In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 223

“The young acting head speaks quite boldly.”
Ethan Clouse said to me in a rough, somewhat metallic voice.
It seemed he was quite angered by my mentioning the Empress.
But even amidst that, Ethan Clouse’s eyes swept over the interior of the carriage.
He seemed to be meticulously searching for any space where Clerivan might be hiding.
“As the acting head of Lombardi, I have no reason to be careful with my words in front of a mere Angenas knight.”
I retorted without backing down, adding,
“You’ll regret it if you don’t move away from the carriage quickly, Sir Clouse.”
“…”
No sooner had I finished speaking than Ethan Clouse pulled his body, which had been holding the carriage door, back sharply.
And he quickly drew his sword.
Clang-!
A loud, ringing sound erupted.
“How dare you open the Lombardi carriage.
Do you wish to die, Ethan Clouse?”
The one who appeared in an instant and swung his sword was Lambert Lombardi, the captain of the Lombardi Knights.
The two swords, where immense power met immense power, trembled violently.
“Move.”
“Angenas rabble.”
From behind, familiar voices were heard along with the sound of horse hooves.
Turning back, I saw the Angenas and Imperial Knights who had been clinging to the carriage retreating.
“Tia, no, Acting Head, are you alright?”
It was Giliou and Mayron who poked their faces out from outside the window.
There were probably a few more Lombardi knights accompanying them besides the two.
I chuckled at Ethan Clouse, who was staring at the Lombardi knights surrounding the carriage with a stiff face.
I said I was going to the Grand Council, but when did I say I was going alone?
Now, Angenas and the Imperial Knights would have to act much more cautiously if they didn’t want to engage in an all-out war with Lombardi.
Of course, what they had done so far was by no means something that could be easily overlooked.
“Lord Lombardi.”
“Yes, Acting Head.”
“That’s enough. I’m fine.”
“Understood.”
To be precise, Lambert Lombardi, who was my father’s cousin, was my grand-uncle.
But before that, it was the relationship between the acting head and the captain of the knights.
Lord Lombardi, without a moment’s hesitation, parried Ethan Clouse’s sword backward and retreated.
I spoke to Ethan Clouse.
“I will hold you accountable later for daring to open my carriage door, Sir Clouse.”
The glare through the closing gap of the door was intense, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
What are you going to do if you glare?
I spoke to the coachman.
“Let’s go to the place I mentioned earlier.”
“Yes, Acting Head.”
The carriage began to move again.
But this time, it was accompanied by Lombardi knights escorting the carriage.
As we started driving down the boulevard, I saw the citizens of Lombardi looking back at the carriage with wide eyes.
Before long, I arrived at my first destination.
“This is the Pellet Trading House, Acting Head.”
The coachman informed me.
But I didn’t get out of the carriage.
Instead, I slowed down and slowly passed by, looking out the window at the Pellet Trading House.
“Those bastards…”
It was a sight that naturally made me curse.
“They said they made a mess of it.”
The word ‘mess’ was a very restrained expression.
The Pellet Trading House, which used to be bustling with cargo wagons and people, full of vitality, was gone.
The surroundings were still guarded by Imperial soldiers, creating a chilling atmosphere, and only the trading house employees were moving busily.
Some were gathering scattered and broken luggage, others were sweeping the floor with cleaning tools in both hands.
Every single one of them had dark, shadowed faces.
“Ah!”
Just then, someone moving luggage let out a small scream.
It seemed their hand had been pricked by a piece of glass mixed in with the luggage.
Red blood flowed from their finger, dripping onto the street of the Pellet Trading House.
“They’re really dead.”
Anger surged within me.
I wanted to immediately snatch the broom from the employee’s hand and drive out all the Imperial soldiers who were strutting around the trading house.
I wanted to shout at them to get out of my trading company.
“From today, this will be our office.”
“But why my name…??”
“Because this building belongs to Clerivan.”
Old memories of first establishing the Pellet Trading House flooded back.
“Our first goal for the Pellet Trading House is the mine.”
Clerivan, Violet, and I.
The times when the three of us gathered in the office for meetings flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern.
And it wasn’t just us.
Many people had worked hard to make the Pellet Trading House what it was today.
I tore my gaze away from the Pellet Trading House and spoke to the coachman.
“Head to the Imperial Palace.”
The Pellet Trading House is not ending here.
It will take time to restore it to its original state, but after that, it will start moving even more actively.
“I’ll get everything back, absolutely everything.”
Of course, after getting back the price for making the trading house look like that.
The Grand Council Hall in the Imperial Palace.
There was still time until the meeting began, but quite a few nobles were arriving one after another.
The seats in the meeting hall were already full.
That meant today’s issue was of paramount interest to the nobles of the Empire.
Angenas or Brown, who would become the representative of the West?
The battle between Angenas, who had produced an Empress and dominated the West for the past 40 years, and Lombardi, and Brown, the original owner of the West, backed by the Second Prince.
This was not a simple matter.
It was also directly related to the inevitable appointment of the Crown Prince.
The nobles, gathered in small groups, were each predicting the outcome of the meeting.
There was one person they kept glancing at and being conscious of.
“Her Majesty the Empress is attending…”
“It’s a matter of Angenas’s survival, so of course she would act directly.”
Empress Lavini was seated in the leftmost of the three seats prepared at the head table.
It was originally Astana’s seat.
Even though she must have heard all the murmuring of the nobles, there was no sign of displeasure on the Empress’s face.
She merely maintained her seat with a relaxed, imperial demeanor, wearing a faint smile.
Her confident appearance led not a few to vaguely expect that today’s meeting would end in Angenas’s victory.
“Your Majesty the Empress.”
Dewey approached and reported in a half-whisper.
“Florentia Lombardi has departed from the mansion.”
“The carriage search?”
“That is… only Florentia Lombardi was in the passenger compartment.”
“I told you to check the cargo hold as well.”
“The Lombardi side also brought knights as escorts… Lambert Lombardi and Shananet Lombardi’s twin sons are all moving as well.”
“…That fox.”
Those three were not only Lombardi knights but also members of the Lombardi family.
If they were harmed for any reason, Lombardi would have a legitimate reason to directly intervene in the conflict.
However, a direct confrontation with Lombardi was a great burden not only for Angenas but also for the Imperial Family.
‘Go ahead and try to hit me.’
Florentia Lombardi was saying that.
“It must all be that old man’s scheme.”
Empress Lavini gritted her teeth, recalling Rulac Lombardi.
To be hiding in the mansion, moving Lombardi’s blood relatives one by one as if playing chess.
Perhaps his illness was all just an excuse.
“Surely someone of Clerivan Pellet’s standing wouldn’t hide in a carriage’s cargo hold?”
Dewey asked cautiously.
“Foolish talk. They are the kind of people who would do anything to oppress our Angenas family, the Lombardi.”
Empress Lavini said, looking at the empty seat where the Lombardi acting head would soon sit.
“Tell Ethan to check the cargo hold by any means necessary.”
“But how…”
“By any means necessary.”
Lavini said coldly.
“Tell him to check by any means necessary, no matter what.”
“What if Clerivan Pellet is hiding in the cargo hold?”
“Of course, he must be killed. He’ll be hidden in a small space, so just stab him.”
Empress Lavini confirmed, smiling beautifully as if to show off to the nobles who couldn’t hear the conversation.
“A dead man cannot speak, can he, Dewey?”
After all, the Emperor was on Angenas’s side.
All that mattered was that Clerivan Pellet did not attend the Grand Council and transfer the rights to the mortgaged land to the Brown family in front of the Emperor, as Chanton Sheshou had done.
“…Yes, I understand.”
Dewey, with a dark expression, had just turned to leave.
An unexpected figure stood behind Dewey.
“Croyton?”
It was Croyton Angenas, who managed the Dyurak Trading House.
Croyton, whose relationship with Lavini had become estranged after he competed with Dewey for the position of Angenas Family Head and was abandoned by the Empress.
But Croyton Angenas, who had suddenly come to the Grand Council Hall, looked very grim.
“May I speak with Your Majesty the Empress privately for a moment?”
“…Very well.”
Sensing that something was amiss, the Empress quietly followed the head of the Dyurak Trading House outside.
The two stood in a deserted corridor of the central courtyard.
“Last night, my father passed away.”
Croyton’s father had been an elder of the Angenas family for many years.
“And before my father passed away, I was able to ask him again about the matter with the Brown family.”
Empress Lavini’s eyes sparkled for a moment.
Ever since the Brown family reappeared, Lavini had been trying to find out exactly what had happened 40 years ago.
However, no matter how much she searched every corner of the family, she could not find any records of what had happened at that time.
As if the people of that time had intentionally erased all traces.
Not even a single piece of paper remained.
Croyton Angenas’s father was one of the few remaining elders who had been active at that time.
And when Lavini visited him on his sickbed last time, he had kept his mouth firmly shut, claiming he knew nothing.
“What did he say?”
“I am sorry to disappoint you, but my father did not wish to mention what happened that day until the very end.”
“What?”
Lavini’s voice sharpened.
But Croyton Angenas, with a gloomy expression, was not intimidated by Lavini as he had been before.
He wasn’t being brave.
Rather, it was closer to the detachment of someone who had given up everything.
“I came today to deliver my father’s last words to Your Majesty the Empress.”
Saying that, Croyton Angenas looked directly at Empress Lavini.
And with a pained expression, he spoke his father’s dying wish.
“Do not trust the Emperor.”
The words left by the dying elder of Angenas, worrying about the future of his family, were ultimately these:
“Do not trust the Imperial Family who abandoned the Brown family.”