Black String of Fate

"Well, anyway. You don't need to worry much... Ava?"

Xavier was consoling Ava about the current situation, but suddenly, she stopped responding. He looked at her carefully to find that she wasn't even moving."

"Wait, what the..."

Xavier got up and looked at his surroundings, only to find that the whole world was not moving. It seemed like the world was frozen in time.

In fact, it was.

**************

[ALERT]: Trial rule breached. Restoring [World] to reverse [Damage].

[WARNING]: Further action that harms the integrity of [World] will result in immediate disqualification from the Trial.

**************

Xavier stared at the system message in disbelief, as he watched the whole world turn back in time. Even he was frozen now, and his steps retraced back to when he had just entered Ava's room. He couldn't control his body or do anything, he was completely powerless.

Finally, before he could properly make sense of the situation, he was able to move again, and the time of the world resumed.

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'...What the fuck just happened? Rule breach? I didn't know this trial had such rules.'

"Big brother?"

Xavier snapped out of his thoughts as he looked at the confused Ava sitting on the bed, holding the book close to her. She had none of the wariness she had displayed earlier. Xavier put his questions at the back of his mind and played along.

"Ava, Luke said you had something to ask me?"

"Well, yes. It's about this book I found in your room. First off, we aren't rich enough to afford such a thick book like this, and second, it is filled with gibberish that looks like some other language." Ava opened the book and showed what the book contained. Xavier had his eyes open in disbelief as he saw what was written inside.

'Wait, the language changed! It is the common language used in my era. Even though the content is the same, Ava can't read a language invented thousands of years later.'

"...Stop spacing out so much. Tell me, what is it? I'm curious."

Ava eagerly asked Xavier about his diary, and Xavier, who had now grasped the situation, replied with a white lie,

"Well, I don't know myself. I got it as a gift from one of my co-workers, but I can't read what is written inside. I just kept it because it looked like a high-quality book, we can sell it if we need money in an emergency."

"Oh, is that it? Here I thought you found some amazing secret relic..." Ava said with a playful disappointment, and Xavier could do nothing but somehow laugh out of this situation.

"Haha, how can we even have something like that? Anyway, Luke will be bringing dinner to you, he made some stuff you like the most."

"Oh my! I can't wait!" Ava laughed and returned the book, and Xavier took it and left the room with a forced smile.

Once he was out of the room, he heaved a huge sigh.

'Damn, that was dangerous. So, I cannot reveal my circumstances in this trial, huh?'

Xavier walked back towards his room and kept his book hidden inside an inconspicuous shelf where nobody would notice.

'Anyway, the trials are weird. I should just stop overthinking stuff about this. Plus, I have a sword to buy for the meeting...'

"Hey Luke, do you know any good blacksmiths around here? I need to buy a decent sword."

Xavier called out to Luke from the kitchen, who heard his question and replied back,

"Just head to old man Barack's smithy. He'll fix you up with something good."

*************

Meanwhile, Seraphina experienced one of the most confusing phenomena she had experienced ever since she began this trial. She was traveling on a carriage to the western province, when suddenly the carriage stopped. She looked around to see what was wrong but found out that no one was responding.

The bodyguard who was unnecessarily chatty, the noisy horses, the birds chirping, everything went completely silent.

Suddenly, she lost control of her body, and the carriage started moving backward. She could only observe as the time was somehow turned back for 2 minutes. When the world started to move normally again, she received a system notification.

**********

[ALERT]: A Challenger had attempted to breach a rule of a Trial. They were found to disclose the details of the trial to a non-challenger. They have been warned and [World] has been restored to correct the error.

Any further attempt to disclose the trial details would result in immediate disqualification for any challenger.

**********

'...What the fuck?!'

Seraphina was horrified when she saw this message. The fact that the challenger did something so bold that warranted warnings from the system itself was unbelievable.

'Is the other challenger retarded? It should've been pretty obvious that you're not supposed to do things like this in these circumstances... Just what sort of madman I've been paired up with?'

"Are you alright, princess? You look distraught."

Seraphina snapped out of her thoughts as she was addressed by her escort knight. Blonde hair, green eyes, his name was Joseph Zener. Yes, the same Zener as the hero, Kaldian Zener.

'I'm still surprised that the Zener family had noble roots even in this ancient era...'

"Yes, I'm fine. I was just feeling a bit tired."

"Please be at ease princess, we will be arriving at an inn in just a few hours. Moreover, you'll have me guarding you, so you can rest peacefully." Joseph flashed a charming smile, which she reciprocated with a polite smile.

"Then I'll be counting on you, my knight."

'This guy cannot be more obvious... Out of all the rank 4 experts, I bet his family used their authority to get him selected.'

It wasn't the first time someone had used their family name to get more opportunities with her, but she didn't expect that she would face this situation in this trial as well.

'Well, he's more obedient like this anyway. If I break his fantasies, there's a high chance that he'll be harder to control. I have to play a card like this carefully.'

There weren't many moral codes left inside Seraphina after she had regressed. The hardships she had faced, even after the death of the notorious Demon King, were enough to erode her bottom lines.