In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 221

As Violet was helplessly dragged away, she spotted a familiar figure behind the warehouse building.
His face was hidden by a deeply pulled-down hood, but Violet knew it was Clerivan.
As Violet was being dragged away by the knights, Clerivan was about to step out from behind the warehouse where he had been hiding.
‘No!’
Violet shook her head vigorously, looking at Clerivan.
She didn’t know what was going on, but the Imperial Knights were ransacking the trading house, looking for Clerivan.
She instinctively knew it was dangerous.
‘Don’t come out, absolutely!’
As Violet gave him another meaningful glance, Clerivan paused in his tracks.
That was the last thing Violet saw before she was dragged back into her office.
Meanwhile, Clerivan hid himself in a corner again, gritting his teeth.
Fortunately, the urgent message and the robe to cover his face, sent by the informant Bate had planted within the Pellet Trading House, arrived just in time.
[Danger. Both trading house and mansion attacked. Empress. Be careful.]
If it hadn’t been for this hastily scrawled note, it would have been Clerivan, not Violet, who was currently captured.
He wanted to rush to Violet’s side, but he knew he couldn’t possibly defeat the Imperial Knights by force.
Clerivan leaned against the cold warehouse wall, trying to cool his heated head.
And a moment later, he quietly began to leave the grounds of the Pellet Trading House.
It was a massive complex with dozens of buildings, but it was a place Clerivan knew all too well.
For now, escaping this place was the top priority.
There were a few close calls where he almost ran into Imperial soldiers, but fortunately, Clerivan managed to escape the Pellet Trading House safely.
Standing in a deserted alley, catching his breath, Clerivan thought.
“Where should I go now?”
The mansion had also been attacked, so he couldn’t go back there.
The first person that came to mind, of course, was Florentia.
But Clerivan immediately shook his head.
What if they were accusing him of something related to treason?
“I can’t involve Lady Florentia.”
It was then.
“Hey, you there. Show me your face.”
One of the Imperial Knights walking towards the Pellet Trading House spoke to Clerivan.
“Damn it.”
Clerivan slowly turned his body as if he hadn’t heard them.
And he rounded the corner of the alley at the fastest pace he could manage.
“Huh? Stop there! Hey!”
But the knight didn’t give up and persistently followed him.
Clerivan’s footsteps, and the knight’s footsteps chasing him, grew faster and faster.
Eventually, Clerivan began to run.
“It’s an order! Stop there!”
Feeling that something was amiss, the knight started shouting and chasing him.
“Haa, haa!”
Gasping breaths burst from Clerivan’s mouth.
But he couldn’t stop.
He had to hide in the crowd.
Just as Clerivan, thinking that, exited the alley and entered the main street,
“Lord Pellet!”
A familiar voice came from somewhere.
Clerivan quickly turned his head in that direction.
“Second Prince… Your Highness?”
He hadn’t expected it at all.
But it was clearly Perez, riding his horse towards Clerivan.
“I-I got him!”
“Damn it!” Pausing briefly in surprise at seeing Perez was his undoing.
The knight, who had been chasing him relentlessly, grabbed Clerivan by the scruff of his neck.
“You! Haa, Clerivan, haa, Pellet, right!”
The Imperial Knight laughed, looking at Clerivan as if he had caught a big fish.
Then he said with a rather arrogant air,
“Clerivan Pellet, you are hereby arrested on suspicion of complicity in the attempted assassination of His Majesty the Emperor… Argh!”
The knight couldn’t finish his sentence and was sent flying backward, crashing to the ground.
As Clerivan stared at the knight rolling on the ground in surprise, Perez’s voice, now much closer, reached his ears.
“Quickly.”
Perez was extending a hand to Clerivan, as if telling him to get on the horse.
In his other hand, he held a sheathed sword, as if he had just struck the knight with it.
Clerivan hesitated for a moment.
But then he firmly grasped the hand.
“Thank you.”
Perez strongly pulled Clerivan up with one arm.
Clerivan’s body was lifted up and he was soon seated on the horse.
“U-Ugh. What?!”
The knight who had crashed to the ground finally regained his senses and sprang to his feet.
And he pulled out the sword from his waist, shouting,
“Who dares assault an Imperial Knight…!”
“Stop.”
Perez once again pointed the unsheathed sword at the knight’s face.
“S-Second Prince, Your Highness?”
Recognizing Perez, the surprised knight froze, only blinking his eyes.
“If you draw your sword on me, you will be summarily executed for treason.”
“Uh, uhh…”
The knight was caught between a rock and a hard place.
Then, only after Perez kicked the horse’s belly hard and began to gallop away, did he shout loudly,
“He’s over there! Clerivan Pellet is over there!”
Hoping that his comrades, who were searching every corner of Lombardi like him, would hear.
And by coincidence, Ethan Clouse, who was walking around the outskirts of the Pellet Trading House, heard that shout.
Hearing the distant sound, Ethan Clouse reacted like a nimble hunting dog.
He quickly mounted his horse and whistled loudly, gathering the surrounding knights.
“That way!”
The grey warhorse Ethan Clouse was riding charged forward first.
Behind him, one Angenas knight and two Imperial Knights followed at a distance.
Thump-thump, thump-thump!
As his master drove him, Ethan Clouse’s horse galloped wildly down Lombardi Boulevard.
“Kyaaak!”
“Get out of the way!”
The surprised citizens of Lombardi screamed as they dodged the incredibly fast horse.
“Uwaaah!”
However, a child who had fallen in the middle of the road and a woman holding the child’s hand remained.
The woman, looking at the approaching horse with fearful eyes, tightly embraced the child with a resigned expression.
And.
Neigh!
Ethan Clouse pulled hard on the horse’s reins.
The horse then leaped over the woman and child.
Thump-thump, thump-thump!
Ethan Clouse glanced at them out of the corner of his eye and continued to gallop relentlessly.
And finally, he saw a horse carrying two people galloping in front of him.
“Hurry!”
Ethan Clouse kicked the horse’s belly once more.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump!
The horse began to pick up speed again.
“Faster! Even faster!”
Perez, seeing Ethan Clouse closing the distance, urged his horse on.
However, a horse that usually pulled carriages could not possibly run faster than a warhorse.
“Clerivan Pellet!”
Ethan Clouse called out Clerivan’s name in a loud voice.
Clerivan gritted his teeth, feeling a premonition that he would be caught like this.
It was then.
“We’re here!”
Clerivan’s head shot up at Perez’s shout.
In front of the two, the Lombardi mansion appeared.
“This is…?”
Clerivan didn’t understand for a moment.
However, Perez gripped the horse’s reins tightly and sped up as much as possible.
Thump-thump, thump-thump!
Just as Ethan Clouse’s horse began to pick up even more speed.
“Got it!”
Perez shouted as they crossed the boundary of the Lombardi mansion.
And at the same time, the Lombardi knights standing in front of the mansion’s iron gate began to move.
Clank, clank!
Clad in armor and fully armed, they blocked the entrance to the Lombardi mansion.
Ethan Clouse’s horse was galloping furiously, but they did not budge.
Neigh!
Finally, Ethan Clouse’s horse stopped abruptly and neighed loudly once more.
“Argh!”
Ethan Clouse roared in anger, watching the retreating figures of Perez and Clerivan.
“Get out of the way!”
Then, the Imperial Knights who had been chasing Ethan Clouse shouted.
“We’ve come to arrest a criminal involved in treason! Get out of the way immediately!”
“Impossible.”
Lambert Lombardi, the captain of the Lombardi Knights, who was standing at the front, said curtly.
“Who dares block the Imperial Knights!”
“I am Lambert Lombardi, Captain of the Lombardi Knights.”
“Lo-Lombardi…”
The nephew of Rulac Lombardi, the current head, and the captain of the Lombardi Knights.
It was a name even the Imperial Knights knew well.
“Lord Lombardi! If you don’t move out of the way immediately, we will consider you complicit in treason…!”
“I said it’s impossible.”
Lambert Lombardi said in a low voice.
“According to the pact made between the first Emperor and the first Lombardi family head.”
Lambert’s brown eyes shone sharply.
“Imperial forces cannot enter the Lombardi mansion.”
And he added, looking at Ethan Clouse, who was still glaring in the direction where Perez and Clerivan had disappeared.
“Let alone Angenas’s hunting dog.”
A scoff.
It was a remark laced with derision.