In This Life I Will Be The Lord Novel - Side Story, Chapter 6

“Hmm? Bate from Caramel Avenue, you say…”
Father, who was sitting right next to me and could hear the butler’s words, tilted his head.
“Isn’t Caramel Avenue the name of that dessert shop you frequent, Tia?”
In an instant, the curious gazes of the people around the table turned towards me.
“That’s right. Bate is the manager there.”
I answered, naturally pretending to wipe my mouth with a napkin, hiding my expression.
“But what brings him here at this hour…? He wouldn’t be delivering.”
People didn’t know that Bate was an informant working for me.
He always disguised himself as delivering desserts when he came to see me.
But at this table, only one person, Clerivan, who knew Bate’s true identity, was looking at me with a hardened face.
Something must have happened.
Clerivan probably thought so too.
Bate, whom I was supposed to meet tomorrow morning, couldn’t wait and came to me directly.
Even risking compromising his disguise.
I took a final sip from the glass of water, lightly rinsing my mouth, and said, “It seems there’s a problem with their expansion into the restaurant business. So I told him it was fine to visit even after closing hours. He’s been delivering desserts to the mansion himself since I was a child, you know.”
“Oh dear. I hope it’s nothing serious.”
“Indeed.”
I nodded as if nothing was wrong, but then immediately stood up.
And I said to Clerivan, “Perhaps the head of the guild might need some advice. Would you like to come with me, Clerivan?”
“Since dinner is finished, I will.”
Clerivan replied, shrugging his shoulders as if he was bored and this was a good diversion.
“Butler Johan, where is Bate waiting for me?”
“I’ve escorted him to the office.”
As expected of Johan, with decades of experience as a butler since Grandfather’s time.
Even without knowing the details, he seemed to have noticed that Bate was not just a simple dessert shop owner.
“…Let’s go.”
Leaving the bustling dining hall and entering the quiet corridor, my and Clerivan’s steps gradually quickened.
***
Bate stood in a corner of the Head of the Family’s office, showing a polite smile to the Lombardi knight who was watching him.
The knight was guarding an outsider who had occupied the Head’s workspace alone.
“I seem to have come at a very late hour.”
He tried to speak, but the only response he received was the knight’s displeased expression, as if asking, ‘Don’t you know?’
Bate smiled again at the knight, clenching the hand hidden in his sleeve once more.
His habitually smiling face felt awkward, but this was his limit for now.
An unavoidable nervousness was evident in his eyes, which kept glancing at the office door, as if checking for a presence.
When he had looked at the closed door about ten times.
Thud.
“Long time no see, Bate.”
Florentia entered, her long dress hem fluttering.
“It has been a while, Madam.”
At the same time, Bate sprang to his feet and bowed deeply in greeting.
And behind her, as always, was the expressionless Clerivan.
For a very brief moment, Clerivan and Bate exchanged stern glances.
“You may leave now.”
Tia lightly gestured to the knight who was still guarding a corner of the office.
“Yes, Madam.”
The knight left the office with heavy footsteps, and as soon as his footsteps faded, she turned her head sharply and asked, “What is it?”
“Chanton Sheshou has made a move.”
Bate handed Florentia the summary he had hidden in his pocket.
“He released the merchant guild that was being detained under His Imperial Majesty’s orders, but it seems he’s threatening to conduct inspections again, citing public order. And this is the content of the telegram Chanton Sheshou sent to his territory via emergency carrier pigeon today.”
Lombardi Merchant Guild, Pellet Merchant Guild inspections reinforced. Do not let them pass easily.
Of course, there was no question about how Bate had managed to look at Chanton Sheshou’s telegram.
“And?”
This couldn’t be all.
Florentia’s unsmiling green eyes urged Bate on.
“And this is the information that came in today from Tamal, one of Sheshou’s territories.”
Port construction resumed.
Secret construction of terrain regularization project in Noctar River basin pushed through.
“Tamal? Isn’t that where Sheshou tried to open a port last year and failed?”
Clerivan quickly placed the map from the office onto the table, frowning.
Tamal was a city located further downstream on the Noctar River than Chesayu.
Florentia looked down at the map for a moment, then asked Bate, “What’s the exact location of the terrain regularization?”
“It’s here and here. But they’re reinforcing it, not cutting it away.”
“Reinforcing it?”
Clerivan chuckled in disbelief, unable to understand.
Building a port at a gateway to the East, and instead of widening it for easier ship access, they were reinforcing it?
Then a thought struck him, and he looked closer at the map.
“Surely…”
“He’s playing dirty, really.”
Florentia’s chilling voice echoed in the office.
“Since he can’t block the goods, he’s trying to block the lower reaches of the river?”
The two locations Bate pointed to on the map were particularly protruding points in the lower reaches of the wide Noctar River.
And if they reinforced the area between those two points as the information suggested, the width of the river would narrow, albeit for a short section.
Like a kind of checkpoint.
“This is why he was creating all that smoke and mirrors.”
So I wouldn’t interfere with the construction.
At Florentia’s muttered words, Clerivan and Bate’s expressions simultaneously hardened.
They were blaming themselves for their own lack of ability.
“I apologize, Madam.”
Bate, who was, after all, Florentia’s eyes and ears, bowed his head.
“I should have noticed sooner…”
Florentia remained silent for a moment despite Bate’s apology, then shook her head.
“No. This isn’t Bate’s fault. Chanton Sheshou just did well. It’s a bit frustrating, though.”
After saying that, she fell silent again.
She simply chose a nearby chair and sat down, leaning back.
And she tapped the armrest with her fingertips, lost in thought.
However, there was no sign of dismay on her face.
Nor was it the face of someone agonizing to overcome a difficulty.
Her appearance was closer to that of a gambler deciding whether to play the cards in her hand.
Bate, who had rushed over as soon as he got the information about what Chanton Sheshou was up to, relaxed the grip on his clenched hands.
‘If it’s the Madam…’
It was because of that vague but deep trust.
After a few small noises, she suddenly asked Bate, “What happened to ‘that matter’ then?”
“Ah, that…”
Bate glanced at Clerivan and replied, “I confirmed it. It’s the southeastern region, as you said, Madam. And the scholars sent by Lord Herring have also completed their experiments.”
“The effect?”
“They say it’s satisfactory.”
“As expected.”
Florentia nodded slightly, as if she had confirmed something.
Then she fell into thought again, a strange smile playing on her slightly narrowed eyes.
Gasp.
Clerivan, seeing Florentia’s expression, whispered in a low voice, “Seeing the Madam’s face like that, I feel a little sorry for Chanton Sheshou.”
“You too, Lord Clerivan? Actually, I also…”
At that moment, a strong bond was forming between the left and right arms of the Head of Lombardi.
“Johan.”
“Yes, Madam.”
“Bring Violet, no, the head of the Pellet Merchant Guild from the dining hall.”
***
“Tia, are you really okay?”
Giliou asked me, his straight eyebrows furrowed, clearly displeased.
“I’m fine, how many times do I have to tell you?”
“But to suddenly leave a week earlier for the trip…”
A few days after Bate’s visit.
I was checking the luggage loaded onto the passenger carriage that would take us to the outskirts of Lombardi.
It was just a few plain ready-made clothes from Father’s clothing store and a few essentials for carriage travel.
“Wouldn’t it be better if Giliou and I came with you?”
Mayron, looking very uneasy, said, shaking the flimsy carriage wheel with veins bulging in his strong arm.
“I’m a bit worried.”
“Yeah. Disguise is good, but this is too dangerous. For you to go to the East alone without us, your escorts.”
The two, as robust as their physiques, casting large shadows, were acting quite like my cousins for the first time in a while.
Those little things that used to just follow me around, when did they grow so big?
Feeling proud, I patted Giliou and Mayron on each shoulder and said, “Who’s alone? I’m not going alone.”
As I said that, the person who had just finished checking the other side of the carriage approached and announced, “Tia, everything’s ready.”
The one who casually dusted off his dirty hands, dressed in plain ready-made clothes just like me, was Perez.