The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 71
Jonah Tavish made no effort to hide his intentions. Despite the freezing weather, he fanned himself as if he were sweltering and continued speaking.
“With an amount like this, you should be able to cover it with the funds you currently possess.”
The influential businessman didn’t even entertain the possibility that he might fail to extract the gas fees from a young lady who knew far less about the world than others her age.
Jonah Tavish was certain.
This was a profitable venture.
April, who had heard of Jonah Tavish’s notoriety during her childhood, looked at the figures on the invoice and realized he would stop at nothing to collect.
She wanted to block the investigation, but her body wouldn’t move. The Grand Duchy Police had rendered her completely paralyzed with dread.
She remembered when they had ransacked the entire mansion, turning it into a shambles while investigating the Lunos couple on charges of attempting to assassinate Grand Duke Miller Dieus.
Throughout that long investigation, the Grand Duchy Police had tried to force a confession from April and her parents, seeking any evidence that April Runos had been a co-conspirator in the assassination plot.
April thought of the Lunos couple as they headed toward the execution grounds.
She knew that pressures far greater than what she had endured had been applied to them, but she had tried her best to forget. She had struggled to look away.
Now, those memories came rushing back all at once, triggered by the Grand Duchy Police who had appeared once again to trample over the Runos Mansion.
The officers were all wearing masks, knowing that the members of the Investigation Headquarters and Shafer Meyer’s party had collapsed on the second basement floor.
As the police went down to inspect the gas pipes, April overheard them talking.
“What happens to the investigation the Imperial Police already did?”
“We’re right here in their investigation space and they aren’t saying a word. They’ve given us their permission.”
April felt the strength drain from her body; it took every ounce of her concentration just to remain standing.
Just then, a terrified Hannah and Fred ran toward her.
“My lady!”
“I’m scared….”
Seeing the two children bursting into tears, April grit her teeth.
Looking at them, she realized she had to pull herself together.
Even though they weren’t her own, Hannah and Fred were her responsibility, and seeing them brought a realization to her mind.
April recalled the faces of the Lunos couple, who had fought so desperately to protect her.
“It’s alright.”
April soothed the children.
“It’s going to be alright.”
She spoke to them without a shred of certainty. It didn’t matter if it was only temporary comfort. She believed providing that comfort was her role as the adult.
The Grand Duchy Police caused a massive commotion within the Runos Mansion.
Bauman brought out a surveying pole and brandished it at the officers.
“The investigation is already finished! What more are you trying to accomplish by making a mess now?!”
“Wh-why are you swinging a weapon at the police?!”
Startled by the sudden aggression, the officers hurriedly scrambled out of the way.
However, once they were a safe distance from the Lunos household members, they immediately prepared to draw their weapons in a show of force.
Sensing that they were about to pull their guns at any moment, April grabbed the agitated Bauman.
“Mr. Bauman.”
“My lady, those bastards… I’ll… I’ll….”
Bauman looked ready to knock the officers down then and there, but he trailed off when he saw April’s face. The person who should be the most anxious was wearing the most composed expression of them all.
She spoke firmly.
“I won’t let them take it. Not my inheritance.”
“My lady….”
“They won’t take it.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t know she was out of options, but words had a power that could only be harnessed by speaking them into the world.
April’s voice, projected with strength to make herself believe it, affected Bauman as well. For a moment, the young April felt like an adult to him.
Bauman slowly suppressed his rising temper.
“You are right, my lady. There isn’t a single cent to give to a swindler like that.”
“Of course not.”
Once Bauman stopped, the police resumed their search of the Lunos residence.
April watched the men drifting in and out of the basement before turning back to Bauman.
“For the past seven years, I tried not to think about my parents. But now that I have to hold their funeral, I find I can’t help but think of them.”
“I see.”
Unsure of where she was going with this, Bauman simply nodded along as she continued.
“The things they said are coming back to me one by one. One was to stop looking at the left side of the island and look to the right.”
“The right?”
“Yes. To not depend on Rasa, but to head out to sea.”
“Ah! That sounds exactly like a family of merchants. And the second?”
“The second was about pirates….”
April recalled her father’s words of comfort on the day she had returned after pouring wine over Heidi at the church.
『April, how do you think we were able to break through those pirate-infested waters and get our merchant ships to their trade routes?』
At her father’s question, April had kept her mouth shut and shaken her head.
Her father had continued.
『It was because they were our neighbors. The neighboring pirates protected the ships returning laden with gold.』
『….』
『Do you think I didn’t want to deny it? But that is simply the reality.』
『Even if they help like that, they’ll surely start stealing again the moment they see something they like, won’t they? They’re thieves to begin with.』
『Yes, and you have to calculate those outgoing costs as well.』
Back then, her father had laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
『Keeping them in check costs a fortune, but the profit that comes from trust is great. Great enough to justify the risk.』
April closed her eyes.
Would the ancestors of the Runos family have trusted those neighbors even if they were bandits like these?
She wanted to ask, but her parents were no longer in this world to answer her.
April watched her front hall become caked in mud as the police walked in and out without wiping their boots.
She reflected on what the Grand Duchy officer had just said.
He said the Imperial Police were turning a blind eye so that the Grand Duchy Police could act this way.
Those Imperial Police moved solely under the command of Pezin Dieus. Therefore, this investigation was only possible with Pezin’s tacit approval.
As April saw it, there were only two reasons why Pezin would look the other way while the Grand Duchy Police moved for the private gain of that gas merchant.
Either there was direct intervention from the Empire, or it was a direct order from Grand Duke Miller Dieus.
April knew she would have to act differently depending on which side the order came from, but for now, there was no way to know.
If it were the latter—Miller’s order—she could actually breathe a little easier.
Miller might be able to move the Grand Duchy Police, but he wouldn’t be able to put forth a conclusion that flatly contradicted the investigation already completed by the police dispatched from the Empire.
But if it were the former, it was a different story.
If it were the Empire’s direct influence, it was possible even to overturn the Imperial Police’s investigation.
The problem was that, in April’s eyes, the former was more likely. It was because the Imperial Police were nowhere to be seen in the territory.
Stepping aside to this extent for the Grand Duchy Police, with whom they had such a poor relationship, was something difficult to achieve through Miller’s power alone.
Reaching that conclusion, April became certain that the Imperial investigation would be overturned. She handed a key to Bauman.
“Mr. Bauman, I think the results of the investigation are going to be reversed.”
“Pardon?”
“They will conclude that the lights were kept on using gas from Jonah Tavish’s company. After that, the police will arrest me. Because I won’t pay the money.”
Bauman listened carefully to April’s words and nodded, marvelling at how she could make such a calm judgment.
April continued.
“If I am unable to leave prison for a long time, or if all my assets are frozen, please sell all the jewels in the jewelry box inside my vanity. That should be enough for you to buy a small house and for Hannah and Fred to attend school until they graduate. As for university… they’ll have to earn their own way.”
“O-oh, my lady!”
“If the assets are handed over to the gas merchant, the Runos family will have no way left to recover.”
April squeezed Bauman’s hand, which was holding the key.
Through the strength of that grip, she conveyed her resolve.
“In this situation, there is no safe path for me. I have no choice but to gamble.”
