In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 24

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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 24

“You don’t usually carry a bag around… What’s inside it?”

“A gift!”

“A gift?”

“Yes! I’m going to give it to the Prince!”

Since the Second Prince is still technically a prince, it wasn’t a lie.

The Melcon medicine I had prepared was for the Second Prince Peres.

The Empress had started putting poison in his food around the time Peres’s mother fell ill and died.

However, I don’t know exactly what poison she used.

In my previous life, when he became Crown Prince and Lombardy came under attack, I wondered if there was anything I could do to help, so I sought out the Information Guild.

I spent months collecting money to buy an envelope containing information, but even that didn’t specify exactly what poison the Empress had used.

Even Peres himself never found out until the end, only managing to cure the severe insomnia that remained as an aftereffect of the poison.

But it was clear that she had continuously used small amounts for quite a long time, enough that it wouldn’t be easily noticed.

The Emperor, having entrusted the child born from a one-night mistake with a maid to the Empress, didn’t pay much attention to him.

Of course, the Empress promised to take good care of him herself, then moved meticulously behind the Emperor’s back.

But for some reason, Peres didn’t die from the poison and survived, and three years from now, the Emperor would notice the Empress’s lies.

Even so, there wouldn’t be much change in Peres’s life.

The Emperor only used the Empress’s mistake to keep the growing Angenas in check, still showing no interest in the Second Prince.

This was also because around that time, the Emperor began taking concubines from various noble families and having new heirs with them.

As I was lost in these various thoughts about Peres, I heard Father’s weak voice.

“Yes, Tia has reached that age now, hasn’t she.”

But Father’s reaction was a bit strange.

“I knew this day would come eventually…”

“No, it’s not like that…”

He seemed very hurt somehow.

But I couldn’t tell him the truth.

I was planning to tour the inside of the Imperial Palace with Father in a little while, then take advantage of an opportunity to get lost.

Of course, my destination was where the Second Prince Peres was.

Fortunately, I knew the approximate location of the palace where the Second Prince had lived with his mother.

The Empress wanted to keep that mother and son where she could keep an eye on them.

So she threw them a small pavilion in the forest on the west side of the Empress’ Quarters, and Peres lived there until he went to the Academy.

What would he look like now at eleven years old, the same age as the twins?

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, that is… The Imperial Palace guards say they need to inspect the carriage, so we should stop…”

An inspection of the Lombardi Family’s carriage?

Before I could even be flustered, the carriage door opened from outside, and I could see two Imperial knights standing there.

“Is this the Empress’s order?”

It was Father’s cold voice that I’d never heard before.

The knights couldn’t give any answer.

After a brief argument, Father looked at me once as if to tell me not to worry, then got out of the carriage.

Actually, I wasn’t worried about this situation, but rather surprised by this side of Father I’d never seen before.

It was obvious what had happened.

Something that would never happen to Grandfather’s carriage was happening to us.

For someone with the dignity of an Empress, it was quite cowardly and petty.

As I was sighing and casually looking out the window on the opposite side from where Father had gone, that’s when it happened.

“The Second Prince?”

I saw what looked like the back of a boy with black hair quickly passing between the trees in the distance.

“Really the Second Prince?”

Heaven must have been helping me.

Since what I knew was only a rough location, I had been wondering how I would find the palace where the Second Prince was right away, and whether I’d be able to meet him if I went there, when I discovered him by chance like this.

This was an opportunity I absolutely couldn’t miss.

After confirming that Father was still having a standoff with the knights, I very carefully opened the door on the opposite side of the carriage.

Fortunately, the door opened smoothly without making any sound.

Clutching my bag tightly in one hand, I immediately ran into the thicket right in front of me.

Looking back, Father and the knights still had no idea what was happening.

I felt a little guilty thinking about how surprised Father would be when he realized I was gone, but it couldn’t be helped.

There was no other way to meet the Second Prince without the Empress knowing.

I had no choice but to give this medicine to Peres and return as quickly as possible.

Hiding behind the low thicket, I ran hard toward where the Second Prince had disappeared until I was out of Father’s and the knights’ line of sight.

“Huff, huff! Oh my!”

After moving frantically, I seemed to have gotten far enough away from Father and the knights, but there was a problem.

“Where am I?”

The Second Prince who had definitely run this way was nowhere to be seen, and being in the forest, I had lost my sense of direction too.

I had intended to pretend to be lost, but now I was really lost.

Should I give up looking for Peres and return to where Father was?

Then I heard a rustling sound.

When I turned my head, I could see a thicket not far from where I was standing swaying.

Gulp.

I swallowed hard and approached carefully.

Step, step.

Even though my approaching footsteps should have been audible, there was no reaction from the thicket.

I made my footsteps even quieter.

And finally, I began to see a small figure.

Black hair grown just long enough to slightly cover his neck was the first thing that caught my eye.

Though there wasn’t a name tag attached, I could be certain.

It was the Second Prince Peres. It was definitely him.

But I couldn’t call his name or approach him to speak.

After several attempts of opening and closing my mouth, I was finally able to make a sound.

“Wh-what are you doing…?”

The Second Prince, crouched in front of the thicket, was picking only one type of pointed leaf with practiced hand movements.

And he didn’t stop there.

The Second Prince brought the roughly plucked leaves straight to his mouth.

Even though I could see his small mouth was already full of grass.

Again and again, again and again.

Even when green juice dripped from the corners of his mouth, he would carelessly wipe it with his sleeve and not stop plucking and eating the leaves before his eyes.

The action was so mechanical yet desperate that my heart seemed to sink as I watched.

I barely managed to move my frozen body and took a couple of steps closer.

“Stop it.”

When I spoke urgently, the Prince’s busy movements finally ceased.

The child who had only shown me his profile turned his head to look at me.

Vivid red eyes with a dark brown tint.

This boy was definitely the Second Prince.

“What on earth are you doing? Why are you eating that grass?”

I was getting angry without even realizing it myself.

Young Peres looked at me with eyes that seemed devoid of emotion.

And he answered.

“Because my stomach hurts.”

“What?”

“My stomach has been hurting for no reason lately. The book said that eating this herb would make it better.”

“Ah….”

I couldn’t continue speaking.

My head felt dazed as if I’d been struck hard on the back of it.

The reason for his constant stomach pain was obvious.

It was a symptom of poisoning from toxins that had gradually accumulated in his body.

His pale complexion finally caught my eye.

This was how the Second Prince had survived.

Like a wild beast, he had wandered through the forest himself, searching for helpful medicinal herbs and eating them to endure.

The Second Prince looked at me for a moment, then turned back around.

Since he was three years older than me, he was eleven this year.

The same age as the twins.

However, Peres’ build was too small to be called eleven years old.

He looked like he was barely even ten years old.

His appearance was too shabby to be called a prince.

The clothes he wore seemed to be made of fairly high-quality materials, but they were wrinkled and dirty everywhere.

It seemed like he had been wearing the same clothes for several days.

Don’t tell me he doesn’t even have a servant to take care of him.

An ominous feeling crossed my mind.

Then Peres tried to pluck and eat another leaf, and I grabbed his hand in horror.

“Don’t eat things like that. If you’re sick, you should take medicine!”

“But when Mother was sick, the physician didn’t come to help her either, did he?”

“That, that’s….”

“So I looked it up in books. It looks like useless weeds, but it might be effective.”

Crouching down beside him, our eye levels were similar, and the prince’s wrist caught in my hand was so thin.

So much so that I unconsciously flinched and quickly loosened my grip.

When the prince’s mother was dying of illness, the Empress prevented physicians from entering that place.

So when Peres became Crown Prince and exercised full authority in place of the collapsed Emperor, the first thing he did was send the First Prince to the battlefield.

It was the northern front, famous for having the most casualties and being the most fierce.

And he prevented even a single medicinal herb, let alone a physician, from entering the Empress’ palace after she collapsed from the shock.

When I heard that story, I briefly thought it was going too far, no matter what.

I thought he was such a cruel person.

But now I don’t think I could have such thoughts even for a moment.

A child who couldn’t even grow to match his age had endured by chewing grass like this.

He had survived fiercely on his own.

I brushed the remaining grass from Peres’ hand and opened the bag I was carrying as I spoke.

“I have medicine with me. So don’t eat things like this.”

The prince tilted his head and asked.

“Who are you?”

How quickly he asks.

I sighed softly and answered.

“My name is Pirenthia. Pirenthia Lombardi.”

“I’m Peres.”

The Second Prince said while looking longingly at the medicinal herb leaves that had fallen to the ground.

Then he raised his head to look at me.

Those eyes, which seemed like the color of deep blood, were as empty as if they were hollow.

The Second Prince asked me.

“But why are you crying?”

“What are you talking about.”

“You’re crying.”

“What nonsense….”

I let out a hollow laugh and brought my hand to my eyes, then was startled.

Tears were really falling from my eyes.

“Ah. This, this is, well.”

Why am I crying?

As I stammered, unable to give a proper explanation in my confusion, the prince said.

“Do you pity me?”

Ah, damn it.

To make such words come from a child’s mouth.

I shouted louder out of embarrassment.

“No! It’s not like that!”

“It’s okay. Mother and my wet nurse said that too. That I was pitiful, that I was pathetic.”

I keep losing words to say in front of this child.

But Peres shrugged as if he didn’t really understand the meaning of the word ‘pitiful.’

“Though neither of them are by my side now.”

“Your wet nurse, your wet nurse is gone too?”

The prince’s mother had died recently, but I thought someone would remain by his side.

Peres shook his head from side to side.

“She was driven away recently. The wet nurse said she didn’t want to go, but the soldiers dragged her away.”

Cruel Empress.

To leave no one beside a child who was only eleven years old.

Well, someone who was trying to slowly kill him with poison wouldn’t show such consideration.

I was grinding my teeth thinking of the Empress.

Then, the Second Prince said to me.

“So you’d better not help me either. You might end up dead too.”

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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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