In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Episode 86

I crushed the cookie crumbs with my fingertips and muttered.
“Men…”
“Cough!”
Perez, who heard my muttering, choked and coughed beside me.
I was at the Imperial Palace to fulfill my role as his companion after a long time.
However, I met Perez not in the Phorak Palace.
It was in the Central Palace garden, which was open to everyone visiting the Imperial Palace.
I hadn’t committed any crime, so there was no reason to be stuck in the Phorak Palace all the time.
Catherine and Kailus set up a table and chairs in the best spot near the fountain, where the sun shone brightest.
Again, the cake I bought from “Caramel Avenue” was served on a pretty plate.
Neither Perez nor I liked tea that much, and since we were both growing, white milk was served instead.
But I wasn’t in the mood for cake right now.
I looked for another crumb, glared at it, and flicked it far away with my fingertip.
“…Tia?”
Perez called me with a slightly flustered face, but I didn’t answer.
Seriously, Vestian was making me lose faith in men.
An affair with that smiling face.
“Hmm.” Perez looked at me, who was in a bad mood, thought for a moment, then suddenly looked around.
Then he stood up, walked over to a flower bed a little distance away, and picked a bunch of flowers.
They were soft, small white petals, blooming like a round bouquet.
And he gently placed them in my hand.
Honestly, I couldn’t stay sulky anymore.
He was too kind-hearted.
Perez, who was looking intently into my eyes, as if to gauge my reaction to the flowers, was literally “insanely beautiful enough to make you forget your anger.”
I sighed softly, half-surrendering, and smelled the flowers.
As I inhaled the sweet, lingering floral scent, my boiling anger seemed to calm down a little.
“Thank you, Perez.”
“Are you feeling a little better now?”
I felt a little sorry.
It felt like I had taken out my anger on Perez for no reason.
I explained, feeling embarrassed.
“I wasn’t angry because of you from the start.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you give me flowers?”
“If sweetness doesn’t work, I wondered if beautiful flowers would make you feel better.”
“Ah.”
“Because Tia likes flowers.”
Hmm, that’s true.
It felt a little strange, as if Perez had read my mind.
Especially when those red eyes looked at me without even a flicker, it felt like all my secrets would be exposed.
And it made me feel a little strange.
I subtly avoided his gaze and sipped my milk.
As I glanced sideways, Perez was brushing off grass that had gotten on his clothes from picking flowers, and Catherine, standing nearby, was helping him.
Some people say that during puberty, at the age of 16, their appearance gets worse due to drastic changes.
But on the contrary, Perez was getting more and more handsome.
Even now, he seems to be just brushing off his clothes, but his somewhat melancholic eyes, sculpted nose, and sharp jawline keep captivating people’s attention.
Watching him, I half-impulsively blurted out.
“Perez, you shouldn’t cheat later.”
Stop.
Perez and Catherine’s movements stopped.
Kailus, who was tidying up the empty cake plates nearby, also stopped.
The three of them looked at me silently.
Why. What.
The first to react was Kailus.
He bit his lower lip tightly, suppressing a laugh with emoticon-like eyes, then hid his face.
Catherine’s eyes widened, and she blinked a few times, looking surprised, alternating between me and Perez.
And Perez was.
“Are you… okay?”
I tapped his hand and asked.
Then, his face, which had been frozen like ice, instantly caught fire.
It really felt like it would burst into flames.
His fair skin turned red from his neck down, eventually reaching the tips of his ears.
“Ah, uh…”
Perez slowly nodded.
Why is everyone reacting like this?
Did I say something I shouldn’t have?
“Your face is… really red. Are you catching a cold?”
Is it a bit cold to be sitting outside?
“No, no. I’m fine.”
Perez replied, covering his face with both hands.
His hands were so big that his face fit right in.
“Just, a little surprised.”
“The ‘don’t cheat’ part?”
“Uh…”
Why?
“But Perez is also getting to that age, isn’t he?”
“That… age?”
“Hmm. The age where you start to be interested in girls?”
Because he’s about to enter puberty.
Perez slowly lowered the hand that had been covering his face and asked me.
“So?”
“So if you ever get into a relationship, you should never cheat.”
“…That’s what you meant.”
Perez muttered in a low voice.
“Phew.”
“Haa.”
Kailus and Catherine also sighed simultaneously behind us.
“What’s wrong with everyone?”
I asked, but Catherine and Kailus avoided my gaze.
Perez, who seemed to have regained his composure, asked me instead.
“Was your bad mood today also for that reason?”
“Yes. Something happened.”
“A man?”
Since Vestian is a man.
I nodded.
But Perez asked again.
“…A man?”
Oh, yes, I said so.
I nodded again.
But Perez’s atmosphere was strange.
It felt cold, yet also fiery.
The pleasant breeze that had been blowing stopped, and the air became heavy.
“Tia.”
“Yes?”
“Did you… have a boyfriend?”
What is he talking about?
“What do you mean, ‘have’?”
“A man.”
“No? Not yet?”
I’m only eleven years old, you know?
“Then what was that earlier?”
“Oh, not me. Someone I know.”
I vaguely skirted the issue, not wanting to talk about family matters to an outsider who wasn’t Lombardi.
“Ah.”
Perez, who had run a dry hand over his face, chugging milk.
I looked at such Perez and said.
“Just because you’re handsome doesn’t mean you should hurt a woman’s heart. Got it, Perez?”
Perez finally emptied his glass of milk and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
And he replied in a slightly sulky voice.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“I know, I know. You’re not that kind of bad person.”
Of course, of course.
He’s incomparable to someone like Vestian.
Before Perez could misunderstand, I quickly explained.
“But…”
“But?”
“Just in case, I’m giving you advice as a friend. Because you’ve been growing so much lately.”
Thinking back to when I first met him, Perez had changed so much that it was hard to believe he was the same child.
Now, he looked like a proper prince.
I wasn’t just talking about his height or appearance.
“At the Pellet Merchant Guild’s banquet, you know. I heard a lot of things about you.”
Being young was convenient.
Unlike the Lombardi adults, who were constantly under people’s watchful eyes wherever they went, I, as a child, was still relatively free.
So I could hear conversations that nobles had in small groups.
Astana and Perez were frequent topics of conversation among the nobles.
“Most people cited you as the reason why Astana hasn’t officially been appointed Crown Prince yet.”
“…Me?”
Perez seemed a little surprised.
Indeed.
Perez still didn’t seem to fully realize he was a prince.
“The aura incident last time, and your academic achievements seem to be leaking out quite a bit.”
Whether they leaked out, or someone was deliberately spreading them, I don’t know.
Besides grandfather, who was sponsoring Perez, there were a few others who could benefit from such rumors.
For example, the Emperor, who was weighing Astana and Perez against each other to gain many things from Angenas.
“And you can’t help your birth.
Anyway, you’re the only prince who survived and grew up besides Astana.”
The Emperor had never taken an Empress, but he had consistently had lovers.
But it was unlikely that Astana and Perez were his only children.
However, Perez was the only one who “survived.”
The Empress was that thorough and ruthless.
She would do anything to make her son the next Emperor.
And to such an Empress, Perez was an unbearable thorn in her side.
“Aren’t they putting more pressure on you to go to the Academy?”
“…The Empress called me recently.
And told me to go to the Academy.”
Perez’s voice was unusually low as he spoke.
“That happened?”
I subtly glanced at Catherine and Kailus.
Seeing their expressions visibly stiffen, something more must have happened.
Perez said nothing more.
He clearly didn’t want to bring it up again.
In that case, there’s nothing I can do.
I sighed and nodded, then said to Perez.
“Such things will happen more frequently from now on. Until you leave the Imperial Palace and go to the Academy on your own.”
“But I don’t want to go to the Academy.”
“Yes. That will be your choice. Even the Empress can’t force you into the Academy.”
It was a law created to prevent those who were pushed out of the family’s succession structure from being forcibly admitted to the Academy.
Admission to the Academy must be purely “voluntary.”
Otherwise, the Empress would have thrown Perez into the Academy long ago.
“So she’s trying to persuade you.”
“…Then it doesn’t matter.”
Perez replied silently.
“If they don’t drag me by force, I won’t be enrolling in the Academy.”
His attitude was unusually firm.
The conversation paused for a moment.
Perez was lost in thought, perhaps pondering something.
As I wondered if there was anything I could do to cheer Perez up, I suddenly remembered the gift in my bag.
It was something I had brought to give to Perez.
I took out a palm-sized black box, placed it in front of him, and nonchalantly sipped my milk.
“What… is this?”
Perez asked, bewildered.
I replied casually.
“I picked it up on the way.”