35 – Rest 2F 2

We were seated in my room, door shut, and Androssi looking at me expectantly.

"I have some ideas, guesses I can make, but I don't know for certain what she meant. Regardless, she is a Guide. You understand what that means, don't you? It would be unwise to dismiss her advice, no matter which form it might take. It may have been addressed to me, but I think her advice was intended to help you."

I doubted that, but I said so anyways, deciding not to disclose what I actually suspected. There was no need to reveal a secret as dangerous as the water stone. If people knew that it was an artifact and not an inherent part of my abilities, then I'd become an even bigger target than I was already as an Irregular.

Moreover, it wasn't as though Hwaryun couldn't give double or triple meanings to her warnings to achieve multiple purposes. You could never tell with a Guide as powerful as her. She was the Guide for FUG's slayer candidates, the ones who were meant to kill Zahard. While her combat ability was far from amazing, her ability as a Guide was respected even by High Rankers.

It was especially impressive when considering that despite Guide powers not working on Irregulars, she seemed to work around it just fine. In the story, she manipulated events surrounding Baam and Rachel without any issue, even though a Ranker Guide that worked for Yuri Zahard was unable to read Baam and concluded that the Ball test on the first floor was impossible for him.

Androssi's expression became less hostile.

"A Guide? Red hair…she's a Red Witch? But a Regular? That's weird."

"Why is it weird?"

She frowned, evidently still not quite satisfied with my explanation. "First of all, Guides are really rare to begin with, and made even rarer because Father reserves one for every princess that becomes a Ranker. Second, Guides don't need to pass the Floor tests. They can go wherever they want. Is she really a Guide? I've never even heard of a Guide that's a Regular!" She asked with clear doubt on her face.

"So I've been told. I don't know much about Guides myself," I said, shrugging.

"What exactly is your relationship with that girl?" Androssi asked me, glaring suspiciously. "You're the second pair of Regulars that knew each other before the tests now. You aren't chasing her up the Tower like that other kid with Rachel, are you?"

"No need to be jealous, I'm not pursuing her," I said with an amused smile.

"Who said I'm jealous?!"

I ignored her question in favor of continuing my explanation. "In fact, Rachel and I only met her on this floor, in regards to matters related to what we spoke of before, in the cafeteria. She is certainly no ordinary Regular, as you've surmised. I cannot explain the extent of our relationship further than that under the circumstances, but you should be able to understand, right?"

She clicked her tongue and huffed, crossing her arms.

"I'll accept that…for now. But what did you mean by 'her advice might be meant for me'?"

"I mean that she might have been warning you about the Green April. It's possible that you will be targeted because of it, as will I, by association with you. Certainly, I imagine that if Anak is a fake princess as you've claimed, the Zahard family will respond soon. And one must wonder, if she is a fake, where did she obtain the Green April? In a way, it is perhaps no less dangerous than dealing with the Black March's true owner."

"You didn't think of this before we made the trade?"

"I did. As I said, the Green April might actually let you ignite her. For that reason alone, it is the better choice. Besides, I don't know how quick the Zahard family will respond to the appearance of a fake princess. I do know, however, that the owner of the Black March is already on her way."

Actually, from what I remembered of the story, an assassin from the royal faction would be on his way soon too. Still, there was a small but non-zero chance that he might not try to confiscate the Green April if it was in the hands of a real princess, so as to stay officially neutral in the war of the princesses. That was the real reason I wanted to make the trade.

"I already knew that someone from RED would come for Anak and the Green April. Some Guide she is if she can only tell me what I already knew," said Androssi with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"RED?" I asked. I knew, but pretended not to.

"The Royal Enforcement Division. Those are the guys loyal only to Father and that enforce his will, usually for issues involving princesses. Compared to the Zahard's Army, the military arm of the empire, RED is more like an elite black-ops and police force."

"Is that so? Why do you call her a fake princess anyways?"

"It's because the real Anak Zahard is already dead. She had a forbidden relationship with a palace chef and ran away with him. The Zahard family sent RED to kill them and take back the Green April, but they never found it. For this Anak to have it, and a body comparable to a real princess with the blood of Zahard in her, that must mean that she's their daughter. The whole point of the restriction on princesses dating is to prevent the power of Zahard from spreading like that. So they'll come for her as soon as they find out."

"I see. Well, I only suspected someone would come, and now I have a bit of confirmation, so we can better prepare for it. Besides, Hwaryun helped us out during the Crown game too, fighting Hatsu and that other random team instead of teaming up against us. Even as a non-combatant role, she'd give you a run for your money if she actually tried fight you," I said. I knew that she would, because she actually would have fought Androssi in the story and held her own during the Crown game.

In this Crown game, her real help came in the form of taking out Khun and Rak while everyone was distracted. She had seen through my plan immediately and cooperated perfectly, adapting from the previous strategy she'd given us. But our objective in preventing Baam from going up wasn't something I intended to disclose to Androssi yet, so I didn't mention it.

"Like that means anything, you could've taken them all out anyways whenever you wanted."

"You're giving me too much credit. I could've defeated them sure, but I wouldn't have been able to protect Baam and Rachel at the same time while I did that," I said, shaking my head.

My performance was apparently too good, she was overestimating me a bit too much. Even though I might have been able to pull it off, the cost in mana for Derflinger would have been too high and risky, leaving not enough to defend myself outside of the tests.

I was in an environment where I could not easily start an Armoriont farm and refill Derflinger's reserves, so unless I found another solution, I'd only be able to refill about 500 MP per day, and that was only by keeping Agate in hibernation for the day, otherwise it'd drop to 100-200 with the wand active.

A single Slash Beam or Wave at level 5 cost close to 1600 MP, which would already take multiple days or weeks to recover from. That was on top of the massive continuous cost of Derflinger's Boost and my Omni-Flight if I was required to use them. Omni-Flight, the spell that let me levitate like Agate, I could only keep up for less than a minute at the maximum speed before exhausting my own and Agate's reserves completely.

This was why I tried to limit myself to Reinforcement and the Armoriont's biological capabilities wherever possible. Reinforcement was superbly cheap for the effect, while the Armoriont cost basically nothing.

The only other option was to go back to Worm and refill before coming back, cost me 2 planar trips of Primordial GRAIN, and still taking several days in which my absence from the Tower might attract even more dangerous attention, as leaving was essentially impossible, and there was an entire Ranker organization dedicated to finding the way out.

"So I appreciate your confidence in me, but it's never wise to overestimate one's own abilities," I added.

"Why do I feel like you aren't talking about yourself with that last bit…?"

"There is also another possibility. Could it be that the Green April may have dangerous side effects for the user?"

There should be a curse on the 13 month series weapons. Trying to ignite two at the same time would result in the princess being taken over and trying to kill everything, especially other princesses. But with a single weapon? I didn't remember anything like that, but it wasn't impossible.

"I've never heard of any side effects. That seems like a stretch," said Androssi.

"Just be careful, alright? It would be inconvenient for me if anything happened to you."

"If anything happens to me, you'd better come save me. Trading for the Green April was your idea."

"Of course, of course."

In the end, I was at least able to convince her to let it go, even if she still didn't like Hwaryun, and I finally had some time to myself.

O O O

There were lots of things I could do at this point, lots of events happening around me that I could take a more active role in. However, I chose to focus on my real purpose for being in this Tower at all.

I had Agate go into hibernation and kept it in my Armoriont, where my chest was, so that I could recover more MP. There wasn't anybody in particular I wanted to spy on, so I didn't need Agate to stay active.

Derflinger had already expended quite a bit of mana already today fighting the White Steel Eel and in the Crown game. My own reserves and Agate's were still near full as I only used a bit of Reinforcement, which was dirt cheap, but Derflinger had used almost five thousand MP.

I didn't expect another big fight soon, as there should be a month of training ahead, but it would be wise for me to conserve MP as much as possible. Against threats like Rankers or High Rankers, I might need literally everything at my disposal to survive the 10 seconds it took to shift planes.

Then, I settled down to meditate and commune with the water spirits.

With the abundance of "divine water" all around us, and the water stone's apparent capability to absorb the substance, it was time to see what kind of benefits I could get from it, and how it would affect my training with the water stone going forward.

If I could use their absorption ability to actually take Shinsoo with me to use on other planes…that would just be perfect.

O O O

[Interlude]

Lero Ro sat watching Yu Han Sung prepare coffee with an overly complicated procedure.

He had come and demanded answers about why the three Regulars from the other district had been sent to the Crown game.

Yu Han Sung looked concentrated, carefully breaking his coffee stick. "Mr. Lero Ro. Do you know why we gather all the Regulars and test them?"

"Isn't it to test if the Regulars are qualified to go up the Tower?"

"No, it's not. The reason is…they have dangerous powers. They come into the Tower to fulfill their own desires. Glory, money, power, or whatever else they want. But what if they desire something that's harmful to the world? What if there's somebody that dreams of the world's end? It could be disastrous. So we test them and separate the black sheep. The ones who threaten the Tower."

"I don't understand the intention behind your words—" Lero Ro started to say.

"Mr. Lero Ro. Who do you think is among the most dangerous Regulars taking the test this time, wielding a weapon he shouldn't be capable of wielding? Didn't he lose the Crown game? And he didn't acquire a second 13 month series weapon either," Yu Han Sung said.

Now looking straight at Lero Ro, Yu Han Sung finished, "Because of the person I sent you."

Lero Ro's expression turned to surprise, as he had a flashback. The boy who held the Black March, that he was well aware of belonged to Yuri. He had been part of the same cohort that started climbing with Yuri, so he was acquainted with her. And he knew that the Black March refused to ignite for her. For it to decide to ignite for some random kid? It made no sense, even if Yuri had lent it to him as he'd claimed.

If the other district's team hadn't been involved, wouldn't he have won the Crown game starting from the third round? And he'd have won the bet with Anak outright too, instead of trading away one of the weapons.

But the other team had been present, and defeated Baam's team. They'd made it look like they were about to protect Baam's team to give them the victory while keeping the Black March, and Lero Ro felt that wasn't fair, so he'd changed the rules.

But had that really been their intention? To let Baam's team win?

Later, the Khun family boy had negotiated a deal to let them win the Crown game anyways.

And then…that man. Axion. He'd stopped his allies from winning the game for no apparent reason, even though the Khun had already promised them the Black March, even if they won the Crown game instead of merely winning the bet under his new rules. Axion had attacked Baam and knocked him unconscious under the guise of keeping other Regulars away. No doubt he'd have finished off the other two teammates if the masked one hadn't done it first.

As a result, they hadn't gone up to the next floor.

It was illogical. There was no benefit for Axion to have done that, especially when they seemed ready to let Baam's team rise before Lero Ro had interfered. He might have said it was to stop anyone from getting to the throne, but really? With how fast he had defeated Anak, Lero Ro didn't buy it at all. He could've easily defeated all the other Regulars instantly.

Then he thought back to the moment he saw Baam manipulate Shinsoo to attack Androssi. And the time before that, to block several attacks from different directions.

He'd also overheard Axion make a comment of that too to his teammates, the first time it had happened in the 3rd round.

Now, with the test director's admission…it started to make sense. But he wasn't sure he liked it.

Lero Ro brought his coffee cup to his mouth and downed it in one gulp before leaving politely.

"Test Director Yu," he stopped and turned around as he reached the door. "Have you ever seen somebody…who's not from the Ten Great Families…who hasn't made a contract with an Administrator but can still freely manipulate Shinsoo?"

"No, I haven't. That is beyond the rules of the Tower. Oh! But I have heard of one. Urek Mazino. He was…an Irregular."

"I see."

Lero Ro shut the door and walked away, thinking about how the Shinsoo around Baam seemingly acted of its own volition, violating the rules of the Tower

Meanwhile, Yu Han Sung sighed in his coffee room, remarking to himself that Lero Ro was more difficult to handle than Quant.

He had almost had Rachel's team skip the barrier and door test straight to the Crown game, but then he thought it would be interesting to see a little more of Axion in action first.

But when Axion somehow absorbed Lero Ro's Shinsoo barrier…Yu Han Sung had worried then that Axion's status would be exposed before he had a chance to decide whether to help hide it or not.

But then…

"Mr. Axion, a word of advice. With that Pocket Mr. Headon gave you, you should make a contract with the Guardian of this floor. The Administrator. That will allow you to use Shinsoo…within the rules of the Tower," said Yu Han Sung, near the end of their strategy session.

"He already has a contract," said Hwaryun.

"I do?" Axion asked, apparently in confusion.

"Check your Pocket."

Axion did so. He read his Pocket's screen carefully.

"Huh? A contract with the Administrator of the First Floor? So my deal with Headon…? That was a contract? I see. I am able to freely use Shinsoo on the 2nd Floor to carry out the task he requested."

Yu Han Sung had a rare expression of genuine surprise. He hadn't thought to check it, because he hadn't seen Axion making a contract during the tests, and Yu Han Sung had been monitoring him as soon as Headon sent the two Irregulars up and notified him.

For Headon to have made the contract…it was unusual but not unheard of. While most Floor Administrators only made contracts for their own floors, it was possible for them to indirectly broker a contract for other floors, the way that Rankers received a new contract for the whole Tower upon reaching the 134th floor, which superseded the ones they'd made on the way up.

"Very thoughtful of Mr. Headon," Yu Han Sung said to himself, sipping his coffee. "Although you are wary of him, Mr. Axion, it seems that he has done you quite a favor."

O O O

"They traded back the Black March?" Khun asked from his position on the bed, after receiving a summary of what happened from Baam.

"Yeah…Mr. Axion is surprisingly nice," said Baam with a smile, sitting next to him on a chair.

Khun made a doubtful face. "I'm not so sure about that…" Although Baam explained Axion's reasoning for gassing the throne area, and what happened afterwards, Khun was still wary of the man.

But he sighed and shook his head. "I guess it's not his fault we got ourselves knocked out too, eh crocodile?"

Rak was brooding in another corner of the room, quietly munching on a banana. "I saw it," he said randomly.

"Saw what?" Khun asked, confused.

"He defeated the green turtle in one move," said Rak in a mournful tone.

'One move…? Damn, guess that girl wasn't bluffing about how strong he was then,' Khun thought to himself regarding Androssi's comments about their first test's massacre.

Khun looked somewhat guilty as he saw Rak's expression. "Crocodile…look, I know he's strong, but it doesn't mean you're weak. I'll admit I haven't been very encouraging before with your constant big talk but—"

"Hahaha!" Rak suddenly started guffawing and clutching his stomach after carelessly throwing the banana peel away, his brooding look disappearing as if he'd merely pretended. "The look on her face! That's what happens when a turtle acts like they aren't prey!"

"…" Khun looked blankly at Rak as the banana peel landed on his face. 'This damn crocodile actually had me worried!'

O O O

Ship Leesoo, Hatsu, and Serena Rinnen, a dark haired Regular who wore a plain off the shoulder dress, walked through the halls after Serena forcibly joined their cafeteria table.

Hatsu stayed quiet while Leesoo and Serena chatted about their experiences in each test. The two had bonded over the struggle to get through Lero Ro's barrier, though they'd also fought in the Crown game.

Then Androssi's door swung open. She came out looking like she was in a bad mood and ignoring them. The three Regulars watched her turn towards Axion's door, hesitate, then shake her head and walk off in the other direction, passing them.

"What's with those two? You'd think they'd be happy with the results of the Crown game. Didn't they get everything they wanted?" Ship Leesoo said, with a jealous tone.

"Didn't you hear? They broke up earlier today!" Serena whispered loudly to him. "Everyone heard them shouting in the halls."

"What? When did this happen?" Ship whispered back.

"It must have been right after they had that fight in the cafeteria. We were still eating dinner then," said Hatsu.

"Do you know what it was about?" Ship asked Serena, his mind already considering ways to take advantage of the situation. That team had been practically unbeatable, but if those two had a bad breakup, there was a chance for the rest of them!

"Oh yeah. You know that red-head that was masked and wore a leotard during the game?" Serena asked.

"Huh, yeah?"

"I heard goldie fell in love with her at first sight," she said, referring to Axion's golden armor as she didn't know his name. "They were flirting right in front of Miss Androssi, so she broke it off right then and there."

"Ouf! I almost feel bad for her. Almost. She's pretty but that red-head is out of this world. There's just no contest. And if you add in how violent she was with him…" Ship said, thinking of the scene in the café with Androssi choking Axion, "it's no wonder he went for the sweeter fruit."

"She's not that pretty. I'm just as attractive, right?" Serena asked.

"Nope," Ship said instantly. "Not even close."

"Why you…!" Serena turned to Hatsu, as if preparing to ask him the same question.

Hatsu shook his head. "Sorry. Please don't bring me into this."

Serena's face fell. "Argh...! Men! As if looks are all that matters!" Then she stormed away.

"I never said that!" Ship exclaimed. "Sheesh. What's her problem? Another one that just can't admit when they're beat. And I thought she was one of the people with common sense around here."

"Ship…" Hatsu started to say something, but trailed off.

"What?"

"Nevermind," said Hatsu, sighing, one hand going to his forehead in exasperation.

Then Leesoo saw that they'd reached Anak's room. He knocked and there was no answer, so he decided to open the door a little. The door was unlocked, as Anak had been carried in there unconscious.

There were no lights on.

"Guess she's still out," Ship said, closing the door.

"Why bother? The teams are disbanded now. We don't have anything to do with her anymore," said Hatsu, still upset about Anak's behavior during the Crown game.

"That's cold…" said Ship.

"She never thought of us as a team anyways," Hatsu added as the two walked away.

Inside, Anak sat at the head of her bed, head down, bandages covering parts of her body. The blanket underneath her head was dotted with wet stains.

She sat unmoving, cold rage etched across her face, utterly silent.

O O O

A/N: Looks like there's nothing specific to respond to this time, but thanks for all the reviews everyone!