The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 123
Because April had not emerged from her bedroom until very late, Bauman knocked gently on her door.
“My lady, you have been skipping your meals. You must eat some dinner.”
Even with his prompting, there was no response. Even Sebio, unusually, had not followed April upstairs and was sleeping on the first floor. He was a dog highly sensitive to his master’s mood.
Bauman knocked once more, and when there was still no reply, he finally called Hannah to go inside the bedroom.
Hannah opened the door first to check on April’s condition, then poked her head back out and whispered.
“She fell asleep leaning over the table, with her gun out. Should I wake her?”
“……What?”
At Hannah’s words, Bauman’s face froze instantly.
Seeing that his expression had startled Hannah, he forced a smile and spoke to her.
“I will wake her. You may go back downstairs.”
“Yes, sir.”
Only then did Hannah reply brightly and leave. Bauman took a deep breath and gripped the doorknob.
With a trembling hand, he opened the door. Just as Hannah had said, April was slumped over the table with a gun lying beside her.
“You mustn’t, my lady. Oh, God…….”
Bauman prayed fervently as he approached April. It was only after he reached her side, leaned down, and heard her quiet breathing that he collapsed to the floor in relief.
Awakened by the noise, April discovered Bauman sitting slumped on the floor and furrowed her brow.
“Mr. Bauman? Why are you there…… Oh.”
Belatedly noticing the gun on the table, she realized what he had misunderstood.
Bauman, who had always greeted April with a smile, spoke with resentment for the very first time.
“My goodness, why did you leave a gun out like that……? Do you have any idea how frightened I was?”
“I’m sorry. I was so exhausted when I came back at dawn that I just fell asleep. The gun was a gift. I heard it was best to keep one for self-defense.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Having fallen asleep by accident, April felt deeply apologetic toward the startled elderly man and quickly helped Bauman to his feet.
With a much brighter face, Bauman said, “Come to think of it, that makes sense. If Hannah is to become a police officer, she ought to learn marksmanship early on, shouldn’t she? If you keep a gun close by, my lady, Hannah will surely follow your lead and learn quickly. She looks up to you so much, after all.”
To any other child, he would have said a gun was not something to be kept close, but it was different for a child aspiring to join the police.
Relieved, Bauman left to prepare breakfast, and April picked up the gun. She broke open the action between the barrel and the grip to check the ammunition; two bullets remained in the five-round cylinder.
Holding the barrel, she recalled Fezin’s face as he handed her the gun.
Since the end of her house arrest, he had been April’s primary source of reliance.
Therefore, she believed she had gained something as well. It was difficult to endure without thinking that way, and it was also the truth.
The childhood memories she had shared with him……
April closed her eyes tightly.
She decided to think of it as the same.
If she could just go back to that time. Like when her parents passed away and she forgot all the good memories, she just had to forget everything again.
It was a pity that there were so few things in her life worth remembering, but that allowed her to focus more on the outcome.
With less than three months left until the ship’s departure, every hand in the Lunos family had to gather and help.
April tucked the gun away again and sought a new focus to engross herself in. If she did not move, her thoughts would stagnate. She intended to prevent any thoughts from pooling in her mind.
* * *
Amidst the frantic busyness of organizing the cargo list, July arrived. During this time, April threw herself into her work. If there was no work, she created it. Bauman worried about her, but he did not interfere.
The warmest days of the Grand Duchy continued, and feeling the heat, April decided to put her hair up.
She opened her vanity table where her jewelry was kept to look for a ribbon, but there was nothing suitable except the ones Fezin had bought for her. April sighed, closed the vanity, and instead braided her hair and secured it with a jeweled pin.
Tucking her gun and wallet into her handbag, she went to find Hannah.
“Hannah, I’m going to the port. Would you like to come along?”
“I want to! Can I really come?”
“Yes. Mr. Bauman is packing, so pack your things as well.”
Excited by April’s words, Hannah immediately got ready to go.
By the Grand Duchy’s standards, autumn began in mid-August, which was when the children’s school entrance ceremonies took place. For this occasion, April had ordered new clothes for both Hannah and Fred.
Since both children were growing so rapidly, she had ordered the clothes to be made quite large to fit by August, yet they had already grown enough that the outfits fit perfectly with just a single fold of the sleeves. Hannah ran out, excited to be wearing her new clothes.
April’s eyes widened when she saw Hannah coming out with a bag nearly the size of her own body, listening to Bauman’s nagging to pack this and that. She then chided Bauman.
“Why is there so much luggage for such a short trip? When you pack your own things so sparingly.”
Just as she said, Bauman’s entire luggage consisted of a small bundle wrapped in cloth, tucked into the corner of the toolbox he was bringing along.
“Well, you see, I’ve just grown full of useless worries……. What if the sea breeze is cold?”
“Did you pack a coat in this heat?”
“Even that…… I suppose it was unnecessary, wasn’t it?”
At Bauman’s embarrassed expression, April burst into laughter.
Once she started, she covered her face with both hands and laughed and laughed for a long time.
The world, which had been as hazy as a dusty window, was wiped clean by the laughter that started from deep within her own body over such a trivial thing.
Bauman simply smiled along with April as she laughed, as if she were healing herself.
On the night April had returned from the church very late, Bauman had not been able to ask, but he guessed that something had happened.
It pained him that she had accepted so quickly that there would be far more unwanted moments in her life than wanted ones.
Yet, there was nothing he could do for her. As someone who had simply seen more of the world a little sooner, he could only pray for her well-being while waiting for the moment she might ask for help.
* * *
It took a full day by carriage to reach the Lunos family port. Since it was not a short distance, once they came this time, the next visit would be for the ship’s departure.
Upon arriving at the port, they saw the ship undergoing repairs up on the dry dock.
When Bauman appeared, his friend Moore, who was directing the young men repairing the ship, greeted him warmly.
“Oh, elder.”
“There you go again. I keep telling you I look younger.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about! I look so much younger that if I talk to you as an equal, people will think I’m being impudent.”
Thus bickering over who looked younger, the two men burst into pleasant laughter.
Moore took off his hat to greet April and said, “There are many places to repair, but fundamentally, it is a very well-made, excellent ship. As expected of a vessel from the Lunos family.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. Ah, I thought I would never see a ship launched again. The young ones, especially, have only ever repaired small passenger boats. Thanks to you, my lady, those in the Grand Duchy who know how to build and repair ships can keep their trade alive.”
April smiled and nodded.
The sun was passing over the ship, whose paint was almost entirely peeled off. One day, that sun would hang over the mast raised upon that very ship.
Hannah gently took April’s right hand in her left as they looked up at the ship and asked, “Why don’t you tell me to become a sailor?”
“Do you want to be a sailor?”
“No. I want to be a police officer.”
“Then why do you ask?”
“Because I will become whatever you tell me to be, my lady.”
At Hannah’s words, April narrowed her eyes and asked, “Do I look unstable to you?”
“No, not at all. Why?”
“Because it feels like you think you have to do something for me.”
“Hmm, it’s not that I think I have to do it, but that I want to do it.”
At Hannah’s response, April looked down at the girl.
The girl had grown so much that it felt inappropriate to call her a child anymore. During her stay at the Lunos Mansion, Hannah had grown to be nearly eye-level with April. April looked at Hannah with an expression that was hard to define, then eventually replied.
“That is…… something I am grateful for.”
Suppressing her sentimental feelings, she continued.
“It is a relief that my house arrest lasted seven years. If it had been any longer, I wouldn’t have met you.”
“Right? It is a relief!”
“Yes.”
April smiled as she watched the cheerful Hannah.
And she let the face of Fezin, which rose again at the word ‘police’, simply remain where it was.
Just as that ship was destined to head out into the deep sea, her goals had now crossed the island. Therefore, she needed him.
She needed his heart.
Though he had told her he loved her, she could not trust his words, which had been a lie from beginning to end.
Fezin had not refused her demand to cross the sea and earn the price of his life.
How much could she use him?
That sensitive man would recognize someone using him faster than anyone else. Yet, he would simply let it happen out of love. Just as he had done for his brother.
Perhaps Fezin Dieus is, contrary to his appearance, incredibly weak to love, April thought as she stood at the port.
