In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Side Story, Chapter 48

Gallahan, the third son of the Lombardi family, hid the corner of his mouth, which felt like it was cramping, with a wine glass.

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Gallahan?”

Gallahan’s eldest brother, Viese Lombardi, pressed him.

He had been violent and impatient since childhood, and even though he was smiling now, he was the type of person whose personality could change at any moment.

Even now, his brown eyes gleamed beyond his smiling face, fueled by alcohol.

“…Yes, Brother.”

When Gallahan reluctantly answered, Viese finally nodded in satisfaction.

“Good, good. That’s my brother.”

Gallahan’s body swayed helplessly under the hand that gripped his shoulder roughly.

Last night, his tired eyes, unable to rest due to tossing and turning all night, floated above the swirling wine.

“If Father calls you again and tries to give you work, you will refuse, just like this time. That’s the right thing to do.”

Rulac, Gallahan’s father and the patriarch of the Lombardi family, was a strict leader.

And that attitude was the same for his children, who shared his blood.

Nothing was simply given.

As patriarch and father, Rulac Lombardi constantly demanded results.

However, the only one Rulac treated leniently was Gallahan, his youngest.

He kept giving him opportunities and trying to provide various support.

Therefore, Viese, the eldest son who had not yet been proclaimed as the successor, couldn’t help but feel uneasy about Gallahan.

Then, when he heard that his father was planning to give his youngest a position in the Lombardi Trading Group, he almost fell over backward.

In the end, he called Gallahan aside and pressured him to tell his father himself that he couldn’t do it.

The visits, which involved threats, coaxing, and tormenting him daily, continued until Gallahan agreed to Viese’s words.

‘Now, I won’t have to see my brother for a while.’

Gallahan thought as he swallowed wine from morning, lacking the stomach to drink tea in the seat Viese had forced him into.

“Family business is not for just anyone. It’s better for me, who has experience, to lead the work, rather than you, who knows nothing, messing things up. You made a good decision.”

In front of Viese, who was in a good mood after getting what he wanted, Gallahan only wanted to escape the situation.

If he had known he would give up like this, he should have refused his father’s offer from the beginning.

He felt pathetic for being greedy on the off chance and spending exhausting days.

“Live quietly and meekly like that from now on. Understood?”

Gallahan nodded helplessly at Viese’s threatening words.

“If you’re done speaking, may I get up, Brother?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, go ahead.”

Viese, who no longer had business with Gallahan, casually waved a hand.

Gallahan trudged back to his room and quietly changed his clothes.

With familiar movements, he put on shabby clothes that commoners might wear and packed his painting supplies, which were placed in a corner of the room.

There was even a sense of urgency in his steps as he called the stableman who was tending to the horses and got into the carriage.

“Shall I take you to your usual place, Lord Gallahan?”

“Yes. Please hurry.”

At Gallahan’s request, the carriage quickly began to leave the Lombardi mansion.

“Haa.”

Only then did Gallahan open the carriage window, lean comfortably back in his seat, and let out a deep sigh.

“Finally…”

He could breathe.

Gallahan let the wind mess up his hair.

Since his mother, Natalia Lombardi, closed her eyes, the mansion had been like a prison to him.

His father, who silently placed unwanted expectations on him, repeatedly disappointed, staring blankly at his face, which strongly resembled his mother’s, and his brother Viese, who tried to silence him even more, even though he was already living quietly as if he didn’t exist.

Gallahan was quietly watching himself being pushed out of the home where he was born and raised.

“We’ve arrived, Lord Gallahan.”

“I’ll go back on my own tonight, so you can go rest.”

It was a secluded alley near Lombardi Plaza.

Gallahan ran his hands through his hair, messing it up further, and familiar with the area, he left.

He had left the mansion in a fit of pique, but he had no particular destination in mind.

After walking along the riverside for a while, Gallahan turned his steps towards the plaza.

He wanted to get lost among the bustling crowd.

Unaware of the blushing gazes following him, Gallahan sat on the edge of the fountain.

He habitually took out his painting supplies and then moved his hands thoughtlessly, drawing.

Still, being among the lively people seemed to make him feel a little better.

After a while, when the sun was high in the sky, he even managed to smile a little as he watched the children running around.

Then, he suddenly turned his head.

He couldn’t remember why.

Perhaps he had heard a sound from that direction, or perhaps the wind had blown.

None of that mattered from the moment he spotted a woman standing under a flowering tree.

“Ah.”

Gallahan stared blankly at the red-haired woman.

He simply couldn’t take his eyes off her.

It felt as if time had stopped, and yet also as if it had flown by.

When he came to his senses, he found himself holding her in his arms, having almost fallen.

Looking into her eyes, which were similar to his own but much deeper green, Gallahan startled and came to.

“Excuse me…”

His hands, quickly apologizing and helping Shan stand upright, were infinitely careful.

“Thanks to you, I didn’t fall! I should be thanking you!”

At Shan’s bright smile as she said that, Gallahan somehow felt like drinking a whole fountain of water.

“Then…”

He bowed his head deeply and tried to leave.

He didn’t even have time to hide his reddened earlobes.

Tap.

Before Shan grabbed his sleeve.

Gallahan held his breath and looked down at the small hand gripping the loose fabric of his clothes.

It was a hand he could easily brush off, but he felt as if a lock had clicked shut somewhere.

Meanwhile, Shan was flustered herself.

‘Why did I grab this?’

The thought that she couldn’t let him go like this made her act impulsively.

“Th-the painting!”

Shan almost shouted.

“Can I look at your painting?”

“My painting…?”

“Yes! I really want to see it!”

She messed up.

He would think she was a strange person.

Even as she thought that, Shan pulled on the sleeve she was holding tightly.

“Just once!”

“…Here it is.”

Gallahan hesitated for a moment and held out his drawing board.

“Wow!”

Shan’s eyes widened, and she let out an involuntary gasp.

“You drew it so well!”

It wasn’t empty flattery.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the vivid plaza scene captured on a single sheet of paper.

“How do you draw like this?”

“It’s just… a small talent, nothing special.”

“No! The painting is beautiful, and most of all, hmm, the people look happy. I think it’s a wonderful painting.”

Gallahan’s face stiffened slightly at Shan’s smiling words.

She was the first person to praise his painting like this.

For the third son of Lombardi, it was a useless talent, not enough to pursue a career as an artist, just mediocre.

“There are plenty of people who draw as well as I do. It’s not a skill to show to others like this.”

Gallahan mumbled quickly, putting away the painting as if to hide it.

Watching him, Shan tilted her head.

It didn’t seem like he was just being shy or embarrassed.

His constantly averted gaze and downward-turned head told her so.

Something was strange.

Less than a few minutes after meeting her future husband, Shan encountered her first obstacle.

She knew well about Gallahan’s future.

However, there was something she had overlooked.

She didn’t know much about Gallahan’s past.

She wanted to hit her past self, who had thought carelessly, ‘If I just meet him, everything will go according to fate.’

She didn’t know who they were, but the people who had made Gallahan so timid deserved about a hundred punches.

‘Get a grip.’

She couldn’t just let this fizzle out and leave only awkward memories.

Shan was thinking about what to do when Gallahan, who had already packed all his painting supplies, said in a small voice.

“Still… thank you for your kind words.”

Ah, what should she do with this gentle, gentle man?

Shan felt a pang in her heart and grabbed Gallahan’s clothes once more as he turned to leave.

And with the most pitiful expression she could muster, she asked.

“I… don’t have any friends.”

“Yes…?”

“So, could you be my friend?”

The next day.

On a busy street, Gallahan looked up at the sky and sighed.

A few steps away, he saw a building with a sign that Shan had mentioned: ‘Blue Wave’.

“I have a good feeling we’ll be good friends, you know? What do you think?”

Shan, the woman he had met for the first time yesterday, had suddenly said that and told him that today was her day off.

She had asked him to meet her around lunchtime at ‘Blue Wave’.

Last night, when he went to bed, Gallahan had no intention of accepting the offer.

He was afraid.

He felt like his gaze and his mind had been completely captivated by just a brief encounter, and he wondered what would happen if they spent more time together.

The coward in Gallahan was telling him to run away.

So he had planned to bury himself in the mansion’s library all day tomorrow and read books.

But when he came to his senses, he was already at the meeting place.

“Hmm.”

Gallahan, who had been contemplating, burying his face in his large hands, soon walked towards ‘Blue Wave’.

His face was stiff, as if he had made a big decision.

“Welcome! We’re busy, so just sit anywhere!”

A middle-aged woman, who seemed to be the owner, greeted him.

Gallahan stood there for a moment, slowly looking around the crowded interior.

And soon, his green eyes clouded over.

‘She’s not here.’

Shan was nowhere to be seen.

‘Of course.’

His surrender was quick, making his courage to come here seem pointless.

Without knowing what he had expected, Gallahan’s broad shoulders drooped helplessly.

Then.

Tap, tap.

He turned around at a light touch, and there was Shan, smiling.

“Did you wait long?”

After that, she added, ‘Did I come a little late?’, but Gallahan didn’t hear it and thought blankly.

Perhaps, he had been waiting for this woman all along.