In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 271

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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 14

 

What’s wrong with my ears right now?

 

The word “honey” coming out of Peres’s mouth?

 

When we were playfully deciding on pet names in the carriage leaving Lombardy, Peres was so embarrassed he didn’t know what to do with himself when I called him that.

 

But suddenly why?

 

“H-honey?”

 

“Mmhm.”

 

Peres answered with a drawn-out tone to my surprised question.

 

No, I wasn’t calling you!

 

Even while clearly seeing my flustered state, he even smiled slightly and hugged me tightly.

 

“You weren’t there earlier so I looked for you. I was worried.”

 

“Huh? S-sorry. I was just a bit bored staying there.”

 

“Is that so? You did well.”

 

The hand stroking my hair and forehead is quite bold too.

 

Suspicious, suspicious.

 

I looked at Peres with narrowed eyes.

 

It’s one thing when we’re alone, but such bold skinship in a place with other people around.

 

This isn’t like him.

 

It’s as if he’s acting for others to see…

 

Then, I saw Peres’s gaze, which had been looking down at me affectionately, slide smoothly.

 

And at the end of the gaze I unconsciously followed, I could find the answer to this situation.

 

It was Mortega Rufe standing there blankly with a shocked expression.

 

“But, who is that?”

 

Peres asked Mortega Rufe with somewhat cold eyes.

 

Perhaps his personality is as soft as his gentle appearance.

 

Mortega just moved his mouth wordlessly, unable to answer easily.

 

He only looked back and forth between me and Peres with trembling eyes.

 

He seems quite shocked by the couple’s sudden display of affection.

 

Well, that could happen.

 

I was about to make introductions while hiding my slightly embarrassed feelings.

 

“This person is Mortega…”

 

“S-sorry! I was very rude!”

 

Mortega Rufe shouted that, hurriedly gathered his things, and quickly moved away.

 

“Ah…”

 

Oh no.

 

I was just about to bring up the Lombardi Scholarship Foundation.

 

What a shame, such a shame.

 

I was trying to persuade him well.

 

But I soon shrugged my shoulders.

 

I could formally send a letter later to make the proposal.

 

There’s no artist who would refuse a proposal from the Lombardi Foundation, so Mortega Rufe would accept it too.

 

Thinking that, I watched Mortega Rufe’s retreating figure as he mixed in among the people.

 

“Why?”

 

Until I felt a gentle touch stroking my cheek.

 

Following the touch, I turned my head and met Peres’s gaze.

 

His eyes were somehow persistent.

 

“What?”

 

“Why… do you keep looking at that guy?”

 

“Hmm, because it’s a shame.”

 

I’m truly Grandfather’s granddaughter, aren’t I.

 

Whenever I encounter talent, I find myself burning with desire to attach the Lombardy name tag to them.

 

“…A shame?”

 

“Yeah. Naturally.”

 

He’s still just a singer performing on ships, but the “Love’s Vow” that Mortega Rufe just sang will soon transform him into a remarkably famous singer.

 

It will also become a favorite song of Empire men making marriage proposals.

 

Of course, that’s a few years from now.

 

But I can’t tell Peres this.

 

“The song was really good. His voice was the same.”

 

“…Voice.”

 

“It was a beautiful voice, but I should say it was a voice that naturally made you want to listen. He was a singer with that kind of power.”

 

These aren’t completely made-up words.

 

In my previous life, Mortega Rufe was actually popular for his rich vocal range and tone.

 

But Peres’s reaction is a bit strange.

 

“My voice is good too.”

 

He muttered in a somewhat sulky tone.

 

“Huh? Of course it is.”

 

My personal preference is actually for low voices like Peres’s rather than beautiful voices like Mortega Rufe’s.

 

“But Mortega Rufe is a singer. With the Lombardi Foundation’s support, he could become even greater…”

 

Wait a minute.

 

I stopped talking and looked up at Peres.

 

He was still looking in the direction where Mortega Rufe had disappeared with a sulky face.

 

No, he was glaring.

 

This, could it be.

 

“Peres.”

 

I tugged at his clothes.

 

Only then did his red eyes look at me.

 

“What did you call me earlier?”

 

“…Huh?”

 

Look at this.

 

He seems to be trying to play dumb now, but your pupils are shaking right now.

 

I watched Peres’s ear tips gradually turn red and leaned slightly toward him.

 

And I said quietly.

 

“Honey.”

 

Flinch.

 

Peres’s chest, where I was nestled, trembled slightly.

 

“Right? You called me honey earlier.”

 

Peres, who had been hesitating for a moment, finally nodded.

 

The blush had already spread to his neck.

 

Ah, I shouldn’t laugh.

 

I tried to pull down the corners of my mouth that wanted to rise and asked.

 

“Weren’t you not going to use that pet name?”

 

“…Thinking about it, I thought more convincing acting would be necessary to maintain our cover identities.”

 

“Ah, it was because of the cover identity?”

 

“…”

 

“By any chance, were you jealous?”

 

His body flinched once more.

 

Ah, I can’t hold it in.

 

“Pfft.”

 

In the end, laughter escaped between my lips.

 

At that, Peres’s ears turned even more bright red.

 

Ah, at this rate he’ll get sulky.

 

“No, ahem. Why? Why are you jealous.”

 

I patted Peres’s chest soothingly as I continued speaking.

 

“We just had a brief conversation.”

 

I’ve been watching this guy for a very long time, but this is the first time he’s been so openly jealous.

 

“That’s because.”

 

Peres, who had kept his mouth tightly shut for a moment, answered slowly.

 

“That guy was looking at you with those eyes.”

 

“Those eyes?”

 

“Eyes that said you shine so brightly that he couldn’t possibly look away.”

 

Despite the sweet words, his voice was heavy as he spat them out.

 

I could feel his arm around my waist tighten a bit more firmly.

 

As if he was afraid I might be taken away.

 

“H-hey.”

 

Now it was my turn to be flustered by his unexpected words.

 

“It’s not like that.”

 

I deliberately let out a laugh and spoke lightly.

 

“And how could you tell that from just seeing him briefly from a distance.”

 

“I know.”

 

However, Peres’s answer was firm.

 

“Because I did the same thing.”

 

His firm fingers gently rubbed my chin.

 

“The day I first saw you in the forest, I did the same thing.”

 

As if recalling that day, warmth gently spread through Peres’s previously hardened eyes.

 

Along with a barely visible smile.

 

In an instant, it was a face that seemed to travel back through time, as if I could hear the sound of the green forest rustling in the wind.

 

This was trouble.

 

My heart began beating even harder than when Peres had held my hat earlier.

 

“So you were jealous?”

 

Thinking to ease the tension, I casually threw out the words to tease Peres.

 

But.

 

“Yes.”

 

Once again, it was I who ended up flustered.

 

Though his ear tips were still red, Peres looked down at me with unwavering eyes and said.

 

“So I was jealous. It’s enough for me alone to look at you that way.”

 

It’s already too much as it is.

 

Peres muttered briefly, adding words whose meaning I couldn’t quite grasp.

 

“And, Tia.”

 

The fingers that had been caressing my chin had somehow moved up to my lips.

 

His slightly rough fingertips rubbed against the sensitive flesh as if pressing it.

 

Peres’s red eyes, looking at something I couldn’t identify, darkened.

 

“I’m more jealous than you think.”

 

“Hm…?”

 

“And I’m a more petty man than you think.”

 

“I-is that so?”

 

“Even so.”

 

Peres pulled my hand toward him and kissed it as he spoke.

 

“Even so, please don’t abandon me.”

 

“Eek!”

 

His lips came down on the skin of my thin hand.

 

Startled by the sensation, I tried to pull my hand away, but Peres’s large fingers only took the opportunity to wrap around my hand even more.

 

“Wait a minute…”

 

I was about to ask him to let go.

 

But Peres’s next action left me speechless.

 

“Promise me.”

 

He was rubbing his cheek against the back of my hand.

 

“That you won’t abandon me.”

 

Like a large beast craving its master’s affection.

 

“Y-you really…!”

 

Where did you learn such dangerous aegyo!

 

I wanted to shout angrily asking if it was those damn Academy classmates again, but I couldn’t even do that.

 

Anyone with a heart still properly attached wouldn’t be able to get angry looking at those red eyes gazing up with drooping eye corners so pitifully.

 

“Even if you ask me to let go, I won’t.”

 

I grabbed Peres’s hand and pulled it as I spoke.

 

“Got it? Let’s go have dinner. All that nonsense you’re spouting is just because you’re hungry.”

 

As I began walking ahead with large strides, his large body obediently followed along.

 

Peres was always like that.

 

Despite having the power to make anyone unable to move, he had never once failed to follow wherever I led him.

 

And yet he talks about abandoning.

 

“Peres.”

 

“Yes, Tia.”

 

“Don’t ever say such strange things again. You have no intention of being abandoned even if I tried to abandon you.”

 

“…”

 

Peres said nothing.

 

He’s not crying, is he?

 

Worried by the thought that crept in, I turned around to look back, and surprisingly, he was smiling.

 

With his eyes gently closed and his red lips spread like a flower.

 

With a face that looked extremely happy.

 

Peres smoothly interlaced his fingers firmly with our clasped hands and nodded.

 

“Right. Even if abandoned, I won’t be abandoned.”

 

No, perhaps it was a face relieved as if he had found an answer.

 

I watched him for a moment before urging again.

 

“Then that’s settled. Let’s hurry and go eat. If we want to watch the fireworks after dinner, we need to secure the best spot first.”

 

Haha.

 

Peres’s cheerful laughter, sounding as if it came from far away, followed our walking steps.

 

* * *

 

The first dinner on the ship was excellent.

 

It was a lavish feast with light Southern cuisine accompanied by sweet and sour Eastern dishes.

 

After finishing our meal, we walked toward the deck.

 

“The rear deck is supposedly the best spot rather than the front deck. Father and Cleribane emphasized this several times.”

 

“I would think most people would crowd the slightly larger front deck.”

 

“That’s exactly why the back is an even better spot!”

 

We were continuing our conversation and leisurely reaching the rear deck when it happened.

 

There was something beyond the ship’s railing where I casually cast my gaze.

 

“Huh?”

 

It was a single boat quietly approaching the cruise through the dark river water.

 

They approached at an incredibly fast speed, blending into the darkness without a single light lit.

 

This meant it wasn’t an ordinary fishing boat.

 

“What kind of ship is that…?”

 

Besides us, people who had already come out to the rear deck began to stir as they spotted the ship one by one.

 

Though much smaller in size, the way it quickly clung to the side of the cruise ship was far from friendly.

 

And at some point, lights blazed brightly on the ship.

 

The first thing visible were the Sesheu soldiers packed aboard the vessel.

 

Among them, a soldier standing at the bow shouted in a loud voice.

 

“Stop the ship! From now on, there will be an inspection under the orders of Lord Chandon Sesheu!”

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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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