"KAWAIII!!!!!!!!!"
Without preamble, Ophelia immediately hugged the adorable creature in front of her. Her hands were also busy rubbing and sometimes pinching its plump cheeks. The creature looked uncomfortable and tried to escape, but Ophelia's embrace was too strong.
Meanwhile, Naeva just watched it without changing her expression.
"What is that thing?"
"Ah! I'm forgot..." Ophelia snapped after coming to her senses.
After releasing her hug and turning back to Naeva,
"Naeva! Ruby! This is the Ruby!"
"!"
Naeva's eyes widened slightly. Naeva had no idea that the Ruby the examiner was referring to was a living being.
"It turns out that the reason why those Rubies moved when I detected them before was because they were alive. I thought someone had taken them," Ophelia said as she held and rubbed the creature.
Not immediately believing this, Naeva secretly checked for herself. And sure enough, the tiny creature appeared to be a Ruby in her detections. What's more, two Rubies at once. Enough for them to pass the test.
"......."
Unlike Ophelia, Naeva felt something was not right here.
"In that case, their movements are abnormal. Bringing a small child along would slightly hinder movement. But why are there some Conquerors moving so fast?"
"Unless..."
Glancing at the creature's jewel-red eyes.
".... You must prepare for the worst," Naeva said, turning away from Ophelia.
"Huh?"
The silver girl returned to their tent. She leaned against the ice wall she had quickly made. Ophelia wasn't stupid, she realized the true meaning of Naeva's words as soon as she thought about it for a moment. And when she realized it, Ophelia made an incredulous face.
"Did another Conqueror kill them?"
Naeva replied with her eyes closed, "That's the easiest way."
"Carrying them is quite troublesome. Killing them and taking only their eyes would be much easier."
"But that's.... Cruel..." Ophelia replied at a loss for words.
"Ophelia, this is Tower."
"I know... I know, okay! But..."
The navy-haired girl bit her lower lip as she clasped her hands tightly.
"That's no reason to lose your humanity."
"It doesn't feel right if they live just to be killed by a rookie Conqueror during a exam."
Naeva let out a small sigh. That little girl she was with was really a good kid. Too good in fact. Ophelia was not naive, she could distinguish when to do good and when to turn a blind eye for the sake of mutual safety. But that kind of kindness will only hurt her more deeply as time goes by. Just like her old self, long and far before her feelings were bottled up.
"Why is Ruby in the exam a living being?" Naeva asked suddenly.
"?"
"On second thought... Why? I understand that it's a powerful monster because it can be a challenge during the test. But this creature... Weak. Too weak. It's really like a toddler. Can't protect itself at all. It's as if it could die just because I hugged it too tightly," Ophelia replied.
"If it couldn't protect itself from the start. Why not just take the form of an ordinary stone that can be fought over?"
"!"
Ophelia immediately turned her head sharply towards Naeva. Again and again, Naeva's questions led Ophelia to something she hadn't realized.
"Don't tell me..."
"You mean to tell me that there's a hidden exam here?" she asked for confirmation.
Naeva nodded.
She couldn't help but think that Naeva was always like that. She never told Ophelia directly what she meant. The girl always directed Ophelia to come to her own conclusions. Only if Ophelia failed to do so, Naeva would intervene directly.
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With a faint smile, Ophelia leaned in next to Naeva while hugging and holding the creature on her lap.
"Just my feelings or... It feels like you're becoming more and more like my master."
"You want to be my student?" Naeva quipped.
"Umm... How about it... I think if I agree, I'll be involved with something that's beyond my capabilities right now. So not just yet," Ophelia replied evasively.
"That's fine."
The relationship between student and master in the Tower was not that simple. Different from the usual student and teacher relationship, the master was the one who replaced the role of guardian here. The master would take full responsibility for the student and the student must be completely obedient to the master.
While teachers can have many students and students can have many teachers, students can only have one master. And masters can't take on many students because the burden of responsibility for the individual is already high. In fact, many wars between students turn into wars between masters because of this responsibility.
In a way, students are the inheritors of their master's knowledge and expertise as a whole. Unlike teachers who only share a little of their knowledge.
So far, Naeva had been the master of only nine people. And seven of the nine are Grand Families ancestors. That is why, without knowing who she is, people refer to the masters of the Grand Families ancestors as Grand Masters.
Insulting a Grand Master is akin to beating the drums of war on the seven Grand Families and the other two hidden Grand Families.
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****OOO****
Character Information
[https://img.wattpad.com/c1b3142baab40cda1608aa16c6b67d7e3dd4517d/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f446d52377a4372537737336363773d3d2d313332373636383435332e313739303436386539363539663733643834363939323935313736302e6a7067]
Name: Naeva Winter
Nova: X Platinum
Race: Ice Princess
Age: 30.000+
Status: Irregular
Affiliation: None
-------------------------------------------------
[https://img.wattpad.com/32fa7e1f669371e93aab5353afa844e654781f07/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f464e61754455435f64507a554d773d3d2d313332373636383435332e313739303436386365303734653835303231303634343337343937352e6a7067]
Name: Ophelia Calliope
Nova: II Orange
Race: Unknown
Age: 17
Status: Lady of the Calliope Family
Affiliation: Calliope Family
****OOO****
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The quiet night continued. With nothing happening and exhausted from the previous events, Ophelia fell asleep while holding the creature in her arms. Naeva who was closed next to her slowly opened her eyes.
The eyes that looked like cold blue ice crystals did not emit light, but somehow seemed to glow.
"......"
It had been a while since Naeva had had time to think to herself. Lately, her time had been spent taking care of Ophelia.
"Just my feelings or... It feels like you're becoming more and more like my master."
Ophelia's previous words rang in her head again.
"That's right... Since I'm already here. I want to see how those children are doing."
She took out a map from her inventory. Unlike the Item Box which had limited storage, could not be entered by living beings and took the form of an object, her Inventory ignored the principles of space and time completely. Naeva's Inventory storage is unlimited or at least Naeva hasn't found its limit yet, her Inventory can also be entered by living beings (but if it stays inside for too long, there will be quite horrible effects on the body) and is shaped like a dimensional shard that can be opened at any time. Naeva can even take things out of there without opening the dimension (it's different when entering).
The map she takes out is a general map that shows several floors in the Tower (like a world map). 1st floor (Safe zone) 2nd floor, 3rd floor and so on. The girl also took out a red pen and circled several floors as markers.
Calliope, 38th Floor (Deep Shade)
Clio, 29th Floor (Murim)
Euterpe, 11th Floor (Underwater)
Melpomene, 27th Floor (Night Vision)
Polyhymnia, 8th Floor (Sky World) and 30th Floor (Sacred Continent)
Thalia, 25th Floor (Entertainment)
Terpsichore, Floor 22 (Forest)
"Then the remaining two..."
"Urania is most likely on 31th Floor (Lunar Eclipse), 32th Floor (Library) or on 42th Floor (Time Runner). If his descendants are still the same as that child, Urania should still be a child thirsty for knowledge."
"As for Erato... I can't guess. That child is very free-spirited. I'm sure her descendants are the same. They can be everywhere. Maybe we'll meet by accident one day."
"Since both of them don't like to settle down and be tied down, it's rather difficult to find them. This is also the reason why they did not want to be part of the Grand Families and chose to explore the Tower as they pleased."
"I already asked this little girl, it seems that even the Grand Families have a hard time finding them. The last time Calliope met Erato was hundreds of years ago. Calliope also hasn't met Urania for thousands of years."
Naeva let out a small sigh. She did not care much about other people, but it was different with her own students. Because those children were the ones who spent the most time with Naeva out of everyone else who died within 0-10 years. Those children managed to survive to develop their families over these 10,000 years. Naturally Naeva was interested to see for herself what her student had accomplished.
The map was closed and put back into the Inventory. Naeva felt a little strange. Strange enough to make her smile slightly before closing her eyes again.