Screeeeech.
With a grinding friction sound one hated to hear, the iron gates of the massive mansion closed at the hands of the imperial soldiers. It was the end of Lombardi, which had stood shoulder to shoulder with the Rembru Imperial Family for 250 years, reigning as the greatest house on the continent.
Like the endlessly spreading World Tree that served as the clan's symbol, the family that had seemed destined to stand firm forever ended futilely as its patriarch, Bieje Lombardi, and key figures were arrested under the charges of tax evasion and aiding treason.
Numerous citizens of Lombardi, the city named after the clan, had gathered before the mansion. Some endlessly dabbed at their tears with handkerchiefs, while others turned their heads away, unable to bear watching.
And there, at the very front of it all, was I, Florentia.
"Idiots."
A grinding sound of teeth clenching rang out, but I didn't care about that right now. Glaring at the main gate of the clan, locked with a large, unsightly padlock, I spat out a few more words through gritted teeth.
"Blockheads, good-for-nothings, lazy bums who'd lie around even if a fire broke out."
I could feel the people standing nearby flinch and turn to look at me in surprise, but so what? It was the already ruined Lombardi clan.
But no matter how much I cursed, the boiling rage in my gut wouldn't settle.
"I told you the First Prince was no good. That bastard is nothing but good-for-nothing scum—I said it again and again that he could never become the Crown Prince!"
Despite my repeated warnings, the fools of Lombardi supported the First Prince.
First Prince, Astana Nerempe Dyurelli.
They claimed it was because he was the legitimate son of the Empress, but from where I stood, they had simply chosen someone exactly like themselves. So-called 'noble bloodlines' with heads stuffed full of luxury and pleasure, and bodies permeated to the bone with laziness.
Lombardi's splendid history was such that one could call it the history of the Rembru Empire without exaggeration. It was the Lombardi clan that had made the head of the Dyurelli family—a mere rural lord of the kingdom—into the first emperor, and it was they who had carried the empire to where it stood today.
Was that all?
Starting with merchant companies, they amassed enormous wealth, intervened in every war to achieve bloodless victories through outstanding diplomacy, and supported talented artists across the empire. There was no corner of the world untouched by the Lombardi name.
And the one praised for elevating such a Lombardi a level higher was the previous patriarch, Rulrak Lombardi. When young Rulrak had just inherited the patriarchship, the Imperial Family issued the Golden Gate Edict to keep him in check—banning him from entering the imperial capital, where the Imperial Palace was located and the political and economic heart of the Rembru Empire.
And what Rulrak devised then was the scholarship system. Without distinction between noble and commoner, he spared no expense in supporting and cultivating outstanding talents in every field. Where the loyalty of those who had studied under Lombardi patronage since childhood would lie was only too obvious. They were not Lombardis, yet they were Lombardi's people.
In this way, the previous patriarch Rulrak successfully planted his people everywhere without ever stepping a foot outside Lombardi's domain. In the end, the former emperor, who had no choice but to acknowledge Lombardi's influence, was forced to withdraw the Golden Gate Edict after just twenty years.
But.
"No matter how stupid you are, this is too much. How could you ruin such a clan in just two years!"
Two years ago, the previous patriarch Rulrak Lombardi died, and his eldest son, Bieje Lombardi, ascended to the patriarchship.
And that was the beginning of the fall.
Bieje was a good-for-nothing who loved nothing but flashy words, lacking the ability to lead a clan no different from a kingdom. And the Lombardi bloodline, every one of them selfish and spendthrift, must have run wild like unbridled colts once the strict previous generation was gone.
It was obvious without even looking.
The reason I knew them all so intimately was simple. I, too, had once been a Lombardi.
To be more precise, I had lived in a country called South Korea, died in a traffic accident, and was reincarnated into this world. Into the bloodline of the Lombardi clan, no less.
When I first opened my eyes in a newborn's body, I had let out a cheer instead of a cry at the extravagantly luxurious surroundings.
I was finally born with a golden spoon!
There had definitely been a time when I greeted every morning in that massive mansion and fell asleep gazing at the World Tree symbol carved into the ceiling.
But regrettably, I was a half-breed. My father was the third son of the previous Lombardi patriarch, but my mother, who had died in childbirth bearing me, was a wanderer who had come from outside. Thus, under the strict laws of the clan, they could not officially marry.
Born from such a union, I was strictly speaking a bastard, but with my grandfather's permission, I was fortunately able to use the Lombardi surname.
That didn't mean I was accepted as a member of the Lombardi clan. I was always just a child in an ambiguous position—not an official member, yet using the Lombardi surname.
But the brief period of happiness, hollow though it was, was short-lived. A few days before my eleventh birthday, my father died of an incurable disease. After becoming an orphan, I was gradually forgotten by the clan.
Without my father, the link that had connected me to the clan, I was no longer a Lombardi. Before long, I was no longer invited to family events and gradually lost my place. But I couldn't just fade away like this, so from the age of fifteen, when my body had grown somewhat, I began to work.
The beginning was tending to the mansion's library. It was where I had spent the most time with my father when he was alive, and afterward, it was also where I had come and gone as if it were my own room, having nothing else to do. Then the librarian suddenly resigned due to illness, leaving the position vacant, and I managed with difficulty to take the post.
It was absurd to entrust a whole library to a fifteen-year-old child, but my name—Lombardi—was useful then, if only for that moment.
Ordering books as requested and organizing them was something I enjoyed, and it wasn't very difficult. As I worked diligently and took pleasure in it, the library grew more pleasant, and I began to be recognized for the first time.
As I began to involve myself in the mansion's affairs, one by one,
by the time my eighteenth birthday—my coming of age—had passed, I had unknowingly taken on the role of managing the household affairs inside and outside the Lombardi mansion.
It was quite an extreme job. My father's brothers were all haughty nobles drunk on their own self-importance, and my cousins—the delinquents of Lombardi—caused accidents nearly every day.
And in the year I turned nineteen, my grandfather collapsed from illness, and I came to assist him with his work by his side. It was only natural, as there was no one who knew the clan's affairs as well as I.
Unlike my other cousins, whose heads were blank sheets, my quickness to learn anything and my accuracy in handling work were quite a shock to my grandfather.
"If only I had known you were such a child a few years sooner!"
My grandfather, Rulrak Lombardi, who had been worrying about the future of the clan as his illness deepened, would habitually sigh.
"I would have handed this clan over to you……"
Each time, I would sigh and smile.
"But nothing would have changed, Grandfather."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because I am a half-breed. How could I, with a commoner mother, become the patriarch?"
"No, Florentia."
My grandfather's voice as he shook his head was quite firm.
"You are a Lombardi. Since you have inherited the clan's blood, your qualifications are more than enough."
But it was nothing more than belated regret, and Bieje, my grandfather's eldest son, was counting the days until he would become patriarch.
Yet the last three years I spent with my grandfather were not meaningless. During that time, for the first time since my father's death, I was able to feel something called familial love.
"I'm sorry, Florentia. I should have taken better care of you when you were young. You are my granddaughter too…… I'm truly sorry."
It might sound funny, but to me, those words were enough. The resentment I had held toward my grandfather for not caring for me in my youth melted away like snow at that sincere apology.
I did my utmost for Lombardi. Pouring my affection into it, I spared no means or methods to make this clan greater. I worked through the night and did not hesitate to clean up my cousins' dirty messes.
I truly loved Lombardi.
But.
"Get out. Even without further words, you know what you must do, Florentia."
After my grandfather's funeral, my eldest uncle and the new patriarch, Bieje, tossed a bag in front of me and said,
"I've held back until now out of consideration for Father, but I can no longer stand by and watch. The sight of you overstepping your place and prancing about."
Held back? Was my working for the clan so unpleasant to his eyes? Despite everything I had done all this time, I was ultimately not a person of Lombardi.
"You may take the Lombardi surname from me. Please let me work for the clan. I am needed here."
I spoke almost begging. But Bieje merely snorted in ridicule.
"You still don't know your place until the very end. Do not ever show your face around here again!"
And so I was driven out. Despite having legitimate rights to inheritance as a Lombardi, I received nothing.
And exactly two years later, those idiots ruined Lombardi!
That great clan!
The beautiful Lombardi to which I had devoted my youth!
Bang!
The glass I slammed down made a loud noise. The tavern owner glared at me, but I was too furious to care about such things.
"See, you should have backed the Second Prince!"
The Second Prince, whom no one had paid attention to because he was born of a maid.
Second Prince, Perez Bribachau Dyurelli.
No one had thought that a prince who had shut himself away in a small detached palace, to the point where rumors circulated that he had died, would grow up to be so outstanding.
And who could have imagined that he would graduate as the top of both the civil and military divisions of the Imperial Academy with tremendous talent, stamping his mark before his father, Emperor Johannes!
But that wasn't all.
The Second Prince had used his overwhelming charisma to wrap the nobles that the First Prince and his mother, the Empress, had painstakingly cultivated around his little finger, swallowing the entire council whole.
*Sigh*. If only we'd held onto the right rope, Lombardi would never have fallen.
"One more here!"
No matter how much I drank, the thousand fires burning inside me wouldn't go out.
"Anyone with two eyes should know! Anyone could see that the Second Prince is far more suited to be emperor than that First Prince, whose only talents are womanizing and gambling!"
But the fools of Lombardi hadn't known that. Probably because they had been rolling around in gambling dens with the First Prince.
In the end, the Second Prince was appointed Crown Prince, and not long after, the Emperor collapsed. Lombardi, which had committed all manner of vicious acts against the Second Prince to make the First Prince the Crown Prince, was hit squarely by that backlash.
"*Sigh*…… I should go home."
I was dizzy, probably because I had drunk too much. Fortunately, the house I rented was just two blocks away. I roughly placed the drinking money on the table and walked out of the tavern, my steps staggering in zigzags.
"Bastards, muscle-brained idiots, lechers."
It was while I was cursing, vividly picturing each of my uncles' and cousins' faces, one by one.
Stumble.
Stepping wrong with one foot, my body tilted to one side, and to keep from falling, I struggled, swaying desperately.
And the place where I finally stood upright was in the middle of the road where carriages passed.
The moment I realized that,
"Boom!"
Something slammed into me hard from behind, and I felt my body float into the air. It seemed like I could hear a horse's neighing from far away.
I died in a traffic accident in my previous life too, so a carriage accident this time? That's a bit much.
But grumbling like that was pointless—my body, once airborne, was faithfully falling toward the ground according to gravity.
Soon, darkness came for me.