Chapter 71
Jona Tavisi seemed to have no intention of hiding this fact, fanning himself saying it was hot even on this cold day, and continued,
“An amount like this should be manageable with your current funds.”
This influential businessman made no assumption that he wouldn’t be able to collect gas fees from a young lady who knew less about the world than others her age.
Jona Tavisi was certain.
This was a profitable venture.
April, who had heard of Jona Tavisi’s notorious reputation in her childhood, realized that he would try to collect the numbers written on that bill by any means necessary.
She wished she could stop the investigation, but her body wouldn’t move. The Grand Duchy police had completely frozen her.
She remembered when the Grand Duchy police had searched and ransacked the entire mansion while investigating the charges that the Lunos couple had attempted to assassinate Grand Duke Miller Deus.
During that long investigation, the Grand Duchy police had tried to extract from April and the Lunos couple a confession that April Lunos had participated in the assassination plot.
April recalled her parents heading to their execution.
She knew that her parents had faced even greater pressure than she had experienced, though she had tried hard to forget it. She had struggled to look away.
Those memories now came flooding back all at once, brought by the Grand Duchy police who had appeared to trample the Lunos mansion once again.
The police officers were all wearing masks, knowing that the Investigation Headquarters police and Schaefer Meyer’s group had collapsed in the second basement.
While the police went down to check the gas lines, April heard them talking.
“What about the Imperial police investigation?”
“They’re not saying anything even though we’re in their investigation area. Must mean they approved it too.”
April had to focus all her energy just to remain standing as strength drained from her entire body.
At that moment, Hannah and Fred ran to her, terrified.
“Miss!”
“I’m scared…”
Seeing the two children burst into tears, April clenched her teeth.
Seeing these children made her realize she needed to pull herself together.
Seeing Hannah and Fred, who were her responsibility even though they weren’t her own children, made her think this way.
April recalled the faces of the Lunos couple who had struggled desperately to protect her.
“It’s alright.”
April comforted the children.
“It will be alright.”
Without any certainty, she spoke these words to the children. Even if it was temporary comfort, she thought this consolation was her role as an adult.
❖ ❖ ❖
The Grand Duchy police created quite a commotion in the Lunos mansion.
Baumann grabbed a surveying pole and brandished it at the police.
“What more could you possibly do now with an investigation that’s already finished, making such a mess!”
“Y-you can’t brandish weapons at the police like this!”
The police initially fled in panic from the sudden pole-wielding.
However, once they had gotten some distance from the Lunos household members, they immediately prepared to draw their weapons as a threat.
April, recognizing their intention to draw guns at any moment, grabbed the agitated Baumann.
“Mr. Baumann.”
“Miss, those bastards, I’ll… I’ll…”
Though Baumann wanted to knock down the police officers right then, he couldn’t continue speaking when he saw April’s face. The person who should be most anxious wore the calmest expression.
She spoke firmly.
“I won’t let them take it, our assets.”
“Miss…”
“They won’t take them.”
Though she wasn’t unaware that she had no other options, words themselves had power just in their utterance.
April’s voice, strong with the need to make others believe in her, affected Baumann’s heart as well. For a moment, the young April seemed like an adult to him.
Baumann gradually suppressed his rising temper.
“You’re right, Miss. We don’t have a single coin to give to such swindlers.”
“Of course not.”
Once Baumann calmed down, the police resumed their investigation of the Lunos mansion.
April watched people going in and out of the basement, then spoke again to Baumann.
“For the past seven years, I tried not to think about my parents. But planning the funeral forced me to remember them.”
“I see.”
As Baumann just agreed, unsure where April was going with this, she continued.
“I’m starting to remember things they told me. One was to look at the right side of the island, not the left.”
“The right side?”
“Yes, don’t rely on Lasa, but go to sea.”
“Ah! As expected of a trading family. And the second?”
“The second was about pirates…”
April recalled her father’s words as he comforted her the day she returned from pouring wine on Heidi at church.
“April, how do you think we managed to get our trading ships through those seas full of pirates?”
April had pressed her lips together and shaken her head at her father’s question.
Then her father continued:
“Because they were our neighbors. The neighboring pirates protected ships returning with gold.”
“…”
“Don’t you think I wanted to deny it too? But that’s how it was.”
“Even if neighbors help like that, isn’t it obvious they’ll steal again if they see something they like? They’re thieves to begin with.”
“Yes, we had to calculate including money lost that way.”
Her father had shrugged then, smiling.
“Containment costs enormous money, but the profits from trust are large. Large enough to risk it.”
April closed her eyes.
Would the Lunos ancestors have trusted such thieves as these neighbors?
She wanted to ask that, but there were no parents left in the world to answer such questions.
April watched as police tracked mud through her entrance hall, not bothering to clean their shoes.
She recalled what the Grand Duchy police had just said.
They said the Imperial police were turning a blind eye to allow the Grand Duchy police to act this way.
Those Imperial police moved solely under Fejin Deus’s orders. So this investigation was possible only with Fejin’s tacit permission.
Therefore, in April’s thinking, there were only two possible reasons why the Grand Duchy police were moving for this gas supplier’s private interests with Fejin turning a blind eye:
Either there was direct Imperial intervention, or it was a direct order from Grand Duke Miller Deus.
April thought she would need to act differently depending on which authority had given the order, but for now there was no way to know which it was.
If it was the latter—Miller’s order—she could actually feel more at ease.
While Miller could move the Grand Duchy police, he couldn’t make them reach conclusions that negated investigations already completed by Imperial police.
But if it was the former, that was different.
If there was direct Imperial influence, even negating the Imperial police investigation would be possible.
The problem was that April saw the former as more likely. Because no Imperial police were visible in the territory.
Making way to this extent for the Grand Duchy police they had such poor relations with would be difficult with Miller’s power alone.
Having reached this conclusion, April was convinced the Imperial police investigation would be overturned, and handed Baumann a key.
“Mr. Baumann, it seems the investigation results will be overturned.”
“What?”
“They’ll conclude that we’ve been lighting the lamps using Jona Tavisi’s gas all this time. Then the police will arrest me, since I won’t pay.”
Baumann nodded as he listened carefully to April’s words, amazed at how she could judge the situation so calmly.
April continued.
“If I end up in prison for a long time, or if all my assets are frozen, please sell all the jewels in the jewelry box in my vanity. That should be enough for you to buy a small house and for Hannah and Fred to attend school until graduation. University… well, they’ll have to earn that themselves.”
“M-Miss!”
“If we hand over our assets to the gas supplier, there will be no way for the Lunos family to recover.”
April squeezed Baumann’s hand holding the key once, firmly.
With that grip, she conveyed her resolve.
“There is no safe path for me in this situation. All I can do is gamble.”
