The Trial of Nistrond and the Naked Half-Elf
The Trial of Nistrond and the Naked Half-Elf
Bella's sudden whisper rattled my composure, if only for a moment.
She'd spoken directly into my ear, so my lovers hadn't caught what she'd asked.
"Ahem...!"
"What exactly was that nasty little whisper about? Should I be calling you Lady Fox instead of Vice Guild Master?"
Of course, not hearing it didn't matter!
They were close enough to feel each other's breath — there was no way my lovers could miss Bella leaning in to murmur right beside me.
Rebecca simply fixed Bella with a cold stare, but Kate took a different approach. She strode right over and clapped a hand onto Bella's shoulder. Thump.
"Hey there, Vice Guild Master? What did you just say to our Mongma-nim? My sister and I are standing right here with our eyes wide open — you wouldn't be trying to pull some funny business, would you?"
A sharp crackle of tension shot through the vault in an instant. I was about to step in and mediate before it escalated, but something I hadn't counted on erupted first.
Bella stepped back from my side and repeated what she'd said, word for word.
"I simply asked him to share a meal with me. Just the two of us."
"What?!"
She admitted it so brazenly that not only Kate, but even I, standing right there, was dumbfounded.
What on earth was Bella thinking?
Was she planning to declare right in front of my lovers that she intended to NTR me? Maybe the collapse of the Nain Gard contract had rattled her brain.
"Y-you foxy little Vice Guild Master...!"
"Kate, fight on! Don't back down!"
As Kate squared off directly against Bella, Rebecca watched from behind like some kind of patron constellation. Just as you'd expect from the head lady of the house — she preserved her dignity by not stepping out personally, deploying Kate as the first line of offense.
If Bella managed to take Kate down, she'd then face the final boss: Rebecca.
Mountains upon mountains.
Two against one.
An overwhelmingly unfavorable formation, but Bella showed no sign of weakness. Instead, she used her intellect to navigate the numerical disadvantage, turning it around.
"There seems to be a misunderstanding. When I invited Luke to a meal, it wasn't a date. I simply wish to build rapport with the guild's almost only mage. I don't particularly see Luke as a man."
Bella's words sounded surprisingly plausible to me. Not to cultivate romantic affection between a man and a woman, but simply to foster professional goodwill — a convincing line.
Truth be told, I wasn't even sure what feelings this raven-haired beauty harbored for me in the first place.
I figured we'd gotten closer after performing together and working that escort job.
But she showed so little emotion that reading her true thoughts was next to impossible.
"If it bothers you that much, why don't you all join us? As Luke's fixed party, you're all valued assets of the Adventurer's Guild."
"That sounds excellent! My sister and I will be coming!"
"Once the escort quest is finished and we return to Yoen-su, I'll introduce you to a fine restaurant. We'll make it a group dinner."
In the end, her attempt to angle for a private meal had been converted into a group outing. Yet even after the arrangement was settled, sparks continued to fly between Bella and Kate — a crackling intensity that seemed ready to ignite. Like a clash between a dragon and a tiger, the two women refused to yield an inch with me caught in the middle.
"Let me make this perfectly clear! I am the one who dominates Mongma-nim!!"
"Using the word 'dominate' to describe your boyfriend? Luke is suddenly sounding rather pitiful."
But in the end, both Bella and Kate had no choice but to retreat.
Nistrond, which I'd been locked in a struggle with, abruptly began spewing a brutal cold snap.
Whoooooooosh!!
"Aaaah! C-c-cold! It's so cold!"
"Wh-what's happening all of a sudden? It's as if the staff is angry."
The bone-chilling freeze forced Bella and Kate to pull well away from me. I had some grasp of Nistrond's mood — the staff was suddenly blasting frigid air like a maniac, and for good reason.
'Honestly, I have to hear out the magic staff's opinion on this one!'
It was on the verge of issuing a serious trial, and suddenly women showed up and started a lovers' spat. As the proctor of the trial, Nistrond had every right to be furious.
And thanks to all that, I—with a Water Whip still coiled around the staff's shaft—got to witness a surreal sight.
Sssssslk!
The whip began to freeze rapidly from its tip. The fluid that composed its form solidified completely, refusing to obey my will any longer. If I held on any longer, the hand gripping the whip would freeze solid. I let go in a hurry.
The cold had intensified so much that I honestly couldn't let the others stand around spectating any longer. I had to stay behind in the temple anyway, so it didn't matter for me — but if Bella, the person I was supposed to be escorting, or my lovers caught a cold, that would be a disaster.
"I need to be alone right now, so please everyone, leave the room! This could get dangerous!"
"Waaaaah! It's freezing! Hang in there, Mongma-nim!"
"Luke! Don't you dare lose to a measly staff!"
The party members who'd been watching inside the vault shivered and hurried out. In moments, the vault was empty except for Nistrond and me. Now the real trial had begun — no more doting lovers standing by to watch over me.
Whoooooooosh!!
Nistrond's trial didn't stop at a cold snap or some light freezing. Before I knew it, fat snowflakes were swirling through the vault in every direction. Not snow falling from the sky — artificial snow conjured directly by Nistrond.
'It can whip up a full-on blizzard too? Just what kind of deranged magic staff is this thing?'
A blizzard!
Thick snowflakes hurtled at me without pause. In the space of a blink, the vault's interior was buried in snow, and white puffs of breath leaked from my mouth.
"Kh!"
It was winter. Genuine winter.
Inside the vault, Nistrond had summoned winter itself. The roaring blizzard made it damn near impossible to see straight ahead of me. But overcoming something like this was exactly how a man awakened as a Rune Mage.
'I refuse to live my whole life as a third-rate magician!'
As a mage, my rank was third-rate!
To peel that third-rate label off, I was ready to sell my soul if necessary. Honestly, going around boasting, "I'm a third-rate magician, yessir," had the worst ring to it.
"Hup!"
I drew up my mana and hurled spell after spell at Nistrond, barely visible through the blinding snow in the distance. I kept hammering away at the staff until dawn broke the next day.
*
Morning came.
Roughly twelve hours had passed since I'd begun my assault on Nistrond. Naturally, as befitted a trial that normally took a full half-month to pass, Nistrond was still embedded firmly in the floor, holding steady.
I'd skipped sleep and poured all my focus into breaking through, but there were moments when I had no choice but to pause.
Mealtime, specifically.
The Nain Gard side had agreed to provide me three meals a day. If I skipped eating and kept blasting away with magic non-stop, I'd genuinely collapse from exhaustion and die. Reluctantly, I decided I had to at least eat.
'It's free food. How can I turn down free food?'
People say if you love free things, you'll go bald — but I'm an isekai protagonist now, born with a full, luxurious head of hair. My roots are so solid that not a single strand comes out no matter how hard you yank. So I can safely enjoy freebies all I want.
Knock-knock!
"Hey, mongma! I brought your food!"
Soon enough, a member of Nain Gard arrived with my breakfast.
Shockingly, it wasn't some random servant but a silver-haired half-elf of noble birth. Delia, the temple master's own daughter, had delivered my meal personally.
The moment the vault door opened and Delia stepped inside, I couldn't fathom why a shrimp like her was acting as a meal courier.
"Why is Miss Delia bringing me food? There are plenty of servants working here."
"Because it lets me escape the research lab legally! While I'm supposedly delivering your food, I can slack off all I want!"
Her words made it click instantly.
Nain Gard was the kind of organization where the internal calendar ran Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri-Sun and they worked their members to the bone. Even the temple master's daughter wasn't exempt — dark circles were already visible under Delia's eyes. We'd only arrived at the temple a day ago, but it looked like the research lab had already put her through the wringer.
"So you've gone AWOL from the lab, I see."
"Exactly. So I'm gonna rest here a while. I'm bored. Let's eat together and chat."
"Eat together? This is a single serving."
"You gotta give me my delivery fee."
Delia shoved the tray of food into my hands, then swiftly snatched the dessert for herself. The audacity of the half-elf — stealing food right from under my nose — left me a little speechless.
As the heir to Nain Gard, had she no shame?
"Hey."
But even when I shot her a pointed look, Delia's reaction was more of a "What, you got a problem?"
"Munch munch. What, are you complaining? If you think about it, every meal produced in this temple belongs to me. I'm taking the cheesecake and the chocolate balls."
The silver-haired half-elf puffed out her cheeks like a chipmunk, cramming dessert into her mouth. With all the after-meal treats swiped in an instant, I genuinely had to fight the urge to crack her on the head with my knuckle.
'This little shit's at it again!'
I'd thought we'd start off with a polite apology and get along well from here on out. Wrong.
This half-elf runt was the type to draw aggro with every breath she took.
Fine. Taking a little dessert as a delivery fee was one thing.
But running her mouth like that just made me want to crack her skull.
Tremble tremble.
Calming the black-flame dragon inside me — resisting the urge to clench my fist — I asked Delia,
"Miss Delia. You're twenty years old. Don't you think you're acting a little too much like a brat? Even your youthful appearance doesn't help — I'd believe you if you said you were fifteen. Is the whole 'I'm twenty' thing a lie? You're actually younger, aren't you?"
An uppity half-elf runt with stupidly huge tits.
I felt like abusing not just her skull but those udders of hers too. But her next words left me feeling even more dumbfounded.
"I really am twenty. But I'm a half-elf, so acting like a kid is totally fine, right?"
"Excuse me?"
"By half-elf standards, twenty years old is like seven in human years. The average half-elf lifespan is three hundred. In elf society, I'm a child who deserves protection."
Seven years old in human terms?
What kind of fuck-ass logic was that?
I hadn't expected an isekai denizen to counter with such ridiculous reasoning, and I found myself at a total loss for words. The vault was freezing, but thanks to Delia, my blood pressure was up and my body felt nice and warm.
"No, the fuck. So did you just waste twenty years of living?"
"Don't get mad. Develop some half-elf sensitivity!"
"Aaargh...."
If this conversation went on any longer, my mongma sensibilities would erupt and I'd end up abusing her chest for real. I shut my mouth and silently wolfed down the breakfast on the tray. Maybe because every trace of dessert had vanished, it felt a little lacking.
They say you don't mess with a dog while it's eating.
Fortunately, Nistrond halted its blizzard while I ate. Once mealtime hit, it refrained from any threatening behavior, allowing me to finish my food in peace.
But the staff knew a proverb that this little shit didn't.
Because she just kept drawing aggro at my side.
"I went through a quarterstaff trial myself back in the day. Identical to yours. How long did it take me to pass? Exactly three weeks."
"So what."
"When I heard you talking yesterday, you said something amusing, didn't you? You told Bella you'd pass the quarterstaff's trial in two weeks. That's nearly an impossible record, you know."
Delia's expression grew serious as she added,
"Passing the trial in two weeks is a feat reserved only for those with the qualifications to become Archmages. Even I, the successor of Nain Gard, couldn't do it. So how could anyone else?"
Her tone was one of absolute certainty — as if achieving it in two weeks was impossible.
Heat rising for no good reason, I shot back at Delia.
"And what if I do pass it in two weeks?"
"There's no way something that absurd could happen."
"Want to make a bet? On how many days it takes me to pass the trial. The loser grants the winner any single wish. How about it?"
A wager with a favor coupon on the line.
Before I knew it, I'd proposed that kind of terrifying bet to Delia. Perhaps convinced her victory was absolute, she accepted on the spot.
"Fine! If I lose, I'll grant any request! I'll prostrate myself naked before you or whatever!"
"Understood. If I win, you'll apologize stark naked, as befits a child of elven blood. Naked, specifically. Got it?"
"Eep! F-f-for real, naked?"
"Yes."
A naked dogeza from a half-elf!
Maybe she'd only thrown it out as a bluff, because the moment she heard my answer, Delia's expression stiffened briefly. But soon enough, her face relaxed, and she looked at me with total confidence.
"Fine. Let's make it a bet. On whether you can pass the trial within two weeks."
"And not just in front of me — you'll have to deliver that naked apology in front of other people, too. Still okay?"
"O-o-of course!"
And so Delia and I began our insane wager, with a naked apology hanging in the balance.