"You can't gamble the family's property as you please. This is already the third time..."

Slap!

Florentia's head intensely turned to the left by an unpleasant noise.

"You worthless wretch, how dare you to admonish me!"

The man screamed while his body smelled of liquor, and he pushed her shoulders away with his strong hands.

"Come on and go get some rest. Calm down, Astall. Head over there. And you..."

Belesac, who calmly tamed his drunken and staggering cousin, then turned toward Florentia.

And,

Smack!

With a louder sound than a while ago, a five-fingered handprint was imprinted on the other side of her face.

"After four years of spending lavishly on our family's money, did you seriously think it belongs to you?"

Belesac criticized the fluttering Florentia as she promptly covers her face which had been slapped twice.

"Don't be mistaken. Although you and us may share the same last name, however, with that dirty blood flowing in your veins, you will never be a part of our family. All you have to do is to live as our servant."

No matter how many times she recalled his repeated remarks, those cruel words felt like a dagger that simply pierced through her heart.

"If you ever say a word to grandfather about what happened today, I won't set you loose."

Given a warning, Belesac spits on the ground as he turns around with his back faced towards me.

Soon after, the sound of the moving carriage grew more and more distant.

Left alone in the dark alley, Florentia tightly clenched her fists and bitten her lips.

A drop of fresh red blood dripped down her injured lips.

⟸ ♔ ⟹

Klakk. Klak. "Hee-yah!" "Neigh!"

The slight sway of the moving carriage and the modest sound of the coachman awoke Florentia from the thoughts of the very distant past.

She slightly raised the curtain draped over the window and glanced outside, she could see the soldiers of the Imperial Palace.

"We're were."

Florentia lowered the curtain again and looked straight ahead, as she set her back more upright. After straightening up her hair and dress which had been untidy for a while, she looked like an elegant portrait.

In the meantime, her carriage passed through the main gate and entered the Lamburgh Palace.

Riding in the carriage that was glamorously carved on the surface decorating the world symbol on the outside, the original gold showed off its dazzling brilliance under the glorious sunlight of the afternoon.

"We've arrived."

The carriage stopped and the coachman politely spoke.

"Florentia."

Without delay, the carriage door opened and a beautiful man greeted her.

"Perez."

He kissed the back of Florentia's hand after escorting her out of the carriage.

It was a kiss with a deep meaning that did not hide the desire in his heart.

"Perez!"

Florentia called him out, but Perez simply smiled with his long eyelashes folded finely.

"Let's go, everyone is waiting for us."

She pulled her hand out of his grasp and before she shifted her foot directly towards the banquet hall and moves away from the carriage.

Perez, who smiled once more and chuckled after seeing the tip of her ears blushing slightly, soon followed her back.

"There's no one in this Lamburgh Empire who can complain against you for making them wait, my Tia. You can go a little slower."

The two have come a long way for today.

"As hard as it has been for you to come here, you should enjoy the moment."

After much perseverance, patience and efforts, it was finally time to eat the sweet fruit of her hard work today.

"Yes. I have suffered a lot of troubles."

Florentia admitted plainly.

We've come a long way back. It's probably even hard to imagine. She said in a small voice that no one could hear.

"But that doesn't mean I should be disrespectful."

It was a firm answer.

The woman who had made him fall in love with her from the moment he had laid his eyes on her was such an outstanding woman.

Perez laughed full of joy again.

Before long, the two figures stood at the door of the closed banquet hall.

"Are you ready?"

Hearing Perez's question, Florentia nodded briefly.

"Very well, shall we go in, Lord Lombardi."

He reached his hand out before her.

"Let's go, Your Royal Highness, the Crown Prince."

A pale, fine palm held his hand together.

"Open the door."

Perez briefly commanded the servant in front of him.

"His Highness, the Crown Prince and the Matriarch, Florentia Lombardi have entered!"

Beyond the voice from behind the door, announcing the audience of the arrival and the status of the two hosts.

Florentia laughed since the declaration sounded like music to her ears.

The door slowly split open in half and the bright light of the banquet hall poured out through the gap.

Skreeekk.

The iron gates of the great mansion were closed by the hands of the Imperial knights making an unpleasant fricative sound.

It was the end of the Lombardi Family, who had reigned as one of the greatest influential family on the continent for 250 years, on par with the Imperial family of Lamburgh.

Like an ever-expanding world, the family's symbol, the house has always remained dominant soon ended in vain with the capture of Vieze Lombardi, the patriarch of the household, as well as other important figures under the name of tax evasion and treason.

Hundreds of citizens of Lombardi, a city named after the family, had gathered in front of the mansion.

There were those who constantly shed tears into their handkerchiefs and those who turned their heads away without even looking once.

And in the front row stood me, Florentia.

"Morons."

I said bluntly while gritting my teeth, but it didn't matter now. I scowled at the heavily guarded front gate of the poorly-latched family and uttered a few more words.

"Freaks, dimwits, lazy idiots who will roll around even when stuck in the fire."

I could feel the citizens standing around me looking back at me in awe, but what do you think?

The Lombardi Family is already in ruins.

Yet, no matter how many times I cursed, the rage inside my heart did not subside.

"I had already told you that it's not the First Prince. I have often told you several times that he's just a spoiled jerk who will never become the Crown Prince!"

But despite my advice, the Lombardi idiots still supported the First Prince.

The First Prince, Astana Nerempe Durelli.

They said it was because the First Prince was a descendant of the Empress, but as far as I could tell, they only choose the exact kind of person as themselves.

He belonged to a 'royal bloodline', but had a fat body while drowning in luxuries, pleasures and laziness that filled up his stomach.

It was no exaggeration to explain that Lombardi's brilliant history was the history of the Lamburgh Empire.

It was the Lombardi Family that gave rise to Durelli, the first Emperor of the Empire, and ruled the Empire where it is today.

Is that all?

Reaching the top, the family accumulated an enormous fortune, they participated in every war and achieved bloodless victories with excellent diplomacy, and supported great artists from all over the Empire.

There was no place in the world where Lombardi's name could not be reached.

And it was Lulac Lombardi, the Overlord of the previous generation who is praised for raising the Lombardi's Family to a higher level.

When the young Lulac had taken over the position as an Overlord, the Imperial Palace issued a royal edict to keep him in check.

That's when Lulac came up with an idea and presented the scholarship policy.

The administration had raised the number of talented people in various fields by providing generous support to both nobles and commoners.

It was no wonder where the loyalty of those who had studied under the support of the Lombardi family would lie. They were not Lombardi, but they were the Lombardi's people.

So Lulac, the Patriarch, had to succeed in planting his people all over the place without even taking a single step out of the Lombardi's territory. Eventually, the Emperor, who had no choice but to recognize the Lombardi family's influence, had to take back the royal edict after twenty years.

However.

"No matter how ignorant you are, how can you ruin such an influential family in two years!"

Two years ago, after the death of Lulac Lombardi, the first son, Vieze Lombardi, was appointed to the post of the next Patriarch.

And that was the beginning of the disaster.

Vieze was a sleazy, passive man who only liked to say a few words, so he couldn't lead the kingdom or his family, and so, the Lombardi's bloodline, a bunch of slanderers, became selfish causing the family to lose their strict ancestry.

It's so obvious, I don't even have to look at it. The reason why I knew so much about them was quite simple.

I used to be a Lombardi.

To be more specific, I lived in a country called South Korea, died in a traffic car accident, and reincarnated into this world.

That too, in the Lombardi family.

When I had first opened my eyes in the body of a newborn baby, I screamed instead of crying while looking at my luxurious surroundings that seemed like a hallucination.

I was finally born with a golden spoon!

There was definitely a period of time where I had woken up in that mansion, greeted everyone in the mornings, and gone to sleep at night while looking at the fancy patterns carved on the ceiling.

Sadly, I was just a half-blood.

My father was the third and youngest son of my grandfather, the Patriarch of Lombardi but my mother, who had passed away while giving birth to me, was a commoner and could not officially get married due to the strict laws of the family.

Born between them, I was technically an illegitimate child, but with my grandfather's permission, I was lucky to be able to use the Lombardi family's surname.

However, that didn't mean that I was recognized as a part of the Lombardi's.

All the time, I was just a vaguely positioned child using the Lombardi family's last name and is not actually a complete member of the family.

It was all superficial but even then, I was happy only for a short while.

A few days before my eleventh birthday.

After my father passed away due to an incurable disease, I was forgotten in the family. I was no longer a part of Lombardi without a father who had linked me to the family.

Soon after, I was no more invited to any family events and I lost my place.

However, I couldn't just leave like that, so I started working at the age of fifteen. In the beginning, I began to take care of the library in the mansion.

When my father was alive, it was the place we had spent most of our time together, and it was almost like my second home.

But when the librarian suddenly resigned due to an illness, there was a vacancy and I took over the position with much difficulty.

It was ridiculous to entrust the whole library to a fifteen-year-old child but the surname Lombardi attached to my name had proven to be very useful at that time.

Ordering and organizing books as people requested were something I loved and it wasn't that difficult for me.

As a result of working hard while enjoying my duties, the library became more and more pleasant and I started to be recognized for the first time.

So, one by one, one at a time. Slowly, I started to touch on the affairs of the mansion. By the end of my eighteenth birthday, I began to be in charge of the family affairs inside and outside the Lombardi mansion.

It was quite an extreme job.

My father's brothers were all snobbish nobles living in their own little bubble, and my Lombardi cousins were rogues who got involved in some of the other accidents every day.

And the year I turned nineteen, my grandfather fell ill and I was assigned the duty to assist him by his side. It was only natural that no-one knew the family affairs as well as I did.

Unlike my cousins, who were born with blank heads, my grandfather was quite shocked to know at my ability to learn anything quickly and fulfill my responsibilities accurately.

"If only I had known a few years earlier that you were such a child!"

Like my grandfather, Lulac Lombardi's illness worsened, sighing became a habit for him as he constantly thought about the future of the family.

"I would have passed down this family to you...."

Every time, he would sigh and laugh.

"Nothing would have changed, grandpa."

"Why do you think so?"

"I'm an illegitimate child. How can I become the matriarch with a commoner's blood in me?"

"No, Florentia."

The voice of my grandfather who was shaking his head was very firm.

"You are a Lombardi. As long as you have the blood of the family, you're well qualified."

However, it was only a late regret, and Vieze, my grandfather's first son, was counting the days when he would become the overlord.

Still, the last three years that I had spent with my grandfather were not meaningless.

During that time, I was able to feel some affection for the first time after my father had passed away.

"I'm sorry, Florentia. I should have taken better care of you. And all of that even though you're my granddaughter...I'm really sorry."

It might have been regretful for him, but it was enough for me.

The resentment I had felt towards my grandfather since he hadn't paid much attention to me since I was a child had disappeared after that heartfelt apology.

He had done his best for the Lombardi family.

With affection, he did everything he could to make the family reach greater heights. I stayed up all night working, and I didn't mind taking care of the dirty work and mistakes of my cousins.

I really loved being a part of the Lombardi family.

However.

"Get out. You know what you have to do without me telling you any further, Florentia."

After my grandfather's funeral, Vieze said those words while throwing a bag in front of me.

"I had been patient because of your father for a while, but I can't just wait and watch any more. I can't believe I let you stay in my place for so long."

I've been too patient.

Were you completely blind to all the work that I had done for the family?

For all the effort I've been putting, it seems I wasn't a Lombardi after all.

"You can strip me off of my last name of Lombardi. Let me work for the family. I need to be here." I spoke some funny words.

However, Vieze only laughed.

"You still don't know anything till the end. Don't ever come near this place again!"

I was kicked out just like that.

Without receiving any rightful inheritance of property despite being a Lombardi. And exactly two years later, that idiot completely ruined the Lombardis!

That great family!

The beautiful Lombardi family that I had dedicated my youth to!

Bang!

The glass I put down roughly made a loud noise.

The owner of the bar glared at me, but my anger had exploded and I couldn't care less about it.

"So the Second Prince became the one to reach the top!"

It was the Second Prince that no-one cared about because he was the child of a maid.

The Second Prince, Perez Brivachau Durelli.

No-one had ever thought that the second prince, who had been rumored to have died in the small palace, had actually grown up so brilliantly.

And with a tremendous amount of talent, he was the first to graduate from the Imperial Academy as both a civil servant and a military officer at the same time due to which he ended up grabbing the attention of his father, the Emperor!

Not only that.

The second prince even ate up the entire Parliament at once by grabbing the nobles carefully recruited by the First Prince and his mother, the Empress, due to his tremendous charms.

Sigh. The Lombardis wouldn't have gone bankrupt if only they had hung on to the right rope.

"One more drink here!"

No matter how much I drink, the rage burning inside me doesn't seem to fade at all.

"If you have two eyes, you should have seen it coming already! No matter who looks at it, it's obvious that the Second Prince is more likely to be the Emperor than the one who has nothing better to do than getting involved in debauchery and gambling!"

But those Lombardi fools didn't know that.

Probably because they were laughing along with the First Prince on the gambling table. Eventually, the second Prince became the Crown Prince and soon after, the Emperor passed away.

The Lombardis, who had done all sorts of vicious things to make the first prince the crown prince was hit by the extreme backlash.

"Haah...I need to go home."

I felt dizzy because I had drunk too much alcohol. Fortunately, the house where I lived on monthly rent was only two blocks away from here.

As I placed the money on the counter, I staggered and walked out of the bar.

"Bastards. Brainless fools. Worthless scoundrels."

It was when I vividly recalled the faces of my uncles and cousins that I began to curse.

Slip.

One foot of mine slipped in vain, my body tilted to one side and I staggered, struggling not to fall. And the place where I finally stood straight was right in front of a moving carriage.

Kwang!

Something strong hit me hard at the back and I could feel my body floating in the air.

I could also hear the hooves of a horse in the distance.

It's kind of foolish that I had died in a car accident in my previous life, and this time it's a carriage accident.

When I glanced down, my body that had been floating in the air steadily fell to the floor, unable to defy gravity.

Very soon, darkness fell.

"Father?"

I could see a brown-haired man in his late twenties reading a book next to me.

"...Fathe-, no... Dad?"

The green eyes that resembled mine looked at me.

"What's wrong, Tia?"

As I heard the voice that I had remembered distinctly, I got goosebumps on my arms.

What, is this for real?

The smell of books and the ambiance of the library were way too clear to be considered a mere memory before dying.

I tried to figure out the situation by blinking several times.

Why am I suddenly standing in the library of the mansion, when I had instead been waiting for my death due to being hit by a carriage?

Why is the bookshelf so big and why is the desk so high?

"Tia?"

When was the last time someone had called me so affectionately?

I felt like I was about to cry as I looked at the familiar green eyes. My father was the young man that I had remembered in my memories.

"Tia, are you alright?"

I don't know what the hell was going on, but first I need to get out of this place.

"Wait a minute. The thing is, can I go to my room?"

My father, who had tilted his head, gave me a nod while closing his eyes in relief.

"Yeah, you can. Do you want me to come with you?"

"N-no! I can go alone!"

"Haha. You're more energetic today. Then, please go carefully."

"Yep. Well, I'll be right back. Stay here for a moment!"

Saying that I started running.

As I looked around at the library while running, it seemed to have retained its old look. It was the appearance that had been there before I became the librarian and changed it efficiently.

It's strange! Really strange!

As I ran out of the library, a familiar yet unfamiliar hallway greeted me.

My room was too far, so I entered a random room as its door was open. The room with a single bed and simple furniture looked like it didn't belong to anyone. I thought it was the guest room, but that wasn't important right now.

It was impossible to count the number of vacant rooms in the mansion, to the point it almost seemed like a village.

"Mirror! Yes, mirror!"

Fortunately, I was able to find a full-length mirror placed in the corner of the room. It didn't seem that far enough. But strangely enough, I had to take several steps to reach it.

And the moment I stood in front of the mirror, I could see why.

"Why am I so small?!"

My body was ridiculously small, and couldn't even fill a third of the full-length mirror which was made to fit the height of an adult. Looking down, I could see two small hands that looked like maple leaves, a baby belly and a tiny pair of feet.

"How old am I now?"

I can't ask anyone. After thinking for a moment, I hurriedly lifted the hem of the skirt that I was wearing.

"It was before my eighth birthday when I had fallen and injured myself!"

There was a time when I was playing in the garden and I ended up scratching my knees severely on the rocks. The scar was so large that it was still present even when I had been twenty-five-years-old.

"None. No scar."

The knee looked smooth without any sign of an injury.

"Then I'm not eight years old yet...."

I looked in the mirror once again, but my appearance of a child remained unchanged.

Even though I had just suffered an accident and opened my eyes, I was surprised to see no wounds on my body- nevertheless, if I'm to really talk about what's more surprising, then it's the fact that I came back to the past.

Even if I had experienced reincarnation after death, it wasn't that easy to accept.

This is the first time I've ever experienced a regression. My legs were shaking, so I sat on the bed next to me.

Merely being so short wasn't that easy either.

The Lombardi mansion's landscape was barely visible from the window due to my small height.

"I'm really back in the past."

I murmured as I watched the large evergreen trees soaring deep in the garden.

These were the trees that had been chopped off when my first uncle, Vieze had become the overlord.

He had said that it was for the purpose of landscaping but it was quite obvious that he just didn't want to see the trees that my grandfather had cherished.

However, it was later found that the trees were the ones the first emperor had offered to celebrate the completion of the mansion.

He was named as the eldest, but that man who was the so-called Patriarch didn't even know about the importance of those trees to the family.

"Foolish Vieze."

I don't know what the hell grandfather was thinking but Vieze was never suited to be an Patriarch. In that sense, even my younger uncle, Laurel was not qualified.

If Vieze was a man with a narrow and intolerant view, his younger brother, Laurel, was just like a loyal hound who was always moving as his brother ordered.

If anyone was capable, it was my father, Gallahan.

Although he was overly thoughtful and somewhat fragile, he was a well-educated person who wanted to go to the academy for higher education.

But my father had passed away early, so there weren't many options left...

Wait a minute.

"My father... Can he be saved?"

My father had passed away due to an illness shortly before my eleventh birthday.

At that time, there was no cure, so I couldn't do anything about it, but just a few years later, I clearly remember the news that a doctor had discovered the medicine.

"I can save my father!"

My whole body trembled with joy. My eyes seemed to be hot, and tears dripped down my face. I don't have to lose my father.

He can be saved.

I don't have to watch my father die a painful death at such a young age.

It was bizarre, but I was somehow able to return to the past. And right away, another realization came along.

"Then, wouldn't I be able to protect the Lombardi family?"

I jumped up from my seat and walked towards the window.

From the library, the view of Lombardi's huge four-story main building and several buildings built around it could be seen at a glance.

I could also see the guests, servants, and other men working in the mansion.

All of this had ceased to exist.

In my memories, I could see the Imperial knights closing the doors of the empty mansion in front of my eyes.

"First of all, I have to stop Vieze from becoming the Patriarch."

As the next Patriarch, it had been his judgment to support the first prince at that time.

Ravini Angenas, the mother of the first Prince and the current empress of the Lamburgh Empire is also the cousin of Vieze's wife, Seral. With such a relationship, it's inevitable that they would be inclined to support her son for the position of the next Crown Prince.

The first Prince was the first person who couldn't afford to deal with such immense power and responsibility and moreover, Emperor Jovanes had never been a foolish monarch himself.

It was Vieze who didn't understand his own mind and ended up supporting the first Prince. If only you hadn't declared your support so publicly.

No, you had even tried to blackmail and harm the second Prince!

Otherwise, Lombardi would have remained safe.

Then, I'd thought I would try and persuade Vieze, but very soon, I realized it wouldn't work.

Had he been a man who could be persuaded easily, he wouldn't have ruined the family like that within such a short time.

If so, it means that someone else should be the Patriarch instead.

[ I would have passed down this family to you..... ]

I remembered how my grandfather would always say that while sighing out of habit.

"Me... Shall I try?"

I chuckled because it sounded like I was out to catch clouds.

(t/n: Catch Clouds: this is used when someone pursues something vague, absurd, or something that is impossible to do.)

While I had been helping my grandfather and practically taking charge of the family affairs, it wasn't just once or twice that I would have the thought that I'd rather become the Matriarch instead of Vieze since he kept ruining all my hard-earned efforts.

Actually, no matter what I do, I'm sure I'll be better than my uncle anyway.

"At least I wouldn't make that mistake against the second Prince. Then our family will be safe. I know for sure that the second Prince will end up becoming the Emperor anyway....."

If so, how about I place the second prince in the line in advance?

Wouldn't it benefit the Lombardis if we got close?

Not only that. I had a memory of what would happen at least for the next 20 years.

If I could make good use of the knowledge I had, I could make the Lombardi family stronger. I can protect my dear family with my own hands.

Clearly.

"Let's do it."

It was a family that would be ruined if left unchecked.

Hundreds of years of reign would tragically be destroyed just like that.

I couldn't let that happen to the Lombardis.

"I'm going to be Martriarch."

Or I could have my father succeed in my grandfather. It just couldn't be first uncle Vieze or second uncle Laurel.

"Then, for now...."

I leaned back on the bed and organized my thoughts a little bit more.

⟸ ♔ ⟹

"Master Gallahan has received a call from the Lord, so he's gone to the office, my lady."

When I returned to the library, the place where my father had been sitting was neatly arranged and this is what the librarian told me.

The old librarian whose hair had already turned grey, Brochle.

It wasn't until Brochle had resigned from his job due to an illness that I started working in the library. He was originally a famous professor at the academy but later started working for the Lombardis.

"Library grandpa."

If it were my original age, it would have sounded very idiotic to say that to Brochle, who was once a professor, but what do you think? I am a child now.

"Please lend me a book."

"What kind of book would you like?"

When I said the title of the book, Brochle looked dumbstruck.

"By any chance, is this something Master Gallahan has asked for?"

"No. I want to see it."

I understand why Brochle looked surprised. But I waited confidently, not avoiding his eyes that were practically staring at me.

This was the book that I had wanted to read the most before I was hit by a carriage. However, it was so precious and expensive that in the end, I was never able to read it.

After a while, I left the library with a pretty heavy book in my arms.

"I'll go to the office and wait while reading a book."

I had asked someone a little while ago and found out that today was the third day of the week.

It was grandfather's old habit to have a brief meeting with his three sons and one daughter on the third day.

Except the time would be different every time, so my father and his siblings would have to stay in the mansion all day and wait for grandfather's call.

Nevertheless, no one could express their dissatisfaction with it.

Because in this Lombardi mansion, grandfather's power was absolute.

When I was walking by myself, I found the main building and was able to stand in the hallway in front of the office. It was a place I had visited often when I had helped assist my grandfather in his work.

From a child's point of view, it looked somewhat different.

I wanted to take a closer look around the inside of the main building but I had to rest by the window.

The distance from the library to this place is too much considering my short stature. Moreover, I could feel that my child's body was weak and gets tired easily.

And then, when I was thinking of taking a nap soon,

"Hey, half-blood."

I heard the voice of some cheeky kid calling me.