Chapter 265: Obsidian Circle

I'm not going to lie, I had to do some mental gymnastics to get Robert to listen, but it was successful in the end. With teary eyes, he obediently followed Lucille to the administrative office of the city and officially separated without making a fuss.

It would've been risky to let him go there, as he could cause us problems if he accused us of adultery, that's why I only allowed them to go once I was certain he had no such grandiose plans in his head.

It was a mistake on my end to engage with Lucille a day before her divorce, but things happened. She looked so lonely and sad that I just had to cheer her up.

Somewhere within the Greenvale duchy, seven figures could be spotted sitting around a round table. They were in the middle of nowhere, in a hidden underground facility.

These seven were called the 'Obsidian Circle Members', also known as the leaders of the Vesper Consortium.

Each of them served a different purpose; head of the drug trade department, human(oid) trafficking (slavery), finances, army, magic, intelligence, and lastly, one of them acted as a mediator who had no personal department to lead, meaning he could be more impartial during arguments, though he wasn't powerless; the defenses of their territory would shift from the army head to be under his jurisdiction in times of emergency, and he also amassed a great personal army who obeyed his every command.

All seven of them were age-old entities who climbed the Consortium's ranks. All of them were once Vesper Phenoms, which meant that once upon a time they were promising youngsters that the syndicate invested in, and the fruits of those efforts speak for themselves.

They were loyal to the syndicate and treasured its existence, thus despite being department heads with differing needs, issues rarely arose.

Mainly because the mediator, the oldest and strongest member of the Consortium, was respected by all six of them, but also because they were lowborn nobodies at birth who got to their prestigious position where millions of lives could be changed just due to their words thanks to the existence of this crime group.

Nobles would spit in their faces should they try to converse with them, but here, they were the bosses with power rivaling that of a count individually, and that of a duke if the seven heads worked together.

They knew that internal strife would just lead to them being gobbled up by a competitor or attacked by the kingdom. Of course, competition was still present within the circle members to a degree, as it was thought to be healthy to the organization. If they underperformed, opportunistic Veil Walkers, the second highest rank, could be promoted to replace them.

Factions, such as the Gilded Exchange, which was led by Aurelion, the old guy that tried to recruit Quinlan, reported directly to the finance department head sitting at the table. Or, more accurately, to one of his assistants, as Circle members were secretive entities who rarely stepped into the limelight.

"The time is nigh, the Phenom Trials are starting in less than a month." One of them commented.

"Indeed. I hope that many promising youngsters turn up. We're in desperate need of refreshing our ranks. Corruption is getting worse at the faction level." The intelligence head said.

"The last trial we held a decade ago didn't bring anyone truly noteworthy."

"That's why we upped the stakes this time. We desperately have to poach some talent from other orgs and aristocrats, so we heavily advertised the trial through our channels. A lot of young blood is expected to show up. Maybe more than a hundred thousand."

Some heads snapped in the direction of the intelligence leader who just said such an outlandish idea.

"That many?! At the last Trial, it was only ten thousand."

"How will we even conduct the Trial with that many candidates?"

The intelligence head smiled while listening to their worries amusedly before finally responding. "You have to remember that not all of them are Phenom candidates. Each Phenom can have up to five Heralds under their command, thus we can expect lots of teams to show up with only a single Phenom candidate amongst them.

As for how we will conduct the trial with these numbers, it's simple; through multiple rounds of challenges."

"Ohh! That sounds exciting. My old bones shook a little. But, then I wanna bring up another point. Since there will be teams of six, Phenom candidates who show up without a team or a team with fewer members will face an unfair disadvantage.

I know that in past decades we just shrugged our shoulders and said that having the ability to create a team of loyal members is necessary for our Phenoms, but I think we could give them a little helping hand this time. Some geniuses simply aren't cut out to create teams from thin air. We shouldn't discard them outright."

The intelligence head nodded, "yes. We've been getting lots of older guys transferring to us from the duke's army, as well as many impoverished lowborns who gave up on their shitty lives decided to join us. While holding the trial, we could also use this opportunity to cull their numbers to be a more manageable size by having them fill out the missing team positions.

They would be happy too, being a potential Vesper Herald if the Phenom likes them in their team would be a big jump in their quality of life compared to being Dawn Initiates."

A short silence fell on the room until the mediator spoke up. "I like what I'm hearing. Good job. I propose we increase the budget of the Trial this year tenfold. Let's make it a spectacular event, shall we? I want to see lots of youngsters prevail over our challenges and bolster our organization's ranks."

Many smiles erupted upon his statement, and everyone voiced their agreement. They were all eager to get promising geniuses added to their departments.

- Pov: Quinlan -

The next three weeks went by in a flash. We continued greenskin hunting into the second week but spent the last two in the labyrinth instead, once the Luke murder investigations subsided. It was simply better to grind there with high-level monsters roaming the outskirts of the city. We could also sell the goodies we got to Sylvie and Jack for a good premium price.

We've completed three additional deliveries for the pair.

I got a bit of a greedy streak in me when I debated about offering this service of mine to other merchants as well who were struggling with a severe lack of supplies but decided against it. The married pair respected my privacy and were simply happy to get such a good business partner.

In the past month, due to our help, the pair estimated that they went from owning 25% of the Braedon monster material market to 75%, so they truly had no reason to cause me issues.

Another reason for me not going to other shops was that I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Sylve and Jack just shrugged their shoulders when officials came to question them regarding how they got supplied in these trying times, saying it was a business secret they were legally allowed to not disclose.

There's no telling if others would act the same as well, especially since unlike the Adamantite strength couple, other merchants could easily be questioned through torture if they kept their lips sealed.

Be that as it may, killing monsters and acting as merchants weren't the only thing we spent our time with.

We also abused Broderick's kindness to train in his underground facility, as in the Phenom trials we will almost certainly be facing humans, so we had to get lots of experience fighting humanoid opponents.

Due to our relentless pursuit of strength in this past month, we've leveled up quite admirably.

I went from level 14 to 18, Blossom from 14 to 16, Ayame from 15 to 16, Aurora from 5 to 10, and Lucille from 1 to 8.

It wasn't an explosive growth like I've experienced thus far, but it was consistent and much safer than roaming the wilds, and this method also allowed us to get our two weaker members up to par. Well, Lucille was still a bit too weak for a frontliner, I would be fearing for her safety should she have to duel a strong, crafty humanoid.

As for Lucille's awareness of our secret, she was now privy to everything.

When I revealed to her all that is to know about myself she kept opening and closing her mouth as if she were a dumb fish taken out of the water while blinking rapidly, but after she got over the initial surprise she was very happy and proud to be my woman, to the point that I got a two-hour long energetic sloppy head session that night.

She quickly claimed the spot of being the throat queen in my harem, not because she was necessarily better than Blossom or Aurora, but because she would suck me desperately as if her life depended on giving me the greatest pleasure of my life.

I think this is the advantage of having a more experienced woman as a partner. My other girls were virgins with no romantic experience before they met me, thus when they see me naked they don't fully understand how rare a man with my proportions is, or even if they know, they can't tell how much of a difference-maker my size and endless stamina is in bed compared to the average man.

Lucille, who had to settle for the limp dick whimper was fully aware and thus showed me her appreciation through means she knew I would love.

Maybe this is the reason why my father once told me that if I have no success with young girls I should go for older ones, claiming that they will appreciate me more.