In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 218

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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 218

“What else can I do?”

I said as I removed Peres’s hand from the necklace.

Though his gaze was still burning, I no longer met his eyes.

“Like this.”

I covered the necklace that had returned to its place with the shawl.

And pulled the strings tight to tie it.

The ruby that had been glowing red was no longer visible.

“I’m burying it.”

I spoke as calmly as possible.

“There is no future between Your Highness and me. It’s just a relationship that will end someday.”

“Deputy Lord.”

Peres tried to say something, but I cut him off mid-sentence.

“I can breathe easy now that I’ve become Lombardi’s heir, but what about Your Highness?”

Peres kept his mouth tightly shut with eyes full of things he wanted to say.

My heart ached at that face.

“You must defeat the Empress and be appointed Crown Prince. Then you must safely spend your time as Crown Prince to become Emperor. Yet you want to continue a relationship with me, who cannot become Empress?”

I shook my head.

Even Peres had his limits.

“If you do that, you won’t receive His Majesty the Emperor’s favor. After all, appointing the Crown Prince is the Emperor’s prerogative.”

These weren’t just words to calm Peres down.

It was to remind myself again.

“At this rate, Your Highness won’t achieve anything.”

Looking at Peres, my foolishly fluttering heart was slowly settling down.

It was right to end things here for both our sakes.

“Your Highness still has a long way to go, doesn’t he? The Imperial Knights are split in half right now, aren’t they?”

Peres silently nodded.

I was relieved that he seemed to be accepting my words well.

However, separate from that, my chest ached once more.

I placed my hand on Peres’s chest while hiding my expression as much as possible.

It was exactly the spot where my heart was aching right now.

“So we’re burying it. Because we each have things we must achieve. And then at some point.”

It will all disappear.

That’s what I was going to say.

But my lips wouldn’t part.

I couldn’t bring those words out of my mouth.

Because I couldn’t be certain myself.

Would these feelings really be forgotten with time?

Would the heart that painfully yearns for one person really all disappear?

Then, Peres grasped my hand that was pressed against his chest.

It was a frighteningly warm hand.

And slowly, he pulled my hand up and rubbed it against his face.

His deepened gaze remained fixed on me.

For a moment, my heart seemed to drop.

Because I realized that what I had just said, far from pushing him away, had only stimulated him more.

“My heart won’t disappear even if buried.”

Unlike me, Peres spoke with certainty.

“Deputy Lord.”

A voice as hot as body temperature called to me.

“Would it be alright for me to take another as Empress? To stand side by side with her, facing each other and smiling?”

Something came to mind.

Peres and Ramona standing together before a crowd, arms linked.

It was a memory from my previous life.

The pain in my heart was incomparably worse than before, and I had to grit my teeth.

Meanwhile, Peres drew even closer.

“Would it be alright for me to have children with another and grow old together for life? Do you have the confidence to watch that from afar, Deputy Lord?”

I could probably watch.

But every time Peres smiled happily, I would be crying in secret.

Just as I was about to squeeze my eyes shut at the bleak future that seemed to unfold before me.

Peres carefully lifted my chin to make me look at him.

We were now looking at each other at a distance where our breaths touched.

“I cannot.”

His voice became hoarse.

“No one but me can stand by the Deputy Lord’s side.”

Like the ruby I had hidden moments ago, Peres’s red eyes looking down at me glowed dimly.

“Just imagining the Deputy Lord marrying someone other than me makes me like this.”

Peres’s words, spat out as if chewing them, trembled dangerously at the end.

“Rage wells up inside me.”

Just as I had moments ago.

Peres placed my hand on his chest.

Thump. Thump.

A strong, not-fast pulse beat dangerously as if it would burst through his ribcage.

“Unless I pierce through that nonexistent bastard’s heart, my own feels like it will burst from rage.”

Peres whispered softly in my ear, his lips almost touching it.

And then he kissed me.

The lips that pressed against me without gap became entangled inescapably.

Once, twice.

Like waves crashing over me countless times, he swallowed me whole.

As if he would take even the breath I exhaled, Peres kissed me as if it would last forever, then suddenly stopped.

And pressing his forehead against mine as I panted lightly, he said.

“To press lips together with the Deputy Lord like this.”

Peres’s lips buried into my exposed nape.

“To touch skin like this.”

The vibration of his speaking lips tickled my skin.

“It must be me and no one else. No one.”

Peres, who had slowly pulled away, looked at me with unbearable eyes.

“And there’s one thing the Deputy Lord is misunderstanding.”

However, the touch that fixed my hair and clothes disheveled from the kiss was as gentle as a well-tamed wolf’s licking.

“The Lombardi Deputy Lord is exactly what I want. Not the Crown Prince appointment, not the throne, but you.”

Peres’s finger lightly brushed my lips.

“You becoming mine is exactly what I want.”

Saying that, Peres smiled slightly.

“The rest is just pleasant byproducts, Lombardi Deputy Lord. And to get what I want, I will do anything.”

“Peres, you…”

Who are you.

The person before my eyes felt strange.

For a moment, I felt like I was seeing a dark side of him I hadn’t known before.

Click.

Peres leaned toward me and opened the door behind me.

Whoosh.

The cold air from outside blew into the office.

My body trembled finely and goosebumps rose.

It felt like waking up from a dream.

“Then shall we go save the Deputy Lord’s cousin?”

Before I knew it, Peres had also returned to his usual self and asked me.

* * *

“I’m not going!”

What are you saying, you stupid idiot.

Belesack sat with his arms firmly crossed and spoke stubbornly.

“This place where the Imperial Guards protect me would be safer!”

“Weren’t you packing to return to Lombardy?”

I said while looking at Peres.

“It seems there’s been a change of heart.”

Peres said with an expressionless face.

But I know.

That’s annoyance. Very much so.

The corners of Peres’s eyes were slightly narrowed.

“Sigh.”

I couldn’t help but let out an annoyed sigh as well.

It was already irritating that my first task as Deputy Lord was to retrieve that Belesack bastard from detention.

“Belesack Lombardi, you’d better think this through properly.”

But you’re refusing my help?

Belesack flinched slightly at my words and looked at someone with anxious eyes.

I quickly followed his gaze.

‘Imperial Guard?’

What Belesack had momentarily looked at was a knight standing silently with his hands behind his back at the door.

“Sir, what is your name?”

The knight who received my question hesitated for a moment before answering.

“…First Knight Order member, Olka Baraport.”

Ah.

I roughly understood what was happening.

I said to Peres.

“Would you dismiss the knights for a moment, Your Highness?”

“…Wait outside.”

At Peres’s command, the knights left the room.

Now only I, Peres, and Belesack remained in the interrogation room.

“Hey, Belesack.”

I looked down at the seated Belesack and said.

“You stupid idiot.”

“Again, stupid idiot…”

“Even when I throw you a lifeline, you don’t even know it’s a lifeline, so you really are a stupid idiot.”

I clicked my tongue.

“While Peres was briefly away, what did that knight from the Baraport family say to you?”

Belesack didn’t answer.

With that dull head of his, he was only pondering whether he should tell me or not.

So I said it for him.

“He said that it wasn’t the Empress, but Peres and I who were trying to frame you as the culprit, right?”

“Th-that’s…!”

“He said that if you followed me back to Lombardy, the Empress’s people like him wouldn’t be able to help you. So he told you to stay here.”

There was no need to confirm ‘Am I right?’

Because Belesack’s eyes were shaking anxiously.

“And you fell for those words completely. Stupid bastard.”

At my last words, Belesack flared up but shut his mouth tight again.

“I don’t have enough affection for you to forcibly drag someone who doesn’t want to go.”

But I am the Lombardi Deputy Lord.

At least as long as Belesack still carries the Lombardi name, he’s under my responsibility.

“So I’ll give you exactly one chance, Belesack.”

I sighed deeply and then said.

“Take your packed bag and get in the Lombardi carriage.”

Belesack’s fingers fidgeted nervously.

After thinking for a long while, Belesack finally said.

“I won’t go. I said I’m not going.”

“So you’ve decided to trust that side after all.”

“Surely Mother sent someone from the Baraport family…”

“Mother?”

Is he talking about Ceral?

Before I could ask more questions, Peres cut in and said.

“Leave him behind, Deputy Lord.”

Peres’s gaze toward the crouched Belesack was cold.

“He says it seems safer here, doesn’t he.”

You’re pissed off, Peres.

“As long as he says he won’t go, I can’t forcibly send a witness either.”

That is the rule, after all.

I shook my head.

And I said to Belesack.

“It’s your decision. Don’t regret it.”

“I won’t… regret it.”

Belesack said stubbornly.

“Foolish bastard.”

Belesack, who doesn’t have the brains to properly assess the situation but only knows how to maintain that pathetic pride.

He was no different from the previous life when he slapped my cheek.

* * *

Belesack was sleeping soundly for the first time in a while.

Since being detained, he couldn’t fall asleep easily due to his anxious mind.

But after drinking the alcohol that came with dinner, he fell into a pleasant sleep.

It was when he couldn’t escape from a carefree dream.

Suddenly his body seemed to flip over in an instant.

“Gah!”

Belesack opened his eyes with terrible pain in his throat.

The room was still filled with darkness.

“Gasp! Th-this…!”

As he struggled unable to breathe, someone’s knee pressing on his back pushed Belesack’s body down even deeper.

And.

Creak.

With a small sound of something being pulled, his throat was choked so he couldn’t breathe.

“Die quickly, you bastard.”

It was a voice Belesack also knew—Olka Baraport.

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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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