In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 122

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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This Life, I Will Become the Clan Head Episode 122

Perhaps happy to see me after such a long time, a smile lingered at the corners of Peres’s lips.

His body had grown so much that I had to look completely up at him, his face had become more defined, and his voice had become completely different, much deeper.

Many things were different, but it was definitely Peres.

“Who are you?”

I could see Peres becoming flustered at my coldly spat words.

Regardless of his reaction.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong person.”

But I turned around sharply and said.

“Tia.”

The guy with a bewildered face gently grabbed my shoulder.

“It’s me, Peres.”

“Peres? Now that you mention it, I think I might have known someone like that.”

The red eyes looking at me were trembling finely.

He really seemed to think I had forgotten him.

I glared at Peres with all my might and said.

“Ah, that Peres who didn’t show his face once for almost 6 years and only sent letters?”

“That’s…”

“Or are you talking about that Peres who graduated early from the Academy in 5 years but then went completely silent for half a year?”

Now seeming to understand the meaning of my words, Peres slightly lowered his head and said in a low voice.

“…Sorry.”

You should be sorry.

Hearing an apology directly from him made anger surge up from within me.

I struck Peres’s shoulder with all my strength using the bag I was holding.

“Bad guy.”

Just like in the previous life, Peres had graduated early in 5 years as valedictorian in both civil and military studies, shortening it by a year.

He could easily block me hitting his arm even with his eyes closed.

But Peres just stood there quietly.

“I can understand not being able to come back during vacation because the Academy was busy. But how are you going to explain having no contact for the past few months, not knowing if you were dead or alive?”

“Well… For the six months after graduation, I was traveling around here and there, so I couldn’t exchange letters.”

I already knew that he had gone off traveling with friends right after graduation.

I had found out through Beit as soon as Peres’s contact was cut off.

And I wasn’t really worried.

Peres was already drawing blue aura at twelve years old.

How many dangerous situations could there be for such a guy traveling the continent not alone, but with friends he met at the Academy?

However.

“You could have sent at least one letter to Lombardy saying ‘I’m alive and well’ from anywhere! Couldn’t someone smart enough to graduate as valedictorian from the Academy think of that much?”

It’s strangely infuriating.

But Peres’s face looked strange as he watched me getting angry.

It seemed like he was both smiling and frowning.

After staring at me like that for a while, he asked in a hopeful voice.

“…Were you worried about me, Tia?”

This guy, really.

“Of course I was! It was like a friend suddenly going missing…!”

Suddenly.

“…I’m happy.”

Before I knew it, I was in Peres’s embrace.

Something similar had happened when I went with Grandfather to rescue him from the pavilion.

But Peres was incomparably bigger than back then.

So much that my entire body was completely trapped in his embrace.

I blinked a few times in surprise and called out to Peres.

“Peres.”

“Yeah?”

“Let me go.”

Then Peres obediently lowered the arms that had been holding me.

The sound of fabric brushing against fabric rang clearly in my ears.

Looking up, Peres was smiling.

It wasn’t the faint smile he had been wearing until just before.

His eyes, with long black eyelashes, were slightly curved.

“Ugh.”

How unfair.

Trying to bewitch me with his looks.

I pushed Peres’s body away while narrowing my eyes.

“I’m not done being angry yet.”

“Yeah, I was wrong.”

He nodded and readily admitted it.

Though he’s always been quick to apologize.

I suddenly felt Peres’s gaze looking down at me and muttered.

“You really did grow incredibly tall.”

It was just like the appearance I had seen from afar before my regression.

No, he looked even more handsome because his complexion was brighter than back then.

And his eyes were a little different too.

Back then, he had very dry and cold eyes that looked down on the crowd that had gathered to see him.

“Tia has grown a lot too.”

The Peres in front of me now was full of life.

He even seemed happy somewhere.

Like.

“A big dog.”

A big black dog slowly wagging its large tail.

The expression sounds a bit strange, but his size has already surpassed the level where he could be called a puppy.

“Dog?”

“No, it’s nothing. But Peres, why do you look like this? Didn’t you come from the Imperial Palace?”

There’s no way Kaitlin and Kaileus would let Peres go out in this state.

His disheveled hair, and his clothes were all wrinkled like someone who had just gotten off a horse…

“Don’t tell me you came to see me without even going to the Imperial Palace?!”

“Yeah.”

Yeah, he says.

When did he go silent for months without contact, and now he comes to see me first without even returning to the Imperial Palace.

I brushed and straightened my clothes that had gotten slightly disheveled from being hugged by Peres and said.

“Go back to the Imperial Palace right now.”

“…Alright.”

I could feel Peres getting slightly dejected at my words.

But I spoke even more firmly.

“Go and properly show everyone that you’ve returned. That Second Prince Peres, who graduated as valedictorian in both civil and military studies for the first time in 5 years, has returned.”

“Ah…”

Peres seemed to understand my meaning and answered with a gentle smile on his lips.

“Yeah, I will.”

I waved my hand lightly at Peres like that, then started walking toward the manor.

Then I remembered something I had forgotten and turned around.

The guy was still standing there in that spot, watching my retreating figure.

“Don’t be late tomorrow.”

There was no way Peres, who had been traveling, would have returned today without reason.

I had a feeling it was to attend my eighteenth birthday banquet.

Sure enough, Peres smiled again with his eyes crinkling gently.

“Yeah. I’ll see you at the banquet tomorrow, Tia.”

I waved at him again and turned around, but my wrist throbbed slightly.

It was the part that had hit his arm when I swung my bag at Peres earlier.

“It’s not like I hit a rock or anything.”

I’d never actually hit a rock, but if I had, it would probably feel like this.

I rubbed my stinging wrist lightly and hurried on my way again.

* * *

Lignite, the second son of the Ruman family head who ruled the Eastern Region, doubted his own eyes.

“Am I seeing things in broad daylight?”

He muttered this while rubbing his eyes, but the scene visible from the distant street remained unchanged.

“Peres is… smiling?”

Though he was a prince of the Great Lambru Empire, they had become friends from the first day at the Academy and were close enough to call each other by name in private.

Many people followed Peres, but Lignite was the only one who could call him by his name directly.

However, even Lignite had never seen Peres smile before.

Until today.

Though spring had come, he had ridden frantically through the Northern Region’s fierce, bone-cutting winds to arrive at Lombardy this morning.

He was told they had to reach the Imperial Capital by today no matter what, so he thought something had happened at the Imperial Palace.

But Peres had led his horse to an unexpected place.

No matter how much he asked where they were going, Peres insisted he would “go alone if it was too difficult,” and Lignite couldn’t really let him go alone, so he reluctantly followed.

And the place they arrived at was none other than Lombardy.

“That kid knew how to smile?”

Really, Lignite had thought Peres was seriously broken somewhere.

He had long suspected whether the parts that controlled emotions and expressions were functioning properly.

But there was Peres, smiling after meeting some woman.

With eyes that looked like honey would drip from them.

“Huh?”

Lignite shot up from where he was sitting.

Because Peres had suddenly embraced that woman.

“This… even if I told other people, no one would believe it.”

He’d be lucky if they didn’t kick him for telling lies.

Then something flashed through his mind.

“Could it be…?”

Lignite narrowed his eyes and bounced his leg anxiously.

Peres, who had remained where the woman left first, only returned to where Lignite was waiting after her figure was no longer visible.

“Let’s head to the Imperial Capital now.”

Peres approached with large strides, his cloak fluttering, and had already returned to his usual expressionless face.

“Peres.”

“What?”

Peres, who was checking whether his horse’s saddle had come loose, answered carelessly to Lignite’s call.

“That woman, she’s the one from the letters, right?”

Thud.

Peres’s movement stopped as he was tying knots tightly with his blue-veined hands.

As expected.

Lignite grinned.

“She’s the one you’ve been writing those letters to so carefully every time without showing them to anyone, right?”

There had been various theories among his colleagues about the recipient of the letters.

It’s the head maid who came once a year with things Peres needed.

No, seeing how thick he writes them like reports every time, he must be reporting his Academy achievements to His Majesty the Emperor.

There were all sorts of speculation.

But what drew the biggest laughter was something Lignite had said once.

“Could it be that Peres has someone he’s madly in love with?”

Everyone who heard that theory laughed until their stomachs hurt, saying it was ridiculous.

The idea of Peres liking someone was that unimaginable.

But.

“I was right after all!”

Lignite clenched his fist and shouted.

Then he said teasingly to Peres.

“You have a lot of unexpected sides, don’t you? You look like you’d only like bloody rare steaks, but you always make sure to eat sweet things.”

Peres’s love for sweet foods was famous at the Academy.

When asked, he would say he didn’t particularly like sweet things, but he would seek out something sweet once a day without fail.

And when he had those in his mouth, Peres’s face, which was always rigid enough to make a cracking sound, would soften gently.

“Lignite.”

“What?”

“You’re noisy.”

“Tch.”

Peres mounted his horse first.

Lignite also mounted his horse and asked.

“Are we going to the Imperial Palace now?”

“No, there’s one more place I need to stop by first.”

With those words, Peres began riding his horse again.

The place where the two men stopped their horses again was the necropolis on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

The place where nobles were mainly buried looked like a well-maintained park.

Peres tied his horse’s reins at the cemetery entrance and took out a small bouquet he had been carrying in his saddle bag for the past few days.

The flowers were slightly wilted, but Peres held them in one hand and headed deep into the cemetery.

Even the chatty Lignite kept his mouth firmly shut and followed behind in this place.

Eventually, Peres stood before a well-decorated grave with marble and sculptures and carefully laid down the bouquet.

“I have come.”

Peres said this while stroking the tombstone engraved with a short epitaph with his hand.

[Ponta Impigra, the proud servant of the Imperial Court. Here she rests in peace.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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