In This Life, I Will Be The Lord - Chapter 68

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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 Episode 68

I first sent the twins away.

They were very disappointed since it had been a long time since they’d seen my face, but they obediently cleared the room.

Perhaps thinking I would be greatly distressed by Father’s situation, they were very careful in how they treated me.

Cleribane and Estira still remained in front of me.

I first found a chair and sat down.

Then I organized the current situation.

My clasped hands had grown cold.

I quietly closed my eyes.

Stay calm.

Think.

Think of ways to solve these problems.

I drew long breaths in and out.

At first, even that wasn’t easy.

My pounding heart kept interfering with my thoughts.

But I thought of Father.

Father, whose waking hours weren’t long these days due to the painkillers he took for the pain that came with his worsening condition.

The troubles that struck at this moment when Father was weakened could never be coincidental.

I steeled my resolve and thought only that I had to step forward.

Then, as if by magic, the trembling subsided.

My thoughts, which had been scattered in chaos instead of coming together, gradually began to organize.

When my mind had sufficiently calmed, I opened my eyes and spoke.

“Estira.”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

“Tell me exactly what the problem with the medicine is right now, but concisely.”

Estira pondered for a moment before speaking.

“We need one medium that will stabilize the combined herbs. We must find that one ingredient.”

Good.

As expected, Estira’s medicine wasn’t far from completion.

Think, remember.

I had read Estira’s autobiography in my previous life.

Since I lacked background knowledge in herbology, my memory of the technical content was vague, but I still had to remember.

The difference between the Estira of that time and the Estira of now.

[…A vacation after about 5 years led me to my hometown. Research had been stagnant without results, and in that place I visited with my exhausted body and mind, I was fortunate enough to find the answer…]

Yes, there was definitely content like that.

Perhaps both the Estira of that time and the current Estira were blocked by the same wall in their research process?

“Estira, have you ever told your grandmother in your hometown about the current situation?”

“Oh, no. Somehow it seemed like it should be kept secret…”

“I’ll arrange for someone right away, so try sending a letter to your grandmother. She’s someone who has been making medicine for much longer than you, Estira.”

“Ah, that’s right! Grandmother might, grandmother might know!”

Color returned to Estira’s face.

I wrote a small note for Estira to show to Butler Yohan, and Estira left the room without delay.

“And Cleribane…”

The Angenas and Father’s illness rumors were closely intertwined problems.

“The timing is not good. In the midst of discussions with the Sersheu family for southern expansion, rumors that Lord Gallahan has contracted Tlenbroo disease are fatal.”

“That must be what they were aiming for.”

It must be Angenas’s doing.

I don’t know how they found out Father was ill, but they probably moved meticulously for today.

“Do you think the Sersheu family might already know?”

Cleribane asked me.

“Given Mrs. Sersheu’s personality, she wouldn’t have believed it right away just from hearing their side. We’re not complete strangers to the Lombardi family either. She would have confirmed with us in some form.”

“That would be fortunate, but there isn’t much time before Mrs. Sersheu hears the rumors. We must move quickly.”

“You said Angenas is also at the Imperial Palace right now?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Since I heard they passed through the main gate of the palace, they’re probably already waiting to have an audience with His Majesty.”

I agreed with Cleribane’s words that there was no time.

We had to move quickly.

“I’ll handle the matter with Mrs. Sersheu. Cleribane, there’s somewhere you need to go right away.”

“Please tell me, Lady Pirenthia.”

Cleribane stood up and gathered his outer coat as he spoke.

Fortunately, I knew someone who could help us right now.

“Go out right now and meet Grandfather. Tell Grandfather about this situation and ask him to go to the Imperial Palace immediately.”

Meeting the Emperor is not an easy task even for high nobility.

Sometimes they have to wait for days.

But if it’s Grandfather.

If it’s Grandfather who can go directly from here in Lombardy to the Emperor’s office.

He might be able to catch up to Angenas.

Watching Cleribane’s departing figure, I opened Father’s tightly closed room door.

* * *

“Papa, Papa.”

Gallahan opened his eyes at the small hand shaking his shoulder.

“Mmm, Tia?”

How long had he been asleep?

His dry eyes showed him a blurry world only after blinking several times.

“Papa, please wake up for just a moment. I have something important to tell you.”

Gallahan tightly grasped his daughter’s small hand that still fit in one of his.

He was trying to confirm whether he was dreaming while intoxicated by medicine.

“This must be difficult for you, I’m sorry.”

“What does our Tia have to be sorry for? Papa, who keeps sleeping, is more sorry.”

Even in this situation, Gallahan fought against his eyelids that kept trying to close.

“What do you need to tell me, Tia?”

“There are rumors going around that Papa has fallen ill.”

“…What?”

Sleep fled instantly.

Gallahan’s illness was something that had to be kept secret until the very end.

That was important for Gallahan Clothing Store, and above all, for Tia.

“No, how… Who on earth…”

Gallahan muttered in confusion.

What stopped him was a single word from his daughter.

“Papa.”

“Tia…?”

Gallahan thought, ‘Ah, is this a dream after all?’

Because his daughter’s face, which he saw every day, looked a little different.

Her face was clearly still that of a young child, but the appearance of a much more mature adult seemed to overlap on top of it.

He wondered if he was seeing things while intoxicated by medicine.

“I’d like to explain everything to you, but there’s no time right now. So I’ll tell you directly. Please write a letter.”

“A letter…? To whom?”

“To Mrs. Sersheu.”

Tia quickly brought a low lap desk that could be used on the bed, along with letter paper and writing materials.

“The content of the letter is simple. ‘I apologize for not informing you about my illness in advance. I am currently recovering. However, I am sending this letter through someone I trust, so I hope you will trust me and wait a little longer.'”

Gallahan took the quill pen as his daughter handed it to him.

Just as he was about to put the pen tip to paper, he looked up at Pirenthia.

It was a quiet gaze that held many things.

“…Once we put out this urgent fire, will you tell me about it then, Tia?”

He had long known that his daughter was extraordinary.

Though she was timid and fragile like him, she had always been faster at learning than anyone else.

In the past and in the present.

She was a more beloved daughter than anyone, but he had an intuition that perhaps there were secrets his daughter kept that he, as her father, didn’t know.

“I promise, Dad.”

Hearing Tia’s words, Gallahan moved the quill pen without hesitation.

From beginning to end.

He wrote exactly as Tia had told him.

At the end, he dipped the quill pen deep into the ink once more and left a vigorous signature that didn’t look like it belonged to a sick person.

Gallahan folded the letter and handed it to Pirenthia, asking,

“May I ask who will deliver this letter?”

It didn’t seem like she would just send the letter through anyone’s hands.

It was a vague guess that could be called a father’s instinct.

Tia looked surprised for a moment, then grinned.

“I’ll ask Aunt Shannet to do it.”

Soon after, Tia gave Gallahan a kiss on the cheek with a ‘smooch!’ and ran out of the room.

* * *

The Angenas Patriarch sat motionless in his place.

This was in complete contrast to Durak Caravan Leader Croyton, who couldn’t sit still for a moment and was showing his impatience beside him.

“How long has it been since we arrived here?”

“Uh, well… Yes, it’s been about four hours.”

“I see.”

Yobanes was currently presiding over a grand council meeting attended by 80 ministers.

It was a grand council that could last for several hours with no one able to predict how long, but according to what a servant had reported earlier, the meeting was almost at its end.

“Ugh, he should come soon.”

Croyton said anxiously while looking at the door that wouldn’t open.

“When His Majesty comes shortly, Croyton, you keep your mouth shut. I’ll handle everything.”

Croyton nodded and welcomed this.

If he opened his mouth in front of His Majesty, he might end up vomiting everything from his churning stomach due to nervousness, so this was good.

“Even if His Majesty should speak to me, please be sure to answer for me…”

Creak.

Without any warning, the door opened and Emperor Yobanes walked in.

Croyton turned pale and froze like a turtle, while the Angenas Patriarch quickly stood up from his seat.

“Coming to visit without any prior appointment like this. What on earth is the matter?”

Though he was the Empress’s father and thus his father-in-law.

There was no sign of respect for his father-in-law on Yobanes’ face.

Rather, he seemed very displeased that he couldn’t go hawking, which had been scheduled after the grand council.

The Angenas Patriarch spoke with an uncharacteristically benevolent smile.

“There is something I desperately need Your Majesty’s permission for, so I took the liberty of coming to see you despite the rudeness.”

“Permission? Since when has Angenas needed my permission?”

“Our Angenas always moves for the prosperity of Your Majesty and the Empire, doesn’t it? I’ve come about such a matter this time as well. However, Your Majesty’s special approval is needed…”

“The preamble is long. So which family are you planning to attack this time?”

The current Lambru Empire was in a saturated state.

There were far too many of those called ‘central nobility’ or ‘high nobility.’

To squeeze in between them and establish a position, Angenas had been taking things from other families.

The Brown Family was like that, and so were the surrounding nobles whose territories they had seized by making them incur debts.

Naturally, enemies could only continue to multiply, and if the Empress weren’t the Angenas Patriarch’s daughter, they would have long ago become a public enemy and been destroyed.

“The Lombardi Family.”

“…What? What did you just say?”

“I said the Lombardi Family.”

“Are you insane right now?”

Yobanes shouted in genuine anger.

“The Empress too, and now! Just what grudge does Angenas have against Lombardi that you keep putting me in such difficult positions…!”

“Gallahan Lombardi has Tlenbroo disease.”

“Gallahan… has contracted Tlenbroo disease?”

“Yes, so the survival of the ready-made clothing business is in jeopardy. It would be difficult for clothing stores that are just getting established to survive without Gallahan, their founder. How many imperial citizens would suffer from that damage?”

“Are you certain? About Gallahan’s illness.”

“Yes, I heard it directly from Gallahan’s attending physician.”

“Hmm…”

This was troublesome.

He had praised the ready-made clothing business and even given him a Founding Day medal.

It was as if he had boasted extensively that the imperial citizens had prospered so much under his rule.

“So our Angenas would like to try making that ready-made clothing. Please grant your approval, Your Majesty.”

“Give me some time to think about it.”

Yobanes tried to seriously consider the Angenas Patriarch’s proposal.

“There’s no need to think about it, Your Majesty.”

Until Rulak Lombardi entered with a relaxed demeanor, throwing the door wide open.

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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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