In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 15

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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 15

The four siblings of the Lombardi Family gathered in the Head Family’s Office.

Rain or shine, sitting together like this on the third day of every week was a long-standing tradition they had maintained since they were teenagers.

Gallahan, who had been busy lately with the Coroi Textile Business, said he would hurry, but unintentionally ended up being late for the meeting time that Rulak had set in advance.

Breaking into a sweat and rushing to open the office door, three people who resembled his face yet were different all turned to look at him simultaneously.

“You’re late, Gallahan.”

Biejie scolded him without hiding his displeased expression.

“I’m sorry, brother. Father is…”

Gallahan asked, looking at the still empty head’s chair.

“His meeting with the Lombardi Bank representative hasn’t finished yet.”

“Ah, I see.”

Rulak was someone who considered not being late for appointments very important.

If the meeting had already started, regardless of age, he would have been scolded loudly like a child.

Gallahan wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and let out a small sigh.

“Lucky bastard.”

Biejie sneered at the sight.

“Haha. It’s been a while, sister.”

Gallahan laughed off Biejie’s spite with familiarity and greeted Shannet, who was quietly drinking tea on one side.

Shannet, the eldest of the four siblings and quite a bit older than Gallahan, was a woman of few words.

“…Yes, Father will be here soon, so sit down and rest a bit.”

Shannet, elegant with a long neck like a swan, spoke in a quiet voice.

After saying just that, she sipped her teacup again and gazed at the distant scenery outside the window.

Gallahan thought such a sister was truly beautiful as he sat in the empty chair.

“We can’t see your face at all these days? What’s keeping you so busy?”

Lorels, sitting next to Biejie, kicked Gallahan’s foot lightly and asked.

Lorels, the third of the four siblings, had the smallest age gap with Gallahan, but their personalities were so opposite you’d believe they were strangers.

Lorels, who disliked complicated things and was simple, found Gallahan frustrating, and Gallahan found such a Lorels very uncomfortable.

“Lately I’ve been doing some work that Father assigned me. Well, even calling it work, it’s just going and giving a word or two of advice.”

Gallahan spoke modestly.

If it really was just adding a word or two, he wouldn’t have been running around so busy that he couldn’t even see his daughter’s face these days.

But Gallahan glanced at Biejie.

It was because he had somehow ended up taking over a business proposal that Biejie had been trying to proceed with.

Sure enough.

Biejie’s face, who was sitting with arms crossed looking straight ahead, twitched.

But the oblivious Lorels didn’t notice that discomfort at all and continued speaking in a joking tone.

“Ah! I heard about that. You completely stole brother’s business proposal…”

Bang!

Finally, Biejie’s anger exploded.

Standing up abruptly and slamming the head’s desk hard with his hand, Biejie glared at Lorels with fierce eyes.

“Are you making fun of me right now?”

“No, no, that’s not it. There’s no way I would do that, brother!”

Startled, Lorels expressed his injustice with his whole body.

Sometimes, rather than brothers, Lorels feared Biejie to the extent that they looked like a superior and subordinate relationship.

“And you, Gallahan. You seem quite arrogant now that you’ve been given one big task. It’s a stroke of luck that will never happen again, so enjoy it to your heart’s content now. Got it?”

Gallahan felt just as wronged.

He had never even thought about wanting to take on a business that both Lombardy and Angenas were pursuing simultaneously.

He had just gone for a walk with his daughter and things had taken an unexpected turn to lead to this.

For someone like him who was a leisurely person wanting to live reading favorite books in warm sunlight and spending time with Pirenthia, such heavy and suffocating responsibility was poison.

“I’m sorry, brother. But I didn’t intend for this either.”

“What did you say?”

“Even now, if you want to take over this work again, brother…”

“You bastard!”

Although Biejie had reached his mid-thirties, the habit of easily raising his hand from childhood hadn’t been corrected.

It was the moment when a fight was about to break out between brothers who were grown up and even had children.

Clink.

Shannet made a small sound as she set down her teacup.

“Stop.”

With just one word, Biejie’s movement came to a halt.

“You’re acting like a foal that got spanked on the rear, Biejie.”

Despite the words being mixed with a tired sigh, Biejie’s shoulders flinched.

And it was the same for Lorels and Gallahan.

Shannet always had a quiet and calm personality, but once she got angry, she was so scary that no one could stop her.

Biejie, who had seemed ready to slam Gallahan to the ground, was still fuming but plopped down in his seat.

“Thank you, sister.”

Gallahan spoke in a small voice, worried he might provoke Biejie’s anger again.

“Nothing to thank me for. I just didn’t like the noise.”

Shannet’s calm but cold gaze touched Biejie and then looked at Gallahan.

“Squirrel-like fellow.”

“…Pardon?”

“I felt it when I first saw you being held in mother’s arms, but you’re really like a squirrel, Gallahan.”

Though it could sound like a compliment at first glance, Shannet’s cold expression said otherwise.

“Getting startled at the smallest things and scurrying up a tree to run away. Hiding only in your tiny burrow and never once trying to fight.”

“Sister…”

“The only thing you show interest in is collecting books, chasing around here and there like a squirrel. Isn’t that right?”

A faint sneer had appeared on Shannet’s beautiful lips.

“I hear your daughter is quite clever.”

Gallahan, who had been making a bitter expression, looked at Shannet in surprise at the mention of Pirenthia.

“Since a lion can’t come from a squirrel father, perhaps I shouldn’t have expectations.”

Though she muttered as if talking to herself, each word stuck like painful thorns.

“It’s pitiful. I wonder if you, being like a squirrel, might ruin that child.”

Shannet sipped her tea again.

“What do you think, Gallahan.”

“…”

Gallahan couldn’t say anything.

He just bit his lower lip and fell deep in thought.

Shannet glanced at such a Gallahan and turned her gaze to the window.

In the unusually high sky today, a pair of birds were flying freely as if swimming.

Shannet’s quiet gaze wouldn’t leave those birds.

* * *

“Your Majesty the Empress, Croiton Angenas has arrived.”

“Tell him to come in.”

Lavinia, Empress of the Lambru Empire, spoke while cutting the stem of a flower she had just picked up with sharp scissors.

Shortly after, Croyton, her close associate and the one responsible for the Durak Guild, entered with careful steps.

The Empress greeted him without taking her eyes off the freshly bloomed roses.

“Your Majesty the Empress, I have arrived.”

Croyton took off his hat and held it to his chest, acting quite familiarly.

“What I was waiting for wasn’t you, but good news about the guild. Don’t you know that, Croyton?”

“Ah, no. How could I have come empty-handed, Your Majesty.”

Though a bead of sweat ran down his back at the Empress’s sharp words, Croyton managed not to show it and spoke with a smiling face.

“Please read this.”

What Croyton handed over with both hands was a kind of brief progress report.

The Empress’s white hands, having removed her flower arranging gloves, received it.

Reading that the Empress’s complexion wasn’t bad as she quickly read through the report, Croyton smiled with relief.

“As written, the Koroi textiles will be ready for sale next week. We plan to start sales centered around the Sedacuna shopping district where noble family clothing stores are concentrated…”

“How did you resolve the textile supply problem, Croyton?”

Croyton still couldn’t forget the Empress’s ice-cold glare when he had visited the Empress’ Quarters last time to report problems with procuring fabric from the eastern regions.

After what felt like an eternity, what the Empress had instructed was to seek help from the Lombardi Family.

Remembering that moment made him sweat, so Croyton finally pulled out a handkerchief from his chest.

It was a handkerchief made by embroidering on Koroi fabric.

“As you commanded, we received support from Lombardy. Fortunately, Gallahan Lombardi is knowledgeable about textiles and fashion…”

“Gallahan?”

The Empress, who had been putting her flower arranging gloves back on, looked at Croyton for the first time.

“Not Biejie?”

What mistake have I made now?

Frightened, Croyton hunched his shoulders.

“Y-yes. Originally we were going to proceed with Biejie, but that… he, he didn’t know much about it…”

“Gallahan – you mean the clan head’s youngest son?”

The Empress raised one eyebrow as she recalled the name Gallahan, located in a corner of the Lombardi family tree.

“Yes! He’s extremely learned! Honestly, in terms of intelligence alone, he’s incomparable to Biejie. Moreover, when Biejie dropped out, someone called Cleribane, who is close to the clan head, actively cooperated, making the work much smoother…”

“Do I need to know such trivial details, Croyton?”

The Empress’s voice carried a hint of irritation as she cut him off mid-sentence.

“N-no! Of course, please leave such matters to me, Your Majesty.”

Croyton quickly bowed his head, and the Empress picked up the next flower.

“Not Biejie, but Gallahan… How quite interesting.”

The Empress smiled mysteriously as she thought of Rulak’s inscrutable face.

While it was law for the eldest son to inherit the family, it was a law no one followed.

In the imperial family as well as the fairly large noble houses, bloody wars invariably broke out over succession structures.

Lavinia found this very displeasing.

Snip.

With a somehow chilling sound, the petals of the rose Lavinia was holding were cut in half and scattered one by one.

It was because she was reminded of that lowly creature with red eyes just like this red rose, making the flower disgusting to look at.

The Empress, having set down her flower arranging scissors on the table, asked Croyton.

“Does Gallahan have children?”

“Yes, he has one daughter named Pirenthia. Gallahan once mentioned she’ll be turning eight soon.”

“A daughter. I see. Eight years old isn’t bad.”

“I-is that so?”

Unable to fathom the Empress’s thoughts, Croyton simply kept his words to a minimum.

“Today Astana happened to go to Lombardy to meet Biejie’s son. I should ask when he returns.”

Thinking of her beloved son, the Empress spoke with a face blooming like a flower.

“Whether he might need a female friend, that is.”

Her smiling lips were redder than even the mangled rose.

* * *

“Now, this is called hide-and-seek. This time I’ll specially be ‘it’ for you, so you hide.”

“Wow! It’s our first time! This’ll be fun!”

“Exciting, so exciting!”

Watching the twins clenching their fists and stamping their feet, I smiled with satisfaction.

Hehe, those kids really don’t know anything.

“You can hide anywhere as long as you don’t leave the Main Building. But dangerous places like that well from last time, rooms with no people, or places with lids closed so you can’t be seen at all are against the rules. Got it?”

“Yes, yes!”

“Now, I’ll count to 100?”

I said while pressing my face against a pillar.

“Now, one! Two! Three! Four!”

I could hear two sets of footsteps pattering away in the same direction.

As expected, the twins hide together too.

Thinking it would be easier to find them later, I continued counting.

“Ten! Eleven! …Oh, my legs. That’s more comfortable now.”

They’ve gone far away anyway, so they won’t hear.

The twins had come since dawn demanding to play, dragging me outside.

When I said they could just play together, the twins said it’s no fun with just the two of them anymore.

They repeated like parrots that it’s only fun when I play with them too.

So what I came up with was that game that children are genetically bound to go crazy for – hide-and-seek.

“Ah, it’s so nice and quiet.”

Without their chattering voices, it couldn’t be more peaceful.

I walked looking for a sunny spot where I could lie down for a while before going to catch the twins.

As I was moving from the busy Main Building toward the quieter Annex, I saw some little kid standing alone.

It was a boy with dark blonde hair close to brown and fair skin.

“Who’s that?”

It was an unfamiliar face that looked about Belesack’s age.

Moreover, from his behavior of looking around and the clothes he wore, he didn’t seem like a servant’s child.

I was approaching the child thinking to help if he was lost.

The kid, apparently annoyed, took off the hat he was wearing, threw it on the ground, and started stomping on it with his shoes.

His tantrum looked practiced, as if he’d done it more than once or twice.

I stopped walking when I was not far from the kid.

I don’t really want to get close.

My instincts were ringing alarm bells telling me to turn around.

I should just go find the twins like this.

Just as I was thinking that and about to turn around.

A strong wind came whooshing from somewhere, and the hat the kid had been happily stomping flew far away onto the lawn.

The kid, who seemed momentarily flustered, looked around and spotted me.

And said.

“You there, go pick up that hat.”

“…What?”

“Are you a deaf girl? I told you to pick up my hat.”

“Hah, what is this now…”

I said, forcibly refining the profanity that was about to burst out from my rising anger.

“Go pick it up yourself, you Belesack-like bastard.”

That’s the worst insult I know without using profanity, you brat.

But the kid frowned his pretty face and spoke in a slimy voice.

“If you go pick it up now, I’ll let you live.”

“This Belesack-like thing, what nonsense are you spouting.”

I said while crossing my arms defiantly.

“Do you want to get hit with a book a few times too? That was quite effective.”

“An ugly girl speaking so rudely too.”

Is that unknown arrogance and haughtiness a characteristic trait of noble boys or something?

Belesack uses exactly that kind of tone too.

It wasn’t just something I said casually, but really a guy like Belesack…

Wait a minute.

As I glared at the face of this unidentifiable brat, an incredibly ominous premonition struck the back of my head.

“N-no way…”

“Your Highness! Your Highness, where are you!”

From the distance came a voice desperately searching for someone.

“Y-Your Highness, you mean.”

The Empire has many princesses, but only two princes.

And I knew what this pretty face would look like in a few more mature years.

“No way, the Crown Prince…?”

As if answering my words, the guy raised one corner of his mouth in an irritating smile and said.

“Pick it up.”

It really was him.

Belesack’s soul twin. The main culprit who brought ruin to Our Family.

The Crown Prince, Astana Nerempe Durelli.

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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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