In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 3

—————
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 Episode 3

“Pfft!”

Laughter burst out before I could even try to hold it back. The one who had called me was Belesack, Biejie’s son.

A man with brown hair and brown eyes who didn’t resemble his mother Seral at all, but looked exactly like a perfect copy of Biejie. His face was marred by a spiteful expression, but thanks to being Lombardy’s eldest grandson, he never lacked for women – a complete scoundrel.

“Puhaha!”

But what stood before me now was just a young boy who looked barely ten years old. He was someone who had committed all sorts of vile acts that I had to clean up after, making my teeth grind with rage every time I saw his face, but when he was young, he had quite a cute appearance.

“Are you laughing at me?!”

Though that temper of his wasn’t cute at all.

Still, since I had laughed first, I thought he might feel bad about it and was about to apologize.

“How dare this filthy half-breed laugh at me!”

But he kept saying things that had been grating on my nerves.

“Half-breed?”

I was starting to remember bit by bit. The word that Belesack and my other cousins used to call me with contempt because my mother was a commoner.

“Brother, looks like that half-breed is getting angry?”

Looking toward the voice that was egging Belesack on, I saw that Astaliou, my uncle’s eldest son, was also there. If Belesack had given me headaches with his messy private life and violent incidents, Astaliou had been a pain with his gambling addiction. A simple-minded muscle-brained fool whose thoughts were transparent – he was nothing but easy prey for the hustlers at gambling dens.

Before he was nearly kicked out by grandfather and became a late-starting apprentice in the Lombardy Knights, he had gambled away several buildings with his gambling debts.

Right, these two always stuck together and bullied me.

“What’s she gonna do if she gets angry?”

“Is she gonna cry and wet herself again?”

Around this time, I had been terribly afraid of those two. Even if it was just children’s pranks, their bullying was extremely vicious. As they say, children can be more cruel – I was too young and powerless to gracefully endure their pure malice toward me.

So back then, when I encountered these two, I couldn’t even run away and would just tremble, praying for everything to end quickly.

Sometimes it would end with just mockery and insults, but on days when Belesack was in a bad mood, I would end up covered in bruises.

When father got angry about it, Biejie and Lorels would scold him instead, saying ‘it’s just part of children growing up, you’re making too big a fuss.’

Recalling the past made my head burn with anger.

“Whew.”

But I calmed my anger. And asked.

“Belesack, how old am I right now?”

“What?”

Belesack looked at me strangely as I asked such a random question out of nowhere.

“I asked how old I am.”

I originally wanted to speak in a deeper, more intimidating voice, but there were limits to acting tough in a child’s body.

“Don’t tell me you don’t even know that?”

When I spoke somewhat dismissively, Belesack bristled and answered.

“You’re seven years old! I know that!”

Oh ho. Right, so I’m seven years old?

“Right. I’m seven years old. And you’re ten, and Astaliou is eight.”

With roughly a three-year and one-year age difference from me, I could calculate their ages too.

“Now that we’re all old enough, how long are you going to keep acting so childishly?”

Children usually think they’re all grown up.

“You shouldn’t keep calling your cousin a half-breed and teasing her like that.”

I tried to coax the two of them nicely.

What do kids know to act like this? It’s all the adults’ fault.

But Belesack’s attitude turned menacing.

“Cousin? Childish?”

It seemed like something had already put him in a bad mood somewhere. Picking on me was because he needed a target to vent his anger from the start. Belesack approached me with a scowl and looked down at me threateningly.

“Has this thing gone crazy?”

And he raised one hand high. But for some reason, he didn’t hit me and waited for a moment. As if he expected me to be scared and afraid.

But when he didn’t get the reaction he wanted, it was Belesack and Astaliou who were flustered instead. And that bewilderment was expressed through rough actions toward me.

“Ah!”

The raised hand roughly grabbed my hair and pushed me with all his strength. My knees and scalp stung from falling hard from that force. When I looked up, several strands of my brown hair were torn and in Belesack’s hand.

“Haha! Serves you right!”

That face pointing and sneering at me was exactly the same as the face that would treat me like a servant whenever I occasionally encountered him in grandfather’s study, telling me to know my place and go do laundry.

Surge.

Anger flared up in my heart that I had calmed down thinking he was just a child.

“A lowly half-breed dares to try to lecture me?”

Belesack said while tapping my head as I lay fallen.

“Just because you have the same surname, you think you’re the same as us?”

Astaliou was laughing meanly behind him.

“You’re not a Lombardi. So hurry up and get lost to that commoner village, you half-breed.”

“I told you not to.”

“What?”

“I told you not to call me a half-breed.”

Still lying down, I lifted one foot and kicked Belesack’s shin. It wasn’t very strong, but shins are places that hurt even with a light bump.

“Aaah!”

Belesack screamed loudly and fell backward, rolling around holding his leg. I immediately picked up a book that had fallen nearby and stood up.

“Eeek!”

I could feel Astaliou, who had stepped back in surprise, taking a step forward as if to help. Without saying anything, I turned my head toward him and glared at that Astaliou bastard.

Flinch.

Just that was enough to make the timid Astaliou stop walking, apparently scared. I glared at him once more to mean he should stay put right there, then approached Belesack who was still lying down with the book in hand.

“You ill-mannered puppy.”

It wasn’t wrong. His father Biejie’s conduct was no different from a dog’s, and his son Belesack was also the type who heard curses like “bastard” as often as eating meals.

A puppy is right. A newborn puppy that doesn’t know to fear tigers. I’ll fix your bad habits for you.

“You, you crazy bitch!”

Seeing that his mouth was still alive and babbling even while writhing in pain, I guess he could take more beating. I began hitting Belesack’s shoulders and arms with the book I was holding. It was quite a thick book, so it would hurt.

“Ack! Aaah!”

“If you keep! Saying half-breed! Half-breed! You should have been prepared! To get beaten by an angry half-breed!”

“Ah, Astaliou! What are you doing! Ack! Get this lowly thing off me! Aaah!”

Belesack desperately called for Astaliou, but the cowardly kid was already trembling. No matter how big he was, he was still just an eight-year-old child.

“Do you know! How much trouble! I went through because of you!”

Ignoring his pushing hands and clinging to him tenaciously, I continued hitting Belesack with the book.

“Huk, heok!”

Even though I hadn’t swung it many times, this child’s body was getting out of breath and my arms were losing strength. If Belesack had resisted more here, I would have been pushed away too, but fortunately I was safe. The kid started crying.

“Waaaah! Hueng, save me!”

His voice was so loud that my ears were ringing. That’s when it happened. The study door burst open and a loud roar was heard.

“What is this commotion!”

A middle-aged man with neatly arranged gray hair and beard that gave the impression of a lion’s mane, with an enormous presence.

“G-grandfather.”

Looking at Belesack lying down and me on top of him hitting him with a book with angry eyes was my grandfather Rulak Lombardi, the head of this Lombardi family.

“Belesack!”

Soon Biejie burst out of the study and called his son’s name like a scream, then ran over and roughly pushed me away.

“Ah!”

It was incomparably stronger than when Belesack had pushed me earlier. The book fell far away, and my palm and wrist that I used to brace myself to avoid hitting my head were throbbing.

“Tia?”

A welcome voice was heard. Father, who came out of the study late, saw me and approached in surprise.

“My goodness! Tia, you’re hurt!”

I must look terrible right now. Belesack was the one crying, but from the outside, my condition would look much more serious.

“Hueng, father! Father!”

But Belesack’s crying next to me was so loud, you’d think something was broken.

“You! Apologize to my son right now!”

Without even hearing the full story, he immediately demanded that I apologize first. His face was red with anger and huffing, and I found the sight so disgusting that I whipped my head away.

“You, you insolent brat!”

At that, Biejie reached out his hand as if he was about to do something to me right then and there.

“Brother!”

I felt Father hurriedly embrace and protect me. But judging by Biejie’s crazed eyes, it seemed like he might even strike Father who was blocking his way.

“That’s enough, all of you!”

However, the explosive situation that seemed ready to erupt at any moment was instantly frozen by Grandfather’s aged voice. Biejie was still huffing angrily, but he could no longer say anything and only glared at me with murderous eyes. Only the sound of Belesack’s sniffling occasionally echoed through the quiet corridor.

Me? I was quietly keeping my eyes downcast in Father’s arms.

To be honest, I was embarrassed. I needed to make a good impression on Grandfather, but from the very start I was showing him a brawling scene. And with that stupid Belesack, no less.

After briefly looking back and forth between me and Belesack, Grandfather turned to look at Astaliou. That boy had already grabbed onto the hem of his father Lorels’ pants and was cowering pitifully.

“Astaliou, what happened here?”

Grandfather asked.

After briefly looking up at his own father, Astaliou answered.

“We, Belesack and I were just walking when Ban— I mean, Pirenthia suddenly hit us.”

Look at that little puppy talking, would you?

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