In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 234

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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 234

Peres came out to the front of the Imperial Palace to see off Tia and the Lombardi clan head.

“Second Prince.”

Rulak, who was just about to board the carriage, called out to Peres.

“His Majesty has ordered it, so I’ll allow it, but don’t think about working our Tia to the bone.”

Despite the clear signs of fatigue on his face, the Lombardi clan head was still looking after his granddaughter.

“That measly Angenas money doesn’t matter whether we have it or not. The Prince should handle most things himself.”

Rulak’s devoted love for his granddaughter was something he knew well, so Peres silently nodded his head.

“Grandfather! But do you know how much that money is!”

Tia grumbled beside him with a dissatisfied voice.

“Cleribane and Pellet Trading House both need to receive compensation.”

“Take what you need from Lombardi. Wouldn’t that work? I can’t stand to see my granddaughter cleaning up after Imperial affairs.”

“Did you forget that Pellet Trading House is also mine? You’re telling me to take our family’s money to fill the holes in my own business? That would be an even bigger loss!”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

The mighty Rulak was flustered and couldn’t argue back against Tia’s single remark.

“I’ll collect every bit of that money, even if I have to demolish the Angenas manor and sell the remaining bricks.”

Tia said while clenching her fist tightly.

A muttering about ‘though no one might buy them thinking they’re unlucky’ followed as well.

Rulak couldn’t say anything more to his granddaughter and briefly glared at Peres.

“Handle it well, Second Prince.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Tia lightly tapped the shoulder of Peres, who was giving a prompt reply.

‘Understand? What do you understand!’

Even without speaking aloud, he could clearly hear what she was saying with her eyes.

Peres quietly smiled and escorted Tia so she could comfortably board the carriage.

“Get some rest.”

Tia said to Peres through the closing carriage door.

“Don’t overdo it.”

It was warm nagging filled with concern.

Click.

The carriage door closed, and the Lombardi carriage departed.

Peres, who had been standing and watching their retreating figure for a moment, began moving busily.

He confirmed that the Empress had arrived at the underground prison and created a list of the Imperial Guards who had followed the Empress.

Then he dispatched trustworthy troops to seal the entrances of the Angenas family’s townhouse located in the Imperial Capital.

He sent letters explaining the crimes committed by the Empress’s clan and the Imperial decree to punish them severely to important families, including Chairman Killian of the Noble Council.

Finally, he sent the Crown Prince appointment letter that Yobanes had written in shaky handwriting to the representative families of each region.

As if it was work he had been doing for a long time, there was no hesitation in Peres’s handling of affairs.

The officials helping with the work beside him were so surprised their eyes widened in circles.

All the work was finished in just a few hours.

Peres, who had worked like a machine without eating, drinking, or resting, suddenly stood up from his seat at some point.

“I will go alone.”

Leaving only those words to the Imperial Guards following behind him, he continued walking.

Peres’s steps, which had been moving continuously as if he were a person without a destination, arrived somewhere and stopped abruptly.

Whoosh-.

The bare tree branches that had lost all their leaves with the coming of winter made a forlorn wind sound.

Peres raised his head to look at the pavilion situated within that skeletal forest.

Creak, thud.

As if even the door handle had broken, the rusted door rattled like a scream every time the wind blew.

Peres took a few more steps toward that pavilion.

Rustle.

Fallen leaves that hadn’t yet rotted away were stepped on underfoot.

“Mother.”

Peres slightly frowned at those words that felt awkward because it had been so long.

It felt like wearing clothes that didn’t fit.

The word ‘Mother’ didn’t suit him.

And rightfully so, as Peres’s mother, the maid Keila who came from servant origins, was far from maternal.

“Your Highness, Crown Prince.”

His mother always called Peres that way.

Not as a son, but as if addressing a master she had to serve.

Even such a Keila would smile brightly when Peres read books and talked about their contents.

Even to young Peres’s eyes, that smiling face was quite beautiful, and because it made him happy.

Peres read books diligently.

Still, there was just one time.

A moment when Keila showed something resembling affection.

He remembered that touch when, in midsummer, she wiped with her hand the sweat that had poured down his forehead from running around and playing in front of the pavilion.

Peres still remembered those gentle hands that wiped away his sweat without showing any sign of disgust.

“It hurts so much…”

Unfortunately, after that, most of his memories of his mother were only such things.

The sobbing voice calling for a physician.

“Please just kill me instead. Kill me now, please.”

Things like those withered fingers clinging to and pleading with the soldiers the Empress had sent to prevent physicians from entering the pavilion.

Keila wanted to die.

And after ‘that incident’ happened, she refused to eat food on her own.

It was the only resistance Keila could make against a world that prevented her from receiving a physician’s help while not granting her the mercy of death.

Creeeak-.

Peres opened the precariously rattling door and stepped inside the pavilion.

Flutter!

The sound of birds that had been nesting in the collapsing ruins being startled and flying away could be heard.

The few feathers they dropped were the most presentable things in this pavilion.

Inside the building that could collapse at any moment, there was only dust that had turned neither completely black nor completely white.

“Mother. Don’t die, Mother.”

Peres listened carefully, feeling as if his own trembling voice from childhood could be heard somewhere in this ruin.

With dry eyes that couldn’t even produce tears from not drinking water, Keila had said.

“Poor Crown Prince. You must live, Your Highness.”

Those were the words she said while choosing death, leaving behind her son who had just turned eleven.

“I have a request, Your Highness. Since you care for me, you’ll grant it, won’t you?”

“I’ll grant it. I’ll follow Mother’s words…”

“Please kill that Emperor and Empress while you live. If you pity me, please take revenge for me.”

Her ordinary, powerless brown eyes gleamed with savage intensity in that moment.

“Before that, Your Highness must not die. Not until you’ve carried out my revenge.”

“Mother….”

“Since you love me, please grant my request. Survive and carry out my revenge….”

Using a child’s blind love for his mother as bait, Keila cruelly made her final wish.

“It’s not entirely over yet.”

Peres’s dry voice echoed through the high ceiling of the pavilion.

“Are you somewhat satisfied now?”

Mother.

He swallowed those words in the end.

A breeze blew from somewhere, tickling Peres’s bangs.

The gentle wind that didn’t suit this ruin felt like those hands that used to wipe away his sweat, and Peres slowly closed his eyes.

The dark shadows of those days when he craved even a fragment of affection and struggled desperately to survive alone seemed to seep back into his entire body.

That’s when it happened.

“I told you to rest.”

The damp, oppressive aura that had been suffocating Peres instantly shattered with a sharp crack at the bright, clear voice from behind him.

“Is our future Crown Prince planning not to listen to me anymore?”

He could tell without turning around.

“…Tia.”

“What are you doing here, Peres.”

Step, step.

His heart raced at the small footsteps approaching without hesitation.

“Just organizing my thoughts for a moment.”

Peres slowly turned around.

“I thought you might come here.”

Tia’s green eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

Then she looked around the old, worn pavilion and said.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here too. A place of memories.”

“…Memories?”

“Isn’t it? We first met in that forest over there, and the second time we met, we shared chocolate cookies in the bedroom up there.”

“Ah.”

Peres’s red lips parted slightly.

“If I’m the only one who thinks that way, I’d be a little disappointed.”

Tia smiled.

“No, I do too.”

Peres said hurriedly, as if making an excuse.

“I’m joking, Peres. I think I understand why you came back here, so I was teasing you on purpose.”

Saying that, Tia reached out her hand toward Peres’s chest.

“It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah.”

“But you should be proud. You accomplished all of this yourself.”

Tia’s vivid green eyes were intense, as if they could see through everything.

“Still, will it be okay?”

“Of course. You survived and made it this far.”

Tia said quietly.

“You’ve worked so hard. You’re truly amazing. So now live a life for yourself, Peres. For no one else but yourself…!”

Suddenly.

Peres pulled Tia into his embrace.

His hands trembled as his fear of hurting her if he held too tight battled with his desire to hold her even tighter.

Tia, who had stopped as if slightly surprised, soon began patting Peres’s back.

“Tia.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Holding her body tight once more, Peres thought.

Now I’ll live a life for you.

A life for you and me, for us.

And he revised his plan to immediately tear down this pavilion.

“I should rebuild this building.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

At Tia’s voice, slightly muffled as she was buried in his chest, Peres smiled quietly and answered.

“As you said, Tia, it’s a place that holds our memories.”

This small, nameless pavilion in the forest near the Empress’s Palace would now be remembered by him with that meaning.

* * *

“The child of the new nation, no, the adult must go to work now!”

I shouted while checking my appearance in the mirror.

“Are you that happy about organizing Angenas’s assets, Young Lady?”

Loril looked at me and asked with a smile.

“Of course! They had quite a lot of hidden assets! They had no money to pay other people’s debts but had money to collect expensive jewelry.”

There were so many secret places where expensive items were hidden throughout the large Town House Estate.

Today was the third day of organizing the Angenas Family, and it was giving me the same fun as going on a treasure hunt.

“What will I find today? Rubies? Diamonds?”

I was just coming outside, humming like that.

“Sister!”

“Oh, Creny!”

From far away, Creny, who had grown quite tall, approached with a bright smile.

“I heard you returned from the Academy. But I was so busy I completely forgot.”

“I thought so, so I came to find you first.”

Creny, who had grown remarkably tall, had a much brighter face than at this time in my previous life.

Whether my early education was paying off, he was achieving much better grades at the Academy than in my previous life, so it was natural.

“Where are you going?”

“Ah, to do some cleaning.”

“Cleaning?”

“Something like that. Is it urgent?”

At my question, Creny shook his head.

“No, I just came to greet you because I wanted to see your face.”

“Aw, you sweet thing.”

I patted Creny’s head just like when he was little and said.

“How about we have dinner together tonight when I get back?”

“Yes! I want to tell you about what happened at the Academy, and I also have a gift I bought for you!”

“Alright. Tonight, oh!”

While talking with Creny and going down the staircase, I missed a step.

“Whoa, are you okay?”

I almost badly twisted my ankle.

But thanks to Creny, who was beside me and caught me right away, I didn’t get hurt.

“This won’t do. Let me escort you to the carriage, Sister.”

I thought he had only grown tall and lanky, but the strength with which he holds my hand is quite firm too.

“When did you grow up so much.”

I said that while trying to pat Creny’s head again.

“…Creny?”

Until I saw that Creny’s face, which had been smiling just moments before, had turned pale white.

And the reason for it was soon revealed.

Step, step.

“Who are you?”

Peres was approaching with cold eyes.

His gaze fixed on my hand that Creny was holding tightly.

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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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