Chapter 398: 398

When Michelle arrived back at the Ostrich family residence, she expected to be brought in front of the elders right away.

But instead, as she was nearing the residence, she could already see Amelia Ostrich stepping in front of the gate.

And the moment Michelle stepped on the ground, the little girl bolted at her, wrapping her arms around her waist.

“Big Sister!” she squeaked in happiness.

“How was the Academy?” she asked.

Michelle squatted down to lift Amelia up in her arms, smiling at her.

“It was nice. I learned a lot.”

To such a cute little girl, she would only say the positive things.

Because Amelia was the only granddaughter of the family head, she was being spoiled by nearly everyone.

So, since she wanted to play with Michelle, nobody dared to call Michelle to lecture her.

Thus, for a few hours, Michelle played around with Amelia.

Also, Amelia noticed the little snake around Michelle’s neck and wanted to play with it too.

“Does it have a name?” she asked curiously as the baby snake was wrapped around her small arm.

Michelle nodded.

“I named him Ivier.”

Michelle had named the little snake after asking him if he had a name.

His response was a shake of his head.

Also, Michelle asked him if he was male or female, and the answer was male.

So, that problem was solved.

After Amelia got tired and needed to go rest, Michelle brought her to her room and handed her over to her servants who took care of her.

Then, Michelle was finally summoned to the elders.

She came over lazily, not caring that they were waiting for her.

She wouldn’t rush herself for some old guys planning to question and reprimand her.

The servant who was asked to go call Michelle over was quite annoyed with how slowly and leisurely she walked, but no matter how many times he told her to hurry up because the elders were waiting, she completely ignored him, not even bothering to acknowledge him.

So, in the end, it actually took quite a while for Michelle to get to the elders, and when they saw her leisurely stance, quite a few of them felt like spitting blood.

But then, there were naturally also those who liked that she was openly defying the family head and his faction of elders.

“Ana Ostrich! What disrespect is this?” Jonathan Ostrich (the family head) instantly questioned her.

“You know the elders are busy, but still decided to purposely drag things out?”

Michelle obviously rolled her eyes, letting everyone see it.

“My leg hurts, so I had to walk slowly.”

On purpose, she lied in a way that anyone could see right through it.

She put effort into the disrespect.

The family head nearly snapped at Michelle again.

And while he somehow kept his calm, one of the elders really did snap.

“Brat! How dare you disrespect your elders like this? Is that how you were taught to act?”

Michelle looked over at the anger‑red elder, her eyes going significantly colder.

“Is having a hurt leg being disrespectful towards the likes of you?”

She scoffed.

“Then I should apologize for my injury.”

Her voice was highly sarcastic, but Michelle actually bowed down at her waist toward the elder.

That showed two things: for her, bowing down didn’t mean respect, and second, she had no problem showing disrespect to anyone, even an elder or a senior.

Also, a less obvious but important thing: she could disrespect and annoy in ways that could shock someone or make them unable to retort.

She had a sharp tongue along with a strategic brain.

“Frederic, calm down. We have other things to discuss with the girl,” another elder spoke up, making the first one sit down, still seething in anger.

Michelle still noticed that the elders avoided calling her by her name (or rather Ana’s name).

After something like peace (though extremely tense) returned to the hall, the elder who calmed down the enraged one spoke:

“Ana Ostrich, what is the meaning of the scandals you caused in the Academy? You should remember you weren’t sent there because of talent or anything like that, but solely because you needed the Academy’s protection. Why are you biting the hand that feeds you by staining the Academy’s name?”

Michelle looked at the elder lazily.

“It’s not like the family ever planned to have me engaged to someone, so why can’t I get myself a partner on my own?” she asked, her voice smooth and languid.

It sounded like she was reading a bedtime story.

But that didn’t mean the elders wouldn’t get angry from what she said.

“Ana Ostrich, it’s tradition that the family takes care of the children’s engagements. But by getting in a scandalous relationship, you have sullied our name.”

It was always the same elder to speak.

“You will be punished for that!”

Michelle narrowed her eyes.

“You wish to punish me?”

The coldness in her still‑lazy voice made the elder feel a shiver run up his spine.

“What for? What oh‑so‑scandalous thing did I do to ruin this family’s name? Everybody already knows that this family is a bunch of jerks.”

“Ana Ostrich!” the elder snapped at her.

“Don’t sully the family name any further! You have been scandalous enough these past few months!”

Michelle kept angering the elders more and more, until the whole family head’s faction was angry at her.

Then, they pushed to have her punished for her scandalous actions in the Academy, disrespect to the elders, and for sullying the family name.

As a punishment, they wanted her to go through what they called Spirit Onslaught.

It was basically entering a specially designed room in the residence.

The room was completely filled with machines run by spirit stones which constantly shot attacks at the person present depending on their power so it wouldn’t kill them.

But the time the elders decided for Michelle was five whole days.

No one could survive there so long.

Also, Michelle was sure they would somehow rig it so it would shoot at her with more power than it was supposed to.

They were clearly being antagonistic towards her.

But that didn’t mean Michelle was worried about what would happen to her.

She was curious about how the elders would react if she completely dismantled that room of theirs; because she was sure she could do it.

But instead of doing that (since it could draw suspicion to her), Michelle decided to do something she could validate by her training in the Academy.

Before any of the elders could react, she retracted her shadow essence from her shadow, disappearing from their sight.

She also, alongside that, activated the concealment skill Antony had taught her while she studied and trained as his disciple.

Completely undetectable to the elders, Michelle flashed to the elder who had first snapped at her.

The next moment, without anyone knowing how it had happened, the guy flew from his seat, landing on the ground disgracefully.

“Unruly girl! How dare you!” he bellowed in anger as he tried to get his body off the ground.

But he couldn’t, feeling extreme pressure on his back; like someone was standing atop him.

And that was actually true; still concealed, Michelle had stepped onto the elder’s back.

But the guy was constantly wiggling, trying to get up, which meant Michelle could easily fall off.

To prevent that, she ended up doing a handstand on his back; because with her hands, she could grip onto the guy’s back, not only giving her more stability, but also causing him more suffering.

The elder started wailing, and instantly, the other elders put their guard up.

Some rushed over to him to help him up.

Knowing she would get thrown off if she stayed in place, Michelle hopped back to her feet, watching the elder slowly get up.

The other elders checked on him, seeing the clothes on his back crumpled from someone gripping them; making them guess Michelle had been pushing him down with her hands.

“Ana Ostrich! Show yourself!” Jonathan shouted, summoning some pressure, trying to force Michelle to show herself.

But with Tenether as her contracted monster, Michelle couldn’t be affected by the joke of pressure Jonathan was exuding.

Well, it was a joke to Michelle.

The other elders were being pressed down by it.

Some more, some less.

In her concealment, Michelle smiled at the measly pressure before bolting at Jonathan.

Not even knowing from where, the poor guy ended up with his head snapping to the side as a punch connected with his jaw.

Jonathan reeled back, touching his cheek in disbelief.

A weakling brat with weak spirit veins actually managed to punch him without giving him a chance to retaliate.

Even if he couldn’t see her at the moment, it was still unbelievable.

Michelle felt like messing around, so she just went on to bully the elders from Jonathan’s faction.

Some got punched, some kicked, some slapped.

And every now and then, Michelle would also pull on the back of their clothes to let the collars of their clothes press on their necks and momentarily choke them.

And every now and then, she would straight up grab someone by the neck and lift them off the ground before throwing them down.

But quickly, the elders were starting to mobilize, trying to spot her.

Once they did, even with her concealment caused by the ignorance of the Heavenly Law, she would be in trouble.

So finally, Michelle slammed the door open and left, leaving behind dreadful silence only interrupted by groans and coughs.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep