The Mansion Awaits Spring
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Even after that, April remained entrenched inside the basement, refusing to come out, and the police eventually decided to retreat from the Runos estate.
That night, every gas lamp in the grand mansion was lit once again.
Since even the stakes that had partially obstructed the view were gone, the light emanating from the manor felt like a massive forest fire raging in the pitch-black night.
The radiance was enough to unsettle every citizen of the Grand Duchy living near the estate.
The following day, newspapers reporting on the incident were delivered across the Right Island.
[Police Investigating Runos Estate Collapse En Masse….]
There were even gossip rags carrying erroneous reports.
[One Officer Missing During Investigation.]
[The Curse of the Runos Couple ‘Executes’ Trespasser at the Mansion.]
The sensationalist, intentional errors sold far more rapidly than the accurate articles.
From 11:00 AM, the Grand Ducal residence was crowded with guests hurrying out of their carriages clutching newspapers. Every single one of them was dying to chatter about the headlines.
Heidi Dieus, the Grand Duchess who did not particularly enjoy gossip, already felt a headache coming on.
As she sat on the bed, her husband and the leader of the Grand Duchy, Miller Dieus, was pacing around the room with his hands behind his back, completely discarding his dignity.
“What if she really is a witch?”
“If she were, she would have killed me first.”
Miller sighed at Heidi’s sharp retort.
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about.”
Miller blamed himself for ending her sentence with mere house arrest.
He should have killed April Runos as well and erased the Runos family from the world entirely.
In the end, she had survived, and even if it was only for today, April had become an object of greater fear to the citizens than the Grand Duke himself.
As Heidi prepared to leave the bedroom, Miller blocked the door and spoke.
“Pezin will be here soon. Let’s hear his report before we go out.”
“I’m going out first.”
“You should at least know what to say before you face them.”
“I don’t want to see Pezin,” Heidi said with an uncomfortable expression.
Belatedly, Miller covered his forehead with his hand.
Pezin, who had visited the Grand Ducal residence for the first time in a while, had displayed a peculiar attitude. Even if emotions from over seven years ago shouldn’t have much left in them, those stale feelings clearly made the couple uneasy.
Miller spoke.
“It can’t be helped. Then you go out first. Once you’re out there…”
“I’ll tell them I know nothing.”
“We’re still perfectly in sync.”
He replied with a faint smile, kissed Heidi’s forehead, and opened the door for her.
Not long after Heidi left, Pezin arrived at the drawing room connected to the bedroom.
He yawned and sat opposite Miller with his legs crossed.
“Every guest in the residence looks like they have a lot they want to catch me and ask about.”
“They’re naturally curious. Since you’ve been so uncooperative, I’m even postponing your welcome party.”
“What would a policeman do at a party?”
“Tell interesting stories, I assume?”
“Since I have none, that’s all the more reason not to attend.”
Pezin replied uncooperatively, just as Miller had said, and picked up a biscuit from the table to put on his plate.
It was two biscuits with butter spread between them, dusted with a shower of sugar.
Pezin took a large bite of the biscuit. He remained uncooperative regarding Miller’s curiosity about what had happened at the Runos estate. In the end, there wasn’t much information Miller could get out of his younger brother.
The vegetation of the Grand Duchy was not particularly lush. Because the land was so cold, the season for flowers was extremely short, while the rest of the year was covered in snow.
Perhaps because flowers were so rare, the obsession the people of the Grand Duchy had with them was truly remarkable.
On the Left Island, located much further south than the Right Island, various flowers grew, and ships carrying them traveled back and forth between the two every day.
The flowers arriving by ship daily mostly allowed noble households, including the Grand Ducal residence, to feel spring and summer for a brief moment.
Then, as soon as the flowers showed signs of wilting in those mansions, they were put back on the market for commoners to buy and decorate their homes. To that extent, flowers were a precious import in the Grand Duchy.
In the gardens of the Grand Ducal residence, flower baskets were also beautifully displayed.
Heidi, who was soothing those anxious over the rumors of the witch, thought of her husband’s brother and only family, Pezin Dieus.
Heidi was glad to see Pezin, yet she did not want to face him.
Even his brother Miller did not truly know what Pezin wanted.
Miller’s feelings mirrored Heidi’s; he was happy Pezin had returned, but at the same time, he was wary of him to some degree. It was a sentiment born from the fact that his brother was no longer the young child who had left this island years ago.
Until he figured out what Pezin wanted, he couldn’t welcome his brother’s homecoming with all his heart.
Until now, most police officials in the Grand Duchy had been military officers from the Empire.
As a native of the Grand Duchy, Pezin was the first of his generation to graduate from the Imperial Military Academy and be appointed as an official in the Imperial Police.
It was highly likely that Pezin’s ultimate goal in seizing such an opportunity was to reach the highest position as a policeman of the Empire.
If that were the case, it wouldn’t be a major problem. He would simply return to the Empire after resolving the April issue. Miller thought that would be a positive outcome for the Grand Duchy as well.
The problem lay in the possibility that Pezin wanted something else.
For example, love. Or perhaps restructuring the Grand Duchy’s police system—even the prosperity of his hometown was something Miller felt the need to guard against.
“Superintendent Pezin was quite lovely when he was a child.”
Heidi looked toward the person who had brought up Pezin’s name, her face wearing its usual faint smile.
It was a woman from the Soar family, the aunt of Paul Soar from the Special Investigation Headquarters.
Since Paul Soar was Pezin’s right hand, any story told at this table would surely find its way to Pezin’s ears now that the subject had been broached.
Paul Soar’s aunt continued while looking at Heidi’s face.
“Isn’t that right, Your Grace? He used to always try so hard to get Your Grace’s attention.”
“He was at an age where he needed motherly affection,” Heidi said, cutting her off gently.
Since the Soar woman had hinted at romantic affection, the Grand Duchess defined it as maternal.
However, the sight of Pezin entering the residence at that very moment undermined the Grand Duchess’s efforts.
Born as the second son of the Grand Ducal family and having lost his parents at a young age, he wore a rebellious expression as if nothing in the world pleased him.
Yet, his uniform and gait did not stray an inch from formality, befitting a man who had spent his adolescence under strict discipline.
The chaos of the compensatory freedom given by sympathetic adults for losing his parents young, combined with the regulations of a military academy that allowed not even a shred of autonomy, had created Pezin Dieus.
“My goodness, how beautiful…”
An elderly lady who had muttered unconsciously quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
Even from a distance, Pezin still possessed the doll-like face of his childhood.
His smooth, pale skin and long eyelashes played the greatest role in sculpting his beautiful features.
As he himself had realized early on, he possessed an exquisite appearance.
With that face, born into the most powerful family in the Grand Duchy but burdened with no obligations, it seemed there was nothing in the world Pezin could not obtain. Except, perhaps, for his parents and his first love.
