I'll be the Matriarch in This Life

Ch 1

Skreeekkk.

With an unpleasant sound, the iron gates of the great mansion were closed by the imperial knights.

It was the end of the Lombardis, which had reigned as the greatest family on the continent for 250 years, on par with the imperial family of Lamburgh.

Like an ever-expanding world, their family's symbol, their clan, which used to be strong, ended in vain with the capture of Vieze Lombardi, the patriarch of the household, as well as other figures under the crime 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 away without even looking once.

And in the front row stood Florentia.

"Morons."

she said sharply while gritting her teeth, but it didn't matter now.

she glared at the heavily guarded front door of the family mansion and uttered a few more words.

"Freaks, dimwits, lazy people who remained stubborn even when stuck in a fire."

she could feel the people standing around her looking back at her in surpise, but what can they say?

The Lombardi family is already ruined.

However, no matter how much she cursed, the rage inside her heart did not subside.

"I had already told you that it's not going to be the First Prince. I told you several times that he is just a spoiled brat and he's never going to be the Crown Prince!"

But despite her advice, the Lombardi idiots supported the First Prince. Astana Nerempe Durelli.

They said it was because he was related to the empress, but as far as she could tell, they only picked the same kind of person as themselves.

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

It was no exaggeration to say that Lombardi's brilliant history was also the history of the Lamburgh empire. It was the Lombardi family that made Durelli the first Emperor of the kingdom, and brought the empire to where it is today.

That's not all

Reaching the top, the family accumulated enormous wealth, participated in every war, 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 Lulak Lombardi, the Overlord of the previous generation, who heve raised the Lombardi family to a higher level.

When the young Lulak had just taken over as an overlord, the imperial family issued a royal edict to keep him in check.

And that's when Lulak came up with the scholarship system.

The government 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 Lulak, the Overlord, had succeeded in planting his people all over the place without even taking a single step out of 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.