and they had many daughters. If Pejin were to marry one, there would surely be daughters willing to leave their houses—she merely had to find one whose heart matched his.
Emily paused and gripped both of Pejin’s hands tightly.
“Pejin.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you pay the Lunos woman’s debt?”
At the sudden question, Pejin’s lips—which had worn nothing but an expression of annoyance all day—hardened.
Emily continued, stroking his hand gently.
“I know you’re different from your brother. Putting a nursemaid’s daughter in the Grand Duchess’s seat—it was unthinkable.”
“For him, love came first.”
“You cannot do the same. You have the chance to become part of the Imperial Family—why would you make such an illogical choice?”
“I won’t.”
Pejin answered adequately enough, but Emily was not so easily appeased.
“Do you know how much I love you? Have I ever failed to support you, even once?”
“No. Never.”
“Whatever leverage you’re under, my husband has been kind enough to help me today. All you need do is find love here.”
Emily spoke tenderly, caressing Pejin’s beautiful face.
His long lashes closed slowly. He was a child who turned gentle under her touch, no matter how stubbornly he’d behaved moments before. Emily wished this affection would reach him.
From that point forward, Pejin seemed to genuinely enjoy the festival, just as she’d hoped. Now she waited for some woman among the Imperial Family to capture that wild colt’s heart.
Yet that hope was short-lived.
That colt had quickly found himself among police officials, engaging in precisely the sort of incomprehensible behavior Emily couldn’t fathom men doing—suddenly arm-wrestling, for instance.
Emily pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation, and August Lilyhil, the Emperor, wrapped his arm around her shoulders with a smile.
“All men are like that.”
“I thought my own sons were the most unmanageable in the world, but here’s one who’s worse.”
“He knows you care for him, that’s why he carries on like that. Besides, Pejin’s a clever one—he’ll do the right thing on his own.”
“Will he?”
Emily echoed the question and released a long, weary sigh.
* * *
“Pejin.”
At the voice of Lian Ragnar, the Emperor’s nephew and his Military Academy classmate, Pejin opened his eyes.
During the Foundation Day Festival, everyone Pejin had met pressed alcohol on him. He’d refused none of it, drinking every last drop.
For a week he’d barely scraped his wits together enough to find his way home each night.
At last, the Foundation Day Festival that the Emperor had ordered him to attend had ended.
Lian, who had marched straight into Pejin’s bedchamber, watched as Pejin cursed and turned away, then burst out laughing.
“You look absolutely wretched.”
“Why are you fine? We drank just as much.”
“I handle liquor better than you do.”
“Don’t make me laugh.”
“I paced myself. If I’d drunk like you did, I’d be dead by now.”
Lian shrugged and handed Pejin a newspaper.
“Read this first.”
“What is it?”
“Put some clothes on!”
As Pejin turned, Lian grimaced and covered his eyes with his hands.
“We bathed together for the entire cadet period—why are you being shy about it now?”
Pejin grabbed the newspaper and yawned before glancing at the front page. It was an article about how many Imperial ladies he’d danced with at the Foundation Day Festival.
The article featured his photograph alongside descriptions so flowery they seemed impossible for a newspaper—along with equally exaggerated praise for how much the Emperor and Empress cherished him.
After scanning the piece, Pejin spoke.
“So what am I supposed to do with this?”
“I don’t understand why His Majesty is putting you front and center like this.”
At Lian’s gruff comment, Pejin, who’d been lighting a cigarette on the nightstand, let out a snort.
“Be jealous of what matters. Obviously it’s just propaganda.”
“Still, you’re becoming famous.”
“If you want fame, earn it through merit. Look at the famous criminals.”
“If it were that easy to catch them, they wouldn’t be famous.”
“They were caught easily enough when it came to me.”
“Who got caught? Among all the families in either the Empire or the Grand Duke’s territory affiliated with the nobility, you were the only one who went undercover. And you dragged Pol and Logan into it too.”
“My rival is nobility, so I had to work harder.”
At Pejin’s pointed remark, Lian had plenty to say. The Emperor’s favoritism between himself and Pejin overwhelmingly favored Pejin.
But that didn’t make Pejin’s words any less true.
Within the Military Academy, family background had been scrupulously excluded; once outside its walls, family became everything in police work.
Classmates who’d laughed and joked together at the Academy divided strictly by rank once they left school. Yet that was utterly natural, so during their cadet years they had all simply loved and hated one another as peers, emotions laid bare without pretense.
Looking back after graduation, those immature feelings—and the actions they’d prompted—seemed embarrassing, yet somehow deeply missed.
It was nearly impossible to long for shame, yet nostalgia for youth made even the impossible possible.
Pejin then discovered a slip of paper tucked between the pages of the newspaper Lian had given him. It listed a single location.
[Noster Monastery, Drawer 35]
“Ah, a drawer.”
Pejin muttered under his breath and smirked.
No matter how many people Pejin employed to search, he could find no trace of where the previous Lunos Family heads were buried.
In fact, there was no one who could even confirm that the bodies had been interred at all.
Even if they’d been buried the same way any other criminal would be, there should have been some evidence left behind regarding corpses of such prominence as the previous Lunos Family heads.
Pejin examined the note Lian had given him again, hardly believing what he read.
[Bodies discovered below the Cliff were collected and cremated]
Through all his searching, Pejin discovered that Miller, his ever-gentle older brother, had thrown the bodies of the previous Lunos Family heads over the Cliff.

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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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