The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 77
It was certainly different.
April felt it more keenly than those watching her.
While her mind grew hazy amidst the mist, she pondered what had changed between yesterday and today.
[It’s needed for the experiment.]
She raised her arm and looked at the pure white sleeve of the dress Pezin had given her.
Unlike the dress she had worn when she arrived from the Right Island, today she was wearing this white dress brought from the Empire.
Pezin hadn’t offered a specific explanation, but looking out the carriage window on the way here, she had noticed many of the wealthy wearing white, beige, or yellow. In the Empire, such colors seemed to symbolize affluence.
Having grown up on the Right Island, where vibrant and deep primary colors were preferred, April couldn’t help but feel the difference even more starkly. On the Left Island, they likely used entirely different dyes than those on the Right Island.
Since she had been thinking about dyeing throughout the carriage ride, those thoughts naturally carried over into the experiment.
Eventually, April recalled that the dresses she had worn during her seven years of house arrest had all been dyed using a single type of pigment.
The problem was that she couldn’t properly remember what her parents had told her about that dye. Because she had tried so hard to forget those years, her conversations with her parents felt completely out of reach.
But she definitely remembered hearing it. Her parents had explained the dye to her in great detail.
“I can’t remember….”
A sense of maddening frustration welled up within her.
What was that dye? What did her parents say? What kind of expression were they wearing when they looked at her?
April was having difficulty recovering memories from before her period of confinement.
Fortunately, she knew of one way that helped in reclaiming those memories. It was talking to Pezin.
A person who shared her childhood. Someone who held memories of her parents and could talk about them with her.
“Pezin….”
It was a good thing to have someone to talk to.
That was why she wished he wouldn’t refer to the Empire as ‘us.’
Of course, she understood if Pezin defined himself as an Imperial. It was even more understandable after seeing his house.
In the Grand Duchy, Pezin lived in a townhouse used by the Dieus family. In truth, it was more accurate to say he was staying there rather than living there.
On the other hand, his home was in Rasa.
Just as April Runos’s home sat atop the hill of the Lunos estate, Pezin Dieus’s home was situated in the heart of the Imperial capital.
It was a magnificent house that anyone could see was built to be lived in for a lifetime. From that house, she knew Pezin intended to spend the rest of his life in the Empire.
Yet, despite seeing his home, April hoped he would call him and her ‘us.’ Regardless of everything else, he was a good friend to her now. The thought of living on different islands felt a little sad.
“I truly thought April-yang was using sorcery. She remained so steady even though her dress had changed.”
The scholar spoke in front of the room where April lay resting in Pezin’s mansion after her treatment.
Pezin turned to look at him and asked, “And?”
“But she wasn’t. Seeing how she eventually lost consciousness so quickly.”
“I’m disappointed that you’d even briefly entertain such unrealistic thoughts as sorcery.”
“…Yes, that is embarrassing, but regardless. I don’t know why she thought she shouldn’t collapse, but April-yang endured that contaminated mist for quite a long time. Of course, it’s possible that the method the Lunos couple used all this time has affected her body, but….”
“So. Was it correct?”
At Pezin’s question, the scholar gave a thin smile and nodded.
“Yes, the hypothesis was correct. The reason April Runos-yang was able to remain more composed than others even in the contaminated mist was because of the dye used in her dress.”
“And if we find out what the dye is, can we actually obtain it?”
The scholar faltered as Pezin asked with an impatient expression.
Because Pezin questioned him with those characteristically beautiful eyes, it felt like a sin to answer that he didn’t know.
In any case, while his eye color wasn’t necessarily unique in the Rasa Empire, Pezin’s dazzling face backed them up, giving them an almost divine aura.
The scholar spoke with an expression as if he had committed a crime.
“Well, I took a small piece of fabric cut from April-yang’s dress yesterday and asked a dye merchant… but they don’t know it.”
Pezin’s gaze was particularly cold today, making the scholar feel needlessly incompetent and causing him to shrink back as he continued.
“And this was a merchant who handles almost every kind of imported dye. So it’s definitely not a dye that can be easily obtained. That’s why I asked April Runos-yang about the dye while she was in a hazy state, but she said she didn’t know either. She seemed sincere about that.”
“Hmm.”
The scholar looked up at Pezin with a desperate face, unable to bring himself to say, ‘Could you please discuss how to obtain that dye with April-yang?’
Pezin spoke with an air of annoyance.
“Are you telling me to find out?”
“I-I didn’t say that!”
Even if he ignored it here, the scholar would eventually write this in a report, and the Emperor, upon receiving it, would command someone to investigate the whereabouts of the dye.
Though it was a hassle, Pezin thought it would be better to just do it himself.
After finishing the conversation, he sent everyone out and entered the sickroom.
Fortunately, April had regained consciousness during her treatment, and by the time Pezin visited, she appeared relatively fine.
When their eyes met, Pezin spoke irritably.
“You look perfectly fine.”
“Hardly fine. I was quite surprised myself, since it was different from usual.”
April retorted and closed the book she had been reading.
Pezin sat on the edge of the bed and picked up her book.
“You don’t even like books that much, do you?”
“I had nothing to do, so I pulled it out to read. At the Lunos mansion, there’s always plenty to do even if I work all day, but here, they won’t let me lift a finger.”
“It’s because you’ve forgotten, but that’s how most nobles live.”
“I suppose so.”
April laughed as if she’d heard a joke. But she soon realized that Pezin’s mood was entirely different from the atmosphere she was imagining, and her laughter faded.
April looked into Pezin’s eyes as he stared intensely at her and clicked his tongue.
“Didn’t you say I was fine?”
“I was being sarcastic, but I guess you didn’t catch that.”
“No, it didn’t sound like sarcasm. You’re in the wrong.”
“I’m always the one in the wrong, aren’t I? And you?”
Pezin’s eyes cooled with a turbulent light.
April suddenly found this version of Pezin fascinating.
From the moment he first appeared, he hadn’t been on her side. He had arrested her and placed her under surveillance. And yet, he had always been on her side. April had never once doubted that fact.
Why on earth did she feel that way?
Because they were friends? Because they shared those few memories?
Every so often, April felt as if he were deceiving her. It felt as though he were lying about being on her side.
It wasn’t as if she were head over heels in love and blinded by it, nor was there a friendship of that depth between them.
Becoming curious about Pezin as he watched her, April leaned her weight on the bed and tilted her body closer to him.
He frowned and pulled back.
“I’m not angry. You don’t need to appease me.”
“Why would I appease you for being angry?”
“You’re coming closer to appease me.”
“Ah, so doing this makes the anger go away.”
Pezin looked flabbergasted by her mumble.
April continued.
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“Then why are you coming closer?”
“Because I’m curious. I wanted to look closely to see if you really are on my side.”
“Ah, you’re driving me crazy.”
As April braced herself with her hand on her thigh and pushed her body in closer to get a better look, Pezin let out a curse. Then, he grabbed her other hand as she reached out to touch his face.
“Where do you think you’re touching?”
“Your face.”
“Don’t touch it. It’s expensive.”
At Pezin’s words, April tried to pull her hand away.
“What are you even talking about?”
But Pezin didn’t let go. Instead, he opened her captured hand and interlaced his fingers with hers, holding on so she couldn’t pull away at all.
April chided him.
“Didn’t you say not to touch you?”
“I’m doing this to stop you from touching me….”
Pezin, who usually never lost an argument to anyone, was suddenly rendered speechless.
It was because April had leaned her cheek against his chest.
Pezin could not stop the heat from April’s feverish cheek from leaving its warmth against his heart.
