The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 114
While April had briefly returned to the manor, Shaefer faced Fezin, who had called him out saying he had something to discuss.
Narrowing his eyes, unable to even guess what the man wanted to say, Shaefer asked, “Do you and I have anything to talk about privately?”
“Don’t we?”
“What… Don’t tell me you’re keeping me in check because you think I might be interested in April?”
At Shaefer’s question, Fezin sneered with an utterly absurd look on his face.
“Me? You? Why on earth would I?”
Stung by that expression and attitude, Shaefer’s voice rose.
“What’s with that face? Do you think every woman in the world is bound to like you?”
“I’m not that arrogant. It’s just that between you and me, she’d choose me.”
“What did you say, you bastard? Why, you—!”
Falling for Fezin’s provocation, Shaefer instantly grabbed him by the collar, but then remembered he had something to say and barely managed to stop himself there. The one who actually had something to say wasn’t Fezin, but himself.
“You’re going to use her, aren’t you?”
At Shaefer’s words, Fezin watched him in silence, as if prompting him to speak further. Shaefer continued.
“The conversation between Miller and my father. I heard it all. April is being used.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I didn’t understand what it meant either, trust me.”
At Shaefer’s reply, Fezin quietly folded the pocket knife he had been keeping open behind his back.
In a departure from his usual character, Shaefer had been holding back his words, but he finally exploded in frustration.
“Damn it, what the hell is going on in this Grand Duchy anyway?! My father is constantly talking to your brother, and they say our family is moving to the Empire next year! I’m a Grand Duchy soldier, so what am I supposed to do if I go to the Empire?!”
“Ah, so the Meyer family is heading to the Empire too.”
“Yes! They’re even telling me I absolutely must marry an Imperial woman. I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do anymore!”
Shaefer’s venting continued.
Fezin covered one of his ears with his hand because Shaefer’s voice was too loud. Having grown highly sensitive lately, even a small sound made his head throb.
As he stood listening to the venting that had started so abruptly, Fezin caught the sound of April’s extremely quiet footsteps approaching from behind.
He liked being where the Twin Mountains were. Because April never became noisy.
Because she wasn’t like this idiot in front of him, who couldn’t even speak a single language of the Grand Duchy perfectly despite learning it his entire twenty-five years of life.
Fezin closed his eyes as April’s soft hand brushed against the knife he was holding.
Shaefer, who had been deeply absorbed in his own story for a long while, belatedly noticed her.
“When did you get here, April?”
“You. What is it you want to say to me?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve wanted to say something to me this whole time. What was it?”
When even she asked, Shaefer furrowed his brow and muttered, “How do you both know I have something to say? I expect it from him since he’s a cop, but you too?”
Fezin answered in her stead.
“Because of your anxious eyes and every single thing you do.”
“Me?”
While Shaefer reflected on himself, Fezin let out a dry chuckle. April was slowly unfolding the knife behind his back.
Her unfolding the knife again seemed to mean that if he was going to kill, he might as well try to kill both of them. Instead, she would close her eyes knowing the truth.
Shaefer soon continued his train of thought.
“Anyway, that bastard is using you, April.”
At that, Fezin spoke first.
“I was planning to, but I’m going to stop.”
At his words, the other two turned their gazes toward Fezin. Fezin continued with a calm face.
“The Empire told me to find out about the dye. If the Empire can produce that dye and sell it to the Grand Duchy, it’ll be highly profitable. Since it’s bound to become a necessity from now on.”
Shaefer’s face contorted at Fezin’s words.
“What, you bastard? You terrible piece of trash! You were going to smuggle that out?”
“I’m not smuggling it. The chief of our 1st Division has already gone to report it. I’m washing my hands of the dye matter.”
“……Ah, really? Already?”
Shaefer wore a somewhat awkward expression before replying.
“Well, I suppose so. You’re a Grand Duchy citizen too, Fezin, so you wouldn’t want to do something so beneficial to the Empire.”
Fezin let out a hollow laugh at his words and asked, “Do you really think of yourself as a Grand Duchy citizen? Your mother is an Imperial. Your father is a Grand Duchy police officer, but his department has even less autonomy than our Special Investigation Headquarters. So why do you think you’re a Grand Duchy citizen?”
“What do you mean? I was born and raised on the Right Island. I’m a Grand Duchy soldier. So why wouldn’t I be a Grand Duchy citizen?”
Shaefer’s reaction was somewhat unexpected to Fezin.
As Fezin frowned, unable to accept Shaefer’s words, April spoke to the two of them.
“Both of you eat your meal and leave. Your subordinates are being too noisy.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I am hungry.”
Shaefer looked as though he hadn’t quite finished saying everything he wanted, but since he had received some explanation, he left to eat.
After he departed, April turned toward Fezin and asked, “Are you really going to say you found out nothing?”
“I already did.”
“Is that allowed?”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“Okay.”
The two spoke as businesslike as complete strangers, and April left the spot as well.
Only after both of them had gone did Fezin finally bring his hands out from behind his back.
He looked down at the blood pooling on the unfolded knife.
April had purposely brought her hand to the knife he was holding and intentionally made herself bleed. The bright, thick blood flowing down the edge of the blade paralyzed Fezin’s mind.
Depending on the situation, he could have killed Shaefer. He might have had to do so to silence him.
The same went for April. Fezin had suppressed his thoughts as much as possible so that he could work for the Empire without any emotion. He had trained himself so his body would react first to cut off a breath.
The blood remaining on the blade was a wicked poison that completely paralyzed the physical habits he had barely managed to master.
April was so preoccupied with thinking about the dye that she had even forgotten her hand was bleeding.
Upon spotting her in the hallway, Bauman nearly had a fit and rushed off to fetch some medicine.
After her hand was tended to, she sat on a chair on the manor’s porch, lost in thought. Then, her eyes met Shaefer’s, who was about to leave first with his subordinates after finishing his meal.
Shaefer grumbled.
“There’s barely any alcohol in the dining room.”
“And?”
“Does it make sense for a family like the Lunos to have so little alcohol?”
“There’s plenty of alcohol. We just didn’t serve it to you.”
At her reply, Shaefer looked utterly dumbfounded.
“Just marry Fezin. Both of you are so eyesore to look at, you seem to suit each other perfectly.”
Even as he made that sarcastic remark, he sat on the edge next to April’s chair. Watching him pull out smokeless tobacco, April asked, “You told me not to trust Fezin, and now you’re telling me to marry him?”
“He said he was going to smuggle the dye but decided not to. Isn’t that enough then?”
“You looked so frustrated earlier. Was that all you wanted to say to me?”
“All?”
Shaefer chuckled idly as he opened the container.
“I heard Miller and my father talking, and they said you have to be sacrificed for the sake of the Empire. Is that ‘all’ to you?”
“…….”
“I’m a soldier too. I know what should and shouldn’t be said. But still, you ought to know.”
“Does Fezin know too?”
“What?”
“That Miller and Police Commissioner Devin think that way. That there is a reason for me to be sacrificed for the Empire.”
“It felt like he knew.”
“I see.”
April’s mind became endlessly complicated, but for now, she tried hard not to think about anything.
Wasn’t it something she had expected to some extent?
She told herself there was no need to be too disappointed. She just mustn’t let her heart grow weak.
Looking at the bigger picture, if her sacrifice could actually help the world, then that was fine too.
To be honest, she had no desire to do good deeds, but she wished there was at least a reason to put an end to this tedious life.
“Want some?”
Shaefer asked, holding out the container which had about ten pieces of smokeless tobacco left.
On the Right Island, when people spoke of ‘tobacco,’ smokeless tobacco was more popular than cigarettes. While there weren’t many varieties of cigarettes, there were countless types of smokeless tobacco.
Men like Shaefer, who were soldiers, loved hunting, and valued masculinity, carried smokeless tobacco with a nicotine content so high that others would faint after chewing it for just a moment.
April replied, “It’s too strong.”
“Spit it out right away.”
At Shaefer’s words, April accepted a piece of smokeless tobacco, examined it, and said, “To me, tobacco means this, but Fezin smokes cigarettes.”
“Well, that bastard was raised as an Imperial. Though it’s not like he went to the Empire because he wanted to.”
“What do you mean, raised?”
Finding something jarring in Shaefer’s words, April asked. Shaefer, who had already put a piece of smokeless tobacco in his mouth, replied.
“Fezin, I mean. He wanted to become a Grand Duchy police officer. His dream in the first place was police reform in the Grand Duchy.”
“Didn’t he leave for the Empire because he didn’t want to run into Heidi?”
“Not at all. If he just wanted to avoid the Grand Duchess, locking himself up in the Grand Duchy Military Academy would have been more than enough. Since it’s a boarding school too. Miller was the one who sent him away.”
“…….”
“You didn’t know?”
