In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 205
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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 205
The entire country was turned upside down.
It was only natural since the Crown Prince had been caught red-handed by the Imperial Knights while attempting to assassinate the Emperor.
Noble society was also in an uproar.
Those who had been lining up behind Astana were now pale with shock, desperately trying to curry favor with Peres.
Even though he was the Crown Prince and the legitimate eldest son of the Empress, such titles were useless before the terrifying charges of attempted regicide and treason.
“Nobles are lining up in front of the Second Prince’s Poirak Palace every day.”
Beit reported to me.
“They’re probably trying to align themselves with Peres now. But I wonder if they’ll actually be able to do so.”
Peres wouldn’t push them all away.
There’s no Crown Prince who cuts off everyone who doesn’t follow him.
However, he would cut off a few key figures who had opposed him.
“How many people still remain on the Empress’s side?”
“Quite a few, more than expected.”
Beit shrugged once as he answered my question.
“First, there’s considerable power from Angenas and their vassal families. Also, many have married into Angenas through the Empress’s arrangements over the years.”
“So you’re saying those who are already too deep to pull out are still standing firm.”
“There are rumors circulating that the Crown Prince wasn’t in his right mind when he tried to assassinate His Majesty the Emperor. Thanks to that, quite a few are hoping for leniency, so that’s probably why.”
“So, was he really not in his right mind?”
I still vividly remember Astana’s face as he charged forward with a sword that day.
He definitely wasn’t in his right mind.
Sure enough.
Beit nodded.
“He was intoxicated by magic. Literally to the point where he couldn’t recognize his own father or mother.”
“But cases of being that intoxicated by magic aren’t common, right?”
Beit nodded again this time.
Even in the Forest of the Mad, even after killing monsters, it’s not easy for magic to penetrate that deeply.
Especially at the entrance of the Forest of the Mad.
“I suspect he must have taken some drug that made him absorb magic.”
The fact that Beit is saying this much means there’s information that came in, though he can’t reveal the exact source.
“A drug…”
It’s Peres.
He was the one who suggested holding the hunting competition in the Forest of the Mad from the beginning.
And he was also the one who asked for the Emperor’s protective gear to be prepared as gold-plated.
“Was the monster I mentioned last time confirmed?”
“Yes, Kangpa is a monster with long claws that has the habit of collecting shiny things like a crow.”
As expected. It was just as I had predicted.
Peres deliberately guided the Emperor to that path and made him switch armor.
“It’s begun.”
Peres’s revenge.
In my previous life, his revenge was long and thorough.
Starting from his path to becoming Crown Prince, he returned all the pain he had received in full.
I have no intention of stopping such a Peres.
No, I plan to help him.
I turned to look at Cleribane and said.
“Lord Cleribane, it seems the time to use ‘that thing’ is approaching. Please prepare it well.”
“Yes, I’ll have it moved to the Lombardy Estate.”
Cleribane answered with a comfortable smile.
* * *
Emperor Yobanes poured alcohol into a glass with a haggard complexion from lack of sleep.
He drinks until he loses consciousness, then falls asleep drunk.
Then he wakes up and grabs the bottle again.
This had been the Emperor’s daily routine since returning from the hunting competition.
Eventually, the head chamberlain, unable to watch any longer, reached the point of contacting Rulak separately.
“Have a drink.”
Yobanes said as he set down a glass filled with alcohol in front of Rulak.
“You’ve been drinking this strong liquor every day?”
Rulak asked with a frown.
“I can’t sleep unless I drink this.”
Yobanes answered weakly.
Even as he said this, he quickly downed the golden alcohol in one gulp.
“I wish I could bring Your Majesty good news, but…”
Rulak began to speak, setting his glass back down without touching it to his lips.
“You need to pay attention to public sentiment outside the palace.”
At Rulak’s straightforward words, Emperor Yobanes frowned and pressed his temples firmly.
It meant he didn’t want to hear it.
But Rulak continued regardless.
“As rumors spread that the Crown Prince tried to assassinate Your Majesty, the people are becoming anxious. Moreover…”
Rulak deliberately drew out his words to make Yobanes curious before continuing.
“Stories about the Brown family have become a topic of conversation again.”
“The Brown family?”
Yobanes, who was already pouring his second glass, looked up sharply.
“What exactly are these rumors?”
“It’s that old rumor that it was the Angenas family who attacked the Brown family and killed Lord Brown 40 years ago.”
“So why is that old rumor…!”
Rulak looked at Yobanes with an expression that asked ‘do you really want to know?’
After a moment of silence, Rulak spoke.
“The rumor is that the legitimate Crown Prince going mad and trying to assassinate His Majesty the Emperor is punishment for the Imperial family’s betrayal and abandonment of the Brown family, who were loyal subjects long ago… Something like that.”
“What kind of…!”
Yobanes was furious.
“That’s not something I did! It was something the Previous Emperor did!”
Yobanes felt wronged.
It was the Previous Emperor’s choice to support the Angenas family, with whom he had been close since his days as a prince.
So they were able to push out the Brown family through some means and establish themselves in the western region with his blind eye, and later he arranged the engagement between his son Yobanes and Lavinia.
Everything was the Previous Emperor’s will! Why should Yobanes himself be blamed!
Not only does he appear in dreams preventing sleep, but now he’s dumping such troublesome matters on him too.
Even in death, he was blocking his child’s path, just like him.
“What would ignorant people know?”
Rulak said, taking Yobanes’s side as if to comfort him.
“They’re just gossiping without knowing anything, saying the Imperial family is being punished for abandoning the Brown family. The Brown family is famous even among commoners because of the Imperial Sword Technique.”
“Hmph.”
Yobanes snorted.
“Now I understand why Father found the Brown family so detestable. The way they go on about ‘Brown family this, Brown family that’ while brandishing the Imperial Sword Technique.”
An emperor’s jealousy is frightening.
The Brown family was annihilated as the price for that jealousy.
“But in the current situation, there’s no one who can quell such rumors as quickly as the Brown family.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Emperor Yobanes, who disliked being hated, perked up his ears.
“Restore the Brown Family. Then you’ll be able to quell the useless rumors about Angenas.”
“The Brown Family…”
Yobanes, who had been stroking his chin, asked Rulak.
“Won’t it be difficult? Restoration now, after decades have passed.”
“Your Majesty need only throw the topic of the Brown Family to the Nobility Council.”
That cunning Second Prince will handle the rest.
When he eagerly took on the Brown Family, he must have had at least that much of a plan.
“At least while they’re talking about the Brown Family, the talk about the Imperial Court will quiet down, won’t it?”
Rulak smiled leisurely.
After pondering for a moment, Yobanes soon answered.
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
Since a Nobility Council meeting was scheduled for a few days later, it was a timely decision.
“What do you plan to do about the Crown Prince’s matter?”
At Rulak’s question, Yobanes drank again.
The bloodshot eyes of the Previous Emperor cursing him came to mind.
Yobanes, whose shoulders trembled once, asked Rulak back.
“Do you know why I left the Second Prince in the Empress’s hands?”
To this, Rulak gave the answer he had kept in his heart ever since the day he first saw the Second Prince in that crumbling pavilion.
“Because the Second Prince is the spitting image of the Previous Emperor.”
“Correct. That’s why I’ve kept him at a distance and been wary of him since childhood.”
To think that it was actually the Crown Prince who was the product of that curse.
Yobanes waved his hand dismissively, as if he didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“I plan to leave that matter to the Second Prince. Since he was there together, he’ll investigate the circumstances well on his own. I don’t want to worry about it.”
Oh my, look at that.
Rulak clenched his fist tightly to keep from bursting into laughter.
Seeing a foolish shop owner entrust a fish store to a cat right before his eyes, he felt like holding his belly and having a good laugh.
* * *
Crash!
A loud sound of something breaking came from inside the room where the Crown Prince was confined.
“Medicine! Bring medicine! Ahhhhh!”
Anguished screams also leaked through the door crack.
Astana had been screaming like this continuously since waking up around early evening.
“Wh-what should we do…”
Even if he was imprisoned for his crimes, a prince was still a prince.
The two maids assigned to take care of such a prince’s needs stamped their feet at the sounds flowing from inside.
“We’ve already given him all the medicine…”
“Sh-should we contact the palace?”
It was when the maids, rolling their eyes anxiously, finally said this unable to bear it any longer.
“That won’t be necessary.”
A low voice was heard from behind them.
“Second Prince!”
Seeing Peres accompanied by Imperial Guards, the maids’ faces brightened.
“You can come back tomorrow morning. Go back.”
At Peres’s command, the maids ran outside as if fleeing, afraid of being caught again.
“Let’s go in.”
Sir Sloan led the way.
As soon as the door opened, Astana’s shouting burst out.
“Hey! You! Do you think your neck will remain after tying me up like this! Untie me! Right now! Ahhh!”
Astana, with one foot tied to the bed, writhed his entire body and screamed.
“To humiliate me like this, I’ll kill you…!”
Astana’s shouting stopped right after Peres entered the room.
“Astana Nerempe Durellie, I will begin the interrogation for your attempted assassination of the Emperor and treason.”
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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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