The Trial of Nistrond and the Naked Half-Elf
The Trial of Nistrond and the Naked Half-Elf
Delia had been laughing her ass off, but the moment she saw me release the first protector, the laughter died in her throat.
"Wh-what the hell... You broke the quarterstaff's protector? That's impossible! Canceling is a technique you can only learn at Nain Gard or the Magic Tower!"
Canceling.
That was probably what modern mages called the protector release technique.
Rumi's lessons used terminology that sometimes clashed with modern names.
Not that the knowledge itself was wrong, of course.
The fact that the first protector had been cleanly released was proof enough of that.
"Wh-what the hell are you! You're not really a wandering mage!"
"I am a wandering mage. I just happen to have a good teacher."
Focused as I was on the release work, I didn't have the luxury of keeping up polite speech.
I'd slipped into casual banmal without her noticing — Delia was so flustered she didn't even register it.
She just glared at me, grinding her teeth, looking like she'd been conned.
"Grrk! Your gear looked like such a joke, I thought you didn't know anything!"
I exploited the opening in Delia's composure and, with a perfectly deadpan expression, tossed out a question.
"That's the proper way to pass the quarterstaff's trial, isn't it? From the start, this was never a trial about using force or spells to grab the quarterstaff. If you passed the trial that way, you'd walk away with nothing anyway. You have to completely dominate your own magic staff before you can use Ancient Magic. Am I wrong?"
I had no proof — it was all conjecture — but Delia was profoundly bad at hiding her emotions.
She stared at me with a horrified expression, as if demanding to know how I'd figured that out.
"Ho-how did you know that, incubus? That's secret lore passed down only among our order members!"
"Someone told me."
"Graaah! There's a traitor among the order!"
It was thanks to you, you dumbass Kanpeu.
I'd caught Delia's slip of the tongue, but I saw no need to tell her the truth.
If I just kept listening carefully to this runt run her mouth, more useful intel might pop out.
Even with the proper method leaked, though, Delia still had a sliver of composure left.
There was clearly something she still believed in firmly.
"Heh! Looks like you just lucked into a successful canceling! There are still loads of protectors left, you know! Even if you crack one a day, that's fifteen days! And a day's already gone, so time's running out, if you get my meaning!"
Delia puffed out her chest and savored the blizzard swirling around us.
To me it was murderously cold, but Delia, shivering though she was, wore an expression of sheer delight. This cold was the greatest trial hindering me.
"The temperature in this vault right now is 0.6 degrees. It's full-on winter. Think you can actually focus in a place this freezing? Outside items are prohibited too, so your concentration's just going to keep dropping. Clearing this in two weeks is absolutely impossible."
Truthfully, if I could maintain peak condition the whole time, it was possible to undo all the protectors within fifteen days.
But the savage cold was steadily eating away at my mental endurance. If I couldn't solve the cold problem, I'd lose the bet in the end. The miserable fate of standing naked on my hands would be waiting for me.
However, I did have a method in mind.
A way to exploit the trial's rather loosely defined rules.
"Right. Bringing in outside items is prohibited. But drinking a 'beverage' outside the vault — that's fine, isn't it?"
"Beverage...? Well, sure, obviously it's fine."
As if I were spouting nonsense, Delia stared at me with a sullen look.
Beverages were naturally included as part of meals, and drinking them was permitted.
If I made a separate request, I could receive whatever beverage I wanted here. It was the temple's rule to provide ample food and drink to a mage undergoing a harsh trial.
So three meals a day.
Every time, I could order whatever dish I desired.
Within the bounds of common sense, of course.
"Delia. Starting tomorrow morning, when you bring my meals, bring me alcohol too. I'd appreciate it if you brought the strongest liquor in this temple."
"The strongest liquor...? Haha, are you stupid? You're going to do the trial drunk, without even a clear head?"
"Yeah. That's a plus for you, isn't it? If I drink myself unconscious, your time window shrinks."
"Ohohoho."
Without giving it much thought, Delia nodded.
She seemed firmly convinced the alcohol would ruin me.
"See you tomorrow morning. I'll bring the insanely strong distilled liquor the temple master drinks. Crazy stuff with a 90-proof alcohol content."
"Impressive."
As if sensing her victory, Delia's pointed ears wiggled wildly. Ear-wiggling was a physical tell half-elves displayed when something intensely captured their interest. Right now, her entire focus was locked onto me.
"Uwahahahaha! The incubus self-destructed!"
After Delia left the room, I refocused on the protector release work. The cold kept bearing down, making my body tremble and shiver. If my body weren't this sturdy, I'd have collapsed long ago.
The next day, 8 a.m.
Delia brought me breakfast.
As promised, she had a bottle of liquor tucked under her arm. I'm reasonably fond of alcohol myself, so I recognized the type right away.
Vootka.
A traditional spirit with the longest history in the Western Continent. You could call it a familiar, friendly drink enjoyed by everyone from commoners to certain nobles. The proof ranged from 40 all the way to 96. Obviously, even the weakest 40-proof would knock you flat in one go if you drank it straight.
"I brought it, but are you really going to drink it? You were just bluffing, right?"
Delia handed me the tray of food and the Vootka.
Checking the label confirmed that the bottle she'd brought was exactly 90-proof. At that level, you might as well be chugging straight alcohol.
"Why do you think it's a bluff?"
But examining the Vootka actually whet my appetite.
The surface of the bottle, icy-cold as if just pulled from a freezer. The high-purity liquid sloshed beyond the clear glass.
All Dream Demon Clan members like me are born loving alcohol. Drinking well makes it easier to seduce women, after all.
"A guy doing a trial gets frustrated and can have a drink or two. One shot of this'll clear my head right up."
"Y-you lunatic! What'll get cleared out isn't your head — it's your insides!!"
Pop!
The moment I uncorked it, a harsh smell spread in every direction.
Delia stared at me, aghast, as I even popped the cork.
"Sto...!"
She was trying to say stop.
But before she could finish, I grabbed the whole bottle and chugged it. The instant I poured the Vootka down, it felt like flames blazed through my mouth.
The liquor slid down my throat and hit my stomach. As the alcohol began to break down, my body temperature slowly rose.
"Haaah—!"
The liquor's burn jolted my frozen mind awake.
Heat spread from my core, rapidly thawing my entire body.
"Y-you drank the whole bottle in one go!"
"Thanks."
The reason I drank the strong liquor was to clear my mind and warm my body. You might not understand what I mean by 'clear my mind.'
To an incubus, alcohol was basically a kind of stimulant.
"Why is your speech still normal?! You should be drunk!"
"Incubi barely get drunk. Our brains have strong resistance to alcohol's anesthetic effects. Depending on the proof, drinking just raises our body temperature like crazy — that's all."
"I-I've definitely seen a drunk incubus before! Don't lie to me!"
I revealed to Delia a truth the Dream Demon Clan had kept hidden.
"They were all faking being drunk. Putting on an act to seduce someone. Did you really think a race specialized in romantic conquest would pass out at the drinking table?"
"That was all an act—!"
The world at large doesn't know that incubi don't get drunk.
The entire clan collectively hushes up that trait.
Because if it got out, running game would get a lot harder.
"Thanks to that, my body's loosened up! Now things are bearable. Same liquor for lunch, please."
"Grrh."
With my body temperature up, I could endure the cold to some degree.
After the meal ended, I resumed the protector-release work.
Unsurprisingly, Delia did not bring liquor at lunchtime.
"No alcohol?"
"I-it's bad for your health. Go easy on the drinking."
"Since when did you start caring about my health?"
I snorted, stepped outside the vault, and fetched the alcohol myself. I already knew the temple dining hall's location, so I just had to go and order it.
Glug!
I deliberately chugged it right in front of Delia's eyes. Watching me knock back hard liquor like it was a health tonic, Delia clutched the back of her neck. She tried to hinder me somehow with trash talk, but I just let it go in one ear and out the other.
"C-can't we just call it a draw?!"
"Fuck off."
And so a day passed, and then two.
With every passing day, one or two protectors came undone. Time flew, and before I knew it, the promised date was approaching.
Fourteen days after the trial began.
The fourteenth day — with a full day still remaining before the two-week deadline.
Since the day before, Delia had fled her lab and was watching me undergo the trial. She was now observing me in silence, having even given up on trash talk.
"O-only one protector left!"
Fifteen protectors in total.
Fourteen of them were already dismantled.
At this very moment, I was challenging the release of the final protector. Befitting the last line of defense, the final protector was more intricate than the others. A staggering twenty-seven different patterns tangled together like a net, and grasping its structure took time.
Crack!
By evening, I had finally released every last protector. The transparent barriers all vanished, and Nistrond revealed its pure white body to me in full.
"Hagalaz!"
The instant I intoned the rune, Nistrond's body shuddered. It seemed to offer faint resistance, but it was useless. Control of every function it possessed had already passed to me.
This magic staff was now mine!
Something I could wield as I pleased!
"Cease the blizzard and stop resisting."
The moment I gave the command, the raging blizzard halted as if it had been a lie. I approached Nistrond where it was embedded in the floor and pulled its body free with both hands.
"Hraaaah!"
Clang—!
Along with the shattering of ice, Nistrond sprang upward. Quarterstaff in hand, I realized I had finally cleared the trial.
"Hagalaz!"
A rune letter was the incantation for Ancient Magic.
The instant I finished vocalizing it, a fierce blizzard howled to life around me. It buried the vault's interior in snow, and at its heart, I understood.
Countless streams of knowledge were flowing into my head through the staff.
Knowledge of Ancient Magic itself.
[A unique magic system driven by Primitive Runes.]
[Foundational theory for constructing and modifying Ancient Magic spell formulae.]
[Methods for modifying the quarterstaff.]
"Grrgh!"
Complex knowledge flooded in all at once, making my head throb.
A mage who passed the trial awakened on the spot.
In this moment, I awakened as a Rune Mage.
"Th-this is impossible—! It hasn't even been two weeks, just barely two weeks, and he passed the trial! This is a dream!"
I'd also cleanly won my bet with Delia.
Now it was time to collect my humiliating naked apology.
"Strip, half-elf."
"Eep."
"Neatly fold your clothes and prostrate yourself naked before me. Placing your underwear on top would be the polite thing to do."
What if this elf bitch tried to go back on her word now?
I worried for a moment, but there was no need.
"Surely a mage isn't going to speak out of both sides of her mouth?"
"Grrk! Fine, I'll strip, okay!"
Delia hesitated, then in the end took off her clothes in front of me.
The moment she shed the robe swathing her body, a figure clad in a pure white blouse and skirt was revealed.
A petite frame, but a bust that swelled out like a dairy cow's udders.
The silver-haired half-elf began to put on a striptease before my eyes.
"D-don't look...!"
Don't look.
Right — and the panties have to come off too.