Sword Art Online

Part 3

Silica awoke to a chiming noise that was sounding in her ear. It was a morning alarm that only she could hear. The time set was seven in the morning.

She pulled the blanket off herself and sat up. It was usually hard to get up in the mornings, but today she was able to open her eyes in a good mood. Her head felt fresh, as if everything had been washed away by the deep sleep.

After stretching, Silica was just about to get off the bed when she froze.

There was a person sleeping with his back to the bed; the morning sunlight that was shining through the window fell on him. Just as Silica drew a breath to scream, thinking that it was an intruder, she remembered where she had fallen asleep last night.

—I, in Kirito-san's room...

As soon as she realized that fact, her face grew hot as if she had been hit by a fire breath attack. Since emotions were rather overstated in SAO, steam might really be coming off her face right now. It seemed that Kirito left Silica on the bed and slept on the floor. Silica groaned as she covered her face with her hands out of embarrassment and regret.

After taking a few dozen seconds to calm herself down, Silica quietly got off the bed and stood up. She then walked over to Kirito with silent footsteps and stared at his face.

The sleeping face of the black swordsman looked so innocent that Silica couldn't stop herself from smiling. She had thought that he was quite a bit older than her because of his sharp gaze. But surprisingly, now that she saw him like this, he didn't seem all that different from her.

It was fun watching his sleeping face; but Silica couldn't stay like this forever, so she softly prodded the black swordsman's shoulder and spoke to him.

"Kirito-san, it's morning~."

Kirito opened his eyes widely and blinked several times as he stared blankly at Silica's face for a while. Then his expression quickly changed into one of embarrassment.

"Ah... So-Sorry!"

He suddenly lowered his head.

"I thought of waking you up but you were so deep asleep... and I couldn't open the door to your room, so..."

Rooms that players rented were impenetrable system-wise, so there was no way you could get in unless you were a friend of the player. Silica quickly waved her hand and said:

"No, no, I'm the one who's sorry! For taking over your bed... "

"No, it's fine. You don't get any muscle aches here no matter how you sleep."

After standing up, Kirito stretched his neck, which made cracking noises contradictory to what he just said. He then raised his arms and stretched them. He looked at Silica as if he had just thought of something before opening his mouth:

"...Anyway, good morning."

"Go-Good morning."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

It was already bright when they stepped outside after eating a solid meal in preparation for «The Hill of Memories» on the forty-seventh floor. The players who were preparing to start their day and the players that had just returned from their nightly adventures came and went with contrasting expressions.

After replenishing their potion supplies at the shop next to the inn, the two headed for the gate plaza. Luckily, they managed to make it to the teleport gate without running into anyone who wanted Silica in their party like yesterday. Just as she was about to run to the shimmering blue teleport area, Silica stopped.

"Ah... I, don't know the name of the village on the forty-seventh floor..."

She was about to check the map for the name when Kirito offered his right hand.

"It's fine. I'll designate the place."

Silica felt grateful as she took his hand.

"Teleport! Floria!"

As soon as Kirito said this, a blinding light covered both of them.

After the light faded, the feeling of transportation followed and countless colors exploded in Silica's vision.

"Uwa..."

She shouted unconsciously.

The gate plaza of the forty-seventh floor was overflowing with flowers. Two small paths cut across the plaza in a cross shape. Aside from that, the rest of the space was taken up entirely by flower beds, each of them surrounded by red bricks and filled with flowers that she didn't know.

"Amazing..."

"This floor's also called the «Flower Garden», as not only the village but the whole floor is covered with flowers. If we had the time, we could also go to the «Forest of Giant Flowers» to the north..."

"I'll look forward to that some other time."

Silica smiled at Kirito before she crouched in front of a flower bed. She put her face closer to a bluish flower that was similar to a cornflower and sniffed it.

The flower was made with surprisingly high detail: from the veins of the flower, its five petals, the white stamen, and up to the green stem.

Of course not everything in Aincrad, including this flowerbed, as well as all the other plants and buildings, existed in such a detailed form all the time. If they did that, then even SAO's mainframe, however high its performance was, would run into a shortage of system resources.

To avoid that while giving the players a highly detailed environment as close to reality as possible, SAO used the «Digital Focusing System». It was a system that brought out the finer details of an object only when a player showed interest and focused on it.

After she heard of this system, Silica became afraid that showing interest in things would strain the system; but she couldn't hold herself back right now and kept staring at the various flowers.

When she finally managed to stop herself from walking unconsciously while enjoying the fragrance, Silica took a look around.

Most of the people here were couples consisting of a male and a female. All of them were happily conversing with each other, either holding one another's hands or had their arms linked. It seemed that this place had become one of those places. Silica looked up at Kirito, who was thoughtlessly standing next to her.

—Would we look like that as well...?

After thinking this, Silica said loudly to cover up the fact that she was blushing:

"Let-Let's go out to the field quickly!"

"Huh? Ah, yeah."

Kirito stood blinking for a second before he nodded and began walking next to Silica.

They left the gate plaza only to find out that even the main street of the village was covered with flowers. As the two walked next to each other, Silica thought about when she had first met Kirito. She couldn't believe that only a day had passed since then. The swordsman had already become a significant presence in her heart.

She glanced his way and wondered how he felt, but Kirito still had a mysterious feel and it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Silica hesitated for a while before she prepared herself and opened her mouth:

"Ermm... Kirito-san. Can I ask about your little sister..."

"Wh-Why all of a sudden?"

"You said that I reminded you of her. So, I was just curious..."

Talking about the real world was one of the greatest taboos in Aincrad. There were a lot of reasons, but the biggest one was that if the thought of 'this world is virtual and therefore fake' embedded itself deep within the players' minds, then they wouldn't be able to accept the «death» in SAO as real.

But she wanted to ask about Kirito's little sister, whom he said was like her. She wanted to know if Kirito wanted something from her as a little sister.

"...We weren't...all that close..."

Kirito started talking.

"I said that she was my little sister, but she's actually my cousin. We've always lived together ever since she was born because of some circumstances, so she shouldn't know that though. Well, maybe it's because of this... but I kept distancing myself from her without really meaning to. I even avoided running into her at home."

A small sigh came from Kirito.

"...On top of that, we had a strict grandfather. He forced me to go to a kendo dojo when I was eight, but I couldn't really get into it and stopped after two years. My grandfather had hit me pretty hard... but when he did that, my sister started crying and protected me by saying that she'll do even my share to make him stop hitting me. After that, I began playing on the computer and lost myself in it, but my sister really devoted herself to kendo and even made it pretty far in the national championships before our grandfather passed away. It was enough to make even him pleased... But I always felt sorry; I always wondered if that was really something she wanted to do and if she resented me. I kept avoiding her because of that... and now we ended up like this."

Kirito stopped talking and glanced down at Silica's face.

"So I might have saved you to satisfy myself, to atone for my past... Sorry."

Silica was an only child so she couldn't completely grasp all of what Kirito said. But for some reason, she felt as if she could understand his little sister.

"...I don't think your little sister resents you, Kirito-san. If she didn't like it, then she wouldn't have been able to work so hard at it. She most probably liked kendo very much."

As Silica said this, choosing her words carefully, Kirito smiled.

"It seems I'm the one who keeps getting comforted... Is it really like that? ...It would be nice if it is."

Silica felt something warm spread in her heart. She was happy that Kirito had opened up to her.

The two soon arrived at the north entrance of the village. Countless white flowers grew from the vines that were coiled around the slim, silver-colored metal arch. The main street passed through it and stretched on to become a highway surrounded by green hills before disappearing into the haze.

"Well... our adventure finally starts."

"Yeah."

Silica pulled herself away from Kirito's arm, steadied her expression, and nodded.

"With your level and equipment, the monsters around here shouldn't be too difficult for you to beat. But..."

As he said this, Kirito rummaged through the pouch hanging on his belt, took out a sky blue crystal, and then placed it in Silica's hand. It was a Teleport Crystal.

"You don't know what's going to happen on the field. So keep this in mind. If something unexpected happens and I tell you to get away, then use that crystal to leave. Any village is fine. You don't have to worry about me."

"Bu-But..."

"Promise me. I've... destroyed a whole party before. I don't want to repeat the same mistake again."

Kirito's expression was so serious that Silica couldn't do anything but nod. After Kirito received her answer he smiled in relief.

"Then, let's go!"

"Okay!"

Silica made sure of the feel of the dagger equipped at her side and resolved in her mind; she at least wouldn't become confused like yesterday and she would fight to the best of her ability.

But—

"Kya-aaaaaah!? What's that—!? It, it looks horrible———!!"

They had met their first monster only a few minutes after they started walking in a northward direction on the fields of the forty-seventh floor.

"U-Uwaa!! Go away——!"

The thing that appeared and was making its way through the bushes had a form that Silica would never have imagined. «A walking flower» would be the best description. The dark green stem was about as thick as a human arm and it stood up using its roots, which was split in numerous places. The stem or body supported a huge yellow flower that was similar to a sunflower. It had its mouth open, with teeth spouting out of it, revealing flashes of the red from the inside.

It had two vines that stretched out from the middle part of the stem, which made one think of the arms an animal had. It seemed that those arms and its mouth were the bodyparts it used for attacking. The man-eating plant ran towards Silica with a smiling mouth while swinging its tentacle-like arms. This thing that looked like a grotesque caricature made Silica feel disgusted.

"I said go away—!"

Silica swung her dagger wildly with her eyes almost closed. Kirito, who stood next to her, said in a disconcerted voice:

"It-It's fine. That monster's really weak. If you aim for the white bit just under the flower, then you can easily..."

"Bu-But it looks horrible—!"

"If that thing looks bad then this is going to be hard. There's also a monster that has numerous flowers, and one that looks like a carnivorous plant, and even one that has lots of sticky tentacles...

"Kya——!!"

As she screamed at what Kirito said, Silica activated a sword skill; of course, it simply cut through the empty air. During the short delay after that, the two tentacles wrapped themselves around Silica's two legs and lifted her up with surprising strength.

"Uwah!?"

Silica found herself hanging upside down with her vision reversed while her skirt, faithful to the virtual gravity, slid down.

"Uaaa!?"

She quickly pressed down on the end of her skirt and tried to cut the vine. But since she was in an awkward position, it didn't work out very well. Silica shouted with her face red:

"Ki-Kirito-san, help! Don't look, but help!!"

"Tha-That's a bit hard."

With his left hand covering his eyes, Kirito answered with an uncomfortable expression while the huge flower continued to swing Silica to and fro.

"Stop!"

Silica didn't have a choice but to let go of her skirt, grab onto the vine, and cut it. The back of the flower's neck came within reach as she fell and she initiated a sword skill. This time it struck the mark, and as the flower's head fell off, its whole body exploded and vanished. Silica, who landed lightly amidst a rain of polygon debris, asked Kirito as soon as she turned around.

"...Did you see?"

The black swordsman looked down at Silica through the gaps between his fingers and answered:

"...No, I didn't."

They went through five more battles to get used to the monsters before increasing their pace; although she almost fainted when a monster that looked like a sea anemone grabbed her with its sticky tentacles.

Kirito didn't participate much in the battles and mostly just supported Silica, occasionally blocking attacks when Silica was in danger. The party experience is divided according to the amount of damage each party member dealt to the monster. Since she was defeating high-leveled monsters, she also gained experience points several times faster than usual and quickly rose a level.

As they kept following the endless red brick road, a bridge that led over a small stream appeared. Beyond it they could see a large hill, and the path seemed to lead to its top.

"That's the «Hill of Memories»."

"There doesn't appear to be any forks."

"Yeah. We just have to keep going up, so there're no worries about getting lost. But they say that there are lots of monsters. Let's be careful."

"Okay!"

Soon, soon she could revive Pina. When she thought of this, her footsteps hastened naturally.

As they started walking along the uphill path that was full of blooming flowers, they ran into more monsters just like Kirito had predicted. The plant type monsters were also much bigger, but Silica's black dagger was much stronger than she had thought, allowing her to defeat most of them with a single combo.

But Kirito's skill was even more surprising.

She had thought that he was a pretty high-level swordsman after seeing him defeat two drunken apes with a single swing of his sword. But even after coming up twelve floors, he still didn't lose a single bit of his composure. When a large number of monsters appeared, he helped Silica by just taking out all of them except one.

As they continued, Silica couldn't help but wonder what such a high-level player was doing on the thirty-fifth floor.

Based on what he said, it seemed like he had something to do in the «Forest of Wandering». But she had never heard of any rare items or monsters there.

Let's ask him after this adventure is over— Silica thought as she swung her dagger; yet even as she did this, the narrow path began to gradually get steeper. As they defeated the increasingly aggressive monsters and made their way through the densely wooded area—

They arrived at the top of the hill.

"Uwa—!"

Silica held herself back as she ran forward a couple of steps and exclaimed.

Sky garden— this was truly a place that suited its name. The open space surrounded by the dense woods was full of flowers contending against themselves as they bloomed.

"We're finally here."

Kirito said as he walked toward Silica and sheathed his sword.

"The flower... Is it here...?"

"Yeah. There's a stone in the middle and on top of it..."

Silica was already running before Kirito even finished talking. She could definitely see a shining white stone in the middle of the flower beds. She ran towards it, panting, and then carefully examined the top of the rock that came up to about her chest.

"Huh......?"

But there was nothing there. There was only a small bit grass in the middle of an indent in the rock; there was nothing that one could call a flower.

"It's... It's not here, Kirito-san!"

She shouted at Kirito, who had run up to her side. Tears started to appear in her eyes.

"There's no way... —Ah, look."

Silica followed Kirito's gaze and looked back at the stone. Then—

"Ah..."

A small sprout grew out from amidst the soft grass. As she stared at it, the focus system activated and the young plant became more detailed. Two white leaves opened up like a clam and a stem quickly grew out from in between.

The stem grew tall in the blink of an eye, just like in that video she had seen during a science class ages ago, and then a small bud appeared at the end of it. The small raindrop-shaped bud gave off a pearly white light from within.

As Kirito and Silica watched with bated breath, the end of the bud started to open; then— with a bell-like tinkling, it opened. A little spot of light danced across the air.

The two simply watched the white flower grow without moving an inch. Seven petals reached out like the radiance of a star, and light shined softly from its center, mixing in with that of the sky's.

Silica looked up at Kirito, feeling as if she shouldn't touch this. Kirito gave a soft smile and nodded.

Silica nodded in response and then reached towards the flower with her right hand. The moment she touched it, the stem that was as thin as a thread of silk broke as if it were made of ice, and only the flower was left in her hand. She then touched it gently as she breathed softly. The name window appeared soundlessly. «Pneuma's Flower»—

"Now... we can revive Pina..."

"Yeah. You just have to drip the droplet of water in the flower on the heart item. But there are a lot of strong monsters here, so it would be better to do it after we get back to the village. Let's just wait a bit longer and hurry back."

"Okay!"

Silica nodded and opened her main window before putting the flower in it. She checked that it was in the item inventory before closing the window.

To tell the truth, she wanted to use a teleport crystal to return immediately, but Silica held herself back and started walking. It was virtually a rule never to use the expensive crystal unless one was in real danger.

Fortunately, they didn't run into that many monsters on the way back. They soon reached the stream after coming down at a quick pace.

Now I can meet Pina in about an hour at the most—

She hugged her chest, which felt as if it were going to explode, and was just about to cross the bridge—

Suddenly Kirito grabbed her shoulder. She looked back, her heart beating rapidly, and saw Kirito glaring at the dense group of trees over the bridge with a frightening expression. He then opened his mouth and talked in a low and tense voice:

"—You guys lying in ambush, come out right now."

"What...!?"

Silica quickly looked towards the other side, but she couldn't see anyone. After a few tense seconds passed, the leaves started moving with a rustling sound. Cursors that represented the players appeared. They were green, so they weren't criminals.

Surprisingly — the person who came into view across the short bridge was someone that Silica knew.

Flame red hair, with lips of the same color; the spear warrior wielded a slim, cross-shaped spear and wore black armor that shone like enamel.

“Ro-Rosalia-san...!? Why are you at a place like...”

Rosalia smiled lopsidedly and ignored the question from Silica, whose eyes were wide open with surprise.

“To think that you saw through my hiding; it seems that your scan skill is pretty high, swordsman. Did I underestimate you a little?”

Then she turned towards Silica:

“Looks like you luckily managed to get «Pneuma's Flower». Congratulations, Silica.”

Silica, who couldn't figure out Rosalia's true intentions, took a couple of steps back. She felt something inexplicably bad about this.

Rosalia didn't betray her expectations and began speaking a second later:

“Hand over that flower right now.”

Silica didn't know what to say.

“...!? What... what are you saying...?”

Then, Kirito, who had been silent until now, stepped forward and opened his mouth:

“I can't let you do that, Rosalia-san. No— I should call you the leader of the orange guild «Titan's Hand».”

Rosalia's eyebrows twitched upwards and the smile disappeared from her face.

In SAO, players who commit acts that are judged as criminals, such as stealing, harming other players, or killing them, have their cursors' color changed from green to orange. Therefore, people refer to these criminal individuals as orange players and a guild that consist of them as orange guilds. Silica knew about this, but she had never seen them before.

Yet Rosalia's HP cursor, which she could see right in front of her eyes, was green no matter how she looked at it. Silica looked up at Kirito, who was standing next to her, and asked in a dry voice:

“Hey... but... look... Rosalia-san's, it's green...”

“Even in an orange guild, there are plenty of occasions when not all of the members are orange. The green members search out prey and hide amongst their parties before luring them to the ambush point. The person who was eavesdropping on us yesterday must be a member of her group as well.”

“Wha-What...”

Silica looked at Rosalia with shock and loathing.

“The—then, the reason she partied with us for the past two weeks was because...”

Rosalia smiled venomously once again and spoke:

“Yeah~ I was checking out how strong the party was, and at the same time was waiting for them to grow fat on the money they earned through their adventuring. In fact, I was going to take care of them today.”

She licked her lips as she stared at Silica.

“I was wondering why the person I looked forward to hunting the most suddenly left, and then I heard that you were going to get a rare item. «Pneuma's Flower» is pretty expensive these days. Gathering information is important after all~”

Then she stopped talking for a moment, looked at Kirito, and shrugged.

“But swordsman, you were playing with this kid even though you knew that? Are you some kind of idiot? Or did you really fall for her?”

Silica's face reddened with fury at Rosalia's insults. Her hand moved to draw her dagger. But Kirito grabbed her shoulder.

“No, it's none of those things.”

Kirito said, his voice cold.

“I was looking for you as well, Rosalia-san.”

“—What do you mean?”

“You attacked the guild «Silver Flag» ten days ago on the thirty-eighth floor, right? The one where four members died and only the leader survived.”

“Ah~, those beggars?”

Rosalia didn't even flinch as she nodded.

“That leader... he was looking for somebody to avenge his team in the gate plaza at the front lines, crying from morning till night.”

A terrifying coldness could be felt from Kirito's words. It felt like a blade of ice that had been sharpened to cut anything that came near.

“But when I received his request, he didn't ask me to kill you. All he asked me to do was to throw you all into the prison of the Black Iron Castle — could you understand how he felt?”

“Nope.”

Rosalia answered as if she couldn't even be bothered.

“What? Why are you acting so serious? Are you stupid? There's no evidence that the person dies in real life if you kill them here anyway. Besides, it's not like this will be a crime when we return to the real world. We don't even know if we can go back, yet here you talk about justice and rules; it's not even funny. I hate guys like you the most — people who dragged some weird logic in with them when they came into this world.”

Rosalia's eyes grew angry.

“So, you mean to tell me that you seriously took the words of some guy who couldn't even die properly and were looking for us? You really have nothing to do. Well, I'll acknowledge that I fell for your bait. But... do you really think that you can do anything with just two people...?”

A sadistic smile appeared on her face and she waved her hand twice in the air.

At that moment, the trees on either sides of the path that led straight from the bridge shook violently, and people appeared from between them. Cursors emerged one after another into Silica's vision. Most of them were orange. Their numbers went up to ten. If they had crossed the bridge without spotting the ambush, then they would have been surrounded. There was one other green amongst the orange players— his spiky hairstyle was, without a doubt, the one they saw at the inn last night.

The bandits who just appeared were all male players dressed in gaudy clothes. They all had silver accessories and sub-equipment hanging from all over their bodies.

Silica hid behind Kirito's coat as feelings of revulsion came over her. She whispered quietly:

“Ki-Kirito-san... there are too many. We have to run...!”

“It's fine. Just have your crystal ready until I tell you to get away.”

Kirito answered with a calm voice, ruffled Silica's hair, and then walked towards the other side of the bridge. Silica stood there in shock. It was just too reckless. She thought of this and called him:

“Kirito-san...!”

As soon as her voice rang through the field—

“Kirito...?”

One of the bandits muttered. His smile faded and he frowned; his eyes moved from one side to another as if he were trying to remember something.

“Those clothes... the one-handed blade without a shield... «The Black Swordsman»...?”

His face grew pale as he stepped back.

“Thi-This is serious Rosalia-san! That bastard... he's a beater and... a clearer...!”

At his words, the expressions of all the other members hardened with shock. Silica was surprised as well. She just stared at Kirito's back, one which she couldn't call wide, totally taken aback.

She knew that he was quite a high-level player after watching him fight. But she never even dreamed that he was one of the «Clearers», the elite group of top-class players who went into the frontline dungeons, where nobody had even set foot in before, and even defeated bosses. She heard that they concentrated solely on clearing SAO, and it was hard to even see them on the middle floors—

Even Rosalia stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds before she came to her senses and screamed:

“Wh-Why would a clearer be wandering around here!? He probably just called himself that to scare us! What he's wearing is just some cosplay. And— even if he really were «The Black Swordsman», he should be a pushover with this many people!!”

As if their vigor had returned with her remark, the huge axe-wielder who stood at the head of the orange players shouted:

“Ye-Yeah! If he's a clearer then he should have a lot of items and money too right!? This is a really big chance!”

All the bandits agreed and drew their weapons. The numerous bits of metal glinted with heinous light.

“Kirito-san... it's impossible to win, run!!”

Silica shouted desperately with the crystal grasped tightly in her hand. As Rosalia had said, he wouldn't be able to win no matter how strong he is with this many enemies. But Kirito didn't move. He didn't even draw his weapon.

They seemed to have taken this as a form of resignation; the nine players, which didn't include Rosalia and the other green player, all drew their weapons and raced against each other to reach Kirito first. They stomped across the short bridge and then— “Yiaaa!!”

“Dieee!!”

They surrounded Kirito, who had his head bowed down, in a half circle before they all hit him with their weapons. Kirito's body shook violently from the force of nine attacks.

“No—!!”

Silica screamed as she covered her face with her hands.

“No! Stop! Kirito-san's going to, d...die!!”

But they didn't listen.

Some of them laughed manically, while others kept swearing as they continued to attack Kirito as if they were intoxicated by the violence. Rosalia, who stood at the middle of the bridge, couldn't stop her excitement from showing as she stared at the tragedy while licking her finger.

Silica wiped her tears and grasped the handle of her dagger. She knew that she couldn't do anything even if she jumped in, but she couldn't just stand there and watch anymore. Then, just as she was about to take a step towards Kirito— she noticed something and stopped.

Kirito's HP bar wasn't decreasing.

No, it was merely decreasing by a little bit, despite the endless rain of blows. Yet even that was filled back up after a couple of seconds.

The bandits finally noticed that the black swordsman in front of them showed no sign of falling and their expressions became confused.

“What the hell are you guys doing!? Kill him!!”

At Rosalia's anxious order, the blows rained down for a few more seconds. But there was no change in the situation.

“Hey... what's going on...?”

One person made a face as if he had seen something utterly bizarre before he stopped moving and stepped back. His surprise quickly spread to the eight other members, who then stopped attacking and widened the distanced between them and Kirito.

Silence fell upon the area, and in the middle of it, Kirito slowly raised his head. A quiet voice sounded:

“—About 400 every 10 seconds? That's the amount of damage you nine dealt to me. I'm on level 78, my HP is 14,500... add that I automatically regain 600 points every 10 seconds with «Battle Healing». The whole lot of you can't defeat me even if you keep hitting me for hours.”

The bandits stood there with their mouths wide open, as if they were in shock. Eventually, the two-handed sword user, who seemed to be the sub-leader, said in a dry voice.

“Is... is that even allowed...? It doesn't even make any freaking sense...”

“Yeah.”

Kirito spat the words out:

“Just a difference in numbers makes such a ridiculous disparity in strength; that's the unreasonable part of level system MMORPGs!”

The bandits stepped back, as if they were intimidated by Kirito's voice, which seemed to hide something behind it. Their surprised faces were replaced by looks of terror.

“Che.”

Rosalia tutted and then drew out a teleport crystal from her hip. She raised it high up into the air and opened her mouth:

“Teleport—”

Even before she could even finish the sentence, the air seemed to vibrate for a split second and Kirito was then standing right in front of her.

“Ack...”

As Rosalia froze for a moment, Kirito took the crystal out of her hands, then grabbed her collar and dragged her back towards the other bandits.

“Le-Let me go!! What are you trying to do you bastard!!”

Kirito threw her towards the group of bandits, who were standing there dazed, and then started rummaging through his pouch without saying a word. The crystal he took out was also blue. But the color was far deeper than a teleport crystal.

“The person who had asked me to do this bought this corridor crystal with all the money he had. He said that he set the prison area of the Black Iron Castle as the exit. So I'll be teleporting all of you to prison, and «The Army» could cover the rest from there.”

Rosalia, who was sitting on the ground, stayed silent for a while before she smiled like it was a bluff.

“—And what if I say I don't want to?”

“Then I will kill every single one of you.”

Her smile froze on her face at Kirito's short answer.

“—Is what I want to say... but in that case I'll just use this.”

Kirito took out a small dagger from the inside of his coat. One could see a vaguely green liquid on the surface of the blade by examining it carefully.

“Paralysis poison; it's a level five poison, so you guys won't be able to move for about ten minutes. That'll be enough to throw you all into the corridor... Go by yourself, or be thrown in; it's your choice.”

Nobody was bluffing now. After seeing all of them bow their heads in silence, Kirito put the knife away, raised the deep blue crystal up high, and then shouted.

“Corridor open!”

The crystal shattered in an instant and a blue whirlpool of light appeared.

“Damn it all...”

The tall axe-wielder walked into the corridor first with his shoulders sagging. The rest of the orange players then disappeared into the light one by one, some quietly, while others swore as they walked in. After the green player that gathered information followed them, the only person left was Rosalia.

The red haired bandit didn't even try to move after all of her comrades disappeared into the corridor. She sat with her legs folded and looked up at Kirito as if challenging him.

“...Well, have a go if you want. If you hurt a green you'll become an orange...”

Kirito grabbed her collar before she even finished talking.

“I'll tell you this: I'm a solo; becoming an orange for a day or two doesn't even mean anything to me.”

Kirito spat out coldly before dragging her up and over to the corridor. Rosalia resisted as she flailed her arms and legs about.

“Wait, please, stop! Forgive me! Huh?! ...Ah, right, you, won't you work with me? With your skills we could take down any guild...”

She never finished what she was saying. Kirito threw Rosalia headfirst into the corridor. After she disappeared, the corridor shined brightly for a moment and then vanished.

Everything was calm again.

The spring field that was full of the natural sounds, of chirping birds and running water, became quiet again as if everything that just happened a few moments ago were a lie. But Silica couldn't move. Her surprise about Kirito's true identity, her relief at the disappearance of the bandits, all of these emotions flooded in at once, leaving her unable to even open her mouth.

Kirito tilted his head and silently watched the speechless Silica for a while before he finally said something in almost a whisper:

“...Sorry, Silica. It seems I ended up using you as bait. I considered telling you about this beforehand... but I thought that you would be scared so I didn't.”

Silica tried desperately to shake her head, but she couldn't; countless thoughts spun about her mind at the same time and were overwhelming her.

“I'll take you to the village.”

Kirito said this and began to walk. Silica somehow managed to force her voice out towards his back.

“My—my legs won't move.”

Kirito looked back and offered his right hand with a smile; as Silica grabbed tightly onto his hand she could finally smile.

The two remained mostly silent until they reached the Weathercock Tavern on the thirty-fifth floor. There were lots of things that Silica wanted to say, but she just couldn't talk, as if there were a pebble stuck in her throat.

When they went up to the second floor and entered Kirito's room, the red light of the sunset was already streaming in though the window. Silica finally managed to speak with a trembling voice to Kirito, who seemed to have become a black silhouette because of the light.

“Kirito-san... are you going to leave...?”

After a long silence, the silhouette nodded slowly.

“Yeah... I've been away from the front lines for five days already. I need to get back to clearing the game as soon as possible...”

“...I suppose you're right...”

To tell the truth, Silica wanted to ask him to take her with him.

But she couldn't.

Kirito's level is 78. Her level is 45. With a level gap of 33— the difference separating them was painfully clear. If she followed Kirito to the front lines, Silica would be cut down in an instant. Even though they were logged into the same game, a wall higher than anything in real life stood between their separate worlds.

“...I...I...”

Silica bit her lip and desperately tried to hold back the emotions that threatened to overflow; two streaks of tears formed from those feelings and rolled down her cheeks.

Suddenly, she felt Kirito place his hands on her shoulders. A low and gentle voice whispered right next to her:

“Levels are just numbers. The strength in this world is nothing more than an illusion. There are things far more important than that. So let's meet again in the real world. If we do, we'll be able to become friends again.”

To tell the truth, Silica wanted to lean against the black chest in front of her. But as she felt Kirito's words spread their warmth through her bursting heart, she realized that she shouldn't expect any more from him. She then closed her eyes and muttered:

“Okay. It's—it's a promise.”

She detached herself from Kirito, looked up at his face, and was finally able to smile for real. Kirito smiled as well and said:

“So, let's call out Pina.”

“Okay!”

Silica nodded and waved her right hand to summon the main window. She scrolled through the item inventory and took out «Pina's Heart».

She put the sky blue feather that popped out of the window on the tea table and then took out «Pneuma's Flower» as well.

With the pearly white flower in her hand, she closed the window and looked up at Kirito.

“All you have to do is to drip the droplet of water that's in the middle of the flower onto the feather. Once you do that Pina'll come back.”

“Okay...”

As she stared at the sky blue feather, Silica whispered in her mind.

Pina... I'll tell you lots and lots; about the amazing adventure that I had today... and about the person who saved you, who became my brother for just a day.

With tears in her eyes, Silica tilted the flower in her right hand towards the feather.