In This Life, I Will Be The Lord

 

Gallahan, the third son of Lombardi family, hid the corner of his mouth that seemed to cramp up with a glass of wine.

"Can you hear me, Gallahan?"

Gallahan's eldest brother, Viege Lombardi, asked sternly.

Having been ferocious and impatient since childhood, he had a personality that could change at any time, even if he smiled a bit now.

He was still drunk, and his brown eyes gleamed over his smiling face.

"...Yes, brother."

When Gallahan reluctantly answered, Viege nodded satisfactorily only then.

"Yes, yes. So that's my brother."

Gallahan's body shook violently as his hand gripped his shoulder.

Last night, he tossed and turned all night and couldn't rest, floating around on wine with tired eyes.

"And if father tries to call you and ask you to do it, you refuse because you can't do it like this time. That's the right way."

Lulac, Gallahan's father and the head of Lombardi family, was a strict leader.

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

Nothing was just given.

As a head of the family and as a father, Lulac Lombardi was constantly demanding achievements.

However, the youngest, Gallahan, was the only one Lulac treated softly.

He kept giving him opportunities and trying to support him in one way or another.

Therefore, Viege, the eldest son who had not yet been announced as a successor, did not care to such a Gallahan.

Then he almost fell behind when he heard that his father was going to give his youngest a seat at the Lombardi's top.

Eventually, he called Gallahan separately and threatened to tell his father that he couldn't do it with his mouth.

The visit, which came once a day, threatened, coerced, and dried blood, continued until Gallahan obeyed Viege.

'I'm not going to see my brother for a while.'

There was no reason to pour the tea from the seat where Viege forced him to sit, and in the end, Gallahan thought as he drank wine from the morning.

"Family business is not for everyone. It's better for me with experience to lead the work than for you, who doesn't know anything for no reason. I thought well."

In front of Viege, who was in a good mood to somehow get what he wanted, Gallahan just wanted to get out of this place.

If he had known that he would eventually give up like this, he would have had to reject his father's offer from the beginning.

 

He was greedy in the hope of wanting to. He felt pathetic for himself for spending tiring days.

"From now on, live quietly and modestly like that. Got it?"

At Viege's words, Gallahan nodded helplessly.

"If you're done talking, can I get up and go, brother?"

"Yes? Oh, yes, yes."

Viege, who now had nothing to do with Gallahan, waved one hand without sincerity.

Gallahan, who trudged back to his room, quietly changed his clothes.

With a familiar touch, he was dressed in shabby clothes that could be worn by commoners, and packed a crater lying on one side of the room. (TN: I'm not sure what 'crater' is. It's the translation. I assume it's a tool for drawing.)

Even impatience was reflected in his steps of getting into the carriage by calling a coachman who was taking care of the horse.

"Would you like me to take you to your usual place, Mr. Gallahan?"

"Yes. Hurry up."

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

"Sigh."

Only then did Gallahan, who opened the window of the carriage and leaned comfortably against the seat, letting out a deep sigh.

"Now..."

I'm going to live.

Gallahan let the wind ruffle his hair.

After his mother, Natalia Lombardi, passed away, the mansion was like a prison for him.

A father who repeatedly looked down at his mother-like face and silently raised his unwanted expectations and was disappointed, and his brother, Viege, who tells him to shut his mouth even though he lives quietly as if he was not exist.

Gallahan was standing by and watching himself being pushed out of the house where he was born and raised.

"We have arrived, Mr. Gallahan."

"I'll go home on my own in the evening, so go back and rest."

It was a deserted alley near Lombardi Square.

Gallahan got out of there, ruffled his hair even more.

Although he got out of the mansion, there was no place he actually used as a destination.

Gallahan, who had been walking along the river for a while, soon turned to the square.

He wanted to be buried in the noise of the crowd.

Without realizing the blushing gazes that followed him, Gallahan sat across the fountain.

After taking out the crater habitually, he moved his hand without thinking to draw.

Still, he seemed to feel a little bit better when he mingled with the lively people.

After a while, by the time the sun was setting high, he could smile at the young children running around.

Then he suddenly turned his head.

He didn't remember the reason.

There seemed to be a sound from there, and there seemed that the wind was blowing.

From the moment he found a woman standing under a flowering tree, it didn't matter.

"Oh."

Gallahan stared blankly at the woman with red hair. (TN: Fyi, the translation is 'red' hair.)

 

He just couldn't take his eyes off her.

Time seemed to have stopped, or it seemed to have flown away.

When he came to his senses, he realized that he was holding her, who had almost fallen, in his arms.

As she looked up at his eyes, which were similar to him but much deeper green, Gallahan woke up in surprise.

"Excuse... me."

He apologized quickly and the hand that straightened Shan's body was constantly cautious.

"Thanks to you, I didn't fall! It's something I should be thankful for!"

At the sight of Shan smiling brightly while saying that, Gallahan somehow wanted to scoop up the water from the fountain.

"Then..."

He bowed his head to greet and tried to escape.

He didn't even have time to hide the tips of his red ears.

Tak.

Until Shan catches his sleeve.

Gallahan couldn't breathe and looked down at the small hand that grabbed the loose hem of his clothes.

It's a hand that he can hit as much as he want, but there seemed to be a sound of a lock somewhere.

Meanwhile, Shan was perplexed by it.

'How did you catch this?'

She thought she shouldn't let it go like this, so she did it.

"That, drawing!"

Shan said half-shouting.

"Can I take a look at the drawing?"

"My drawing...?"

"Yes! I want to see it so much!"

I'm doomed.

He'll think I'm a weird person.

With that thought in mind, Shan pulled back the sleeves she was holding tight.

"Just once!"

"...Here it is."

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

"Wow!"

Shan opened her eyes wide and exclaimed without realizing it.

"You drew it really well!"

It wasn't a lip compliment.

She couldn't take her eyes off the scene of the square vividly on a single sheet of paper.

"How do you draw like this?"

"It's just... It's nothing special."

"No! The picture is pretty, and above all, umm, people look happy. I think it's a great picture."

At Shan's smile, Gallahan's face hardened.

It was the first time anyone praised his painting like this.

For Lombardi's third son, it was a useless skill, but not enough to enter the path of an artist.

"People who draw as much as I do are common. I don't have the skills to show it to others like this."

Gallahan murmured quickly and put the picture in as if hiding it.

Seeing this, Shan tilted her head.

It didn't sound like he was saying it out of shame and embarrassment.

The constantly shifting gaze and the head facing the ground were telling her that.

Something was strange.

Less than a few minutes after meeting her future husband, Shan faced the first challenge.

She was well aware of the future Gallahan will live in.

However, there was something overlooked.

It was that she didn't know much about Gallahan's past.

She wanted to punch herself in the past, who thought carefreely 'Once we meet, everything will go according to the fate'.

She doesn't know who it is, but she thought it would be appropriate to hit a hundred or so of those who made Gallahan feel intimidated like that.

'Calm down.'

Here, we should not leave only embarrassing memories of each other.

It was when Shan thought so and was rolling her head over what to do.

Gallahan, who had already packed all the craters, spoke in a small voice.

"Nevertheless... Thank you for your kind words."

What should I do with this gentle guy?

Shan felt her heart ache, and grabbed Gallahan's clothes one more time as he turned around.

And she asked with the most pitiful face.

"I don't have any friends."

"What..?"

"So, can't you be friends with me?"

***

Next day.

Standing on the busy street, Gallahan looked up at the sky and sighed.

A few steps away, he saw a building with a sign called 'Blue Wave' that Shan had told about.

"I think we'll be good friends. What do you think?"

The woman he met for the first time yesterday, Shan, said so and said today was her day off.

At around lunchtime, she said let's meet here at the 'Blue Wave'.

Even when he went to bed last night, Gallahan thought he wouldn't take her offer.

It was because he was scared.

Just by looking at her for a moment, he seemed to have lost all his attention and mind, but what if they spend more time together?

The coward in Gallahan was telling him to run away.

So tomorrow, he was going to be stuck in the mansion's library and read books all day long.

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

"Umm."

Gallahan, who stood and buried his face in his large hands, was contemplating, then moved his steps to the 'Blue Wave'.

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

"Welcome! We're busy, so sit anywhere!"

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

Gallahan stood there for a while and looked around the interior full of people.

And then his green eyes dimmed.

'There isn't.'

Shan was nowhere to be seen.

'Well then.'

It was quick to give up, overshadowing the courage he has made.

Not knowing what to expect, Gallahan's broad shoulders fell helplessly.

It was then.

Tok tok.

With a light touch, he looked back, and Shan was smiling there.

"Have you been waiting?"

After that, there was a saying 'Am I late?', but Gallahan couldn't hear it and thought blankly.

Perhaps,all this time, I've been waiting for this woman.