From left to right: Firentia Lombardi and Prince Perez
The Lombardis were one of the Lehmbruck Empire's most powerful families. Their name was associated with the founding of the empire, making contributions in everything from businesses to the arts, becoming extremely wealthy and influential in the process. But like every family, they have their weaknesses, and young Firentia "Tia" Lombardi is considered one of them by the family's more unsavory members. An illegitimate child, she and her father kept to themselves, until her father's death led to her eventual exile from the family. Shortly after, the Lombardi family fell from grace thanks to Firentia's incompetent uncles and cousins.
In her fury over the sorry state of her family, Firentia drunkenly stumbled in front of a carriage and was trampled over. When she wakes up, however, she's back in her father's study, with her father next to her reading a book. Firentia realizes she has travelled back to when she was seven years old, bullied by her cousins and ignored by everyone else. But now with her knowledge of the events that transpired in the previous timeline, she plans to not only save her father from death, but to rise from the shadows and become her family's matriarchal leader.
I Shall Master This Family
began as a web novel by Kim Roah, and was adapted into a webcomic with art by Mon (Ant Studio). The webcomic is currently being translated by Tapas Media.
I Shall Master This Family contains examples of:
- Adorably Precocious Child: Tia, when she returns to the past, is a cute little girl with the mind of an adult. She slowly proves how intelligent and clever she is to the other adults, to the point of being considered a child genius. Though she still has to play with her cousins to keep up the appearance of being a normal child, and sometimes gets treated condescendingly by people like her cruel uncles.
- Lorraine and Craney are also this, as both are very smart for their age.
- Bastard Angst: Tia was excluded from most family matters as a child because she was an illegitimate offspring of her Lombardi father Gallahan and her peasant mother. She was thrown out of Lombardi after her father and grandfather's deaths for her "dirty" blood. She works hard to prove her worth in the second timeline, even though her uncles and their children are dismissive of her at best.
- Perez is also illegitimate, born from a tryst between the Emperor and a maid. The Empress does whatever she can to keep Perez from taking the throne from her own son, First Prince Astana, including murdering Perez's mother and nanny.
- Cain and Abel: Perez and Astana. The latter is heavily jealous of the former, and mostly goes along with his mother's devious schemes not because he has a personal grudge against the Lombardis, but because he can't stand the thought of being beneath "trash". On his end, Perez doesn't truly see Astana the way Astana does (his mother is his real Arch-Enemy), but he is annoyed by Astana's constant posturing and antagonism.
- Astaliu and Craney also have shades of this, since the former bullies the latter and does nothing to stop his cousin, Viese, from doing the same.
- Chekhov's Gun: The flowers that Perez shows Tia at his palace turned out to be the the very ingredient needed for the medicine to cure her dad’s illness. They were planted by Tia’s mom who saw in a dream that they would be vital in helping Gallahan.
- The Clan: The Lombardis are a huge, powerful family with many vassals and multiple generations living in the same household, all led by the grandfather, who is the head of the household.
- The Angenas also count, though they are a newer family compared to the Lombardis, which is part of the contention between the two families.
- Clashing Cousins: Bellezac and Astaliu are at odds with Tia and her other cousins due to their fathers' influence. Both of them bully Tia (and then Craney) and suck up to the Imperial family.
- Extreme Doormat: Laurels and Gallahan are this, though in different ways. Laurels acts as one towards Viese, since they believe the latter will become the head of the Lombardis. This trait is passed down to his eldest son, Astaliu, who acts as one toward Viese's son, Bellezac. In contrast, Gallahan only acted like this to protect Tia from the rest of the family, preferring to stay out of family affairs and focus his time on reading and writing unpublished books. He becomes more confident after he starts his clothing business, and especially after he recovers from his illness.
- Familial Foe: The Empress hates the Lombardis because they oppose her family's rise to power, seeing them as vulture-like and blood-purity-worshippers. The rest of the Angenas also butt heads frequently with the Lombardis, though they will work together on the occasion. Astana somewhat subverts this as he grows up, as he finds his mother obsessive hatred towards the Lombardis embarrassing.
- Family Honor: The Lombardis are extremely proud of their family and their place in the Empire's history. Tia in particular has a lot of love for the Lombardi, which is why she took her family's downfall in the first timeline so hard.
- Feuding Families: The Lombardis and the Angenas are in a bitter rivalry for de facto control over the empire. The Angenas value pedigree and blood purity, wishing to push out the Lombardis who they consider to be Old Money. The Lombardis see the Angenas as "ravens" who took land from the innocent Brown family and do not deserve to have the wealth and honor they do. Ironically, since Viese married an Angenas woman and had children with her, they are technically all part of the same family, not that either family wants to acknowledge that.
- Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism: The series depicts the Lombardis' ongoing trades and businesses as successful, healthy businesses. Anything the Angenases touch, however, are depicted as suspicious as best, sleazy and evil at worst.
- Heir Club for Men: Downplayed. This is the standard for most of the empire. Matriarchs are rare, but can still happen. Tia aims to become a matriarch for the Lombardis to stop her Uncle Viese from taking the position naturally because he's the eldest child.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Empress would do anything to get Perez out of the way to put Astana on the throne, including paying Perez off so he'll go to the Academy without resistance. But in doing so, Perez now has a financial backing to jumpstart his rise as a powerful figure. The Empress also sold off some territories to afford the payoff, which the Lombardis and others were all too happy to purchase, causing the Angenases to lose their prestige. In other words, the Empress's desperation began her eventual downfall as well as the rest of her family's fall from grace.
- Kids Are Cruel: Lots of the nobility's children are as stuck-up and arrogant as one would expect. Within the Lombardi home, it's split; Bellezac and Astaliu fit this trope well, especially once they grow up, but the other cousins are kind-hearted and loyal to the family.
- Like Father, Like Son: Bellezac, Astaliu, and Astana are carbon copies of their fathers, in the worst way possible. The twins morphed into copies of their father in the previous timeline, but took their mother's side in the new timeline thanks to Tia.
- Matriarchy: While rare, matriarchs do exist in the empire. Tia plans to become one in the future. Her great-aunt, Madame Sershaw, is the matriarch of her family and someone Tia looks up to.
- Non-Idle Rich: Many of the empire's wealthiest nobles, especially the Lombardis, are deeply involved in various sectors. The Lombardis in particular have made their marks in commerce, trading, philanthropy, and the arts.
- Power at a Price: Tia’s mother comes from a tribe that gains strange powers but loses something in return, both Tia’s mother and grandmother could see the future but her mother’s power was Cast from Lifespan and her grandmother’s left her a Blind Seer. Thankfully being only half, Tia avoided the price but was only able to use her ability once.
- Peggy Sue: Firentia travels back to when she was seven years old after being trampled by a horse while drunkening cursing her family's downfall. She uses her second chance to rise up and become the most powerful member of the Lombardis, despite her illegitimate status. Averted later on; she didn't travel back in time at all. Her mother's side of the family had the ability to predict the future through their dreams, but Firentia doesn't discover this until later.
- Princeling Rivalry: Prince Perez and Astana are fighting for the throne. Though it's somewhat one-sided on Perez's part, since he considers Astana's mother, the Empress, more his enemy than Astana himself his. The rivalry ends with Perez on the throne in both timelines.
- Rags to Riches: While she wasn't exactly poor, Firentia starts out as a neglected member of the Lombardi family, alongside her father. By the end of the series, she's both the Lombardi head and the Empress.
- Runaway Bride: This is what Lorraine becomes after she runs from her engagement in the second timeline to be with her true love.
- Spoiled Brat: Bellezac and Prince Astana are this, to the point that Tia calls them twins since they're both greedy, arrogant, and quick to anger when they don't get what they want.
- Taking the Kids: In the first timeline, Vestian takes the twins with him back to his territory when he and Shananet divorce. In the second timeline, partly because of Tia's influence, the twins take their mother's side and stay with her after their parents' divorce. Also because Vestian was caught cheating on his wife this time and was arrested for embezzling the Lombardis.
- Young Entrepreneur: By the time she turns twelve, Tia owns her own guild and several businesses, all of which is kept under wraps through a proxy, Clerivan. Perez also starts his own businesses during and after he graduates from the Academy, though nothing as extensive as Tia's.
