In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 15

The four Lombardy siblings gathered in the Grand Duke’s office.
Rain or shine, meeting together on the third day of every week was a long-standing tradition they had upheld since their teens.
Gallahan, busy with the Coroi textile business these days, had rushed but unintentionally ended up being late for the meeting time Rulac had set.
Sweating and breathlessly rushing into the office, the three others, whose faces resembled his yet were distinct, simultaneously turned to look at him.
“You’re late, Gallahan.”
Viese chided him, not hiding his displeased expression.
“I apologize, …brother. Father is…” Gallahan asked, seeing the Grand Duke’s empty chair.
“His meeting with the Lombardy Bank representative isn’t over yet.”
“Ah, is that so.”
Rulac was someone who highly valued punctuality.
If the meeting had already started, Gallahan would have been severely reprimanded like a child, regardless of his age.
Gallahan wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and sighed softly.
“Lucky bastard.”
Viese sneered, watching him.
“Haha. It’s been a while, sister.”
Gallahan expertly brushed off Viese’s spite with a laugh and greeted Shananet, who was quietly drinking tea in a corner.
Shananet, the eldest of the four siblings and considerably older than Gallahan, was a woman of few words.
“…Yes. Father will be here soon.
Sit down and rest.”
Shananet, with a swan-like long, elegant neck, said in a quiet voice.
After saying only that, she sipped her tea again, gazing at the distant landscape outside the window.
Gallahan thought his sister was truly beautiful as he sat in the empty chair.
“Haven’t seen your face much lately? What keeps you so busy?”
Laurel, sitting next to Viese, nudged Gallahan’s foot and asked.
Laurel, the third of the four siblings, was closest in age to Gallahan, but their personalities were so opposite you’d think they were strangers.
Laurel, who disliked complexity and was simple-minded, found Gallahan frustrating, and Gallahan found Laurel very uncomfortable.
“I’ve been doing some work Father entrusted to me recently. Well, it’s just a word or two of advice, really.”
Gallahan said modestly.
If it truly were just a word or two, he wouldn’t have been running around so busy he couldn’t even see his daughter’s face these days.
But Gallahan subtly glanced at Bellesac.
He had, somehow, ended up taking over the business proposal Viese had intended to pursue.
Sure enough.
Viese, who had been standing with his arms crossed, staring straight ahead, his face twitched.
But the tactless Laurel, completely oblivious to his displeasure, continued speaking in a joking tone.
“Ah! I heard about that. You completely stole your brother’s business plan…”
Thud! Viese’s anger finally erupted.
Standing up abruptly, Viese slammed his hand down hard on the Grand Duke’s desk and glared at Laurel with fierce eyes.
“Are you mocking me now?”
“N-no, it’s not like that. How could I do that, brother!”
Startled, Laurel expressed his injustice with his whole body.
Sometimes, Laurel seemed to fear Viese more like a subordinate fears a superior than a brother.
“And you, Gallahan. You seem quite arrogant just because you’ve been entrusted with one big project. This is a one-time fluke, so enjoy it while you can.
Understand?”
Gallahan was just as indignant.
He had never even considered wanting to be in charge of some joint venture between Lombardy and Angenas.
He had merely taken his daughter for a walk, and things had somehow gone awry, leading to this situation.
For a leisurely man like himself, who wanted to bask in the warm sun, read his favorite books, and spend time with Florentia, such a massive and stifling responsibility was poison.
“I apologize, brother. But I had no such intention.”
“What did you say?”
“If you still wish to take over this matter…”
“You bastard!”
Viese was in his mid-thirties, but his childhood habit of easily raising his hand hadn’t changed.
It was the moment a fight was about to break out between grown brothers with children of their own.
Click.
Shananet made a small sound as she set down her teacup.
“Stop.”
At that single word, Viese’s movements froze.
“You’re frolicking like a foal that’s been spanked, Viese.”
Despite the words being mixed with a tired sigh, Viese’s shoulders flinched.
And it was the same for Laurel and Gallahan.
Shananet was always quiet and composed, but once angered, she was terrifying, unstoppable by anyone.
Viese, who looked as if he was about to throw Gallahan to the ground, still fumed but slumped back into his seat.
“Thank you, sister.”
Gallahan said in a small voice, afraid of provoking Viese’s anger again.
“No need to thank me. I just dislike noise.”
Shananet’s calm but cold gaze rested on Viese, then on Gallahan.
“What a squirrel.”
“…Yes?”
“I felt it when I first saw you in Mother’s arms, but you truly are like a squirrel, Gallahan.”
The words could have sounded like a compliment, but Shananet’s cold expression indicated otherwise.
“Startled by small things, scampering up a tree to escape.
Hiding only in your tiny burrow, never trying to fight.”
“Sister…”
“The only thing you show interest in is collecting books, chasing after them like a squirrel here and there. Isn’t that right?”
A faint sneer now played on Shananet’s beautiful lips.
“I hear your daughter is quite bright.”
Gallahan, who had been wearing a bitter expression, looked at Shananet in surprise at the mention of Florentia.
“A lion cannot come from a squirrel father, after all. Should I not have any expectations?”
She muttered as if to herself, but every word pricked him like a painful thorn.
“It’s regrettable. I wonder if a squirrel like you isn’t ruining that child.”
Shananet sipped her tea again.
“What do you think, Gallahan?”
Gallahan couldn’t say a word.
He merely bit his lower lip, deep in thought.
Shananet’s gaze never left the birds.
***
“Your Majesty, Croyton Angenas has arrived.”
“Tell him to come in.”
Lavini, Empress of the Lambru Empire, said, cutting the stem of a flower she had just picked with sharp scissors.
A moment later, Croyton, her close aide and the head of the Durak Trading Company, entered with cautious steps.
The Empress, still not taking her eyes off the freshly bloomed roses, greeted him.
“Your Majesty, I have arrived.”
Croyton took off his hat and held it to his chest, acting rather familiar.
“I was waiting not for you, but for good news about the trading company. Do you not know that, Croyton?”
“A-ah, no. How could I come empty-handed, Your Majesty.”
A bead of sweat ran down his back at the Empress’s sharp words, but Croyton managed to smile without showing it.
“Please read this.”
What Croyton handed over with both hands was a brief progress report.
The Empress’s white hands, having removed her flower-arranging gloves, received it.
Croyton breathed a sigh of relief, sensing that the Empress’s complexion was not bad as she quickly read the report.
“As written, Coroi textiles are scheduled to be ready for sale next week. For now, sales will begin primarily in the Cedacuna shopping district, where aristocratic clothing stores are concentrated…”
“How did you resolve the textile supply issue, Croyton?”
The last time Croyton visited the Empress’s palace, he reported a problem with sourcing fabric from the eastern region, and he could never forget the Empress’s sharp gaze then.
After what felt like an eternity, the Empress had instructed him to seek help from the Lombardy family.
Recalling that moment, sweat ran down him, and Croyton finally pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
It was a handkerchief embroidered with Coroi fabric.
“As commanded, I received support from Lombardy. Fortunately, Gallahan Lombardy is knowledgeable about textiles and fashion history, so…”
“Gallahan?”
The Empress, who was putting on her flower-arranging gloves again, looked at Croyton for the first time.
“Not Bellesac?”
Had I made another mistake?
Croyton, seized with sudden fear, hunched his shoulders.
“T-that’s right. Originally, I intended to proceed with Viese, but… well. He, he didn’t know much about it…”
“Gallahan, you mean the Grand Duke’s youngest?”
The Empress, recalling the name Gallahan, who was tucked away in a corner of the Lombardy family tree, raised an eyebrow.
“Yes! He’s a very learned man!
Honestly, in terms of intelligence, he’s incomparable to Bellesac. Moreover, once Viese was out of the picture, Clerivan, the Grand Duke’s close aide, actively cooperated, making things much smoother…”
“Do I need to know such trivial details, Croyton?”
A faint hint of irritation laced the Empress’s voice as she cut him off.
“A-ah, no! Of course, leave such things to me, Your Majesty.”
Croyton quickly bowed his head, and the Empress picked up the next flower.
“Gallahan, not Viese..
Quite intriguing.”
The Empress smiled mysteriously, recalling Rulac’s utterly inscrutable face.
Although the eldest son inheriting was law, it was a law no one truly observed.
In the imperial family, as well as in considerably large noble families, bloody wars erupted over succession.
Lavini found that very displeasing.
Snip.
With a somehow chilling sound, the petals of the rose Lavini held were cut in half, scattering one by one.
It was because the thought of that lowly being with eyes the exact red of this rose came to mind, and she suddenly couldn’t bear to look at the flower.
The Empress set down her flower-arranging scissors on the table and asked Croyton.
“Does Gallahan have children?”
“Yes. He has a daughter named Florentia. Gallahan once mentioned she will soon be eight years old.”
“A daughter, huh. I see. Eight years old, that’s not bad.”
“I-is that so?”
Croyton, unable to fathom the Empress’s intentions, simply held his tongue.
“Astana went to Lombardy today to meet Bellesac’s son, as it happens.
I’ll have to ask him when he returns.”
The Empress said, her face blooming like a flower as she thought of her beloved son.
“Whether he needs a girlfriend, that is.”
Her curving lips were redder than the mangled rose.

“Alright, this is called hide-and-seek. This time, I’ll be the seeker, so you two hide.”
“Wow! I’ve never played this before! It sounds fun!”
“Yay, yay!”
Watching the twins clench their fists and stomp their feet, I gave a triumphant smile.
Hehe, they still don’t know anything.
“You can hide anywhere as long as you don’t leave the main building. But places like the well last time, or empty rooms, or places with lids where you can’t be seen at all, are cheating. Got it?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Alright, I’ll count to 100 now?”
I pressed my face against a pillar and said.
“Alright, one! Two! Three! Fouuur!”
I heard two sets of footsteps pattering away in the same direction.
As expected, the twins hide together.
Thinking it would make them easier to find later, I continued counting.
“Ten! Eleven! …Oh, my legs.
Now I’m a bit more comfortable.”
They wouldn’t hear me anyway, having gone far.
I had been dragged outside by the twins, who came early in the morning, begging to play.
When I asked if they couldn’t play by themselves, the twins said it wasn’t fun with just the two of them anymore.
They repeated like parrots that it was only fun if I played with them.
So, I came up with a game that children are genetically bound to go wild for: hide-and-seek.
“Haa, it’s nice and quiet.”
It was so peaceful without their chattering voices.
I walked, looking for a sunny spot, intending to lie down for a bit before going to find the twins.
As I was walking from the bustling main building towards the quiet annex, I saw a little kid standing alone.
He was a boy with dark blonde, almost brown hair and pale skin.
“Who’s that?”
He was a stranger, appearing to be about Bellezac’s age.
Moreover, his behavior of looking around and the clothes he was wearing didn’t seem like he was one of the employees’ children.
I was approaching him, intending to help if he was lost.
The little kid, seemingly annoyed, took off his hat, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it repeatedly with his shoe.
His destructive behavior looked familiar, as if he’d done it more than once.
I stopped walking, now only a short distance from him.
I didn’t really want to get closer.
My instincts were screaming at me to turn back.
I should just go find the twins.
Just as I was about to turn away.
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew, and the hat the kid was enthusiastically stomping on flew far away onto the lawn.
He seemed momentarily flustered, then looked around and spotted me.
And he said,
“You there. Pick up that hat.”
“…What?”
“Is the girl deaf? I told you to pick up my hat.”
“Haa, what the…”
I forced myself to refine the curse words bubbling up from my boiling frustration and said,
“You pick it up, you Bellezac-like punk.”
This was the worst insult I knew that didn’t involve profanity, you rascal.
But the boy scowled his handsome face and said in a smooth voice,
“If you go pick it up now, I’ll let you live.”
“You Bellezac-like thing, what nonsense are you spewing?”
I crossed my arms defiantly and said,
“Do you want to get hit with a book a few times too?
That seems to work wonders.”
“Ugly girl, you speak so carelessly.”
Was that baseless insolence and arrogance a common trait among noble boys?
Bellezac spoke exactly like that.
It wasn’t just a random comment; he really was like Bellezac…
Wait a minute.
As I glared at the unknown kid’s face, an incredibly ominous feeling hit me in the back of the head.
“S-surely…”
“Your Imperial Highness! Your Imperial Highness, where are you?!”
A desperate voice calling out for someone was heard from a distance.
“I-imperial Highness?”
There were many princesses in the Empire, but only two princes.
And I knew a several-years-older version of that handsome face.
“Surely, the First Prince…?”
As if in answer to my words, the boy lifted one corner of his lip with an irritating smile and said,
“Pick it up.”
It was true.
Bellezac’s spiritual twin. The very cause of my family’s ruin.
The First Prince, Astana Nerempe Durelli.