In an ornate room, a brown-haired man draped in a green formal coat was watching the procession of the regulars ascending to the next floor as they gathered on a big circular platform.

They waited for some time until a bright light suddenly swallowed them all and they finally disappeared from the spot.

"What do you think of the regulars of this batch, Novec?" The brown-haired man spoke to a man in a red suit.

"This batch is considered one of the worst, yet also the best. Worst, because those normal regulars are weaker than usual. Best, because there are two monstrous regulars in the batch. An unusual regular not from any of distinguished lineages, and a rare prodigy, even among the princesses of Zahard." The man in the red suit commented.

He stopped for a moment and then spoke with a little regret. "It was unfortunate that I don't oversee the fishermen's class but we can easily see it from Borc's report. Both of them are exceptional, especially the princess, Adori Zahard."

"She doesn't possess the blood of any ten great families, yet she surpassed the record of the previous direct descendant princesses with a perfect score in all the tests. Even one of the most renowned direct descendant princesses of Zahard, Khun Maschenny Zahard, didn't manage to score it." Novec spoke with amazement.

Willhelm nodded. "Yes, she is truly one of a kind. I truly wonder where and how the Zahard family could find such an incredible talent."

"Indeed. However, it seems that they are also quite close. If they create a team together, it will certainly become a monstrous one. They are very likely to become rankers within less than a hundred years." Novec spoke with a serious and solemn tone.

"There's one thing for sure. If they manage to become rankers and grow, they will become influential powers in the tower, especially Adori Zahard."

"An unaffiliated princess like her would be more trustworthy, loyal, and easier to control to the Zahard family compared to those from the ten great families." Novec explained.

"That's right. I wonder what kind of changes they will bring in the tower." Willhelm mused as he continued to watch the platform from the window.

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It was a frozen area, no… it was a vast land of frozen waters as far as eyes could see. Almost no traces of living organisms could be found in the frozen land. However, against nature itself, a giant ship was sailing on the ice.

There were many buildings on top of it with many signs of boisterous life. Many residents could be seen walking in the area, enjoying things they had rightfully attained with their efforts. On the other hand, there were many desperate people who were about to lose everything they had built till this point because of a single dream... going up the tower.

Some of them even had to sell their organs just to afford another chance to go up the tower. It was natural since the difference of passing the test on this floor meant another whole difference in treatment to those who didn't pass it.

Because this place was the infamous 20th floor, where the unraked regulars could become E-ranked regulars after passing the floor's test and enjoy favorable treatments for their efforts.

In one of the residential areas rented for the regulars who wanted to take the test, a short boy with yellow hair stood on the balcony watching the vibrant life of the city.

As he was watching the scenery, the door of the adjacent room opened, showing a beautiful girl draped in a long and elegant red dress. She had long and shiny snow-white hair with a red hair clip in with a pattern of three eyes on it.

"Xin, you are alone? Don't you usually eat together with Liu at this hour?" She spoke with a soothing voice that could entrance anyone hearing it.

"Yes, that's usually what we do, but Mr. Liu said he had something important to do and hasn't returned since yesterday. He probably went on an extreme training regimen as usual." Xin responded politely.

"I see, shouldn't you also join him? Didn't he tell you to train very hard?" Asked the woman.

"Uh… I can't train continuously as Mr. Liu does. He also said that I don't have to push it very hard since I am still growing and that will stunt my growth he explained. What about you, princess Adori? Usually, at this time you train your swordsmanship." Xin asked with wonder.

Their team was very unusual compared to other teams. Compared with others, they only had three members and all of them were powerful. Each member of their team didn't seek to compensate each other's weaknesses, rather they tried to erase them by themselves.

This was all caused by the influence of Liu Guanyi. Even though he was extremely strong, even better than the best of the direct descendants of the ten great families around his age. Maybe strength-wise, he was weaker, but if they were to be compared, It was akin to a well compared to an ocean.

Traveling and living together as they climbed the tower for three years had provided Adori a glimpse to see his characters. Different from most of their age, he was mature and determined. He trained much harder than both of them, almost all day with only a few rests in between. It felt like he had something to achieve and was really determined to get it at all costs. At least that was her impression of him.

Seeing him like that every day was contagious, it made them train harder as well. Xin was trained by him so he naturally did so. But to Adori, it was because of… astonishment.

Xin might not realize it since he was physically weaker than Liu Guanyi. However, to Adori who was a lot stronger than Liu Guanyi, she could easily know the difference between them, and she felt that it was unreal.

His strength grew faster than her, a princess of Zahard!

They often sparred from time to time so she could evaluate it. Adori knew exactly how strong he was when they had first met, but now, he had improved so much that it was so unreal that Adori thought she had been hallucinating.

If his growth continued on, there would be a day when he became stronger than her. In response to this, she didn't feel endangered of potentially being surpassed. Instead, she felt a strong curiosity.

How could Liu Guanyi improve so fast? What was his secret?

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Yep, Khun Maschenny Zahard has long been a Ranker before Adori did. We can infer this information by looking at the fact that she had helped in the capture of Eurassia Enne Zahard. Remember that every princess of Zahard is chosen every a hundred years.

If you look at the timeline and the information on Adori, Enne, and Garam on the Wiki, you can see that Adori had been born first and climbed the tower before Enne climbed the tower shortly after Adori did.

This can be inferred as Adori fought Garam less than a hundred years after she became a Ranker and after that, Garam had a battle with Enne shortly, meaning that the chosen princess after Adori was very likely to be Enne, and Maschenny must had been chosen before them.

The key information is, both Adori's and Enne's strength and talent far eclipse Maschenny's in every way possible, meaning that she needed way much more time to develop her strength compared to them.

However, the incident with Enne wasn't long after she had become a Ranker which mean that Maschenny had to reach a certain level to even be able to do anything to help in the capture.

If she was too weak, she would definitely die like the other princesses of Zahard in the process of the capture as Enne didn't hold back her strength back then and even had the Colorless December, a top notch weapon, one of the thirteen months that far surpasses the likes of Green April and Black March.