Is It Wrong for an Extra to Steal the Protagonist's Harem?-Chapter 62: Worth my while?

The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon as I walked away from the Combat Training Ground.

Maya was clinging to my arm, practically skipping. Her previously crushed confidence had not only recovered but mutated into a dangerous new level of arrogance, fueled entirely by my little "physics lesson."

"Did you see their faces, Alex?!" she giggled, pressing her soft chest against my bicep. "That blonde senior looked like a squashed bug! You just bam! and he went flying! It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen."

"Focus, Maya," I sighed, though I didn’t push her away. "You need to learn how to compress your ice like that. If you can make your shields denser instead of wider, you won’t get pinned down."

"I will, I will!" she promised, looking up at me through her eyelashes. "If you teach me privately, I’ll be a good student. Very obedient."

Her hand slid dangerously low on my waist.

"We’ll see," I said, smoothly catching her wandering hand. "But first, I need a favor from you. As your team leader."

Maya blinked, her delinquent instincts making her suspicious. "A favor? What kind of favor?"

"It’s about Martin."

Maya’s face instantly scrunched up in disgust. "Ugh. The simp? What about him?"

"He wants you to introduce him to Roxy."

Maya stopped walking. She stared at me as if I had just asked her to eat a live spider.

"Roxy? My Roxy? The girl with the dual blades who hates men?" Maya let out a sharp, incredulous laugh. "Alex, Roxy will literally castrate him. She’ll chop him into little pieces and feed him to the academy hounds. I can’t do that to her!"

"I don’t care about Martin’s physical well-being," I replied honestly. "I care about unit cohesion. He’s annoying me. If he’s busy chasing your friend, he won’t be buzzing around my ears asking stupid questions. Just set up one group study session. Let natural selection take its course."

Maya pouted, crossing her arms. "Roxy is going to be so mad at me. Setting her up with a guy who slips on his own grease spell?"

"I’ll make it worth your while," I offered, lowering my voice.

Maya’s ears twitched. She looked around. We were currently walking down a shaded, open-air corridor lined with thick, ivy-covered pillars. Most students were already at the cafeteria. We were alone.

"Worth my while?" she stepped closer, her voice dropping to a husky whisper. "A deluxe parfait won’t cut it this time, Alex. I want a real reward."

She grabbed the lapels of my uniform jacket and pulled me backward, smoothly maneuvering us into the deep shadow behind one of the massive stone pillars.

"You’re getting greedy," I murmured, my back hitting the cool stone.

"I’m a growing girl. I need my protein."

She didn’t wait for permission. She stood on her tiptoes and crashed her lips against mine.

It was a messy, hungry kiss. Maya tasted like adrenaline and sweet mint. She pushed her tongue into my mouth aggressively, her hands roaming over my chest and shoulders, desperate to feel the muscles beneath my uniform.

I took control. I grabbed her waist, spinning us around so her back hit the pillar instead.

"Mmph!" she squealed into the kiss, her legs instantly going weak.

I slid my right hand up her ribcage, cupping her left breast through her uniform blouse. I didn’t squeeze it aggressively like I had with Alicia to prove a point; I kneaded it slowly, thumbing the peak until I felt the nipple harden into a tight pebble beneath the fabric.

"Hah... Alex..." she broke the kiss, throwing her head back against the stone, her eyes hazy.

I leaned down, kissing her exposed neck, biting lightly at her collarbone.

"You’ll set up the meeting?" I whispered against her skin.

"Yes..." she arched her back, offering herself to my hand. "I’ll throw him to Roxy... just don’t stop..."

I slid my left hand down, hooking my fingers under the hem of her pleated skirt. She gasped, her thighs parting slightly in anticipation. I traced the elastic band of her panties, my fingertips brushing the damp heat radiating from her core.

[System Notification: Maya - Submission Level: Obsession.] [Arousal detected. Lust Points: +30]

"Good girl," I whispered, pulling my hand away and stepping back just as the sound of approaching footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Maya whined, a pathetic sound of pure frustration, her hands gripping her skirt.

"Later," I promised, fixing my collar. "Keep your head in the game, Maya."

I walked out from behind the pillar, leaving the flustered, heavily breathing delinquent to compose herself. Setting up Martin was a minor side-quest, but keeping Maya loyal and eager was a solid long-term investment.

****

Following Professor Cassandra’s strict (and highly suspicious) orders, I returned directly to the Edelhart private dormitory instead of wandering the Academy grounds.

Lily had already drawn a hot bath, laid out my evening wear, and left a plate of high-grade monster meat steaks on the table.

After eating and washing the sweat of the training ground off my body, I sat cross-legged in the center of my bed.

The room was dark, lit only by the pale moonlight filtering through the balcony doors.

I pulled the Essence Spring from my pocket. It rested in my palm, a smooth, heavy teardrop of transparent crystal.

"Alright. Let’s see how much juice this thing can hold."

I closed my eyes and focused inward.

My current MP was 18. A pathetic number for a mage of my lineage. But my [Stamina: 31] and [Calculation Power: 28] allowed me to regenerate and process that small pool with terrifying speed.

I pushed my mana out of my core, directing it toward my right arm.

Instantly, the familiar, searing pain of my Defective Internal Circuit flared up.

Imagine forcing a gallon of high-pressure water through a tangled, knotted garden hose. The friction generated was immense. My veins bulged. The air around my arm began to shimmer with heat.

Normally, this defect caused mages to burn out or cripple themselves. The energy was lost as "recoil."

But I didn’t let the recoil escape. I grabbed the Essence Spring.

"Consume it," I ordered.

I forced the hyper-purified, friction-heavy mana into the crystal.

Hummmmm.

The artifact vibrated violently. The silver runes etched inside its core lit up with a brilliant, blinding blue light. It was greedily drinking the mana, acting as a pressure release valve for my agonizing circuit.

I kept the flow steady.

Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

Sweat poured down my face. My stamina was rapidly depleting as my body worked overtime to regenerate the mana I was constantly dumping into the battery. The pain was excruciating, like holding a branding iron, but the results were undeniable.

The transparent crystal was slowly turning a deep, solid sapphire blue. It was filling up.

Crack.

A faint sound came from within my chest.

[System Notification: Extreme Stress Detected in Internal Circuit.]

[Friction-Purification Process Successful.]

[Permanent Stat Increase: MP +1]

I gasped, cutting the flow.

I collapsed backward onto the mattress, chest heaving, my right arm numb and trembling.

"MP 19," I rasped, a tired, triumphant grin on my face. "Grinding stats the hard way."

I held the Essence Spring up to the moonlight. It was about one-third full. Based on my calculations, one-third of this B-Grade battery held roughly 50 MP. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

With this, my actual combat pool wasn’t 19. It was 69.

I was no longer an F-Rank anomaly. I had the fuel tank of a solid C-Rank mage, combined with the extreme output efficiency of my physics-based spells.

Tap. Tap.

My eyes snapped open.

"Come in."

The heavy oak door creaked open. The hallway light spilled in, illuminating a figure stepping softly into my room.

It was Lily.

She had shed her strict, starched maid uniform. In its place, she wore a see-through, black silk nightgown that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. The sheer fabric clung to the generous curves of her hips and breasts, the dark material creating a stark, maddening contrast against her pale skin. Her golden eyes glinted in the dim light, full of absolute devotion and a heavy, undeniable hunger.

"Master," she purred, closing and locking the door behind her with a soft click. "You’ve been working so hard in here. I could feel the mana fluctuations from the hallway."

She walked toward the bed, her hips swaying with a slow, hypnotic rhythm.

"I have," I admitted, my voice still a bit rough from the exertion. I propped myself up on my elbows. "I’m pushing the circuit to its limits."

Lily climbed onto the edge of the mattress, crawling toward me on her hands and knees. The neckline of her nightgown dipped dangerously low, giving me a perfect view of her heavy breasts swaying with her movements.

"A master who works so diligently..." she whispered, a flirtatious, wicked smile spreading across her lips as she straddled my thighs. "...should have proper relaxation as well. Don’t you agree?"

She reached out, her cool, soft hands gently taking my trembling right arm. She began to massage the overworked muscles, her thumbs pressing perfectly into the pressure points to relieve the residual ache of the mana recoil.

"You’re a very attentive maid, Lily," I murmured, letting my head fall back against the pillows. The contrast between the searing pain I had just endured and the silken touch of her hands was intoxicating.

"I exist only to serve your needs, Alex," she replied softly, leaning down to press a tender kiss to the inside of my wrist. Her breath ghosted over my sensitive skin. "Your body is tense. Your heart is beating so fast. Let me drain that tension away."

She shifted her weight, grinding her hips slowly against my lap. Even exhausted, my body reacted instantly to her. The friction of her sheer nightgown against my trousers sent a jolt of electricity straight to my groin.

"Is this standard Edelhart relaxation therapy?" I teased, my left hand coming up to trace the curve of her waist.

"It’s an exclusive service," Lily whispered, her golden eyes darkening as she leaned in, her lips hovering just millimeters from mine. "Reserved only for the Heir. Tell me what you want, Master."

"I want you to take this off," I said, my fingers hooking into the thin silk straps on her shoulders.

Lily’s smile widened into something feral and deeply satisfied.

"Your wish is my command."