In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 299

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

This Life, I Will Become the Clan Head

Side Story Episode 41

And the moment I saw him, something surged up inside me.

“Why… why are you only coming now.”

Tears flowed before I could stop them.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Peres, covered in rainwater and mud, couldn’t even enter the birthing room and just kept repeating apologies.

But that seemed to be enough.

The tension released and strength left my body, my hands beginning to tremble finely.

Only then did I understand the meaning of what Shannet had said.

Ah, I wasn’t okay after all.

I had just been enduring until Peres arrived.

“I was waiting, Peres.”

Every time I looked out the window saying I was fine, I had been waiting for this person to come quickly.

Estira stepped between me, crying my heart out, and Peres, who stood frozen watching me.

“We cannot keep the door open long, so please go prepare quickly, Your Majesty.”

“…I’ll be right back, Tia.”

Peres kept that promise.

He had hurried so much that his new shirt was buttoned all wrong, and he hadn’t even put on shoes, coming barefoot.

“Pfft.”

Even as I barely stopped crying, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You can go put on shoes first.”

“No. I don’t want to leave your side anymore.”

Peres quickly took my hand as he spoke.

He must have hastily poured hot water over himself to wash, as his skin felt quite warm against mine.

I worried his skin might be damaged, but that warmth also put my mind at ease.

“I think I’m really okay now. Because you’re here beside me.”

Instead of answering, Peres kissed the back of my hand.

His eyes were full of worry and anxiety for me.

I smiled brightly at such a Peres.

“I think I can really do well.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that.

Not long after, the real labor pains began.

No, I think that’s what happened.

My memory was patchy and unclear, so I could only guess.

What remained in my mind was.

“Master, just a little more!”

Estira shouting like that over and over.

“Hngh!”

Me, unable to even moan properly from the pain.

“Tia, please. Tia.”

Only Peres’s presence, never leaving my side for a moment.

And I think I heard a baby’s cry from very far away.

I was thinking hazily like that between consciousness that flickered in and out like a blinking light bulb.

“Tia.”

Along with Peres calling my name, something was placed in my arms.

I barely opened my eyes, pushing up eyelids heavier than after working all night.

“Ah…”

No words came out.

A baby was nestled in my arms.

Every time the small arms and legs moved, my breath caught.

When I carefully stroked the head, the soft curly hair touching my fingertips was softer than down feathers.

“Ah, hello. Hello, baby.”

When I barely managed to greet with such a trembling voice, round eyes looked up at me.

They were green eyes that resembled mine.

Peres kissed my hair and whispered.

“Our daughter is so beautiful. She looks just like you, Tia.”

“…Daughter?”

“Yes. Our daughter.”

Tears streamed down.

Worried the tears might fall on the baby, I quickly wiped them away and asked.

“Ten fingers and ten toes, right? She’s healthy, right?”

“Yes. Very healthy.”

“Thank goodness. Really thank goodness…”

As long as she was healthy, that was enough.

I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“You worked so hard. You did well, Tia.”

The voice saying that was also trembling.

When I finally looked away from our daughter, Peres’s eyes were moist.

I tilted my head to kiss those red-rimmed eyes and gently pressed our foreheads together.

“Peres, I’ve decided on a name.”

After deciding I would choose the first name and Peres the middle name, I had thought of countless names.

I even made a big chart dividing names for boys and girls, but couldn’t easily narrow down the candidates.

“I was worried about what to do if I couldn’t give her a name for days.”

Contrary to that worry, the name was decided the moment I saw the baby’s face.

Looking at those bright eyes still gazing up at me, I carefully pronounced it.

“Merdin.”

Did she know it was her name?

Merdin blinked once, long and slow.

“Merdin.”

Peres smiled softly and stroked tiny Merdin’s head with his large hand.

And he said in a quiet voice.

“Merdin, I will give you the land of Tigria.”

Tigria.

It was the largest and most fertile grassland among the imperial territories located in the south.

I kissed her soft forehead, then called out my daughter’s full name syllable by syllable.

“Merdin Tigria Lombardi-Durellie.”

So that you can be healthy and happy.

So that you can be welcomed in this world.

“Mother and Father will work hard.”

I quietly made that promise to my daughter’s name.

* * *

“She seems to resemble you more each day, Peres.”

On the seventh day after Merdin was born, I said while looking into the cradle.

“I wonder.”

“Well.”

Though I answered that way, Peres was already shaking his head.

“To my eyes, she seems to be resembling Tia more and more.”

“No, look here. Look at her lips. She looks more like you than me, Peres.”

They say newborns at this age have different faces every single day.

I never thought those words would be true.

“I really can’t take my eyes off her.”

Merdin was so pretty objectively, not just because she was my daughter.

Her bright smiles were pretty, and she had so much curiosity that she rarely cried, and her round eyes looking around were also pretty.

“Yawn.”

But regardless of that, a yawn escaped me.

It was inevitable since I had to wake up every few hours to feed her.

“Rest a little, Tia.”

Peres said, stroking my cheek as I lay in bed.

“What about you, Peres?”

“It’s Merdin’s bath time.”

“Ah. Yes, go ahead.”

After receiving so many lessons from Estira throughout the pregnancy and never putting down childcare books.

Peres was handling most of the childcare by himself.

Without even hiring a wet nurse that would naturally be used in the Imperial Court and noble families.

He barely even asked for my help.

All I did was feed her and shower the well-fed Merdin with affection.

When I wondered if this was okay and asked if there was anything I could do, the only answer I got was ‘You gave birth to Merdin.’

Peres disappeared into the bathroom, carefully holding Merdin who was growing rapidly day by day but was still so small.

I listened for a moment and confirmed that Peres had completely moved away.

And I didn’t forget to deliberately raise my voice a little to talk to myself.

“Then shall I rest a little?”

Fortunately, there was no sign of anyone, as if he had completely entered the bathroom across the middle room.

Finally.

“Hehe.”

I quietly laughed and approached the desk placed in one corner of the bedroom.

“The documents I secretly took from Cleribane earlier should be here somewhere…”

Maternity leave where I just lay down doing nothing for recovery was torture for me.

So I called Creny and had him bring just one bundle of documents from Cleribane’s study.

I had been looking for a chance to read those documents all day, and now that Peres had gone to bathe Merdin was the perfect opportunity.

If I couldn’t endure even a week and started working again, I didn’t know what kind of scolding I’d get from Peres.

As I carefully opened the drawer to make absolutely no sound, I saw a familiar notebook.

It was Mother’s diary.

“Ah, this was here.”

I had been so busy after giving birth to Merdin that I had forgotten about the diary’s existence for a while.

I postponed looking for the documents for a moment and picked up the diary.

“Where did I read up to…”

I searched my memory and opened the pages.

Coincidentally, it seemed I had only the very last diary entry left.

「 Imperial Year 256, March 3rd

Today is the last day I write in this notebook.

From tomorrow, I plan to focus entirely on preparing for childbirth.

I had a dream last night.

A dream where I gave birth to a child but couldn’t survive past a month.

That cannot happen.

I want to welcome summer with my child who will be born in spring, feel the cool autumn breeze.

And if possible, I want to stay by their side through the first snow and even the spring after that.

Today, coincidentally, a physician sent by Lord Rulak came to visit.

I asked that person for medicine and food to help with recovery after childbirth.

Prophetic dreams don’t show unavoidable fate.

They merely show the results of whatever decision I make.

The future is not predetermined.

It can change according to choices and effort.

So I will fight.

I will somehow pull myself together after childbirth, so I can stay by my child’s side even one day longer. 」

Mother kept the words written in her diary.

She stayed by my side for almost a full year, not just a month.

She fought fiercely for me.

“Thank you, Mother.”

Inevitably, my throat choked up.

“Ahem.”

I might cry again at this rate.

I had become particularly tearful since giving birth to Merdin.

I hurried to close the diary, but by chance the very first page of the notebook opened.

It was a place I hadn’t thought to look through when I first received this.

And there, a short message was left.

「 Celebrating the brilliant lives of my daughter, Pirenthia Lombardi, and the birth of Merdin.

– From Mother. 」

“…”

I caressed those words endlessly for a long time.

Brilliant lives.

Mother called even my previous life a ‘brilliant life.’

Even that life full of hardships and suffering that I didn’t want to recall myself, she called brilliant.

It wasn’t a failed life.

“Tia?”

Without me noticing when he had approached, I heard Peres’s voice.

I lifted my face that had been buried in the diary.

I saw Peres and Merdin sleeping soundly in his arms.

I didn’t cry.

Instead, I smiled brightly toward the most precious beings I had gained at the end of my brilliant lives.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————