Ame Infinite

 

Chapter 6

Salemburg was a beautiful castle-city on the 61^st floor.
It isn't all that big. But the city, with a castle which has serene spires at its center, was delicately built from white granite and contrasted spectacularly with the overflowing green foliage. There were quite a few shops in the market so a lot of players wanted to use this place as their home city. But since the houses were crazily expensive —they must be at least three times the price of Algade— it's almost impossible to buy one unless you were at a high level.
When Asuna and I arrived at the teleport gate in Salemburg, the sun had almost set, and the final rays of light lit the streets a dark purple.
Most of the 61^st floor was taken up by a lake, and Salemburg was located on an island in the middle of it, so one could see the setting sun reflected on it like a picture on a canvas.
I gazed at the city in awe, my breath taken away by its beauty as it shined blue and red with the vast lake behind it. Not that it would be that hard for the Nerve Gear to create lighting effects like this with CPUs of the new generation and their diamond semiconductors.
The teleport gate was placed in the plaza in front of the castle and the main street, which headed north going through the city and was lined by street lamps. The stores and houses stood orderly on either side of the street, and even the NPCs that were walking around looked well dressed somehow. I spread my arms and breathed deeply, as even the taste of the air differed from Algade.
“Hmmm. It's large and has few people. I like how it feels so spacious.”
“Then why don't you move?”
“I don't have anywhere near enough money,” I answered with a shrug before fixing my expression and asking hesitatingly.
“...More importantly, is it really okay? Back there...”
“...”
As if she realized what I was trying to say, Asuna twirled around with her head bowed down and tapped the floor with the tip of her boot.
“...It's true that some bad things happened a couple of times when I was alone. But assigning bodyguards to me is going a bit too far, right? I said I didn't need them, but... the members said that it's guild policy.”
She continued in a subdued voice.
“In the past, the guild was small with the leader inviting people individually by talking with them. But as the number of members grew, it started changing... Then when it began to be called the greatest guild or so, something became a bit strange.”
She stopped talking and turned around slightly. Something in her eyes seemed like she wanted to rely on me, and I subconsciously stopped breathing.
I had to say something. I thought that, but what could a selfish solo player like me say? I simply watched in silence for a few seconds.
Asuna turned her gaze first. She watched the lake, bathed in soft light, and said, as if to get rid of the awkwardness,
“Well, it's not a big deal, so you don't have to worry! If we don't go quickly, the sun is going to set.”
Asuna set off first, and I followed suit. We passed by quite a lot of players, but none of them stared at her.
I only stayed here for a couple of days when the front line had been here, so I never really looked around properly. As I looked at the delicate carvings that adorned the city, the thought that living in a city like this for a while wouldn't be too bad came unbidden to my mind. But then I changed my mind and decided that it would be better if I only came here once in a while to sight-see.
The house where Asuna lived was a small but pretty three-floored maisonette which you could get to by walking eastward from the downtown area for a few minutes. It was, of course, the first time that I had come here. Now that I thought about it, I'd only talked to this girl during boss fight conferences; and we'd never even been to an NPC restaurant together before. As I became conscious of this, I stopped in front of the doorway, suddenly tense, and asked.
“Is it... alright? Y'know...”
“What? It's something I suggested first, and there wasn't anywhere that was fit for cooking so we don't have a choice!”
Asuna turned her head and bounced up the stairs. I steeled my resolve and followed her.
“E-Excuse me.”
I hesitantly opened the door then stood there, speechless.
I'd never seen a home so well-ordered before. The wide living/dining room and the kitchen adjacent to it had furniture made out of light-colored wood and was decorated with moss green cloth. They were all most probably the highest-quality player-made items.
But it wasn't overly decorated either, nor did it make you feel uncomfortable. It was totally different from my house. I felt overwhelmingly relieved that I hadn't invited her to my house.
“Erm...how much did this cost...?”
At my materialistic question.
“Hmm-, with the house and the furniture, about 4000k? I'm going to change so just sit anywhere you want.”
She answered lightly and disappeared through a doorway. "K" is short for thousand. 4000k meant four million Col. I practically lived on the front lines, so I could save up that much if I tried. But I always wasted it on either some strange item or a sword that caught my eye, so I never saved up. I chastised myself, which was out of character, and sank into the spongy sofa.
Asuna appeared after a short while, fully changed into a simple white tunic and a knee-length skirt. Well, I say changed but there's no actual taking off and putting on involved. All you have to do is fiddle with the figure in the stats window. But there were a few seconds when the player was only dressed in their underwear. So unless they were a very bold male player, most players, especially girls, did not change in front of others. Our bodies may be nothing more than just a bunch of data rendered into 3D, but that sort of thinking got hazy after two years, and right now my eyes went to Asuna's bare arms and legs without any remorse.
Asuna, clueless to my inner-conflict, threw a sharp look my way and said.
“Are you planning to stay dressed like that?”
I quickly opened my menu screen and took off my leather coat and sword. While I was at it, I brought the «Ragout Rabbit's meat» out as well and put it, which was in a clay bowl, on the table in front of me.
“So this is the legendary S-rank food ingredient— ...So, what should I make?”
“Ch-Chef's recommendation.”
“Oh...? Well then, let's have stew. It even has «ragout» in its name.”
Asuna headed into the next room; I followed.
The kitchen was large, and the various appliances that I could see next to the oven looked expensive. Asuna double clicked on the oven's surface, set the time on the pop up window that appeared, and pulled out a metal pot from the cupboard. She put the raw meat in it, threw a couple of herbs in, and then poured water inside it before closing the lid.
“If I was actually cooking, I would need to make all sorts of preparations. But in SAO, it's so short that it's no fun.”
She put the pot in the oven and pressed the "Start" button on the menu as she complained. Even as the 300 seconds counted down, she moved about with precision, making various other side dishes. I watched in a stupefied daze as she went about, not making even a single mistake in operating the menu or in the actual tasks.
In just five minutes, the table was fully set, and Asuna and I sat down across from each other. The brown stew looked incredibly delicious as it rested on the plate in front of me. Its smell enticed me as the steam rose slowly from it. Smooth, rich sauce covered the thick meat, and the creamy white marbling on it was truly enchanting.
We lifted our spoons and felt that even the time spent saying, “Thank you for the meal,” was too long. Then we ate a mouthful of the best food in existence in SAO. I tasted the heat and flavor in my mouth, and as I bit into the meat, the juices inside poured out.
Eating in SAO didn't calculate and simulate the feeling of biting into the food. Instead it used a «Taste Reproduction Engine» that Argus and an affiliated environment programming designer had made together.
This sent preprogrammed sensations of «eating» various foods and could make the user feel as if they were actually eating something in real life. It was originally designed for people who were on diets or needed to restrict the amount of food they ate, so it sent fake signals to the parts of the brain registering heat, taste, and smell to trick it. In other words, our real bodies weren't actually eating anything right now, and all that's happening was that the program was wildly stimulating our brains.
But thinking of such things in this situation was just not cool. I was, without a doubt, eating the best food I've tasted since logging on. Asuna and I didn't say a word and continued to go through the process of scooping up the soup with our spoons and bringing it to our mouths.
Finally, as we cleaned our dishes —in every sense of the word, as though the stew actually existed— and left the empty plate and pot in front of her, Asuna let out a big sigh.
“Ah...I did well to stay alive till now...”
I totally agreed. Feeling full with the pleasure of having completely fulfilled a basic need for the first time in a long while, I sipped the mysterious-smelling tea. Does the taste of the meat I just ate and of the tea I'm sipping actually exist in the real world? Or were they man-made by manipulating the system? I pondered these thoughts absent-mindedly.
Asuna, sitting opposite of me with a tea cup held in her two hands, broke the few minutes of silence that lingered after the end of the feast.
“It's strange somehow... How should I put it, I feel like, I was born in this world and I've been living here until now or something.”
“...Me too. Lately there have been some days when I didn't think about the other world at all. It's not just me either... There aren't many people who are obsessed with 'clearing' or 'escaping' nowadays.”
“The pace has slackened as well. There are only about five hundred players on the front lines now. It's not only because of the danger... Everyone, has gotten used to it, to this world...”
I simply stared at Asuna's beautiful face, with the light from the orange lamp reflecting on it.
That face, it was definitely not a human's. With smooth skin and the shiny hair, it was too beautiful to belong to a life form. But to me, the face didn't look like it was made from a bunch of polygons anymore. I could accept that it was what it was. If I returned to the real world now and saw an actual person, I'd probably feel pretty disconcerted.
Did I really think that I wanted to go back... to that world...?
I was puzzled by the sudden thought. I woke up early and gained experience points while mapping the labyrinth. Was this really because I wanted to escape from the game?
In the past, I really did. I wanted to get out as fast as I could from this death game where you had no idea when you could die. But now I've gotten used to the game—
“But I want to go back.”
Asuna said in a clear voice as if she'd seen my inner conflict. I raised my head sharply.
Asuna smiled at me for some reason and continued.
“Because, there are so many things, that I haven't done yet.”
I willingly nodded to this.
“Yeah, I suppose we have to try our best. I won't be able to look at the faces of those technician classes that supported us if we don't...”
I drank a mouthful of tea, as if to get rid of the conflict inside me. The top floor was still far away. It wouldn't be too late to think about all this then.
Feeling strangely honest, I stared at Asuna while trying to pick the appropriate words to express my gratitude. Then Asuna scrunched up her face and waved her hand, saying.
“N-N-No.”
“Wh-What?”
“Some male players have confessed to me when they made that expression.”
“Wha...?”
Disappointingly, although I had mastered my battle skills, I'd never experienced that before, so I simply opened and closed my mouth without being able to rebuke it in any way.
Asuna looked at me and laughed. I must seem pretty half-witted right now.
“So there's no one that you're particularly close to?”
“What's wrong with that...? Well, it's fine, I'm a solo anyway.”
“Well, since you're playing an MMORPG, you should make some friends.”
Asuna erased her smile and asked, as if she had suddenly become a teacher or an older sister.
“Don't you ever have any thoughts about joining a guild?”
“Eh...?”
“I understand that a beta tester like you can't get used to groups, but...”
Her expression became serious again.
“After the 70^th floor, I think more random variants are appearing in the monsters' algorithms.”
I felt this too. Did the programmers plan for the CPU's tactics to become harder to read, or was it the result of the program actually learning by itself? If the latter was true, it would just keep getting harder.
“If you're solo, it'll get harder to take care of unexpected situations. You can't always escape. It'll be much safer if you're in a party.”
“I have enough safety nets. Thank you for your advice but...guilds are, just...and...”
It would have been better if I had just stopped there, but I started bragging instead.
“Party members are usually more of a burden than any help, in my case.”
“Oh, really?”
*Flash*, a silver streak seemed to cut the air in front of me, and by the time I registered it, Asuna's knife was already held just in front of my nose. It's a basic rapier skill, «Linear». Well, I say basic, but because of Asuna's overwhelming dexterity, the speed was amazing. To tell the truth, I couldn't even see the weapon's trajectory.
With a forced smile, I raised my arms in a sign of defeat.
“...Okay, you're an exception.”
“Hmmph.”
She pulled the knife away with a bored expression, and then as she spun it around with her fingers, she said something unexpected.
“Then party with me. As the head of the boss party, I'll see if you're as strong as the rumors say. I've shown you that I'm good enough. Also, this week's lucky color is black.”
“What, what are you saying!?”
I almost fell over at this absurd proclamation and searched frantically for an argument against it.
“If...If you're going to do that, what about your guild!?”
“It's not as if we have a level quota.”
“Then, then what about your bodyguards?”
“I'm going to leave them behind.”
I raised the teacup to my mouth in a bid to buy some time but realized that it was already empty. Asuna took it from me with a smug expression on her face and refilled it with the hot liquid from the pot.
To tell the truth—it was an attractive offer. Almost any guy would want to party with someone you could call the prettiest girl in Aincrad. But because of this, I kept asking myself why such a famous person like Asuna would want to party with me.
Perhaps she pitied me because I was a lonely solo player? Something that I said almost unconsciously, as I was filled with these negative thoughts, almost became my demise.
“The front lines are dangerous.”
Asuna's knife went up again and shined with a seemingly brighter light than before. I nodded as quickly as I could. Even with my doubts about why she chose me, who wasn't all that noticeable among the people who were trying to clear the game, I said with resolution.
“O-Okay. Then...I'll be waiting in front of the gate of the 74^th floor, tomorrow morning at nine.”
Asuna answered with a confident smile as she lowered her hand.
Not knowing how long I could stay at a woman's house without being rude, I said goodbye as soon as we finished eating. As Asuna accompanied me to the foot of the stairs in the building, she tilted her head a little to the side and spoke.
“Well... I suppose I'll have to thank you for today. The food was good.”
“Ah me, me too. I want to ask you for your help again... but I suppose I won't be able to get my hands on something like that again.”
“Oh, even normal food tastes different if you're skilled enough.”
Asuna replied before turning her head up to look at the sky. The sky had been completely covered with the darkness of nighttime. But, of course, you couldn't see any stars. A gloomy cover of iron and stone closed it off one hundred meters up in the air. I lifted my head as well and muttered.
“...This situation, this world, is this what Kayaba Akihiko wanted to make...?”
Both of us couldn't answer this question that was aimed half at myself.
Kayaba, who was surely watching this world while hiding somewhere, what could he be thinking? This peaceful situation that came after the bloodstained confusion of the beginning, would it have satisfied or disappointed him? There was no way I could know.
As Asuna stepped closer to me silently, I could feel a slight warmth at my arm. Was I imagining it, or was it the result of the ever faithful simulators?
November 6, 2022 was the day this death game started, and now it was nearing the end of October 2024. Even today, after almost two years, not a single message had come through from the other side, let alone any signs of help. All we could do was live and walk, step by step, towards the top.
Another day passed on Aincrad as I thought this. Where were we going, or what was waiting for us at the end, it's all just a huge bunch of stuff that we didn't know yet. The road ahead is long, and the light is faint. But— there are some good things too.
As I looked at the huge iron cover, I let my imagination take flight towards the unknown world that I have yet to see.

Chapter 7

9 A.M.
Today's weather setting was slightly cloudy, and the morning mist that covered the city still hadn't cleared. The light that shone from outside was reflected off it, dyeing the surroundings in a lemon-yellow color.
According to the Aincrad calendar, it was the «Month of the Ash Tree», which meant that we were getting further into fall. The temperature was slightly cold, making this the most refreshing month of the year. But right now, I felt a little under the weather.
I was waiting for Asuna at the gate plaza in the living area of the 74^th floor. I couldn't sleep last night for some reason, and all I did in my simple bed in Algade was toss about in one way or another. I think I managed to fall asleep a little past three in the morning. There were plenty of features in SAO that helped the player, but sadly a button that could make you fall asleep wasn't one of them.
Oddly enough, the opposite did exist. In the time-related options of the menu, there was something called «Alarm Clock» which forced the player to wake up from their sleep. Of course, the choice of going back to sleep again or not was entirely up to you, but I succeeded in gathering enough will-power to crawl out of my bed when the system woke me up at ten to nine.
Perhaps to the blessing of the lazier players, there was no need to wash or change in the game—although some of the stranger players seem to bathe on a daily basis. But since replicating a completely liquid environment was hard even for the Nerve Gear, it couldn't reproduce a real bath perfectly. After waking up a little too close to the meeting time, I put on all my equipment in twenty seconds and walked out of Algade's teleport gate with a slight sway out to where I, slightly annoyed by the lack of sleep, waited for her, but—
“She's late...”
The time was already ten past nine. Diligent gamers were appearing from the gate and walking towards the Labyrinth area one after another.
With nothing much to do, I looked at the labyrinth map and the completion rates of my skills, stats that I already knew mostly by heart.
Ahh, I wish I had a portable game console or something.
I was rendered speechless by that sudden thought. To want to play a game within a game, I was getting worse.
Should I just go back and sleep... I even started thinking. Another blue teleport effect appeared inside the gate for god knows how many times. I watched without much expectation. But then—
“Kyaaaaa! Please get out of the way—!”
“Ahhhhhh!?”
Usually players who teleported appeared on the ground, but this person appeared a meter off it and—flew through the air, heading straight for me.
“Huh, huh...!?”
Without any time to catch or dodge, we collided and fell to the ground in a single heap. I hit the back of my head on the stone ground, hard. If I wasn't inside of a settlement, a couple of dots from my HP would have been taken away.
This meant—that this idiot player had, most likely, jumped into the gate from the other side and appeared like that here. The thought flashed calmly though my mind. Still a bit dizzy, I raised my arm and grabbed the idiot on top of me in an attempt to push the person off.
“...Hmm?”
The feeling of something strange and full registered in my hand. I squeezed it twice, and three times to figure out what the springy and rich feeling in my hand was.
“K-Kya—!!”
Suddenly, a loud scream sounded in my ear and my head hit the ground again. At the same time, the weight lifted from my body.
In front of me, there was a female player that was sitting on the ground, wearing a red on white knight uniform and a knee-length miniskirt, with a silver-white rapier in her scabbard. And for some reason, she was glaring at me with an inexplicable anger evident in her eyes. Her face was experiencing the highest degree of the emotion effect and was red all the way to her ears, and her two arms were crossed protectively against her chest— ...Chest...?
I was immediately able to guess what I had been grabbing with my right hand. At the same time I realized, a little too late, the dangerous situation that I was in. All the ways to avoid dangerous situations that I had trained into my head had all but vanished. While opening and closing my right hand, not knowing what to do with it, I opened my mouth.
“H-Hey. Good morning, Asuna.”
The anger in her eyes seemed to flare brighter. Those were definitely the eyes of someone who was contemplating drawing their weapon.
I started inspecting the need for the «escape» option that had flashed to mind when the gate shined blue again. Asuna looked back with a surprised expression and got up quickly before hiding behind me.
“Eh...?”
Without knowing why, I stood up as well. The gate shined brighter when a newcomer appeared in the middle of it. This time, the player had both feet on the ground.
As the light faded, I recognized the person inside, and the impressive white cape with a red symbol on it. The man, who wore a KoB uniform and carried a sword that seemed to be a little overly decorated, was the long haired bodyguard who had been following Asuna around yesterday. His name was Kuradeel or something.
Kuradeel's frown grew deeper as he saw Asuna behind me. He didn't look all that old. He would only be around his early twenties, but the wrinkles on his face made him look older. He clenched his teeth so hard that we could almost hear it and then spoke with a barely concealed anger.
“A...Asuna-sama, you shouldn't be acting on your own like this...!”
As I heard the voice that bordered on hysterical, I thought This is going to get complicated and pulled in my shoulders. With his heavily lidded eyes glowering, Kuradeel spoke again.
“Now, Asuna-sama, let's return to HQ.”
“No. I'm not even on duty today! ...And Kuradeel, why were you standing in front of my house so early in the morning?”
Asuna replied angrily behind me.
“Fufu, I knew that something like this would occur, so I've been going to Salemburg to watch your house since a month ago.”
I could only be surprised at Kuradeel's proud answer. Asuna froze too. After a long silence, she asked with a forced voice.
“That...That's not part of the leader's orders is it...?”
“My duty is to escort you, Asuna-sama. Watching your house is included in...”
“What do you mean included, idiot!”
Kuradeel walked over, his expression becoming even more angry and annoyed, then pushed me out of the way and grabbed Asuna's hand.
“You don't seem to understand. Please don't be like this... Now, let's go back to HQ.”
Asuna appeared to have been frightened by the voice that seemed to hide something barely concealed behind it. She threw an imploring look my way.
To tell the truth, I was wondering whether to run away like I always did until that point. But the moment I saw Asuna's eyes, my hand started moving by itself. I grabbed Kuradeel's right arm, the one that was grabbing Asuna, and increased the strength in my hand until just before the crime prevention code would be invoked.
“Sorry, but I'm borrowing your sub-captain for today.”
The line sounded stupid even to my ears, but I couldn't back down now. Kuradeel, who had been purposefully ignoring me until now, scrunched his face up and pulled his hand away.
“You...!”
He screamed in a voice that seemed to rasp. Even if the system overstated expressions, there was still something that seemed strange behind his voice.
“I'll guarantee Asuna's safety. It's not like we're going to fight a boss today. You can return to HQ by yourself.”
“D...Don't kid with me!! Do you think a pathetic player like you can protect Asuna-sama!!”
“Better than you can, most likely.”
“Y-You insolent fool...! I-If you can talk big, I suppose you're prepared to back it up...?”
Kuradeel, his face now white, called the menu screen with his right hand and manipulated it quickly. Soon a semi-transparent system message appeared in front of me. I could guess what it is before I even read it.
[A 1-on-1 duel has been requested by Kuradeel. Do you accept?]
Below the expressionlessly shining letters were the Yes/No buttons and a number of other options. I glanced sideways at Asuna. She couldn't see the message but seemed to have guessed what was going on. I thought that she would try and stop me, but surprisingly she nodded slightly with a rigid expression.
“...Is it okay? Won't this pose a problem in the guild...?”
Asuna answered my whispered question with one of her own.
“It's fine. I'll report this to the leader myself.”
I nodded in reply, then pressed Yes and chose the «First Strike Mode» from the options.
This was a duel that could be won either by landing the first clean hit or by reducing the opponent's HP to half. The message changed to [You have accepted the 1-on-1 duel with Kuradeel], and a countdown of 60 seconds appeared below it. The moment that number reached zero, the HP protection system that was in effect within the town would be momentarily withdrawn, and he and I would be able to cross swords until one of us won.
Kuradeel seemed to have made his own interpretation of Asuna's consent.
“Please watch, Asuna-sama! I will prove that there is no one better than I to escort you!”
He shouted with an expression that barely concealed his delight, drawing his huge two-handed sword from his waist, and positioning himself with a clanking sound.
I made sure that Asuna had moved further away before I drew my one-handed sword from my back. As one would expect from a member of a famous guild, his sword looked much better than mine. It wasn't just the size difference between a one-handed and a two-handed sword, but that while my sword was a simple and practical weapon, his had been fully decorated by a top class craftsman.
As we stood about five meters apart, waiting for the countdown to finish, people started crowding around us. It wasn't all that strange. This was a gate plaza in the middle of a town, and both of us were pretty well-known players.
“The solo player Kirito and a KoB member are having a duel!”
As someone shouted that, cheers could be heard from here and there. Since duels were usually for comparing your skills to a friend's, all of the spectators cheered and whistled, ignorant to the situation that had led up to this.
But as the timer counted down, all of this started to fade away. I felt a cold thread pass through my body like when I was fighting a monster. I focused in order to read the atmosphere around Kuradeel, who was looking about here and there with glances of annoyance, and examined his stance and the way his feet moved.
Humans were far more liable to show certain habits when they were about to use a skill. Whether it was a charging or defending skill, or if it would start low from the ground or from high up, if their body revealed this kind of information, then it became a critical weakness.
Kuradeel's sword was leaning a bit back from the middle of his body and his lower body was bent down. It was clearly a sign that he was going to use a high aiming charge-type attack. Of course, it could have been a feint. I myself was actually posing with my sword in a low and relaxed posture, giving the impression that my first attack was going to be a weak blow to his lower body. You could only rely on your experience and "feel" when searching for feints.
As the countdown went down to single digits, I closed the window. I couldn't even hear the noise around me anymore.
I saw Kuradeel, who had been rapidly switching his gaze from me to the window and then back, go still as his muscles tensed. The word [DUEL!!] appeared in the space between us, and I jumped. Sparks flew from the sole of my boot, and the air whistled by as my shoulder cut through it.
Not even a moment had passed before Kuradeel's body began to move as well. But there was an expression of surprise on his face, since I had shattered his expectations of a low, defend-type attack skill and charged.
Kuradeel's first attack was, as I had guessed, a high hitting two-handed sword charge skill: «Avalanche». If the guard was too weak, the defender might be able to block the blow but wouldn't be able to counterattack straight away due to the impact; meanwhile, the player who used it would be able to buy time to ready his stance again, since the charge widened the distance between them. It was a very good high level skill. Well, at least against monsters.
I, who had already read what Kuradeel was going to do, chose the charge-type skill «Sonic Leap». If we both kept charging, our skills would collide.
If we were to look at only the strength of the skill, his was stronger, and the game would favor the heavier skill if two attacks collided. In this case my sword would be deflected, and his skill would hit me, weakened but still enough to end the duel. But I wasn't after Kuradeel himself.
The space between us narrowed quickly. But my perception had been quickened as well, and it felt like time had slowed down. I wasn't sure if this was a result of the system, or if it was an ability that humans naturally had. All I knew was that I could see all of his movements.
The sword, which was leaning backwards, started giving off an orange light as it sped towards me. His stats must have been pretty high, as one would expect from the best guild, since the time it took for the skill to start was shorter than I expected. The brightly shining blade rushed in. If I hit that skill straight on, there was no doubt that I'd receive enough damage to end the duel. Kuradeel's face showed his ecstasy at his apparent victory. But—
My sword, with its head-start, moved a little quicker, drawing a slanted green trajectory and hitting his sword just before it ended its attack. The game calculated the damage dealt by my sword, producing a huge spark.
Another result of two weapons colliding was «Weapon Break». It only had a chance of happening when a weapon received a heavy blow to a weak part of its structure.
But I was certain that it would break. Weapons with too much decoration had low durability.
Just as expected—with an ear-wrenching sound—Kuradeel's two-handed blade broke. There was an effect like an explosion.
We passed by each other in mid-air and landed at where the other had jumped. The broken half of his sword spun in mid-air, reflecting the sunlight, before it imbedded itself into the stone ground between us. After that, both the broken half and the half remaining in Kuradeel's hands shattered into countless polygon fragments.
Silence overtook the plaza for a while. All of the spectators were frozen with their mouths wide open. But after I landed, stood up, and habitually swung my sword from left to right, they started cheering.
“Awesome!”
“Was he actually aiming for that!?”
As I heard everyone starting to critique the short fight, I sighed. Even if it was a single skill, revealing even one card from my hand wasn't something to be happy about.
With the sword in my hand, I started walking over to where Kuradeel was sitting with his back turned. That back, covered by the white cape, was shaking violently. After loudly sheathing my sword on purpose, I said in a small voice.
“If you want to come again with a new weapon, I'll fight you again... But this is enough, right?”
Kuradeel didn't even try to look at me. He shook with both hands on the ground as if he was sick. But soon, he said with an almost creaky voice, “I resign.” He could have just said <I give up> or <I lose> in Japanese.
Immediately afterwards, a row of purple lines appeared exactly where it had first shown when the fight started, this time proclaiming the end of the duel and the victor. Another cheer resounded, and then Kuradeel stood up shakily and shouted at the spectators.
“What are you looking at!? Get lost!”
Then he turned slowly towards me.
“You... I'm going to kill you... I'll definitely kill you...”
I couldn't deny that I was a little freaked out by those eyes.
Emotions in SAO felt a little overstated, but even with that, the hate that burned in Kuradeel's heavily lidded eyes were scarier than any monster's.
Somebody slid to my side as I stood there in surprise.
“Kuradeel, I order you as the sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood. I relieve you from the position of bodyguard. Go back to HQ and remain there until further orders.”
Asuna's words and expression were both cold. But I felt the distress behind them and unconsciously put my hand on her shoulder. Asuna leaned her stiffly tensed body a bit.
“...Wh...What...this...”
This sound barely reached our ears. The rest, most probably a string of swearing, were lost in his mouth. Kuradeel glared at us. There was no doubt that he was thinking about attacking us with his reserve weapon, even though he knew that the crime prevention code would stop him.
But he just barely managed to restrain himself and took out a teleport crystal from inside his coat. He raised it, gripping it so hard that I thought it was going to break, and he muttered “Teleport... Grandum.” He was glaring at us with hate even as his body disappeared in a flurry of blue light.
As the light disappeared, a bitter silence spread across the plaza. The spectators seemed stunned by Kuradeel's rage but soon left in their small groups. Asuna and I were eventually the only ones left.
What should I say? That thought went round and round in my head, but since I'd been living by myself for two years, nothing useful came to mind. I didn't even feel like making sure if I did the right thing.
Then finally, Asuna stepped away and started speaking with a fragile voice.
“...Sorry. I got you mixed up in this.”
“No...I'm fine, but will you be okay?”
Shaking her head slowly, the sub-leader of the greatest guild gave a spirited but weak smile.
“Yeah, I think that I'm to blame as well for enforcing the rules on everyone so harshly in order to clear the game quicker...”
“I think... that you can't do anything about that. If they didn't have somebody like you, the pace would be much slower. Well, that's not really something a lazy solo player like me should be saying... Ah, I didn't mean that.”
I didn't even know what I was trying to say anymore, so I started saying anything that came off the top of my head.
“...So, nobody would be able to say anything about, you... taking a breather with somebody as thoughtless as me.”
To this, Asuna blinked a few times with a confused expression, then she smiled somewhat bitterly and softened her face.
“...Well, I'll say thanks. Then I'll enjoy today as much as I can. I'll entrust you with the position of forward.”
She turned energetically and started walking down the road that led out of the town.
“What? Hey! Forward is supposed to be taken in turns!”
Even as I complained, I let out a sigh of relief and followed the softly waving chestnut-brown hair.

Chapter 8

The air surrounding the path through the forest was warm. It was almost as if the dark feeling that had been present here last night was just an illusion. The morning sun shined through the branches, making golden pillars of light which butterflies fluttered through. Sadly, these were only visual effects, so you couldn't catch one even if you chased it down.
As she crunched through the soft undergrowth, Asuna said teasingly.
“You are always wearing the same thing.”
Ah.
I looked down at my body: a slack black leather jacket, a pair of pants, and a shirt of the same color. I had virtually no metal armor equipped.
“Well, so what? If you have enough money to spend on clothes, it's better to buy something to eat...”
“Is there a practical reason that you're wearing all black? Or is it just character expression?”
“W-Well, what about you? You're always wearing that white and red thing...”
As I spoke, I started scanning the area by force of habit without even thinking about it. There weren't any monsters around. But—
“I can't help it. This is the guild unifo... huh? Why?”
“Wait a bit...”
I raised my right hand slightly and cut Asuna off. There was a player at the edge of my scan area. As I focused on the area behind me, numerous green cursors started flashing, showing that there were a lot of players there.
There was no chance that they were a group of bandits. Bandits always hunted for players that were weaker than them, so they were rarely seen around the front lines, where all the strongest players were. More importantly, whenever a player committed a crime, their cursor would turn orange and wouldn't turn back to green for a long time. What I was worried about was their numbers.
I called the map from the main menu and put it on show mode so that Asuna could see it. The map of the area was enhanced by my scan and showed the green cursors. There were twelve of them.
“That's a lot...”
I nodded at what Asuna said. Usually when there were too many members in a party, it became harder to fight as a group, so five or six was the typical number.
“Look at that size.”
The crowd of lights that were fast approaching in this direction marched in neat lines of two. Maybe this would happen in a dangerous dungeon, but it was rare to see such a large uniform group on the field.
If we could see the level of the members, we might have been able to guess what they were doing, but players couldn't even see the names of other players that they'd met for the first time. It was a default system that was put in place to prevent players from PKing —player killing— too freely, but it also left us with no choice but to simply guess at their level by appraising their equipment.
I closed the map and glanced at Asuna.
“We'll have to take a look at them. Let's hide behind the trees until they pass by.”
“Yeah, you're right.”
Asuna nodded with a tense expression. We climbed up a small mount and crouched behind a shrub that came up to about our heights. It was a good position to observe the group as they passed by.
“Ah...”
Asuna suddenly looked at her clothes. The red and white uniform was pretty noticeable against the green plants.
“What should I do? I don't have any other equipment...”
The dots were pretty close now. They were getting within viewing distance.
“Excuse me for a bit.”
I opened my coat and covered Asuna with it as well. Asuna glared at me for a bit but allowed me to cover her. The coat wasn't all that good to look at, but it gave a big hiding bonus. With all this, it would be pretty hard to notice us without a high scanning skill.
“Well, it's not that good to look at, but it's pretty useful right?”
“I don't know! ...Shh, they're here!”
Asuna whispered and brought a finger up to her lips. I crouched lower, and the sounds of footsteps reached my ears.
Eventually, we could see the group come up the path.
They were all warriors. All of them wearing the same black metal armor and green battle garb. Their equipment was all of practical designs, except for a noticeable picture of a castle on each of their shields.
The front six had one-handed swords, and the back six had halberds. They all had their visors down so we couldn't see their expressions. As we watched the twelve players march in perfect order, I even started thinking that they were a group of NPCs.
I was sure now. They were members of the huge group that had made the city on the 1^st floor their HQ: «The Army». I could feel Asuna hold her breath.
They weren't enemies to normal players. In fact, they could be considered the group that put in the most effort to stop crimes on the field.
But their methods were a little rough, and they were said to attack orange players —who were called that because of the color of their cursors— as soon as they found them and without asking any questions. Then they'd strip the orange players of their equipment and imprison them in the dungeons of the Black Iron Castle. The rumors about how «The Army» treated people who didn't surrender yet failed to escape were pretty scary.
They were also known for traveling in huge parties and taking control of entire hunting ranges, so it was common knowledge among the players that they "Should never go near «The Army»". Well, they usually operated on the 50^th floor and below, working on strengthening their group and maintaining order, so it was rare to see them on the front lines—
As we watched silently, the twelve heavily armed warriors disappeared into the forest amongst the clanking sounds of their armor and their boots.
Seeing as all the players had gotten their hands on the software, you could say that everyone trapped inside SAO were all game maniacs, who were a race that had no connection to the word «Rules» whatsoever. Despite that, the fact that these players still showed such orderly movement was amazing. They might even be the strongest unit within «The Army».
After making sure that they had gone out of range on the map, Asuna and I let out a sigh of relief.
“...The rumor, it's true...”
I whispered to Asuna with my coat still over her.
“Rumor?”
“Yeah. I heard at the guild meeting that «The Army» was changing how they worked and have started appearing on the higher floors. They were once a group that was trying to clear the game, right? But after the damage they received while fighting the boss on the 25^th floor, they began focusing on strengthening their group and stopped fighting on the front lines. —So, rather than going into the labyrinth in enormous numbers like they used to and causing a huge stir, they've decided to send smaller, more elite units in and try to show that they're still endeavoring to clear the game. The report guessed that the first unit would appear soon.”
“So they're advertising their skill. But are they really okay just charging into an unexplored area...? They looked like they have pretty high levels but...”
“Maybe... they're going to try to beat the boss...”
Within every labyrinth, there was a boss that guarded the stairs to the next floor. They didn't regenerate and they were really strong, but the reputation and popularity gained for beating them would be huge. It would be very effective as an advertisement.
“So they gathered those people...? But that's still stupid. Nobody has even seen the boss of the 74^th floor yet. Usually, people keep sending in reconnaissance groups to analyze the boss' strength and fighting patterns.”
“Well, even guilds work together to beat bosses. Maybe they're doing the same...?”
“I don't know... Well, they should know as well that going up against a boss like this is meaningless. We should hurry. I hope that we won't cross paths with them in there.”
I got up and was a little disappointed that I had to let Asuna go. Asuna shivered as she got out.
“It's almost winter now... I should buy a coat too. Which shop did you buy that from?”
“Hmm... It was most probably a player shop in the western area of Algade.”
“Then take me there when we're done exploring.”
With that said, Asuna jumped down lightly onto the path. I followed. Because of the system, jumping from this height wasn't a problem for me.
The sun was almost at its highest point. Asuna and I made our way down the path quickly while paying attention to our surroundings.
Luckily, we got out of the forest without meeting even a single monster, and a meadow full of blue flowers appeared before us. The path went straight through the meadow, and at its end the Labyrinth Area stood proudly.
At the highest part of this tower, there would be a huge room and a boss would be guarding the stairs to the next floor — the 75^th floor in this case. If the boss was defeated and someone arrived at the living area of the next floor and activated the teleport gate, then this floor would be cleared.
The «City Opening» would be celebrated by a huge crowd of people from the lower floors that came to see the new city, and the whole place would become alive as if there was a festival. Right now, it had been nine days since people had begun actively exploring the 74^th floor. It was about time that somebody discovered the boss.
The tower was a cylindrical building made out of reddish-brown limestone. It was a place that both Asuna and I had been in numerous times, but you couldn't help feeling intimidated by its immense size. Yet that size was only one-hundredth of Aincrad. It was a hopeless wish, but, secretly, I wanted to see the colossal floating castle from outside.
We couldn't see the unit from «The Army». They'd most likely already made it in. We walked towards the entrance, subconsciously quickening our pace.

Chapter 9

More than a year had already passed since the Knights of the Blood took position as the number one guild.
Since then, the leader of the guild, the «Man of Legend», and the sub-leader Asuna the «Flash» both became renowned as two of the best warriors in Aincrad. Now I had a chance to watch Asuna, who had finished training the skills needed as a rapier-sword fencer, fight against a normal monster.
We were currently in the middle of a fight, and the enemy was a skeletal swordsman named «Demonic Servant». It was over two meters tall, surrounded by an eerie blue light, and held a huge straight sword in its right hand with a round metal shield in its left. Of course, it didn't have even a single muscle, yet, despite that, its strength stat was very high, which made it a hard monster to fight.
But Asuna didn't give any ground against it.
“Hrrrrgrrrr!”
With this strange cry, the skeleton swung its sword several times leaving a blue line of light in its wake. It was a four-hit combo skill: «Vertical Square». As I watched anxiously from a few steps back, Asuna stepped left and right, elegantly dodging all the blows.
Even if it was a 2-on-1 situation, we couldn't both fight at once when confronted by a fully armed enemy. It wasn't forbidden by the system, but when two people were too close together in a fight where swords swung to and fro at speeds faster than the eye could follow, it became more of a hindrance than anything. So when partying, a skill that required high levels of teamwork called «switching» was used.
After its full swing, the last blow of the four hits missed, and the Demonic Servant's posture fell slightly off-balance. Asuna didn't miss this chance and went straight into a counter-attack.
The jabs of the silver-white sword landed one after another, all spectacularly hitting their mark, and the skeleton's HP decreased. Each individual blow didn't deliver much damage, but the number of hits was overwhelming.
After getting hit by three short thrusts, the skeleton's guard went slightly up, and Asuna switched her style to slash twice at its legs. Then, with her blade tip shining blindingly white, she sent two strong jabs high and low.
It was an eight hit combo. It was most probably the high-level sword skill named «Star Splash». Striking the skeleton accurately with that thin blade, which was usually ineffective against such enemies, was a show of unbelievable skill.
The strength that had reduced about thirty percent of the skeleton's HP was also amazing, but I was lost within the elegance of the actual player. This must be what they mean by sword dancing.
Asuna shouted at me, who was standing there dumbly, as if she had eyes on the back of her head.
“Kirito-kun, switch!”
“Ah, kay!”
I rushed to raise my sword, and at the same time, Asuna performed a strong stab.
The skeleton deflected the blow with the shield held by its left hand and bright sparks came flying off. But that was an already expected outcome. The enemy was left stunned for a moment after guarding against the strong attack, unable to immediately counter.
Of course, Asuna was stunned as well after having her attack blocked, but the «gap» was what was important.
I immediately rushed in with a charge-type skill. Making a break point on purpose in the middle of a fight and trading places with a teammate was what was called «switching».
After making sure with the corner of my eye that Asuna had gotten out of range, I charged fiercely at the enemy. Unless you were a master like her, normal slashing attacks were most effective against opponents with far more «gaps» than this Demonic Servant. In this scenario, the most effective would be impact-type weapons like maces. But I, and most likely Asuna, didn't have any impact-type skills.
The «Vertical Square» that I used to hit the enemy all four times reduced a lot of its HP. The skeleton reacted slowly. This was because the monsters' AIs have a tendency to delay a moment before responding when the attacker's pattern suddenly changes. Yesterday, I had to invest a lot of time and effort to make this happen with the Lizardman, but when you've got a teammate, one switch was all you needed. This was the biggest advantage of fighting in a party.
I parried the counterattack and started a major skill to end the battle. I delivered a strong, downward strike to the right, then twisted my wrist and swung back up again, retracing the trajectory I went down in with a motion similar to that of a golf swing. Every time the sword hit the enemy's body, which was made completely out of bones, there was the sound of it impacting and a flow of orange light came out.
The skeleton raised its shield to block the blow that it thought was going to come from above, but I went against its expectations and rammed it with my left shoulder. Then I sent a vertical swing at the swaying skeleton, and without pause I rammed it again, with my right shoulder this time. It was a skill that overcame the problem of chaining strong attacks together by combining them with tackles: «Meteor Break». Not meaning to brag, but it was a skill that required unarmed-fighting skills as well as one-handed sword skills.
The enemy's HP took a big hit from all the attacks and was now in the red area. I put all the strength in my body behind the final horizontal left slash of the seven hit combo. The sword flew straight at the skeleton's neck, drawing a shining arc. The bone broke with a snapping sound and as the skull flew up into the air, the body fell to the ground like a puppet that had all its strings cut.
“We won!!”
Asuna slapped my back, where my sword was now.
We pushed the item distribution aside and started walking again.
Until now, we had fought with monsters four times but made it through with almost no damage dealt to us. Since Asuna's style involved throwing short jabs while my style was to chain large skills, it strained the monster's AI —in the sense of algorithms, not the actual CPU's processing abilities— and allowed our skills to match well. There probably is not much of a difference in our levels either.
We walked carefully through the magnificent hallway that was lined with pillars. There was no chance of being ambushed with my scan skill, but the echoing of our footsteps kept bothering me. There weren't any sources of light in the labyrinth, but the surroundings gave off a faint, mysterious glow, so we could see pretty well.
I carefully inspected the hallway, which was reflecting a soft blue light.
The floor below was a labyrinth made out of reddish-brown limestone. But when we got up, the surroundings were made out of some stone that gave off an almost sticky blue light. The pillars were engraved with impressive but eerie pictures, and a shallow waterway ran by our feet, covering the floor. You could say that the overall atmosphere had gotten «heavier». There weren't many empty spaces left on the map now. If my guess was right, then the area ahead was most probably—
At the end of the hallway, a pair of grey-blue doors stood waiting for us. The carvings on the door were similar to the ones on the pillars. Even if everything was just a world made solely out of data, an inexplicable aura seeped out of those doors.
“...Is that...?”
“Most likely...? It's the boss room.”
Asuna held the sleeve of my coat tight.
“What should we do...? It should be fine if we just take a look, right?”
Contrary to those bold words, her voice sounded uneasy. Even if she was a top class swordswoman, it seemed that she still found these sorts of things scary. Well, it's to be expected really. I was scared as well.
“...Well, let's prepare a teleportation item just in case.”
“Yeah.”
Asuna nodded and took out a blue crystal from her pocket. I prepared my item too.
“Ready...? I'm going to open it...”
With Asuna tightly gripping my right arm, I touched the iron door with my left hand which held the crystal. If this was the real world, my palms would be flooding with sweat right now.
As I slowly put more strength into my hand, the door, which seemed to be at least twice my height, opened with surprising ease. Once it started moving, the two doors opened so quickly that we became a little bewildered. As Asuna and I stood there holding our breath, the huge doors finished moving with a final crash and revealed to us what was inside.
—Or so we thought; it was totally dark inside. The light that was filling the hallway we were in didn't seem to reach the end of the room. The thick cold darkness didn't reveal anything no matter how much we stared.
“...”
As soon as I opened my mouth, two white-blue fires whooshed to life a little further in, then another pair and another pair.
*Whoooooosh*... With this continuous sound, a path leading to the center of the room was completed in the blink of an eye. At its end, a big pillar of fire blazed upwards, and the rectangular room was filled with blue light. It was very spacious. It seemed that all of the blank space on the map had been this one room.
Asuna hung onto my right arm as if to keep her nervousness at bay, but I didn't have enough room in my head to enjoy that feeling. This was because, just behind the pillar of fire, a huge shape had begun to appear.
The enormous body was covered with bulging muscles. Its skin was dark blue, and the head resting above its thick chest plates was not a man's, but a mountain goat's.
Two curved horns towered on either side of its head. Its eyes, also burning bright blue, were locked on us. Its lower body was covered in navy-blue fur and couldn't be seen very clearly behind the fire, but it seemed that it was also that of an animal. Simply put, it was, in every sense of the word, a demon.
There was a fair distance from the entrance to the middle of the room where it stood. Despite that, we stood frozen in place, unable to move even a muscle. Out of all the monsters we had fought against up until now, this was the first demon-shaped one. It was something that I had gotten used to thanks to the countless RPGs that I had played. But now that I actually saw it, I couldn't hold the fear that rushed up from inside my body.
I hesitantly focused my gaze and read the words that had appeared: «The Gleameyes». It was undoubtedly the boss of this floor. The "The" in front of its name was proof of this. Gleameyes — eyes that gleamed.
When I read this far, the blue demon suddenly started shaking its long snout and began screaming. The blue fires shook violently and vibrations went through the floor of the room. Fiery breaths erupted from its nose and mouth as it raised its sword. Then the blue demon started charging straight for us at an unbelievable speed —causing the ground to shake— without giving us time to even think.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
We started screaming and at the same time we turned a full 180° and ran as fast as we could. We knew that, in theory, the boss couldn't come out of its room, but we just couldn't stay there. Entrusting our bodies to the dexterity stats that we'd trained up until now, we ran like a gust of wind down the hallway.

Chapter 10

Without even resting to take a breath, Asuna and I ran to the safe zone that was set up somewhere in the middle of the Labyrinth Area. I had the feeling that we'd been targeted by monsters several times along the way. But to tell the truth, we weren't in the right state of mind to fight them.
We burst into the large room that had been designated as the safe area and slid to the floor with our backs side-by-side, leaning against the wall. After releasing a huge breath, we looked at each other's face and...
“...Ha.”
Both of us started laughing at the same time. If we had checked the map, we would have known straight away that the boss hadn't come out of its room. But we hadn`t thought of stopping to check.
“Ahahaha, ah— we ran away really fast!”
Asuna laughed in an exhilarated tone.
“It's been a long time since I've run like that, as if my life depended on it. Well, you were even more exaggerated than me!”
“...”
I couldn't contradict that. Asuna kept laughing at my sullen face. It took her a lot of effort to stop; and then she said,
“...That, looked pretty hard.”
Asuna said, her face becoming serious.
“Yeah. It looked like it had only a great-sword as its weapon, but it should have special attacks as well.”
“We'll have to gather a lot of forwards with high defense and keep switching.”
“We'll need about ten people with shields... Well, for the moment we should just keep jabbing at it and work out how it fights.”
“A... shield.”
Asuna looked my way thoughtfully.
“Wh-What's the matter?”
“You're hiding something.”
“What do you mean all of a sudden...?”
“But it's weird. The biggest advantage of using one-handed swords is being able to hold a shield with the other hand. But I've never seen you with one. I don't, because it would slow my attack speed, and some people don't because they're more worried about style. But you're neither of those... It's suspicious.”
She was spot on. I had a hidden skill. But I'd never used it even once in front of other people.
It wasn't only because skills were an important way to survive, but also because I thought it would make me stand out even more if it had become known.
But, if it was her— Even if she found out, it should be okay...
I opened my mouth thinking this.
“Never mind, it doesn't matter. Digging around about other people's skills is rude anyhow.”
She just laughed it off. Now that I had lost my chance, I simply mumbled a few words in my mouth. Then, Asuna's eyes grew wide after checking the time.
“Ah, it's already three. It's late, but let's eat lunch.”
“What!?”
I couldn't hide my excitement.
“I-Is it handmade!?”
Asuna smiled wordlessly and quickly manipulated her menu. After getting rid of her glove, she called forth a small basket. So there was definitely one good thing about partying with her —as I thought this rudely, Asuna suddenly glared at me.
“...What bad ideas were you thinking just now?”
“N-Nothing. Rather than that, let's eat.”
Asuna pouted, but nevertheless took two paper packages out of the basket and then handed one over to me. I opened the package and found a sandwich made with lots of vegetables and grilled meat stuffed between two thin slices of round bread. An aroma similar to pepper came from it. Suddenly, I felt really hungry and I took a large bite.
“It's... really good...”
I bit into it twice, thrice in a row, and then uttered my sincere appreciation. The shape seemed somewhat European, like the food that the NPC restaurants offered, but the taste was different. The slightly sour and sweet flavor was definitely similar to the Japanese fast foods that I had eaten until two years ago. I ate the huge sandwich quickly, feeling like I was going to cry from the nostalgic taste.
After finishing the last piece and downing the tea that Asuna gave me, I finally gave a sigh.
“How did you manage this flavor...?”
“It's the result of a year of training and experimentation. I made it after analyzing the data on how alllllllll of the herbs affect the taste reproduction engine. This is glogwa seed, shuble leaf, and calim water.”
As Asuna said this, she took out two small bottles from the basket, opened one of them, and stuck her index finger in. The finger came out with some indescribable substance on it that was sticky and purple. Then she said,
“Open your mouth.”
I didn't know what it was, but as I opened my mouth on reflex, and Asuna flung the substance into it. The gooey substance flew into my mouth accurately and its flavor amazed me.
“...It's mayonnaise!”
“And this is abilpa beans, sag leaves, and uransipi bones.”
The last one sounded like the ingredient for an antidote, but the liquid flew into my mouth before I had any time to think about it. Its taste shocked me even more than the previous one. This was definitely soy sauce. I was so ecstatic that I grabbed Asuna's hand and put her finger in my mouth.
“Kya!!”
She screamed and snatched her hand out while glaring at me. But then she started laughing at my expression.
“That's what I made the sandwich out of.”
“...It's amazing! Perfect! You could make a fortune with this!”
To tell the truth, the sandwich tasted even better than the Ragout Rabbit meal I had yesterday.
“R-Really?”
Asuna smiled sheepishly.
“No, it'd be better not to sell them. I can't let my share disappear.”
“Uwa, you're so greedy! ...If you want, I'll make it again for you sometime.”
She added the last bit quietly and leaned slightly against my shoulder. As a calm silence filled the room, I even forgot that this was in the front-lines, a place where we fought with our lives at stake.
If I could eat this sort of thing every day, I could steel my resolve and move to Salemburg... right next to Asuna's house... I started thinking this without realizing it, and just as I was about to say this out aloud—
Suddenly, the clanking sound of armor heralded the arrival of another group of players. We quickly widened the distance between us.
I glanced at the leader of the six-man party and relaxed my shoulders. He was the katana-wielder that I had known for the longest time in Aincrad.
“Oh, Kirito! It's been a while!”
I stood up and greeted the tall person who had started to walk this way after recognizing me.
“You're still alive, Klein?”
“You're as foul-mouthed as ever. Why are you of all people in a par-ty...”
The katana-wielder's eyes went wide under his bandana as he saw Asuna, who had stood up after quickly packing away her things.
“Ah—, ...you've probably already met each other during the boss fights, but I'll introduce you two anyway. This guy is Klein from the guild «Fuurinkazan», and this is Asuna from «Knights of the Blood».”
Asuna nodded lightly when I introduced her, but Klein just stood there, both his eyes and mouth wide open.
“Hey, say something. Are you lagging?”
After I jabbed him from the side, Klein finally closed his mouth and introduced himself in the politest way possible.
“H-Hello!!!!! I'm just a guy c-c-called Klein! Bachelor! Twenty-four!”
As Klein said something stupid in his confusion, I jabbed his side again, with more strength this time. But even before Klein finished talking, his party members had rushed up and began to introduce themselves.
They said that all the members of «Fuurinkazan» had known each other even before SAO had started. Klein had protected and guided all of them, without losing even a single member, until each of them had become a capable player of the front-lines. He had managed to bear the weight that I had run away from in fear two years ago—the day that this death game began.
Ignoring the self-hatred that had deeply permeated my heart, I started speaking to Asuna,
“...Well, they're not bad people, if you ignore the leader's thuggish face.”
This time, Klein stomped down on my foot as hard as he could. Upon seeing this, Asuna started laughing, unable to hold back any longer. Klein smiled sheepishly, but then returned to his senses and asked me in a voice filled with murderous intent.
“H-H-How did this happen Kirito!?”
As I stood there with no answer coming to mind, Asuna responded for me in a clear voice:
“Nice to meet you. We've decided to party with each other for a while. I hope we get along.”
I was shocked by what I heard. As I thought Eh!? This wasn't just for today!?, Klein and his party made expressions that switched between anger and depression.
Eventually, Klein glared at me with rage burning in his eyes and growled while grinding his teeth.
“Kirito, you bastard...”
I sagged my shoulders and thought that this was going to be hard to get out of. Then...
Footsteps resounded through the same doorway that Fuurinkazan had recently come through. Asuna tensed at the strangely uniform sound, then grabbed my arm and whispered.
“Kirito-kun, it's «The Army»!”
I immediately turned my gaze towards the doorway, and sure enough, the heavily-armed unit that we'd seen in the forest came into sight. Klein raised his hand and got his five companions to back into the wall. The group that marched into the room, still in its twin column formation, was no longer as orderly as they had been in the woods. Their footsteps were heavier, and the expressions under their helmets seemed very tired.
They stopped at the wall opposite from us in the safe area. The man in front gave the order “Dis-missed,” at which point the other eleven people collapsed onto the floor. The man then walked towards us without even glancing at them.
Now that I looked carefully, his equipment was somewhat different from the others. His armor was very high in quality, and a crest in the shape of Aincrad was engraved onto the chest—something none of the other eleven had.
He stopped in front of us and took off his helmet. He was pretty tall and appeared to be somewhere in his late thirties. He had a sharp face, very short hair, a pair of sharp eyes below his thick eyebrows, and a mouth that was tightly shut. He swept across us with his eyes, and then started speaking to me, who was the one in front of our group.
“I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cobert of the Aincrad Liberation Force.”
What the hell? «The Army» was originally a name that people had started calling them as a way of making fun of them. When did it become their official name? And «Lieutenant Colonel»? Feeling annoyed, I answered concisely:
“Kirito, Solo.”
He nodded and asked arrogantly:
“Have you mapped the area ahead of here?”
“...Yeah. I've mapped the area all the way up to the boss room.”
“Hmm. Then I hope you would supply us with the mapping data.”
I was surprised by his attitude. But Klein, who was behind me, had gotten angry.
“What? Supply you with it!? You bastard, do you even know how hard mapping is!?”
He shouted in a hoarse voice. Maps of unexplored areas were important information. They could also be sold to treasure hunters, who sought out locked treasure chests, at high prices.
As soon as he heard Klein's voice, the army guy raised one of his eyebrows and announced loudly.
“We are fighting for the freedom of players like you.”
He thrust his chin forward and continued.
“It is your duty to cooperate with us!”
—The word arrogance must exist for attitudes like his. The Army hadn't even been on the front-lines for a year now.
“Wait a second, how could you...”
“You, you bastard...”
Asuna and Klein, who had been standing on either sides of me, both stepped forward with their voices full of outrage. I spread my arms apart and stopped them.
“It's okay. I was going to spread it around when I got back to the city anyway.”
“Hey, hey! You're being way too kind Kirito!”
“I don't have any plans to sell the maps for money.”
As I said this, I opened a trade window and sent the information over to the guy who called himself Lieutenant Colonel Cobert. He took it without any change in his expression and said:
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
He replied without a single note of gratitude in his voice, and then turned around to head back.
I said to his back:
“Some advice from me, you're better off not attacking that boss.”
Cobert looked back.
“...That is for me to decide.”
“We checked out the boss room just a while ago. It's not something you can tackle with just anyone. Besides, your men all seem pretty tired as well.”
“...My men aren't such crybabies to be tired out by something like this!”
Cobert emphasized "My men" as he answered with annoyance. But the guys who sat on the floor didn't seem to agree.
“Get up you useless pieces of trash!”
At Cobert's command, they stood up shakily and reformed two columns. Cobert didn't even spare us a glance as he returned to the front of the column and gestured with his arm. The twelve men then lifted their weapons and began to march once again, their heavy armor clanking away.
Although they still had 100% of their HP on the outside, the strenuous fights of SAO left a fatigue that couldn't be seen. Our real bodies in the other world may not be moving a muscle, but the feeling of weariness still stayed until we either slept or rested on this side. Based on what I saw, those Army players were already exhausted, since they weren't used to fighting on the front-lines.
“...I wonder if they'll be okay...”
Klein spoke in a worried voice as the Army members disappeared into the passageway that led to the higher floor and the rhythmic sound of their footsteps vanished from our ears. He really was a good person.
“They're not really foolish enough to go and challenge the boss are they...?”
Asuna was worried as well. There was definitely something in Cobert's voice that hinted at a sort of recklessness.
“...Should we take a quick look at what they're doing...?”
When I said this, not only did Klein and Asuna, but even the other five members of his party agreed.
...and they say that I'm too kind...
I thought this with a bitter smile. However, I had already made a decision. I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if we left the Labyrinth now and heard that they never made it back.
As I quickly checked my equipment and started walking, a sound reached my ears—
I could tell that Klein was whispering to Asuna behind me. I was wondering if he hadn't received enough jabs when the content of their conversation surprised me.
“Ah— Asuna-san, how should I put this...that guy, Kirito, please treat him well. Even though he's not very good with words, isn't very fun, and is a battle-crazed idiot.”
I dashed back and yanked Klein's bandana as hard as I could.
“Wh-What are you talking about!?”
“B-But.”
The katana-wielder cocked his head and scratched his beard.
“It's remarkable that you're partying with someone. Even if it's because you fell for Asuna, it's still an extraordinary amount of progress. That's why I—”
“I-I didn't fall for her!”
I argued back. But for some reason, Klein, his party members, and even Asuna all looked at me with a smile on their face. I couldn't do anything except silently turn back around and keep walking.
Then I heard Asuna declare:
“Please leave him to me!”
I ran to the passageway that led up to the next floor while making a loud racket with my boots.