The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 60
Reflecting on that fact, she took out her coat and draped it over her shoulders.
There was a particular silence that came on days when the snow piled high. Today was such a day.
April looked down at the snow accumulated outside the window. Bauman had been working diligently to clear it since before dawn, but it was too much for one person. He had managed to clear just enough—about two or three meters in front of the porch—to allow for coming and going.
Sebio, who had just woken up, followed her around until Hannah’s voice calling him sent him bolting down the stairs.
“Sebio! Come here, quick!”
Wondering what could possibly be happening with Sebio so early in the morning, April followed toward where Hannah was, only to find Bauman bringing out a sled he had crafted in his spare time.
Bauman looked back at April and said, “The children said they wanted to go sledding… but since we can’t have them going missing in this snow, I thought I’d have Sebio keep watch over them.”
“That’s a good idea. They’re such handfuls, after all.”
April spoke with a hint of a tease as she took a seat in the rocking chair on the porch.
Despite her words, the fact that she had come out to sit in this freezing weather suggested she wanted to watch the children play.
As he cleared the snow in front of the porch, Bauman had created a fairly long slope.
As April watched, the children played tirelessly, excitedly digging caves in the snow and sledding down the hill. Beside them, an equally thrilled Sebio was leaping and bounding about.
April pulled the blanket Fred’s grandmother had knitted for her over her knees and watched the children play.
Once she learned that Fred had begun learning to read and write, the boy’s grandmother had fully unleashed the passion for education she had long kept suppressed.
The way she would violently shake Fred awake whenever he tried to skip going to the Lunos mansion due to sleepiness, and this masterfully crafted blanket she had knitted with yarn bought by scrimping and saving the wages April gave Fred, were all part of that educational fervor.
Bauman placed a cup of the warm tea April enjoyed on the table and spoke.
“They certainly find a way to have fun with the simplest things, don’t they?”
“They do.”
“I’ve made a sled for adults as well. Since the Young Lord visits often, perhaps you could ride it together?”
“……We’ll see.”
When April replied more positively than expected, Bauman’s face brightened.
After watching the children for a while, April began writing the obituary notices to be sent to the members of the Runos family.
She made no attempt to hide her resentment. The Runos kin needed to gather here, even if it was out of fear.
As she was writing the letters, Sebio suddenly grew wary and began to bark.
“Sebio, what’s wrong?”
Hannah and Fred asked anxiously, stroking Sebio.
Sebio continued to bark, and Hannah tilted her head, asking, “Are strangers coming?”
At Hannah’s words, Bauman slowly picked up the tools he had left leaning against the porch.
April looked in the direction Sebio was barking. Nothing was visible yet.
However, it wasn’t long before the inhabitants of the Lunos mansion could see people approaching through the snow.
April realized they were not the group of police officers who were always stationed around the Lunos estate.
They were hunters.
A group, all clad in furs and carrying shotguns, approached while kicking through the snow.
April recognized the leader of the hunting party.
It was Shafer Meyer.
In social circles, Shafer was nothing particularly surprising.
A young man who acted exactly as he pleased, backed by a solid family, the power of his parents, and his looks.
The only surprising thing was that he had been just as reckless when April was fourteen and he was seventeen, and he remained just as reckless now.
Bauman spoke.
“Shouldn’t you go inside? They don’t look like guests……”
“This is my estate. How would it look if I hid?”
April spoke quietly and rose from her chair. She then signaled for the children to go inside.
Hannah puffed out her small frame as if she intended to stay and protect April, but she was forced inside the mansion as a timid Fred pulled her and Bauman nudged her along.
April looked down at Sebio, who had come to stand at her feet.
With his tail tucked all the way to his belly, he was baring his teeth and growling at the hunting party.
“Either be scared or be threatening. Pick one.”
April spoke as she patted Sebio’s head.
When the hunters drew near, April’s gaze fell not on the men, but on the hounds they had brought with them.
They were black dogs with white spots on their tails. Looking at Sebio, April saw that while he was smaller in stature, his markings were identical.
“……Are they your siblings?”
She had thought it strange how he had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but she hadn’t expected his former owner to be someone she knew.
Judging by the way Sebio was showing such hostility, it seemed his previous master hadn’t been a kind one. Of course, it would have been more surprising to April if Shafer had actually been a good master.
Shafer, who had arrived right in front of her, signaled his crew to stop and then walked toward April alone. His slouching gait was unpleasant to look at, but April didn’t bother to show her distaste.
Shafer stopped excessively close to her. April sneered at his attempt to intimidate her with his size and spoke.
“Did you choose today to come because Fezin isn’t here?”
At April’s words, Shafer let out a boisterous laugh.
“Fezin and I are both people with ties to the Empire anyway. We’re on the same side; there’s no reason for us to be enemies. Well…… if there’s anything to be sour about, it’s just the usual fact that the Police and the Navy have never gotten along.”
Shafer spoke and then put his hands behind his back as he addressed April.
“Move. I have some investigating to do.”
“That is the police’s job.”
April, blocking the entrance, replied without budging.
Shafer scanned the stubborn April with his eyes. Then, he flicked her chin with his hand and spoke.
“What are you going to do if you keep being stubborn? It doesn’t look like you have a single servant here to protect you.”
Shafer looked back and forth between Bauman and the dog before continuing.
“Just an old man and a dog. And a scrawny, discarded dog at that.”
April looked down at Sebio.
The dog, once so starved his bones showed and his fur fell out in clumps, now had white downy fur growing in the bald spots. White fur rising wherever the black fur had fallen made him look dappled; it might have been odd for the dog, but to a human eye, he looked quite striking.
April grabbed Sebio’s collar. Finally finding his confidence, Sebio straightened his tucked tail and lunged at Shafer.
April made a show of holding him back as she said, “Control yourself.”
Shafer furrowed his brow at the sight.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m saving you. Before you get bitten.”
“Saving me?”
“Have you ever actually acted like an adult?”
At April’s biting remark, Shafer’s subordinates standing behind him brandished the knives they carried for finishing off prey, as if to threaten her.
There were about twenty armed men in front of her.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid, but she also felt it wasn’t something to worry over-excessively.
They acted like reckless teenagers, but they weren’t people with nothing to lose—certainly not enough to slit the throat of someone whose legal sentence had already ended.
Shafer spoke.
“There’s something I need to find. Move aside.”
“It is a crime to trespass when the owner hasn’t invited you.”
“Don’t act so smart.”
“……What do you mean, act smart?”
Avoiding an answer to April’s narrowed-eyed question, Shafer continued.
“I have a religious conviction. That killing a witch is no sin…… If the fog disappears because I kill you, then that’s good. If it doesn’t, I’ll just pay the price for my crime.”
Shafer pulled out a sharp dagger and brought it to April’s throat, then kicked Sebio as the dog lunged for real this time.
As Sebio prepared to lunge again, April spoke.
“Hannah, take Sebio upstairs.”
At her call, Hannah came running down the stairs. She grabbed Sebio’s collar with all her might as he resisted and dragged him up the stairs.
Shafer looked at his boot. It was thick leather, but it was already marked with the dog’s teeth.
“That scrawny little mutt.”
“The items are in the basement.”
April spoke to Shafer, who was glaring at the stairs where Sebio had disappeared.
When Shafer looked at her, April continued.
“My parents moved everything to the third basement level.”
“How am I supposed to believe you?”
“Follow me. I’ll show you.”
April spoke and turned around.
Shafer gestured to his men with his chin and followed after April.
