Incursion

When Ark opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was the environment—

"Where am I?"

He was not alone, there were tons of people standing beside him almost in a straight line. 

Several imposing men stood in a straight line like members of the military, their gaze fixed forward. 

Each one had a weapon in hand, some had swords in their sheets, some had spears while a few had bows. 

Occasionally, a rather chilling wind would blow past them causing him to flinch and rub their shoulders. 

From the look of things, they were guards and Ark was a guard as well. 

As to what he was guarding, he did not know. 

Everything was white…

Tiny particles that were cool to the touch were slowly cascading from the sky, it was as though the rain was frozen, crushed and then sprinkled from the sky above. 

'Snow?'

Ark had heard that in some other cities there were times were it got so cold that instead of rain, flakes of ice fell from the sky instead. 

He had never left Lorsine so it was hard to tell but what he was seeing fitted the description. 

Ark breathed in the air. Everything felt so real…

Initially, he was worried, the archive had said all the wrong things so he was wondering if an error had occurred and if it was even possible for an error to occur. 

But now he appeared here, he was sure he had made it to the trial. 

Ark heard raised voices from an area a bit distant from them, all he noticed was the sheer number of guards in that direction. 

A man bumped him with his shoulder. 

"You think there's a fight going on?"

From the way the man acted, Ark was sure that he knew him, or whoever he was in this trial did at least. And yet nothing came up as he watched him. 

The archive gave him no information. 

'Maybe he's not important to the trial…'

"Are you alright?" He asked, looking a little concerned. 

"Oh yeah! I'm fine! Do fights often happen?"

The man seemed to think about it a little. 

"Well, it's not exactly uncommon. The only strange part of it is that his lordship stays over there."

He paused. 

"Do they want to get themselves killed?" 

He said the last part mostly to himself rather than Ark. 

Ark had no doubt about it, whatever was happening there was no doubt important to the trial. 

But from the looks of things he could not leave formation, not until they were released from duty. 

He had to wait.

Luckily for him, he did not have to wait for long. 

The commotion was slowly getting closer and closer, Ark could hear shouting, and the guards seemed to be dragging someone along with them. 

The closer they got the more Ark got to look at the person. It was a girl…

Her gown which seemed to have once been elegant was now ripped to shreds high up to her knees, a deplorable state for a woman to be in these times. 

Not just because it was the medieval era, cold would not be merciful upon her. 

Ark could already see her legs getting red from being dragged in the snow. 

Her hands were bound and tied to a rope that a guard held onto, dragging her even when she was walking to get her to trip and fall. 

This seemed to bring some sort of twisted amusement to them. 

The guard standing next to him leaned forward, almost breaking formation only to stop halfway. 

"Isn't that lady Agnes? Why is she being treated like a criminal?!" 

It seemed many of the guards around them shared the sentiment, there was an audible wave of murmurs around them. 

"What did they do to our lady?"

"Did his lordship allow this?"

"What is going on?"

The people were clearly confused, apparently, the girl was someone who held a significant position. 

The group was finally getting closer to Ark…

Although the soldiers had their reservations, they were mere soldiers and the guards escorting her were dressed more lavishly, signifying their higher rank. 

The girl was now a few feet away from Ark, throughout she held her head down but when she passed him she turned to face him. 

On her face with a nasty red bruise, no doubt the doing of one of the guards. Her hair was messy and yet her icy blue eyes remained stoic, not even showing a tiny bit of fear. 

Instead, they were cold and calculating. 

'Come to think of it, I've seen those eyes somewhere before…'

Ark's eyes slowly widened, and at the same time the girl's eyes narrowed as she observed him, she had no doubt recognized him as well.

Then she was suddenly jerked forward by the rope, causing her to trip once more. 

The girl quickly got to her feet to avoid being dragged across the floor and continued following them. 

This time it was Ark who almost broke formation but was held back by one of the guards. 

Ark did not take his eyes away from the girl. 

'What the hell is going on?'

He felt his heartbeat accelerate slightly. 

Something was very, very off. 

Trials were a solo affair, everyone participated in their trial alone, without help from anyone. 

How was it possible that one of the people he met at the wielder's center was here?

Ark racked his brain trying to figure out what happened. 

'Is she part of the trial?'

He had never heard of something like this before but knowing how trials were it wasn't exactly impossible, and yet Ark did not believe that was the case. 

There was a part of him that kept screaming that she was real, and she was in trouble. 

He could somehow just tell by the way she looked but at the same time, he could not be completely sure. 

It was then Ark remembered something that had happened at the beginning of the trial. 

'What's it the Archive said?'

"Incursion complete…"

Yes, that was it… could that mean that he was the oddity in this trial? It seemed the Archive for whatever reason had transferred him into another person's trial. 

Ark let out a breath. 

'Why do things have to be so complicated?'

At the end of the day it didn't matter what was going on, the trial was already underway and they had to work together to pass it. 

He did not know if he would automatically fail the trial if she did and she had helped him out before so he could as well return the favour. 

Ark decided to check his person to see if he had anything of use with him. He came up with three items—

A dagger, a coin purse and the sword he had at his waist. 

'Alright, first things first.'

He needed to meet up with her.

At the end of the day, it took two days for him to finally get an opportunity to see her.