In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 207

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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 207

“We must stop them.”

Empress Lavinia said to Duiji.

Duiji Angenas was even more frightened by Lavinia’s calm demeanor.

Since childhood, Lavinia had a fiery temperament and would smash things when angry. But now she appeared very composed.

However, Duiji thought it would be better if she were angry instead. Lavinia’s calm appearance seemed to show that the situation was worse than it appeared.

Perhaps even worse than Duiji thought.

Though he resented Lavinia for placing him as a puppet head and taking all the real power, now was not the time for such feelings.

“What should we do, sister?”

Duiji asked seriously.

“Didn’t I tell you? We must stop them.”

Blue veins bulged on the back of Lavinia’s tightly clenched fist.

“That lowly thing…”

Lavinia gritted her teeth thinking of Peres.

He had been quiet for a while, but behind the scenes he was plotting such schemes.

“The Second Prince, Brown, and Lombardi have surely conspired together, Duiji.”

It was none other than Pirenthia Lombardi who organized the hunting competition and lured everyone into the Forest of Madness.

“I’d like to cut off that insolent thing’s head.”

But she was the granddaughter of the Lombardi head and daughter of Gallahan Lombardi.

If they touched her carelessly, there was no telling how Lombardi would react.

Moreover, the imperial army could not enter the Lombardi estate.

As her thoughts extended to the Imperial Guard, Lavinia asked Duiji.

“What happened with the guard?”

“There’s division within the Imperial Guard.”

Angenas had taken the west, expanded their influence, and the Angenas-born empress had given birth to the legitimate heir.

The forty years Angenas had spent building power was enough time to fill the empire with their people.

And the Imperial Guard was one of them.

“According to reports, it’s half and half.”

“Half?”

Lavinia’s eyebrows shot up.

“How much money have we poured into the Imperial Guard all this time, and it’s only half!”

Bang!

Lavinia slammed her fist on the table.

“That’s… there’s the current commander. Tollian Buckton. The forces following the Second Prince and Brown family seem to have united around him.”

“If we had just a little more time, we could have filled even the commander position with our person.”

If only there had been a little more time.

Empress Lavinia kept muttering those words.

Something was strange.

Though she couldn’t put it into words, things that should naturally fall into place were going awry.

It was an enormous sense of dissonance.

She kept having a strong premonition, absurd but impossible to ignore, that they might have been played by one person for a very long time.

The person who found the dying Second Prince and became his guardian.

The person who then sent him to the academy, beyond the empress’s influence.

The person who helped the returned Second Prince establish himself in politics under the pretext of northern relief, even attaching his own granddaughter to strengthen him.

And finally, the person who set up a splendid stage for the Brown family to receive everyone’s attention.

“Is it that old man from Lombardi?”

Looking back at all the incidents that had blocked Lavinia and Angenas’s path, Lombardi was behind them.

Lavinia tried to cool her head while thinking of Rulak.

To deal with him, she had to maintain her rationality.

“I’ll leave the noble council to you and the Sercheu Marquis, Duiji. No matter what happens, the Brown family must not be restored to the noble registry.”

“Of course.”

Duiji Angenas answered quickly.

Facing Rulak Lombardi alone would have been very difficult, but together with the Sercheu Marquis, there was a chance of winning.

Indeed, after it became public that the Sercheu Marquis sided with the Crown Prince, Angenas’s power in the noble council had grown stronger.

“But how should we explain the matter regarding the Crown Prince?”

Until now, Duiji had been busy spreading rumors that Astana ‘didn’t act of his own will but was merely under the influence of drugs.’

Thanks to this, the fear among Angenas supporters that the Crown Prince would be deposed immediately and cause great trouble had subsided, but additional measures were needed.

“It’s a false accusation. Someone drugged Astana. Push that narrative.”

“If they ask who…”

Of course, the answer was Peres.

But both Empress Lavinia and Duiji knew they couldn’t say that.

Wasn’t Peres the investigator in charge of this case?

“For now, deflecting the arrow from Astana is the priority. So…”

Empress Lavinia’s eyes gleamed cruelly.

“Belesack, that boy is still detained, isn’t he?”

“Surely not…”

Duiji Angenas’s mouth fell open.

He could see what Empress Lavinia was planning to do.

“Are you thinking of pinning this on that boy?”

“Do you have a better method, Duiji?”

Lavinia snorted.

“Looking at the guard’s investigation record you brought, Astana clearly said, ‘Belesack brought the water bottle.'”

“But Belesack is Ceral’s son.”

Ceral was Lavinia and Duiji’s cousin.

Seeing Duiji’s surprised face, Empress Lavinia frowned.

Her face showed great displeasure.

And she spoke as if shooting back.

“Duiji, that boy Belesack is not an Angenas. He’s a Lombardi.”

Duiji Angenas could only stare blankly at the empress, at a loss for words.

* * *

At the same time.

Peres was entering the room where Belesack Lombardi was detained, along with the Imperial Guards.

In the tense atmosphere, Belesack asked.

“When can I return to the Lombardi estate?”

“Well, there’s been no request from the Lombardi side yet.”

“That can’t be…”

Belesack stopped speaking.

His father Biejie was practically exiled from the Lombardi family, and his mother Ceral was an Angenas person and the empress’s confidant.

He realized there was no one who would roll up their sleeves for him.

Thud.

Belesack slumped into his chair and held his head.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, so why…”

He had held onto a thread of hope.

That by now, either Lombardi or Angenas, at his mother Ceral’s request, would get him out.

But what came was Peres and the Imperial Guards.

Now there was nowhere left to place his hope.

Looking down at Belesack in this state, Peres spoke to the guards.

“Step outside for a moment.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

The guards hesitated briefly but soon moved according to the command.

The last guard remaining at his post looked back and forth between Peres and Belesack with suspicious eyes, but there was no other choice.

The Imperial Knights must follow the orders of someone bearing the Durelli name.

Click.

The door closed with a quiet sound, and Peres sat across from Belesack.

His posture of leaning deeply against the backrest and crossing his legs was quite different from the atmosphere when he had been with the guards just moments before.

Belesack looked at such Peres with eyes full of wariness.

“Hey.”

Peres called out to Belesack.

“Do you want to die like this?”

“What, what did you…!”

Belesack, who had made it a habit to mock and look down on the Second Prince when he was with Astana, almost spoke informally without realizing it, then shut his mouth.

Peres, looking at such Belesack as if he understood, spoke in a calm voice.

“I don’t suppose you still think someone will come save you. You seem to be in a state of despair.”

Peres opened one of the wooden boxes that a knight had left on the table, showing the water bottle inside as he spoke.

“During the investigation, Astana said, ‘Belesack handed me the water bottle.'”

Belesack’s brown eyes wavered.

Peres opened the second box.

“And this dagger used in the assassination attempt on His Majesty the Emperor is also yours.”

“That, that is…!”

“When the Angenas side frames you as the culprit, how do you think this will look to people?”

Watching Belesack’s face gradually turn pale, Peres continued speaking.

“The Empress will pin everything on you, Belesack Lombardi. You know well enough that she’s more than capable of that.”

Belesack bit his lips.

Peres was right.

Belesack himself knew well how cruel Empress Lavinia could be.

“Me, the original owner of the water bottle, and you, who stole that water bottle and gave it to Astana. But I’m the investigator of this assassination case, so they can’t attack me. What’s left is you, Belesack, who conveniently bears the Lombardi name.”

At Peres’ words, Belesack squeezed his eyes shut.

Then Peres asked.

“Do you want to live?”

Belesack raised his head.

His dull mind spun rapidly, trying to understand the situation.

“Do you want to live?”

Peres asked once more.

“…Yes, yes! I, I want to live!”

Belesack looked as if he might grab onto Peres’ pant leg and cling to him.

After watching such Belesack with cold eyes for a moment, Peres pulled out a sheet of paper from his chest.

It was blank paper with nothing written on it.

“What is… this?”

When Belesack asked in bewilderment, Peres tossed the paper onto the table and said.

“Write a letter to your mother, Ceral.”

* * *

The Empress summoned the Seosseou Marquis to the Imperial Palace.

“I can only trust the Seosseou Marquis.”

Lavinia said to Chanton Seosseou.

Last time, Empress Lavinia’s request to assassinate Peres had been a kind of test.

To find out whether she could trust the person called Chanton Seosseou.

In the end, Empress Lavinia, who had left behind various pieces of evidence about Chanton Seosseou, the former Imperial Knight Commander, attempting to assassinate the prince, finally began to completely trust the Seosseou Marquis.

“Seosseou and Angenas are in the same boat, aren’t we?”

Empress Lavinia smiled seductively as she poured tea for the Seosseou Marquis.

“I’ll handle Astana’s side myself, so please keep an eye on the Nobility Council side, Seosseou Marquis.”

“Are you referring to the Brown Family?”

Chanton Seosseou asked in his characteristic monotonous tone that had little variation.

“That’s right. It’s a very important matter.”

The Empress answered while maintaining her smile.

However, that smile didn’t last long.

It was because of what Chanton Seosseou said as he set down his teacup.

“Then you’ll have to give me Angenas’ estates.”

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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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