In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 238

The dark, damp underground prison.
Empress Lavini sat in the innermost part of it.
“You don’t seem to be having a peaceful night.”
Perez said, casting long, dark shadows, created by the flickering torchlight in the prison corridor, into the cell.
The Empress in the darkness was like a withered flower.
Her once dazzling beauty, which had captivated everyone’s gaze, had now lost its luster.
She still sat with her back straight, pretending to be noble and dignified, but to the eyes of the one standing outside the bars, she was merely a shabby prisoner.
Her disheveled hair, soiled clothes, and dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep left no room for beauty.
The reason was easily predictable.
“Aren’t rats truly nasty creatures?”
At Perez’s low words, the Empress’s body greatly flinched, as if a secret had been exposed.
“When you close your eyes and try to sleep, they squeeze through the smallest gaps, devouring everything in sight, and the sound of them crawling by your head, as if constantly eyeing human flesh, is enough to drive one mad.”
Whether it was the underground prison or an abandoned annex.
They were perfect havens for animals living hidden from human eyes.
“Open the door.”
Perez said to the guard.
The heavy clanging of iron echoed a couple of times, and Perez walked into the cell.
“Have you come to kill me?”
Empress Lavini asked Perez with venomous eyes.
“Not yet. But I see no sign of remorse from the prisoner.”
“Ha!”
Empress Lavini scoffed.
“I did nothing wrong. You and I simply waged a life-or-death war. I lost, and you are gleefully tearing Angenas apart. I’ve already paid my price.”
The Empress said, raising her chin with a brazen face.
“Paid your price, you say.”
Perez looked down at the Empress with cold eyes.
“The one who suffered has no intention of forgiving, yet you say you’ve paid your price. That’s a strange calculation indeed.”
Every night, his mother’s voice, which he could still hear so clearly no matter how much he covered his ears.
“To match the pain my mother had to endure, you still have a long way to go, Empress Lavini.”
Perez added briefly.
“You’re not begging to be killed yet, are you?”
Seeing the blue eyes trembling with instinctive fear, the furious rage that had wanted to send the Empress to the execution block subsided somewhat.
It wouldn’t be that easy.
Of course, he had no intention of leaving the scales, which were heavily tilted towards the Empress, as they were.
“Bring him.”
At Perez’s command, the guard standing at the door moved quickly.
Soon after, with the clanging of the door, the quiet underground prison became noisy.
“L-let go! Let me go! H-hic, don’t, don’t hit me! I was wrong!”
That voice was familiar to both Perez and Empress Lavini.
“…Astana?”
“M-mother!”
Astana, who was being roughly dragged by the soldiers, recognized Empress Lavini and cried like a child.
Though he was officially the First Prince of the Empire, Astana’s pitiful state was closer to that of a street vagrant.
There was no trace of the inherent nobility of a prince to be found.
Perez quietly gestured, and the soldiers released their hold on Astana.
“Mother!”
Astana’s appearance, running to Empress Lavini and clutching the hem of her dress, was surprisingly immature for someone in his mid-twenties.
If such an Astana had inherited the throne, who would have truly held the Emperor’s power?
It was easy to tell without much thought.
The guards watching from the side also seemed to sense it, quietly exchanging glances and frowning.
“Y-your face, why is it so…”
The Empress, with trembling hands, examined Astana’s bruised face.
“Those bastards! Ugh!”
Astana pointed at the soldiers who had dragged him and said.
“He wouldn’t come… so we had no choice.”
The soldier quickly defended himself to Perez.
“If the prisoner doesn’t obey commands, then there’s nothing that can be done.”
“You scoundrel!”
The Empress shouted at Perez.
“Astana is the First Prince of the Empire! No matter how much power you’ve gained, you cannot treat the Emperor’s bloodline like this!”
Empress Lavini embraced Astana with one arm.
At the mother and son’s desperate appearance, Perez replied coldly.
“It is the Emperor’s command to thoroughly investigate all remaining crimes, regardless of status.”
“…Jovanes!”
The Empress ground her teeth, seething with rage.
It was a stark contrast to her earlier remark about having “simply waged a war.”
And then she glared at Perez as if to kill him and shouted.
“You devil!”
“Hmph! Ugh!”
Astana, nestled in the Empress’s arms, continuously shed bitter tears.
“Mother! Those brutes treated me like a commoner! How dare they treat me like an animal! Sob!”
“It’s alright, Prince. It’s alright.”
The Empress acted like a pitiful mother protecting her son.
And that sight touched something within Perez.
He tilted his head slightly, and the color of his red eyes, looking at the embracing mother and son, sank even darker.
Did she call him a devil?
Then he would have to live up to that expectation.
“Astana.”
At Perez’s call, Astana raised his head and sniffled.
“W-what is it!”
“His Majesty has entrusted me with all investigations regarding this rebellion and the previous attempted assassination.”
Perez’s words, cold as the prison walls, reached Astana.
“That’s why you’ve been confined to the prison, not your palace, for the past few days.”
“It was your doing, after all…!”
“Furthermore, the true culprit of what happened in the Forest of Madness has not yet been revealed.”
Astana stopped speaking.
His dull mind furiously worked to understand the meaning of Perez’s words.
Perez casually opened and closed his hand, which held Astana’s fate, and said.
“I’ll put it simply for you. In other words, either you or your mother will be the culprit.”
“Th-then…”
“But as Empress Lavini said, you are a noble person, a direct bloodline of the Emperor, so I will give you a choice.”
Perez said, a twisted smile on one corner of his lips.
“Confess right here and now that your mother, Empress Lavini, handed you a dagger and told you to harm His Majesty the Emperor.”
“W-what…?”
“Then, in consideration of your cooperation with the investigation, I will immediately release you from prison.”
And Perez offered one more proposal.
Throughout his days in prison, Astana had refused to eat any food given by the guards, calling it “trash.”
“If you write a detailed confession in your own handwriting describing the situation at the time, I will provide you with all the food you desire.”
The Forest of Madness incident had all gone according to Perez’s plan.
Astana was being asked to fabricate a non-existent event in exchange for release from prison and food.
Perez waited for Astana’s answer with a relaxed demeanor.
‘Nonsense.’
Lavini inwardly scoffed at Perez’s proposal.
It wasn’t a proposal that guaranteed survival, nor one that guaranteed even the minimum rights of a prince.
In this situation, where his life could be lost to rebellion at any moment, what Perez offered as a reward was utterly meaningless.
‘He would never accept…’
Swoosh.
The Empress’s scoff stopped as Astana released her hand and moved away.
“…Prince?”
A startled Lavini called out to Astana, but Astana avoided her gaze.
At the same time, a sneer flashed in Perez’s eyes.
The Empress was startled and tried to stop Astana.
She wanted to advise him not to fall for Perez’s wordplay, which didn’t even guarantee his life.
“P-Prince. If you fall for such a proposal…!”
“It wasn’t my fault from the beginning, was it?”
Astana mumbled his excuse, still unable to look at Lavini.
“It was all Mother’s doing alone, and it’s unfair for me to get caught up in it too.”
Lavini abandoned her intention to help Astana.
Instead, she trembled with a sense of betrayal.
“H-how could you… How could you dare to…”
“Isn’t this all because Mother and Angenas were too greedy for their own good!”
Astana shook off Lavini’s still embracing arm and sprang to his feet, shouting.
“A noble from a rural corner of the West should have been content with becoming the Empress’s family!
How dare you not know your place!”
Astana now blamed Lavini.
And he showed a servile smile to Perez and said.
“You, you and I are brothers, aren’t we? Brothers of the same father, blood brothers!”
And he shuffled closer.
“Whatever you say, I’ll write it all down as you command. What happens to Mother and Angenas has nothing to do with me, little brother.”
Perez subtly moved to avoid the hand reaching out to him.
And he commanded the guards.
“Take him away.”
“Hey! Let go! I’ll walk out myself!”
Astana glared at the soldiers and quickly left the prison, saying.
“I want freshly baked bread and meat!
You must bring them immediately!”
As Astana walked away, he subtly glanced back at Lavini at the end.
But that was all.
Leaving his mother alone on the cold prison floor, Astana fled the underground prison as if escaping.
What a foolish fellow.
Astana’s safety was only guaranteed until he provided the confession.
He didn’t seem to know that yet.
Perez scoffed, watching Astana’s retreating back.
“Ha, haha…”
The Empress sat slumped, letting out only hollow laughter.
Her eyes, staring blankly at the prison floor, had no focus.
“How, how could he… me…”
“I’m glad I could live up to your expectations, even if only partially.”
Perez said with a hint of laughter in his voice.
Then, Lavini screamed.
“You must be thrilled with your revenge! But it will only last a moment! Soon you too will be consumed by vengeance!”
Then, as if realizing something, she clutched her stomach and laughed.
“Hahaha! Yes! Already consumed! You inherited the throne to get revenge on me! So you can never be with that woman you love so dearly!”
Ahahahaha!
The Empress’s mad laughter echoed loudly in the cell.
“This is wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Live miserably like this forever!”
But tears were streaming from the Empress’s eyes.
Thump, thump!
Even as she laughed in a daze, the Empress was pounding her chest with her fists in anguish.
Her laughter suddenly turned into an animalistic wail, and then, at some point, a mad cackle.
At some point, the Empress’s laughter abruptly stopped.
“Kill me. As an Empress who dared to kill the Emperor, put me on the execution block. Don’t you need to complete your revenge?”
Her voice was cracked and very weary.
But Perez shook his head.
“You underestimate me again. My revenge cannot be completed by your death, not by something like that.”
With a distinctly changed tone, Perez casually tossed a piece of paper at the Empress’s feet.
“It’s the Empress’s dethronement decree. It means you are no longer the Empress of the Lambru Empire. You can’t even die on the execution block.”
Lavini’s withered hand barely picked up the dethronement decree.
To Lavini, Perez spoke again, as if to confirm.
“You are nothing now.”
At those words, Lavini’s body began to tremble as if struck by lightning.
“No. That can’t… That can’t be. No…”
Lavini shook her head, denying reality.
Thud, thud.
Perez approached Lavini, who was slumped on the ground, and lowered himself.
And he looked directly into her bloodshot, tear-stained blue eyes without an inch of error and said in a low voice.
“Let me be clear. You will die here. It could be today, or it could be tomorrow.”
Lavini’s cracked lips trembled.
“You will die.”
But it evoked no emotion in Perez.
“Someone might come in and beat you to death, or slit your throat while you sleep. Or there might be poison in the food the guard gives you.”
Lavini’s face was slowly being tainted with fear.
“So live each day in hell, fearing if today will be your last. Rot away, forgotten, in this place where no one will save you, Lavini Angenas.”
Having said that, Perez abruptly stood up and left the cell.
“No! Argh! Just kill me! Kill me! No!”
Lavini rushed at Perez as if to kill him, but was quickly restrained by the soldiers.
Perez gave one last cold command to the guards.
“If the prisoner tries to commit suicide, gag her and tie her limbs.”
Thud, thud.
Perez’s footsteps leaving the underground prison were buried by Lavini’s screams.
But that was only for a moment.
Clang.
As the thick iron door closed behind Perez, who had emerged from the prison, all that could be heard was the sound of a quiet breeze.
Everything of Lavini’s was thus confined to the underground prison.
Perez walked through the quiet imperial palace without looking back.
***
“Perez hasn’t been around these past few days.”
I said to Clerivan as I left the Angenas mansion.
“He’s probably very busy. He’s taking over all of His Majesty the Emperor’s duties.”
“Ah, I suppose so.”
Since the Emperor’s condition was still touch-and-go.
Someone would have to handle the accumulating work.
“I should get used to it.”
Perez would get busier and busier.
The same went for me.
So, from now on, we wouldn’t be able to visit each other as often as before.
Even though I knew that well, my heart kept aching.
I ignored the pain and said to Clerivan.
“Let’s ride together. I’ll drop you off on the way.”
“Thank you.”
The carriage ride back to the Lombardi estate from the capital was quiet.
It felt like the time was slowly approaching.
“Um, Lady Florentia.”
Sure enough, Clerivan cautiously began.
“Go ahead, Clerivan.”
It was Clerivan who had said he had something to tell me last time.
Now that the Angenas clean-up was slowly coming to an end.
My prediction that it was time for Clerivan to bring up the matter he had mentioned earlier was correct.
“Hoo.”
Clerivan let out a short sigh, then looked at me and took something from his pocket.
“What’s this?”
I asked that and unfolded the paper.
And my heart felt like it sank.
“This…”
“It’s the lifetime contract I used when I founded Pellet Corporation.”
Clerivan cleared his throat again and said.
“Please terminate this contract.”
What?
“I think I need to step down as the head of Pellet Corporation, Lady Florentia.”