In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 232

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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 232

Otuwa looked at the person before her with fearful eyes.

The young man with black hair and crimson eyes possessed such outstanding looks that anyone would lose their soul just gazing at him.

However, to Otuwa, he was simply the most terrifying and fearsome person under heaven.

“The Empress gave you an order?”

At Peres’s low voice, Otuwa’s already tense body flinched greatly.

“Yes. She said it was Titi spider poison, and told me to put this in His Majesty the Emperor’s wine right now…”

Otuwa placed the small bottle she had been clutching with trembling hands onto the table.

“Titi spider poison.”

Peres reached out and rolled the small bottle in his palm, then chuckled.

If the Empress didn’t move, he had planned to move directly himself.

That was why he had asked Estira for the Titi spider poison and antidote.

“It seems I’m quite lucky.”

Otuwa simply bowed her head and sat quietly, unable to understand the Second Prince’s words.

“To think the Empress would save me the trouble.”

The Second Prince had first sought out Otuwa right after returning from the Academy.

“If the Empress tries to harm His Majesty, report to me first.”

That was all that was required in exchange for the money that came into Otuwa’s secret account every year.

The salary of the Emperor’s head maid was not small.

But for Otuwa, who sent most of it to her family back home and lived frugally herself, it was literally money that allowed her to breathe.

Moreover, though she had the Empress as her backing, she had no loyalty.

She was only following orders because her blood relatives were held hostage.

But recently, the situation had been flowing strangely.

Every time the Second Prince moved, the Empress’s forces visibly diminished, and finally even the master of the Western Region had changed.

Otuwa was terribly afraid of the Second Prince.

So much so that she couldn’t even meet his eyes properly.

There was a reason for that fear.

“…What should I do?”

Otuwa asked cautiously.

It was a question with a predetermined answer.

Otuwa had come to the Second Prince intending to disobey the Empress’s order to kill the Emperor.

“Put it in.”

“…Pardon?”

“Do as the Empress ordered you – put this poison in the wine bottle.”

“But, but…”

Otuwa looked at the Second Prince in surprise.

The red eyes she met for the first time were cold.

“Why are you surprised?”

“Then His Majesty will…”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve put poison in His Majesty’s wine, is it?”

“How, how do you know that…”

Instead of answering, Peres smiled faintly and said.

“So this time too, just put in the poison as the Empress ordered.”

Otuwa did not answer.

She only looked down at her hands gripping her dress tightly.

Then she asked in a trembling voice.

“What will happen to my life?”

It was the exact same question she had asked the Empress.

Empress Lavinia had not guaranteed her safety.

That was the biggest reason Otuwa had sought out Peres.

“…I’ll let you leave the palace and live with a new identity.”

Peres said, staring intently at the head maid.

“Isn’t that what you want?”

Otuwa nodded briefly.

To cast off her shackle-like family and leave this terrifying Imperial Palace.

That was what she wanted.

The head maid reached out again and grasped the bottle containing the poison.

However, her hand fiddling with the bottle’s cap was still full of hesitation.

“Don’t worry. If I give the antidote immediately after he collapses, His Majesty won’t die.”

Not yet.

Not this easily.

Peres was planning to be the first person to discover the collapsed Emperor.

“Then…”

At Peres’s words, Otuwa’s complexion brightened noticeably.

“It seems you’ve suddenly developed a conscience that wasn’t there ten years ago, Bella Otuwa.”

Peres spoke mockingly to the head maid.

“You didn’t seem to hesitate like this when you brought me food laced with poison.”

“Your, Your Highness…”

The only person who had frequented the crumbling pavilion.

The black-haired maid, Bella Otuwa, opened her eyes wide.

“Did you think I didn’t know?”

Otuwa rose from where she was sitting and immediately knelt down.

“I’m, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Your Highness!”

Thud, thud.

The sound of her head hitting the floor echoed.

“Back then, I had no choice either… P-please spare me!”

“Enough with the apologies.”

Peres coldly cut off the head maid’s words.

“Go back to the Imperial Palace right now and put the spider poison in the wine. That’s how you’ll atone for your sins, Bella Otuwa.”

Otuwa, who had been trembling like an aspen leaf, bowed her head after a moment and answered.

“I will… follow Your Highness’s command.”

* * *

“Tell me what you did, Otuwa.”

Emperor Yobanes asked with labored breathing.

“I…”

Otuwa answered with her eyes tightly shut.

“I put poison in Your Majesty’s wine bottle.”

“Who ordered you to do it?”

The head maid raised her trembling finger to point at the Empress.

“The Empress… Your Majesty.”

“No, no!”

Empress Lavinia screamed as if having a fit.

“No! This is a false accusation, Your Majesty! That woman and the Second Prince conspired to frame me!”

The Empress seemed to have chosen to struggle to the end rather than give up and drown.

“Here is the bottle that the Empress gave me with the poison.”

Head Maid Otuwa pulled out a small glass bottle, no bigger than a finger, from her sleeve as she spoke.

“That cannot serve as evidence!”

The Empress strode forward threateningly toward the head maid.

Her eyes looked as if she wanted to tear that mouth apart right then and there.

And she looked down at the head maid with blazing eyes as she spoke.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now?”

It was clearly a threat.

The head maid stepped back fearfully, but with her head bowed, she stubbornly continued speaking.

“…Your Majesty the Empress gave me poison and told me to put it all in His Majesty’s wine bottles.”

“Your Majesty! This is unjust!”

The Empress now approached the Emperor’s bedside, pleading desperately.

“Do you believe that head maid’s words over mine? It’s nothing but vicious slander, Your Majesty!”

Then, just like in the Council Hall, she grabbed tightly onto the Emperor’s sleeve.

“Please believe me, Your Majesty.”

What a pitiful sight she made.

It was acting that could easily fool anyone.

Then, Peres pulled something from his chest and spoke.

“If it’s evidence you want, we have it.”

“What?”

The Empress’s head turned toward Peres so quickly it made a whooshing sound.

“Here is a letter where Your Majesty the Empress asked her confidant to obtain ‘Titi spider poison.'”

A purple letter envelope.

It was exactly what Ceral had given me in exchange for saving Belesack.

“That’s impossible.”

The Empress looked at the letter being handed to the Emperor with disbelieving eyes.

“How did you get that…”

The Emperor briefly checked the contents of the letter.

His lips, pale from being unable to breathe properly, twisted crookedly toward Empress Lavinia.

And with wheezing breaths, he spoke.

“How dare you try to…”

The Emperor knocked away the Empress’s hand that was clutching him and commanded.

“Take the Empress to the underground dungeon.”

Two guards who had been waiting by the door immediately walked over to the Empress and grabbed both her arms.

“Let go! Let go of me! Let go!”

Empress Lavinia struggled violently, the veins bulging in her neck.

Her beautiful face became hideously contorted, and her perfectly arranged hair became a mess in an instant.

“Ahhh! Let go! Do you know who I am! Let go!”

Empress Lavinia resisted so strongly that even the guards struggled, but at some point, she began glaring at the Emperor lying on the bed and screaming.

“How frustrating! How frustrating that I couldn’t kill you, Yobanes!”

Madness flared in the Empress’s blue eyes.

“You’re worse than a pig in heat!”

Those fierce blue eyes now turned toward Peres.

“Peres! You lowborn thing born from a filthy body! I should have killed you along with your mother!”

And she began to scream.

“Why isn’t heaven on my side! Why do you keep blocking me! Why!”

Tears flowed endlessly down the screaming Empress’s face.

She was raging desperately, filled with resentment and injustice.

At that moment, the eyes of the furious Empress met mine.

The Empress’s face, which had been twisted like a demon’s, slowly relaxed and her mouth fell open.

Her trembling blue eyes stared at me.

“It’s you.”

The Empress muttered in a somewhat deflated voice.

“It was all your doing.”

I didn’t answer.

But I didn’t avoid the Empress’s gaze either.

“Ha…”

The Empress let out a hollow laugh with trembling lips.

And it quickly spread into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! Ahahaha!”

The Empress bent over, laughing like a madwoman.

“…How ugly. I can’t stand to look anymore. Drag her out.”

Emperor Yobanes frowned and commanded the guards.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Even under the guards’ strong grip, the Empress didn’t resist like before.

“I was deceived! Ahahaha! I was foolish!”

She only swayed like an insane person, laughing loudly.

Tears began flowing down the Empress’s face once again.

“Ha! Ahahaha!”

The laughter of the Empress being dragged away echoed from the distance.

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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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