Underworld, March 378 HE Part 2
The fatigue of the day rested heavily on me; I was certain that
I'd fall asleep as soon as I closed my eyes, but the waves of confusion washing over me prevented that from happening.
What does all this mean? I asked myself silently.
In conclusion, there was not a single NPC, as I would define
them, in the entire village.
From Zink the guard; to the passing villagers and the old lady
with the apples; to the stern but kindly Sister Azalia and apprentice, Selka; to the six orphan children who'd lost their parents.
Every one of them had realistic emotions, conversations, and subtly unique body movements, just as Eugeo did. They were all real
people, as far as I could tell. At the very least, they were absolutely not the automated-response characters found in every
VRMMO.
But that shouldn't be possible.
There was one Soul Translator at Rath's Roppongi office and
three more almost ready for operation at their headquarters.
That's what Higa told me, and he was one of the developers. Even
if there were a few more than that in reality, it certainly wasn't
enough capacity to create an entire village of this scale. From
what I could tell on our trip through town, there were at least
three hundred residents of Rulid, and they couldn't mass-produce that enormous STL test unit on that kind of scale. If you actually factored in all the other villages, towns, and that center
capital they talked about, there was no way they could hire tens of
thousands of testers in secret, even if they had the capital to create and run that many machines.
"Or else…"
Were Eugeo and the others not real human beings—players
with limited memories? Were they actually automated programs
operating in a realm far beyond common sense, to a level of unfathomable perfection…?
The term artificial intelligence floated through my head.
The use of AI had been advancing rapidly in recent years,
mostly in PCs, car navigation systems, and appliances. They
would take the form of human or animal characters that could receive spoken commands or questions and perform actions or answer questions with remarkable accuracy. In a sense, the NPCs in
the VR games I played were a kind of AI, too. Mostly they existed
to provide information on quests and events, but if spoken to
without a particular reason, they could give natural answers to a
certain shallow extent. There were even people who exhibited
what they called "NPC-moé," who followed around the pretty girl
NPCs to talk with them all day long.
But that did not mean those AIs had true intelligence, of
course. They were just a complex set of orders—"if they say this,
answer that"—and could not provide real answers to questions
outside of their parameters. If that happened, nearly all NPCs
would offer a confused smile and say something along the lines
of, "I don't understand your question."
Had Eugeo responded in that way even once throughout the
entire day?
He reacted to my every question with natural displays of surprise, hesitation, laughter, and so on, and he gave me proper answers to everything. And not just Eugeo—Sister Azalia, Selka, and
even the younger children never gave me a reaction that suggested what they heard wasn't "in their databank."
As far as I knew, the highest-level artificial intelligence of that
sort was one named Yui, developed to be a mental counseling
program for the old SAO and now considered a virtual "daughter"
to Asuna and me. She had monitored countless player conversations for two years, collecting a vast amount of detailed data and
compiling it into a complex database. She was perhaps the best
current example of the boundary between automated program
and true intelligence.
But even Yui wasn't perfect. Occasionally she would react to a
statement by claiming that word wasn't in her database, and she
sometimes mischaracterized more complex emotional expressions, like feigned anger or acting grumpy to hide embarrassed
pleasure. All it took was a brief moment in a conversation for her
"AI-ness" to show itself.
Yet I saw none of that in Eugeo or Selka. If human hands programmed all the people of Rulid into boy AIs, girl AIs, elderly
AIs, adult AIs…it would be an even more preposterous case of super-advanced tech than the STL itself. It was impossible to take
seriously…
I paused my roiling thoughts there and sat up so I could put
my feet on the floor.
Fixed onto the wall behind the head of the bed was a cast-iron
oil lamp that emitted a wavering orange light and a faint burning
smell. I'd never touched one in the real world, of course, but there
had been a similar lamp in the place where Asuna and I stayed in
Alfheim, so I did what came naturally and tapped the surface.
When no control window appeared, I realized my mistake and
made the two-fingered gesture—the "sigil of Stacia." When I
tapped the lamp after that, the purple window appeared as expected. But all it displayed was the durability of the lamp itself
and no buttons to turn it off or on.
I felt a rush of panic when I realized that I'd dismissed Selka's
offer to teach me how to put out the lamp, but that vanished
when I noticed the small dial on the bottom of the lamp. I gave it
a clockwise twist. The metal squeaked, and the flame narrowed
until it died out, leaving a brief line of smoke. Now the room was
shrouded in darkness, with the only light coming from the faint
moonlight streaming through the gap in the curtains.
With that surprisingly difficult task out of the way, I turned
back to the bed, placed the pillow where I liked it, and lay down
again. It was a bit chilly, so I pulled Selka's thick blankets up to
my shoulders and felt sleep closing in.
They're not human, and they're not AIs. So what are they?
In a corner of my mind, an answer was already forming. But it
was too terrifying to put into words. If what I was thinking was
even possible, then this Rath company had plunged its hands
deep into the realm of God. Compared to that, reading people's
souls with the STL was as harmless as prodding the key to open
Pandora's box with one's fingertips.
As I fell asleep, I heard my own voice rising from the depths of
my mind.
This wasn't the time to be searching left and right for an escape route. I had to go to the city. I had to find out the reason this
world existed…
Clang.
Somewhere far off, I heard what sounded like a bell ringing.
No sooner had my dreaming brain processed that than something prodded my shoulder. I wriggled deeper into the blankets
and groaned, "Urr, ten minutes…just five more minutes…"
"No, it's time to get up."
"Three…just three minnis…"
The prodding continued, sending a signal of confusion
through the sleep clouding my brain. My sister, Suguha, wouldn't
wake me up in such a timid way. She'd scream at me, pull my
hair, pinch my nose, or even use the cruel nuclear option: yanking the covers off the bed.
At last I remembered I wasn't in the real world or Alfheim,
and I popped my head out from under the blankets. Through
parted eyelids, I saw Selka, already in her nun's habit. The apprentice sister looked at me in exasperation.
"It's already five thirty. All the children have risen and washed
up. If you don't hurry, you'll be late for worship."
"…Okay, I'm getting up…"
I sat up slowly, lamenting the loss of the bed's warmth and the
comfort of peaceful sleep. Just as I remembered it from last
night, I was in the guest room on the second floor of the church in
Rulid. Or within the Underworld created by the Soul Translator,
if you preferred it that way. My odd experience would not end as
a brief one-night dream, it seemed.
"So it's a dream, but it wasn't a dream."
"What was that?" Selka asked, catching the statement I hadn't
meant to say out loud.
I shook my head in a mild panic. "N-nothing. I'll just change
and get ready. In the chapel downstairs, right?"
"Yes. You might be our guest and a lost child of Vecta, but if
you're going to sleep in the church, you must pray to Stacia. Sister
Azalia always says, even a cup of water contains the goddess's
blessing and must be appreciated…"
I slipped quickly out of bed before her lecture could start dragging on. I lifted the hem of the thin shirt they gave me as nightwear, and this time it was Selka who called out in a panic, "Uh, yyou only have twenty minutes, so don't be late! Make sure you
wash your face at the well outside!"
She trotted off and quickly opened the door to disappear
through it. That was definitely not an NPC reaction…
I took off the shirt and reached for my "starter equipment"—
the blue tunic draped over the back of the chair. Out of curiosity,
I lifted it to my nose but didn't smell any sweat. Surely they
weren't simulating the bacteria that produced odors. Perhaps the
measure of item degradation, like when something gets filthy or
starts fraying, was summarized by the durability counter they
called life.
I opened the tunic's window just to check, and it listed the value
at 44/45. It would still be good for a while yet, but the longer I
stayed here, the more likely I'd need to change at some point, and
that meant looking into a means to earn money.
Pretty soon I had changed back into my original clothes, and I
left the room.
Down the stairs and out the back door next to the kitchen,
there was a brilliant sunrise overhead. She had said it was before
six o'clock, which made me wonder how the people in this world
told time. I hadn't seen any clocks in the dining room or guest
room.
I puzzled over that one as I walked down faded paving stones.
Very soon I saw a stone well ahead. The grass around it was wet,
probably from the children using it. I removed the lid and lowered the wooden bucket until it made a satisfying kerplunk at the
bottom. When I pulled the bucket up on its rope, it was full of
crystal clear water, which I transferred to the nearby basin.
It was bitingly cold, but I slapped it onto my face anyway, then
scooped up another cup and drank it down, feeling the last remnants of sleep wash away. I had probably gone to sleep before
nine o'clock last night, which was why it felt like I'd had a solid
eight hours, despite being up so early…but that raised another
question.
If this was the Underworld, then the FLA function had to be in
effect. If the acceleration factor was three, that meant I had less
than three actual hours of sleep, and if my vague theories from
last night about a thousand-fold accelerator were right, that
would mean less than thirty seconds of sleep. Could so little rest
actually refresh my mind the way it felt now?
It was all incomprehensible. I had to get out of here as soon as
possible to figure out the situation…and yet that whisper in my
ears from last night refused to go away.
Didn't I, Kazuto Kirigaya—regardless of whether my awakening in this world was the act of an error or the intentions of someone else—have a role to fulfill here? I didn't necessarily believe in
fate, but I couldn't deny that I often believed that everything held
a meaning. Because if not, then what was the reason for all those
lives that vanished in SAO…?
I splashed another douse of cold water on my face to snap me
out of my thoughts. I had two courses of action here: first, to look
around the village to see if there were any Rath staffers who
would know how to log out. The other was to travel to this "central city" they mentioned to learn the reason that this world existed in the first place.
The former didn't seem like it would be that hard. I couldn't
say anything for sure without knowing the exact FLA factor, but if
there were any Rath employees among the villagers, then they
couldn't possibly be logged in for years or decades at a time. In
other words, if any residents were traders or travelers who left
home at times, it was highly likely that they would be company
observers.
As far as the latter went, I had no plan for that. Eugeo said it
would take a week to get to the city by horse, which meant at least
three times that by foot. I wanted to ask for a horse, but I didn't
know how to get one, and I had no money for the equipment and
supplies necessary for the journey. I was missing too much basic
knowledge about the world; clearly, I needed someone to act as a
guide. Eugeo was the best suited for that, but he had a Calling
that he needed to do for the rest of his life.
Would the quickest method be to violate that Taboo Index and
have a whatever-knight come and arrest me? But that would
probably get me taken straight to the cells of the city, and I wasn't
cut out for years of hard prison labor. Not to mention the possibility that I would be executed outright.
I ought to ask Eugeo if there are any sacred arts that unlock
doors or revive the dead, I noted to myself, when the church's
back door opened and Selka popped her head out. When we
locked eyes, she shouted, "How long does it take to wash your
face, Kirito?! Worship is about to start!"
"Oh, r-right…Sorry, I'm coming," I said, waving. I put the lid,
bucket, and basin back in their original places and quickly returned to the building.
After the austere worship service and a lively breakfast, the children engaged in their chores like cleaning and laundry, and Selka
went with Sister Azalia into the study to practice and learn about
the sacred arts. Feeling guilty that I was getting free food and
board, I left through the large front doors of the church and
headed to the middle of the square right out front to wait for
Eugeo.
Within a few minutes, a familiar head of flaxen yellow hair appeared through the vanishing mist of the morning. Moments
later, the bells atop the church pealed a simple but beautiful
melody.
"Oh…now I get it."
Eugeo looked at me in surprise as he approached. "Good
morning, Kirito. What do you get now?"
"Morning, Eugeo. Well…I just now realized the bells play a different melody for each hour. So that's how the people of the village know what time it is."
"Of course. It plays each of the twelve verses of the hymn 'By
the Light of Solus.' And simple chimes mark each half hour. Unfortunately, the sound doesn't carry all the way to the Gigas
Cedar, so I have to estimate the time by the angle of Solus."
"I see…So there are no clocks in this world," I muttered to myself. Eugeo looked confused.
"Kloks…? What is that?"
I panicked, having not realized that even the word itself was
foreign here. "Uh, a clock is…a round board with numbers on it,
with metal hands that spin around to tell you what time it is…"
To my surprise, Eugeo's face lit up with delight. "Oh, yes! I
read about that in a storybook once. Long, long ago, a Divine Object of Time-Telling stood in the middle of the capital. But because the people spent so much time gazing at it rather than
working, the gods destroyed it with a lightning bolt. Since then,
the only thing that tells humanity the time is the bells."
"Ohh…Yeah, I get that. Sometimes you can't help but keep an
eye on the time toward the end of class," I said carelessly, forgetting where I was again. Fortunately, he understood my meaning
this time.
"Ha-ha-ha, indeed! When I had to study at the church, I kept
my ears open for the lunch bells."
He glanced away, and I followed his gaze up to the church's
bell tower. Gleaming bells of all sizes hung in a circular window
on every side. Yet I didn't see anyone in the tower, despite the
fact that the bells had just rung.
"How…do they ring the bells?"
"You really have forgotten everything, haven't you?" Eugeo
said, half-dismayed and half-amused. He cleared his throat. "No
one rings them at all. It's the only divine object in the village.
They play the hymn on their own, at the exact same times, every
single day. Of course, Rulid's isn't the only one. There's another
in Zakkaria, and in the other villages and towns, too…Oh, although I guess that's not the only one now…"
I lifted an eyebrow in surprise. It was quite uncharacteristic of
helpful Eugeo to trail off like that. But then he clapped, intent on
changing the topic.
"Well, I've got to get to work. What will you do today, Kirito?"
"Umm…"
I gave it some thought. I wanted to go searching all over the
village, but snooping around by myself was likely to get me into
trouble. If I needed an idea of who might be an observer, I could
ask Eugeo if anyone was out of the house a lot—and if I was going
to lure Eugeo into this insane plan to travel to the capital, I'd
need to learn a bit more about his Calling first.
"…If you don't mind, I'd like to help out with your work again
today," I offered. He beamed.
"Of course, I'd love that. I had a feeling you'd say so; look, I
brought twice the bread money today just in case."
He pulled two small copper coins from his trousers and jangled them in his palm.
"Ohh, no, I feel bad. I couldn't," I protested, but Eugeo just
shrugged and smiled.
"Don't worry about it. All the payment I get from the village
hall each month just piles up without anything meaningful to
spend it on."
Oooh, perfect, that means a good stock of money for the trip
to the city, I thought wickedly. Now I just needed to find a way to
cut down that enormous tree so that Eugeo's Calling would be
fulfilled.
Meanwhile, Eugeo's innocent smile made my heart hurt when
I thought of the tricks I was playing. He said, "Let's go," and
started walking south. As I followed, I looked over my shoulder
one last time to the bells that rang automatically on the hour.
It really was a strange world. Around the edges of the ultrarealistic depiction of an agrarian village were little hints of
VRMMO systems. Even in the old flying Aincrad, there were bell
towers that rang out automatically on the hour in all the major
cities.
Sacred arts. Axiom Church. Were these just the specific names
for magic spells and the world-ordering system? If that were the
case, what did the "land of darkness" outside the world mean? A
system at odds with the system…
While I was lost in thought, Eugeo stopped to greet a woman
in an apron outside of what looked like a bakery, where he bought
four of those round bread rolls. Inside the store, I could see a
man smacking and kneading a wad of dough, and a large oven
emitting fragrant smells.
In another hour, perhaps half, we could buy fresh-baked
bread, but I suspected that the fussy nature of the "Calling" system prevented us from doing that. Eugeo had a strict time when
he had to be in the forest, swinging his ax, and it was not open to
debate. I had to remind myself that my plan called for him to totally upend his way of life, and that overcoming this would not be
easy.
But there was always a loophole, a shortcut. Such as me, the
guy who showed up out of nowhere to help him do his work.
We passed through the southern arch and headed down the
road, winding through green fields toward the heavy forest along
the border. Even from here, the proud form of the Gigas Cedar
was visible, jutting above all.
Eugeo and I took turns desperately swinging the Dragonbone Ax,
until the sun he called Solus reached the sky directly overhead.
I summoned what little strength I had left into my numb,
heavy arms, slamming my five-hundredth swing into the gut of
the monstrous tree. It smacked heartily true, sending out a fleck
of wood the size of a sand grain—a sign that I'd managed to inflict
the tiniest bit of damage on the tree's preposterous durability rating.
"Aaagh, I can't swing one more time," I wailed, tossing aside
the ax and wilting down onto the moss. Eugeo offered me a canteen of something he called siral water—I didn't know what language it was supposed to be—and I greedily sucked down the
sweetly sour liquid.
He looked down at me with comfortable confidence and said
in the tone of an instructor, "You know, you've got good fundamentals. I think you've really come a long way in just two days."
"…But I'm still…nowhere near as good as you…" I gasped, sitting up properly and leaning back against the Gigas Cedar.
Thanks to the heavy workout lasting all morning, I felt like I
had a much better grasp on my own physical status in this new
world.
For one thing, the superhuman strength and agility that SAO
swordsman Kirito was blessed with were completely absent here,
though I'd already surmised this. But my physique wasn't based
on the frailty of the real-world Kazuto Kirigaya, either. If the real
me tried swinging this heavy ax for an hour, I'd find myself
bedridden from muscle pain the next day.
Which meant my current stamina must have been based on
the average build of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy. Eugeo
seemed far tougher than me, which made sense if he'd been at
this for seven years already.
Fortunately, the ability to use instinct and imagination to
move my avatar was at least equally sensitive, if not even greater,
than in the VRMMOs I'd been playing all this time. Thanks to attempting hundreds of swings with a focus on weight and trajectory, I felt confident I'd be able to control the ax to an acceptable
degree, even with its high strength requirement.
Plus, repeated practice of the same actions was a specialty of
mine; I'd cut down on my sleeping hours in Aincrad to do that
very thing. When it came to patient perseverance, I was at least
Eugeo's equal…
No…wait. There was something important in that thought just
now…
"Here, Kirito," Eugeo said, tossing me a pair of rolls and interrupting my train of thought. I awkwardly reached out and
grabbed a roll in each hand.
"…? Why the serious face?"
"Uh…nothing…"
I tried desperately to catch the tail of the slippery thought before it left my mind but was left with nothing but the irritating
fugue of knowing that I'd just been thinking about something
very important. I had no choice but to shrug it off and assume
that if it was that important, it would occur to me again later.
"Thanks for the food, Eugeo."
"Sorry it's the same thing as yesterday."
"Don't worry about it."
I opened wide and bit down. The flavor was good—but the
chewiness was a bit off the scale. Eugeo shared my opinion,
scowling as he worked his jaw.
For several minutes we silently chewed away at our first rolls
of bread, then shared an awkward smile when we finished together. Eugeo took a mouthful of siral water and gazed into the
distance.
"…I wish you could have eaten one of Alice's pies, Kirito…The
crust was crispy, and the insides were packed with juicy bits…
With a cup of fresh milk, you couldn't imagine anything better…"
Oddly enough, I felt the taste of that pie register on my tongue,
and a flood of saliva issued forth. I bit down on the second roll to
hide my surprise, then asked, "Say, Eugeo…This Alice girl studied
sacred arts at the church, right? In order to take over Sister Azalia's position one day."
"That's right. She was said to be the first true genius since the
founding of the village. From the age of ten, she could use all
kinds of arts," he answered proudly.
"Then…what about Selka, the girl studying at the church
now?"
"Ah…After the Integrity Knight took Alice away, Sister Azalia
was very depressed. She said she'd never take another apprentice,
but Elder Gasfut convinced her that the teaching must go on, and
so two years ago, she finally took in Selka as her new apprentice.
She's Alice's little sister."
"Her sister…Ohh…"
That was funny, because if anything, Selka seemed like the
bossy-older-sister type. If she was that girl's sister, then Alice
must've been quite the busybody getting into everyone's business.
She would have made a great team with Eugeo.
I glanced over at him and saw that he was pensive.
"…We're five years apart, so in fact, I haven't spent much time
with Selka. On the occasions when I would visit Alice's home,
Selka was usually hiding shyly behind her mother or grandmother…Her father, Gasfut; the other adults; and even Sister
Azalia are all hoping that as Alice's sister, Selka will display the
same talent for the sacred arts…but…"
"But Selka isn't quite the genius her sister was?" I asked rather
bluntly. Eugeo grimaced a bit and shook his head.
"I wouldn't say that. Everyone is poor at their Calling right
after they receive it. It took me over three years to learn how to
swing the ax properly. No matter what Calling you have, if you
treat it seriously, you can master it eventually, like the adults do.
But in Selka's case…I think she's trying a little too hard for someone just twelve years old…"
"Trying too hard?"
"When Alice started studying the sacred arts, she wasn't actually living in the church. She studied in the mornings, brought me
my lunch at noon, and helped around the house in the afternoon.
But Selka left home, saying it wouldn't give her enough time to
study. On the other hand, that was around the time that Jana and
Arug came to the church, too, which was a little more than Sister
Azalia could handle."
I thought of Selka, diligently watching after the younger children. It didn't seem like she was having that hard of a time with
it, but doing a full day's study on top of taking care of six children
had to be quite difficult for a girl only twelve years old.
"I see what you mean…And now they've got a 'lost child of
Vecta' to add to the mix. I'd better be careful not to make extra
trouble for Selka," I said, making a mental note to get up at five
thirty on the dot tomorrow. "Oh, and did you say that all the kids
aside from Selka living at the church lost their parents? Both parents? How are there six orphans in such a peaceful village?"
Eugeo glanced down at the moss at his feet, distress palpable
in his features.
"Three years ago…there was a plague in the village. It hadn't
swept through for over a century, they said, and it ultimately took
the lives of over twenty villagers—adults and children. No matter
how hard Sister Azalia and Miss Ivenda the herbs master tried,
there was no help for those whose fever got bad enough. The children at the church lost their parents to the disease."
The revelation stunned me.
An epidemic? But this is a virtual world. There can't be actual
germs or viruses here. Which means those who died of disease
were meant to do so by the person or system in charge of managing this world. But why? Perhaps it was an intentional strain
placed upon the village in the form of a natural disaster, but
what was it meant to simulate?
Once again, it all came down to the same question: What was
the reason this world existed?
Whether he recognized the meaning behind my expression or
not, Eugeo continued, "It's not just the plague. A number of
strange things have happened recently. Villagers attacked by
wandering long-clawed bears and packs of black wolves, crops
that refuse to bloom…Some months, the regular caravan from Zakkaria never shows up. They say it's because bands of goblins are
attacking the road far to the south of us."
"Wh-what?" I said, stunned. "But wait…what did you say
about goblins earlier? That the knights guard the border…"
"Of course. If the descendants of darkness approach the End
Mountains, an Integrity Knight will defeat them at once. They
have to—they're much, much worse than Alice, who merely
brushed the ground of that place."
"Eugeo…"
I was surprised to hear a note of angry chagrin in Eugeo's normally placid voice, but a wan smile replaced it at once.
"…Which is why I think it's all just rumor. Still, it's true that
there's been a rush of new graves out behind the church in the
last few years. Grandpa says times like this come around."
I heard a little voice alerting me that this was the opportunity
to ask one of those questions I'd been wondering.
"Say, Eugeo…Are there sacred arts that can, you know…bring
people back to life?" I asked, expecting yet another of his wideeyed stares, but to my surprise, he merely bit his lip and bobbed
his head vaguely.
"I don't think many of the villagers know…but Alice once told
me that among the highest sacred arts is the ability to increase
life itself."
"Increase…life?"
"Yeah. We cannot increase the life of all people and things, including you and me, as you know. So a person's life grows and
grows as we go from baby to child to adult, and in most cases, it
maxes out at age twenty-five. After that point, it slowly drops, and
at around seventy to eighty years of age, we are called back to Stacia's side. You remember all that, right?"
"Y-yeah."
It was all new to me, of course, but I put on an understanding
face. What Eugeo said was essentially that one's max HP increased or decreased by age.
"But when you get sick or hurt, your life drops by a lot. Depending on the depth of the injury, it could lead right to death,
which is why we use sacred arts and herbs to heal. In doing so,
life can be restored, but never above the proper total. You cannot
make the elderly as strong as their youthful peak with herbs or
heal grievous wounds…"
"But you're saying there are arts that can do this?"
"Alice said she was surprised to read that in an old book at the
church. When she asked Sister Azalia about it, the sister was ferociously stern, took the book away, and told her to forget what
she'd read…So I don't know any more than that, but I'm sure that
it's only usable by the highest priests of the Axiom Church. It
works not on wounds or illnesses but on a person's life itself…
from what she said. But I couldn't begin to guess how the arts
themselves work, of course."
"Ohh…high priests, huh? So it's not like any old priest in the
church can perform those sacred arts."
"Of course not. The arts get their strength from the sacred
power that Solus and Terraria and the like pour into the air and
earth. The bigger the art, the more sacred power necessary. Ma-
nipulating human life is a tremendous art, so it might require
more power than can be gathered from this entire forest. You
won't find a single person able to wield so much power in all of
Zakkaria, I bet."
Eugeo paused there, then continued in a quieter voice, "Plus…
if Sister Azalia could do such a thing, she would never have allowed those parents and children to lose their loved ones to disease."
"Good point…"
That suggested that if I died on the spot, I would not be resurrected at a church altar to the sonorous tones of a pipe organ.
Death would most likely result in my waking up in the STL in real
life. If it didn't work like that, I had a problem. The STL didn't
have the ability to destroy the user's fluctlight, unlike the NerveGear—I hoped.
But I preferred to save the "death as escape" option for desperate times. My expectation that this was the Underworld was not
yet confirmed, and even if I knew that for a fact, there was a little
voice deep down in my soul that warned it might not be best to
disengage before I discovered the purpose of this living simulation.
If only I could instantly teleport to the capital, charge into this
Axiom Church place, and grill the high priests for the answers.
The lack of a teleportation feature was a major setback in terms of
playability. Even SAO had teleport gates in almost every town.
It was an issue that I might complain about to the administrators, if this were a regular VRMMO. But without that capability, I
just had to do my best within the confines of the system. The
same way I racked my brain to figure out the best way to defeat
bosses back in the old Aincrad.
I finished my second piece of bread and lifted Eugeo's canteen
to my mouth, looking up at the impossibly massive trunk overhead.
Eugeo's assistance was vital to reach the city. But he was too
responsible to abandon his Calling, not to mention that the Taboo
Index no doubt forbade it.
That left one choice: figure out how to deal with this monstrous tree.
For his part, Eugeo was getting to his feet, patting his trousers
clean. "Well, let's get started on the afternoon work. I'll go first—
hand me the ax?"
"Sure," I said, leaning and grabbing the middle of the ax handle next to me so I could put it into his outstretched hand.
A bolt of lightning blasted through my head. The thing that
had wriggled from my grasp before was back, and this time I
squeezed tight and pulled, ensuring it did not slip away again.
Eugeo said it himself. A normal ax would easily chip on the
tree, which was why they'd spent such an extravagant amount
shipping this ax from the big city.
So what if we used an even stronger ax? One with a higher
strength requirement, with even greater attack and durability?
"H-hey, Eugeo," I began, launching right into the pitch. "Are
there any stronger axes than this in the village? Or if not here,
then in Zakkaria…? It's been three centuries since you got this ax,
right?"
But he merely shook his head. "Of course not. Dragon bones
are the greatest possible material for a weapon. It's even harder
than Damascus steel from the south and Tamahagane steel from
the east. To get something stronger than this, you'd need an Integrity Knight's…divine weapon…"
His voice slowed and trailed off. I looked at him with equal
parts patience and curiosity. Five seconds later, he spoke again
softly, reaching blindly for his conclusion.
"…There's…no ax…but there is…a sword."
"Sword…?"
"Do you remember when I said there was another divine object in the village, aside from the Bells of Time-Tolling?"
"Er…yeah."
"It's actually quite close…And I'm the only one in the village
who knows about it. I've kept it hidden for six whole years…Do
you want to see it, Kirito?"
"O-of course! Please, please show it to me!" I said enthusiastically. Eugeo mulled it over a bit more and eventually decided he
would do it. He handed me back the ax.
"Why don't you get started on this, then? I'll go get it, but it
might take me a little while."
"Is it kept far away?"
"No, it's in the storage shed right over there. It's just…very
heavy."
Sure enough, when he came back after I finished a full set of
fifty swings, Eugeo's forehead was glistening with sweat.
"H-hey, you all right?" I asked, but all he could do was nod
weakly and toss what he carried over his shoulder onto the
ground. It landed with a loud, heavy thud and sank deep into the
carpet of moss. Eugeo sat down, panting heavily, and I rushed to
give him the siral water before I turned to look at what he'd
brought.
I recognized the object—it was the narrow, nearly four-feetlong leather container I'd seen on the storage shed's floor when
Eugeo put away the ax yesterday.
"Can I open it up?"
"Y-yeah…Just…be careful. If you drop it on your foot…you'll
get worse than a scrape," he wheezed. I reached out for it.
The jolt of surprise I got was backbreaking—literally. If this
was the real world, I probably would have popped a vertebra out
of alignment, such was the weight of the leather case. I pulled
with both hands, but it resisted my force as if it were nailed right
into the ground.
My sister, Suguha, owing to her kendo skills and passion for
muscle training, was heavier than you'd guess from her appearance—a fact I made sure never to say in her presence—and this
leather bundle was at least as heavy as her, without exaggeration.
I squared up my feet, bent my knees, and summoned all my
strength into the process, like lifting a barbell.
"Hungh…!"
I thought I heard my joints creaking, but I did manage to lift
the object. I rotated it ninety degrees to bring the part tied with
string to the top, then set the bottom end onto the ground. With
my left hand desperately holding it upright, I unwound the string
with my right, and tugged down the leather wrapping.
It revealed a breathtakingly beautiful longsword.
The handle was finely decorated platinum, the grip neatly
wrapped white leather. The knuckle guard was carved to look like
leaves and vines. It wasn't hard to figure out what plant they were
meant to represent. On the upper part of the handle and the
white leather scabbard were decorative roses sparkling with blue
jewels.
It gave off the impression of being quite old, but there was no
grime or dirt on it at all. The austere grace and beauty of the
sword told me that it had simply been sleeping for a very, very
long time without a master.
"What's this…?" I asked, looking up. Eugeo's panting was
under control at last, and he looked at the sword with both nostalgia and bitter sadness.
"The Blue Rose Sword. I don't know if that's its actual name,
but it's what they call it in the fairy tale."
"Fairy tale…?"
"Every kid in Rulid knows it…every adult, too. Among the first
inhabitants who founded this village three hundred years ago was
a swordsman named Bercouli. There are plenty of stories about
his adventures, but one of the most famous is called 'Bercouli and
the Northern White Dragon'…"
His gaze traveled someplace far off, and emotion entered his
voice. "To give you a basic version of the story, Bercouli went exploring in the End Mountains and wandered into the white
dragon's lair, deep in a cave. The dragon, which protects the
lands of humanity, was napping, thankfully, so Bercouli was
going to leave at once—except he spotted a white sword among
the piles of treasure that he simply had to have. He carefully
picked it up without making any noise, but then blue roses grew
around his feet and locked them in place. He fell over on the spot,
and the dragon woke up…So goes the story."
"S-so what happened next?" I asked, eager.
Eugeo laughed and said it was a long story, so he summed it
up by saying, "Basically, Bercouli managed to earn the dragon's
forgiveness and escaped the cave with his life but no sword. The
end. It's just a silly fairy tale. If only certain children weren't foolish enough to go see if it was true…"
The note of deep regret in his voice filled in the story for me.
He was talking about himself—and his friend Alice. No other children in the village would have the agency to do such a thing.
After a long silence, Eugeo continued, "Six years ago, Alice and
I went into the End Mountains in search of the white dragon. But
there was no dragon. Only a mountain of bones with sword marks
on them."
"W-wait…someone killed the dragon? Who would…?"
"I don't know. But whoever it was, they had no interest in treasure. There was a huge pile of coins and riches beneath the bones.
And the Blue Rose Sword, too. Of course, it was too heavy for me
to bring back when I was that young…And when Alice and I
turned to leave, we went out the wrong exit and wound up going
down the tunnel to the land of darkness instead. The rest is as I
described yesterday."
"I see…" I looked away from Eugeo and down at the sword I
held between my hands. "Then…how did the sword get here?"
"…Two summers ago, I went back to the cave and took it out.
But I could only carry it a few kilors for every day of rest. I hid it
in the forest each time…and it took me three months to move it
all the way to that shed. As for why I would do that…I'm not really sure, to be honest…"
Because he didn't want to forget about Alice? Because he
planned to take the sword and go off to rescue her?
A number of possibilities came to my mind, but a sense of respect for Eugeo kept me from turning them into words. Instead, I
summoned my energy again and attempted to pull the sword
from its scabbard.
The resistance was tremendous. It felt like I was pulling a deep
stake out of the ground, but once I had gotten it to budge, the
blade flowed smoothly out of its sheath. It came free with a sweet
shaaang, and my arm instantly felt like it was going to pop out of
my shoulder. I had to drop the scabbard and use two hands to
keep the sword up.
Even the leather scabbard was tremendously heavy; the prod
end thudded and sank into the ground. It was a good thing it
didn't crush my left foot, because it was all I could do to keep the
sword aloft, and jumping back was out of the question.
Fortunately, without the scabbard, the sword was about a
third lighter than before, which was just enough that I could keep
it aloft. My gaze was stuck on the blade before me.
It was a strange material. The metal was thin, not even an inch
and a half across, but it glittered a faint blue in the bits of sun that
came through the leaves above. It refracted the light in a way that
suggested it wasn't just bouncing off the surface but collecting on
the inside as well—it was mildly translucent.
"This isn't ordinary steel. It's not silver, either, nor dragon
bone. And it's certainly not glass," Eugeo said, his voice hushed
with wonder. "In other words…I don't think this was crafted by
human hands. Either a master of very high sacred arts made it
with the power of the gods, or a god created it directly…We call
such things Divine Objects. I'm certain the Blue Rose Sword is
one of them."
Gods.
I'd noticed mention of "Solus" and "Terraria" in Eugeo's and
Selka's stories, as well as Sister Azalia's prayers, but up to this
point I'd considered them nothing more than typical artifacts of
fantasy storytelling and ignored them accordingly.
But the appearance of an item purportedly created by the gods
might be cause to rethink that attitude. Were the gods of a virtual
world the humans who managed it from the real world? Or did
that refer to the main program that ran the entire simulation?
It wasn't the kind of question that could be answered just by
mulling it over. I'd have to consider that topic part of the "central
system," if you will, along with the Axiom Church.
At any rate, the sword was clearly a high-priority item within
the system. But was its priority higher than the Gigas Cedar? The
answer would determine whether I could get Eugeo to go to the
city with me or not.
"Eugeo, can you check on the Gigas Cedar's life for me?" I
asked, still holding the sword. He looked dubious.
"Kirito…don't tell me you're going to hit the Gigas Cedar with
that sword."
"What other reason would I have for asking you to bring it?"
"Uhh…but…"
Eugeo thought it over, clearly reluctant—I gave him no room
to think any further.
"Or is there an entry in the Taboo Index that says you can't hit
the Gigas Cedar with a sword?"
"Um…well, there's no rule against that…"
"Or did the village elder or, um…Old Man Garitta tell you that
you couldn't use anything besides the Dragonbone Ax?"
"No…not that, either…But…I feel like something like this happened once before…" Eugeo mumbled, and he got up and approached the cedar. He made the sigil and tapped the trunk,
checking on the window that appeared.
"It looks like 232,315."
"Okay, keep that exact number in mind."
"But Kirito, I don't think you'll be able to swing that sword.
Look, you're wobbling just trying to hold it up."
"Just watch. You don't swing a heavy sword with strength. The
key is how you shift your weight."
In the distant past of the old SAO, I had eagerly sought out the
heaviest swords. I was enthralled by the idea of a single pulverizing blow to finish the fight, as opposed to a weapon meant for
speed. Because my strength increased with each level, thus lowering the perceived weight of the weapon, I switched out for heavier
and heavier blades. My final partners were about as heavy as this
Blue Rose Sword when I first got them, if my memory was accurate. And I'd been able to swing one of those beasts with each
hand at the same time.
Naturally, the fundamental systems of the worlds were different, so I couldn't compare them directly, but I could at least make
use of that mental muscle movement. Once Eugeo was a safe distance away, I set up at the left edge of the tree, lowered my
stance, and held the sword low, feeling like my arms were about
to fall off.
I didn't need a combo, just a simple midlevel swipe. To use the
SAO sword skill terminology, a Horizontal—the most basic of
basic skills you learned at the start of the game.
I drew a breath and shifted my weight to my right foot, pulling
back the sword. The inertia of the blade pulled my left foot off the
ground. I nearly toppled back onto my rear, but as the point of
the sword reached its peak, I struggled against it, pushing hard
with my right foot to shift my weight back to the left. As I did so,
the rotation of my legs and hips carried through my arm to the
sword, beginning its swing.
The sword didn't glow or automatically speed up, but my body
did trace the movement for the sword skill in perfect rhythm. My
left foot rocked the earth with its impact, sending the massive
weight hurtling forward along its prescribed, ideal path…
But my perfect execution ended there. My legs couldn't hold
the weight and buckled, and the sword smacked against the bark,
far from the intended target.
Giiing! It made an ear-piercing ringing that sent the birds
above scattering in all directions. I didn't see them go, as I lost
my handle on the grip and plunged face-first into the moss.
"See, what did I tell you!" Eugeo raced over to help me up. I
spit out the green moss that had gotten stuck in my mouth. In addition to my face, which took the brunt of the fall, my wrists,
back, and knees were all screaming in pain, too. I lay on the
ground for a while, moaning, until I could finally produce a coherent statement.
"…This isn't going to work…My stats are all red…"
Naturally, Eugeo wouldn't understand a reference to what the
menu displayed in SAO when the player attempted to equip a
weapon with an STR requirement beyond his level. Before the
concerned look on his face could deepen, I hastened to add, "Er, I
mean…I think I was just a bit short on stamina. For that matter—
someone was actually able to equip that monster…?"
"I told you, it's too much for us. You'd need to have the
swordsman's Calling…and enough skill to join a big town's sentinel garrison."
I slumped and rubbed my right wrist, turning to get the sword.
Eugeo looked over his shoulder in turn.
We both stopped still.
The Blue Rose Sword's beautiful blade was half wedged into
the Gigas Cedar's bark, hanging there in midair.
"…You're joking…Just from one hit…?" Eugeo gasped, staggering to his feet. He reached out timidly, tracing the seam where
sword met tree. "It didn't chip the blade…It really took two cens
out of the Gigas Cedar…"
I got up, too, wincing in pain and patting my dirty clothes.
"See? It was worth trying out. That sword has more…well, attack
power than the ax. Check the life of the Gigas Cedar again."
"O-okay," he said, making the sigil and tapping the tree trunk.
He stared eagerly at the window that appeared.
"…232,314."
"Wh-what?" Now it was my turn to be surprised. "It only went
down by one? But I cut it so deep…What does it mean? Do you
have to use the ax after all…?"
"No, that's not true," Eugeo said, crossing his arms. "You hit it
in the wrong spot. If you got it inside the cut, not against the
bark, it would have taken down more life, I think. You might be
right that this sword can carve down the tree much faster than
the Dragonbone Ax. Fast enough that I might be able to finish my
Calling…But…"
I turned to him. He was biting his lip, looking pensive.
"But that's only if we can properly wield the sword. You hurt
yourself pretty badly making just one swing, and you didn't even
hit the target. At that rate, it might still be faster using the ax."
"Maybe I can't do it, but what about you, Eugeo? You're
stronger than I am, I think. You should try giving it a swing," I insisted, and while Eugeo was reluctant, he did give in and admit
he'd try it just once.
He grabbed the handle of the Blue Rose Sword and tried
wrenching it loose from the tree. When it finally came free,
Eugeo's upper half swayed and the end of the sword dropped
until its point hit the ground.
"Wh-whoa! It really is too heavy. I can't do this, Kirito."
"I swung it; you can, too, Eugeo. The concept is the same as
with the ax. Just make more use of your weight and capitalize on
the momentum of your whole body, not just your arms."
I wasn't sure how much of that made sense to him, but thanks
to his ample experience swinging the ax, Eugeo figured it out very
quickly. His naive face tensed with determination, and he
crouched down to lift up the sword.
He drew it back, paused, then hissed a quick breath and began
a ferociously quick swing. The way his toe slid forward in a perfect line took even me by surprise. A vision of blue light hung in
the air as the tip of the sword plunged straight for the cut in the
tree.
But at the very last instant, his left foot was unable to bear all
the weight. The end of the sword struck the upper side of the Vshaped cut, thudding dully. Unlike me, Eugeo was thrown behind. His back slammed against a thick root.
"Urrgh…"
"H-hey, you okay?" I asked, hurrying over, but he held up a
hand as he grimaced. It was at that point that I belatedly realized
that this world did, in fact, simulate pain.
In the current VRMMO model with games like SAO and ALO,
the pain that the brain was supposed to feel when the player's
avatar was injured was nullified by a function called the Pain Absorber. Without it, no one would bother to delve into bloody
physical battles with HP down to single digits.
But this world did not seem to be at all constructed for the
purpose of entertainment. The pain was much duller than before,
but still—my wrists and shoulders were throbbing. And that was
just from twisting and striking. How much pain would I feel from
an actual weapon wound?
If I was going to get into any sword battles here in the Underworld, I'd need to make a commitment I hadn't needed to face
until now. In all my battles up to this point, I'd never had to
imagine the pain of actually having a heavy blade slice my flesh.
Eugeo had a higher tolerance for pain than I did, clearly, as the
grimace left his face after just thirty seconds. He hopped to his
feet. "I don't think this will work, Kirito. We're going to start losing life before we ever hit it right on the sweet spot."
Next to the tree, the point of the Blue Rose Sword was sunken
into the ground after it deflected off the top of the cut in the
trunk.
"I was sure we were on the right track," I lamented, but Eugeo
gave me an expression of admonishment, so I gave up and
scooped the white leather scabbard off the mossy ground. Eugeo
lifted the sword and carefully placed it inside the sheath I was
holding steady. He wrapped the weapon in the leather again, tied
it up with the rope, and placed it a safe distance away.
He exhaled after that task was over, then reached for the Dragonbone Ax resting against the trunk of the tree and exclaimed,
"Wow, this ax feels as light as a bird's feather now! Well, we lost a
lot of time on that, so let's get on with the afternoon shift."
"Yeah…Sorry about wasting your time on that whim, Eugeo…"
The other boy, the very image of the term pure-hearted, just
smiled. "It's fine, Kirito. I had fun with it, too. Well…I'll take the
first fifty swings."
He began the rhythmic chopping motion. I looked away,
walked over to where the sword lay, and caressed the sheath
through the leather wrap.
I knew I had the right idea. We could absolutely cut down the
Gigas Cedar with this sword. But Eugeo was right, too; just
swinging it wildly wasn't going to work.
The existence of the sword meant that there must be some
person in this world capable of wielding it. Eugeo and I simply
hadn't reached the requirements yet.
So what were those requirements? Class? Level? Stats? How
could we find out…?
"…"
My mouth fell open. I couldn't believe how dense I was.
I just had to look at its status window. The same way Eugeo
checked the window of the bread yesterday…and the way I
popped up the lamp's window in the church. Why hadn't I
thought of that earlier?
I reached out with my left hand, made the symbol, then, after
a brief moment of consideration, tapped the back of my right
hand. Sure enough, a purple rectangle chimed into existence
above it.
Unlike the bread's pop-up, this one had several lines of text. I
tried looking for a log-out button out of habit, but there was none
to be found.
The very first line read UNIT ID: NND7-6355. The mechanical
sound of "unit ID" gave me a bit of a shiver, but I didn't dwell on
it. The number was probably just a reference code that all people
in this world had.
Beneath that, like with the bread and Gigas Cedar, was a
Durability rating, which Eugeo called "life." It read 3280/3289.
Common sense suggested the first number was my current value
and the second was my maximum. The little drop was probably
from falling during my swing.
The second line said Object Control Authority: 38. Below that,
it said System Control Authority: 1.
That was all. No RPG experience points, level, or statistics. I
bit my lip and mulled it over.
"Hmm…Object Control Authority. I wonder if that's it…"
Based on the sound of the words, I expected it was a parameter that controlled usage of items. But there was no way to guess
what exactly the number thirty-eight meant in that context.
I sighed and looked up. There was Eugeo, dutifully absorbed
in swinging his ax. A thought occurred to me, and I closed my
own window to examine the Blue Rose Sword's instead. I loosened the end of the package, pulled the hilt out a little bit, made
the sign, and tapped it.
In addition to the sword's durability, which was nearly as high
as the Gigas Cedar's at 197,700, it showed me what I was looking
for. Right below was a line reading Class 45 Object, which likely
corresponded to the control authority from my window. My authority was thirty-eight—not enough.
I closed the sword's window, tied it back up, and lay down on
the spot. Through the branches of the Gigas Cedar, I could see little tiny patches of blue sky. I exhaled a long breath. The information was valuable, but it also confirmed in inarguable numerical
values that I couldn't use the Blue Rose Sword. If I could raise my
authority level to forty-five, that problem was solved, but I didn't
know how to go about doing that.
Assuming this world operated on a rough approximation of
VRMMO rules, and I wanted to raise some parameter of mine, it
would probably involve either extensive, repetitive practice or
going out and killing monsters to earn experience. I didn't have
the time or inclination to do the former, and I hadn't seen hide
nor hair of any monsters for the latter. Normally coming across a
legendary weapon that was above my equip level was the source
of motivation to keep grinding levels, but without a clear means
of doing that, all I had left was frustration.
Hardcore MMO fans always said the most fun stage of a game
was right at the start, when there were no wiki sites compiling information yet and you had to figure everything out yourself.
When I got back to the real world, I was never going to say that
again, I swore to myself, albeit pointlessly. Meanwhile, Eugeo finished his fifty whacks and turned to me, wiping away his sweat.
"How do you feel, Kirito? Can you swing the ax?"
"Yeah…the pain's gone."
I swung my legs to rock myself up to my feet and reached out
for the ax. He was right; the Dragonbone Ax was almost laughably light compared to the Blue Rose Sword.
All I could do was pray that the act of swinging the ax somehow raised that particular statistic. I clenched the handle in both
hands and pulled it back for a swing.
"Aaahh…Now, this is paradise…" I moaned, the instant I hit
the hot water. A bath was just the trick after the rare experience
of hard physical labor.
The bathroom in Rulid's church had a large copper tub installed next to a ceramic tile floor, with an oven on the outside of
the building that burned logs to heat the water. I didn't think medieval Europe had baths like this, but whether it was installed by
the world creators' design or was the evolutionary result of three
centuries of simulation, it was nothing short of a blessing to me.
After dinner, Sister Azalia took Selka and the two other girls
into the bath first. After that, the four boys and I got our turn,
and the rowdy kids had just gotten out after satisfying their natural desire to cavort. Somehow, the water filling the large tub was
not the least bit cloudy. I scooped up a handful of the clear liquid,
splashed it on my face, and let out another relaxed, satisfied
moan.
Thirty-three hours had passed since I had been abandoned in
this world.
I couldn't guess how much time that was in the real world
without knowing how fast the fluctlight acceleration was, but if it
was working in real time and my absence was unexplained, my
family and Asuna would be very worried by now.
The very thought of it made me want to leap from my luxurious bath and race to find an escape from this place. But at the
same time, I couldn't pretend that I didn't want to stay here and
get to the bottom of the world's mysteries.
The fact that I was mentally present as Kazuto Kirigaya, complete with real-world memories, had to be an irregular occurrence. I was sure of it. It meant I was capable of wreaking undue
havoc on the delicate simulation taking place. They did not simulate three centuries of incredibly in-depth history just so someone
could come along and contaminate it.
That meant that I was both standing at the edge of a terrible
precipice and also in possession of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This was my first and last chance to figure out the true goal
of Rath, the mysterious start-up with inexplicably vast and secretive funding.
"No…that's just another excuse…" I said beneath the surface of
the water, the words emerging as bubbles.
Perhaps I was just being driven by simple desire as a VRMMO
player: I wanted to "conquer" the world—to make my way
through without a player manual, relying on nothing but my
mind and instincts—as I improved my sword skill and defeated
countless worthy foes, until at last I had seized the glory of being
the strongest alive. It was the stupidest, most infantile desire.
Strength in the virtual world was an illusion of numbers. I'd
come to reckon with that on several occasions. When Heathcliff
stopped my elite Dual Blades skill, when the Fairy King Oberon
laid me low, when I fled for my life from the pursuing Death Gun
—each time left me with painful regret and the determination
never to make the same mistake again.
But once again, the embers smoldering in the very root of my
soul were lighting that fire under me. How many people in this
world could lift the Blue Rose Sword with ease, unlike me? How
powerful were the Integrity Knights that upheld the law and the
knights of darkness who opposed them? Who sat in the highest
seat of the Axiom Church, the structure that ruled this world…?
Without realizing it, I swung my hand up, and my fingers
broke the surface of the water, throwing droplets against the far
wall.
Meanwhile, a voice beyond the changing room door brought
me to my senses.
"Huh? Is someone still in there?"
I sat upright when I recognized Selka's voice.
"Y-yeah, it's me—Kirito. Sorry, I'm coming out."
"Oh…n-no, it's fine, take your time. Just make sure you unplug
the tub and put out the lamp when you're done. I'm going back to
my room now…Good night."
I heard her start to scurry away, and an idea occurred to me.
"Oh…Selka, I wanted to ask you something. Do you have any time
tonight?"
The footsteps stopped, replaced by a hesitant silence. Eventually she responded, just loud enough for me to hear. "I have…a bit
of time. But the kids are already sleeping in my chamber, so I'll
wait for you in your room."
She trotted off without waiting for a reply. I stood up in a
hurry, pulled out the wooden stopper at the base of the tub, extinguished the lamp on the wall, and exited to the changing room.
The water dried up without needing a towel, which helped me get
into my clothes faster, and I raced down the quiet hall and up the
stairs.
Selka looked up from the bed, dangling her feet, when I
opened the door. Unlike last night, she wore a simple cotton shift
with her brown hair tied in a braid.
She picked up a large glass from the bedside table and offered
it to me.
"Oh, thanks," I said, sitting down next to her on the bed and
drinking the chilled well water. It felt like moisture was permeating my dried body from head to toe.
"Ahh, nectar, nectar."
"Necktar? What is that?" Selka asked, looking confused. I panicked, realizing that the word must not exist in this world.
"Umm…it's something you say about water that's extremely
delicious and feels like it's healing you…I guess."
"Ohh…So like elixir, then."
"Wh-what is that?"
"It's holy water that a monk has blessed. I've never seen it myself, but they say that drinking a little bottle of it will bring back
the life decreased by injury or illness."
"Ohhh…"
It made me wonder how they'd lost so many people to disease
if such a thing existed, but I decided it was probably better not to
ask. At the very least, this world and the stately Axiom Church
that ruled over it were not quite the benevolent paradise I first
took them to be.
Selka accepted the empty glass from me and prompted, "If you
have more questions, make them quick. I'm only forbidden to
enter the boys' room after the bath, not the guest room, but I feel
like Sister Azalia will give me a scolding anyway if she finds out."
"Um…sorry about that. I'll make it quick. I wanted to ask…
about your sister."
Her delicate shoulders twitched under her white gown.
"…I don't have a sister."
"Not anymore, right? Eugeo told me that you had an older sister named Alice, and—"
Before I could finish my sentence, Selka's head jerked up, startling me.
"Eugeo did? He told you about Alice? How much did he say?"
"Err…well…that Alice studied the sacred arts here at the
church…and that an Integrity Knight took her away to some big
city several years ago…"
"…Ahh…" She dropped her glance to the floor and continued,
"So Eugeo didn't forget…about Alice…"
"Huh…?"
"The people of the village—Father, Mother, Sister Azalia—
none of them will ever talk about her. Her room was tidied up
and emptied years ago…like she was never there to begin with. So
I thought everyone had just forgotten all about her…even
Eugeo…"
"As a matter of fact, not only does he remember her, he still
seems to be quite concerned for her. So much that if he didn't
have his Calling to keep him busy, he would rush down to that
city to find her," I said.
Selka was quiet for a few moments. She eventually mumbled,
"I see…So the reason Eugeo doesn't smile anymore…is because of
Alice."
"Eugeo…doesn't smile?"
"Yes. When my sister was around, he was always beaming. It
was hard to find him not looking happy. I was still young, so I
don't remember it that well…but ever since she was taken away, I
feel like I never see Eugeo smiling anymore. In fact…even on his
days off, whether he stays inside or goes into the forest, he's always alone…"
I found this statement to be a bit strange. Eugeo was rather reserved, it was true, but he didn't seem to be hiding his emotions
from me. During our chats coming to and from the forest and on
our break times, he had even laughed, and more than a few times.
If he wasn't smiling around Selka or the villagers anymore,
was it…out of guilt? Guilt that he was the reason beloved Alice,
the future Sister at the church, was taken away, and that he
hadn't been able to save her? And he could stand to be himself
around only me, an outsider who didn't know what happened
back then?
If that was true, Eugeo's soul could not be a simple program.
He had the same level of intelligence and humanity as I did…He
had a fluctlight. And he had lived through six whole years of selftorment.
I had to go to the central city, I realized again. Not just for my
own sake but to get Eugeo out of this village so he could find Alice
and the two could be reunited. And the Gigas Cedar had to be
eliminated for that to happen…
"…What are you thinking?" Selka asked, rousing me out of my
thoughts.
"Oh…just thinking, like you said, Eugeo must still care a whole
lot about Alice right now."
As soon as the thought tumbled out of my mouth, Selka's face
seemed to warp a bit. Those clear eyebrows and big eyes clouded
with loneliness.
"Yes…I suppose you're right."
Her shoulders slumped. Even I, hardly the most intuitive toward feelings, could tell what this meant.
"Selka…do you like Eugeo?"
"Wha…that's not true!" she protested hotly, then turned away,
red down to her neck. She looked down for a while, and when she
spoke again, her voice was suddenly tense. "I just…can't take
this…Father and Mother never say it, but I can tell they always
compared me to her and were disappointed. Same with the other
adults. That's why I left home to live at the church. And yet…even
as she teaches me the sacred arts, all Sister Azalia thinks about is
how my sister learned them all on the first attempt! Eugeo
doesn't treat me like them…but he avoids me. Because every time
he sees me, he thinks of Alice. And that's not my fault! I…I don't
even remember what she looked like anymore…"
Watching the little girl tremble in her pajamas stunned me to
my core. Somewhere in my brain, I'd told myself that this was all
a simulation, and while these people might not be pure programs,
they were something less than real. But sitting next to a crying
twelve-year-old girl was not something I was prepared to handle.
Eventually Selka rubbed the moisture out of her eyes.
"I'm sorry for losing control."
"N-no…it's fine. I think you should cry when you need to," I
said, a pretty weak excuse at consolation, but as Selka wasn't
spoiled by the ever-present entertainment media of twenty-firstcentury Japan, she smiled and took it to heart.
"…Yeah. You're right. I think I feel a bit better now. It's been a
really long time since I cried in front of anyone."
"That's really brave of you, Selka. Even at my age, I cry in front
of people all the time," I said, thinking of this scene and that, involving Asuna and Suguha. Selka's eyes went wide.
"Wait…you have your memory back, Kirito?"
"Er…N-no, not in that sense…I guess I just feel that way…A-at
any rate, I'm only me, I can't be anyone else…so you should focus
only on what you can do, Selka."
Again, it might as well have been ripped from a book of
clichés, but Selka thought it over and took it to heart. "You're
right…Maybe I've just been averting my eyes from myself…and
my sister…"
The realization that I was actively trying to pull Eugeo away
from this sweet, poor girl filled me with guilt. But just then, a
pleasing melody came down from the bell tower above.
"Oh…it's already nine. I need to get back now. Oh…what was it
you wanted to ask, again?" she wondered, but I said that I'd already figured out enough. "Well, in that case, I'm going back to
my room."
She hopped down to the floor and took a few steps to the door,
then turned back.
"Hey…did you hear the reason why the Integrity Knight took
my sister away?"
"Uh…yeah. Why?"
"I don't know it. My parents won't say anything…and I asked
Eugeo once, years ago, but he wouldn't tell me. Why was she
taken?"
I hesitated a bit, but the answer tumbled out of my mouth before I could reconsider.
"Well…I think he said they went up the river to a cave that
goes through the End Mountains, and then she put her hand on
the ground of the land of darkness…"
"…I see…Past the End Mountains…" she mumbled, lost in
thought. But soon she bobbed her head and chirped, "Tomorrow's a day of rest, but prayer is at the usual hour, so make sure
you get up. I won't be coming to rouse you this time."
"I-I'll try my best."
Selka grinned briefly, opened the door, and disappeared
through it.
As her tiny footsteps pattered into the distance, I flopped
down on the bed. I was hoping to get more information on this
mysterious Alice, but her sister had been too young at the time to
retain much memory of her. All I had learned was just how deep
Eugeo's feelings for Alice went.
I shut my eyes and tried to imagine the girl named Alice.
But of course, no face floated into my mind. The only thing I
thought I caught a glimpse of on the backs of my eyelids was a
glint of golden light.
The next morning, I would come to a very nasty realization of just
how naive my plans were.
4
My eyes opened at the clanging of the five-thirty bell and I leaped
out of bed, emboldened by the realization that I could do it on my
own after all.
I threw open the eastern window, stretched, and sucked in a
lungful of the cold daybreak air. The more I breathed in, the more
it wiped away the last cobwebs of sleep clinging to the back of my
mind.
In the room across the hall, I could hear the children starting
to wake. I slipped on my clothes, determined to get down to the
well to wash up before they did.
The tunic and cotton pants that served as my "starting gear"
had no visible stains yet, but according to Eugeo, their life
dropped faster and faster the less you washed them. So it was
probably time to think about acquiring another outfit. That would
be one of the things to ask Eugeo about today, I decided as I
headed out the back door to the well.
I transferred a few cups of water from the bucket to the basin,
splashed some on my face, and heard someone coming up behind
me at last. I straightened, shaking the water from my hands, expecting to see Selka.
"Oh…good morning, Sister."
It was Sister Azalia, wearing her pristine nun's habit. I bowed
hastily, and she returned the gesture and said hello. The perpetual frown tightening her lips seemed especially harsh today,
which raised my hackles a bit.
"Um…Sister…is something…?" I asked.
She blinked, hesitating momentarily, then said, "I cannot find
Selka."
"Uh…"
"Do you know anything about this, Kirito? She seemed to have
taken a liking to you…"
For a second I panicked, thinking that she might be suspecting
that I'd done something to the girl, but I soon realized that this
could not be the case. The ironclad Taboo Index that none dared
to violate governed this world; Azalia would not imagine in her
wildest dreams that someone would actually kidnap a child. She
assumed that Selka had vanished of her own volition and was
simply asking me if there was any information I might possess
about it.
"Umm…No, I haven't heard anything. Today is a day of rest,
correct? She hasn't gone back to her family?" I suggested, trying
to kick-start my recently awakened mind, but she immediately
shook her head.
"In the two years since Selka came to the church, she has not
once returned home. Even if that was the case, I cannot believe
that she would go there without attending prayer or saying anything to me. Even if there are no laws against it…"
"Then…maybe she's out shopping. How do you get the ingredients for breakfast every day?"
"We bought two days' worth of food yesterday evening. All the
stores in the village are closed today."
"Oh…of course." That emptied my meager stock of imagination. "…I'm sure she had something important to do. She'll be
back very soon."
"…I certainly hope so…" Sister Azalia murmured, her brow
furrowed with concern. She sighed and said, "In that case, I will
wait until midday, and then pay a visit to the village hall if she is
not back yet. Forgive me for interrupting you. I must prepare for
the morning prayer now."
"It's all right…I'll check around the area afterward," I told her
as she inclined her head and left. A faint, nasty tinge of worry
welled up within me as I dumped out the remaining water in the
basin. I recalled something troublesome in my conversation with
Selka last night but couldn't remember what it was. Had I said
something that would prompt her to slip out of the church?
Morning prayer passed with this concern gripping my chest,
and at the end of breakfast, where the children all wondered
where Selka was, she still had not returned. I helped clean up the
dishes and went out the front door of the church.
We hadn't explicitly made the same agreement as yesterday,
but it was nonetheless a relief when I saw that flaxen hair coming
from the northern path at the eight o'clock bell.
"Good morning, Kirito."
"Morning, Eugeo."
He showed up with the same smile as ever. I followed up with,
"You get the entire day off, right?"
"That's right. So I figured I would show you around the village
today."
"That'd be great, but I need you to help with something else
first. Selka hasn't been seen all morning…so I thought we could
go look for her…"
"What?!" he exclaimed, his green eyes wide and worried. "She
walked out of the church without telling Sister Azalia first?"
"That's what it sounds like. Sister Azalia said it was the first
time this has ever happened. Can you think of anywhere she
might have gone?"
"Might have gone? I don't know…"
"Last night I talked with Selka about Alice for a little bit. So I
was wondering if she might be someplace that reminds her of
Alice…"
Only once I had said the words aloud did I finally, belatedly,
ashamedly realize the source of my unease.
"Ah…"
"What is it, Kirito?"
"No way…Say, Eugeo. When Selka asked you why the Integrity
Knight took Alice away years ago, I hear you didn't tell her the
reason. Why not?"
He blinked rapidly and, after a few moments, bobbed his head.
"That's right…she did ask that. So…why didn't I tell her? I didn't
have a very solid reason…Perhaps I was just uneasy about the
possibility that Selka would try to go after Alice…"
"That's it," I grunted. "I told Selka last night. I told her how
Alice touched the ground of the land of darkness…She must have
gone to the End Mountains."
"What?!" Eugeo paled. "That's bad. We have to track her down
and bring her back before the villagers realize…When did she
leave?"
"I don't know. She was gone by the time I woke at five thirty…"
"In this season, the sky starts to lighten up around five. She
couldn't walk through the forest before that point. Which means
she left three hours ago," Eugeo said, looking up at the sky.
"When Alice and I went to the cave, it only took us about five
hours to get there, and we were kids. Selka's got to be over half
the way there by now. I don't know that we can overtake her in
time…"
"Let's hurry. We'll go right now," I insisted. He agreed at once.
"We don't have time to prepare. Fortunately the path is along
the river, so we won't lack for water. Okay…it's this way."
Eugeo and I started walking north, just slowly enough that no
passing villagers would be suspicious of us. As the shops trickled
away, so did the foot traffic, and we were soon racing down the
paved road. Within five minutes, we reached a bridge over the
river and snuck out of the village without drawing the posted
men-at-arms' notice.
Unlike the wide barley fields of the southern end, the north
end of the village ran right up to dense forest. The river that
wound around the hills of Rulid in the form of a canal split the
forest as it ran north to south, and there was a small path on its
bank covered in short grass.
Eugeo plunged down the riverside path without hesitation,
then came to a halt about ten steps in. He held out his hand to
stop me and crouched, touching a patch of grass with his other
hand.
"Right here…It's been stepped on," he murmured, and made
the sigil to bring up the grass's window. "Its life is a bit down. It
would be more if an adult had stepped on it, so that certifies that
a child walked here a little while ago. Let's hurry."
"Uh…right," I said, and picked up my pace to follow after him.
For as long as we walked, the river stayed on the right, and the
forest stayed on the left. The only change to the scenery was one
large pond and a brief elevation change. It almost made me wonder if we'd fallen into the RPG trope of the "looping dungeon."
We were out of hearing range of the town's bell, so the only way
to tell time was the slow progress of the sun.
Eugeo and I continued to trace the river's path at a trot just
below a run. I would absolutely have run out of steam going at
this pace for thirty minutes in the real world. Fortunately, the average male my age in this world was much healthier, and I felt it
more as a pleasurable activity than fatigue. I proposed speeding
up to Eugeo, but he said that if we ran any faster, our life would
drop too much and force us to take a long break to recover.
We'd been following the path at this precise speed for two
whole hours but hadn't seen the girl yet. In fact, she would probably have arrived at the cave by now. Fear and haste mingled in my
mouth with a metallic tang.
"Hey…Eugeo," I called out, taking care to keep my breathing
steady. A step ahead and to my right, he looked over his shoulder.
"What?"
"Just to be sure…If Selka goes into the land of darkness, will
the Integrity Knight immediately come to take her away?"
His eyes unfocused as he consulted distant memories. "No…I
think the Integrity Knight will fly to the village the next morning.
That's what happened six years ago."
"I see…Then even in a worst-case scenario, we'll still have a
chance to save Selka."
"…What are you thinking, Kirito?"
"It's simple. If we can take Selka out of the village before the
end of the day, we might be able to run away from the knight."
"…"
He faced forward again, mulled it over, then muttered, "We
can't…do that. I have my Calling…"
"I didn't say you had to come with us," I noted forcefully. "I'll
take Selka and go on the run. This was my fault for running my
mouth, anyway. It's my responsibility."
"…Kirito…"
I caught sight of the wounded expression on Eugeo's face and
felt a prickle in my heart. But this was necessary to challenge his
subservient nature. I felt guilty using Selka's peril for my own
purposes, but I needed to ascertain whether the Taboo Index was
simply a list of ethical and moral taboos or if it was an absolutely
enforced set of rules for the residents of this world.
After a few seconds, Eugeo slowly shook his head side to side.
"You can't…You just can't, Kirito. Selka has her own Calling.
Even if the knight comes to take her away, she won't agree to go
with you. And I don't think it will come to that in the first place.
Selka would never violate the serious taboo of setting foot in the
land of darkness."
"But Alice did," I pointed out. He winced and bit his lip but argued more forcefully this time.
"Alice…Alice was special. She wasn't like anyone in the village.
Not like me…and not like Selka."
He picked up speed, suggesting that he wasn't going to talk
about it any further. As I followed, a silent question echoed in my
heart to that mysterious girl.
Alice…who are you?
To Eugeo, Selka, and the other people of this world, the Taboo
Index was clearly something they could not break, even if they
wanted to—the same way that you could not break the physical
laws that kept a human being from flying in the real world. That
seemed to line up with my suspicion that they had true fluctlights
but were not human beings in the same sense as I was.
But what did that make Alice, who broke—was able to break—
that terrible taboo? Was she another tester diving in with the STL
like I was? Or…
My brain seized upon different fragmented thoughts one after
the other as my legs moved automatically. Eventually, Eugeo
broke the silence.
"There it is, Kirito."
I came to my senses and looked up. The forest was clearing out
up ahead, and I could see a wall of ashy gray rock beyond it.
With a last spurt of energy, we sprinted across the remaining
few hundred yards and came to a stop where the ground underfoot turned from grass to gravel. I stared at the sight before me in
shock, panting at last.
It was nothing short of a transition space between area maps,
a sure sign of artificiality if I'd ever seen one. The thick green of
the forest hit a brief neutral zone, then abruptly turned into a
nearly vertical rock cliff. To my surprise, a light snow dusted the
surface close enough nearly to touch. However high the altitude
was, the peaks of the mountains were pure white.
Those peaks continued to the left and right as far as the eye
could see, perfectly splitting the world between this side and that.
If someone had designed this world, I could practically scold
them for the lazy way they'd drawn this border.
"These are…the End Mountains? And just on the other side is
the land of darkness…?" I muttered in disbelief. Eugeo nodded.
"I was surprised the first time I came here, too. That the end of
the world…"
"…Was so close," I finished, unconsciously craning my neck in
confusion. It was close enough that we'd reached it in just two
and a half hours, without any impediments on the way. It was as
if…it was tempting the villagers to come and trespass into the forbidden land. Or on the flip side, allowing the residents of the land
of darkness to attack…
I stood there, mulling it over blank-faced, which prompted
Eugeo to say, "Let's hurry. We must've closed the gap with Selka
to thirty minutes by now. If we drag her back as soon as we find
her, we can still be back to the village during daylight."
"Y-yeah…good point."
He was pointing ahead, where the little brook we were following got sucked into a hole in the rock face—technically, it was
flowing out from there, not going in.
"So that's it…"
I trotted closer. The cave was quite tall and wide, with a rock
shelf jutting from the wall to the side of the fierce creek. It was to-
tally dark on the inside, and the occasional breeze brought a
freezing chill with it.
"Wait, Eugeo…What are we going to do about light?" I asked. I
had totally forgotten about the most important item for a good
dungeon spelunking, but Eugeo said he had it under control. He
lifted a stalk of grass that he had picked up along the way. I wondered what he was going to do with the fuzzy cattail—until he
started chanting in English.
"System Call! Lit Small Rod!"
System Call?! I thought, shocked.
The tip of the stalk of grass in Eugeo's hand started to glow. It
had enough pale bluish light to illuminate a few yards ahead. He
headed farther into the cave.
I raced to catch up alongside him, the shock still racing
through my veins. "Eu-Eugeo…what was that?"
He squinted sternly at me, but there was a hint of pride tugging at his mouth as he said, "A sacred art—a very easy one. I had
to practice it a whole lot two years ago when I decided to come
and get the Blue Rose Sword."
"Sacred art…But…do you know the meaning of those words?
Like system and rod…"
"Meaning? There's no meaning; they're just spellwords.
They're words you say to beseech God and receive a miraculous
blessing. The higher sacred arts have many times more spellwords, I hear."
That made sense to me. They didn't know the meaning of the
system terminology—it was all treated like mystical magic words.
Still, that was a very practical spell. Whoever designed this world
was clearly quite pragmatic.
"Say…do you think I can do it, too?" I wondered, excited despite the circumstances.
Eugeo wasn't sure. "It took me about two months to use this
art, practicing between my work shifts every single day. According to Alice, people with the talent for it can use it in a day, and
others might never be capable of it their entire lives. I don't know
where your talent level lies, but I doubt you could do it right
away…"
Did that mean that using magic—sacred arts—required some
amount of skill training through repetition? If so, he was probably right that it couldn't be mastered in a day. I gave up on the
idea for now and stared into the darkness ahead.
The wet gray walls turned right and left and seemed to continue on forever. A chilling wind assaulted my skin at all times,
and even with a partner at my side, the lack of any sword, or even
a sturdy stick, was starting to make me feel helpless and uneasy.
"Hey…are you sure Selka came down here?" I wondered aloud.
Eugeo pointed the glowing cattail toward the ground at our feet.
"Oh…"
Within the ring of the impromptu lantern's glow was a shallow, frozen puddle. It had been stepped on in the middle, and
there were cracks extending in all directions from that spot.
I tried stepping on it myself. The ice cracked loudly and split
further—which meant that before me, someone lighter had been
the perpetrator of the first cracks.
"I see…That settles it, then. I don't know if she's reckless or
fearless…"
Eugeo found that statement to be curious. "There's nothing to
be afraid of. No white dragon in this cave anymore—not even a
mouse or a bat to contend with."
"Oh, r-right," I replied, reminding myself that there were animals in this world but no actively aggressive monsters to worry
about. At the very least, I could consider this side of the End
Mountains to be the equivalent of a VRMMO protected area.
I exhaled, trying to let the tension drain out of my spine—
when from the darkness ahead came an odd sound on the breeze.
We looked at each other. It sounded like the screeching of a bird
or wild animal of some kind.
"Hey…what was that?"
"…I don't know…I've never heard that sound before…Ah!"
"Wh-what is it now?"
"Do you…smell something, Kirito?"
I drew in a deep breath of the cave air through my nostrils.
"Oh…it's kind of a burning smell…and…"
Mixed with the scent of burning tree sap was just a hint of
something raw and bestial. I grimaced; it wasn't a reassuring
smell.
"What is that…?" I wondered when a new sound came, and I
held my breath.
It was the long, trailing sound of a girl screaming.
"Oh no!"
"Selka!"
We both leaped into action, our feet sliding a bit on the frozen
rock.
The blood in my veins froze, and my limbs felt numb. It was
the first true, palpable sense of danger I'd felt since I showed up
in this world—even more than I'd felt when I originally didn't
know where I was.
So the Underworld wasn't a paradise after all. It was a thin
layer of peace stretched over a core of evil. That was the only explanation. This world was an enormous vise meant to trap all
kinds of people in its grasp. Someone had spent centuries slowly,
methodically screwing it tighter. To see if the residents would
band together and fight back or be crushed under its weight.
Rulid Village was one of the places closest to the vise's jaws. As
the final moment of reckoning approached, the souls in the village would slowly disappear, one by one.
But under no circumstances could I allow Selka to be the first.
It was my fault she came to this cave in the first place. For toying
with her fate, I had a responsibility to see her home safely…
Eugeo and I raced through the cave by the weak light of the
grass stem. With each desperate gasp of air, my chest hurt. I
slipped numerous times, the elbows and wrists that whacked
against walls of ice throbbing constantly. It was easy to imagine
our "life" dropping throughout the process, but that wasn't going
to slow us down now.
The farther we went, the stronger the odor of burning wood
and animal stink. Mixed in with the screeching voices was the
constant shuffling of metal. I didn't know what awaited us ahead,
but it was hard to imagine it being friendly.
My gamer's instincts told me that with a single knife on hand,
we had to come up with a plan and tread lightly, but even louder
in my head was the knowledge that we had no time to waste. Plus,
Eugeo's panicked face was even paler than mine, and I knew he
wouldn't be convinced to turn back anyway.
Suddenly, I saw orange light flickering on the rock walls
ahead. Based on the way it was reflecting, there seemed to be a
very large dome in the distance. I could feel the antagonism
ahead, prickling against my skin. There was more than one of
them—many, in fact. Eugeo and I plunged into the dome together, praying for Selka's safety.
Take in everything and execute the most ef icient choice of action, as quickly as possible.
Following the guidelines burned into me from experience, my
attention darted around, absorbing the images like a wide-angle
camera.
The circular dome had to be nearly a hundred and fifty feet
across. The floor was covered with thick ice, but there was a
stretch toward the middle that was cracked open, exposing water
nearly dark enough to be black.
The source of the orange light was a pair of fires lit around the
impromptu pond. Firewood snapped and crackled within black
iron braziers.
And surrounding the fires sat grouped figures, humanoid in
shape but clearly neither human nor animal. There were over
thirty of them.
Individually, they were not that big. Standing at full height,
their heads might reach my chest. But their hunched frames were
stout and stocky, and their abnormally long arms and gleaming
claws looked strong enough to tear anything to shreds. They
sported gleaming leather armor on their wide chests and dangled
small furs, bones, and pouches from their waists. In addition,
some held crude but deadly machetes.