Arc#3 Chapter 59: Trial by Fire (1) (Patreon)

Reivan thought everything would go swimmingly but he was very wrong.

The first thing he saw when he woke up the following day was a dark, stone wall. His limbs were also weighed down by thick shackles that had glowing runes all over them. The shackles were heavy, but Reivan was no slouch when it came to strength so he could move just fine. In front of him, bars with similar runes engraved on them were placed as a barricade that prevented him from leaving wherever he was right now.

'What the hell?'

The drowsiness that usually accompanied his mornings was instantly blown away after he realized that he was locked up in a dungeon. His mana, and surprisingly, even all of his special abilities weren't obeying his commands, so he may as well be an ordinary person at the moment. The fact that Aizen even had the special techniques to seal someone's special abilities momentarily surprised him, but Reivan decided to set it aside for now.

After a moment of pondering, he soon surmised that the best way to gain information on his situation was to talk to someone — even if that person ended up being an enemy.

"Hey!" Reivan yelled as loud as he could. "Is anyone there!?"

After a brief pause, a young man with an unassuming countenance and a cascade of blonde hair peeked out from behind the bars of the cell. "Ah, you've awoken, Your Highness. Good morning!"

Reivan gradually broke into a smile when he recognized the uniform the young man was wearing. "Yes, good morning to you too, Sir Knight." He tried to sound casual to hide his relief that he didn't get abducted and imprisoned by enemies. "I don't know why I'm here or how I got here, but could you please free me and let me out of this place?"

The knight seemed troubled, dipping his head in apology. "I would absolutely love to do that, but I am under orders from Queen Vianna and the Supremo to keep you here. I'm very sorry, Your Highness."

'Mother and Uncle...?'

"If it's their command, there's no need for you to apologize, " Reivan assured the knight, who was merely doing his job. "Well, this is all still quite troublesome though. What's your name, by the way."

"Forgive my late introduction. This loyal sword is named Criston." The knight — Criston — performed a crisp salute and then asked in a concerned tone. "Your Highness, you've just woken up so I assume you're quite hungry...?"

"I am, actually. Would you mind helping with that?"

"Not at all! Please wait right here."

Reivan struggled not to offer a sarcastic retort and nodded. "Sure thing."

As the young knight walked off, Reivan leaned against the wall and sighed. Everything so far confirmed that he wasn't in any actual danger, so he could rest easy. Still, this entire situation was confusing and he regretted not asking the knight for details before asking for some food.

Luckily, it seemed he wouldn't have to wonder for too long.

"Hey there, brat."

With a big smile on his face, Viktor suddenly appeared in the cell despite the bars looking just as solid as it was earlier. "Been a while, huh?"

"Uncle..." Reivan looked up, his lips curling up as well. "You're back."

"Yep. Rushed back from that place as soon as I heard that you showed the signs. Your mother's here too. But traditionally, older family members of the same sex are the ones to help the kids out. S'why she's taking a back seat for now."

Sensing an opportunity for additional information, Reivan eagerly asked, "Help out with what, exactly...?"

Viktor hummed as he stared down at his nephew and chuckled. "With the trial so near, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you about it now."

"Trial?"

"I'll explain, so listen carefully." Viktor took a deep breath before continuing. "Back home, we called it the... Hmm, I just realized that there's no equivalent word in English... Guess I'll just call it the Trial of Fire for now. Anyway, kids close to your age generally have to face this trial at around the same time of the year. It's not all that hard to pass since everybody just cheats, but after succeeding, your qi is unlocked. Personally, I've never heard of anyone back home failing this."

Reivan nodded to show he understood. "So what is this trial? And why am I locked up?"

"I'll get to that, relax. Remember what I said about how everybody cheats on the trial?"

"Yeah, you just said it a few seconds ago..."

"Well, that's why you're tied up. That's basically how we cheat. The best way to pass this trial is to be semi-restrained. Those shackles are pretty darn special. You can move around this cell all you want, but there's nothing you can do to get out of it. It also has a few other restrictions, but you'll know all about that eventually."

"How annoying... Then if that's the case, why don't you just knock me out for a couple of days...?"

"That defeats the purpose of the trial in the first place. So that's out of the question unless you want to redo this whole thing next year."

Reivan watched the warbeast knight shake his head in regret before sighing. "Specifics, uncle. I need specifics."

"Awfully eager, ain't ya?" Viktor guffawed before squatting down right next to Reivan and ruffling his hair. "You wouldn't understand it even if I told you!"

Growing irritated, Reivan swatted his uncle's hand away and snapped. "Try me."

Perhaps amused by his reaction, Viktor crossed his arms and leaned on the wall. "It's your first mating season, Rein. It means you'll finally experience your first taste of the troubles that men have!"

'Mating season...?'

Reivan wasn't all that knowledgeable about animals except for dogs, but what limited information he had only told him that a mating season was not something humans had.

'But I'm part warbeast, so...'

"So, uhm..." Reivan sifted through all his knowledge about mating seasons as he asked. "Does that mean I'll want to make... babies and stuff?"

"Oh?" Viktor raised a brow and gave Reivan a side glance, a smirk on his face. "So you do have some idea. Did you read it in one of 'em books? Anyway, that's the gist of it, yeah. Around the time winter ends, most warbeasts in their early teenage years go into heat for about a week. This is the perfect catalyst for unlocking qi. Just endure that urge for some time, and if you don't mate with anyone in that time, the desire that got bottled up from restraining yourself will eventually explode, unlocking your qi."

'What the fuck. That's it?'

"Isn't it unfair that warbeasts get their qi unleashed just for something simple like that? That's so easy! I could probably do that even without all these restraints, y'know?"

"If it were that easy, nobody would cheat, you brat." Viktor chuckled while shaking his head. "You'll understand when it hits you."

Reivan sniffed in doubt and turned away from his annoying uncle. "You underestimate my discipline. At the very least, you guys shouldn't have sealed off my special abilities since it would help me stave off the heat."

"Imbecile. Did you not hear what I said about how the qi is unlocked...? Getting pent up is precisely what you have to do. Having it staved off by some special ability or medicine to calm you down would be against the point. In fact, some clans go above and beyond, letting their young ones take highly potent aphrodisiacs in tandem with the mating season so they would have a more explosive awakening, gaining a larger burst of improvement at the start."

Reivan raised a brow in curiosity. "And why aren't we doing that too?"

Viktor grimaced and stood up. "Because it's unnecessary. We're from an extremely high-class ice-attribute bloodline so we wouldn't benefit from such methods. We have our own ways of doing things — ways that don't involve using those snake oils."

Although he didn't fully understand everything, Reivan nodded and accepted the explanation for now. Basically, he would remain tied up in this dungeon until he unlocked his qi at some point, or until the mating season was over.

Hopefully, the powers that be wouldn't stop him from managing his private affairs remotely.

"Your Highness, I've returned with some food." Criston, humming a cheerful tune, carefully unlocked the door to the cell with one hand while balancing a tray of food atop the other. He then turned to the other knight in the room. "Sir Viktor. Well met."

"Hm." Viktor nodded to the newcomer. "What're you doing all the way back here? Shouldn't you be in Fort Alexander?"

Criston chuckled as he crouched down and laid the tray on the floor in front of Reivan. "I got kicked out of the front lines for grave misconduct."

"What? Really?" Viktor's eyes widened before he nodded in apparent understanding. "I suppose I wouldn't put it past you..."

The young knight's cheek twitched. "I was joking, Supremo."

"Huh?"

"I was joking. I was tasked with covertly delivering another captured esper. In fact, I'm getting a short vacation while I'm here for exemplary service! I would never commit any misconduct."

Viktor scoffed and sneered. "You mean you wouldn't get caught committing any misconduct. Anyway, if you're on break, what are you doing here?"

"I like money. And nobody pays better overtime pay than the state!"

"You really are a sack of shit, you know that?"

'They seem close.'

Reivan ate his sandwich in silence while watching the two. His first impression of Criston being just another novice knight gradually crumbled as he listened to them talk. After all, if Viktor — the strongest knight in Aizen — knew about him, then the young man must have had something special.

Unfortunately, Reivan couldn't get a close look since his shackles stopped him from using his [Supreme Insight].

"Uncle." Reivan chimed in once the two knights' conversation started dying down. "Why do I need to be in a dungeon anyway? Can't I be locked up in my room instead? Isn't it all the same where I am as long as I'm restrained?"

Viktor shook his head. "It's best that anything that could possibly be seen as a stimulus is gone. You could cause unnecessary damage to furniture. And your screams would be heard all throughout the palace. We could work around it by having knights constantly surround the place with a barrier but this method is easier and is more similar to how me and your mother did it. Traditions, and all that."

'Stimulus...? There are only pillows and furniture in my room. How could those things possibly be seen as stimuli!?'

"Anyway, just stay here quietly for a while. I'll drop by every few hours to check on you. Criston's a piece of trash but he's capable. And he's a hard worker when it counts. Don't hesitate to boss him around."

Criston grimaced at the unexpected dig but said nothing. The young knight nodded amiably to Reivan and saluted.

Reivan wanted to argue some more, but he was too hungry and he also knew that he wouldn't be able to change his uncle's mind. Also, thinking about it some more, he realized that his confinement to this dungeon likely had his father's seal of approval.

And if he approved, there likely wasn't a whole lot that Reivan could do to change the situation.

'They're being really careful about all this. It's one thing for animals, but we're intelligent creatures that go against our primal urges daily. How bad could going into heat be?'

Reivan inwardly scoffed but still prepared himself mentally for what could possibly come.

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Living in the dungeon was surprisingly not that bad.

It was inconvenient since he had to do his "business" in a pot, but other than that, there were no major problems.

His body was instantly cleansed of any dirt by a water-attribute knight every few hours, books were provided for him to read as long as they remained outside the actual cell, and he even got to talk to Valter personally from time to time for the sake of task delegation.

At noon on his third day in the dungeon, he started noticing a change in his body.

'This must be the heat they were talking about...'

His forehead, arms, and even his back were soaked with a layer of sweat as his body temperature started to rise. It wasn't too bad though, just slightly uncomfortable. The real problem lay in how his head started getting heavier for some reason.

In a way, it was like having a fever.

'This is nothing.'

Reivan reclined upon the frigid dungeon floor, savoring the delight that the icy surface offered him. As his body heat gradually spread across the area, he shifted to another location, extracting the chill from it once again. This went on for a few more minutes until he eventually sapped the coldness from every part of the dungeon he could reach.

"Criston..." Reivan called out, eager to stave the boredom off with some conversation.

The blonde knight had proven to be a good chatting partner on the few occasions they talked, with numerous stories of his escapades in the front lines. Still, Reivan did not feel like he knew a lot about the man.

"Is there something wrong, Your Highness?" Criston opened his eyes. He'd been squatting in front of the cell with his back turned. Surprisingly, the knight had been meditating.

"I'm bored. Tell me about yourself."

"I love how you're just blatantly telling me to act as entertainment." Criston chuckled but then hummed in thought before answering. "My name is Criston. From a young age, I admired the knights I read about in stories and word of mouth. Soon enough, I desired to become one. So I signed up as soon as I was old enough to, worked hard as a squire for a while, and then got officially knighted when I was nineteen years old."

"Nineteen...?" Reivan sat up with some difficulty, surprise on his sweaty face. "That's pretty early, right?"

"That's what I was told." Criston nodded, smiling wryly. "Anyway, since then, I've had the pleasure of serving the crown for twenty-five years — mostly by fighting Argonian ants on the front lines. I've developed a slightly bad reputation for some youthful mistakes in the past, but all in all, I think I've done a good job."

'So he's in his forties now...? Damn. I must've really gotten acclimated to this world since I think this guy's still young.'

It couldn't be helped since he was constantly surrounded by people with three-digit ages.

"What about you, Your Highness?" Criston smirked as he took out a flask of water and took a sip. "I'm interested in you too. The order doesn't know much about you aside from your absurd number of special abilities and the fact that you're incredibly talented. What I wanna know is your hobbies. Y'know, what you go out and do with your friends. Normal person stuff like that."

"Me, huh...?" Reivan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he thought of what to say. "I don't have any hobbies at the moment. I'm busy with all sorts of things, so my free time is better-spent training or learning things."

"No hobbies? Not even something you want to try?"

"Well..." The young prince looked to the side hesitantly. "I do want to try writing, I suppose. But I barely have any ti—"

"Writing!" Criston clapped his hands, a bright look in his eyes. "What kind? Training manuals? Travel guides?"

"Fiction books, mainly. I always loved reading them. Once upon a time, that is..."

"That is wonderful, Your Highness. Everybody needs to have something other than their duties. One can work harder at life when they have something they enjoy doing."

Reivan's jaw slacked as he rubbed his chin. "I think I've heard something similar before..."

"What about friends?" Criston pressed on. "Surely you don't spend all your time training, right? Don't waste your youth!"

"Hey, I go out with friends too, y'know. With my family as well."

'Whenever they aren't too busy, of course.'

"Good, good..." Criston smiled warmly at him before chuckling. "Speaking of friends, I've heard you've been treating a pair of twins from House Mercer very well."

"Hm?" Reivan raised a brow, pressing his chains to his cheeks, finding it surprisingly cool against his skin. "Yes, I have. They're my best friends. What's it to you?"

The knight smirked. "Well, I'm kind of related to them."

"Related?"

Criston stood up and patted his butt. "I don't use my last name all that often, but my full name is Criston Mercer."

'What...?'

Reivan reflexively gazed up at the knight's bright blonde hair, then into his brown eyes. "You don't look like a Mercer."

"I'm a bastard too, Your Highness. An orphan too. Just like those twins." Criston smirked. "Unfortunately, the Mercer blood runs thin in my veins, so I don't share their signature colors or inherently good looks. Anyway, it's about time for lunch so I'll have something fixed up for you to eat. Be right back. I'll just be really close by though, so just shout if you need me. I could even do a little jig to keep you entertained!"

As he watched the knight disappear from his sight, Reivan closed his eyes and struggled against the dizziness that was gradually growing worse by the second, especially after his conversation partner decided to up and leave.

'Damn. If this is what a hangover feels like, I now have one more reason to drink moderately.'

The first day of going into heat had only just begun, and Reivan wasn't impressed with how underwhelming it was.

A few hours later though, he finally realized how wrong he was for thinking so.