In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 82

I stared at Clerivan, wondering if I had misheard him.
“I heard such a story when I briefly visited the mansion today.”
“Exactly who did you hear that information from?”
“From the head of the Lombardi Trading Company…”
The head of the Lombardi Trading Company was Romassie Dillard, Clerivan’s father.
He would never speak nonsense, especially not to his son.
If so, it meant Lombardi had truly heard rumors about the Lyra mine.
I began to carefully review my memories again.
But no matter how much I recalled, the winning bid at that time was indeed 2,000 gold.
“Lombardi doesn’t spare money to maintain its monopoly on iron. So you might need to prepare even more money than you think.”
Clerivan advised with a serious face.
He was right.
If Lombardi also knew about the iron ore, there was a high possibility they would bid around 5,000 gold and win the auction immediately.
Could it be that something I did caused a butterfly effect, leading Lombardi to suddenly participate in the auction?
But the gem buried beneath was worth buying even for 5,000 gold.
If I acted now, it wasn’t impossible to prepare 5,000 gold by the auction day.
And one thought came to mind.
What if Lombardi had participated in this auction in the previous life too?
My thoughts became increasingly tangled, and my worries deepened.
***
Thud.
Something was placed on my head.
“…What is it?”
When I touched my head, I felt something light and soft.
I was in deep thought, what is this?
Slightly annoyed, I took off the object on my head to find it was a wreath made of white wildflowers.
“What in the…”
“I made it!”
A child’s distinct, ringing voice shot into my ear.
“It suits Tia so well!”
Craney shouted, a wide smile on his freckled face.
Oh, right.
I was playing with flowers right now.
My thoughts had wandered for a moment, recalling the conversation that had taken place in the Pellet Trading Company office a few days ago.
Even so, playing with flowers.
Playing the part of an eleven-year-old was truly difficult.
“That’s right! It really suits Tia!”
Lorraine smiled, gently brushing the green grass stains from Craney’s small hands.
We were currently out in the fields within the Lombardi mansion.
Around this time, the fields were full of small wildflowers, and we would make wreaths and flower rings with them.
It was one of the typical ways children of this era, who had little to do, played.
“Ah, I’m tired…”
Playing the role of a child.
Right now, my mind was a mess, entangled with the Lyra coal mine, Angenas, and Lombardi.
And complicated calculations about money, 2,000 gold, 5,000 gold.
But in reality, I was sitting in a field playing with flowers.
The disparity between my worries and reality was too great, it was agonizing.
“The yellow flowers suit you well too!”
“Indeed, they do.”
“Because Tia is pretty!”
Craney arbitrarily placed another wreath on my head and clapped his hands happily again.
“It’s only natural that everything suits her!”
“Craney really likes Tia, doesn’t he?”
Lorraine said, stroking Craney’s red hair.
“Yes! I’m going to marry Sister Tia!”
“What?”
Lorraine looked at me with a big, clear-eyed smile.
Now, was she telling me to react to that statement?
Sigh.
I felt like a deep sigh, enough to make all the wildflowers here lose their will to live and wither away, was about to escape me.
But I had to protect a child’s innocence.
I replied in a voice that even I could hear was a little mechanical.
“Wow, that’s nice.”
But an excited Craney, oblivious to such things, ran around the field again, giggling, to make me a ring.
“Tia, is something wrong?”
Lorraine asked, picking a small blade of grass from my cheek.
While I was doing things an eleven-year-old would do, Lorraine was genuinely looking after me and Craney and playing with us.
Kind-hearted Lorraine.
“Huh? No. Nothing’s wrong.”
“You’ve looked a bit down for a few days. If you’re worried about something…”
“I probably won’t be much help, though.”
Lorraine smiled sweetly.
At that moment, a breeze swept across the field from afar, making Lorraine’s long, luscious brown hair flutter.
Even though her neatly combed hair was disheveled, her smiling face as she turned towards the direction of the wind was refreshing.
Yes. Lorraine was always like this.
My heart ached as I recalled the Lorraine who had returned with a bouquet of flowers in her chillingly cold chest.
I smiled and said to Lorraine, “No, I’m fine for now. But if I do have a worry, please listen then, Lorraine.”
“Yes, anytime.”
Lorraine was happy at my words.
“Tia! Tia!”
Craney, who had gone far away, ran back with a flushed face.
“Let’s go give wreaths to Giliou and Mayron too!”
“You made some for the twins too! Good Craney. It’s probably time for them to be back home after training, so shall we go now?”
“Yes!”
Fortunately, where the Shananet couple and the twins lived was not far from here.
I followed Lorraine and Craney and stood up.
Oh, my aching body.
Sitting on the hard field for hours felt like my joints were hurting.
I was still in my prime, but that’s how it felt.
“I’ll wipe Craney’s hands and then go. You go ahead with the wreaths.”
“Okay, got it.”
Lorraine and Craney walked away hand in hand, and I entered the twins’ reception room alone.
“No one’s here…”
I pushed open the door and looked for the twins, but I heard a familiar voice from deeper inside.
“…Lyra Coal Mine… is it proceeding as expected…”
Lyra Coal Mine?
I quickly held my breath and hid behind a pillar.
‘To think such a person is the head of Angenas’s Dyurak Trading Company.’
Vestian scoffed inwardly as he looked at the person sitting opposite him.
He was someone who, apart from being born into a good family, had no superior qualities compared to Vestian himself.
The only good thing he had ever done was truly being born with the good blood of Angenas.
To be a trading company head, it was truly an excessive position for him.
Lombardi, Angenas.
They were all just overrated idiots.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but…”
“It’s natural for them to be concerned, as it’s such an important matter.”
Vestian said with a smile that endeared him to people.
“The auction date, as I told you before, is one week from today.”
“Fortunately, there are no changes. So the auction bid price…”
“No change. Lombardi will bid 1,600 gold, just as promised.”
Although his position would be a little awkward after this was over, Vestian wasn’t too worried.
After all, he was Rulac Lombardi’s only son-in-law.
Rulac had a soft spot for his family, never casting them out and always covering for them, so he just needed to pretend to be remorseful for a few months.
Then the Schulz family would win the mining rights for the Lyra mine, so it wouldn’t be a huge loss.
“Then our Dyurak will bid 1,800 gold to match it.”
“That’s right. Everything is as discussed beforehand.”
“Haha, this is quite something.”
The Dyurak Trading Company head scratched his sideburns and let out a foolish laugh.
“I also came to confirm your situation on orders, but it’s embarrassing, truly embarrassing. To think you’re carrying out the work without a hitch like this.”
“Haha, you flatter me. But as you said, I would appreciate it if you could trust this Vestian Schulz a little more.”
“Yes, yes. I would too, absolutely.”
The Dyurak Trading Company head subtly averted his gaze and habitually let out a foolish laugh.
Then he spoke in a tone that seemed to be doing him a great favor.
“Don’t worry about the mining rights.
Once we win the bid for the Lyra coal mine, it will go to the Schulz family as promised.”
Of course, that was the condition of the deal.
Vestian forced a bright smile to avoid scoffing at the Dyurak Trading Company head’s actions.
“I’ll trust only Angenas…”
Clatter.
A very faint noise was heard.
Vestian immediately stopped speaking and meticulously scanned the room with hawk-like eyes.
His once charming smile had long since turned cold.
Just then, a blue dress hem was peeking out from behind a pillar near the entrance.
Thump, thump.
Vestian sharply grabbed the shoulder of the small figure hiding behind the pillar.
Pulled by his strong hand was a brown-haired girl wearing a clumsy flower wreath, Gallahan’s daughter.
“…You.”
Just as Vestian was about to interrogate her with a distorted face.
“Are Giliou and Mayron here? I came to give them wreaths!”
Florentia smiled brightly, extending two wreaths she held in her hands.

Damn it, did he catch me?
The corners of my mouth, forcing a smile, felt like they were twitching.
I was definitely quiet, so how did he know I was here?
Vestian’s eyes, usually so charming, now glistened like a snake’s as he glared at me.
Yes, this was your true self.
“You, how long have you been here?”
“I just arrived.”
“I didn’t hear the door?”
“The door was open, so I just walked in… I’m sorry…”
I hunched my shoulders, feigning fear as much as possible.
Just then, my savior entered.
“Tia?”
It was Lorraine, holding Craney’s hand.
“…What’s wrong?”
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Lorraine’s face hardened.
“Well…”
“It’s nothing.”
Vestian let go of my shoulder, which he had been gripping painfully, and smiled.
“Oh, so many visitors?”
Shananet appeared from the entrance on the opposite side of the reception room.
“You were here too? I was going to give Tia and the children some refreshments. Then yours and the guest’s too…”
“No, no. We were just about to leave anyway.”
Vestian, who had returned to his usual self, patted the Dyurak Trading Company head on the shoulder and said.
“I’ll be late tonight. Don’t wait up for me, just go to bed first.”
Vestian gently kissed Shananet’s cheek and immediately left the reception room.
I watched his cowardly retreating figure and then looked at Shananet.
“The twins haven’t arrived yet…”
The tea set Shananet held, smiling, was only for two people, and the tea leaves were scattered messily on the tray she carried.