The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 117
The board game ended, as always, in Fezin’s total defeat. Fezin grumbled at the Emperor.
“Can I please stop playing this now? It would be fun if I won occasionally.”
“Regardless, I find it quite enjoyable.”
“I’m leaving. My heart is broken.”
Fezin said as he rose to his feet. The Emperor looked down at the board where he had won by an overwhelming margin and spoke.
“If you wish, bring Lady April here.”
“Yes, I’ll do so if I can. If it’s her, she might actually be a match for Your Majesty.”
“Now, that is something to look forward to.”
“But if you call her ‘Lady April’ when you first meet, you’ll get an earful.”
“An earful? For what?”
“She hates it when people she isn’t close to call her by her first name. You have to call her Lady Lunos if you don’t want to get scolded.”
Amused by Fezin’s words, the Emperor laughed heartily.
“She is a young lady who draws very clear lines.”
“In all my life, I’ve never seen anyone draw such clear lines. Rigid, cold…”
Thinking of April Lunos, Fezin murmured.
“…and vivid. That’s the kind of person she is.”
Why had the word vivid come to mind?
Fezin found it difficult to understand his own choice of words, so he pondered the meaning of ‘vivid.’
It did not take long for him to find the answer.
April Lunos was vivid to him. Though rigid and cold, she was highly visible. Whether he searched for her in his mind or before his eyes, she was always clearly, vividly there.
Only then did Fezin finally understand the moment she had managed to find him, even when she was wearing a mask.
Because she was so vivid.
Even when he closed his eyes, he often saw her.
There must have been a time when he had been just as vivid to her.
Though it would soon fade away.
The days were growing longer in the Grand Duchy.
The people of the Grand Duchy, who preferred vibrant colors to monochrome, acted as the very flowers that rarely bloomed in their territory.
When April stepped outside, the streets were flooded with people dressed in all kinds of beautiful, colorful clothes.
Before entering the dye factory owned by Eleanor Morrow, April made thorough preparations under her aunt’s nagging, changing not only into a mask but also into protective clothing.
“When it comes to dye, you can never protect your body too much.”
“Is that true for ordinary dyes as well?”
“Of course. Do you really know nothing about dyes?”
“I’ll study them from now on.”
“Always quick with an answer.”
Eleanor chided her in her usual chilly tone, but still unsatisfied with April’s protective suit, she yanked the tightened straps once more. She bound them so tightly that April felt she would never be able to untie them again and would simply have to cut them off.
Having prepared so meticulously, April entered the factory to find the interior buzzing with activity.
Eleanor’s expression soon turned to one of satisfaction as she spoke to April.
“Still, there are times when the Lunos family is of help to me.”
“Because it’s a technology that must only be entrusted to people I trust.”
April replied and kept her eyes on the dye.
The first method Eleanor chose was the traditional way of creating color using lapis lazuli.
They processed the imported raw stones into powder to produce the dye. It was a simple but breathtakingly expensive method.
April spoke.
“You’ll have to charge a high price.”
“To be honest, you have to assume no one but the nobility can use it.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
“So, in my opinion, I don’t think they would have papered the Lunos Mansion using stone sourced only from that mine. They must have brought it from somewhere else.”
April agreed with her on that point.
As if she had been waiting for this, she said to Eleanor, “I think we can set sail in September.”
“It’s not a matter of can, it’s that we won’t have another chance if we don’t do it then.”
“Indeed, the season dictates it.”
“And did you load enough gold and silver?”
“Yes. We found an investor.”
April nodded as she answered.
The clipper ship, which would sail for a long time to find the lost route, was scheduled to carry a vast amount of wealth. Since they had secured an investor, the amount had grown even larger.
The ship, which had not set sail for a very long time, was in terrible condition, and there was not even much time to repair it.
But just as Eleanor said, they had to launch the ship in September.
Even if the ship wasn’t fully ready, they could not afford to pass October, when the seas of the Grand Duchy turned into a living hell.
Following Eleanor’s instructions, they dyed the fabric and April watched as the dyed cloth was hung on clotheslines outside the factory to dry. She intentionally requested that these dyed fabrics be hung where many people could see them.
She also made sure to inform the factory workers: ‘This dye will not be sold to any citizen, but exclusively to Miller Dieus.’
The factory workers returned home and spread the word, and news of the ‘remedy for the fog’ reached the ears of everyone in the Grand Duchy in an instant.
After finishing her inspection of the factory, April took a tightly sealed ink bottle containing the dye and tucked it into her bag.
When she stepped outside, she found a crowd of Grand Duchy citizens gathered in front of the factory gates, just as she had expected.
The coachman hired by the Lunos family spoke to April cautiously.
“There are too many people in front, so I don’t think the carriage can pass through. Besides, if we open that iron gate, people might pour inside.”
“I suppose so.”
April nodded and looked toward the iron gate.
Through the bars of the tightly shut iron gate, she locked eyes with an angry citizen.
April walked toward the gate and faced the citizens.
Ever since Fezin had severely punished the citizen who had harmed April, people had stopped cursing at her or throwing things so easily.
One might think that suppressing them would only increase their anger, but the opposite was true. Fear actually lowered the citizens’ rage.
Come to think of it, the existence of Miller Dieus had been the same for April herself.
Even while harboring anger toward him, she always felt as though there was a ceiling to that anger. It was because fear resided within her.
April looked at the citizens and spoke.
“It’s not that I’m refusing to sell it. I’m selling all of it to the Grand Duke, so why are you angry? Did you expect me to just give it away?”
“Couldn’t you do that? If you had good intentions!”
“When the head of the Lunos family and his wife were executed, do you remember how many of you came to watch? And when they heard that the daughter’s fiancé had fallen in love with another woman, why did everyone find that so amusing?”
The citizens flinched at April’s cynical tone.
She continued.
“I have absolutely no reason, not even a shred of desire, to do anything for the people of the Grand Duchy.”
“…”
“You should know that selling it to the Grand Duke at a high price is already an act of goodwill on my part. Now, move aside. If you keep blocking the gate like this, I won’t sell the dye to the Grand Duke either.”
As she spoke, she gestured for the carriage to come forward.
The carriage moved to where she stood, and the coachman opened the door, let April inside, and closed it.
A moment later, the iron gates opened and the carriage rolled through. No one blocked the carriage anymore.
Upon returning to the Grand Duchy, Fezin searched for April first and heard that she had left the dye factory and was heading to the Morrow residence.
Since he already had things to discuss with Jeff Morrow at the residence, Fezin headed straight there as soon as he unpacked his things at the Police Agency.
Inside the Morrow residence, only Jeff was shut away in his study, and he did not come out even upon hearing of Fezin’s arrival.
Guided by the butler, Fezin sat on the patio and waited for April.
It was not long before April arrived. Hearing that Fezin was on the patio, she sought him out immediately.
Fezin looked at April, who appeared clutching a small bag containing the ink bottle, and asked, “What is that you’re holding onto so dearly?”
“Dye.”
“Ah, then it is indeed precious.”
As Fezin nodded in agreement, April asked him, “You really didn’t tell Miller or the Empire about the dye, did you?”
“Yeah. I told you I wouldn’t.”
“You said you got suspended, right? Was it three months?”
“No, how do rumors travel so fast?”
While Fezin grumbled, April set her bag down on the table. Then, she scanned the area to make sure no one was around.
She pulled up a chair close to Fezin, sat down, and asked, “Was keeping the dye a secret really enough to get you suspended?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I also got caught digging into my brother’s background recently. It’s natural to be curious about family, so why is that suspicious? I mean, of course you’d be curious about someone you know, rather than someone you don’t—”
“Fezin.”
Fezin, who had been babbling mindlessly, turned to look at April as she called his name.
“What?”
“The cause of the fog was the Empire.”
“…”
And just like that, Fezin froze.
He had not expected April to bring this up to him first.
“The Empire is killing the people of the Grand Duchy, Fezin.”
The vivid April Lunos became clearer still.
