In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 226

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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 226

“Remeasurement?”

Yobanes tilted his head.

Then the Emperor’s aide who had handed over the documents frowned and spoke to Duiji Angenas.

“If you’re worried that the calculations might be wrong…”

“The calculations aren’t the problem!”

The Angenas Patriarch shouted as if frustrated.

What, then could it be?

“Please remeasure the land itself to see if each estate’s size was properly measured!”

“That’s completely unreasonable…”

“There’s a limit to being unreasonable, tsk tsk!”

Most of the nobles shook their heads and clicked their tongues.

But Duiji Angenas held his shameless face straight up and looked only at Emperor Yobanes.

He seemed to believe without doubt that the Emperor would take his side at this point.

But Yobanes only tapped the armrest of his chair with his finger, seemingly thinking about something and stalling for time.

And I saw it.

A glance, checking Peres with his side vision.

“Angenas Patriarch.”

I slowly interlaced my fingers and called out to Duiji Angenas.

“What, Lombardi Acting Head.”

The Angenas Patriarch answered with clear irritation at being called by someone as young as me.

“Are you saying you can’t accept this because the difference is too small?”

“That’s right.”

I nodded a couple of times and this time asked Emperor Yobanes.

“What do you think, Your Majesty?”

“About what?”

“Is the only point making you hesitate in your judgment the small difference in size?”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

“Then does the point that estate size should be the sole criterion for determining the representative family remain unchanged?”

“That is so.”

“Then I will help you decide, Your Majesty.”

I said this and slowly rose from my seat.

There was no need to rush.

Everything was flowing according to my plan anyway.

As I moved step by step, countless gazes moved with me.

The burning stares I felt from head to toe made my whole body tingle.

I held out the documents I had brought from the estate to Emperor Yobanes.

It was exactly what I had carefully kept in the safe in my room.

Clatter.

Empress Lavinia half-rose in surprise, making her chair produce a small noise.

“What is this?”

Emperor Yobanes asked me.

I looked back at Empress Lavinia and answered.

“This is the contract the Angenas family wrote when they borrowed money from Pellet Trading Company.”

You had a hard time looking for this, didn’t you?

“Henforek Estate is held as collateral.”

The day I attended the nobility council, the identity of the bundle of documents Cleribane had brought was the contract with Angenas.

When the hunt began in earnest, I was sure the Empress would target it, so I moved it to Lombardy Estate in advance.

Because Lombardy Estate was exactly where the Empress’s most powerful weapon, the ‘royalty’ card, would lose its power.

I slightly raised one corner of my mouth just enough for Empress Lavinia to see.

“That’s not true, Your Majesty!”

I knew it.

As soon as I finished speaking, the Empress entered the game.

She should have done this from the start.

Dealing with Duiji was boring.

“Are you saying you didn’t borrow money, Empress?”

“That’s not it…”

The Empress glared at me openly and said.

“I was saying that the Lombardi Acting Head is making a very big mistake.”

“A mistake?”

“Yes, that contract is between the Angenas family and Pellet Trading Company. It’s not Lombardi’s place to interfere.”

Then she added in a cold voice.

“You can’t act as a representative while hiding a criminal in Lombardy Estate, can you?”

A criminal?

“A criminal, Your Majesty the Empress.”

This time I won’t let it slide either.

“Your words are excessive. Isn’t this a false suspicion without any evidence?”

And I added a remark as if casually throwing it out.

“There’s no evidence or witness that Cleribane Pellet was involved in the attempted assassination case, so why are you making such claims? Are you being unreasonable, or did you just need an excuse to find this contract and turn Pellet Trading Company upside down?”

“What?”

The Empress flared up as if she would grab and kill me right then.

But everyone in the Council Hall heard it.

And they began to nod.

“If they made a contract with the estate as collateral, that would make sense…”

“Did they really do that to the Pellet Trading Company owner…?”

“If that’s the case, it all fits together.”

The way they looked at the Empress and Angenas Patriarch completely changed from before.

As the murmuring continued, those who initially thought ‘Could that really be true?’ quickly changed to an attitude of ‘So that’s what happened!’

Meanwhile, Emperor Yobanes was reading through the documents I gave him, turning them one by one.

“Indeed, the contract party is listed as ‘Pellet Trading Company Owner.’ The Empress is right.”

Foolish Yobanes.

Even though Peres must have given him hints in advance, he was still somewhat taking Angenas’s side.

To think this person is the Empire’s Emperor.

I suppressed the sigh that was about to come out and said.

“Then I will confirm one thing with Your Majesty the Empress.”

Emperor Yobanes nodded briefly as if telling me to do so.

“The Angenas family did not pay the interest to Pellet Trading Company last time, the time before that, and this month’s interest also remains unpaid. Is that correct?”

The Empress looked down at me with cold blue eyes as if she had turned into a block of ice.

“In fact, the Angenas family has never paid interest even once since borrowing the money.”

Angenas doesn’t pay interest even when they borrow money.

It sounds absurd, but that was the custom.

As the Empress’s family, most of those who lent money to this family holding tremendous power were people trying to curry favor with Angenas.

So even though the contract clearly contained clauses about interest payments, they would overlook it when interest wasn’t paid.

‘Empress Lavinia didn’t pay interest because she thought Cleribane was trying to get on her good side.’

I asked again, enunciating each word clearly.

“Is this fact correct, Your Majesty the Empress?”

“…”

Empress Lavinia was trembling with her fists clenched, keeping her mouth tightly shut.

She would have nothing to say, after all.

“Your Majesty, if you look at the last page of the contract, there is a clause regarding the exercise of collateral rights.”

At my words, Yobanes glanced at the Empress and then opened the very last page of the contract.

“It says ‘If Angenas fails to repay the interest and principal, the owner of Pellet Trading Company becomes the owner of Henforek Estate, which serves as collateral.'”

“And below that, it also specifies exactly what situation constitutes ‘failure to repay interest and principal.'”

I held up three fingers straight.

“Three times. It states that failing to pay interest three times is considered a ‘situation of being unable to repay interest and principal.'”

The Empress would have known this since she personally confirmed it when drafting the contract with Cleribane.

That this was a situation where collateral rights could be exercised according to the contract.

That’s why she used even her final card of the Imperial Guard to chase Cleribane and search the trading company so thoroughly.

“Ha!”

At that moment, the Empress suddenly burst into loud laughter.

“Even so, that is merely a matter between Angenas and Cleribane Pellet, the owner of Pellet Trading Company. The Lombardi acting clan head has no right to exercise collateral rights.”

And she spoke with a cruel smile.

“Are you planning to summon Cleribane Pellet to this place?”

She probably intended to kill Cleribane the moment he stepped even one foot outside the Lombardi estate.

Because this was Empress Lavinia, who would do anything to protect Angenas’s representation rights.

“Your Majesty, please summon Cleribane Pellet here.”

Now she was even trying to persuade Emperor Yobanes.

I couldn’t stand to watch anymore.

“There’s no need for that, Your Majesty.”

You’re finished now, Empress.

“The owner of Pellet Trading Company is present at this meeting.”

The silent audience instantly stirred like waves.

“Cleribane Pellet is here?”

“Did he sneak in secretly?”

The nobles forgot they were in the middle of a meeting and looked around frantically.

“What do you mean, Lombardi acting clan head? Explain further.”

Emperor Yobanes also leaned toward me and asked urgently.

“As I said, the owner of Pellet Trading Company is present here.”

And I smiled brightly at Empress Lavinia and said.

“The owner of Pellet Trading Company is me, Pirenthia Lombardi.”

Not even breathing could be heard in the council chamber.

Only a muffled silence flowed as if everyone had plugged their ears tightly with both hands.

And a sobbing voice flowed from the Empress.

“What… did you say?”

At the same time, another round of noisy waves swept through the council hall.

“Did I hear that correctly?”

“The owner of Pellet Trading Company is the Lombardi acting clan head?”

“Does anyone know how old the Lombardi acting clan head is this year?”

It was complete chaos.

The massive council hall that could accommodate hundreds of people became as noisy as a marketplace.

In that tumultuous space, Empress Lavinia and I were looking at each other.

The blue gaze that had initially been frozen without movement gradually began to waver.

She would want to believe I was lying, but she must be feeling it instinctively.

That my words were sincere.

I removed my smile and watched with serious eyes.

The sight of Empress Lavinia gradually crumbling.

“Is there a way… to prove it?”

Emperor Yobanes also seemed quite shocked, asking me in a voice that sounded choked.

“May I briefly call in Lombardi’s knight commander, Your Majesty?”

“Do… so.”

Following the Emperor’s command, an attendant rushed outside, and shortly after, Lambert Lombardi entered the council chamber.

“Lord Lombardi, could you give me the envelope I left with you at the estate?”

Lord Lombardi, who had been suddenly summoned to this chaotic scene and looked confused about what was happening, nodded.

And he handed me an envelope that had been carefully kept inside his thick armor.

I took out a sheet of paper from it and showed it to the Emperor.

“This is the employment contract I drafted with Cleribane Pellet when Pellet Trading Company was first established.”

“Employment… contract?”

The Emperor received it with a bewildered expression.

The contents of the contract were simple.

[I, Pirenthia Lombardi, owner of Pellet Trading Company, employ Cleribane Pellet as trading company head.

Cleribane Pellet will receive full authority over the trading company as my representative, and this employment contract remains valid indefinitely unless Cleribane Pellet requests termination of the contract.]

And below that were the date from when I turned eleven, along with mine and Cleribane’s signatures written side by side.

Looking at my childhood’s crooked handwriting where I had pressed down hard on each letter, I almost wanted to laugh.

“As you can see, Cleribane Pellet is an employed trading company head, and I am the owner of Pellet Trading Company.”

Instead of the speechless Emperor and Empress, I looked toward Peres.

He was smiling.

His red lips formed a perfect arc, and he was watching me with eyes full of warm affection.

He was sharing this moment closest to me as my long-kept secret was revealed to the world.

I smiled back at Peres, then half-snatched the employment contract from the Emperor’s hand.

Ah! It got wrinkled!

This is such an important document!

I carefully folded Cleribane’s lifetime employment contract and put it back in the envelope while saying.

“As the owner of Pellet Trading Company, I will exercise collateral rights over Henforek Estate.”

This one sentence is all it takes.

Now that land is mine, and I can do whatever I want with it.

“Would you return it, Your Majesty?”

I said, pointing to the contract between Angenas and Pellet Trading Company.

“Y-yes.”

Emperor Yobanes handed over the contract he had been holding in his other hand.

Look at this, there are fingerprints on this one too.

But this time I didn’t mind much.

It’s not even mine, after all.

I immediately handed the contract over to Lord Brown.

“And let’s transfer Henforek Estate to the Brown clan.”

This ends the game.

Although Henforek Estate is said to be as small as a fingernail, that’s only on the Empire’s map – in reality, it’s a spectacular sight of vast, empty plains.

“Th-thank you, Lady Lombardi acting clan head.”

Lord Brown said as he received the bundle of contracts with both hands.

“Don’t mention it.”

I slowly walked back and sat down in my seat.

Now everyone in the council hall was looking only at Yobanes.

“Then…”

Just as Yobanes was about to open his mouth, pushed by the silent pressure.

“Your Majesty, you cannot.”

Empress Lavinia grabbed Yobanes’s arm.

“You must not do this.”

Empress Lavinia’s voice was trembling.

They deployed every possible strategy in a defensive battle, but ultimately lost.

Now the only thing left to do was to plead with the Emperor.

The Empress’s usual dignified and confident demeanor was nowhere to be found.

Tears that seemed ready to fall at any moment welled up in her large eyes.

That pitiful sight might have stirred his heart for a moment.

But Emperor Yobanes coldly shook his head and pulled his arm free from her grasp.

And he declared.

“The Brown Family has become the new representative of the Western Region.”

Bang bang!

It seemed like such cheerful sounds could be heard from somewhere.

It feels empty since there aren’t any.

* * *

Yobanes roughly threw off his outer garment.

Though he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol, his face was flushed and his head ached.

After the council meeting ended, he went hawking as planned but had to return quickly.

It was because his physical condition wasn’t good.

“Call the court physician.”

Yobanes slumped down on the bed and shouted loudly.

“Now that the Western Region is settled, things should quiet down a bit.”

For the Emperor, today’s council meeting held that meaning.

A troublesome matter that caused headaches.

Perhaps his current poor physical condition was due to such reasons.

Thinking about the ongoing conflict between Lombardy and Angenas made his head throb even more.

Yobanes looked at the wine bottle by his bedside and got up from his seat.

“To think that young one had such secrets. Ha, quite impressive.”

His unsteady trembling hands made it troublesome even to pour wine into a cup.

Yobanes put the bottle directly to his lips and drank deeply.

Once, twice.

That was the moment.

“Kuk!”

Emperor Yobanes clutched his chest tightly and collapsed.

Thud!

A loud sound echoed through the Emperor’s chambers.

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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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