An Owl's Rise

Chapter 493: Chapter 493 Disturbing Discoveries

It was late into the next day, well past afternoon.

Evelyn was nearly finished with sorting the challenges she had received and was ready to ask Maeve’s head attendant Meredith to send off her replies.

Her sudden challenge to Maeve’s cousins had not originally been part of the plan, but they were plenty adaptable, and there were some merits to it.

While a large part of Evelyn’s motivation was just to have some willing participants she could beat the crap out of, she was also looking to draw some eyes away from Maeve while they were still setting up their foundation to take over the Taidale Family.

Though most of her cousins could only be classified as minor threats due to almost all of them being at the mage rank, keeping their attention on Evelyn would certainly be helpful.

Their parents, who were Maeve’s aunts and uncles, were the real threats.

Of course, when their children were getting themselves crushed by an outsider, that would naturally draw their ire towards Evelyn.

She did not doubt that she was making more problems for herself than necessary, but that was fine.

After being in a coma for five years, she wanted to get right back into the thick of things. If that meant destroying some pompous humans that got in her way, all the better.

However, while Evelyn was all smiles imagining the one-sided duels she was soon to be participating in, Maeve and Lucia finally returned from their meeting with the family’s patriarch.

Evelyn had started to get worried that something had gone wrong and they were under attack, but that did not appear to be the case. Neither of them showed any signs that they had gotten into a fight. At least a physical one.

’Lucia’s doing a good job at concealing her feelings, but Maeve’s hardly hiding how upset and distressed she is.’ Evelyn thought after getting a good read on her friends’ expressions.

She was not the only one, as Rehni spoke up and asked what was on all of their minds.

"Was it that bad?"

Lucia sighed and replied, "No, it was much worse than we had considered. Making Maeve the next matriarch is going to be far more difficult than anticipated. It might not even be possible for us to use force to due so."

This came as a shock to everyone, as their backup strategy had been to just slaughter their way through all of Maeve’s opposition.

After hearing about the strength of the family from Maeve, that had seemed perfectly doable so long as they disabled the estate’s defensive formations first.

All of them had become quite powerful, with Lucia having stepped into the fifth rank as a sovereign beast.

Frankly, the only one in the Taidale Family who would be able to challenge her was the current head. But his deteriorating condition meant that he would not be able to fight her for long and would ultimately lose.

After him, the next strongest people in the family were a few high tier arcanists. They were not weaklings, but anyone in their group could handle them. Even Maeve due to her superior magical abilities and the powerful items she had collected from the Verdant Warlord’s Domain.

"Does your great grandfather no longer wish to endorse you as the next head of the family?" Aralee asked.

It was what everyone figured was the case after seeing how glum Maeve looked.

"No, he expressed his desires to still support me. Sadly, there’s not much that he can do right now. He’s lost far more power than I could have expected. H-he’s only going to be able to hold on for another couple of months at best."

Maeve was clearly chocked up about her great grandfather’s impending death.

Though she harbored some resentment towards him because his favor was what had put a target on her and her parents’ backs, she could not deny that he truly did care for her. It was only due to his own weakness that he was unable to offer the support that she deserved.

"What’s the problem? I thought that you said he had medicine that regulates his condition. You told us that he should have been able to live at least another seven years. This is too soon for him to be on his deathbed." Bylur said, finding the inconsistency between what Maeve believed and reality to be suspicious.

"The issue is that he’s running out of the potions and pills that slow his body’s and magic core’s degradation. He had a renowned alchemist living in the far south of the Urstug Federation making the medicine for him, but the individual suddenly vanished two years ago. He’s been trying to find someone else to make the drugs for him, but it hasn’t gone well. The few other alchemists in the Federation skilled enough refused, and when eh tried contracting less talented alchemist, they failed to create the product."

With no means of resupplying the necessary potions and pills, her great grandfather had been rationing them while he continued to search for a replacement alchemist.

Except, doing so had led to him losing his strength at a more rapid pace than anticipated.

At this point, he spent most of his days bedridden and unable to do more than listen to a few reports from the few people that still remained truly loyal to him.

Naturally, with the family’s patriarch all but out of commission and acting as only a figurehead, the affairs of the estate and the city they ruled had been split up among other members.

"The one who holds the most power right now is one of the top-ranking elders. He cannot become the next head since anyone given the title of elder is not allowed to take the position and he only married into the family. Through a distant relative of the main family at that. Still, he has shown his favor towards one of my uncles and is pushing him to become the next patriarch."

There were plenty of other factions vying for the position as well, with another one of the stronger ones being the group that supports Maeve’s only cousin who had reached the arcanist rank.

"It’s hard for me to believe that a war hasn’t fractured the family. With all the animosity, backstabbing, and scheming going on, it just doesn’t make any sense that they all stay together still." Evelyn said, pointing out how ludicrous the station was.

"You’re not wrong. I expect that the only thing holding some of them back is respect and fear for the current patriarch. He might be close to his end now, but he was once very powerful and led our family to greater prominence than it has had in several generations. And though he may be weakened, I got the impression that if pushed, he could still display most of his power for a few minutes. Though it would likely kill him to do so."

This was all obvious not good for their plans, but Evelyn, Aralee, Rehni, and Bylur knew that it would not be enough to have both Maeve and Lucia so down. There was definitely something more going on besides the waning health of the patriarch and enemy factions within the family.

They all had a good idea about what this was, but it turned out to be a lot worse than they had anticipated.

"The outsides that many of the top family members have brought into the estate are from the Tyrannis Union. With Taidale City being the closest large settlement to the border, they have shown interest in it. There are multiple sects represented, each one interested in installing a new head that will cater to their interests." Lucia explained.

The moment that she finished talking, the cup that Evelyn had been drinking from exploded in her hand.

She had unconsciously put too much strength into her grip, and the light durability enchantments on the ceramic cup had not been enough for it to withstand her unrestrained might.

"Sister?!" Aralee shouted in concern.

"Sorry, I let my anger take control for a moment. I’ve calmed down now. Lucia, which sects have representatives here?"

Although Evelyn had said she had gotten her emotions under control, there was still an unmasked rage in her eyes now that she knew the Tyrannis Union was involved.

"Fortunately, the Deamhain Sect is not among them. That could have caused us some serious issues. However, two of the other Great Sects have sent representatives. With the leaders of their envoys being at the magi rank. Both of them are only low tier, but they’re each still at the fifth rank.

"It would be nearly impossible for us to take them on along with most of the members of the Taidale Family. It is imperative now that we build up a support base for Maeve and gather more allies. We may even need to try and recruit further afield ourselves. This has all become far more complicated than we first thought."