Background: Eike Valroux du Matise

[Oxymoron]

Background: Nemesis 2

Eike has dueled many people, feeling the need to prove she can fight Valroux even being mute. So of course when rumors managed to make their way to her that someone was claiming her victories were false, she had to find out who. It was Ambrose Leveque d’Aur. He claimed that someone with the inability to speak couldn't possibly be competent in a fighting style based on cutting remarks. She challenged him to a duel. He lost.

Eike had won against plenty of people, and many of them couldn't accept it, but most at least pretended to accept the loss to seem as though they have good sportsmanship. He did not. He claimed that even if she fought well she still wasn't doing it in the style of Valroux because she couldn't speak. Many members of her family came to her defense, especially her brothers, and Grandmother Madeleine. They claimed that she managed to craft a just as effective way of teasing through body language, and that it'd clearly worked on him. The entire debacle ruined his reputation. Eike practically forgot about the entire thing, she'd won, what was the point of focusing on that duel when she should be focusing on winning more.

Unfortunately for Eike, Ambrose got his revenge. His reputation might have been ruined, but he was determined to ruin hers too. He spread rumors that she'd had many affairs with commoners and women, whether they were true or not didn't matter. No one would court her. It drove her to work even harder to prove her worth, as she couldn't even be used for a marriage alliance. The need to prove her worth to herself is what motivated her first heroics. She found that she truly did enjoy helping people like that, but the need to prove herself is always there.