In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 248

So, it was a few days ago. Rulac had suddenly visited Jovanes’s bedroom without any prior notice.

“What brings you here?” Jovanes asked Rulac, barely concealing his displeasure. His glare was quite sharp, but Rulac didn’t mind it at all. He simply looked around the bedroom, hazy with the fumes of strong medicine, with a frown, and replied in a calm voice, “I came to say my final goodbyes.”

“Final goodbyes?”

“I plan to hand over the Lord’s position to my granddaughter tomorrow. After that, I have no intention of setting foot in this Imperial Palace except for His Majesty’s funeral. So, it is indeed a final goodbye.”

“Funeral?” Jovanes, who had implicitly understood the meaning behind Rulac’s words, trembled with rage. “Are you saying… I’m going to die?”

“It seems His Majesty has not yet accepted that he is… dying.”

“Hey! Lord Lombardi!” Jovanes shouted loudly, fueled by his anger. But that was all.

“Haa… cough! cough!” Jovanes’s spasmodic coughing and difficulty breathing began again. Rulac, who had been watching Jovanes writhe in pain, clutching his chest, with a sympathetic gaze, picked up a handkerchief from a nearby table and handed it to him.

“Cough, cough!” Only after the Imperial physician, who had briefly left, rushed back in and took measures, could Jovanes breathe raggedly again.

“Haa, haa.” His lips were pale blue, and he didn’t even notice the drool. Jovanes buried himself deep in the pillow, lying exhausted.

“How… did you know?” Jovanes’s condition was worsening day by day. He had summoned Imperial physicians and renowned doctors from across the Empire to examine him, but they all shook their heads. They said it was a miracle he was still alive, given how potent the poison the Empress had used was, and that it was time to “prepare.” However, Jovanes paid them by having them whipped just enough not to kill them and then banished them from the Imperial Palace.

‘Quacks! Who’s dying!’ Jovanes denied it.

But.

“Your Majesty and I are very different, but we do have one thing in common,” Rulac said, approaching Jovanes’s side. “We both have quite capable successors.”

“Ha.” Jovanes snorted. “Capable successor. What does that… have to do with me?” He said, clutching the sweat-dampened bedsheets. “Even without me, the Empire is running just fine. Those who swore loyalty… don’t even show their faces.” Jovanes continued his self-deprecating remarks, muttering. Although he was strictly the Emperor of this Empire, he was already isolated and being forgotten.

“Anyway, I’m dying. What happens after… is none of my business.”

“Precisely,” Rulac said. “That’s why it’s important.”

Jovanes looked up at Rulac with hazy eyes. Rulac inwardly clicked his tongue a few more times. Jovanes’s mind, which had once been surprisingly quick at judging his own interests, had already dulled. The cycle of him dying by poison, just as he had poisoned his own father, was perhaps just. Still, it wasn’t pleasant to see Jovanes, whom he had watched grow up since childhood, gasping for breath like a wounded animal struggling for survival.

Rulac felt pity for Jovanes and opened his mouth. “A dead Emperor has no power.”

“If I die…” Jovanes’s blank gaze wavered, as if he had finally realized something.

“It’s time to accept death and prepare for the afterlife.”

“Afterlife?”

“That’s right. If His Majesty ends his life like this, what will remain? How will those who remain evaluate His Majesty? If you think about it, the answer will come quickly.”

“I, I…” Jovanes asked urgently. There was even a hint of panic in his eyes. “Was I not… a rather excellent… Emperor?”

For the first time since entering the bedroom, Rulac pressed his lips together instead of answering. In the ensuing silence, Jovanes took a few short breaths and asked again, “What… must I… do?”

“Are you truly saying… to distribute all that money, Your Majesty?” A high-ranking official from the Imperial Treasury, responsible for the Imperial finances, asked again, as if to confirm. He couldn’t believe his ears. Jovanes had never once bestowed anything upon those who worked for him throughout his reign. But now, he was suddenly calling for a significant portion of the annual budget to be distributed as bonuses to Imperial officials, and even to the lowly servants who did odd jobs.

“That’s right. They’ve… worked hard. It’s a gift… from me.” Jovanes nodded, feigning composure, as if the money was not at all a waste.

“Everyone will rejoice in His Majesty’s grace.” Leaving Jovanes, who was smiling with satisfaction, alone, the official slowly exited the Emperor’s bedroom. He thought he should meet with the Imperial physician. It was to confirm whether His Majesty was in a state to make proper judgments.

“Ah, Your Royal Highness, the Second Prince.” Just then, he encountered Perez, who was walking towards the bedroom. He bowed deeply in greeting, with a respect completely unlike how he had treated Jovanes moments before.

“Are you coming from seeing His Majesty?”

“Yes, I am. But…” The official explained what had just happened to Perez. And at the end, he asked, as if seeking permission, “Can we truly proceed?”

It was a question that anyone could find strange with a little thought. It was asking an ordinary prince, who hadn’t even been appointed Crown Prince yet, whether an imperial decree could be carried out. However, the official was not aware of this. Perez, whom he had observed for only a few weeks, felt far more trustworthy and worthy of following as a subordinate than Emperor Jovanes, whom he had served for decades.

“Proceed as instructed.”

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness!” Having received confirmation from His Royal Highness, the official walked away gleefully, thinking about the bonus he would receive.

“I’m here, Your Majesty.” Perez had come to the bedroom at the appointed time to prepare tea twice a day, as promised.

“Why are you late?” Even though he had arrived on time, Jovanes found fault unnecessarily. “It wouldn’t be good… to neglect me, would it?” Jovanes twisted his purplish lips and smiled grimly.

“I apologize. I was handling Astana’s matter.” Perez handed him a report with an expressionless face.

“Astana’s leg… amputated?”

“Yes. He was attacked by a monster, but his life was saved by promptly amputating one leg on site.”

“Fool. He should have… died.” Jovanes said, frowning. Then, as if pushing away unsightly trash, he tossed the report off the bed. “So, you’re late… just because of Astana’s matter?”

“I thought Your Majesty might need Astana, so I replied to provide him with as much convenience as possible and am on my way back.”

“What… do you mean?” Astana is needed?

Perez replied calmly. “It seems I will not be appointed Crown Prince.”

“…What?” Jovanes was so surprised he couldn’t close his mouth.

“My lineage… is an obstacle to what I most wish to do.”

“Ha, you’ve… gone mad.” Jovanes chuckled in disbelief. “The Imperial… lineage… is blocking… your path?”

“That’s right.” Perez replied immediately without a moment’s hesitation.

Jovanes, who had been staring at Perez, asked, “What… do you want?”

Only a madman would. No one in this world would refuse the position of Crown Prince, the future Emperor. Everyone must have their own desires for acting this way.

“Please amend the current law that states an Empress loses her family succession rights and titles upon marriage. Then I will consider it.”

It was an unexpected condition. But there was something he suspected.

“Is it because of that Lombardi girl?” Jovanes asked, his face twitching. Perez answered with silence.

“You’ve gone mad. To abandon the throne for a mere girl. Blinded by… just that!” Jovanes began to gasp for breath. The lowly one dares to be ungrateful! How dare he set conditions? And for a half-breed Lombardi girl at that?

“Enough! I have no throne… to pass on… to the likes of you!” Jovanes harshly refused. He thought that if he was this firm, Perez would reluctantly change his conditions.

“Understood. Then please write a letter to bring the First Prince back to the capital. I will send it on your behalf.” Perez calmly prepared paper and a pen and presented them to Jovanes.

This turn of events surprised Jovanes in turn. No matter how much he fumed and called Perez, he received only a cold response, devoid of any regret.

Jovanes realized with a shock. “You… truly intend… to abandon the throne.”

“That’s right.” Perez, standing with his hands behind his back, nodded. “If it’s not the Lady of Lombardi, there will be no Empress, and in that case, wouldn’t it be better for someone else to become the future Emperor? I can simply live as the spouse of the Lady of Lombardi.”

“Madman, madman.” Jovanes was now just repeating those words.

“If you dislike Astana, shall I send a letter to the Meyer family?” At the mention of the Meyer family, Jovanes’s shoulders twitched greatly. The head of the Meyer family was a bastard child the former Emperor had with a mistress. If Jovanes’s sons could not inherit the throne, they would be the suitable successors.

Jovanes, who had been glaring at Perez as if to kill him, asked, “You… want my will, don’t you?”

If he were to take that lowly Lombardi Lady as Empress, the opposition from the nobles would be considerable. The Emperor’s will, made while he was bedridden, could silence all that noise at once.

“I would recommend Astana over the Meyer family. Although he lacks one hand and one leg and is slow-witted, he is still of His Majesty’s blood, isn’t he?” Perez said to Jovanes. “It will be better than the throne passing to the Meyer family.”

“You scoundrel!” Jovanes roared, squeezing out every last ounce of strength. But nothing changed. Perez stood tall with his hands behind his back, looking down at Jovanes with an emotionless face. And the knights guarding the door didn’t rush in. Jovanes’s emotions had been fluctuating twelve times a day since he became bedridden. They had simply gotten used to it. It was a situation that clearly showed Jovanes’s current plight.

Thud! Jovanes snatched the paper and pen from Perez’s hand.

“Yes, I’ll immediately call Astana…” Jovanes seemed about to write a letter to bring the First Prince back to the capital at any moment.

“Astana…” However, despite his ragged breathing, the hand holding the pen remained motionless. Why does it feel like I’m standing on a cliff? My heart chilled as if looking down at a dizzying precipice beneath my feet.

Just then, Perez spoke, as if poking him in the back. “Your Majesty, choose. Will you call Astana, or will you leave your will?”

Hiss, hiss. Only Jovanes’s ragged breaths echoed in the bedroom.

And a moment later, Jovanes began to move the pen with a hand messy with smeared ink. Perez watched him, hands behind his back, and quietly curved one corner of his mouth upwards.

“Lady Florentia Lombardi, will you marry me?”

At Perez’s question, my mind felt hazy. At some point, there was a ring in his hand. It was the red diamond ring I had refused when we announced our engagement to lift my grandfather’s golden decree.

“I…” As I began to speak, Perez’s red eyes trembled noticeably. He was truly anxious. Afraid that I would refuse. As if what he had laid before me was not a red diamond ring, but his very heart. Perez looked as if he would die if I shook my head.

Wanting to remember this expression, I looked at Perez for a moment and then said, “Yes. Let’s get married, Perez. Let’s live together forever.”

The next moment, Perez’s trembling hand slipped the ring onto my finger.

“Tia, truly, I… I…” Perez hugged me tightly and mumbled a few incomprehensible words.

Thump, thump. Perez’s strong heartbeat was clearly felt against my body. And his face slowly approached mine.

Just as our lips were about to meet.

Thwack! A few of my fingers blocked Perez’s lips.

To Perez, who was looking at me with a very wronged expression, his mouth covered, I said, “There are a few things I absolutely must do before we announce our engagement again.”