Sword Art Online - Volume 27 - Chapter 11

11

To get back to the riverside in the south and explain what had happened to our companions took a whole thirty minutes.

Once I finally finished my story, Klein, gesturing wildly, shouted, “Um, doesn’t that seem a little overly generous to you?!”

Others made their displeasure known, too.

“Kirito, they kidnapped Yui. No matter what their situation is, you can’t form a relationship of trust after an event like that!” Lisbeth added, expressing her outrage.

“And what merit is there for helping the AD faction out in this? The only thing they offered was a nonaggression agreement. And even that is just lip service in the end,” Sinon pointed out.

Their negative opinions were all valid. What Masaru’s group was asking for was to take Yui into the wooded region in the west and have her act as an interpreter between them and the NPCs there. The NPCs were already totally hostile, so they might attack outright, and since their arrows struck the target 100 percent of the time, an encounter could easily be fatal.

And the only reward for braving such dangers was a temporary truce between AD and ALO, in which neither side would attack the other while on the second tier. Otto did say, “That’s all I can tell you right now, but I’ll discuss with Casper to see if we can give you a more material payment,” but based on his tone of voice, I wasn’t counting on anything extra.

When I heard the offer, I had thought, Give us a bit more…or a lot more! Considering the gap in strength, a truce would benefit the ALO side more, but their route and our route through the second tier were dozens of miles apart. We shouldn’t be converging until the very end of the tier anyway, so the impact of a truce seemed slight.

Considering the sequence of events, we could be forgiven for spurning Masaru’s offer and slaughtering them all on the spot. Still, I told them we would confer with our teammates and released them—and not because they had traveled dozens of miles to reach us. It was because of the name of the NPCs troubling them and the breathtaking shock it inflicted on us.

I shared a look with Asuna, who was still holding Yui, then turned to speak to the group.

“I know you’re not satisfied with this, and I agree that it would be better to ignore AD’s troubles and focus on our own path ahead. But…I want to find out more about the NPCs who made contact with the AD faction…for reasons that are personal to me and Asuna.”

“To…the NPCs?” Silica asked, confused. Holgar and Leafa looked suspicious as well.

“Yeah,” I said. “In SAO, Asuna and I were part of a really long series of quests called the Elf War Campaign. You had to pick either the forest elves or the dark elves, and collect these special items. The forest elves’ nation was called Kales’Oh. And the dark elves’ was Lyusula.”

It was all I could do to stem the tide of memories coming back as I told the story.

“Apparently, the NPCs who attacked the AD folks were dark elves calling themselves Lyusula. That simply can’t be a coincidence. If Unital Ring is connected to the Aincrad of SAO, I want to know why and how. I’ll do anything to find out.”

The others were silent for a while after I finished. Eventually, Argo wrapped up interpreting my speech to Zarion and Ceecee, and hopped to her feet atop the rock she was using as a chair.

“Kiri-boy, is that pure curiosity yer speakin’ from? Or are you thinkin’ that finding out why the NPCs’ proper name is copy-pasted might contribute to conquerin’ Unital Ring?”

She leveled an all-seeing gaze at me.

And she really did see all, I presumed. Argo was the only person among the SAO survivors who had been with Asuna and me all the way from the lowest levels of Aincrad. She’d taken part in our Elf War Campaign and, in the process, had met…her.

So she should have known the other reason that Asuna and I couldn’t just ignore the name Lyusula.

Argo said not a word about that, however; she simply gave us a look that asked how serious we were. I stared her right back in the eyes.

“I think it will contribute. We know from experience that information gained from NPCs is crucial in this world. From what I hear, we wouldn’t have beaten the gilnaris hornets without intel from the Patter. It’s very likely that the same thing will happen on the second tier.”

“Yeah, but we’re aiming for the third tier along the southern route, right?” pointed out Friscoll. “There are probably NPCs along our way, too, so why wouldn’t we just get along with them, instead?”

“I agree,” Holgar chimed in. “Honestly, it would be better for us overall if the dark elves stay hostile to AD.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But…the dark elves and forest elves from SAO were very highly civilized compared to the rest of the NPCs. If the dark elves in this world are based on those from the SAO setting, they might not just have crucial information, but top-level crafting and magic skills. If we could learn those from them, it could create a huge boost to our progress,” I said. All of it was true, but it was not the entire truth.

The reason I didn’t bring up the name of Kizmel, royal knight of Lyusula, was because it would make things too complicated and because I was afraid of giving a concrete definition to the faint, misty hope that Asuna and I were currently feeling. It would be too painful to experience the true sadness of loss that we had already accepted three and a half years ago…

“Hrrrm. Well, it’s a tough decision,” grumbled Holgar, folding his arms to think. Friscoll did the same thing.

“Indeed, indeed. The western forest route is tough going but an opportunity to gain strong weapons and magic, while the southern grassland route is easier but with fewer rewards, it would seem. If that’s the case, I guess the ideal outcome would be to get the stuff we want from the elves in the west, then use them to travel through the southern grassland…”

“But will it really work that well?” Zarion said in English, which was easy enough to understand. The rest of the group murmured deep in their throats.

I gave the clock a glance and clapped my hands. “Listen, I’m sorry for making things complicated. I told the AD folks that I’d respond to them by noon tomorrow, so let’s talk it over with the others before we decide. For tonight, though, I’d like to get a bit farther. Should we make a base over there first?”

I pointed at a small set of ruins on the other side of the river. It was where Masaru had lain in wait for hours to ambush Yui, but because of that, we knew it wasn’t a risk for dangerous monsters.

With Aga’s help, we crossed one by one, with me going first this time, and inspected the ruins. There were three buildings of varying sizes, which seemed to me like a watchtower for the bridge and a station for soldiers, but the majority of the roof and walls had crumbled inward, so they didn’t look like much of anything anymore.

Even still, we found rusted longswords and short swords, along with some broken armor and faded coins, so we collected them all. Next, we went to the biggest building—which bore a resemblance to our log cabin—and used the logs and boards on hand to repair the walls and fashion it into a simple shelter.

With our safety secured, Holgar suggested another bathroom break, which I made use of this time. I sat down in a location out of the way, opened my menu, and hit the LOG OUT button.

After the system voice said, “Disconnecting from Unital Ring,” a rainbow circle rose around my lower half. Once it had enveloped my avatar, I saw nothing but a flowing spectrum of color.

The sensation was like falling—or maybe rising. I was cut off from the senses of my avatar, and the slightly stronger weight of real gravity took over.

“…Whew…”

I sat upright and pulled the AmuSphere off my head.

I’d forgotten to turn on a night-light before the dive, so the room was completely dark. I was looking for the remote to the lights when I noticed that the notifications blinker on my phone on the side table was active.

I picked it up and turned on the screen; there was one notification. Someone had called my phone just a minute ago. It was from…Alice.

So she was back from the Underworld. I started to call her back, but my phone started vibrating first. Alice was calling again.

I slid the ANSWER button over and put the phone to my ear.

“Hey, Alice, did you get some good time in with Sel—?”

She cut me off, her voice panicked. “Kirito, come to Rath right away!”

“Huh…? Wh-what’s the matter?”

“Something very bad is happening in the Underworld! I’m going right back in, but we need you and Asuna!”

I wanted to ask her what it was but held my question back. Her voice sounded just as strained as it had been when we fought Administrator together, making it very clear that every minute and every second was of the essence right now.

“Got it. Once I contact Asuna, I’ll dive into the Underworld as soon as I possibly can,” I told her.

As quickly as humanly possible, she replied, “Please do. I’ll find a way to protect the cathedral until then,” and hung up.

The phrase protect the cathedral sounded very ominous to me, but I tried not to think too hard about it, and put the AmuSphere on again. Once back in Unital Ring, I told Asuna and Yui about the message from Alice, since they were right there. Then I spoke up, cutting through the conversations happening around the room.

“Sorry, everyone. Asuna and I have urgent business. I’m sorry to do this when things were about to get serious, but can two other people or so watch our avatars with Yui?”

“Really, Kiri? ‘Urgent business’ at this time of night?” Klein snarked back. But he quickly sensed that the situation was no joking matter and added, “All right…I’ll watch you guys.”

“Thanks, appreciate it!”

I bowed to show my deep appreciation to the group, then logged out along with Asuna.

Before my sense of balance had even returned, I was ripping off my AmuSphere and getting to my feet. It had taken two whole minutes to explain the situation to Asuna and the others.

Even if I called a taxi right this instant, it would still take an entire hour to get from Kawagoe in Saitama to Rath’s Roppongi office in Minato Ward, Tokyo.

But I didn’t even look at my phone. Instead, I rushed over to two large cardboard boxes stacked in a corner of the room.