The Third Trial
"...Gulp."
Staring at Frey, who lay motionless beside her like a corpse, Irina began swallowing dryly.
"No one has really offered their virginity to Frey yet, right?"
Kania was out first. If that cat-like woman had given her purity to Frey, she'd have strutted around making damn sure everyone knew it.
Clana and Serena were off the list too. Clana had hated Frey up until recently—no time for that. And Serena's Subjugation Curse—based on every scrap of magical knowledge Irina had—prevented her from getting intimate with anyone.
Perloché was the clincher. The saintess had proudly flashed the Stone of Purity right in front of her, beaming like she'd won a prize.
So, no one had given themselves to Frey yet.
"Frey, you asleep?"
Reaching that conclusion, Irina spoke to him in a trembling voice.
"........."
"For real?"
She grabbed his shoulder and shook, but he stayed dead silent. Frey was a light sleeper, but after the nonstop chaos today, he'd crashed hard.
Swish...
Realizing this, Irina inched closer, sliding her body toward him.
"Mm..."
Pressing tight against Frey's chest, she whispered softly, her face now inches from his.
"You're really out cold."
His deep, even breaths tickled her skin. Their heartbeats mingled—his steady thrum clashing with her frantic pounding. Every exhale made his chest heave until it met the soft swell of hers, finally stilling.
"Ugh, ungh..."
Clutching her bursting heart, Irina reached tentatively for the button on his collar.
"Meow!"
"Eek!?"
The cat doll leaped onto the bed, startling her into pulling away.
"Meowww...!"
"W-what!?"
The cat glared at her, then burrowed into Frey's arms, shaking its head furiously. Why did it look so desperately pleading?
"S-sorry. Just borrowing your master for a bit."
But Irina was desperate too. She yanked the doll from his chest, slapped a quick binding spell on it, and flung it to the floor.
"Meow..."
With the intruder gone, she reached for Frey again, ignoring the pitiful mewls. But her hand froze short of the button. She buried her face in his chest instead, mumbling.
"If I do this... will Frey even like it?"
He always swallowed hard around Kania without thinking. With Serena, it went without saying. Even with Clana or Perloché, he noticed them.
But just now? Nothing. She'd stripped him bare, exposed every inch of skin, stroked his naked body for hours—and he hadn't blushed once.
She was the only one embarrassed. Frey didn't see her as a woman.
"Hah, who would? Look at me."
Rough, fierce, pride too damn big for her own good. Covered in scars head to toe.
"And Frey's surrounded by girls."
She muttered, feeling smaller than ever today.
"........."
Silence stretched on.
Shooo...
"Meow."
Aside from the cat doll—bound tight, clawing at the bed leg in a frenzy before going eerily still and belching black smoke.
Swish.
Just when it seemed everything would fizzle out, Irina lifted her face from Frey's chest, resolve hardening her features.
Click.
She reached out again, undoing the button at his collar.
Click, click, click.
Slowly downward, one by one, with careful fingers. All buttons undone, she whispered, cheeks aflame.
"This is... just magic."
Self-hypnosis kicked in. "One step in the ritual. Essential. Nothing more, nothing less."
Her trembling hands—betraying her words—slid off his coat. Then to the crisp white shirt beneath.
"So... so..."
Shirt gone, she climbed atop him gingerly, then froze in panic.
"...H-how does this even work?"
Previous loops, this one—her life was magic research and battles. No boyfriends, barely any guys. She was clueless here.
"D-don't know."
She wasn't totally ignorant. Curses and spells often used intimacy as a conduit; she'd memorized the basics from tomes.
"...Hah."
But theory clashed with reality. A lifetime walled off from men left her awkward, spiraling into panic.
"D-do I strip first? Or him? Wait, already did... pants still on."
Somehow pushing forward, she fumbled his belt, rambling.
"It's magic. An extension of magic. Activating the oath. Not self-indulgence or anything creepy..."
She tossed the belt aside, words falling on deaf ears.
"Hm?"
Her eyes snapped to the window, sharp.
"What the—?"
A racket outside the drawn blinds.
"Intruder?"
She slipped a scroll from her pocket, creeping toward the window.
"...Hoo."
Shrrk!
Blinds up, scroll gripped tight, ready to unleash hell.
"Huh!?"
What greeted her was absurd.
"Cawwww!!!"
"Gugu! Gugu gu gu!!!"
"Tweet! Tweeet!!"
Birds that had perched quietly—albeit with fierce glares—were going berserk.
"What the hell..."
Irina scowled at the ridiculous scene, ready to zap them with a scare spell.
"......!!!"
Then she froze, spotting something.
"T-that's...!?"
Amid the frenzy, a spherical purple blob darted about.
"The secret cult leader's energy!"
Purple mass reeking of the bastard she'd just fought to the death.
"No way. I landed a solid hit. He took damage too, even if I got messed up..."
Her face drained pale as she muttered.
"Annoying pests."
"...What!?"
The secret cult leader's voice echoed from the blob amid the circling birds. Irina's eyes widened in shock.
"Cawww!!"
"Gugu gu!!"
The owl and pigeon dove at it.
"Filthy birds, daring to—"
Shaaa...
"Hm?"
Both birds erupted in white energy.
"That power... spirits!?"
The blob recoiled just before contact.
"...No doubt."
Crackle crackle zap!
Purple lightning lashed out, binding them.
"Cawww..."
"Gu..."
They resisted the sinister aura but faltered.
"Always thought so, but his power is magnificent. Even ancient spirits fall this easily."
The blob gloated in triumph.
"Tweet!"
"What?"
A determined little canary charged. It dodged frantically.
Boom boom boom!!!
"Gah!!"
The canary self-destructed, blasting solar mana everywhere. The blob staggered.
"Raaagh!!!"
Crackle zap zap!!!
"Gaaaah!!"
Irina's strongest attack scroll—prepped all this time—smashed through the window into it.
"Grgh..."
The blob shrank and swelled, dropping the owl and pigeon.
"Can't... end here..."
The white spirit energy they'd poured in began eroding it.
"About to be abandoned by the great one... Empire—no, world at my feet, so close!"
It snarled in rage.
"Don't know what this Trial Invitation means or how it enabled this..."
"What the—?"
"But I won't quit here!!!"
The blob unleashed all its demonic energy in a burst.
Crash!!
Shattering the window, it dove inside, leaving the wounded birds behind.
"W-wait!!"
Irina yanked out another scroll in panic, but the rampaging blob was already at Frey's side.
Shooo...!
As it lunged into him—
"Meow!!!"
The cat doll rocketed up, black magic flaring, body-slamming the blob.
"Frey!! Wake up!!! We gotta get out now...!!!"
Irina seized the gap, hurling herself at him, slapping his cheek.
"...Frey?"
But he didn't stir.
"Eek...!!"
"Frey's surprisingly well-prepared."
"N-no!!"
The blob hurled the straining cat doll away with a pained grimace, then dodged Irina's frantic scroll barrage effortlessly.
Squelch!
It plunged into Frey successfully.
"........."
Dormitory fell silent.
"Trial Invitation... Trial... No way?"
Desperately racking her brain, Irina replayed the cult leader's mutterings and stared at Frey in dawning horror.
"It's... just like last time..."
Confirming his state matched the second trial's coma, she collapsed, face ashen.
"No, no no no. No...!"
Panicking, she drew black magic from her body, mimicking Kania's spell from the second trial. Unconscious intrusion.
Her self-esteem might've tanked, but she was still a magical genius this loop. She'd seen it enough to replicate any spell perfectly—even black magic.
"...Ugh!"
But as she pierced his subconscious, something repelled her, clutching her heart.
Something's... deliberately blocking me...
Right—the trial system barred outsiders since the second one.
"D-doesn't work. If this keeps up, Frey'll..."
Believing she'd triggered it, Irina floundered at the inexplicable.
"........."
After stroking his pale face endlessly—
"...Let's try."
She gritted her teeth and stood.
"Don't know what's blocking me."
Biting her lip until it bled, she headed to the desk.
"...But we'll see who wins."
Using the blood as medium, she inscribed complex runes on blank scrolls, calculations whirring.
The mage who'd once defied natural order with a blood oath to a mortal—
"I'll... save you no matter what... Frey..."
Challenged the world again.
.........
"...Where's this?"
Irina Philliard blinked awake, dazed, scanning around.
"No way..."
After an eternity looking—
"Did I... succeed?"
She stood, incredulous.
"For real?"
Thousands of scrolls burned, hundreds of formulas derived, dozens invented anew. Pure will to save Frey had surpassed her past life's peak.
No time to celebrate—she bolted somewhere.
"Gotta save Frey quick..."
The Starlight mansion loomed inexplicably ahead. His home—so he'd be there. Simple as that.
"W-who...?"
"Outta my way!"
Bursting through the gate, past a maid frozen mid-sweep.
"Please, please be there..."
Storming up the stairs to his room.
"Please..."
At his door, deep breath.
"...Frey?"
She eased it open.
"I-I'm here, Frey! So you're safe now..."
Spotting silver hair poking from the bed's corner, joy lit her face—but
"...Huh?"
She froze at his huddled form.
"I know you're sad, big bro... but, but..."
Aria's voice drifted from behind the closed door.
"Time to accept it..."
Irina's jaw dropped.
"...Mom's gone from this world."
She grasped the third trial's nature, more or less.
"U-um..."
Frey—shrunken, terrified—spoke in a quivering child's voice.
"Miss...?"
Tears brimmed in his pure, fragile eyes as he sniffled.
"Who... are you...?"
He looked like a tiny kid.