In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 133

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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 133

How can I tell him to leave when he’s acting like that.

I swallowed a sigh inwardly.

And so we looked around the gifts one by one while talking.

Peres would explain the gifts he sent while traveling, and I would occasionally ask about things I was curious about.

“Peres, there really isn’t anywhere you haven’t been, is there?”

“Yeah. I traveled during vacations.”

“So that’s why you didn’t return to the Imperial Capital?”

At my question, Peres hesitated for a moment before answering.

“That was my promise with the Empress. As a condition for going to the Academy, I received money and in return promised not to return to the Imperial Capital until graduation.”

“Ah, I see.”

It takes a fortune to create a trading company.

I wondered where that money came from.

“So I traveled. I saw a lot, learned a lot. I had always been near the Imperial Palace since birth. There was so much I didn’t know.”

Peres spoke with a slightly bitter tone.

Before meeting me, Peres’s world was only that crumbling pavilion and the surrounding forest.

After meeting me, things improved when he moved to Poirak Palace.

But even then, the Imperial Capital and Lombardi were the entirety of Peres’s sphere of activity.

So there must have been a thirst to see, hear, and experience more.

I patted Peres’s shoulder and said.

“Well done. You’re quite something now. To even extort money from the Empress.”

Peres laughed along with me and said.

“I came near Lombardi a few times. But I couldn’t go see Tia. Because it was dangerous.”

“Dangerous… you say?”

“Sometimes I would suddenly be attacked.”

“The Empress tried to kill you.”

Peres nodded.

His face was excessively calm.

“You…!”

I half-shouted in frustration.

“You’ve been like this since you were young! Be afraid, Peres. Fear getting hurt or dying more, and get angry for your own sake.”

I felt upset remembering little Peres, pale and bloodless from poison, telling me not to help him because it was dangerous.

But Peres smiled looking at me like that.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because I’m happy. You’re worrying about me.”

“Peres, this is really serious…”

“I know.”

Peres said in a low voice, but with his smile not disappearing from his face.

“Don’t worry, Tia. I’ll survive. Because you told me back then to live, to survive.”

Those were the words I said in the forest.

To think he still remembered such things.

Along with a surge of emotion, fighting spirit boiled up in me after a long time.

I need to push out the Empress and Astana as soon as possible.

“Peres.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to be quite busy from now on.”

“…Yeah. I heard. That you took charge of the Lombardi Family’s business.”

It seemed the rumors had already spread to Peres too.

“That’s right. And Peres, you’re also quite busy these days.”

“…Me?”

Peres tilted his head.

Ah, right.

The Monak Guild was a secret.

“There’s the Imperial Council where His Majesty the Emperor and the Nobility Council all participate. You have to prepare for that, don’t you.”

“Ah, yeah. That’s right.”

“So from now on, contact me in advance before coming. It would be a waste if we miss each other when you’ve carved out precious time to come.”

“…Yeah, I understand.”

The guy looked a bit dejected and asked.

“Would contacting you about a week in advance be okay?”

“What? A week?”

“If that’s too short… ten days? Would that be okay?”

Peres’s face was quite serious, as if he was asking in earnest.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that innocent look.

I reached up high to pat Peres’s head and said.

“A day or two would be enough. I just meant to contact me in advance before coming.”

“…That’s a relief.”

Peres muttered as if relieved and smiled.

* * *

As he mounted his horse to leave the Lombardi estate, Peres suddenly turned around at the gaze he felt.

Tia was standing at her room window, waving her hand at Peres.

“Goodbye, Tia.”

Even though it couldn’t possibly reach that far, Peres also waved his hand in greeting.

“Let’s go.”

Peres gently stroked the horse’s neck and spurred it on.

Clop, clop.

With the heavy sound of hoofbeats pounding the ground, he was soon running beyond Lombardi city.

Even as the cold wind struck his face, Peres didn’t let up his vigilant gaze of the surroundings.

He knew that situations like now, riding alone on a deserted road, were the best for attacks.

Fortunately, until he reached the Imperial Capital, all he encountered on the road were a few merchant wagons, and no dangerous situations occurred.

But even after entering the Imperial Capital, Peres went around and around for quite a while.

Only after confirming that no one was following him did he drive his horse to a quiet inn.

Peres, who familiarly went up to a room on the second floor, met two people who had been waiting for him.

“Nosier, Lignite.”

Lignite, wearing commoner’s clothes that would blend in anywhere, and a neat-looking middle-aged man greeted Peres.

“How are things going, Nosier?”

Peres asked in a completely different, dry voice from when he was with Pirenthia just before.

“Just as Your Highness predicted, Angenas has made contact. They say they want to purchase Triba wood.”

“As expected, Peres!”

Lignite exclaimed in surprise, but Peres was calm.

“Not only did I graduate from the Academy and return to the Imperial Capital, but I also secured a seat at the Imperial Council, so what the Empress would do in that situation is obvious.”

“But she could have used other methods, couldn’t she?”

At Lignite’s words, Peres shook his head.

“The Empress is someone with as much obsession and pride in her own family as she has in making Astana the Crown Prince. Developing Angenas would have been the best method the Empress could think of. I probably would have made the same choice.”

“Then… what shall we do?”

Nosier asked cautiously.

“We have to sell it.”

Peres’s answer was quick.

“…Will this be alright?”

Nosier was still worried.

He had spent his entire life working for trading companies, only making others wealthy.

And after finally becoming independent and establishing his own trading company past the age of forty, he soon lost everything.

The owner of the large trading company where Nosier had worked had intentionally ruined Nosier’s fledgling business.

It was Peres who helped him when he had lost everything he had saved his entire life and fallen into despair.

Though young enough to be his son, Nosier respected Peres.

So he would follow Peres’s words without question.

But this time, even he felt concerned.

“The Triba wood sold by the Monak Guild will be used to develop Angenas’s land. And Angenas’s influence will grow accordingly.”

“You’re right. Nosier has a point, Peres.”

Lignite agreed from the side.

“If we’re not careful, we might end up fattening Angenas with our own hands.”

However, despite their concerns, Peres remained unwavering.

He simply answered in a dry voice.

“There’s no law saying the Western Region must remain Angenas’s land forever.”

Then he immediately turned and asked Nosier.

“How much can we purchase going forward?”

“If we work diligently, we can buy as much as we’ve accumulated so far before autumn arrives.”

After hearing Nosier’s answer, Peres tapped the armrest of his chair with his finger.

Tap, tap.

After a moment, the steady sound stopped and Peres spoke.

“We’ll start by selling one-tenth of our current stock to Angenas. We’re in no hurry.”

“Then the price will be…”

“Start at five times what they offered. Through negotiation, I’ll allow up to three times, Nosier.”

Five times to three times.

Even experienced Nosier had never engaged in such profiteering bargaining.

But it was Peres’s order.

He had to accomplish it.

“Yes, Lord Peres.”

Nosier answered with a bow.

To such Nosier, Peres said finally.

“Remember this, Nosier. Our purpose in purchasing Triba wood is to extract as much money as possible from Angenas’s pockets. To drain all their funds quickly so they’ll have to seek other investors. That’s the ultimate goal of the Triba wood trade.”

* * *

A carriage from one of the vassal families entered the Lombardi estate.

It was the carriage carrying Romasie Dillard, who was in charge of the Lombardi Guild.

Romasie, who was extremely busy running the trading company, rarely visited the estate except for clan head meetings.

However, today he was rushing over, setting aside all other matters.

The reason was a single letter that had arrived a few days ago.

The sender was Pirenthia Lombardi.

The gist was that she wished to exercise her authority, but wanted to hear the trading company manager’s opinion first, so please come to her home today.

Romasie, who hadn’t even known that Pirenthia had left Gallahan’s house and become independent, doubted his eyes several times.

“Young Lady Pirenthia exercising authority over the Lombardi Guild… Ha.”

He had long known that she was exceptionally intelligent enough to receive the clan head’s undivided love since childhood.

However, being a “smart child” and business were completely different matters.

Nevertheless, the reason Romasie Dillard personally made the trip today was because of the ointment with the red ribbon that remained in a corner of his mind.

The clan head’s unprecedented behavior of constantly bragging “my granddaughter made this,” and his son Cleribane who subsequently stepped forward as Pirenthia’s teacher.

These things made the Lombardi Guild master personally carve out time from his busy schedule to head to Lombardy.

“Isn’t that the Heringga family?”

Romasie Dillard, who had just gotten out of his carriage, muttered as he saw the Heringga family’s carriage that was already parked there.

Surely they didn’t come for the same business as me.

Romasie shook his head, thinking it was a pointless thought.

There would be a scholarship meeting soon, so they probably stopped by to report to the clan head about that.

That’s what he thought.

There was no way Pirenthia, who had just become an adult, would try to move not only the Debon and Dillard families but even the Heringga family all at once for her first business venture.

Romasie thought this as he headed to Pirenthia’s residence where he was guided.

And it was when he raised his hand to knock on the tightly closed door.

“Hahaha!”

A loud, hearty laugh came from inside the closed door.

Though he couldn’t properly make out the content of the conversation, the murmuring voices sounded very harmonious and pleasant.

Romasie stepped back a few paces from the door and waited for the previous guest to come out.

After a moment, the door opened and none other than the Hering Patriarch appeared.

“Oh, the guild master came too?”

The Head of the Heringga Family, with a beaming smile across his face, asked upon seeing Romasie.

“The Heringga family was here too. Well, this is something.”

What a precocious little young lady.

Romasie Dillard thought this as he looked at the Hering Patriarch.

But then.

“Guild master, you should hurry and go in too.”

The Hering Patriarch smiled as if he understood Romasie’s inner thoughts and said.

“It’s been so long since I felt my chest clear up like this, I should walk around the estate a bit more before returning!”

“Your chest clearing up, what do you mean by that?”

“Ah, you’ll understand once you go in!”

Leaving only those words, the Hering Patriarch departed briskly.

“Hmm.”

Unable to dispel his doubts until the very end, Romasie Dillard knocked softly and then opened the door.

“Please come in, Lord Dillard.”

The first to greet him was Pirenthia, who was sitting comfortably in a chair drinking tea.

Though traces of her childhood remained, her brightly smiling face, now fully grown into an adult, overflowed with composure.

And beside her was a figure who made Romasie Dillard tense up considerably.

“It’s been a long time, Lombardi Guild Master.”

Cleribane Pellet, owner of the Pellet Trading Company, which was undoubtedly ranked first in the Empire as an independent trading company not backed by noble family power, was standing behind Pirenthia waiting for him.

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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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