In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 213

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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 213

“I will step down.”

Those were the first words the Empress spoke.

“I will stop here. So leave Angenas alone.”

The elegant speech and smile she always used had already been thrown out of the carriage.

Her face was pale, showing only exhaustion.

“Half of the estates have already been lost. Even if you leave things as they are, Angenas won’t be much of a threat to your future.”

Peres did not answer.

Instead, he slowly moved his body, crossed his legs, and looked at Empress Lavinia with a slanted gaze.

“I promise.”

The Empress, who had been quietly receiving that gaze, spoke.

“…A promise.”

Finally, Peres’s tightly closed mouth opened.

“What exactly are you promising?”

At Peres’s question, Empress Lavinia’s eyelids trembled as if she could hardly bear the humiliation.

“Angenas will…”

Empress Lavinia’s voice trembled so delicately it naturally evoked pity.

“Angenas will never step forward in central affairs again and will live in silence.”

“And?”

“Angenas will be the first to stamp their seal of approval on the Crown Prince appointment agreement with your name on it.”

“And?”

Peres asked again.

“What more could you possibly want from this?”

Empress Lavinia asked, raising her voice.

But Peres only leisurely shook his head.

“What you’re offering is too meager, isn’t it, Empress. I currently hold your lifeline in my grasp.”

There was even a faint hint of laughter in his voice.

The Empress glared at Peres as if she wanted to kill him.

But that was only momentary.

Soon Lavinia sighed as if resigned.

“I will step down from the Empress position.”

This was unexpected.

The Empress had played a better card than expected.

Quiet red eyes looked at the Empress.

And he spoke as if tossing the words out.

“That is not how one apologizes. Kneel.”

At Peres’s words, the Empress’s eyes widened.

But that was all.

The usual words that would follow like ‘lowly thing’ or ‘the likes of you’ did not come.

“Huu…”

The Empress sighed as if barely suppressing her anger.

She also tightly closed her eyes that had been glaring at Peres.

And then.

Thud.

The Empress rose from her seat and knelt on the carriage floor.

“I apologize like this. So please…”

Lavinia, with her head slightly bowed, spoke each word with difficulty as if chewing them.

Peres looked down at her with coldly cooled eyes.

On his face that the Empress could not see, there was no sense of victory.

Peres, who had been staring at the Empress for a moment, suddenly checked outside the carriage window.

He saw one guard who had been anxiously looking back at the carriage hastily turn his head when their eyes met.

“What do you want?”

“Stop the Council Meeting. That’s all there is.”

“…A reasonable price.”

When Peres said that, color returned to Empress Lavinia’s face.

“Then, you’ll do it…”

“However, my dead mother won’t come back to life with the Empress’s apology.”

“You, you…”

The Empress tried to rise from her position in anger.

But before Lavinia could lean back to avoid him, Peres bent down and brought his face directly close to hers.

“Let me tell you the Empress’s future.”

His red eyes gleamed eerily.

“Yes, it would be good to start with Angenas first.”

Peres spoke as if he had decided.

And he stretched out one index finger.

“One year. Within one year, the name Angenas will disappear from this land. Not only that, it won’t be found in the Noble Registry either, and after a few years, even the commoners you call so filthy will wonder ‘Was there such a family?'”

“Second Prince…!”

“I’m not finished yet.”

Peres shook his head and silenced the Empress.

“And while Angenas is being scattered, I will search the Imperial Palace. And I will strip to the bone all those loyal to the Empress. One by one, one by one. All of them.”

Peres did not smile.

“Astana will be sent to the frontier battlefield. If he has skill, he might survive, but on the battlefield, even if he gets stabbed in the back, who would know who did it?”

But he was enjoying himself.

Watching fear gradually spread across the Empress’s face.

Just as the Empress had done before.

“And you, left alone.”

Suddenly, chills ran down Empress Lavinia’s spine.

Because Peres was slowly smiling right in front of her.

“You will be confined in a place no one knows. Where no one can help you, where no one can see or hear you.”

Just as I was left alone in that crumbling pavilion.

“And there you will just die alone, Empress. This is your already determined future.”

Tsk tsk.

Peres clicked his tongue.

Then, the carriage shook greatly once.

“We have arrived at the Imperial Palace.”

With Peres’s words, the carriage was gradually slowing down.

“Still, you should be grateful that I’m hurrying things along. At least it will end quickly.”

The carriage came to a complete stop.

However, there was no servant running with a step stool.

They couldn’t dare approach due to the menacing presence of the Imperial Guards.

Can’t be helped.

Peres muttered briefly and stood up.

“But don’t expect mercy from me, Empress.”

Peres’s hand twisted the carriage door handle.

“Wasn’t this a game from the beginning where one of us two had to disappear for it to end?”

Then he politely opened the carriage door for the Empress and said.

“Please get out. It’s already irreversible, Empress.”

Without time to pause, through the wide-open door, the Imperial Knights and servants standing at a distance witnessed it.

The sight of the Empress kneeling before Peres.

Their eyes widened in shock.

“Then I’ll get off first. Please go safely.”

Peres said this and stepped down from the carriage.

Then he instructed his attendant.

“Her Majesty the Empress will need a footstool. Prepare it quickly.”

Leaving only those words, Peres walked toward Poirak Palace.

The Academy Trio, who had been waiting in advance, quickly followed behind him.

However, puzzlement crossed their faces.

“Your Highness?”

Because Peres’s face was gradually hardening with coldness.

He had made the Empress kneel, so why on earth?

Peres, who was walking ahead, spoke in a low voice.

“Lignite.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Surveillance on Astana must be even more thorough.”

“That foolish brother? Why?”

Thud, thud.

Along with the heavy footsteps walking on the palace stone path, Peres answered.

“Even while kneeling, she didn’t ask for Astana’s affairs.”

Peres had never believed the Empress’s acting to be sincere, not for a single moment.

He had been watching the Empress for far too long for that.

So he also knew well.

The Empress would never give up on Astana.

Lavinia wanted absolute power, and without Astana, she couldn’t grasp it in her hands.

She had simply wanted to make Peres himself let his guard down and buy time.

“The Empress will make her move soon.”

Among the things the Empress had said in the carriage, only one thing was true.

That she was terribly afraid of what results would come from the council meeting.

* * *

Lombardi Estate meeting room.

No one easily answered Grandfather’s question.

“Everyone seems to have many thoughts.”

Grandfather nodded and said.

“Yes, if I had only intended to appoint a deputy lord, I wouldn’t have called you all together like this. Everyone, please deliberate carefully.”

At Grandfather’s words, the clan heads stirred once again.

“Are you speaking of… a successor?”

Everyone held their breath waiting for Grandfather’s answer.

I was the same.

Like a student waiting for report cards, I watched only Grandfather’s mouth with an anxious heart.

Thump. Thump.

My heart felt like it would leap out of my mouth.

“That’s right.”

As expected!

I clenched both fists hidden under the table.

Not simply a deputy lord, but a successor to inherit the position of Lombardi clan head.

Ah, how wonderful!

Hearing those words directly from Grandfather’s mouth was truly so sweet I felt like I might collapse.

‘I did it! I did it!’

Though I wanted to jump up and shout.

I succeeded in swallowing that cheer and only smiling quietly.

“Tia.”

Grandfather called me.

“It seems everyone has anxious feelings.”

“That’s understandable.”

I nodded and looked around at the people.

I was speaking sincerely.

Even I would be worried.

That the clan head position would go to a granddaughter below, skipping over the clan head’s sons and daughters.

And to me, who was still ridiculously young at that.

“I understand, as it’s because of your love for the Lombardi family.”

Because I also knew well what could happen when the wrong person became clan head.

“Yes, then this old man will ask a few questions. Answer those questions honestly.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

“In the current situation, how do you think Lombardi should act?”

“Lombardi should…”

I was about to answer immediately but closed my mouth again.

Because I remembered my previous life when I had wanted to shout these words I was about to say until my heart burst.

“Ahem.”

I pretended to clear my throat and caught my breath.

Because if I didn’t do that, the old resentment I had forgotten while living would seem to burst out.

“The path Lombardi should take now is extremely simple and clear.”

In my previous life, because we couldn’t do this simple thing, the Lombardi family had to close its doors.

Because we couldn’t do this easy thing.

My great Lombardi had to disappear into history.

I spoke to Grandfather and the retainers who were looking at me.

“Since the Second Prince will become Crown Prince, we just need to maintain friendly relations with Second Prince Peres and take whatever benefits we can. That’s all.”

But in this life, such a thing won’t happen.

Because I returned for this moment.

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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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