The Mansion Awaits Spring - Chapter 88

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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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Episode 88
Following the two of them, a vast corridor came into view leading toward the Convent.
Vast, in this case, meant a space narrow in width but with a ceiling that stretched so high it seemed almost infinite.
Along the corridor lay a hall lined with countless drawers.
When Pejin first read the word “drawer” on the note Rian had given them, he’d felt a vague distaste. But now that he was here, he understood he’d judged without knowing.
These drawers were not merely a crude place of storage.
The drawer cabinets had grown to this scale—built one by one for those who could find neither a coffin nor ground for burial.
It was a solemn space. Each time the nuns passed through, they prayed for the peace of the deceased who had been sent out to sea.
April murmured something.
“Well, you’re doing fine. I’ve been struggling.”
Pejin paused, uncertain how to respond to her words. But judging by the structure of the sentence, it had to be a joke, so he laughed. His instinct proved right—April’s expression softened into a smile to match his.
The nun who’d guided them to drawer number thirty-five, where the Lunos Family Head and his wife rested, bowed and withdrew.
April pulled open the drawer—roughly the length of one of her arms.
Inside lay two urns and a piece of fabric cut from the collar of clothes the couple had worn, along with a book that appeared to be their personal possession.
April gazed silently at the contents for a moment. Then, with a soft smile, she spoke.
“It’s been a long time. I’ve been doing well.”
Just moments ago she’d said she was struggling, yet here she stood before her parents, lying that all was well.
“I’ve missed you.”
The murmured words seemed to catch in her throat, and she bit her lip, unable to continue. Then she turned to Pejin.
“Make me laugh.”
“What?”
“I want to laugh. I don’t want to cry.”
Because, after all, she’d just told them she was doing well.
Pejin understood, and began recounting various things that had happened at the military academy—things he knew April enjoyed hearing about.
Watching her brighten so readily at these stories, Pejin found himself curious.
“Why do you like hearing about school so much?”
“Because it’s nice to see teenagers wasting time doing things that are pointless for their futures but genuinely fun.”
At her answer, Pejin burst into delighted laughter.
“Ah, so that’s why.”
“Yes. It looks good.”
Is it because you never got to have that?
Pejin wanted to ask, but he knew this wasn’t the place—not in front of the previous Lunos Family Head and his wife.
After clearing drawer thirty-five and having its contents transferred to their carriage, the two made a circuit of Noster Monastery to view the grounds.
Having seen the Death God’s murals carved into the walls by ancients, they stepped out into the Monastery Garden.
Below stretched the seaside, its expanse crowded with black pebbles carved smooth by waves wearing through volcanic stone—a landscape that itself seemed part of death’s domain.
The two ventured close to the cliff edge, to a place where danger itself felt palpable. A place where the wind might sweep them into the void below.
April, gazing down at the sea, spoke.
“In the Empire—”
“Yeah, I like you.”
“……That’s not what I was about to say.”
“Oh, you’re not going to talk about that anymore?”
At his needling tone, April made as if to shove him from behind.
Pejin clutched at his chest dramatically. “You’re really going to kill me like that.”
“I really could die.”
“You wouldn’t actually push me.”
“I’ve never felt more mortal fear in my entire life than just now.”
“More than when you capsized the boat that rainy day during rowing practice?”
“God, why do kids ever do such stupid things……”
Pejin shook his head, ashamed at the memory of his younger self recklessly endangering his own life.
The seniors had said they could only beat the other schools’ rowing teams by practicing in weather like that, and everyone had agreed. Foolish. Arrogant. Back then, was there anything in the world to be afraid of?
Now there were so many things to fear. And the thing he feared most was this: April standing on this cliff, where wind howled from all directions.
She’d spoken of liking him as casually as a joke, and he was terrified she might stumble, might fall into that sea without the slightest resistance. That the Death God dwelling in this monastery might recognize that lovely face and claim her.
Even as he harbored these fears, the ribbon of April’s bonnet came untied, caught by the wind, and flew far away.
Before April could even reach out to catch it, Pejin grabbed her, pulling her into his arms.
“Please, don’t make me worry like that.”
His exasperation evident, Pejin locked his fingers firmly at her waist to hold her steady.
April’s expression grew awkward, but her voice cut through with its usual sharpness.
She looked up at him with a frown, then asked quietly.
“You?”
“What about me.”
“You don’t like me?”
“……”
“You don’t like me, yet you used that money to get yourself out of an arrest, and though you clearly knew it was your brother’s scandal, you found our parents for us? You came all this way?”
“……”
“If you really loved someone, how much more would you do? Why would you treat me this way?”
He’d worried she might be confused, but she was perfectly lucid. Of the questions she was asking, there was nothing he could actually answer. They weren’t really questions at all.
Pejin released her and clicked his tongue. Then he sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.
“Fine, if I like you—so what? What does that change? Nothing changes, does it?”
“That’s……true. But still.”
“If you want to hear it that badly, then just like that.”
“Yes, I want to hear it.”
“You just heard it.”
“That was hypothetical. You didn’t actually say it. Say it again.”
“Where do you get off ordering me around.”
“I said say it.”
“Right, I’m trained to take orders. Somehow you always manage to catch things like that.”
At his words, April laughed outright.
Since she’d first decided on the funeral, the weight of searching for her parents had pressed down on her constantly. Now that it was resolved, laughter came easily.
Pejin let out a long sigh, watching her, and spoke.
“I like you. There.”
“How much?”
“Is that important right now? Why do you torment me like this? I’ve done well by you. You should do well by me too.”
“I am doing well by you. I’m making you say you like me.”
“Wow, we really see things differently.”
Pejin screwed up his face as though he were being genuinely persecuted, shaking his head stubbornly. But the moment the wind picked up again, he immediately wrapped his arm around her, drawing her close.
April scoffed at him indignantly.
“A breeze like this won’t blow anyone away.”
“Everyone who’s ever been blown off a cliff to their death thought the same thing.”
“Fair point.”
April nodded in acceptance. Then, as the wind whipped her hair about, she ran her hand through it as though combing it.
Watching her, Pejin untied his cravat and used it to bind her hair reasonably in place.
But he’d tied it so carelessly that it hung oddly to one side, and laughter escaped him unbidden.
April swatted his chest sharply. “Don’t laugh at your own handiwork.”
“That’s what I just did.”
She untied the cravat and retied her hair, this time high and secure.
The fog was so thick it was impossible to tell what hour it might be.
Pejin found himself thinking that her blonde hair, bound with the white cravat, seemed the only thing glowing in this entire cliff-scape.
His hand reached toward her porcelain cheek. April didn’t pull away—she closed her eyes instead.
His hand touched her cheek, then—as though he’d always meant to do only this—brushed away a strand of hair clinging there, and withdrew.
She’d pressed him earlier, demanding to hear that he liked her, and now he’d said it. But his words had been so right—that liking her changed nothing—that a belated regret crept in: perhaps he shouldn’t have said it at all.
And yet she had wanted to hear it. Wanted to hear that he liked her.
With just that feeling, she was trying to find the answer to all his kindness. Even as she wondered if that answer might be something else entirely.

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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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