This was technically a lie, I met Jasmine before I got this class. I said so because I knew that many ears were vividly listening in on any and all words coming from my lips, so I was being deliberately misleading and paid close attention not to say anything that could bite me in the ass later down the line.
“Y-you’re right…” she nodded, “I’m sorry, it’s just a bit too much for me. Lady Vex calling me beautiful was already much more than I was prepared for…”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about these things. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show while munching on your popcorn. That’s why you came to this place, no?”
She had a faint smile emerge on her delicate lips as she lifted her paper cup closer to me, “I bought a new batch a few minutes ago, want some?”
“Sure,” I accepted her offering with gratitude.
Vex suddenly said something that made my ears perk up. “The real reward for doing well in the Phenom Trials is obviously becoming a Vesper Phenom, but we decided to provide some additional rewards for the top three finishers.”
Three pouches emerged in her hands, each differing in size significantly.
“The third placement gets 10 gold coins, the second 25, and the finalist receives a whole hundred!”
Hushed murmurs rippled across the audience, and once again, I found many eyes staring in my direction. 100 gold was akin to like a few million bucks back on Earth, so this was an extremely generous secondary reward. I didn’t know if the math mathed in my random estimate, but this should provide a good basis to understand how much this amount of money truly was. Discover more content at empire
As for why the people were staring at me, it was due to them already thinking that I would be the one who takes that fat pouch home with me. They likely wanted to see my reaction, or were just gazing at me with admiration, jealousy, or a mix of the two.
“You truly live in a different world…” Jasmine murmured with shock.
“Let’s go on a date once this Phenom business has concluded, what do you say?” I asked rather randomly. I suddenly felt like taking this woman out on a trip.
“Huh?!” It was not Jasmine who gasped at my question but the many women who rudely listened in on our conversation. They were watching soap opera live, or at least so I thought based on their audible reactions.
“Are you sure you want plain old me?” Jasmine reservedly asked while eyeing me with uncertainty. This was the question that swirled the heads of many of our uninvited listeners as well, based on the sudden silence that enveloped us. They all wanted to hear my answer…
Honestly, I couldn’t care less about what these people thought of me, so I completely ignored their entire existences as I continued my chat with Jasmine.
“Don’t sell yourself short, I like strong and confident women. Remember, I didn’t become a great existence all of a sudden, I was like this ever since we met. Don’t put me on a sudden pedestal, I’m still the same guy who you gave a tour of Shadowhold all those months ago.”
She didn’t reply for a few seconds as she was visibly digesting my words, but then she flashed me a beautiful, cheery smile that made my heart skip a beat. This woman was truly mesmerizing when she was happy. I wanted to see more of this smile of hers. “I would love to go on a date with you!” she decreed before leaning into me to rest her head against my sides.
We watched the first round of the final event in this comfortable manner.
There were no upsets taking place, the contestants who I expected to do so advanced into the second round. 21 contestants advanced to the round, adding the 8 of us who sat the first one out resulted in 29 participants remaining.
Vex used her microphone-like artifact to speak up, “We can’t continue the tournament format with 29 contestants, so we invited 3 Eclipse Enforcers who were once in a past contest but got themselves eliminated, they failed to become Vesper Phenoms. A century passed since then, letting them grow in power significantly. The rank of a Phenom can’t be obtained in any other way than the one you are currently part of. It can’t be bought, earned, gifted, anything.
Therefore, even if these three were to mop the floor with the competition, they will still not become Phenoms. However, they were eager to restore their tarnished honor so they volunteered for this task. These veteran combatants pose a serious challenge to you youngsters, an entirely unfair one at that, thus we won’t force anyone to face them. Let me ask, is there anyone amongst you who wishes to put themselves at a disadvantage and face them nonetheless?”
(A/N: Eclipse Enforcer is the Rank above the Vesper Phenom/Lunar Adept. Selene’s father and Cedric’s mother is of this rank.)
I rose from my seat immediately.
My Phenom rank was pretty much already in the bag, the Consortium should be fully aware that I refuse to become a normal member due to privacy concerns, thus my previously displayed prowess should be enough for them to grant me the rank even if I were to lose, as otherwise they would have to let me walk away from the syndicate entirely.
While risking 100 gold like this was arguably very stupid on my part, I felt that challenging myself instead of beating another random kid would be worth it. There were very few people in the competition who could give me a challenge, and most of them were on my side.
If I decided to fight in the second round the normal way, I might end up facing someone like Cedric or Abudha, who I would either have to beat the crap out of – and thus likely eliminate them from becoming Phenoms – or suffer extreme humiliation by losing to them.
If I simply surrendered, that would be incredibly suspicious, so I couldn’t do that. To be fair, even if I could, I wouldn’t feel good about doing so.
By facing one of the three new threats, I could solve this issue and also go all out without fearing for my life due to the life-saving artifact’s presence. This was the perfect situation to see for myself just how strong an Eclipse Enforcer truly was.
