The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 41
Chapter 41
After a long silence, Fezin spoke.
「As I said, if you try to harm my brother, I will stop you.」
「I know. That's why I won't tell you the details of my plan.」
April finished with a slight curl of her lips.
「It just so happens you're the only one I have to talk to about such things.」
「But just because someone is an enemy of Dieus, is there any guarantee they'll be on your side?」
「That's why I'm going to become a witch.」
「What?」
Fezin's expression hardened as he asked for clarification, and April replied.
「I need to look like I have power, but I have nothing. So… I thought I might as well use it. The rumor that's already out there.」
「The rumor that you're the culprit behind the fog?」
「Yes.」
April nodded.
「I'm going to make people fear me.」
It was a role she had to perform.
Even if April refused the role, it was Fezin's job to forcibly assign it to her.
If that task could help her, he felt it might slightly ease the guilt in his heart.
Fezin asked.
「Aren't you scared?」
「No. You said you wouldn't send me to the Church. I trust you.」
「….」
「So I'm not scared.」
His heart sank.
Fezin would do his job as a police officer. His premise that a judge conducts the trial would never be broken.
With that certainty, April could give her all. Because she had a solid support to lean her back against, she could exert her strength toward the direction she desired.
It was unknown how Fezin's conviction regarding the extradition of criminals had become so clear, but regardless, April desperately needed such support.
Fezin spoke soon after.
「Regarding the reconstruction of the Runos family, I can help to some extent. But as I've already said, I won't stand by and watch any attack on my brother.」
「I knew the latter. I didn't know about the former.」
April smiled, but internally, she had to firmly mark the boundaries with him.
At times, his kindness seemed to have no reason.
As far as April knew, Fezin was by no means a kind person. Nor was he in love, for that matter.
She remembered the eyes with which Fezin looked at Heidi, the heart with which he loved her, and the attitude with which he treated her. Thus, she could be certain. There was no affection in his favor, and there was surely poison in this kindness.
However, April considered that she was in no position to be picky about drinking poison right now.
As long as it didn't kill her immediately, if there was a benefit to drinking it, then to some extent….
After that, the two of them mingled with others separately.
Fezin's worry about being too popular turned out to be an annoying truth.
Though he wore an expression that said he wanted to be alone the whole time, he danced constantly with various people and was led around by his brother to give greetings.
Fezin, who was bound to return to the Empire, might not have been the best prospective groom in the eyes of the parents' generation, but he was a man who piqued great curiosity among the unmarried women attending the party today.
And for April as well, unlike the beginning when people were sharp toward her, there were occasionally young men who requested a dance.
April followed her own set criteria and did not dance with young men from families lowlier than the Hunter family, and that intention became known in an instant.
She heard words right next to her calling her shameless or gloomy, but she ignored them.
At the words, 'She doesn't look sad even though her parents were executed,' she felt like her emotions might flip, but she suppressed that as well.
The emotions inside her were like water in a shallow, wide dish; they had a center of gravity that would tilt to one side at any moment unless she found balance with superhuman concentration.
April, who used most of her mental energy to support her emotions, only had the leisure to think properly after midnight when the meal was finished.
In fact, it wasn't that she had just thought of it now. It was merely reconsidering a fact she had known from the start but didn't want to accept. No matter how much she looked and looked again, the truth she first knew never faded.
She had been intentionally ignoring the fact that if she were to find allies, there were people she had to check first.
The Clan.
Those who were once part of the Runos family had now been incorporated into various other families and left the estate.
April hated them for not standing by her parents, but at the same time, they were undoubtedly the people her parents had trusted most.
So she had no choice but to choose them, yet most of them had snatched away the remaining assets of Runos. April had to find members of the Clan whom her parents would have trusted.
Fortunately, quite a few documents remained at the bank, so April was able to obtain much information with the help of the banker, Virta.
However, just as she was pondering where to start, she saw a girl preparing for her debutante carrying a basket around.
Only then did April understand Fezin's question, 'What if you win anything?'
It was clear he had proposed this game specifically to create a situation where she could win.
What the girl held was a basket containing slips of paper for dividing sides in the Marble Game, a tradition of the Right Island.
When April motioned for the girl to come toward her, everyone in the banquet hall faltered and shifted their gaze toward her.
The girl approached her with a dazed face, as if possessed by a witch. Then, she held out the basket to April.
April took out a slip and unfolded it for the child to see.
「It says yellow.」
Then the girl untied one of the yellow ribbons she had tied to her arm and attached it to April's sleeve.
「Please wear this\!」
「Thank you.」
When April checked the Dieus couple, Heidi was wearing a pink ribbon, and Miller was wearing a yellow one. Of all the slips in that basket, she had happened to pick the same one as Miller.
* * *
「Superintendent-nim\!」
Fezin, who had been going out to smoke whenever he had the chance because meeting so many people was exhausting, clicked his tongue at the sound of Logan calling him urgently.
「What?」
「It seems Lady Runos intends to play Green Ball\!」
「Yeah, I know.」
Fezin, who had no interest in April participating in the game he himself had suggested, faltered at Logan's following words.
「She is on the same side as His Grace Dieus.」
At those words, Fezin looked back at Logan.
Beside him, Paul spoke as he put out his cigarette.
「It's a huge hit, the last party of the year. It doesn't feel much like a memorial atmosphere, though….」
「Support is originally something done with money. Who would be happy about nobles whose faces they don't even know acting like they're mourning.」
Fezin also spoke as he extinguished his cigarette.
The three men re-entered the banquet hall, and Fezin noticed people looking at him with expectant eyes.
With so many people participating in the game, he couldn't believe this trick of probability—that she had ended up on the same side as his brother.
Fezin clicked his tongue and politely declined with a bow to the girl who cautiously held out the basket to him. It was because the game didn't hold much interest for him in the first place.
He went straight to April, lifted the sleeve with the yellow ribbon, and asked.
「Why did you have to pick the same one as my brother?」
「Did I know when I picked it?」
「This… if you win, will it actually feel like winning?」
Fezin asked, glancing at her face.
Fortunately, April was nodding with a smile.
「Yes, it will. Thank you. I needed this.」
「That's a relief.」
Fezin smiled along with her, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction.
It seemed that in the short time they had spent together, he had come to recognize what April needed better than anyone else.
