The Test of the Unicorn (ユニコーンの試練; Yunikoon no Shiren) is a long tradition, kept more or less faithfully by the people of the Kobold Village. Nowadays, little is known about how it was held or what trials it originally proposed. What is sure, is that there is a forest behind the Village, which is home to Unicorns.
There was also a tradition in the Warrior's Village, that asked the young men to prove themselves as true warriors in order to be recognized as adults in their society. For many of them, going to take the Test of the Unicorn was a good way of achieving their Rite of Passage into Adulthood. Whether they had to actually defeat the Unicorn or just prove their valour in front of it is unknown.
During the Dunan Unification War, a young couple from the Warriors' Village came to take the Test. Indeed, Tengaar had a burning desire to see her boyfriend Hix finish his initiation and she talked about it with the Kobold mayor. Sadly, the mayor had forgotten most of the tradition, except for the mythical part... So he made up a fake Test for them, asking Tengaar to simulate a serious illness. In order to "cure" her, he required that Hix should bring him a Blue Stone, a Red Flower and a Green Bell, respectively hidden by his townspeople in the shop in South Window City, in the entrance of the Cave of the Wind and in the sewers of Two River City. After successfully retrieving the three items and not seeming to have noticed either the suspicious presence of Kobolds on each spot or Tengaar's strange behaviour, Hix found his girlfriend to be missing, presumably kidnapped by the Unicorn. Decided to save her, he entered the Kobold Forest with Riou and his party who had been helping all along. There, Hix found Tengaar surrounded with some Kobolds and the mayor of the Village, who started to explain it was all fake. This is when the Unicorn Sigfried appeared, scaring all the Kobolds into a flight. The beast then threatened to kidnap Tengaar for good if Hix didn't prove his courage, which he did by confronting the Unicorn head-on.
Sources[]
- Genso Suikoden Kiwami Daijiten page 202