In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 313

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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 55

Gallahan had been quiet and reserved since childhood.

But that didn’t mean he had a gloomy personality.

He was emotionally rich, often crying and laughing over small things.

When did that boy start making such expressions in front of me?

Rulak thought as he looked at his youngest son’s expressionless face.

However, he couldn’t find an answer to the question he asked himself.

So much time had passed that he could no longer count how many years it had been.

He realized with a start.

As a father, he had missed too much.

He could almost hear the angry voice of his late wife from somewhere.

“You’re saying you’ll accomplish the impossible, Gallahan.”

After briefly getting angry at Gallahan’s words, Rulak quickly calmed his mind.

“How can you live without shame after bringing wanderers into the family and leaving a stain on the Lombardi name?”

“Are you saying that Shan, that Shan’s existence would be a stain?”

“Are you saying it wouldn’t be?”

Gallahan felt as if he was facing a wall.

Unlike Biejie, there was no trace of contempt or mockery to be found.

However, his father’s face as he called Shan a stain was like that of someone looking at a clear sky and calling it blue.

“You should have learned enough as a member of Lombardi. The object of your affection and the object of your pity are different things.”

“Hah.”

Gallahan let out a deflated sigh.

It seemed he had unknowingly harbored expectations for his father.

Perhaps the vain hope that he might understand him, just once.

His luggage bag felt even heavier.

The grandeur of this manor where he had lived his entire life felt unbearably uncomfortable, like wearing ill-fitting clothes.

Everything he had enjoyed as a Lombardi seemed to be pushing him to leave.

Adjusting his grip on the sweat-stained handle, Gallahan bowed politely.

“…Stay healthy.”

That was all he had to say as a dutiful son.

“You will regret it.”

Rulak said.

“No. I may miss it, but I won’t regret it.”

Gallahan’s back as he said this and turned away looked truly relieved.

Flinch.

Rulak’s hand moved as if he would grab Gallahan at any moment.

But that was all.

In the end, Rulak did not grab Gallahan.

* * *

When Gallahan asked to be taken only to the outside of the manor, the coachman nodded with a puzzled expression.

“Shall I come to pick you up at that place again today, Lord Gallahan?”

The coachman asked Gallahan as he got out with his simple luggage bag.

“No. You don’t need to do that anymore.”

He answered and closed the carriage door without lingering.

The passersby who had been curiously glancing at the man coming out of the Lombardi manor quickly lost interest once Gallahan began walking among them.

“It’s rather fortunate.”

Gallahan muttered refreshingly.

Thanks to his father showing such an attitude, his heart wasn’t heavy about leaving.

Rather, it only solidified his conviction that his choice to leave the clan was right.

Shan and the Lombardi name.

He had no regrets about his decision.

“…Shan.”

When he called her name to himself, warmth inevitably returned to Gallahan’s cold, hardened face.

I should hurry to see her.

It was when he was hastening his steps with that thought.

“…Shan?”

This time it wasn’t a soliloquy.

He could see Shan standing alone ahead, looking down at her toes as she tapped the ground.

Gallahan unconsciously ran quickly toward her.

“Shan, what are you doing here?”

“…Gallahan.”

Shan, who had been looking down, looked up at him.

Unable to hide his fluttering heart when their green eyes met, Gallahan smiled foolishly.

“This place is far from ‘Blue Wave,’ what are you doing here? Were you waiting for someone?”

“Gallahan.”

“Yes?”

“I was waiting for Gallahan.”

You were waiting for me?

Gallahan tilted his head.

“Did you know I would pass this way?”

She nodded at his question.

Then she hesitated for a moment before answering.

“In a dream.”

“Yes, in Shan’s dream.”

“I saw Gallahan. Walking alone on this road carrying a bag. But you looked so lonely.”

A moment of silence passed.

It was unusual for the two who always chatted whenever they met.

And the more Gallahan just blinked without saying anything, the more Shan’s face hardened with tension.

“So.”

After what felt like an eternity of silence to her, he opened his mouth.

“You dreamed… of my dream?”

Gallahan smiled like a child.

Then he cleared his throat and tried to compose his expression belatedly, but couldn’t hide his mouth that kept spreading into a grin.

“My desire to see Shan must have been so strong that it visited you even in your dreams.”

Even at his playful words that followed, Shan couldn’t laugh along.

Looking at the luggage bag dangling from his hand, she asked carefully.

“Are you alright, Gallahan?”

“Something did hurt my heart a little, but I’m fine now. Because Shan came, everything’s alright now.”

“If that’s the case, then I’m glad…”

Shan’s large eyes, still full of worry for him, touched a corner of his heart.

And perhaps intoxicated by that tickling feeling, unprecedented courage welled up.

Gallahan carefully took Shan’s hand, wrapping it gently.

“If you’re not busy right now, could you spare me some time, Shan?”

“…Yes.”

“Then shall we go this way?”

The two began walking in step toward the direction Gallahan pointed.

Fortunately, Shan didn’t pull her hand away from his grasp.

Gallahan inwardly sighed in relief while his breath caught with joy.

It was truly strange.

He had lost everything just moments ago, yet he felt as if he owned the entire world.

“Actually, my name is Gallahan Lombardi.”

The story that began with that calm self-introduction was quite long.

Simply walking hand in hand wherever their feet took them, Gallahan carefully revealed feelings he had never told anyone.

“….”

Shan listened attentively to Gallahan’s story.

She never rushed him, nor did she offer excessive responses.

She only nodded occasionally, but that small gesture seemed to comfort him, as if saying ‘it’s okay.’

“…So today I packed my things and left home.”

After saying it out loud, it sounded like a childish kid running away from home.

Gallahan laughed awkwardly, then suddenly realized something.

“Come to think of it, Shan… you’ve never asked me anything about myself.”

It was always Gallahan who asked Shan various curious questions.

“Because I knew you’d tell me like this someday.”

Shan shrugged as she answered.

Maybe she has no particular interest in me.

Gallahan, who had suddenly become frightened, burst into loud laughter and said.

“Sometimes Shan really seems like someone who knows the future. That makes me even more nervous….”

Gallahan was the first to stop walking.

It was in front of a cozy two-story house with a red roof.

Clink.

With a small sound, he pulled something from his chest and held it out.

“A key…?”

It was a key tied with a small red ribbon.

Shan quietly looked down at what was suddenly presented before her, then asked.

“What is this, Gallahan?”

“It’s the key to this house here.”

Shan, who had been staring at the key in confusion, followed Gallahan’s fingertips and turned her head toward the red-roofed house.

“Ah…!”

It was that house.

The house where she and Gallahan had lived happily together.

Shan, realizing the meaning of this moment when he offered her the key, swallowed hard.

“Shan.”

Gallahan was just as nervous.

“Though I’m no longer a Lombardi and don’t have anything particularly special about me. I deeply care for you, Shan. And I want to live with you in this house.”

Gripping the key like a lifeline, the ribbon fluttered along with his trembling fingertips.

“I hastily found this house here because Shan said you liked Lombardy, but if you want, we could go to other estates. There are also some small buildings in Sersheu territory near your hometown. I don’t care where we go. As long as Shan… is by my side.”

With her, he would be happy even building a cabin in the mountains.

“So, what I’m saying is.”

Gallahan squeezed his eyes shut and said.

“Please marry me, Shan.”

Yes, or no.

Gallahan waited for an answer without even breathing.

But no response came for quite a while.

Finally, Gallahan began to open his closed eyes very slowly.

“…Shan?”

“Sniff….”

Shan was crying.

Even when talking about her hometown and mother she’d left behind, even when confessing the reality of suddenly having nowhere to go, she had never lost her smile.

But now she was crying sorrowfully without even thinking to wipe away the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“…you know.”

“What did you say, Shan?”

Gallahan leaned his ear closer and asked again.

“I thought you’d never ask me forever.”

In case the future might change.

In case he might make a different choice.

The fears she had harbored alone flowed out as tears.

“Shan.”

Gallahan embraced her.

It was a connection he had finally reached only after abandoning everything he was born with.

Thump, thump.

Listening to the sound of Gallahan’s heart beating wildly, Shan gave him her answer.

“Yes. I’ll marry you, Gallahan.”

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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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