The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 30
The visit to the amusement park had clearly been a joyful memory.
The children spent the entire day talking about it, already making plans to save up their wages and go again.
Fred, returning from his errands, held out a heavy pot along with a letter from the bank.
「Grandmother told me to bring this to you, My Lady. Oh, and since we only have this one pot, she asked if you could return it right away.」
When April opened the lid, she found a vegetable soup that had been simmered with great care until the ingredients were tender.
April had never particularly cared for vegetable soup, but encountering real food for the first time in seven years, she felt her spirits lift just from the aroma.
「She gave me so much.」
「She was really upset when I told her that My Lady eats nothing but eggs and potatoes every day.」
「I don’t see why that would be upsetting. As long as it fills the stomach, it doesn't matter what one eats.」
She spoke dismissively, yet her eyes never strayed from the soup. Bauman immediately took the pot from her, placed it on the well-polished table, and pulled out a chair.
「It happens to be mealtime, so why not have some right away?」
「I shall.」
April sat down and took a spoonful of the soup Bauman had served her. It was the clear vegetable soup typical of the Grand Duchy.
In noble households like Lunos, imported black pepper would have been added, but its price was far beyond what commoners could ever dream of affording.
Instead, some households added honey when treating a special guest, and Fred’s home was one of them. Since honey was a primary export of the Grand Duchy and beekeepers were plentiful, it was possible to obtain it, albeit with some difficulty.
The sweet soup felt strange to April, but it was surprisingly not bad.
It might have been because it was the first soup she’d had in so long that anything would have tasted delicious, or perhaps she was touched by the sincerity of someone who had gone to the trouble of procuring honey despite their own hardships.
April emptied the bowl in an instant and even finished a second one, filled just as high as the first.
Bauman cleared the empty dishes with a satisfied look and distributed the remaining soup among the children. Bauman himself declined, claiming he wasn't particularly fond of sweet soups.
While the children ate, Bauman hauled the rest of the furniture outside.
April followed him out with a cup of warm tea and sat on a chair on the porch.
The way Bauman restored furniture looked almost like magic to April’s eyes, so she didn't miss the chance to watch him at her leisure.
Bauman repaired the damaged pieces with remarkable speed. This included the tables and chairs where dust had hardened and mice had gnawed away at the wood.
April was intensely curious about how he intended to fix a table where a mouse had chewed off a fist-sized chunk from the corner. She approached him, cradling her teacup with both hands, and asked.
「Can you really fix something like that?」
「Of course. But My Lady, it is not good to be so close while the sawdust is flying. It will get into your tea.」
「I don't mind that much.」
Even as she said it, April shielded the top of her cup with her hand.
Bauman gave a good-natured smile at April’s curiosity regarding his craft.
「If you are that curious, I suppose it cannot be helped.」
With those words, he brought over a block of birch wood, the same material as the table.
Carving a replacement piece from the new wood that perfectly matched the shape of the missing section was a skill that could only be described as artistry.
He then sanded both the new corner and the table’s edge into matching wave patterns so they would bond perfectly.
When the new birch and the old birch fit together as if they had never been separate, April felt a surge of immense satisfaction, even though she hadn't been the one to do it.
Hannah felt the same. The child had abandoned her food to come over and watch Bauman’s work intently.
Fred, on the other hand, had absolutely no interest in repairs.
Instead, he was very interested in the homework Bauman had assigned to Hannah, and he even got scolded by Bauman for trying to draw a house for her, being told he shouldn't do someone else’s work.
What was clear was that both children possessed a great passion for learning.
April decided she would send the children to school once they passed their fourteenth birthdays. If she had them taught for three years from then, she might be able to send at least one of them to university.
What a grand harvest that would be.
Since nobles rarely held jobs unless they were honorary positions like high-ranking officials, officers, or police, hiring staff for all other necessary professions was considered a duty of the utmost importance in a prestigious family like the former Lunos house.
Neither child seemed to have a particular flair for academics, but their manual dexterity was exceptionally useful.
Was there any greater honor than seeing an artist sponsored by one's family come into full bloom?
April, lost in these imaginings, squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
Her dreams had grown too large.
In her current situation, within this family atmosphere, optimism was a poison.
April resolved to view everything through a pessimistic lens. She did not want to allow hope to be the thing that destroyed her.
More importantly, she needed a successor to continue the reconstruction of the family should she lose her life due to the Grand Duke’s interference.
For the first time since she was very young, April felt a resentment toward her parents for not giving her any siblings.
Then again, if she had siblings, she might not have understood so clearly what she needed to do as the head of the family.
The Lunos couple had told April repeatedly from the moment she was first engaged as the sole heir to the family.
There were two ways to carry on the family after April married.
One was for April to have two or more children as quickly as possible, and the other was to bring in cousins to succeed the Lunos line.
The first method was the simplest and most direct, but since children did not always come just because one wished for them, a secondary plan was necessary.
Now, April found herself forced to consider those same two options.
The first method was difficult.
Her engagement had been broken, her former fiancé was Miller Dieus, and above all, April’s pride in the Lunos name remained unchanged from before the fall. There were few families that could match her standards.
Therefore, while the prospect of an heir was slim, she had no desire to turn to the second option—those cousins who had siphoned off every bit of wealth they could while the Lunos family fell and April was tied down for seven years.
Securing a successor for the Lunos family through the first method was the priority.
It was a natural judgment for someone from a family that had held power for a long time and considered the continuation of the lineage an absolute destiny.
To find a husband, she had to enter society, and to enter society, she needed an invitation.
In April’s current situation, there was only one person who could make that happen.
April pressed her hand to her forehead before picking up a pen filled with the dark red ink unique to the Lunos family.
[To Pezin Dieus]
