Primordial Villain With A Slave Harem

The reaction was immediate. Gasps and yelps rippled through the crowd, followed by whispered exclamations.

"It's him?!"

"The Elemental Sovereign…?!" Read latest stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"The one who defeated an Eclipse Enforcer in a duel before turning 30 years old…"

"Aggh!! Why is he wearing a mask?! I so wanted to see his face!" A feminine voice grumbled, who was then shut down by a man, "One can't have it all, for the balance of all things must be maintained. I bet he's ugly as sin."

"Maybe, maybe not…" The woman mused coyly, greatly annoying her ally.

Although I didn't need my ego stroked in this manner, I didn't make a move to have them stop their antics. Devil was not Quinlan Noir, but the prodigious Elemental Sovereign. I intended him to become a famous and highly respected member of the Consortium. While doing so might earn me some enemies I wouldn't have to deal with otherwise, I believed the positives to outweigh the negatives. I didn't want to spend decades grinding ranks to climb the ladder; I planned to shoot through them like a rocket.

Furthermore, doing so would have my fame spread outside the lands of the Consortium, providing me with many opportunities should I no longer wish to be with them.

From the corner of my eye, I caught Plump Fox 2.0 staring daggers at me. I didn't know this woman's name, and to be honest, neither did I care.

Her face was twisted in barely concealed rage. Ryker wasn't much better; his jaw was clenched so tight it looked like he was trying to grind his teeth into powder. Both of them radiated jealousy so thick it almost became tangible.

The jealous woman's glare intensified even further as she watched the way the others gawked at me as if I were a celebrity while treating them as if they were nobodies, despite them being the center of attention for the last decade.@@novelbin@@

The guard turned to them next, gesturing for them to step forward. Plump Fox 2.0 grabbed onto Ryker's arm with her nails digging into his bicep as she practically dragged him along. The woman radiated a smug confidence as she raised Ryker's hand. The flash of a ring on his finger caught the crowd's attention, and a few hushed murmurs spread.

The Consortium was a giant organization; meeting a Phenom was not an everyday occurrence. We were all considered celebrities; it was just that I was more so than others.

She smiled haughtily, clearly relishing the moment as the hologram began to form.

But instead of the proud proclamation the two of them likely envisioned, the hologram displayed another message.

Ryker, a highly valued Vesper Phenom of the Consortium. Attacking him is the equivalent of declaring war on the Vesper Consortium.

NOTICE: The Vesper Consortium has initiated a performance review for Ryker. His recent performance has failed to meet the standards expected of his rank. As a result, his candidacy is under formal evaluation.

Failure to achieve significant accomplishments in the near term will result in his demotion to standard membership status. Should this occur, Ryker and his Heralds will be required to undergo the mandatory branding procedure in accordance with Consortium regulations or cease being members of the organization altogether.

The silence that followed was deafening.

<Ouch. That's horribly embarrassing.> Ayame decreed into my mind with a gleeful tone, but I couldn't reply as I was busy laughing my ass off. Telepathically into her brain, of course. In reality I stood still as if I wasn't affected at all. Devil was a stoic badass.

As for what was going on… One might think being selected as a Vesper Phenom meant being set for life, but it was the exact opposite. Becoming a Phenom was only the beginning - it was the prerequisite to having the ability to achieve great things in the future. If Ignis wasn't an ex-Phenom, talks of him becoming the newest Veil Walker would simply not exist.

If we didn't perform, our privileges could be taken away.

The tone of the message was harsh, devoid of any sugarcoating. It quickly became evident that this text was added recently; neither Ryker nor his master seemed to be aware of its existence before materializing the ring's note.

Selene 2.0's smug smile faltered with her face twitching in a mix of disbelief, panic, and utter embarrassment. She dropped Ryker's arm like it had suddenly become a rotten limb full of maggots, after which she stepped back as if she wanted to distance herself from the humiliating revelation.

Ryker's expression, meanwhile, spoke volumes of being dumbfounded. He couldn't believe what he was seeing despite visibly reading the message numerous times.

"Evaluation? What the hell is this?!" Selene 2.0 hissed frantically. She shot a glare at Ryker as though she blamed him for this failure.

The crowd, meanwhile, had no reservations whatsoever regarding voicing their thoughts out loud.

"Damn, even the Phenoms aren't safe from demotion, huh..."

"Shh!! They'll hear you!"

"Meh, they're just simple Lunar Adepts now, like us… Or at least they'll be soon enough by the look of things."

Plump Fox 2.0 whipped her head around, glaring daggers at the people she heard speak such lines. "Shut it!" she snapped, but her outburst only seemed to fuel the quiet snickers and whispered remarks.

Be that as it may, she understood it was no mere mistake. They were given a final chance to correct the higher-ups' opinion of them before the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented by being counted among the ranks of Phenoms would leave them forever.

To that end, she quickly hurried her team along as we entered the tunnel leading to Shadowhold. Ignis continued chatting me up as if he thought me to be his best bro or something; his attitude reminded me of Broderick a bit.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't met my self-proclaimed best friend in ages. When we last met, Broderick was a superior combatant to me in every sense of the word, but I doubted that was the case anymore. Only a proper duel could tell, though, so I refocused on the present.

Ayame and I said our goodbyes to Ignis for the time being, and then we followed Orianna's orders of searching for Ambrosia, the leader of the Divine Nectar faction.

Although I wasn't aware of it, while we were walking toward our destination, the seven circle heads were currently having a rather heated conversation thanks to my manipulation in which I used the twins to frame Broker of the gravest crime imaginable - attempting to kidnap the full-blooded daughters of a high aristocrat.