In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 244

Imperial Palace bedroom.
Hiss- hiss- The quiet bedroom was filled only with ragged breaths and the strong scent of medicine.
“Why, why isn’t it getting better?”
Jovanes demanded of the imperial physician, his face contorted in a frown.
His pale lips and fingers, emaciated in a few weeks, trembled violently.
“I-I don’t know either, Your Majesty. The medicine is being administered correctly…”
“You, you’re trying to kill me… cough!”
Jovanes, who had raised his voice, eventually began to cough convulsively.
Every inhale and exhale was painful, and if his emotions got even slightly agitated, he would start coughing like this, making every day a torment.
“Y-Your Majesty, please, the medicine…” The imperial physician, shrinking back and looking nervous, quickly grabbed the medicine bottle and rushed forward as Jovanes began to cough.
“Kuk… You.”
Jovanes, who had barely swallowed a few sips of medicine, mostly spilling it, grabbed the imperial physician by the collar.
“P-Please spare me, Your Majesty!”
The imperial physician squeezed his eyes shut and trembled.
“Immediately, make the medicine… If you don’t want to die… cough!”
Red blood vessels stood out in Jovanes’s eyes as he started coughing again.
Only after drinking another bottle of medicine handed to him by the imperial physician did he begin to breathe more easily.
“Hoo…”
Jovanes gasped for breath, watching the imperial physician flee from the bedroom.
Silence fell upon the bedroom once more.
“Insolent wretches…”
Jovanes was isolated.
It wasn’t that he was physically imprisoned by someone.
It was simply that no one came to visit Jovanes.
Jovanes was being forgotten.
“Ungrateful bastards.”
Jovanes, glaring murderously at the empty bedroom, roughly pulled the cord beside his bed.
“Did you call, Your Majesty?”
The young chief maid, who had suddenly replaced Chief Maid Otuah after her disappearance, asked, bowing her head.
“Bring the Second Prince.”
At Jovanes’s command, the chief maid briefly calculated the time.
It was well into the afternoon now, and the Second Prince was undoubtedly busy with his duties.
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
But the chief maid bowed respectfully once more and left the bedroom.
A moment later.
“Did you call, Your Majesty?”
As Perez entered and greeted him, Jovanes smiled faintly.
“Very, busy.”
Perez did not answer.
He had already heard from the chief maid that Jovanes was in a foul mood.
Already, there was no one among Jovanes’s attendants who wasn’t Perez’s person.
“Just because people bow their heads, do you think that power is yours?”
Jovanes sneered.
“With one word from me, you’ll be nothing, immediately.”
I still hold the power.
That’s what Jovanes wanted to say.
“…I know.”
Perez replied in a low voice.
At his demeanor, Jovanes twisted one corner of his mouth again and said,
“Bring me tea.”
“…I will call the chief maid immediately.”
“No, you bring it yourself.”
If Perez and Jovanes were usually close, it would not have been a burdensome command.
Making tea for someone you cherish, regardless of status, was a sign of affection and respect.
But Jovanes was now ordering him to bring tea instead of the maid, intending to humiliate him.
“Why? Can’t you do it?”
Jovanes asked Perez, who remained silent.
Perez, whose face was unreadable for a moment, replied,
“…No, I can. Please wait a moment.”
Opening the door, Perez received hot water from the chief maid and began to brew tea himself by Jovanes’s bedside.
Jovanes stared intently at Perez’s every move, intending to scold him if he made even a single mistake, but in the end, there was nothing to fault.
Only when the pale green tea poured into the teacup with a trickling sound did Jovanes avert his gaze and drink the tea.
A refreshing floral scent stimulated his nose.
“That’s the tea we drank before the grand conference, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
Jovanes was secretly amazed.
Drinking the tea seemed to make breathing a little easier.
Jovanes spoke to Perez, who stood silently with his hands clasped behind his back, not drinking tea.
“Second Prince, come twice every day and offer me this tea.”
It was an outrageous demand.
Perez was handling all of the Emperor’s duties.
To ask such a prince to come twice a day and make tea.
However, Jovanes was shameless.
If Perez refused, he intended to use that as an excuse to delay the Crown Prince’s appointment.
“I will do so.”
However, Perez nodded in a calm tone.
“I will visit tomorrow morning. Please rest well.”
As Perez bowed and left the bedroom, Jovanes was left alone again.
But unlike before, Jovanes was smiling.
And he pulled the cord once more to call the chief maid, then said,
“Tell Chairman Killian to come early tomorrow morning.”
I will not be forgotten like this.
Jovanes thought, seething again.
***
“This is Lombardi Square, isn’t it?”
The place my father and I arrived at after walking from the mansion was Lombardi Square, specifically in front of the fountain.
Although the fountain was completely dry in winter, it was a symbol of the square, and people bustled around it.
“Would you like to sit here for a moment?”
My father sat on the edge of the fountain and patted the spot next to him.
I sat where my father indicated.
“Do you see that tree over there?
In spring, that tree blooms profusely with flowers. And when the wind blows, the petals drift all the way to this spot.”
My father said, a wide smile on his face.
“And it was here that I first met Shan.”
“Mother?”
I asked, a little surprised.
“Yes. I was sitting here, drawing that tree full of flowers. And I met Shan.”
My father smiled, his eyes crinkling, as if transported back to that time.
And he pointed to a path next to the tree and said,
“Was it that path? Yes, she walked straight towards me from that path. And she stood in front of me and said, ‘Do you like drawing?'”
“You remember all that?”
“Of course. It was the first thing your mother ever said to me. And actually…”
My father smiled a little shyly and scratched his cheek.
“I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.”
“Oh, love at first sight!”
It was an anecdote I had never heard in either my previous life or this one.
“I always thought I’d tell you this story someday, Tia. How do you like it, Tia?”
“I like it! I was a little curious too.”
My father rarely talked about my mother.
I had only heard that she passed away not long after I was born.
But it wasn’t something I could thoughtlessly ask my father about.
“Well, shall we go have dinner then?”
My father said, leading the way.
I quickly got up and walked with my father.
And the place we arrived at was a small, humble restaurant.
It had the distinct atmosphere of a long-standing, popular eatery at a glance.
The scent of food wafting from outside was so good that my stomach rumbled without my knowing.
My father, who was familiar with the place, opened the old wooden door and took a seat by the window.
“Two stews, please.”
When he ordered from the middle-aged woman diligently serving food, two large, round bowls filled with stew generously packed with meat were brought out.
As I swallowed, looking at the steaming stew, the middle-aged woman, who brought a basket of bread to accompany the stew, asked my father,
“Oh? You look familiar, sir?”
“Haha. I used to be a regular a long time ago.”
When my father answered with a relaxed smile, the middle-aged woman clapped her hands loudly, delighted.
“Oh, yes! I knew your face!
You always came with a small-framed lady, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Let’s see. This must be your daughter?”
The middle-aged woman said, looking at me.
Honestly, I was a little nervous.
It was a restaurant a bit far from the Lombardi mansion.
Would she recognize my face?
“You have the exact same impression as your mother!”
But the middle-aged woman showed no such sign, only delight.
“I can’t treat a long-lost regular poorly. Just a moment!”
Saying so, the middle-aged woman busily went to the kitchen and returned with a freshly baked apple pie in her hands.
“It’s on me! Eat it as dessert after your stew!”
With those cheerful words, the middle-aged woman busily left to attend to her work again.
“It’s chaotic, isn’t it?”
My father asked me, looking around the bustling restaurant.
Not exactly.
In my previous life, I struggled to make ends meet and mostly ate at restaurants like this, frequented by commoners.
“Your grandfather always used to say that the citizens of Lombardi shouldn’t know the faces of the Lombardi family.”
“You mean they should be comfortable enough in their lives not to care who governs them?”
“That’s right. And the citizens of Lombardi truly are.”
My father said so and encouraged me to try the stew.
“Wow, it’s delicious!”
I had expected it to be a good restaurant, seeing how crowded it was even at a slightly early hour for dinner.
But the warm stew was even more delicious than I had imagined.
“Shan loved this food the most.”
My father said happily and began to eat.
After finishing even the free apple pie, my father and I left the restaurant and walked a little further.
“…Oh?”
But the more we walked, the stranger it felt.
“Where are we going now, Dad?”
“We’ll arrive in just a little more walking.”
My father said this instead of answering, leading the way.
And finally, the place where we stopped was an alley in a residential area where commoners lived.
“Here, Tia.”
My father pointed to a small house on the corner.
A pretty house with a red roof and a low brick fence.
A small garden where spring seemed to grow lush when the weather warmed.
“This is the house where Shan and I lived together until we moved into the mansion.”
“Ah…”
I was speechless for a moment.
I looked at my father, who was gazing at the house with longing, then turned my head.
Down the street, I saw a bakery closing up shop after a day’s work.
‘Aunt Peri.’
It was the bakery I had visited with Lauriel when I was just eleven years old, to eat sandwiches.
And right in front of it, I saw the building where I had rented a room in my previous life.
“This is it.”
I looked at my father and mother’s house again.
It was a familiar house.
Because I had passed by it every day.
In my previous life, I had lived without knowing that the house filled with my mother’s and father’s memories was so close.
Just then, my father pointed to Aunt Peri’s bakery and said,
“The bread at that shop is very delicious. Shan loved it very much too. Let’s come together early in the morning next time. They have a secret menu only regulars know about!”
I couldn’t say anything.
My father gently patted my shoulder as I stood there silently and smiled.
“Shall we go inside then?”