Sword Art Online - Volume 27 - Chapter 1

"THIS MIGHT BE A GAME, BUT IT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU PLAY."

-Akihiko Kayaba, Swort Art Online programmer

1

Maple-red eyes, wide with unfathomable shock and disbelief.

Jade-green eyes, narrowed with suspicion behind a white leather mask.

Trapped between these opposing stares, I could only hold my breath apprehensively.

I should have anticipated this. Tiese Schtrinen Thirty-Two was awakening from a 140 year slumber, but ever since she had been Eugeo’s page at the North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy, she had pined for him. Her grief at learning of Eugeo’s death during the Otherworld War was so great and so sharp that it had even penetrated into the depths of my mind while I was locked in a vegetative state.

After the war, Tiese and Ronie were named Integrity Knights, had children in their twenties, then underwent the art of life-freezing to preserve their youth, and were finally put to sleep in their mid-seventies with the Deep Freeze art—from what I was told. Even after all this time, however, it seemed likely that Tiese’s flame for Eugeo had never truly gone out.

Which is why she noticed, on her very first glimpse, that the current-day leader of the Integrity Pilots, Eolyne Herlentz, was unbelievably similar in appearance to Eugeo. Even if more than half his face was hidden by a white leather mask.

A few seconds later, Ronie noticed what was wrong with Tiese, too. She followed her friend’s gaze, noticed Eolyne—and sucked in a sharp gasp of breath. The sword whose point she’d been holding against the ground slipped out of her hands and fell over.

But it was neither Tiese nor Ronie who finally broke the tense silence.

“…I don’t believe it…Is that you, Eugeo…?”

That voice, frail and trembling with emotion, belonged to a girl in a white robe standing next to Alice: Alice’s beloved sister, Selka Zuberg.

The reason Asuna, Alice, and I were currently revisiting the Underworld had all started with a comment I had made to Alice after I’d awakened in Rath’s Roppongi office two months ago:

Alice, your sister, Selka, chose to go into deep freeze to wait for your return. She’s still slumbering now, atop that hill on the eightieth floor of Central Cathedral.

At present, I had no memory of this. That statement had supposedly come from Star King Kirito, who ruled the Underworld for a hundred years after the Otherworld War. I still had no primary memory of being the Star King, and the whole thing struck me as more than a little fishy, but I didn’t think he would outright lie to Alice.

So we visited the Underworld once again to bring Selka back, reached Central Cathedral after many challenges, and found the petrified Selka, Ronie, and Tiese in the Cloudtop Garden on the eightieth floor. To undo the Deep Freeze art they were under, I had to travel with Eolyne on the cathedral’s hidden dragoncraft, the X’rphan Mk. 13, to the planet Admina, where we acquired the means to de-petrify them after a very unexpected adventure.

From there, we rushed back to the planet Cardina, handed Alice the liquid solution, and had her awaken Selka first. Once the sisters were reunited at last in a loving embrace, I had thought that all would be well…

“Eugeo…you’re alive…?” Selka asked, stumbling step after step toward Eolyne. Tiese and Ronie were frozen still, as though they’d fallen back under the Deep Freeze art.

The commander of the Integrity Pilots looked to me uncertainly for help. On his left, Stica and Laurannei had their pilot’s caps pulled low over their faces, but Eolyne, like me, was still wearing his pilot suit, which left his flaxen hair exposed and a bit unkempt.

The sight of that hair, the exact same color and texture as Eugeo’s, left me momentarily unable to know what to say to Selka. Neither Asuna nor Alice moved.

Another tense silence followed.

It was broken by an unexpected screeching sound.

“Kyuu! Kyu-kyuruuuu!”

A little brown blob was tumbling—literally, tumbling—over the grass toward us. At six feet away, it leaped high into the air and into Ronie’s arms.

“Kyuru! Kyurururu!” squealed the little creature—Natsu, the long-eared wetrat. It swung its long ears around and buried its muzzle in Ronie’s cheek.

“…Natsu!” she exclaimed, her voice weak. She clutched at the rodent, which continued to squeal and squeak with excitement.

That sound overlapped with the soft crunch of feet on grass. Climbing the hillside was the girl who had previously controlled the levitating platform, Airy Trume. She stopped in front of Selka, bowed deeply, and announced, “It is good to see you again, Lady Selka.” Then she turned on her heel and continued. “Lady Tiese, Lady Ronie, I am most delighted to see you once more.”

The sound of that gentle voice managed to bring a bit of life back to Selka, who appeared to be having an out-of-body experience. She blinked a few times, until her eyes focused on Airy’s face, and then she smiled.

“Airy, how many times must I tell you that there’s no need to call me ‘Lady’?”

It was almost as though it had been less time since their reunion for Selka, I thought, before realizing that of course it seemed that way. Selka’s fluctlight had been completely inactive while she was frozen, so from her perspective, it had only been a few days since she’d last seen Airy, if not a few hours.

Selka approached Airy and gave her a firm hug. “I’m so glad to see you well, Airy. What year of the Stellar Era is this?”

“It is December 7th, 582, Lady Selka.”

“The year 582…”

It had been 140 years since Selka was frozen here. The truth of this stunned her, but her only outward reaction was a brief widening of her eyes. She looked around the group—to Tiese, Ronie, Natsu, Asuna, me, Stica, and then Laurannei—before returning to Eolyne at last.

Before she could say anything, Airy whispered, “Lady Selka, that man is not Eugeo.”

“……But…”

I couldn’t blame her for being unable to accept it at first. They were just too identical for Eolyne to be a totally different person. It wasn’t just his hair and face, either; his build, posture, and even manner were similar to Eugeo’s.

In my two recent dives to the Underworld, I had spent a lot of time with Eolyne, so I knew that not every facet of him was identical to Eugeo. He had a cynical smile, a mysterious aloofness, and a sickly constitution, none of which described Eugeo. But even still, it felt as though his soul—the shape of his fluctlight, if you wanted to call it that—was too close to Eugeo’s to be a coincidence.

And yet, when Airy interacted with Eolyne, she did not seem surprised at all. Either she knew something about him, or she could see something that was invisible to me.

“He is the commander of the Integrity Pilots, Eolyne Herlentz,” Airy explained to Ronie and Tiese.

“Herlentz,” murmured Ronie, who was standing at my side. She took a few steps toward Airy with Natsu in her arms and asked, “Then he’s Berche’s…?”

“Yes. If Lord Berche was the second-generation head of the Herlentz family, then Eolyne would be the second son of the seventh-generation head.”

“The son of the seventh…,” Ronie repeated, blinking in surprise.

I started counting in my head. So the first head of the family was Bercouli Herlentz, whose son was Berche Herlentz, whose great-grandson’s son’s son was Orvas Herlentz, and Eolyne was his son—foster son, technically. Eight generations in two hundred years sounded like a lot to me, but marriages and childbirth happened earlier here than in the real world, so it made sense that the generations would pass quickly. Distantly, I recalled that Stica and Laurannei were supposed to be the seventh generation after Tiese and Ronie, too.

By that point, Tiese seemed to have accepted that Eolyne was not actually Eugeo. She picked up the sword that had toppled to the ground near her feet, placed it in the sheath on the inside of her white robe, and moved over to Airy.

“…You’ve been watching over us in the same place this whole time, haven’t you, Airy? Thank you…”

She embraced the girl, then turned in my direction. Her eyes were a lot like Stica’s, but with an ever so slightly deeper coloring. They burned with purpose.

“Kirito…Excuse me—Your Majesty. I, Tiese Schtrinen Thirty-Two, hereby return to my knight’s post,” she announced formally. Ronie quickly lifted Natsu to her shoulder and picked up her sword. She sheathed it as well, then trotted over to line up next to Tiese.

“Likewise, Ronie Arabel Thirty-Three has returned to active duty!”

She placed her right fist against her chest and her left hand on her sword pommel in the Integrity Knight’s official salute. My first instinct was to admire the way they’d grown and become so adult…and then I realized the situation and quickly lifted my hands.

“Uh, n-no, wait, listen…I hate to disappoint you,” I rushed to get out, glancing over at Asuna before telling them the truth, “but I’m not the Star King anymore.”

“Wha—?” Ronie and Tiese exclaimed in shocked unison.

I was just wondering how I would explain the situation to them when the sound of countless bells ringing came through the openings placed high in the walls. “Oh, crap,” I muttered.

In the real world, it was Saturday, October 3rd, so I didn’t have school. But as a condition for getting to dive into the Underworld, Dr. Rinko Koujiro had told me that I would have to log out using the gesture command by five o’clock. If I didn’t, she would force-eject me by 5:10. That melody was the five o’clock bell.

“Ronie, Tiese, Selka, I’m sorry. Asuna, Alice, and I only have ten more minutes here,” I said.

“Wh-what do you mean…?” asked a wide-eyed Ronie.

As quickly as I could, I explained, “We’re currently divi—er, temporarily present in the Underworld. Our time limit is only until 5:10, and if we don’t leave for the real world by then, we’ll be pulled out by force.”

“Wh-why are you under such a limitation?” Tiese asked.

Unfortunately, as the former Star King, I couldn’t give her an excuse as undignified as Because I have homework or Because my mom will scold me.

“Well, there are a variety of reasons…but there’s something more important that I need to explain to you now,” I said, and practically slid over the grass to where Stica, Laurannei, and Eolyne stood together. “Airy’s already introduced Eolyne to you. First of all, this is Integrity Pilot Stica Schtrinen. Yes, that’s pilot, as in pilot of a dragoncraft.”

I pointed out Stica, and Tiese remarked, “What?” with surprise.

Then I pointed to Stica’s partner. “And this is Integrity Pilot Laurannei Arabel.”

“What?” Ronie remarked in the same tone of voice.

Calling out the two girls by name finally broke them out of their apparent paralysis. Awkwardly, they doffed their pilot’s caps.

Ronie rushed over to Laurannei, and Tiese to Stica. Once they were face-to-face, it was clear that Ronie and Tiese were somewhat taller and looked older, but the resemblance between each pair was so great that it seemed impossible they could be six generations apart.

I wonder what it feels like to meet your distant ancestors…or descendants, I wondered idly. Then I belatedly realized that for Ronie and Tiese, this encounter might not actually be a happy thing.

Stica’s and Laurannei’s existence indicated that Tiese’s and Ronie’s children were no longer alive—unless their life had been suspended as well.

But outwardly, at least, Ronie and Tiese showed no sorrow, and they embraced their descendants. Laurannei and Stica hesitantly lifted their hands around the backs of their ancestors.

This embrace lingered, but I was patient. Eventually, the four let go and turned toward me.

“Your Majes—I mean, Kirito. What was the important thing you needed to tell us?” Ronie prompted.

With the occasional bit of help from Eolyne, I explained the peculiar circumstances surrounding the Integrity Pilothood at the moment.

It started with Stica and Laurannei being attacked by the Abyssal Horror while on their dragoncraft and continued through the mysterious base on Admina and the cruel experiment being waged there. Even my abbreviated version of the story took a full five minutes to tell. There was probably less than a minute before Asuna, Alice, and I were going to be yanked out.

In all honesty, I would rather have stayed in the Underworld to talk to my old friends to my heart’s content. But I had very nearly destroyed my fluctlight entirely during the Otherworld War, and even though I was here on request from Seijirou Kikuoka, my parents had to be concerned about me continuing to stay involved in Rath’s business. The least I could do was come back home on time for them.

“Ronie, Tiese, Selka, I’m sorry to do this just after you woke up…but could you help Eolyne and the girls with this? I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said, making my request as a friend, not as the Star King. Thankfully, they firmly accepted.

“Of course, Kirito!” said Ronie.

“We can handle this!” added Tiese.

“Just make sure you come back soon!” Selka chimed in.

And then, just as I had felt before, a sensation came over me like my mind being ripped out of my body. Everything I was seeing was whisked rapidly away, the light leaving rainbow trails.

Even when I was the Star King and she was the commander of the sacred artificers brigade, Selka didn’t change the way she talked to me, I realized, my last thought before I departed the Underworld.