An Owl's Rise

Chapter 482: Chapter 482 Excitement Growing in Taidale City

After entering Taidale city, Evelyn sent off a message to Lucia asking where they should meet.

A response came in promptly, and it seemed that Lucia and Rehni had secured lodging at one of the city’s upscale hotels.

There they had been preparing for Maeve to make her grand return to the Taidale Family’s estate.

Since their plan was for her to solidify her position as the family’s heir and take over as the new head, they could not just show up at the front door.

Maeve needed to make an announcement with her return and ensure that the entire city knew that the rightful heir had come back.

This would make it a lot harder for the factions within her family to ignore her, though it was bound to draw their ire. Not that that particularly mattered, as they planned on eliminating any opposition in the first place.

"Let’s move quickly and quietly. We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves before the time is right." Evelyn said, leading the way.

Despite having been asleep for so long, her friends and little sister still followed her lead without question.

They may have moved past her by reaching the high tier of the fourth rank, but they still recognized that she was stronger than them and more suited to take charge.

Evelyn herself wished that she could have passed on the leadership role. Nevertheless, she had already accepted years ago that she would have to take the position so long as no one else wanted it.

In the end, she was the one that had gathered them all together in the first place.

Walking through the city, Evelyn noticed that it was a buzz with activity.

There were hundreds of people rushing about everywhere they went, and after eavesdropping on a few conversations with her impeccable hearing, Evelyn learned the reason why.

It seemed that Lucia had spread the word far and wide that Maeve was making a grand return after having been gone from home for a bit more than five years.

She must have thrown around quite a few magic crystals as well, since it appeared that the entire city was gearing up for a massive festival.

’I know that she said she would create some fanfare, but this is a lot more than I was expecting.’ Evelyn thought while she kept vigilante.

Among the crowds, she spotted some people skulking around that looked less than enthused by what was going on.

All these individuals stood out for their magical abilities as well.

While they were dressed as normal townsfolk, the weakest among them was at the high tier of the acolyte rank, and the strongest were at the low tier of the mage ranks.

To Evelyn, they were all still weaklings but considering that the normal citizens typically were completely powerless people, or at the low tier of the initiate rank, anyone stronger stood out.

After keeping an eye on these people and hearing a few whispered conversations between them, Evelyn confirmed that they were indeed agents of the Taidale Family.

There were several groups of them searching for the person spreading rumors about Maves’s return, and the woman herself if they could find her.

Of course, Lucia was not going to be discovered if she did not want to be. Even if the Taidale family patriarch was in perfect health, he would have a very difficult time finding her. No one else in the family even stood a chance.

As for the agents spread through the city, Evelyn kept their group far away from any of them and used her wind magic as a bit of a distraction to keep the searchers confused.

Most of the teams were not actually working together and were under different members of the family.

Maeve had plenty of extended family members. Several aunts and uncles, and too many cousins to worry about.

With her wind magic, Evelyn created whispers among crowds spreading rumors that one member of the Taidale family or another was secretly working with Maeve and hiding her.

The information was not credible in the least, but whenever any of the family members’ agents heard that one of their masters’ or mistress’ relatives were conspiring with Maeve, it was enough to sow some seeds of doubt even if they could not verify the source.

Evelyn certainly did not mind spreading the misinformation, and if it had Maeve’s rivals at each other’s throats, that would only help to serve their own purposes.

Like that, the four of them headed deeper into the city, towards the wealthier districts of the inner city.

There was clear stratification in Taidale City, but that had been the case anywhere Evelyn had been in this new world.

At a checkpoint, Evelyn had needed to present her first-class citizenship card, but once the guards saw and verified it, they were let through without any issues. Not even bothering to check Aralee, Bylur, and Maeve when she said they were her servants. The power of status went quite far in the Urstug Federation.

Now that they were inside the inner city, it was only a short trip tot eh hotel where Lucia had prepared rooms for all of them.

Once the four of them walked into the lobby, Evelyn’s eyes were immediately drawn to a familiar figure.

Aralee had been waiting for them so that they were not stopped by anyone and led them up to where Lucia was waiting.

The room was incredibly fancy, to the point of being ostentatious so far as Evelyn was concerned.

Still, it came with several useful amenities, including a number of high-quality meals stored in a preservation magical tool, and a large bath that could be filled with rejuvenating water.

It was certainly the kind of place that wealthy clientele would stay at whenever they were in the city.

"Good, you’ve all arrived. The preparations for Maeve’s return to her family have all been set. Just before noon tomorrow, we’ll set off from here and make sure that everyone in the city knows that the next head of the Taidale Family has come back to take her rightful place." Lucia said, her expression settling into a confident smirk.