In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 248

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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 248

So it was a few days ago.

When Rulak suddenly visited Emperor Yobanes’ bedchamber without any prior notice.

“What brings you here?”

Emperor Yobanes asked Rulak, not hiding his discomfort.

His glaring eyes were quite sharp, but Rulak paid no attention to them at all.

He merely looked around the bedroom, hazy with the vapor of strong medicine, with furrowed brows before answering in a calm voice.

“I came to give my final farewell.”

“Final farewell?”

“I plan to pass the position of family head to my granddaughter tomorrow. After that, I won’t set foot in this Imperial Palace except for Your Majesty’s funeral, so it truly is a final farewell.”

“Funeral?”

Emperor Yobanes trembled with rage, catching the underlying meaning in Rulak’s words.

“Are you saying that I’m going to die?”

“It seems you still haven’t accepted it. The fact that Your Majesty is dying.”

“Hey! Lombardi Family Head!”

Emperor Yobanes shouted loudly with as much energy as his rising anger allowed.

But that was all.

“Huff… Cough! Cough!”

Emperor Yobanes’ convulsive coughing and breathing difficulties began again.

“Tsk tsk.”

Rulak, who had been watching Emperor Yobanes writhing in pain and clutching his chest with what seemed like sympathy, picked up a handkerchief from a nearby table and handed it to him.

“Cough, cough!”

Finally, the court physician who had briefly stepped away came running back in to administer treatment, and only then could Emperor Yobanes breathe raggedly again.

“Huff, haah.”

With his lips turned completely blue, drool flowing without his knowledge.

Emperor Yobanes buried his body deep into the pillow and lay there as if exhausted.

“How did you know?”

Emperor Yobanes’ condition was getting worse day by day.

He had brought in the court physician and other renowned doctors of the Empire for examination, but they all just shook their heads.

They left words saying that the poison the Empress had used was so deadly that it was a miracle he was still alive, and that it was time to slowly make ‘preparations’.

However, Emperor Yobanes responded to such court physicians by beating them just short of death and banishing them from the Imperial Palace as their compensation.

‘Quacks! Who’s dying!’

Emperor Yobanes denied it.

But.

“Your Majesty and I are very different, but we do have one thing in common.”

Rulak approached Emperor Yobanes and said.

“The fact that we both have quite capable successors.”

“Ha.”

Emperor Yobanes snorted.

“Capable successors. What does that have to do with me?”

He said while gripping the sweat-soaked bed sheets.

“The Empire runs just fine without me already. Those who swore loyalty don’t even show their faces.”

Emperor Yobanes muttered as he continued his self-deprecating words.

Though he was clearly the Emperor of this Empire, he was already isolated and being forgotten.

“I’m dying anyway. What happens after that is none of my concern.”

“That’s exactly it.”

Rulak said.

“That’s why it’s important.”

Emperor Yobanes looked up at Rulak with clouded eyes.

Rulak clicked his tongue several more times inwardly.

Emperor Yobanes’ mind, which had once been remarkably quick in calculating his own interests, had already become dull.

Since he had killed his father with poison, dying by poison himself was rather just.

Still, seeing Emperor Yobanes, whom he had watched grow up since childhood, gasping for breath like an animal struck by an arrow struggling to survive, was not pleasant to watch.

Rulak opened his mouth, thinking of Emperor Yobanes with pity.

“A dead emperor has no power.”

“When I die…”

As if finally realizing something, Emperor Yobanes’ vacant gaze wavered.

“Now you should accept death and prepare for the afterlife.”

“Afterlife?”

“That’s right. If Your Majesty ends your life like this, think about what will remain and how those left behind will evaluate Your Majesty – the answer will come quickly.”

“I, I…”

Emperor Yobanes asked urgently.

There was even a look of panic in his eyes.

“Wasn’t I a fairly excellent emperor?”

For the first time since entering the bedroom, Rulak kept his mouth firmly shut instead of answering.

In the ensuing silence, Emperor Yobanes took several shallow breaths before asking once more.

“What should I do?”

* * *

“Do you really mean to distribute all that money, Your Majesty?”

A high-ranking official from the ministry responsible for Imperial finances asked as if confirming again.

He couldn’t believe his own ears.

This was Emperor Yobanes, who had never once bestowed anything upon those who worked for him throughout his entire reign.

Yet suddenly he had summoned him and ordered that a significant portion of the year’s budget be distributed as rewards to everyone employed by the Imperial Palace, including officials and even servants doing menial work.

“That’s right. They’ve worked hard all this time. It’s a gift I’m giving.”

Emperor Yobanes nodded as if pretending to be calm, as though that money wasn’t precious to him at all.

“Everyone will be delighted by Your Majesty’s grace.”

Leaving Emperor Yobanes, who was smiling as if satisfied, alone, the official slowly exited the Emperor’s bedchamber.

Thinking he should meet with the court physician.

It was to confirm whether the Emperor was currently in a state to make proper judgments.

“Ah, Second Prince.”

Just then, he encountered Peres, who was walking toward the bedchamber.

He bowed deeply with respect, completely different from how he had treated Emperor Yobanes just moments before.

“Are you coming from seeing His Majesty?”

“Yes, that’s right. However…”

The official explained to Peres what had just happened.

And at the end, he asked as if seeking permission.

“Should I really proceed with it?”

It was a question where anyone could find something strange with just a little thought.

He was asking a mere prince, who hadn’t even been appointed as Crown Prince yet, whether he should carry out an imperial command.

However, the official had no such awareness.

As a subordinate, Peres, whom he had observed for just a few weeks, was far more trustworthy and worth following than Emperor Yobanes, whom he had assisted for decades.

“Do as he says.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!”

Now that he had confirmation from His Highness as well.

The official walked away cheerfully, thinking about receiving the bonus.

“I have arrived, Your Majesty.”

Peres had come to the bedchamber at the appointed time to prepare and offer tea twice a day, as promised.

“Why are you late?”

Despite arriving on time, Yobanes found fault for no reason.

“There’s nothing good about neglecting me, is there?”

Yobanes twisted his lips that had turned purple and smiled coldly.

“I apologize. I was handling Astana’s affairs.”

Peres handed over a report with an expressionless face.

“Astana’s leg was… amputated?”

“Yes, he was attacked by a monster, but they quickly amputated one leg at the scene and saved his life.”

“Stupid fool. He should have died instead.”

Yobanes frowned as he spoke.

Then, as if pushing disgusting trash into a corner, he tossed the report outside the bed.

“So you’re saying you were late because of mere Astana’s affairs?”

“It seems Your Majesty will need Astana, so I was on my way back after replying to give him maximum convenience.”

“What do you mean by that?”

That Astana is needed.

Peres answered with a calm face.

“It seems I won’t be able to receive the Crown Prince appointment.”

“…What?”

Yobanes was so surprised he couldn’t close his mouth.

“My bloodline becomes an obstacle to what I most want to do.”

“Ha, you’ve gone mad.”

Yobanes was so shocked he let out a hollow laugh.

“The imperial bloodline is blocking your path forward?”

“That’s correct.”

Peres answered immediately without any hesitation.

Yobanes, who had been staring at Peres, asked.

“What do you want?”

Unless one is insane.

No one in this world would refuse the Crown Prince position, the future Emperor’s seat.

Everyone must have something they want to be acting like this.

“…Please change the current law where one loses succession rights and position when becoming Empress. Then I’ll consider it.”

It was an unexpected condition.

However, there was something that came to mind.

“Is it because of Lombardi, that girl?”

Yobanes asked with a twisted expression.

Peres answered with silence instead.

“You’ve gone mad. To abandon the throne for a mere girl. To be blinded by just that!”

Wheeze- Wheeze-

Yobanes began breathing even more heavily.

That lowly thing doesn’t know gratitude!

How dare she set conditions?

And for that half-baked Lombardi girl?

“Enough! There’s no throne to pass on to someone like you!”

Yobanes refused coldly.

If he took such a hard stance, Peres would reluctantly change his conditions.

That’s what he thought.

“Understood. Then please write a letter to bring the Crown Prince back to the Imperial Capital. I’ll send it instead.”

Peres calmly prepared paper and pen and placed them in front of Yobanes.

With this response, it was Yobanes who became flustered instead.

“You…”

Even when he called out to Peres with difficulty, all that returned was a cold reaction without even a trace of regret.

Yobanes realized with shock.

“You bastard, you’re truly planning to abandon the throne.”

“That’s correct.”

Peres, standing with his hands behind his back, nodded.

“If she’s not the head of Lombardi, there will be no Empress, and in that case, wouldn’t it be better for someone else to become Emperor rather than me? I’ll be satisfied living as the spouse of the Lombardi family head.”

“Crazy bastard, crazy bastard.”

Yobanes was now only repeating those words.

“If you dislike Astana, shall I send a letter to the Mayer family?”

At the mention of the Mayer family, Yobanes’s shoulders flinched greatly.

The head of the Mayer family was an illegitimate child the Previous Emperor had with his mistress.

If Yobanes’s sons couldn’t inherit the throne, they would be suitable successors to the imperial throne.

Yobanes, who had been glaring at Peres as if to kill him, asked.

“You want my final decree.”

To make that lowly thing who became head of Lombardi the Empress would face considerable opposition from the nobles.

The final decree of an Emperor lying on his deathbed could silence all such noise at once.

“I would recommend Astana over the Mayer family. Although he’s missing one hand and one leg and is dim-witted, he’s still Your Majesty’s bloodline.”

Peres said to Yobanes.

“It would be better than the throne passing to the head of Mayer.”

“You bastard!”

Yobanes mustered all his strength to shout.

However, nothing changed.

Peres stood upright with his hands behind his back, looking down at Yobanes with a face devoid of any emotion.

The guards standing at the door didn’t rush in either.

Since lying in the sickbed, Yobanes’s emotions had been fluctuating a dozen times a day.

They too had gotten used to it by now.

It was a situation that clearly showed Yobanes’s current predicament.

Thud!

Yobanes snatched the paper and pen from Peres’s hands.

“Fine, I’ll immediately bring Astana…”

It seemed like Yobanes would write a letter to bring the Crown Prince back to the Imperial Capital right away.

“Astana…”

However, unlike his heavy breathing, the hand holding the pen remained motionless.

Why did he feel like he was standing at the edge of a cliff?

His heart sank as if looking down a dizzying precipice beneath his feet.

Then, Peres spoke as if poking his back.

“Your Majesty, please choose. Will you call Astana back, or will you leave a final decree?”

Wheeze, wheeze.

Only Yobanes’s labored breathing echoed in the bedroom.

And after a moment, Yobanes began moving his pen with hands stained and messy with ink.

Peres watched this scene with his hands behind his back, quietly lifting one corner of his mouth.

* * *

“Pirenthia Lombardi, head of the family, will you marry me?”

At Peres’s question, I felt my mind go blank.

Before I knew it, there was a ring in his hand.

It was that red diamond ring I had rejected when we announced our engagement to lift Grandfather’s house arrest.

“I…”

As I began to speak, I could clearly see Peres’s red eyes trembling finely.

He was genuinely anxious.

That I might refuse.

As if what he had presented before me wasn’t a red diamond ring, but his very heart.

Peres looked like he would die on the spot if I shook my head.

Because I wanted to remember this face forever.

I looked at Peres for a moment, then said.

“Yes. Let’s get married, Peres. Let’s live together for the rest of our lives.”

The next moment, Peres’s trembling hands slipped the ring onto my finger.

“Tia, I really am. I am.”

Peres pulled me into a tight embrace and muttered a few incomprehensible words.

Thump, thump.

I could feel Peres’s wildly beating heart through our touching bodies.

And his face slowly approached mine.

Just as our lips drew very close.

Block!

A few of my fingers blocked Peres’s lips.

With his mouth blocked, I spoke to Peres who was giving me an extremely aggrieved look.

“Before we announce our engagement again, there are a few things we absolutely must do.”

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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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