Eve's Struggles.

Step~

Step~

"Guess who it is?"

"Noah?" A sweet feminine voice asked as she tried to remove the hands that were covering her eyes from behind.

"Wrong!"

"Umm, The Devil!" She asked in a fruity tone and this time Noah removed his arms and soon the beautiful purple eyes of the 'missing' beauty appeared.

It was Eve.

"You came earlier than expected big sis" Noah had a slight smile as Eve turned around to look at the handsome man behind her.

"How can I not involve myself in the preparations of your birthday, little Devil?" Her tone was cheerful.

Eve used to call her Devil when he was little for a reason. She would usually play with Noah & Ares and he was quite the sneaky one. He was mischievous and would always hide behind her after pissing off Luke. The cute Ares would follow behind her brother most of the time.

Eve was 1 year younger than Luke. That is, she was 26 years old now and when Noah and Ares were young and used to play a lot, she was around 15 years old and Luke was 16. But at that time, their cultivation was the same that was D-rank. Eve would protect her cute siblings from Luke who would usually be pissed off at Noah and Ares as he was also young at that time and had no control over his emotions.

Eve was about the same height as Ares, which is 1.75 meters tall. She had purple eyes unlike her mother's blue eyes and silver hair that adorned her beautiful face, just like her mother Adah. She had an hourglass figure and was wearing a white-colored tight-fitted suit with long white heels. Her outfit accentuated her beautiful curves and would arouse any man easily.

Eve had an unearthly beauty and she looked like a fairy. Her curves were all in all perfect sizes and she exuded youthfulness and pride. The air around her was very cold as her aura contained traces of purplish Lightning-Ice.

"If you cared about me then why didn't you come and meet me even once in so many months" Noah displayed a pitiable expression as he looked very sad.

Seeing Noah's heartbreaking emotions, Eve felt her heart clench. She cared about Noah and Ares a lot. As they both accompanied her and would bring a smile to her face which was usually sad when she was young. And even now, she leads an incredibly strict life to stay away from those disturbing thoughts of the past.

"Can you forgive your big sis this time...please?" Eve requested with a bitter smile as she tilted her head slightly.

"Sigh~ I was kidding...Let's go...Lady Adah, Ares, and mother would be happy to see you back" Noah lead her to Adah's courtyard.

..............

It all happened after Luke was born.

Emperor Ryan Irwin was looking for an extremely talented woman, to make her, his concubine. Mary was pissed but didn't care as she planned to raise Luke for her vengeance on this Empire. Also, polygamy was acceptable, thus Mary had no right to stop Ryan from looking for more women.

Ryan Irwin came upon a talented young orphan, who was proficient in [Ice] element.

Adah! A 1500-year-old SSS-rank adventurist!

She never mingled with anyone and would usually raid dungeons that were not reported to the Empire or Kingdom, alone. Since the rule of raiding a dungeon after it was discovered was to divide the raiding team into 3 halves between the Empire/Kingdom and 2 other Adventure Guilds, Lone wolves like Adah could only raid dungeons that were undiscovered in the vast expanse of forests and jungles. (A/N: Revisit chapter-6 if you have forgotten, I have discussed this in detail)

Adah had no choice but to accept as it was an Imperial decree of the Emperor.

Unlike Valentina, who had the potential to harm the Empire if an Imperial decree was imposed on her, hence leading Ryan to blackmail Valentina, With Adah, Emperor Ryan Irwin was straightforward and made her his concubine, who would give birth to a talented son.

Fate struck and the first child in Adah's womb was a girl, Eve.

Emperor Ryan Irwin didn't care and waited for Adah to give birth to Eve as she was unwilling to abort her child. Ryan was shrewd and he didn't care about the girl inside Adah but didn't say anything as Adah was adamant about it.

But-

Fate struck again and Adah developed many complications during her pregnancy and became unable to bear children again.

It was a heavy blow for Adah, as the Emperor planned to throw her out of the Palace after getting the news of his daughter's birth and the news of Adah's complications. But the Imperial Ancestors intervened and held back Ryan from making such a drastic move as it may affect his integrity as a husband and the Emperor. They convinced him that it was fine as he could have other women in the future who can give birth to sons. Even then, these events put a strain on Ryan's mind, and he eventually cut off all the support that Adah and Eve received as a member of the Imperial family.

But-

When Eve came to know about these events, she blamed herself. Since it all happened because of her birth. She always had gloomy dark clouds roaming over her head. She was downcast and despondent as she thought how her mother suffered because of her birth.

Although Adah loved her despite her tragic fate, Eve couldn't help but cry after listening about her mother's woes and sorrows of not being able to give birth to any more children in the future again. She felt like she robbed her mother of her happiness, making her life difficult in the process.

Adah didn't blame her at all and loved her as she was her blood and as the saying goes, blood is thicker than water, Adah always cared about Eve but Eve would blame herself.

Only after Noah and Ares's birth, she slowly start gaining her cheerfulness as she played with her younger siblings. But even then, Eve felt inferior to men as it was the main reason why her mother had to suffer. It was only when Noah randomly told her to compete with Luke did she regained her confidence as her cultivation talents were greater than him.

And soon, she started pushing herself beyond the usual limits of a child who just started their cultivation path. A seed of not being inferior to men and fighting them on the equal ground formed in her mind as she slowly detached herself from the Palace and started her own Adventurer guild. She decided to always train hard and be ahead of any other man in her age group. She resolved herself to be better than the 'son' that her father desired.

Earlier, it was very hard for Adah to manage without support from the Palace. Cultivation required a lot of mana stones. Although she had a roof and even when cultivators didn't require food, it was available in the Palace for Eve to feed on.

It was Valentina who helped her as she felt very close to Adah, as their situations were quite similar.

As one of the most dangerous adventurists, Valentina had amassed quite some wealth and she was also receiving the entire support of the Empire because nobody wanted to piss her off for no reason. Valentina supported Eve's cultivation and training.

After Noah's successful business launch, all the troubles were a thing of the past and he supported Adah and Eve wholeheartedly.

But by that time, Eve already detached herself from the Palace and stayed away from this biased piece of shit place most of the time.

..............

Right now,

Adah and Eve were hugging each other joyfully which brought a genuine smile on Noah's face.

Eve had a tinge of pride as her talents were far above her deceased half-brother, Luke who was a B-rank, she already reached A-rank. She had no attachments to Luke and according to Eve, he was just another 'man' destined to become her stepping stone.

Although she couldn't change the past and make her mother able to bear children again, she had grown to accept the fact, that she was not at fault and events like this occur in life.

She has understood the fact that Life is like photography where one must use the negatives to develop.