“The final trial is a bit different than the others… Magicians!” The mages came out and began to create a magic circle in the arena. “For those of you not familiar with it, this is the Bond-breaking Rune Formation!”
A bunch of people gasped, and I couldn’t help leaning forward. “Are you talking about the one that nullifies bonds?”
The prince winked at me and nodded. “Yes, this is a very rare and expensive formation, but we’re using it for this competition. For the final step, the bond between your slaves and you will be nullified! No coercion. No spells. No skills. Just the truth. For you see, the final challenge today’s theme is trust! Only a master who can trust his slave and a slave who can trust his master can work.
“This is unreasonable!” The Slave Master immediately stepped forward with an ugly look on his face. “Our skills are part of who we are! Would you ask a blacksmith to prove his craft without the support of his job?”
“Yes… I would.” The prince narrowed his eyes.
He had a point there. Skills could bypass a lack of knowledge, but typically they were still a crutch. Basic swordsmanship knowledge only took you so far, but a good swordsman would eventually learn basic swordsmanship with or without the skill. In fact, it was basically a requirement to become an advanced swordsman. That job would never unlock unless you could do everything a basic swordsman could do and then add onto it the advanced skills you’ll unlock.
The Slave Master glowered at the prince hatefully, but he continued on with his speech while giving the man no mind.
“For the first event, the slaves will show their trust in their master, in the second event, the master will show their trust in their slaves! In the final event, well, I have something special planned.”
“Event one, I will need three girls to come up onto the stage from each group. Masters, you will be handed three bottles. One of them is poisoned! The poison will not kill them, but it will cause them extreme pain! Masters, you must choose which bottle you put in front of each girl!”
I stood up. “That’s cruel! How can that gain trust, it’ll destroy it!”
“The girl must state whether she thinks it’s poisoned or not!” He declared. “If she drinks it, she gets one point, if she’s right in her guess, she gets two. The team with the most points wins!”
“Hehehe… I’ll accept!” The Slave Master giggled.
“It’s okay, Master… I’ll go!” Miki said.
“And me,” Celeste added.
“Master… please, poison me.” Terra declared, standing up. “My high constitution and pain tolerance, I can handle the pain of this potion.”
“Terra, I won’t poison you!” I declared.
Terra gently smiled and then walked up to the stage with the other two girls. Before I could object, three bottles were put in my hands. The man whispered that the first bottle was the poison. I wanted to smash it over his head. How could I choose? This was absolutely too cruel! However, I handed the bottles to them anyway and told them where I wanted them.
“Erect the barrier!” The prince shouted.
A barrier went up over the people. We could see them, but the girls couldn’t see us. They were on their own to make their decision.