In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Side Story, Chapter 4

I could feel Perez’s breath against my exposed skin.
I secretly bit my lower lip, then turned around, speaking casually, “Perez, be honest with me. Do you like surprising me?”
“You caught me.”
Perez chuckled softly.
Where had the dignified Emperor I’d seen in the great conference room just moments ago gone?
A hint of playfulness was evident on his faintly smiling face.
I gently cupped his cheek and said, “Perez.”
I’m so glad you can smile like this now.
“Why was your expression like that in the conference room earlier?”
“Ah…”
At my question, Perez’s face immediately fell again.
“Yes, that expression. Is something wrong?”
“Because my finger was empty.”
Perez’s slightly rough, firm fingertips caressed my fourth finger.
“Where’s your engagement ring?”
“Ah!”
It was only then that I realized.
The red diamond ring that should have been on my left fourth finger was missing.
“Th-that’s right?”
“…Did you lose it?”
“No, I didn’t lose it. I just took it off for a moment while bathing this morning and forgot to put it back on.”
Honestly, I couldn’t quite remember, but I bluffed anyway.
Even so, my mind was racing.
Where did I put that ring?
“It’s okay. Even if you lost it.”
As if he’d read my mind, Perez said in a low voice, briefly kissing my empty fourth finger, “I’ll give you another one, exactly the same. A hundred of them, if you want.”
“…I didn’t lose it. It’s at home, I tell you.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
Though he spoke casually, Perez’s face remained downcast.
“I, however, always wear the one Tia gave me.”
Perez showed me the emerald ring on his left fourth finger.
I had given it to him when he said he needed a token of our promise to keep during our two-year engagement.
I thought he meant just anything, but surprisingly, he specifically asked for a green emerald.
His reason was that it was the color of my eyes.
So I asked Grandfather Crowley’s workshop to make a ring of platinum and emerald.
And from the day he received it, the emerald ring had never left his fourth finger.
“…I’m sorry.”
What more excuses could a person who had done wrong make?
I held Perez’s hand tightly and said, “Ahem.”
…Something’s off?
I looked up and saw him covering his mouth with a lightly clenched fist.
“You… again!”
Ah, I fell for it again!
“Stop teasing me! Where did you learn such strange things!”
“Sorry. Tia is just too cute, I couldn’t help myself.”
“Who? Who taught you this! Is it those academy classmates again? Regnite Luman, right!”
“Haha.”
Perez laughed heartily, watching me badger him in a fit of pique.
Then, he suddenly lifted me up and began to stride away.
“Wh-what?!”
Startled, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and a moment later, I found myself sitting on a very soft sofa.
“The chairs in the great conference room are very uncomfortable, aren’t they?”
Perez smiled, meeting my eye level as I sat.
“They are, but how do you know that?”
The seat Perez occupied in the great conference room was a very plush chair.
It had been that way since his days as a prince, and even more so now as the Emperor of the Lambru Empire.
There would have been no reason for him to sit on the hard chairs used by the nobles.
Then, a thought suddenly struck me, and I asked, half-doubting, “Do you, by any chance, sit in my seat sometimes?”
“…”
Perez subtly avoided my gaze instead of answering.
It was the face he made when he was uncomfortable answering my questions.
“Why my seat?”
“…Sometimes, because I’m curious about the view Tia sees.”
“Sometimes?”
“Sometimes, when it comes to mind.”
I don’t think ‘sometimes’ means sometimes.
“Because I can’t go see it every time it comes to mind.”
“Ah…”
It couldn’t be helped.
Perez was the Emperor, and I was the Head of Lombardi.
So we couldn’t spend time together as often as ordinary lovers.
I swallowed a sigh that threatened to escape and said, “Well, even so, why be curious about things like that?”
How embarrassing.
As I added quietly, Perez reached out a large hand.
He then tucked my stray hair behind my ear and said, “I’m curious about everything about you. Whether you ate plenty of your favorite strawberries for breakfast this morning, what you dreamt about last night.”
His low voice relaxed me, yet my heart pounded faster and faster.
“What kind of people you met today, what thoughts you had. And…”
Perez’s fingers, which had been caressing my earlobe, lightly traced the space between my neck and hair.
“Whether you thought of me.”
His low voice was very close.
“Whether you, Tia, also missed me.”
His lips approached in an instant.
With the sensation of our breaths mingling, Perez’s warmth transferred to my delicate skin.
“Haa.”
As I could no longer hold back my quickening breath and let it escape, Perez swiftly moved his body closer.
My body was now deeply nestled into the sofa’s backrest, and my head was tilted sharply upwards.
All the complicated external matters vanished from my mind, and my world was filled with Perez alone.
“Tia.”
In those brief moments when our lips met and parted, Perez continued to whisper my name.
Ah, really.
I pulled the arm wrapped around his neck even tighter.
I should be used to it by now.
But every time Perez made that ‘man’s face,’ I still felt unfamiliar with him.
As our kisses continued, the space between our bodies grew smaller and smaller.
Our body heat flared even more, making my dress feel unbearably cumbersome.
Ah, at this rate…
I gripped Perez’s shoulders tightly and, with difficulty, spoke through the gap in his lips that refused to part from mine, “Perez.”
I had only called his name once, but Perez seemed to understand the meaning and stopped his movements.
However, that was all; he remained at a distance as if ready to pounce again, breathing heavily.
Seeing him hesitate a few times, it seemed reason and instinct were fighting a fierce battle within him.
“Should we… move our wedding forward by a few months?”
Perez asked me, his eyes rimmed with red.
“You know it’s not… it’s not possible.”
“No, Tia. Maybe there’s a way. We always find a way, don’t we?”
His charcoal-red eyes seemed to lick every part of my face.
“That’s true, but…”
Ah, should I just say yes?
I bit my lip, fumbling with the hem of Perez’s clothes that I still held in my hand.
Perez and I both wanted it so much.
But in the end, reason planted its final flag.
I gently touched Perez’s forehead with my own and said, “Craney is still traveling, Perez.”
“Ha.”
Finally, Perez let out a deep, deep sigh and muttered through clenched teeth, “Craney.”
Craney had, in the end, successfully graduated early last year as the top student in liberal arts.
Our engagement had originally been a grace period until Craney graduated, so he could help me with my duties as Head of Lombardi.
I still couldn’t forget the way Perez’s face had brightened when he heard the news.
But Craney, after much hesitation, revealed that he wanted to travel for a year with his academy friends.
Knowing how diligently Craney had studied to meet my expectations, I had no choice but to grant his request.
Moreover, once he started working for Lombardi, a life without travel would be unimaginable.
So Craney, who had begun his imperial tour, was currently traveling through the East to coincide with Lorraine’s wedding.
He hadn’t even set foot in the Central region since I heard that Perez had tried to issue a nationwide warrant for him when he found out Craney had left for a year-long trip.
I used my finger to wipe away the trace of my lips on Perez’s mouth and said, “Let’s stay together on the cruise during the Eastern trip, Perez.”
“Ah, the cruise.”
When I brought up the Eastern trip, the cloud that had hung over his face finally cleared.
Then he moved his body, which had been overlapping mine, and flopped down beside me.
Even though it was ‘beside,’ we were so close that our bodies touched, making it virtually one seat.
“But are you really okay, Perez?”
“…What?”
He played with my fingers, intertwining them with his own, and answered languidly.
“You’ll be away for several weeks, after all. Though I doubt anything will happen immediately.”
An emperor does not move lightly.
This was for safety, but also for power.
A vacant seat inevitably creates a void.
Someone might covet that empty space.
At my question, Perez slowly blinked and replied, “I’m not such a lax emperor that problems would arise from being away for a short time. It’s okay, Tia.”
Ah, right. That’s true.
I nodded, realizing anew how powerful an emperor Perez was.
“Yes, that’s right. You’re amazing.”
I stroked his head, genuinely proud.
Then Perez leaned his forehead against my shoulder and chuckled softly like a shy boy.
He then looked up at me and said in a low voice, “You made me this way, Tia.”