The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 8
Carrying the sergeant on his back, Fezin sprinted outside and felt the young man’s body go limp against him.
Fezin immediately set the sergeant down on the mansion’s porch.
“Wake up!”
As he shouted sharply to rouse him, one of the headquarters officers who hadn’t gone down into the basement spoke to Fezin.
“Should we move him inside where it’s warm?”
“No, that’s enough.”
Fezin refused and began pressing quickly and firmly just below the sergeant’s sternum. His movements were filled with certainty.
Fortunately, since the Runos Mansion was close to the city center, a doctor arrived in less than thirty minutes.
After examining the sergeant’s condition, the doctor spoke.
“It looks like poison.”
“Poison?”
Paul asked back, his face contorting in disbelief.
The doctor nodded.
“I don’t know where he inhaled it, but it would be best to get as far away from the scene as possible.”
“Hey, the carriage…”
Paul started to command the other officers but trailed off, his words sticking in his throat.
The officers who had come out after checking the pipes were all slumped on the ground. Even if they hadn’t lost consciousness like the sergeant, they were clearly suffering ill effects.
Paul turned to Fezin.
“That… didn’t the Lunos couple send poison to His Grace the Grand Duke and Her Grace the Grand Duchess as well?”
“That was made from mushrooms. There was nothing like that in the basement.”
Unexpectedly, Fezin spoke decisively on that point.
A colorless, odorless poison made by boiling down toadstools.
It was a traditional method used by the seafarers of the Right Island.
A lethal drug sent to a man who betrayed one’s daughter.
There were cases where people actually drank it and died, but most recognized the deadly poison beforehand, made a show of drinking it, and then headed out to sea.
They would offer the profits gained from risking their lives on a voyage to the person they had promised to marry. In essence, they were buying their own lives and the other’s honor with money.
The people of the Left Island seemed to regard it as an utterly barbaric tradition.
When the leadership changed, the practice was banned by law.
A hundred years ago on the Right Island, it wasn’t heavily condemned for those of the noble class to keep mistresses.
Since men frequently died at sea, everyone knew that eternal vows were impossible.
However, even then, the partner’s consent was absolutely required, and the partner could exercise strong authority over these mistresses.
Because Miller found the idea of April exercising authority over his true love repulsive, he had broken the engagement using the laws of the Left Island, and the Lunos couple had sent the poison following the tradition of the Right Island.
In any case, unless April had actually become a witch, it made no logical sense that she could have attempted to poison the police in a basement she hadn’t entered once in seven years.
Yet, there wasn’t a single officer present who didn’t suspect April.
Even the doctor was glancing at the Runos Family Crest mounted on the mansion door.
Throughout its long history, the Lunos family had grown through trade, and their crest featured a scale.
They took pride in the fact that they did not engage in plunder, so that scale was also a symbol of their honor.
Nevertheless, the Runos family had lost nearly all their wealth to what was effectively plunder.
Among the people of the Right Island, the perception still remained that plundering was a natural necessity for survival. But the bigger problem was that there were many sailors within the Runos territory who boarded merchant ships. Since virtually every sailor was a descendant of pirates, the looting was performed even more professionally and viciously.
However, there had been many changes in the consciousness of the Right Island people over the past seven years. Fezin thought that if the sentence of house arrest were given now, plundering would have significantly decreased.
When Fezin went down into the basement, April was nowhere to be seen.
Certain that she had gone even further down, he climbed down the ladder to the sub-basement.
In the distance, the lantern April held flickered dimly.
Even sturdy young men had staggered after being here for only a moment, yet April was walking deeper into the depths as if it were nothing.
Fezin touched one of the disconnected pipes, then frowned as he moved toward April’s location.
Despite never having doubted his own health for a single moment in his life, a nausea so intense it made his vision go dark surged within him.
“April, come out.”
“I think I need to check further inside.”
April spoke calmly.
Her finger was pointing toward the inner wall.
The space was too vast to be lit by a single oil lamp, yet the lamp April held was far too bright to be considered a simple kerosene light.
“Witch…”
The thought that had momentarily flashed through Fezin’s mind was uttered aloud by a detective who had followed him down.
April, holding the blazing oil lamp, looked so much like a witch that the detective’s words didn’t even sound like an exaggeration.
Her blonde hair seemed to burn in the sunlight, and her red eyes reflected the flames. Even though a man had just collapsed, her usual calm and arrogant nature remained etched in the line of her eyes.
Unable to overcome his fear, the detective lunged at April.
Fezin knew the detective wouldn’t be able to reach her, and just as he expected, the man collapsed halfway, clutching his chest.
Fezin supported the detective as he helped him up and spoke to April.
“It seems there’s no one but you who can check further inside.”
Even for someone who had been confined for seven years, April could tell from the current situation that she was being cast as a suspicious figure.
What was certain was that April herself was the healthiest person in this basement.
She, too, felt the nausea rising and felt as though she might collapse at any moment, but she didn’t actually fall.
Seeing that even Fezin had stopped more than ten paces away from her, it was clear he couldn’t approach any closer.
April felt relief preceding the question of why she wasn’t collapsing in this basement.
“You’re right, just as you said, no one can come this far.”
At her words, the detective on the verge of fainting gripped Fezin’s arm and spoke.
“A witch… She’s definitely a witch. Didn’t the doctor say poison was used!? We should set that witch on fire right now…”
The detective couldn’t finish his sentence and lost consciousness. Fezin clicked his tongue and dragged the detective outside.
Most of those sent out of the basement were recovering to some extent. Nevertheless, no one had fully regained their condition.
Fezin looked back at the devastated police force and clicked his tongue again.
Paul ran up to him and reported.
“The doctor says that thanks to getting them into the fresh outdoor air immediately, no officers will have permanent damage to their heart or lungs.”
“That’s a relief.”
A Grand Duchy police officer who overheard the report asked Fezin in surprise.
“Did you guess it was poison?”
Paul was the first to answer with a loud laugh.
“He’s not a doctor, so how would he know? It was just a coincidence.”
Then he waved his hand as if telling the man to go away.
Once no one was within earshot, Paul asked Fezin.
“I think we’ve made enough of a show of investigating. Shall we seal it off again?”
“No.”
Fezin gestured toward the basement with his chin.
“I need to know why April Runos is the only one not collapsing in that basement.”
“Ah, I see.”
Paul nodded in agreement.
He shifted his gaze toward the basement door, following Fezin’s lead, and spoke.
“Now, we can no longer say… that this fog and Miss April Runos are entirely unrelated.”
“If you’re going to put it that way, you should arrest me first.”
“Superintendent-nim.”
“What? Am I wrong?”
Fezin continued with a bitter, mocking smile.
“I’m the one neglecting the fog even though I know its cause.”
