Harem System In A fantasy World

Maya went stiff.

"Do not bother trying to protect him or anything, whether for his benefit or for your own reasons; tell me everything. I can see that you are a little tense. I take it you are hiding something from me?"

Maya flinched, she panicked, and her gaze drifted to the floor.

Smith’s gaze sharpened, "Tell me everything."

Maya’s eyes trembled, so he already knew that she was hiding something. It seemed her efforts to conceal some truths from this man had been easily read.

Regardless, since she had been found out, it would be foolish to try to hide anything more, lest she bring down his ire upon herself. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t divert his suspicions with half-truths.

She let out a breath, and so, she began giving him a brief account of how she had been pitted against Elion and how he had thoroughly thwarted her plans despite her having the upper hand.

She explained how she lost terribly. To her surprise, by the end of it, Smith did not seem as angered as she had expected.

In fact, even when she mentioned that Elion had let slip that he had received ten rewards, he did not seem bothered. If anything, he seemed happy.

His eyes were actually shining brightly. "Interesting," he said lightly. "So the boy is actually that powerful."

His smile widened, "The academy lost such a wonderful piece, and it fell right into my hands." He laughed.

"I believe this is fate." He declared it boldly.

He seemed to have forgotten Maya’s presence entirely. His interest was now solely on Elion.

He began muttering to himself, "I have to play this well. The boy may be powerful for his age, but he is not all-powerful. He is only an Advanced Mage, and he will need protection from his enemies."

His fingers tapped lightly against the desk.

"And though I cannot directly face a ducal family, I can do my best to divert their attention and plead his innocence to a higher power; he is innocent after all. That way, he feels indebted to the Alliance, and he becomes the perfect pawn."

Smith smiled to himself, "This should work, but I should play this carefully, so that I don’t lose control of him as the academy did."

Someone like Elion no doubt hated being manipulated. His contract demands said as much, but Smith would make it work somehow.

The boy was inexperienced in the ways of this world, while he had plenty of experience under his belt. Patience would be key.

Smith smiled lightly, and a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes as he reaffirmed his plans. When everything eventually went his way, he would ask the boy to reveal the method he used to raise his talent.

He would not deny his benefactor this much at least, right?

Meanwhile, Maya was looking at her father as if he were crazy. Did he seriously not hear what she had said?

Elion had defeated an Archdemon as an Advanced Mage, and that was before he integrated with whatever bloodline he had gotten, which was no doubt far more powerful than what the rest of them had received, judging from how much it had changed his physical appearance alone.

What did that mean for his current strength?

How much stronger had he gotten since then? And her father was thinking of manipulating such a beast?

However, she shook her head and dismissed the thought. It was not her place to look out for her father. If he wanted to play with fire, then she would let him.

However, she was sure of one thing.

If Elion had defeated an Archdemon as an Advanced Mage, considering the fact that he had no doubt grown stronger, she would not be surprised if the current him was a match for her father.

But that was a stretch. Fighting against a rogue demon was not the same as fighting an experienced man like her father.

Elion would probably struggle, but when she thought about what happened when Elion ventured into the maw of a Saint-class Demon King, she suddenly shuddered.

Elion had returned alive while the Demon King had not.

She did not know the exact details of what had actually unfolded, but him being alive was already a great achievement in her opinion.

A wry smile appeared on her beautiful features as she ran the possibilities through her mind. It seemed everyone who went up against this supposed boy was bound to lose.

Now, it was just her father’s turn.

"That aside," Smith began again once he had settled his thoughts, "I am curious, though. You said he is so powerful that he could have killed you many times if he wanted. You were that outmatched, and yet he did not."

Smith’s gaze remained fixed on her.

"I do not believe that he is so magnanimous as to let you live out of the goodness of his heart after you tried to kill him. That leaves me wondering, how did you convince him to let you live?"

Maya frowned.

The question itself was not difficult to answer. The problem was that she could not be sure of the exact reason herself. She did not know Elion well enough to make a proper judgment on why he did the things he did the way he did.

She would be lying if she said that a part of her hadn’t been prepared to be killed by him that day, after all, she was also prepared to do the same to him, and yet, after Elion got what he wanted, he let them go, just like that.

She shrugged, "Perhaps it did not feel right to him to kill someone he might have considered a friend before. Or perhaps he just took pity on us."

Smith nodded, "Perhaps." His eyes narrowed faintly, "So you did not use your womanly charms to seduce him and offer up your body in exchange for your life?"

Maya’s eyes narrowed, and she quickly shook her head, "I did no such thing, Father."

Smith smiled. He did not comment immediately. Instead, he gestured for her to come around the table. Maya hesitated for only a moment before getting up and walking toward him.

"Sit." He patted his lap lightly to show what he meant.

Maya stiffened. What was he doing?

He wanted her to sit on his lap?

Her father never did anything of the sort.

What was his game here?

She balled her hands into fists, her thoughts racing. In the end, she did as she was told. She sat uncomfortably on Smith’s lap.

Smith looked at her side profile, then brushed a strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He studied her features for a long while without saying a word, his hands tracing her smooth jaw and cheeks.

Maya tried to turn her head away involuntarily, but she stopped herself when she realised that perhaps she was not supposed to resist.

’What is he doing!?’

She screamed inwardly.

A certain thought threatened to bloom in her heart when she considered the way he was acting, but she immediately dismissed it, unwilling to even entertain the possibility.

It could not be that her own father was interested in her, right?

No.

He would not be that disgusting. She told herself that again and again, but a small part of her wanted to get up right now and bolt out of this room if the worst-case scenario did end up unfolding.

"You have grown into a beautiful woman," Smith commented with a light smile on his face. "It took me a while to realise it, but you look just like your mother."

Maya’s body went stiff. She bit her lip and held back whatever tears threatened to spill from her eyes at the mention of a mother she never knew.

Smith drew his hand back from her cheek and gave her back a small pat, "In the event that my initial plans to manipulate Elion fail, I might have to resort to... other measures."

Maya’s breath caught.

"Let me elaborate so that you will not be surprised in the future," Smith continued. "Elion might have let you live only because you are a woman, and because he fancies you. So your task will be to execute a backup plan if I fail."

His voice remained eerily calm, "You will be my honey trap." He said it casually, as though he had not just shattered something inside her.

Maya’s breathing stopped for a moment; she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, but she immediately covered it with her upper lip, and though her eyes glistened, she did not let her weakness show.

Her balled fists were trembling now.

"Do you understand?" Smith asked.

"Y-Yes, Father."

Maya’s voice was hoarse, but she nodded. Inwardly, however, another thought rang through her mind, ’Will I really have to spend my whole life as this man’s tool?’

The worst part was that the vial she had given him was about to give him more days in this world.

More days to live.

More days to torment her.

More days to use her however he wished.