In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 6

“Tia, what do you want for your birthday?”
Father asked me as I watched the servants clear the breakfast dishes.
After a very careful exploration last night, I discovered that I was still seven years old, with about a month left until my eighth birthday.
“I want a teddy bear! I want a really big teddy bear!”
I chose a gift a seven-year-old child would likely want and shouted it out loud.
“But you don’t like dolls, do you?”
“Ah…”
I’m doomed.
Ever since I was little, I had disliked dolls, whether they resembled people or animals.
I always felt like they would come alive at night.
For someone like me to suddenly say I wanted a really big teddy bear…
Sweat trickled down my back as Father looked at me with a slightly strange gaze.
“Well, now that I think about it… dolls aren’t really my thing.”
“Then what should I get you?”
“Hmm.” Nothing really came to mind.
What I wanted badly enough to receive as a gift would be a secluded villa or an estate large enough to live off its income forever.
But I couldn’t ask for something like that.
I guess I’d better ask for a suitable book.
Just then, Father clapped his hands, as if a good idea had struck him.
“Right! How about a horse, Tia?”
“A horse?”
“If we get a one-year-old foal and you bond with it and raise it from now on, it will be a magnificent horse by the time you become an adult.”
I blinked, unable to reply for a moment.
Horses were expensive.
They were assets so important that the wealth of an owner or organization could be measured by how many horses they possessed.
The cost of a single horse was one thing, but more importantly, there was the maintenance cost.
If you weren’t going to feed it and clean its droppings yourself, you had to hire someone to do it, and you needed a decent stable.
Not to mention vast land for the horse to run freely.
Even common noble families bought horses for their children, but that was a gift suitable for their eighteenth birthday, when they became adults.
“When I was your age, I received my first horse as a birthday gift.”
But this was the Lombardi family.
Such ordinary economic standards didn’t apply here.
He was usually so humble and dignified that I sometimes forgot, but Father was indeed a member of the Lombardi family.
With that thought, I stared intently at Father.
“Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that, Tia?”
“It’s nothing. But Dad, that foal would be too pitiful.”
I didn’t particularly want to learn horseback riding, so I came up with an excuse to refuse.
“Pitiful, you say?”
“It’s only one year old, but it would have to be separated from its mother. It would be very sad.”
“Tia…”
Oh, shoot.
The moment I spoke, I realized I had made a mistake.
Because Father’s eyes, looking at me, instantly became moist.
“You don’t want it to be separated from its mother, do you…?”
I had forgotten for a moment.
The fact that my mother had died right after giving birth to me.
Father was clearly misunderstanding, thinking I was identifying myself with the foal.
“Oh, Dad. I mean, that is…” I tried to fix it belatedly, but it was too late.
Father, looking at me with pitiful, tear-filled eyes, hugged me tightly and said,
“This dad was short-sighted. Let’s bring the mother horse along too.”
“I’m fine… What?”
What did I just hear?
“As you said, separating a one-year-old foal from its mother seems too cruel. So, if we buy the mother horse as well, won’t they be able to live happily without being separated?”
It was true, but.
Foals were expensive, but mares capable of breeding were even more so.
However, Father, being the son of the Lombardi patriarch, wouldn’t be thinking about such things.
I nodded in resignation.
“My Tia, your heart is so kind.”
Father stroked my head as if I were the most adorable creature in the world, then hugged me tightly again.
Alright. I’ll just learn horseback riding, I guess.
As I purred like a content cat, Father said,
“How about we read a book in the parlor today instead of the library?”
Unlike my other cousins, who spent most of their day with their nannies, I didn’t have one.
Minor tasks like bathing and changing clothes were handled by maids, but Father took charge of my overall life.
In short, from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep again, I was glued to my father like a sticky note.
This close relationship was partly because we were just the two of us, a small family, but also because Father was unemployed, which made such a simple routine realistically possible.
“Perhaps I should write a book today.”
Father was a person with broad interests and extensive knowledge, from art to economics, but he didn’t apply them practically.
One might say his knowledge simply remained knowledge.
Occasionally, if he found a truly interesting topic, he would organize what he knew and turn it into a book like this.
Of course, there was no profit generated from it.
The finished books simply sat on the bookshelf in Father’s study.
Nevertheless, our father had the financial means to buy both a mother horse and a baby horse for his seven-year-old daughter’s birthday.
Lombardi truly is the best.
Noticing Father focusing on his work, sketching something, I opened my book a little distance away and sat down.
Of course, reading was just a pretense; my true purpose was something else.
Let’s organize my thoughts.
It was about carefully reviewing what I needed to do next.
Ideally, it would be best to write it down on paper, but there was a risk of someone reading it.
Being stuck with Father all day was quite troublesome in times like these.
I pretended to read, turning the pages of the book, and listed the first thing I had to do.
I have to win Grandfather’s favor.
Before he died, Grandfather had lamented, “If only I had known your abilities a few years earlier…” But I’m confident that even if he had, the family’s future wouldn’t have changed.
Even if he had known a few years earlier, it would have been too late.
The succession structure was already solidified with Viese, the eldest son, and his son Bellesac was grown. What would have changed even if the unrecognized illegitimate granddaughter, born of the third son, had distinguished herself?
I had three mountains to climb to compete with them.
I was the powerless third son’s, half-blood, daughter.
So, from now on, I had to appeal my talent as a patriarch to Grandfather.
I needed to solidify my position and gain Grandfather’s absolute support.
But there’s no need to rely solely on internal family power.
I shouldn’t hesitate to use any means necessary.
That’s why I thought of the Second Prince.
Someone who could solidify my position within the family from outside.
The Second Prince was the person who could empower me even after I became patriarch.
Of course, I also plan to provide him with a lot of help until he becomes Crown Prince.
No future emperor, having built trust from a young age and received great help in becoming Crown Prince, would refuse Lombardi.
We could become good friends.
Oh, come to think of it, was it around this time?
I looked out the window where a gentle rain had started to fall.
The Second Prince, Perez’s, mother dies sometime during the rainy season this year.
I heard that despite giving birth to the Emperor’s son, she died without proper treatment due to the Empress’s pressure.
Perez, harboring resentment from this, reciprocated when the Empress fell ill after he became Crown Prince.
He ordered that no doctors be allowed to enter the Empress’s palace.
He was the Crown Prince who had already seized power in place of the ailing Emperor, and the First Prince, Astanas, who should have been his mother’s shield, had been banished to the frontier, so there was no one to stop him.
How fiercely he must have worked to become Crown Prince from being a forgotten prince in a back room.
It was something that couldn’t be done without harboring resentment.
Perez, who had just lost his mother, was probably spending his days alone about now.
I wanted to go and offer comfort, to build a connection, but I couldn’t leave.
It was a rule Grandfather had made.
Lombardi children could not leave the mansion grounds freely before their 11th birthday.
However, limited outings were allowed with the patriarch’s permission, to prevent crimes targeting young Lombardi descendants.
So, just a little more patience.
I didn’t intend to just sit idly by until I turned eleven.
But now was the time to focus on internal family matters.
Creating an opportunity to go to the Imperial Palace would be next.
After organizing my thoughts, I turned another page of the book, trying to recall my memories.
What big event happened in Lombardi around this time?
When you take over a family’s affairs for several years, you learn its history whether you like it or not.
In my case, it was because I wanted to study it more diligently.
The year I turned eight.
Something quite significant definitely happened in Lombardi around then.
It was then.
As I fretted, clutching my head, a subtly familiar voice came to my ears with a soft knock.
“Lord Gallahan, are you there?”
When had I heard this voice before?
“Who is it?”
Tilting his head, Father opened the parlor door.
And at the face I saw beyond the open door, I was astonished.
The legendary businessman who managed the Lombardi Merchant Guild, and after Grandfather’s death, left the family like me to establish the Pellet Trading Company, developing it into one of the top five trading companies in the Lambrew Empire in just two years!
Clerivan Pellet was stepping into our parlor.