The latter half of the date turned into an openly competitive harem drama.
Four imperial consorts, vying for the position of empress, carried out low intensity little maneuvers right under the emperor's nose.
Among them,
Hitori was the weakest.
She did not even realize that everyone was fighting over a man.
But precisely because she was unaware, she kept making moves that left the other three utterly stunned. In a way, perhaps she was actually the strongest of all the consorts?
Kita ranked third.
She was consciously trying to win the man.
Unfortunately…
Her strength was lacking.
Because of certain things that happened in the simulations, she always felt a bit timid in front of Ryo.
Still, it was fine. Kita had never planned to become empress anyway.
Throughout history, in most cases, the empress was never the woman most favored by the emperor.
She wanted to be the bewitching consort who captivated all, turning Toru into a foolish ruler.
Along the way,
Ryo suppressed the others and took full advantage.
Sadly, in the end, she was still no match for Nijika.
Mainly because the girl Toru liked the most was Nijika.
The one most favored by the emperor was never the seductive consort.
It was always the gentle, capable virtuous consort.
Ryo knew exactly why…
It was all the simulator's fault.
Clearly, in reality, Nijika had done nothing at all, yet through several simulations, she had gained a massive amount of Toru's affection.
The above was the report of Toru's first ever shura field date.
...
Time quickly arrived at Christmas Eve.
The streets were strung with colorful lights, and shops had put up Christmas trees.
On a holiday overflowing with couples' vibes, Toru instead came to a live house in Shinjuku.
'My god, so many single dogs. Does everyone really have nothing to do on Christmas?'
Looking around, he sighed inwardly.
Coming to a concert on Christmas instead of going on a date was rather strange.
...Here is a little piece of knowledge that is not exactly obscure.
From 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 3 a.m., it is the time period with the highest frequency of sexual activity in the world.
If not for the fact that all the harem members were here participating in the live,
Toru would not have ended up alone on Christmas.
It was kind of funny.
Even though he had mastered formidable bedroom techniques in the simulated world,
In reality, Toru was still a virgin, who had barely even held a girl's hand.
A perfectly clean and upright pure boy.
Toru looked toward the stage ahead.
Kessoku Band came on as the first opening act.
However, since this was an away performance, there were not many people in the audience who recognized them.
After a brief awkward silence,
Polite applause finally sounded from below the stage.
————
The live ended.
"Ah, I'm exhausted."
Inside the dressing room,
Hiroi Kikuri stretched lazily, then grabbed a can of beer and poured it down her throat.
Because she was going to attend Ijichi Seika's birthday party later that night,
Hiroi Kikuri had rarely abstained from alcohol for half a day. Yes, only half a day.
"How did it feel?"
Hiroi Kikuri looked at the members of Kessoku Band.
Today should have been their first time performing a live in a hall with over a hundred people.
"In the middle, I kind of wanted to cry. Nobody said anything," Ryo said with a blank expression.
The atmosphere was extremely cold. Anyone who did not know better would have thought it was a library.
Even more morbidly, calling it a morgue would not have been wrong.
"Hahaha, well, it was your first time appearing at an away venue. Relax," Hiroi Kikuri laughed.
This live was just to help them build some courage.
Otherwise, when the music festival preliminaries came around next spring, these girls would probably freeze up on stage.
In that regard, Hiroi Kikuri was mistaken. None of them were pushovers.
Through the simulator's cheating-like method, their skills had improved at an astonishing rate.
Their upper limits had all reached around lv.5. As for how much they could bring out on the spot, that depended on their condition.
Take Hitori for example. Her guitar playing had already brushed against the edge of master level, yet during live performance she could only bring out about lv.4, not even half of a professional's level.
"Thank you very much, Miss Hiroi. Without you, we would not have had the chance to participate in a live like this."
As the band's leader, Nijika bowed and expressed her gratitude.
"No need to be so formal. I really like you girls."
Hiroi Kikuri took another big gulp of beer, a flush of drunken red appearing on her face.
"Where are we holding the celebration dinner?" Ohtsuki Yoyoko walked over.
She really did not want to spend Christmas alone. That would be too miserable.
"Shimokitazawa, let's go!"
Hiroi Kikuri raised her hand.
"I, I want to go home."
Hitori panicked.
Weren't they supposed to be celebrating with familiar faces?
Why had there suddenly appeared so many 'strangers'?
"Hitori-chan, backing out at a time like this is not good."
Kita shattered her illusion.
Besides, someone had already gone ahead to Shimokitazawa. Standing him up would not be very nice.
During the middle of the live,
Toru had returned early to the Starry to help set up the venue for the Christmas party and Ijichi Seika's birthday party.
Since the hall was already quite suitable, he did not mess with it much.
He only arranged the food, alcohol, and drinks.
...
Half an hour later.
"How was the live?"
Ijichi Seika, wearing a paper crown symbolizing the birthday star, asked with concern.
Hearing that,
Nijika imitated the inverted sentence structure her mom's simulator often used.
"The live, everyone was super hyped, there was street dancing, stage diving, spinning around and all that. After the performance, there was even a full ten minutes of applause…"
Nijika cleared her throat. "None of that happened. It was just a very ordinary away performance."
That felt good.
She had always wanted to say something like that once.
Ijichi Seika felt that the sentence pattern was strangely familiar,
But she still comforted her. "Generally speaking, the first time performing in an unfamiliar live house is always like this. Don't take it to heart."
Not far away,
"Toru-kun, come drink with big sis for a bit."
Hiroi Kikuri slung an arm around Toru's shoulder and let out a drunken burp.
Toru wore an expression of utter despair.
The decision he regretted most in his entire life was, without a doubt, getting to know Hiroi Kikuri. There were no exceptions.
"Hiroi! Don't pressure a kid into drinking!" Ijichi Seika hurriedly shouted.
"Tch…"
How boring.
Hiroi Kikuri let go of Toru and moved toward the others who were drinking.
In a corner, PA-san was quietly drinking alone, her movements elegant, yet the speed at which the alcohol in front of her disappeared was astonishing.
As a hidden boss, PA-san's alcohol tolerance far exceeded Hiroi Kikuri's. After all, in RPG terms, she was like an unromancenable shopkeeper NPC.
Beside her,
Ryo drank fruit juice.
In her mind, she was thinking…
About the next opportunity to capture Toru.
Tonight, she planned to give the real world romance progress a push.
——————————