An Owl's Rise

Chapter 487: Chapter 487 Evelyn’s Challenge

After Evelyn had stepped in front of him, Wilfried seemed to truly notice her for the first time

Up until this point, his full attention had been on Maeve.

Now that he was looking at Evelyn, his eyes canned up and down her body.

She could feel the way in which he was examining her, and she almost incinerated him into a pile of ash right then and there. It took all of her restraint to not give into her violent impulses.

"You must have a lot of courage to speak to me in such a manner. I suppose that you must be one of the mercenaries that Maeve hired to make herself appear stronger than she truly is."

"If I remember correctly, you are a first-class citizen. No doubt from one of the weaker families where you’re too far down the line of succession to have any chance. Your status might not be enough to become one of my wives, but I’d be willing to welcome you as a concubine. I promise that you’ll be treated much better with me than if you stick around with Maeve."

Evelyn’s hand was shaking in fury, and she almost conjured a blade of wind and sliced through Wilfried’s throat.

She absolutely despised the man and the way that he was looking at her. He had made it very clear what he wanted.

Still, as much as she wanted to kill him, she understood that doing so would jeopardize their mission.

So instead, she extended a thin, nearly imperceptible strand of magical energy to both Lucia and Maeve.

Once the connection was established, she had quick conversation to make sure that her plan was possible and acceptable.

Fortunately, Maeve hated Wilfried just as much, if not more than Evelyn. Meaning she was onboard.

As for Lucia, she figured that Evelyn’s idea would allow them to show off their power.

It would not hurt if the entire family realized that Maeve had come back with powerful allies and was a serious contender to become the next matriarch.

"You’ve insulted my and my family’s honor. I challenge you to a duel, Wilfried Taidale." Evelyn said.

For the first time, the smug grin on Wilfried’s face vanished.

No doubt he was shocked by the sudden challenge to a duel, which was not done lightly in the Urstug Federation.

Luckily, it was a custom that they had, which Evelyn had just confirmed with Maeve.

Wilfried’s lackies recovered before the man himself, and all of them started laughing or slinging insults at Evelyn. With her being called crazy a number of time.

"If you win, I’ll become your concubine as you want. I’d never accept being with someone weaker than me in the first place, so beating me in a duel would prove your superiority. Should I win though, you’ll publicly apologize to Maeve for your rudeness and never willing approach any of us again."

After Evelyn had laid out her terms, Wilfried snapped back to his senses.

There was now an even wider smile on his face as he leered at Evelyn.

"I see. You want to maintain some of your pride. That’s fine. We can have our ’duel’ tomorrow then. I’ll make sure to have a room in my residence prepared for you." Wilfried said, practically licking his lips.

Evelyn realized that he seemed to be under some sort of misunderstanding.

Likely he believed that she had suggested a duel to lose on purpose so that she could retain some of her honor.

Had she just left Maeve’s service of her own accord, it would leave a mark on her reputation.

Due to the magic item disguising both her rank and that she was a beast, Evelyn appeared to only be someone at the mid-tier of the mage rank.

Against some at the peak of the mage rank, she would normally have no chance. Especially against an elite of the Taidale family.

Of course, this was all just the fanciful delusions of a man who had his head stuck up his own a*s.

Evelyn was far more powerful than him.

Even if she had both of her arms tied behind her back and her legs bound, she was certain she could beat someone like Wilfried.

For all of his grandstanding, he really was not that strong for his level.

Having honed her senses through dozens of deadly battles, Evelyn could get a feel for how dangerous an individual was just by watching them for a bit.

To her, Wilfried felt about as threatening as a kitten.

Luckily, after receiving Evelyn’s challenge, Wilfried and his hangers-on left to go and prepare for the event.

He had insisted on spreading the word and holding it in one of the family’s arenas.

"Your restraint really has come a long way. I was worried that you were about to kill him." Lucia said.

"I know when to keep my feelings under control. Killing him would have caused us far more trouble than it was worth." Evelyn replied sagaciously.

Though, in her mind, she had imagined kill them guy several times over.

In fact, she was currently deciding exactly what sort of beatdown she was going to deliver during tomorrow’s duel.

She knew that killing him was still out of the question. But leaving him teetering on the edge of life and death was certainly possible.

"Now that he’s gone. Let’s get back to work."

...

At Maeve’s instructions, her servants began preparing letters for her to sign and be sent off to members of her family.

Meredith was the only one not participating in this as she was explaining to all of them current state of the family.

"So, great grand father’s health has taken a turn for the worse. That’s troubling." Maeve muttered after learning about the condition of the Taidale’s Patriarch.

He had pushed himself too quickly to advance through the fifth rank. Using dangerous techniques and concoctions to attempt to increase the efficiency of his absorption of magical energy.

And while it had worked for a time, allowing him to become the strongest head of the family in four hundred years, the price had eventually come due.

Now the man was deteriorating away. Often spending most of his days stuck in his bed.

When he needed to, he could still exert his power but doing so diminished his already dwindling lifespan.

Over the past five years, his condition had not improved in the slightest, and his authority had begun to falter.

Already, one of Maeve’s uncles had taken over most of the administrative duties that came with running Taidale City.

There were others that had seized bit of control over important functions, and they were all the frontrunners to become the next family head.

"Nearly half of the elders are backing my cousin Quinn. That does not bode well."

Out of all of the members of the family in her generation, Quinn was the only other one to have reached the arcanist rank.

Certainly, she was eleven years older than Maeve, giving her a head start on the path of magic.

Still, when it came to actual ability, time was often a determining factor. No matter how talented someone was, it still took years to advance. With every step forward taking longer than the one before.

Maeve had managed to catch up thanks to her rigorous efforts and several lucky opportunities, but her cousin was still likely to be favored over her by the majority of the family.

Had the patriarch still been strong, that would not have mattered. By his word alone, Maeve could have become the next leader.

But, with his sickness advancing, his power was waning. There was honestly no telling when he might die.

His weakness had truthfully already turned his favor into a curse for Maeve.

Her parents had been killed, and she had been forced to flee the estate because he had not protected them.

’Quinn’s may be the only one from my generation that I need to worry about, but plenty of my aunts and uncles are threats as well.’

With the top position of the family in such a vulnerable position, nearly everyone that believed they had a chance at claiming it were making move to do so.

Maeve found it all to be headache inducing, but she had no intention of backing down just because there would be some difficulties along the way.

She would put the ambitious members of her family in their places, or she would put them down.

With the first step being Evelyn’s duel against Wilfried tomorrow.

To say that she was looking forward to it was an understatement.

Wilfried was one of her oldest cousins, being nearly thirty years older than her. The fact that he was still only at the peak of the mage grade after having reached that level two decades ago showed how unmotivated and untalented he was.

Nevertheless, he had been stronger than Maeve for the longest time simply because he was older.

Once she had started to show off her talent and receive interest from some of the higherups in the family, he had used every chance he got to torment her.

He had not been the only one, but he was one of the worst and most persistent.

That was all going to change soon, though.

Maeve knew that her cousin was going to be receiving a very painful reality check tomorrow. Something she was very excited to see.

Evelyn was not the type to show mercy to those that she had marked as enemies. Especially when they were humans.

Maeve was certain that Wilfried was not going to be walking out of the arena on his own two feet tomorrow. Honestly, he might not even have feet still attached to his body after Evelyn got through with him.