In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 268

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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

 

Side Story Episode 11

 

“…Who?”

 

Peres frowned slightly.

 

He seemed displeased that someone he couldn’t remember knew him.

 

“It’s Lydia!”

 

The woman said her name again.

 

However, Peres still had a completely clueless expression on his face.

 

“Your hair color is different, but you’re definitely Lord Herox….”

 

At Peres’s cold reaction, the woman muttered in apparent confusion.

 

“This is strange…. There’s no way you wouldn’t remember me.”

 

No way he wouldn’t remember?

 

What kind of relationship did they have?

 

I felt one of my eyebrows twitch.

 

“My parents run 【Gray’s Rest】 over there. Until three years ago, whenever you visited the Southern Region, you would stay there with your close friends….”

 

Three years ago?

 

Three years ago in the Southern Region would have been after the incident in Aivan, right before we moved Larane to the Eastern Region.

 

At that time, Peres had been secretly moving around the Southern Region to meet Chanton Sersheu in order to cut off Angenas’s funding.

 

“Ah.”

 

Peres seemed to remember, as he blinked once.

 

Though that was all he did, the face of the woman called Lydia lit up like a lamp.

 

“Yes! You remember now, don’t you? I’m Lydia!”

 

“Now that you mention it.”

 

Peres tilted his head as if searching through old memories.

 

“To call you that Lydia….”

 

“Oh come on, that was three years ago! I’m an adult now!”

 

“That’s true.”

 

“Your hair color is different, so I almost didn’t recognize you!”

 

The conversation between just the two of them continued.

 

It wasn’t a product of coincidence.

 

It was quite intentional.

 

From the beginning, Lydia had been glancing at me, who was standing next to Peres.

 

I did the same.

 

Her presence bothered me just as much.

 

When our eyes met for a moment, I didn’t avoid Lydia’s gaze and looked straight at her.

 

And I examined her carefully.

 

Brown hair and green eyes.

 

Unlike me, she had straight hair without any curl and gentle features.

 

But still, the undeniably similar aspects grated on my nerves.

 

“Um, Lord Herox….”

 

Lydia looked at me and frowned slightly before speaking.

 

“Who is that person….”

 

Only then did Peres go “Ah” and look at me with uncharacteristic surprise.

 

And I could see him flinch for a moment.

 

Right, now you’re finally reading the atmosphere?

 

Seeing my cold expression, Peres swallowed once and hurriedly said.

 

“Ah, this is….”

 

“Nice to meet you, Miss Lydia.”

 

I cut off Peres’s words and took a step closer to Lydia.

 

Then I extended my right hand and smiled.

 

“I’m… Larita.”

 

For a moment, I felt the urge to reveal my real name, but I barely held back.

 

Instead, I introduced myself with the alias I had created for this trip.

 

“I’m Lydia Mita.”

 

“I see. But what’s your relationship with Herox?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

Lydia stared at me with a surprised expression, then her lips moved slightly.

 

She probably hadn’t expected me to ask so directly, and seemed shocked that I was close enough to call him ‘Herox’ by name.

 

“I’m an old acquaintance of Lord Herox.”

 

“Ah, an old acquaintance.”

 

It meant they were nothing special, but the word ‘old’ bothered me.

 

No matter how old it was, could it be older than my relationship with him?

 

That sense of satisfaction also quietly raised its head.

 

Then, Lydia asked in a rather sharp voice.

 

“What about you, Miss Larita?”

 

Look at her.

 

But I didn’t need to answer.

 

Because Peres, who had been watching the conversation from behind, approached and gently wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

 

“This is my wife.”

 

“W-wife….”

 

Lydia’s green eyes shook greatly.

 

“It was nice seeing you after so long.”

 

Peres gave a greeting that was short enough to sound somewhat cold, then immediately looked at me and said.

 

“Shall we go up to our room, Larita?”

 

His large hand moved down to my waist and escorted me.

 

Lydia was no longer in Peres’s attention.

 

When I looked back one last time, she was still standing there as if nailed to the spot.

 

With a face that looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, I let out a big sigh.

 

“Haah.”

 

What on earth are you doing?

 

While I was shaking my head, an inn employee approached and spoke to us.

 

“You must be the Gloa couple. I’ll guide you to your room. This way….”

 

“Excuse me.”

 

I slowly pulled down Peres’s hand that was around my waist and said.

 

“I’m going to walk outside for a bit before coming in. Rest first.”

 

“Ti… Larita.”

 

I heard him calling my name from behind, but I walked straight out of the inn building.

 

* * *

 

“Hehe, looks like you had a marital spat.”

 

The inn employee spoke familiarly with a ‘perfect timing’ look in his eyes.

 

Peres watched Tia’s retreating figure as she pushed through the inn door for a moment, then said weakly.

 

“I should apologize for my mistake.”

 

Having grown accustomed to Tia’s always relaxed, smiling face, her cold, hardened expression was somewhat unfamiliar to him.

 

And he felt unbearable guilt knowing that he was the one who had caused her to make such a face.

 

“That’s right. When your wife returns, you must apologize unconditionally. That’s the best policy.”

 

The employee, who laughed heartily while sharing life wisdom, soon opened a door on the second floor and said.

 

“This is your room. The window is large and gets good sunlight, so you’ll be satisfied.”

 

Peres walked in with large strides and stood in the middle of the room.

 

After carefully looking around the room, he shook his head and said.

 

“Please give us one more good room.”

 

“Pardon? If this room doesn’t suit you, then the room next door…”

 

Even if we went to the next room, it would probably be a similar level room.

 

Last time he had stayed in a shabby room due to the urgent circumstances, but he couldn’t make Tia sleep in such a place again.

 

Peres skillfully smiled toward the inn employee.

 

“This is our honeymoon, you see.”

 

“Ah, I see.”

 

“I would appreciate it.”

 

Peres said this while taking out a check from Lombardi Bank from his chest and handing it over.

 

“Oh my.”

 

The inn employee who confirmed the amount written on the check widened his eyes in surprise and nodded.

 

“Understood. Please wait here for a moment. I’ll prepare our inn’s pride and joy, the suite room, for you.”

 

The employee hurried out, and Peres, left alone, sat down on the bed with a thud.

 

Placing his elbows on his knees and hunching his large body, he buried his face in both hands.

 

A sigh-laden soliloquy mixed into the sweet silence.

 

“She was… jealous.”

 

Only reddening the tips of his ears, Peres couldn’t get up from his spot for a while.

 

* * *

 

“Am I crazy, am I crazy?”

 

I muttered as I plopped down on a small bench.

 

After leaving the inn and walking aimlessly, I had somehow reached the outskirts of Acadia again.

 

No, that’s not what’s important right now.

 

“What was I trying to accomplish by being jealous of a little kid like that! Ugh.”

 

Recalling what happened earlier, self-loathing washed over me again.

 

I wanted to stomp my feet and mess up my hair, but because of the hood pulled down low, I could only let out deep sighs.

 

“Let me get my head together…”

 

Lydia’s sad face that I saw at the end kept haunting me.

 

“Should I apologize to her if I happen to run into her again?”

 

It was strange.

 

Normally, I wasn’t the type of person to lose my composure over something like that.

 

Even when I had power struggles with Empress Lavinia before, or when dealing with Chanton Sersheu who would scratch at people’s nerves with his sullen face.

 

I was always someone who maintained cold rationality.

 

But.

 

“Wanting to reveal the Lombardi name.”

 

I really must have gone crazy.

 

“Ugh.”

 

I covered my face with both hands again from the embarrassment that was making my face red once more.

 

But the fact that I had genuinely felt jealous toward a little child wasn’t the only thing making my face flush.

 

“This is my wife.”

 

Peres’s voice saying those words still seemed to linger in my ears.

 

I rubbed my somehow ticklish left ear firmly and raised my head again.

 

“Get it together, get it together.”

 

Even though I’m traveling, I didn’t really come out to play, right?

 

But that guy who introduced me as his ‘wife’ kept coming to mind.

 

It’s not like it was on repeat or anything.

 

I tried to distract myself by looking around at my surroundings.

 

“It looks like a nice place to live.”

 

As Peres gradually faded from my mind, the appearance of Acadia began to come into view.

 

“If the city outskirts are this good, it’s excellent.”

 

Generally, city outskirts were places where even with high floating populations, living standards tended to be low.

 

However, at a glance, the lives of Acadia’s residents looked prosperous.

 

Although inns and such that had done business with the Lombardi Guild and Pellet Trading Company looked a bit idle since trade was cut off.

 

The atmosphere was different from other territories where most commoners found it remarkable just to get by day to day.

 

“That’s why I can’t just hate Chanton Sersheu.”

 

Sersheu had drastically reduced the taxes levied on commoners and merchants and raised the prices of their produce, grains.

 

Moreover, he was incredibly strict with the proxy lords governing each region.

 

Even though he was really annoying, Chanton Sersheu, the head of Sersheu, was a good lord.

 

“And the soldiers’ equipment condition looks good too… Hm?”

 

Why would the soldiers’ discipline be so tight when it’s not even wartime?

 

Just as I was thinking this and observing the situation at the outskirt checkpoint more carefully.

 

“Come on, hurry up!”

 

The door of a large building that appeared to be a gathering place near the checkpoint opened and soldiers poured out.

 

Paired up in twos, they instantly spread out here and there throughout Acadia.

 

A few pairs mounted horses and galloped into the interior of Acadia, and some headed outside the checkpoint.

 

Especially the soldiers who went outside the castle walls approached the people lined up to enter Acadia.

 

And each of them held a piece of paper with a drawing on it.

 

“What’s this?”

 

Just as I was thinking something was wrong seeing the soldiers comparing the drawings in their hands with the faces of people in line.

 

Two of Sersheu’s soldiers walked toward me and asked.

 

“Hey there. Could you take off your hood for a moment?”

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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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