Is It Wrong for an Extra to Steal the Protagonist's Harem?-Chapter 79: Tournament

"Sir Alex," Emma said, her voice so sweet it was practically venomous. "Who is this... aggressively unrefined commoner?"

Maya’s smirk widened into a dangerous, feral grin. She leaned forward, crossing her arms and pushing her breasts up aggressively against the edge of the table. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Oh~ so you were so busy boasting about your relationship that you didn’t even saw me huh. FYI I am Maya, a close friend of Alex, and also his training partenr" Maya fired back, her eyes locked onto Emma. "We get very hands-on during our training sessions. In fact, Alex was just teaching me some deep... penetration... tactics yesterday. Right, Alex?"

The double entendre was entirely intentional. Maya was marking her territory.

Crack.

The silver fork in Emma’s hand bent completely out of shape under her sudden, vice-like grip.

"Hands-on?" Emma whispered, her neck slowly turning to look at Maya. The terrifying, murderous Yandere aura she usually kept hidden was leaking out into the open. "How utterly brazen. You should be careful, commoner. Vermin that get too close to the nobility often find themselves missing their hands. Or their tongues."

"Oh, really?" Maya scoffed, leaning even closer, her delinquent pride refusing to back down from the transfer student. "Why don’t you try it, Princess? I’ll freeze your little halo right to the floor."

The air between them crackled with raw, explosive magical tension. Emma was a fraction of a second away from summoning a localized gravity well, and Maya’s hands were already glowing with a faint, icy blue mist.

Having two heavily armed, fiercely jealous women preparing to murder each other over me in the middle of the cafeteria was a massive boost to my ego, but it was terrible for unit cohesion.

It was time to assert absolute control.

I leaned back against the velvet cushions, spreading my legs slightly to claim the space under the table.

Without breaking my relaxed, arrogant posture, I dropped both of my hands below the table line.

My right hand clamped down firmly on Emma’s pale, bare thigh just above her knee sock. I squeezed the soft flesh hard, my thumb pressing directly into one of the faint, reddish bruises I had left on her the night before.

At the exact same time, my left hand shot out and gripped Maya’s knee, sliding smoothly upward under her pleated skirt to cup the warm, muscular curve of her inner thigh.

Both girls gasped simultaneously.

Their magical auras fizzled out instantly, completely overridden by the sudden, dominant physical contact.

"Ladies," I said, my voice dropping to a low, commanding timber that only the two of them could hear. "If you’re going to sit at my table, you will behave. I don’t tolerate fighting among my pieces."

Under the table, I slid my fingers higher on both of their thighs, brushing dangerously close to their sensitive centers.

Maya’s breath hitched. Her brash delinquent facade melted instantly into flushed, wide-eyed submission. She bit her lower lip, her thighs instinctively parting just a fraction of an inch to grant my left hand better access.

On my right, Emma let out a soft, stuttering squeak. The murderous Yandere was immediately pacified by the overwhelming reminder of her physical submission from the night before. She leaned heavily against my shoulder, her golden eyes hazy with instant arousal.

[System Notification: Harem Conflict Suppressed.]

[Target: Emma Arlon. Submission Level: Maximum.]

[Target: Maya. Submission Level: High.]

[Lust Points: +80]

"That’s better," I smirked, slowly withdrawing my hands from under their skirts and bringing them back to rest casually on the table.

I picked up my own fork and took a bite of the monster meat, ignoring the fact that both girls sitting beside me were now panting softly, their faces bright red.

"Maya," I said casually, breaking the heavy, erotic tension that had practically turned the air in the booth to syrup. "I assume you didn’t just come over here to pick a fight with my fiancée. What’s the situation?"

Maya took a deep, shaky breath, physically shaking her head to clear the lust-induced fog from her brain. Her blue eyes, usually sharp and defiant, looked at me with a newfound mixture of deep respect and raw, undisguised hunger.

"R-Right," Maya stammered, crossing her legs tightly under the table to hide her trembling thighs. She cleared her throat, forcing her delinquent persona back into place. "I came because the entire academy is losing its mind. You beat up a Knight Department student? In broad daylight?"

"He was blocking the walkway," I replied smoothly, cutting another piece of monster meat. "I simply moved him."

"You blasted him fifteen meters into a sparring ring, Alex!" Maya hissed, leaning forward. "Which would be hilarious, except for your timing! You did it right before the Exchange Tournament! The other Magic students are furious with you. They’re saying you just made an enemy out of those brutes right when we have to face them."

I paused, my fork hovering in the air.

"Tournament?" I asked, genuinely bewildered. "What tournament?"

Maya stared at me as if I had just asked what color the sky was. Next to me, Emma tilted her head, her golden eyes blinking in innocent confusion.

"What? You didn’t know?" Maya let out a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Are you living under a rock? The Inter-Department Exchange Tournament. It happens every semester. The professors haven’t officially announced the exact dates yet, but it’s guaranteed to be next week."

"Explain," I commanded, taking a sip of water.

Maya sighed, tracing the rim of her own cup. "It’s a joint practical exam between the Magic and Knight Departments. One-on-one duels in an enclosed arena. The faculty claims it’s to foster ’healthy competition and mutual understanding’ between the vanguard and the rearguard."

"A barbaric, idiotic tradition," Emma chimed in, her angelic voice laced with aristocratic disgust. She delicately wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Putting elegant mages in a confined ring with brainless, sweaty brutes. It is nothing more than a legalized public beating."

Emma wasn’t wrong.

The concept of a close-range duel between a Mage and a Knight was fundamentally rigged. Mages required distance to chant their incantations and weave their mana circuits. Knights relied on explosive physical power and Aura Dashes that could close a ten-meter gap in less than a second.

In a massive, open battlefield, Mages were gods of destruction. But in a standard twenty-by-twenty-meter arena? They were sitting ducks.

"Every single semester, the Knight Department completely dominates us," Maya grumbled, crossing her arms, pushing her cleavage up defensively. "It’s completely one-sided. Usually, the Knights go easy on the first-years just to show off their superiority. They knock us out of bounds and laugh it off."

Maya leaned in closer, her blue eyes narrowing.

"But now? You just publicly humiliated one of their second-year veterans. Kaelen Thorne is currently spitting blood in the infirmary. You kicked the hornet’s nest, Alex. The Knights are out for blood to avenge their pride. They aren’t going to hold back next week. They are going to be absolutely ruthless, and the rest of our classmates are terrified they’re going to be the collateral damage."

Ah. Now it made sense.

The terrified, resentful glares from the eastern wing of the cafeteria weren’t just shock at my newfound strength. They were the glares of sheep who realized someone had just provoked the wolves right before shearing season.

I leaned back against the plush velvet, a slow, dark, calculating smile spreading across my lips.

"Let them be angry," I said softly, the arrogance in my voice absolute. "Sheep always resent the shepherd when he draws his sword."

Maya blinked, slightly taken aback by my complete lack of concern. "Alex, you’re not getting it. You might have caught Kaelen off guard today, but in the tournament, they’ll be ready. They have Aura plating. Magic resistance training. If a Knight gets within two meters of you in that ring, you’re dead."

"If a Knight harms sir Alex," Emma suddenly interrupted, her golden eyes flashing with a psychotic, terrifying light, "I will personally melt their armor to their skin and turn their bones to ash. No filthy brute is going to lay a finger on him."

Maya stared at the pristine, elegant noble girl, finally sensing the absolute insanity lurking just beneath the surface.

"Okay... wow. You’re actually crazy," Maya muttered.

"Ladies," I intervened smoothly, trailing a finger down Emma’s cheek to pacify the Yandere before she summoned a fireball. "There’s no need for murder. Not yet, anyway."

I looked out over the cafeteria. I was not afraid of a few meatheads with swords.

Unlike the other terrified Mages, I had the System. I had an absurdly high Stamina stat. And most importantly, I had the complete meta-knowledge of this world’s lore.

But Maya was right about one thing: catching Kaelen off guard was a parlor trick. If I was going to enter a 1v1 PvP tournament against fully armored Knights and come out on top, I couldn’t just rely on kinetic shockwaves and my bare hands. I needed proper gear. I needed skills that defied this world’s logic.

’As much as I’ve been enjoying the endless supply of willing, beautiful women throwing themselves into my bed, it’s time I pull my focus back to my actual strength,’ I thought, my eyes drifting across the cafeteria until they landed on the Protagonist, Ren Montclair.