Chapter 72
Baumann gripped the key tightly with trembling hands.
“Yes, Miss. Leave it to me.”
Baumann, who had repaired the mansion after its damage, knew better than anyone how the servants had stolen everything useful before the Lunos mansion was closed.
Yet she had unhesitatingly entrusted him with the key to her jewelry box.
Baumann decided to prove worthy of the trust she showed him.
He tucked the key deep into his inner pocket.
Just then, one of the Grand Duchy police officers emerged from the basement, removing his mask.
“We found a connected gas line!”
It was a lie.
Baumann, who had barely contained his anger thanks to April’s calmness, burst out,
“That’s nonsense!”
While Baumann glared with fierce eyes in outrage, April descended the stairs. She could see that a gas line had been connected in the meantime.
Though they had found an old gas line from somewhere, the soldering that joined it gleamed silver without a speck of dust.
Jona Tavisi said with a brightening face,
“Look at this. There is a gas line, isn’t there!”
April knew that in the current situation, even if she presented the fresh soldering as evidence, no one would take her side. She could only hope the Imperial police would gain the power to investigate again.
April turned to Jona Tavisi and said,
“I trust the Imperial police investigation. The Grand Duchy police always move where the money is, after all.”
“No, Miss Lunos. How can you say such things in front of the Grand Duchy police… Even if you don’t want to pay…”
“I can’t pay. That bill isn’t even reasonable to begin with. I might look at it if you rewrote it with the bank clerk’s involvement.”
At April’s firm words, Jona Tavisi merely chuckled. It was a laugh born of certainty that she had no way to resist.
“If you don’t pay immediately, the Grand Duchy police will have to arrest Miss Lunos.”
“So it seems.”
April responded with a cold expression.
The Grand Duchy police, whose aim had been arrest from the start, arrested April Lunos on the spot and left the territory having successfully accomplished their goal.
Having succeeded in getting her arrested, Jona Tavisi said with a satisfied expression to Baumann, who was glaring at him,
“I’ll come back later for the gas payment. You should know that delays will only add more inter—”
Before Jona Tavisi could finish speaking, Baumann grabbed the pole he had leaned against the wall.
“I held back today for our young miss’s sake, but let’s see if your neck is still attached next time you set foot here.”
“Wh-what frightening words… I-I’ll be going then!”
Intimidated by his imposing physique, Jona Tavisi hurriedly got into his waiting car and left the mansion.
Only after everyone had left did Baumann call Hannah and Fred, who were frightened in their room.
“What are you doing? Get your books out and study. You’ll be going to school as soon as the weather improves.”
“Grandfather, what about Miss…”
“She’ll be back soon.”
Baumann continued with a sterner expression than usual.
“Until Miss returns, your only job is to study. Come on, open your books.”
Though the children’s eyes welled with tears, they began studying, suppressing their worry for April at seeing the hard expression on Baumann’s usually warm face.
After sending the children inside, Baumann let out a trembling sigh.
He prayed only for the safe return of this mansion’s master.
“In all my long years, I’ve never seen a better lord.”
Baumann clasped his hands in prayer.
“Please protect our Miss…”
❖ ❖ ❖
As the Grand Duchy police’s black carriage drove through the territory, April watched intently out the window.
She wanted to know exactly where she was being taken.
As expected, the carriage dropped her at a detention center she had never seen before.
Meanwhile, Right Island gossip columnists wrote articles about her, took photographs, and drew editorial cartoons.
Around 2 AM, as she spent the night in an all-too-familiar solitary cell, she was suddenly led somewhere by police officers who appeared.
In the pitch-black night.
Even April, who had firmly resolved to survive and return no matter what situation arose, couldn’t bear the fear that overwhelmed her in this situation.
Though her eyes were covered, at some point she noticed the smell of the sea.
As she wondered whether to scream and if anyone would hear, April unconsciously recalled a familiar face.
When Fejin’s image appeared in the darkness, April immediately shook her head.
Wasn’t it always known that Imperial police had to follow Imperial orders?
It was ridiculous to be disappointed now about the fact that he was turning a blind eye to this arrest.
At some point she found herself in a ship’s cabin, and heard the sound of a door being locked from outside.
April removed the blindfold the police had put on her and froze, letting out a trembling sigh.
There was another female sailor in the cabin besides herself.
Her hair, exposed to seawater and apparently long untended, was rough as rope, and appropriately twisted up to match her appearance.
Her build was as large as the Imperial police officers April had seen. She was undoubtedly someone with Right Island pirate blood.
April stood against the door warily, but thinking she couldn’t keep moving like this, she eventually spoke to the sailor who had been eating.
“Are you also under arrest? The door was locked so you can’t leave.”
The sailor pointed with her thumb to the window behind her and said,
“I can leave through there.”
“Through the window?”
“There’s always a way.”
The sailor was eating salt cod. She was devouring what looked excessively salty without any side dishes.
April had been thinking of this place as a crossroads of survival. So while maintaining intense tension, when she encountered someone engaged in purely survival-focused behavior, strangely, that wariness loosened somewhat.
Sitting as far as possible from the particularly gruff sailor in the narrow cabin, April introduced herself.
“I’m April. April Lunos.”
She thought if she were to be thrown into the sea without anyone knowing who she was, it would be better to have as many people as possible know she had been here.
The sailor, munching on fish, replied to April’s words.
“Irsa Joyce.”
“You seem to have been at sea a long time.”
“Born on a ship. Raised on a ship.”
April opened up a bit more to Irsa, who answered more readily than expected. In this situation with no one to rely on, having someone to talk to was quite a comfort.
Among Right Island people, those like Irsa who had inherited pure pirate blood boasted tremendous physique and strength.
Her appetite matched her build, as she finished off all the salt cod in one barrel and downed the beer in another barrel of the same size in one go.
Looking at Irsa, who seemed neither quite a pirate nor quite an ordinary sailor, April recalled the trading ship crew members she had seen in her childhood. They had been just like Irsa.
Rough, big, and good eaters.
The Lunos family’s captain, who had died of illness just as the family was being arrested, had said that nothing was as tricky as handling Right Island sailors except the sea itself.
They lived in a semi-lawless zone.
April tilted her head slightly as she watched Irsa and found herself smiling unconsciously. At that smile, Irsa leisurely got up.
“What’s so funny?”
