Transmigrated As The Villainess' Boyfriend With A... SSS Harem System?

Vauxol pulled a white canvas from under his desk.

Its edges gleamed with a faint gold, and the fabric seemed to absorb the lamplight rather than reflect it.

"If we're going to play, let's do it seriously," he said, placing it on the desk between us.

"How do you play?"

"It's a traditional Garialys game. Quite simple. I paint. You talk. Each turn, one of us creates something. The other has to destroy it. Whoever can't respond loses the round. Three rounds. Each round won is one question."

"And the last one?"

"The last one is for the final winner. No limits."

Vauxol dipped his fingers into a jar of rainbow ink that appeared from some drawer.

"Ready, young Elcronne?"

"No."

"Perfect. Uncertainty is more honest than the audacity of confidence."

He touched the canvas. The rainbow ink spread, forming a line. The line curved. It closed. A circle. Inside the circle, he painted four vertical lines. Bars.

A rainbow cage extended beyond the canvas and materialized around my chair. Real. The bars enclosed me.

Was this the ability of his Empero? I tried to bend the bars, but they were solid, almost as much as steel.

"First round," Vauxol said, leaning back. "Free yourself."

I observed the bars. His Empero seemed to turn whatever he painted into reality. How long it lasted, I didn't know, nor did I know its resistance or possible effects.

Closing my eyes, I tried to concentrate.

My Empero began to emanate.

I tried to make it denser, but it was difficult to maintain the flow around my body while trying to compress it in a single place.

"You're just looking at it. Empero is much more than an aura that emanates from you, young Elcronne."

Nodding, I tried to see the problem from a different perspective.

If just looking at it wasn't enough, I had to observe it.

Analyzing my Empero, I noticed it was black, and grew darker as I concentrated it.

I created the image of a black bar in my mind, and my Empero seemed to mold itself to the image... But it still wasn't enough.

Professor Vauxol shook his head.

"All wrong. You know some theory, but you're lacking a lot of practice."

"What should I do, then?"

"Remember we're betting. It's not my place to tell you anything."

Damn it.

"Actually," he added, "I should make things more... interesting."

Professor Vauxol grabbed more of that rainbow ink, and traced a number. Twenty. Then he drew an hourglass symbol above it. Time. And finally, he added arrows on the sides pointing toward the center. Compression.

The paint glowed.

At first, I didn't notice any difference.

Twenty...

The cage seemed to move.

Nineteen...

Was it moving toward me?

Seventeen...

No. The cage was shrinking. Damn it. I had to act fast.

Sixteen...

Just thinking about an image while observing your Empero isn't enough; you have to add something more.

Fifteen...

I felt the ceiling of the cage on my head.

Wait. Feel. Empero can be seen, but it can also be felt.

Thirteen...

I approached the bar I was forming and inhaled. It had a salty smell, like coastal wind.

Ten...

And now that I remembered, every Empero generates its own sound when its user manifests it in quantity and uses their ability.

Lianza's, for example, crackled when she shaped her icy environment, or when she created ice floes. The intensity of the sound increased according to the amount of Empero used.

Seven...

Space was starting to run out. I had to start shrinking.

Observing my Empero, I created the image of a black bar in my mind. My Empero began to mold itself, but, just like my previous attempt, it wasn't enough.

Five...

I stuck out my tongue and tried to taste it. Faint, but it had a salty tang.

Now I added touch. I thought of the bar as something as solid as steel.

The Empero reacted. The bar became solid as steel, as resistant as the cage.

Three...

Already in fetal position, I took the bar and positioned it in the middle, horizontally.

Two...

The cage started to contract more slowly due to the resistance of my bar... but the bar began to bend.

If the bar gave way, I was dead.

One...

Gripping the bar, I concentrated all the Empero I could into it.

The bar creaked under the pressure. The metal gave way in my hands.

Giving up was out of the question. Teeth clenched, I poured every last drop of Empero into the bar. Everything depended on this. My life hung in the balance.

Zero...

Silence.

"Well done."

I sighed, relieved. Although barely, the bar I'd created by condensing my Empero had held.

I dispelled it. The black Empero dissolved into the air like smoke. My hands trembled. The bandages were soaked with sweat.

Vauxol watched me from his chair with fingers stained by that rainbow ink.

"How did you know?" I asked. "How did you know it would work?"

"I didn't." He wiped his fingers with a cloth. "But you have instinct. And instinct, in the absence of technique, is the only thing that kept you alive, rookie."

"So I won the round?"

"You won the round. First time I've seen a rookie survive. Normally, when they realize the cage is shrinking, they give up without even trying. So ask your question, young Elcronne. You've earned it."

"What type of Empero do you have, Professor?"

"As you may know," he explained, "I belong to a vassal house of the Garialys. In those lands, Emperos aren't limited to elemental and physical ones. Conceptual ones exist as well."

Conceptual. So he had the same type of Empero as me? I leaned in, interested.

"My Empero," he continued, "is a conceptual one."

"Is that all you'll tell me?"

"That's all you asked. 'What type of Empero do you have, Professor?' Next time, young Elcronne, I suggest you formulate your questions better, if you're looking for a specific answer."

The professor touched the canvas again. His fingers moved fast. Broad strokes. Spirals that became lines and lines that became shapes.

The room darkened. The walls disappeared. The ceiling evaporated.

Now we were in a forest. Black trees without leaves. Thick fog that reached my knees. And what made my skin crawl the most: absolute silence. No birds. No wind.

Nothing.

Just the professor and I, with the uncertainty of whether I'd survive this round.

"Round two," he said, his voice coming from somewhere among the trees... or was it the fog? "Find me."