The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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After leaving the Grand Duke's Residence, April began to walk.
She wanted to go to the church.
Even after her house arrest had begun, and even after it ended, she had not been able to go to the church. She had been paralyzed by the fear that a clergyman would appear, try her without hesitation, pronounce her guilty, and burn her at the stake on the spot.
But now, none of that mattered to her anymore.
Love was a lie, hatred was a lie, and this land, the sky, and the sea were all a lie.
She wanted to confess this false world to a priest.
April Lunos stepped into the church. Three or four people who had been praying noticed her and left the church with displeased expressions.
In the empty church, April clasped her hands and prayed to God. In truth, it was more of a prayer to herself than to God.
A prayer seeking answers on what she should do next, and what kind of mindset she should hold.
And before long, a priest who had heard the rumor of her appearance came rushing in.
“Where do you think you are entering?!”
“It is a church, isn't it?”
“The fire at the Lunos Mansion has not been explained yet! We do not know what kind of sorcery that is, so what on earth were you thinking, coming in here to anger God?!”
That was the significance of religion.
In a world where absolutely nothing could be trusted, it was the sole system built entirely on faith.
Right now, she desperately needed faith.
“……It would have been nice if I had a gun.”
April muttered. If she did, she could have shot this priest who stood in her way with false accusations, and enjoyed the world of faith to her heart's content.
“W-What did you just say……”
“I'll lend you mine.”
A voice came from behind her.
The world of hypocrisy.
The man standing at the center of it held out a gun to her.
“Use it.”
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The priest fled in terror the moment he saw the gun, leaving only April and Fezin in the church.
The grand and splendid church close to the Grand Duke's Residence was famous for possessing many holy relics. Even the priests of the Empire visited this church several times.
April looked back at the gun Fezin was offering.
The gun looked familiar, and upon closer inspection, it was the break-action revolver Fezin had lent her when they climbed the Twin Mountains.
Fezin had explained to her how to use this break-action revolver back then.
He was holding the barrel. April gripped the handle in that state and hooked her finger around the trigger.
The muzzle was pointed at Fezin, so if she pulled the trigger right here, April could make one hypocrisy disappear from this world.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Fezin did not move the muzzle away and simply looked at April.
April opened her mouth.
“You.”
“Yeah.”
“You asked me to forgive you just once, didn't you?”
With that question, Fezin knew that April had found out about his lie.
He replied in a calm voice.
“I'm sorry. I take that back. It's not something that can be forgiven.”
“You'd better.”
As the night grew late, the light of the white night poured in through the stained glass.
There were times when Fezin thought that the dawn of the white night felt like a fake sun was hanging in the sky. Even though it was bright, it was somehow different from the brightness of the daytime. It seemed the time of day carried its own set of emotions.
Even after Fezin let go of the barrel, the muzzle remained pointed at him.
He raised his head and looked at the holy relic on the altar behind her. April asked him,
“When did you know?”
“Just before I was posted here. And just in time, April Lunos was rumored to be…… a witch, making her the perfect scapegoat for the Empire's shame.”
“…….”
“You can just pull it.”
At Fezin's words, April shifted the muzzle slightly and fired at the church wall.
The bullet from the gun, which had its sound minimized as much as possible, chipped the corner of a wooden pew—a target she hadn't aimed for at all.
It was a difficult gun to shoot. It recoiled heavily. However, she felt she could hit a target as large as Fezin if she shot several times.
April asked,
“Is that why you were nice to me?”
“Yes.”
“There was always a reason.”
“There was.”
“You must have felt sorry, since I was sincere.”
At her words, Fezin clasped his hands behind his back and nodded.
“I did feel sorry. Because you were sincere.”
“…….”
“What if you love me? That makes no sense.”
“…….”
“You can kill me. Originally, on the Right Island, traitors are killed.”
“Yes, they were.”
April's trembling hand slowly stopped shaking.
And with a voice that had not trembled once from the very beginning, she continued.
“But there is also another way.”
“Was it taking a boat far out to sea to earn the price of my life?”
“Yes.”
April nodded and told him,
“Earn the price of your life.”
“I'm expensive.”
“Yes, so for the rest of your life. You will have to be out on a boat for the rest of your life.”
April looked up at his face.
The young man's face, showered in the dawn glow, was chillingly beautiful.
Ah.
I trusted a Dieus.
Thinking about that fact made her feel absurd.
There had been so many unbelievable situations. There had been so many warnings. Yet, she had trusted him, turning a blind eye to all those warnings.
She lowered the gun.
April desperately needed to pray. From before she could even remember, she had visited the church in her parents' arms. It had been there for her birth, and April hoped it would be there for her death as well.
April asked,
“For the honor of the Empire, do I have to be a witch?”
“Yes.”
“And that is your mission?”
“It was.”
“I heard that the director of the Special Investigation Headquarters will be replaced in the future, is that true?”
“That's true.”
“If I continue to remain as the source of the Fog for the honor of the Empire, there would be no reason for the newly arriving police to harm me.”
Fezin's brow furrowed at April's unexpected words. She continued in a cold, clear voice.
“So you keep doing your job. I will stay quiet too. In the current situation, securing food seems to be the only thing I can do.”
Fezin was surprised by the fact that April was thinking the exact same thing as him.
He had expected that once April realized she had been betrayed by him, she would never even use him again.
Wasn't that why he had told Jeff in advance today? If April refused to see him, to use him instead.
But those were words that could only be said by someone who still did not know her well.
Even amidst such fierce betrayal and anger, her reason remained solid.
Fezin thought that this part of April was the complete opposite of his brother.
And when April fell silent, Fezin asked,
“Nothing else to say?”
“Nothing, this is the end.”
“The end?”
Looking at the excessively calm April, Fezin asked back without realizing it.
“Why are you so calm?”
“Then what?”
“Shouldn't you be angrier?”
“You aren't a person of the Grand Duchy.”
“…….”
“You aren't someone I'll see for long either, so why waste time being angry?”
Saying so, April held out the gun.
“Take it. I don't need it today.”
Instead, Fezin handed her even the spare magazine and said,
“From now on, you should always carry a gun too.”
April stared at the items given to her, nodded, and then spoke.
“Now leave. I don't know when I'll be able to come back, so I'm going to stay a bit longer.”
“I will have the church closed until you come out.”
Fezin said so and left the church.
Left alone in the empty church, April looked back at the altar where the holy relics were.
She needed to pray.
A very long, long prayer.
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Returning to the mansion only when morning came, April placed the gun Fezin had given her on the table.
Since the children had not woken up yet, the Lunos Mansion was utterly silent.
It was a silver break-action revolver. She recalled the story she had heard from Fezin as they went to search the Twin Mountains.
He had said that break-action revolvers were not suitable for hunting because they had the disadvantage of only holding relatively weak bullets.
Shaefer had said it was better to have a powerful gun even if the reload was slow, but Fezin had countered that this was enough to kill a human, so a gun with a fast reload was better.
He said that as long as one remained calm in a crisis situation, they could win against an absolute majority.
At that time, Fezin had believed that humans would be more dangerous to April than beasts.
It seemed Fezin had made her get used to the break-action revolver because he thought she would need a gun to use for a long time.
Would she end up killing someone at least once in her life?
April picked up the revolver, which had the manufacturer's name of the Lasa Empire stamped on it, once again.
This time, she gripped it tightly with both hands so it wouldn't shake, and imagined someone in front of her. Hoping that when she actually faced them, she would not hesitate to take their life.
If she were to kill just one person, who would that opponent be?
Until now, April had thought that opponent would be Miller Dieus. She had never doubted that thought even once.
Yet, Fezin's image kept being drawn in her mind, then vanishing.
“It's not you.”
There was no reason to be so angry at him.
Because Fezin Dieus was nothing.
Because he was just a human who would cross over to the Empire and disappear from her sight, and that would be the end of it.
Hatred was too precious to waste on him, yet she kept seeing him.
April closed her eyes and counted to ten. Since what she had for him was merely emotion, once that emotion disappeared, it would be the end.
She was thinking that if only that was gone, her relationship with him could return to zero.
After counting the numbers, she opened her eyes again.
Everything had returned to normal.
Still, the one standing in front of her was not Miller Dieus.
If she had only one bullet left in her gun, she did not intend to use it on her mortal enemy.
In front of her, she saw the crest of the Emperor of the Lasa Empire.
