In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 16
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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 16
Why is the Crown Prince, who should be at the Imperial Palace, sitting here so brazenly at the Lombardy Estate!
Too shocked to move, I froze in place as the Crown Prince approached me with the clicking sound of his shoe heels.
I hadn’t noticed from a distance, but he’s quite tall.
“Now you know who I am, don’t you?”
‘Now that you know I’m the Crown Prince, grovel accordingly’—is that what he means?
The Crown Prince’s triumphant expression was truly irritating.
I spoke to the Crown Prince.
“I don’t know.”
“…What?”
“I said I don’t know.”
I don’t know who you are, so what are you going to do about it?
I shrugged my shoulders and acted nonchalant.
“Then I’ll tell you directly. I am the Crown Prince of this Lambru Empire…”
“Oh? It’s flying away more.”
I deliberately interrupted the Crown Prince’s words and pointed to his hat that was rolling around several more times in the wind that had blown again.
“Argh! Go get it quickly!”
The Crown Prince stamped his foot and shouted.
I really can’t understand this.
He wants that hat back so badly, yet moving himself to pick it up isn’t even in his thought process.
I clicked my tongue and shook my head.
“Sigh…”
I have no choice.
I slowly walked across the lawn where the hat was rolling around.
“Hmph! You should have done that from the start!”
I could hear the Crown Prince snorting as he spoke.
The gardener must have worked hard maintaining it, as the grass under my feet felt soft.
Walking a little further, I could see the Crown Prince’s hat that had fallen right in front of me.
When I picked it up, it was a very soft and luxurious hat that seemed to be made from woven animal fur.
Now I looked back at the Crown Prince who was far away.
“Yes! Hurry up and bring it here!”
Looking at the guy urging me on, I gave him a bright smile.
And then.
“What are you doing!”
I threw the hat to a place even farther away from the Crown Prince.
Run, run!
Though my legs were short, I ran with all my might.
“Puhahaha!”
This is fun, so fun!
“Hey! Don’t you dare stop there!”
Would you stop if you were me!
I kept laughing and ran even faster.
“Ahhh! I’ll kill you when I catch you!”
I could hear the Crown Prince behind me spouting murderous words in his rage, but I didn’t look back.
I knew that guy had a rotten personality, but to think he was like this even as a child.
There was a reason he got along so well with Belesack.
I didn’t think the Crown Prince, who wouldn’t even pick up his own hat, would run to chase after me, but I quickly turned the corner and hid myself from the Crown Prince’s view.
His desperate screaming at the end was a bit concerning, but what could happen?
Thinking that, I moved toward the main building to find the twins.
* * *
Crown Prince Astana’s entire body trembled with rage.
“How dare, how dare she do that to me…!”
This was the first time in his life he had experienced such humiliation.
Born as the legitimate heir between the Emperor and Empress, Astana had been able to have everything with just a glance from the moment he drew his first breath.
He never even needed to voice what he wanted.
He had always grown up surrounded and pampered by his wet nurse and guard knights.
For such an Astana, there was only one thing he had to do even when he didn’t want to, and that was having to look at that idiot Belesack’s stupid face.
The Empress, who always listened to Astana about everything else, was uniquely strict when it came to matters concerning Lombardy.
Belesack, who always tried desperately to impress him, was a very bothersome existence, and this time Astana even had to visit the Lombardy Estate, so he was in a very low mood today.
Adding fuel to the fire, he had gotten lost while wandering around alone.
According to an old agreement between the Imperial Court and the Lombardi Family, imperial knights could not enter the estate.
There had been an argument between the Crown Prince’s attendants and Lombardy soldiers over this, and the Crown Prince, unable to wait during that gap, had entered the estate alone.
In the end, it was all his own doing, but Astana didn’t know such things.
He was just angry that those who should be attending him had left him alone, and he found the Lombardy Family’s estate, which was as large as the Imperial Palace despite being just a noble family, irritating.
In such a situation, Pirenthia’s appearance, daring to make a fool of him, ultimately touched Astana’s nasty temperament.
“Your Highness! You were here!”
The wet nurse who had cared for Astana since he was a baby came running to find him belatedly.
“Oh my, how worried I was! If you go off alone like that…”
“Come here.”
The Crown Prince beckoned with his finger to the wet nurse who was catching her breath.
The wet nurse, knowing what this meant, squeezed her eyes shut and bowed her waist.
Smack—.
The Crown Prince’s hand struck the wet nurse’s cheek.
“You left me alone?”
“I’m, I’m sorry…”
“Where are the knights?”
Astana asked, looking at the wet nurse and two maids.
“Outside the estate entrance…”
“Tell them to come in.”
“What? B-but Your Highness, according to Lombardy’s rules…”
Smack—.
The Crown Prince’s palm, unusually sharp for a child, left another handprint on the wet nurse’s face.
“Everything in the Empire belongs to His Majesty the Emperor, and I am the legitimate heir who will succeed him. What is Lombardy that I should be mindful of them?”
The wet nurse couldn’t say anything.
“Bring the knights here immediately. If you can’t do that, I won’t let you off easy.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
Finally, the wet nurse answered with a trembling voice.
Only after seeing her face turn pale and run hurriedly toward the estate entrance with a tearful expression did Astana’s mood improve.
Just wait until the knights arrive.
Astana muttered ominously, recalling the back of the brown-haired girl who had been running away.
* * *
“How can you find us so well? We really hid well!”
“Right! Tia, you didn’t secretly watch us hiding, did you?”
Giliou and Meylon complained and puffed out their cheeks sulkily.
The twins, who had been hiding behind the broom closet placed in the quiet corridor and under the nearby stairs, seemed quite dissatisfied that I had found them so quickly.
“Well, who told you to hide so carelessly?”
“I wasn’t hiding carelessly!”
The twins shouted, expressing their disappointment with their whole bodies.
“This is no fun!”
“Me too!”
“Really? Then shall we go read some books?”
“B-books…?”
At my suggestion, the two of them urgently exchanged glances.
“No. This is fun, Tia.”
“Yeah, let’s keep playing hide and seek.”
Simple kids.
But even though their likes and dislikes are clear, Giliou and Meylon aren’t bad children.
Compared to Belesack and the Crown Prince, the twins are angels, angels.
“The library would be perfect.”
Those wicked twin souls would never come to the library to read books.
Well, in this vast Lombardy Estate, what reason would there be to run into each other if we just stayed out of sight?
I remembered that the Crown Prince had been near the annex earlier and led Giliou and Meylon to the lower floor of the main building.
“There are plenty of places to hide here, so this works, right?”
“Yeah, great!”
Unlike the upper floor, the first floor had a maze-like and complex structure.
The twins whispered to each other, discussing where to hide, then giggled.
They seemed to have come up with a good idea.
“Well then, I’ll count to 100 here…”
I caught sight of two men walking from the opposite end of the corridor where we were standing.
They had swords at their waists and looked like knights, but they weren’t wearing Lombardi knight uniforms.
If they were knights belonging to somewhere, they would surely bear that family’s crest, but what was this?
Unless they were people who needed to hide their identities…
Then one thought came to mind.
The Crown Prince’s escort knights.
The Crown Prince deliberately acts like an ordinary noble when outside the palace.
It was for safety reasons.
So the knights escorting such a prince would also remove their Imperial Knights’ uniforms and wear plain clothes.
And behind them, I could see three Lombardi security guards.
With stiffly hardened faces, unable to stop the prince’s knights, they followed behind, constantly looking back as if waiting for their superiors to arrive.
“Those people must be playing hide and seek too!”
Giliou, like me, looked at the approaching knights and said.
I instantly got goosebumps.
The knights were indeed searching for someone, looking under tables placed in the corridor and such, just as Giliou said.
“Damn.”
I understood the overall situation.
The Crown Prince was recklessly bringing his knights into the estate to search for me.
The Lombardi security guards who had tried to stop them couldn’t bring themselves to use force against the Imperial Knights and were waiting for Lombardi knights to hear the news and come.
I couldn’t blame them.
There was a difference between knights and ordinary soldiers, and if either the Imperial Knights or Lombardi forces drew their swords or harmed each other, the situation would become uncontrollable.
I had heard many stories about the Crown Prince being a scoundrel, but I didn’t know it was to this extent.
Sending people after me just because I teased him a little?
And inside the Lombardy Estate at that?
Imperial forces cannot enter inside the Lombardy Estate.
That was a promise made between the Durelli and Lombardi families when the Empire was founded.
“Giliou, Meylon. Run!”
Even if it was inside the estate, getting caught by those knights would be troublesome.
I grabbed one of the twins’ hands in each of mine and started running blindly in the opposite direction from the knights.
“T-Tia! What’s wrong!”
Meylon asked in surprise, but there was no time to answer.
When I glanced back, the knights who had recognized me were chasing at a terrifying speed.
“We’re running all the way to Grandfather’s study like this!”
“O-okay.”
Frightened by the adults chasing them, the twins followed my words well, but we didn’t get far.
Just as we arrived near Grandfather’s study, we ran right into them in the long corridor.
The Crown Prince’s party.
“Didn’t I say you’d die if you got caught?”
Seeing me trapped with nowhere to go, the Crown Prince grinned wickedly and said.
Isn’t this guy really a psycho!
This incident was my fault for underestimating the Crown Prince’s level of insanity.
I hid the twins behind me and said.
“Is it really necessary to go this far?”
It’s not like I hit him, and to charge at me recklessly just because I threw his hat.
“You dared to disobey my orders and humiliated me. So you deserve to die.”
I realized at that moment.
The Crown Prince doesn’t know what kind of relationship the Imperial Court and Lombardi have.
When even the Emperor has to be mindful of the Lombardi family head, for a young prince who isn’t even the Crown Prince to act like this.
It was impossible.
But anyway, right now my side only had three children and three soldiers fidgeting anxiously behind us.
“Kneel.”
Astana crossed his arms and looked down at me as he spoke.
“If you kneel before me and beg, I’ll spare your life.”
“Why should Tia kneel!”
“Who are you!”
The twins angrily blocked my path.
Then, the Crown Prince commanded his knights.
“Move these two aside.”
But this time, even the knights showed reluctance.
Coming to Lombardi, they probably heard about the agreement between the two families.
While trespassing might somehow be overlooked, touching the family head’s grandchildren was a problem of a different dimension.
“Don’t touch them!”
I positioned the twins behind me again.
This was my responsibility.
I couldn’t let the children get involved.
“Then you just need to kneel.”
Astana sneered as if daring me to try.
Should I really kneel?
In this desperate situation, as I tried to figure out some way, I saw a group of people urgently approaching from behind the Crown Prince’s party.
Ah, thank goodness.
Once I felt relieved, my mind started working again.
I hung my head low.
And not a few seconds later, when I raised my head again.
Drip, drip.
Tears like chicken droppings fell down my cheeks.
“What, do you think everything will be solved if you cry?”
Astana spoke as if he found it ridiculous.
Oh, it’s all resolved.
“What is this behavior in Lombardy right now!”
The enraged head of Lombardy, Grandfather, was striding toward us at a terrifying pace.
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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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