In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Side Story, Chapter 42

The Story of Shan and Galahan

Shan slowly opened her eyes.
A single tear flowed down her damp temple.
“Ah…”
A dull gasp escaped into the room, permeated by warm sunlight.
Shan, who had been looking up at the familiar ceiling, soon crumpled her face.
“Ah, that dream again.”
She muttered, wiping away her tears with an irritated hand.
“If it’s going to be remembered, it should be remembered properly.”
Grumbling, she got out of bed and habitually rummaged through a drawer to pull out a notebook.
At the top, she wrote today’s date, and below it, she recorded the contents of the dream she remembered.
It was a daily routine she had followed every morning since her precognitive ability manifested.
Normally, she would have written down the dream’s contents for a long time, but today, Shan merely scribbled a few short words below the date.
Florentia, Lombardi, and the green-eyed man.
After writing that much, the roughly moving quill paused.
And she carefully added one more word.
Florentia, Lombardi, and the green-eyed man, – handsome.
Her satisfied gaze lingered on it for only a moment.
Shan put down the quill and irritably ran her fingers through her hair, muttering, “Ugh… I feel like there was something more!”
Her ability was exceptional.
She always saw accurate and detailed futures through her dreams, and they had never been wrong.
But very occasionally, she would have dreams where her mind was completely blank except for a few words, as if someone had deliberately erased them.
“Strangely, I’ve been having them more often since my coming-of-age ceremony last year.”
Shan glared at the scribbled words with narrowed eyes.
“What is this, constantly appearing in my dreams?”
Florentia, Lombardi.
It seemed like a name.
“I searched the village thoroughly, but there’s no such name.”
That was the problem.
Shan’s dreams were always related to the villagers.
But this ambiguous dream, which always left her with an uneasy feeling, seemed unrelated to the village no matter how much she thought about it.
And there was one more reason why she was so certain.
“There’s no man that handsome in this village.”
Unlike the other contents of the dream, which faded into blurry afterimages, the face of the green-eyed man, who looked somewhat sad, remained vividly clear.
“Oh, I don’t know. It’ll come to me properly when the time is right.”
If there was one thing Shan, who had naturally started seeing future events as she grew up, believed as a conviction, it was that ‘what is meant to happen will surely happen.’
And fate always guided her through dreams when the time was right.
“Whoosh.”
Shan stretched vigorously, then quickly washed herself with the water she had drawn the night before and changed her clothes.
Then she opened the door and peeked her head out to check outside.
A mischievous smile crossed Shan’s face as she confirmed the quiet living room.
“She’s gone.”
Shan’s mother, Soura, was the chief of the Chara tribe.
In short, she was very busy.
Soura was a strict chief, but also an even stricter mother.
However, no matter how much she sat in one place and saw through everything, she couldn’t monitor her mischievous daughter all day long.
Shan gleefully slipped out of the house.
The Chara tribe, located in the middle of the southern jungle and living isolated from the outside world, emphasized living in harmony with nature.
So they never cut down a single tree carelessly, and they didn’t hunt unless absolutely necessary.
And Shan loved the peace of such a Chara tribe.
“Hello, Shan!”
“Good morning!”
The tribe members, who were scattered here and there in the forest gathering tree fruits since morning, greeted her warmly when they saw her.
“Are you going there again today?”
“Yes! Please keep it a secret from Mother, Auntie!”
A helpless laugh followed Shan, who walked with a cheerful bounce in her step.
The place she headed to was a small house on the outskirts of the village.
It was originally where Grandma Nyubo, the oldest person in the village, lived, and it had been empty for several years after her passing.
Until an outsider appeared one day and, with difficulty, obtained Soura’s permission to live there.
Shan arrived at the old house and knocked on the door familiarly.
Knock, knock.
“Teacher Abane, can I come in?”
“Is that Shan? Come on in!”
The owner of the welcoming voice was Abane Rophili, a person who had suddenly appeared at the village entrance about two years ago.
Introducing herself as a scholar, she asked for permission to research the Chara tribe and publish a book about it.
The villagers all thought Soura would flatly refuse her request and drive the outsider out of the jungle.
But Soura, after deliberating for several days, accepted the outsider into the village.
However, no one rebelled against or questioned the chief’s decision.
They simply thought that Soura must have seen something others couldn’t.
“Thank you for keeping your promise today, Shan.”
Abane Rophili said, placing a teacup in front of Shan.
The red tea, completely different in color from what the Chara tribe drank, was one of the few precious things Abane Rophili had brought from outside.
“I enjoy talking with Teacher Abane. It’s not hard to visit a friend.”
“…Shan.”
Although they had accepted her according to the chief’s decision, the Chara tribe people feared Abane, who came from outside the village.
It was Shan who first approached her.
And after that, Shan became the biggest contributor to Abane’s research.
“Where did we leave off yesterday?”
Shan asked, taking a sip of tea.
“We were briefly talking about the ‘precognitive dreams’ that Shan sees.”
“Ah, right. We were. What else are you curious about, Teacher Abane?”
“If it’s alright…”
Abane Rophili looked at Shan’s clear eyes once and then carefully continued, “Can you tell me about the contents of your dreams too? Like the most memorable precognitive dream, or even a recent one.”
“Well, it’s not difficult…”
Shan rarely frowned.
“Actually, I’ve been having some annoying precognitive dreams lately. No, it’s ambiguous to even call them dreams.”
“What do you mean?”
“I seem to be repeatedly seeing similar futures, but when I wake up, I can’t remember the contents well. As if someone deliberately erased them. Only a few important words remain in my memory.”
“I heard that Shan’s ability is particularly strong among the tribe members. Is it not common to have such faint precognitive dreams?”
“No. Usually, the future is set. Very precisely.”
“Hmm.”
Abane Rophili, listening to Shan’s story, wrote something down in her notebook.
“I heard a story that Shan once prevented a big flood in the village. Is that true?”
“Yes. That’s what I meant by a ‘set future’ just now. But that dream…”
“Perhaps it’s not a precognitive dream, but a normal dream? I often can’t remember my dreams well when I wake up.”
“Hmm, no.”
Shan said firmly.
“Ordinary dreams and precognitive dreams are different. A precognitive dream is like, well, looking into a pond.”
“Into a pond…”
The two continued to converse until their teacups were empty several times.
And at the end, Abane Rophili closed her notebook.
“Is it my turn now?”
Exchanging questions was a promise between Shan and Abane.
Unlike Abane Rophili, who poured out detailed questions for her research, Shan only asked one or two things she was curious about.
Shan hummed, thought for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“You said there’s a status system outside. Especially that nobles have strong power. Oh, and that there are imperial family members who are even more powerful than them.”
“That’s right.”
“So, do the imperial family members have everything?”
“Not quite.”
Shan tilted her head at Abane’s answer.
“But you said nobles have to obey the imperial family’s orders.”
“That’s right. In fact, most nobles must absolutely obey the imperial family’s orders. But there’s only one family, an exception.”
Abane Rophili held up a finger and said, “That’s the Lombardi family.”
“Oh… Lombardi?”
It was familiar.
At the same time, Shan’s heart began to pound.
She had finally found a clue to that dream.
“It’s a family that boasts immense power, the one that established the Lambru Empire. Even the Emperor doesn’t dare treat them lightly.”
“Why?”
“Hmm. There was a pact between Lombardi and the imperial family, they say. It was Lombardi who established a Durelli family member as Emperor when the empire was founded.”
“I see…”
“And, in the first place, you could say the empire doesn’t function without Lombardi. It’s hard to explain everything one by one, but that’s how it is.”
“Then, is there someone named ‘Florentia’ in the Lombardi family?”
“Florentia? Well, I don’t know the names of all the Lombardi members… Why do you ask?”
“In that dream I just told you about, someone named Florentia Lombardi keeps appearing.”
“…You had a precognitive dream about Lombardi?”
Shan smiled and nodded at Abane Rophili’s startled question.
But that lasted only a moment.
Shan, estimating the time by the sun outside the window, hastily finished her tea and stood up.
“I’ll tell you the details next time when I bring my diary. I think I have to go now.”
“Oh, it’s already this late. See you next time, Shan.”
The way home was frantic.
She had lingered longer than usual, surprised by the word ‘Lombardi’.
“Hah, oh dear, hah.”
Shan, who had run until she was breathless, slowed her steps as she approached the house.
And she very carefully turned the doorknob.
Fortunately, the house seemed as empty as when she had left.
“Hah, thank goodness.”
Now, if only she could quickly return to her room…
“So you went to that scholar’s dwelling again.”
Shan’s shoulders twitched greatly.
As she slowly turned around, Soura, looking very angry, glared at Shan.