Translator: Nox

The Mansion Awaits Spring

Chapter 72

Bauman gripped the key with a trembling hand.

“Yes, My Lady. Please leave it to me.”

Having repaired the damage to the mansion, Bauman knew better than anyone that before the Lunos estate was sealed, the servants who worked here had stolen everything of value.

Yet, she entrusted the key to the jewelry box to him without a moment's hesitation.

Bauman resolved to repay the trust she showed him.

He tucked the key deep into his inner pocket.

At that moment, one of the Grand Duchy Police officers emerged from the basement, pulling off his mask.

“There was a gas pipe connected here\!”

It was a lie.

Bauman, who had barely managed to suppress his rage thanks to April's composure, suddenly roared.

“That’s absolute nonsense\!”

While Bauman’s eyes flared with fierce indignation, April walked down the stairs. She saw a gas pipe that had been connected in the interim.

The pipe itself looked like an old piece scavenged from somewhere, but the solder sealing the joints was gleaming silver, without a single speck of dust on it.

Jonah Tavish spoke with a beaming face.

“Look at this. Doesn't a gas pipe remain\!”

April knew that even if she pointed out the fresh solder as evidence in this situation, no one would take her side. She could only hope that the Imperial Police would soon regain the power to investigate once more.

April turned to look at Jonah Tavish and said,

“I trust the investigation of the Imperial Police. The Grand Duchy Police always move according to where the money is, after all.”

“Now, Lady Lunos. How can you say such things right in front of the Grand Duchy Police… No matter how much you loathe to pay.”

“I cannot give you the money. That bill wasn't sensible to begin with. I might consider looking at it if it were redrafted with a banker present.”

At April’s firm words, Jonah Tavish let out a chuckle. It was a laugh born from the certainty that she had no other cards left to play.

“If you do not pay right this instant, the Grand Duchy Police will have to arrest you, Miss Lunos.”

“So it seems,” April replied with a cold face.

The Grand Duchy Police, whose goal had been an arrest from the start, took April Runos into custody on the spot. Having successfully carried out their objective, they prepared to leave the estate.

Jonah Tavish, satisfied with having successfully secured her arrest, turned to Bauman, who was glaring at him with burning eyes.

“I shall return for the gas payment next time. You should know that stalling will only cause the interest to pile up….”

Before Jonah Tavish could finish his sentence, Bauman reached out and grabbed the long pole he had leaned against the wall.

“I held back today for our young lady’s sake, but let’s see if your head is still attached to your neck the next time you set foot here.”

“W-what terrifying words…. W-well then, we shall be going\!”

Cowering at the man’s massive frame, Jonah Tavish scrambled into his car and hurriedly fled the mansion.

Only after everyone had left did Bauman call out to Hannah and Fred, who had been hiding in the room in terror.

“What are you doing? Hurry and get your books out to study. You’ll be attending school as soon as the weather clears up.”

“Grandpa, the young lady is….”

“She will be back soon.”

Bauman continued with an expression more stern than usual.

“Until My Lady returns, your only job is to study. Now, open your books.”

The children’s eyes welled with tears, but seeing the hardened expression on the usually warm Bauman, they suppressed their worry for April and began to study.

After sending the children in, Bauman let out a trembling sigh.

He prayed only for the safe return of the master of this great mansion.

“I have lived a long life, but there is no lord like her.”

Bauman clasped his hands toward the heavens.

“Please protect our young lady….”

* * *

As the black carriage of the Grand Duchy Police sped across the territory, April kept her eyes fixed out the window.

She wanted to know exactly where she was being taken.

As expected, the carriage dropped her off at a holding cell she had never seen before.

In the meantime, gossip reporters from the Right Island wrote articles about her, took photographs, and sketched caricatures.

Around two in the morning, while she was spending the night in an all-too-familiar solitary cell, she was suddenly led away somewhere by the hands of the police.

A night without a single speck of light.

Even April, who had firmly resolved to survive and return no matter what situation she faced, could not help but feel the encroaching terror of the circumstances.

Though she was blindfolded, she realized at some point that she could smell the sea.

Thinking about whether she should scream or if anyone would even hear her, April inadvertently thought of a familiar face.

As Fezin’s image formed in the darkness, April immediately shook her head.

Hadn't she always known that the Imperial Police had no choice but to follow the Empire's orders?

It was foolish to feel disappointed now by the fact that he was turning a blind eye to this arrest.

At some point, she found herself inside a cabin, and she heard the sound of the door being locked from the outside.

Exhaling a shaky breath, April pulled off the hood the police had placed over her head and froze.

There was another woman, a sailor, in the cabin with her.

Her hair, soaked with seawater, was as coarse as rope, looking as if it hadn't been groomed in a long time, and it was braided in a messy fashion that suited her appearance.

Her build was as large as the Imperial Police officers April had seen. She undoubtedly had the blood of the Right Island pirates flowing through her.

April stood warily with her back against the door, but then, deciding she couldn't travel like this the whole way, she spoke to the sailor who was in the middle of eating.

“Are you a prisoner too? They locked the door so you can't get out.”

The sailor pointed her thumb at the window behind her.

“I can go out through there.”

“Through the window?”

“There are always ways.”

What the sailor was eating was salted cod. She devoured the fish, which looked excessively salty, without even a side dish to accompany it.

April felt as though she were standing at the crossroads of survival. Having maintained a state of high tension, seeing someone performing an act purely for survival made her guard lower ever so slightly.

Sitting as far away as possible from the unusually taciturn sailor in the cramped cabin, April introduced herself.

“I’m April. April Runos.”

She thought that if she were to be cast out to sea without anyone knowing who she was, it would be better if as many people as possible knew she had been here.

Hearing April's words, the sailor replied while munching on her fish.

“Irsa Joyce.”

“It seems you’ve spent a long time on ships.”

“Born on a ship. Raised on a ship.”

April felt her heart open a little more to Irsa, who answered more readily than expected. In this situation where she had nothing to lean on, having a conversation partner was a significant comfort.

Among the people of the Right Island, those like Irsa who had fully inherited the pirate lineage boasted immense frames and strength.

Her appetite was as large as her physique; she finished off an entire wooden barrel full of salted cod and downed a barrel of beer of the same size in one go.

Looking at Irsa, who seemed neither like a full pirate nor a completely ordinary sailor, April recalled the sailors of the merchant ships she had seen as a child. They were exactly like Irsa.

Rough, large, and hearty eaters.

The captain of the Lunos family, who had passed away from illness around the time the Lunos family was first arrested, used to say that managing sailors from the Right Island was as tricky as the sea itself.

They lived in a semi-lawless zone.

April tilted her head slightly and watched Irsa, and before she knew it, a small chuckle escaped her. At that faint laugh, Irsa leisurely stood up.

“What’s so funny that you’re laughing?”