It was precisely this issue that prevented the Andrato Kingdom from grooming Masters easily. One had to understand that the gulf between them and Darius was deep, and Caesar had already stated the reasons behind that.

Darius had forgone organic growth for artificial growth. He could consciously choose to develop himself in any way, allocating his power where he wanted, as long as he gained the required Ability Points or Skill Points. According to his handler, Darius' growth speed was 100 times faster than the average Faustian.

Look at Jeanne. Darius might have complained about her talent, but he had no right to. She was a bonafide half-angel, so of course, her development speed would be crazy.

Angels only resided in Elysium, so it was a miracle that Jeanne's mother had managed to have had a liaison with one and carry a child. Lord knew what kind of plotting and suffering the woman had gone through to achieve that.

Of course, it could also be that Jeanne's mother was a full angel pretending to be human and her husband was a normal human. Either way, the fact was that Jeanne would grow faster than her peers, putting aside the resources she had.

Being a Journeyman on the cusp of the Adept stage by 13 was absolutely stunning. Darius' feat of already being an Adept, at least in the perception of everybody, was what made him a hotcake here.

However, was that the truth? Unfortunately, it was not. The reality was that Darius had taken slightly longer than a month to go from having Intellect barely above the Journeyman level to Intellect at the Adept level.

Even his Luck had climbed greatly to match his Intellect, giving him a rare ability he was certain only a handful would be lucky enough to possess.

This was not even mentioning his other stats that had climbed from below par to above par. Darius could freely battle as a close-medium fighter or a ranged mage if he so chose, because his stat allocation allowed it.

He was only an Amateur in reality, but this was the benefit of the Supreme System. Residents of Faust did not have this growth benefit, forced to grow at their own speeds which were dictated by their talent. They could only grow organically.

Organic and inorganic growth, which was stronger?

Naturally, one would argue that in avoidance of any detriments, inorganic growth was superior. Faster, more precise, and abusable.

Inorganic growth was the dream of every person on Earth, which was often presented to them in media, sparking their greed and fantasy.

Organic growth was what all species were stuck with. Hard work equated results more often than not and without the right discipline, there was no gratification. Faustians had to bear this, but they had a certain benefit that had become Darius's detriment.

Stage-climbing.

For them, it was tough to raise their stats and 'levels', but once they reached the threshold, it was a matter of just breaking the limit based on their talent. Depending on the person, it could either be easy or hard.

For Darius, he had to pay the price of easy progression. His stage-climbing had to come in the form of completing an Impossible task where the slightest mistake spelled his demise.

This should make any person with organic growth think twice about lusting after this power because it was a rose with thorns. If one looked only at its beauty and tried to take it for oneself, they would only end up hurting themselves.

Back to the matter concerning the Crown Princess. From the moment the servant had come out to report that Princess Jeanne had wanted to see him in her quarters, Darius had known that the lass was cunning.

It wasn't until they spoke that he realized by how much. It might not be obvious, but the servant had invited Darius in front of a crowd and his voice had not been particularly low either.

Previously, he had been worried that too many scions had been pestering the princess, then he suddenly announced that a new scion had been summoned by her, and not to anywhere, but to her private chambers.

That was a privilege reserved exclusively to a potential Prince Consort. If it was not painfully obvious already, the Crown Princess had used him as a shield to ward off the flies.

As an Adept who cared less about Andrato, he was the perfect choice, for there was nothing those scions could realistically do to harm him. Even their noble parents would slap them on the face if they so much as suggested messing with Darius, for that was a wasted venture.

When Darius had seen the line-up of Princess Jeanne, Junia, and Jania Hu, he understood that the trio had been a beauty trap.

Using it as a test, his response would reveal to her whether he was an intellectual that could control his lust in proper situations or just another beast without any self-control like the flies.

Finally, she had many times tried to gauge his feelings towards her and Andrato, and Darius' actions had given her a solid answer.

'I don't care about you, your little games, or your concerns. Neither do I particularly care about your kingdom, its wellbeing, or its development. I care only about my goals and achieving them.'

This was what Darius had left hidden between the lines, which Jeanne had easily been able to read. As such, she had ended the audit and tried to do what she had actually summoned Darius for, which was courtship.

Darius had firmly rejected her offers and even coldly teleported away without hesitation, leaving the now interested Jeanne behind.

Yes, interested. When she ended the audit, Darius had seen that her affinity had climbed to Friendly lvl 3. In other words, Princess Jeanne's feelings towards him were on the same level as Portia Torniam.

As such, he had taken the initiative to leave her in the dust. The disappointment she had shown when he had rejected her had been real.

Unfortunately for her, Darius was not interested in marrying a princess no matter how beautiful.

He wasn't a horndog so deprived of sex that he would jump on any attractive female that passed him by.

If he wanted sex, he could buy or seduce any partner he wanted.

The only 'string attached' in that case would at most be the money he would have to spend, which was the lesser evil compared to getting involved in all kinds of political schemes.