In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Side Story, Chapter 25.1: Special Chapter - The Day Tia Regressed

“You’re late, Chanton.”

Perez said, looking out the window where rain was gently falling.

It had been dark for a long time in the Crown Prince’s palace.

Only a few lights were lit, casting deep shadows on his face.

“There was an accident on the way.”

“An accident?”

“Yes.”

It was a brief answer, but Perez looked at Chanton Sheshou with cold eyes.

This man, who had voluntarily stepped down from his position as captain of the Imperial Knights several years ago, never spoke unnecessary words.

“Is it something I need to know?”

“A carriage ran over a drunken pedestrian, and upon identifying the woman, she turned out to be Lombardi’s illegitimate child.”

At Chanton Sheshou’s words, Perez twisted his lips savagely.

Today was the day he had finally succeeded in closing Lombardi’s doors.

So he thought he wouldn’t hear Lombardi’s name again.

It was just like Lombardi, tenacious to the very end.

“Did Viese Lombardi have an illegitimate child?”

“Not Viese, but his younger brother, Gallahan Lombardi’s illegitimate child.”

“I hadn’t heard that Viese had a younger brother other than Laurels.”

Perez said, recalling Lombardi’s spineless second son.

“He was the third son of Rulac Lombardi, who reportedly died of illness long ago. The illegitimate child’s name is Florentia Lombardi, and…”

“Stop.”

Perez stopped Chanton Sheshou’s report with a single gesture.

“I don’t need to know that much. Just make sure the bereaved family is compensated well.”

“She seemed to have been living alone in Lombardi city with no relatives, so compensation may not be necessary.”

“Then all the better. An illegitimate child who avoided great misfortune during Lombardi’s downfall, and then a carriage accident. How fitting that she should share the family’s fate.”

With those last words, Perez dismissed his thoughts about Lombardi’s illegitimate child.

Instead, he rose from his chair and asked Chanton Sheshou, “Is your decision to accompany me unchanged?”

“I am merely grateful for the opportunity to witness Angenas’s end with my own eyes.”

Perez nodded silently and led the way.

Their steps quickly passed through the dark corridors of the Crown Prince’s palace and entered the brightly lit path of the Imperial Palace.

However, only the desolate sound of rain flowed between the two men.

Upon reaching their destination, Perez paused for a moment and admired the view of the Empress’s Palace.

All the lights were out, and there were no people coming and going, a sight that resembled its owner’s plight, and he was quite satisfied.

No one is to be in the palace except for the two knights guarding the Empress’s confined bedroom.

It was the strict order of Perez, the formidable Crown Prince who held the power of the Lambru Empire in his hand.

As the two men stood before the bedroom door, a sharp tearing sound and a scream came from within.

CRASH!

“Open! Open this door right now!”

However, the knights guarding the door did not react to the Empress’s tearful shriek.

They only looked at the Crown Prince with tense faces.

“Open it.”

Just one word.

At Perez’s short command, the door to the Empress’s bedroom, which had not been opened for a week, swung open.

WHOOSH!

Perez stepped inside and caught something flying towards him.

THUD!

What landed in his hand was an already half-broken desk clock.

The one who threw it was the Empress, Lavini Angenas, her hair disheveled and breathing heavily.

Her past, when she was praised as the most beautiful woman in the empire, was meaningless now; she was merely a haggard prisoner who had lost everything.

“You! How dare you come here!”

Lavini Angenas shrieked frantically.

But her voice, devoid of strength and full of malice, had long since grown hoarse, and the luxurious bedroom was a mess at the hands of its owner, who couldn’t control her rage.

Perez, his face expressionless, quickly surveyed the room, then approached Lavini Angenas, who was barely standing, leaning on a round table.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

Sharp shards of glass shattered even finer under his heavy military boots with every step.

“Have you made your decision?”

At Perez’s first words, the Empress’s thin body flinched.

A few days ago, Perez had visited the Empress’s Palace and given her a choice.

“Poison or rope. How will you die, Lavini Angenas?”

It was around that time that the Empress’s madness, which had maintained some dignity until then, began.

“I think I’ve given you enough time to think.”

“Th-that’s not……!”

Lavini Angenas’s face turned pale, and then a vein bulged in her neck.

“I am the Empress of the Lambru Empire! How dare you, when His Majesty is still perfectly well!”

“Perfectly well?”

Perez scoffed.

“He’s been a half-corpse, unable to open his eyes for days now. Isn’t ‘perfectly well’ a bit excessive, Lavini Angenas?”

“Your, Your Majesty……”

Lavini Angenas, who didn’t know the outside situation due to being confined to her bedroom, staggered in great shock.

“You devil! How, how could you do that to your own parents……!”

“Parents?”

Perez repeated.

“Did I have parents? My mother died at the Emperor’s hand long ago, and I have never had a father.”

His crimson eyes, which had slowly closed, glared at Lavini Angenas.

“You’re not trying to say you’re like my mother, are you, Lavini Angenas?”

Under the murderous aura directed at her, the Empress couldn’t even breathe properly, let alone answer.

Only her ragged breathing filled the ruined bedroom.

“Come in.”

It was Perez who broke the momentary silence.

At his low command, the two knights who had been guarding the door entered the bedroom and firmly closed the door.

“Wh-what are you going to do……!”

Lavini Angenas, sensing the ominous atmosphere, backed away.

But all she reached was the hard bedroom wall behind her.

The Empress, whose face had turned ashen, began to plead with clasped hands after seeing the rope in the knight’s hand.

“Please spare me! You can’t do this! You can’t do this to me, the Empress!”

Finally, Lavini Angenas half-knelt before Perez.

“Just spare me. I’ll live like a dead person, confined to some detached palace. So, please, please……”

“My mother used to beg like that.”

Perez, cutting off Lavini Angenas’s plea, asked Chanton Sheshou indifferently, “Are you staying?”

“Yes. I will.”

Perez turned away.

He had no time to watch Lavini Angenas’s end.

CLICK.

A desperate scream echoed from behind the closing door, but Perez did not look back.

He strolled leisurely through the deserted Empress’s Palace and moved towards the Crown Prince’s palace.

Then he stopped.

Standing there, letting the rain fall on him, he eventually changed direction.

The well-maintained path disappeared, trees grew denser, and a thick forest appeared.

He walked for a long time.

His steps, leaving marks on the damp earth, stopped only when he reached a half-ruined detached palace.

A chilling wind pushed his back.

He climbed the creaking stairs and roughly pushed open the rattling door.

In this vast Imperial Palace, he was the only one who occasionally sought this place.

A single chair by the window overlooking the outside, and a bottle of alcohol next to it.

It was his spot.

A cloud of dust rose with his slump into the chair, but Perez silently poured alcohol into a glass.

When the insomnia caused by the poison he had steadily consumed since childhood, due to Lavini Angenas’s schemes, worsened, he would spend long nights swallowing this strong liquor.

The brown liquid, so potent that hardly any place produced it anymore, flowed down his esophagus.

His expressionless face did not change despite the burning pain.

His dark red eyes, as damp as if soaked in rain, held the distant Imperial Palace.

“It would be inconvenient to hold two state funerals, so two days from now would be good.”

Thus, Emperor Jovanes’s death day was set.

Finally, Perez, who had emptied the strong liquor in two gulps, suddenly spoke.

“Are you satisfied now, Mother?”

But there was no answer.

Perez looked down at the empty glass and closed his eyes for a long time.

The revenge was complete.

Soon, he would ascend to the throne.

He felt hollow.

A feeling as if he was missing something big crept up the back of his head.

It was familiar and unpleasant.

What on earth was it?

What had I missed?

He asked himself.

Of course, as always, he couldn’t find the answer.

“Lombardi’s illegitimate child.”

The woman he had never seen, who had reportedly met her end with Lombardi today, briefly crossed his mind.

But that was all.

Perez opened his eyes again and looked out the dusty window.

The rain was still falling in the darkness.