Chapter 7

The sound of heavy bells tolling woke Ronie up, and she saw bright light

already streaming through the thin curtains over the window.

Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she sat up, checking around the room in a haze

of sleepiness as she wrapped herself in the cloak she was using for a blanket.

Very quickly she spotted the black-haired swordsman fast asleep on the bed

nearby. Eight hours had passed, and the effect of the herbs had worn off,

because his sleeping face was pale again and surprisingly cherubic. It put a smile

on her own face.

But then the facts sank in: She had spent a night in the same room as Kirito,

different beds or not. The realization jolted the sleep from her mind, and her

face flushed. She pressed her hands to her cheeks, which were cold from being

outside of the cloak, and took deep breaths until she calmed down. Promptly

after, she bolted to her feet.

Ronie walked over to the bed and gently shook her superior's shoulder,

saying, "Wake up. Wake up—it's eight o'clock."

It was at that point that she realized all the time-telling bell melodies she'd

been hearing since last night were exactly the same as those played by the bells

at Central Cathedral.

What could explain that? Why would the bells attached to the Axiom Church

in the human realm and the bells in this far-flung dark capital play the same

tune? The question fell out of her mind when Kirito mumbled and tried to

wriggle farther under the blanket.

"Mmrm…bit longer..."

"No, don't go back to sleep!" She pulled on the blanket, but Kirito clung hard

to the end with both hands, protesting like a stubborn child.

"Five minutes…just three more minutes, Eugeo…"

Ronie gasped. She let go of the blanket and put her hand over her mouth,

stepping backward.

Kirito's best friend, Elite Disciple Eugeo, had died nearly two years ago in the

fight against Administrator. But to Kirito, his time with Eugeo wasn't yet the

past. Like Tiese, he was still living it.

She snuck back to the couch and sat down again.

Swordswoman Subdelegate Asuna slept in the same room as Kirito. She

would probably know his secret thoughts, the deep sadness that he kept hidden

beneath the surface. And yet she had found a way to stay by his side, always

smiling and warm and gentle…

When she got back to Centoria, Ronie would have a proper conversation with

Asuna. She couldn't reveal the secret feelings she harbored, but the two of

them were united in their desire to help Kirito.

To her surprise, about three minutes later, as promised, Kirito sat up. He

looked around the room with eyes that were more than half closed.

When he spotted his companion, he yawned hugely. "Morning, Ronie."

"G…good morning, Kirito."

"Sorry, slept in a bit…What time is it?"

"The eight o'clock bell just rang."

"I see. Then we'll be in time for checkout…er, for the time she wants us out."

He yawned again and got out of bed, then headed for the window and yanked

the gray curtains open.

"Hey, Ronie, check it out. You can see the palace," he said.

"Really? You can?"

She got up from the sofa to join him. Sure enough, off in the distance and a

little to the right, looming over the chaos of the city, was the clear figure of the

pitch-black palace, soaring into the sky.

It tore through the morning mist, which was far redder than what she knew

back home. Being carved largely out of natural rock, it was understandably

rougher hewn than Central Cathedral, but that gave it a kind of beauty all its

own. Even Kirito, who was seeing it for the second time, exhaled long and low

with admiration.

"Unlike Central Cathedral, which Administrator built with her superhuman

powers, that palace was carved out of the rock by mortal hands," he said.

Ronie marveled at the thought. "How many months—? How many years must

it have taken…?"

"They say it took over a hundred years…Well anyway, we should be going. If

we take too long, it'll be noon before we know it."

"Let's not forget who was responsible for sleeping in!" snapped Ronie. He

gave a mischievous little grin to duck responsibility and began to put the bags

together.

Once they had reapplied the cofil-tea solution and paid for their night, they

found a city lit red by the morning sun rather than ore lamps.

The inn was over five kilors away from Obsidia Palace, but the walk hardly felt

long at all due to all the novel sights.

The road got wider as they approached the palace, and the buildings lining it

also grew bigger and fancier. But the number of people walking the streets

dwindled, and there was no longer a single demi-human in sight.

Eventually, they came to a river of considerable size—at least by local

standards—and a large stone bridge spanning it. On the other side was a big

gate, behind which was a gentle upward slope that led to the abnormally sharp

obsidian spire that was the palace.

Kirito came to a stop at the foot of the bridge. Ronie asked him quietly, "So…

have you figured out how we're going to get into the castle?"

The swordsman's face tilted thoughtfully. "Hmm…I don't think that merely

acting like darklanders is going to be enough to get us into the palace…And if

we try to fly up to the top of it, the guards are going to see us, so…"

"So you haven't come up with an answer…," she concluded.

He rushed to protest. "N-no, I didn't say that. I've still got the secret trick up

my sleeve!" he cried, pulling her by the hand down a riverside path to the left of

the bridge. As the route to the castle grew farther away, she worried that he

was about to suggest they swim across the river and climb up the rocky hill to

sneak into the palace.

Kirito stopped at a spot where the river was wider, set the two bags on the

ground, and looked up at Obsidia Palace again. The rocky black mountain was

about three hundred mels across at the base but nearly twice as tall as that, so

it looked more like a tower than a mountain. The majority of the side facing the

city was carved into the shape of a castle, with majestic pillars and windows

that gleamed in the morning sun. The rear side was still almost entirely raw

mountain face, with just one large terrace jutting out, probably as a platform

for dragons.

He lifted his right hand and pointed it at the top of the mountain. His finger

twitched, as if he was searching for something.

"Um, Kirito…what are you…?" Ronie started to ask, feeling extra-apprehensive

suddenly. He said nothing, holding his hand up another five seconds, then

nodded as though he'd found the answer he wanted.

He lined up the fingers of that hand into a chopping position. Then he lifted

his arm straight up, pulled his left foot back, and dropped his center of gravity.

The hand, upright like a sword, began to vibrate faintly and took on a white

glow, to Ronie's shock.

Kirito hadn't spoken a word of any command. Which would mean this was the

Integrity Knights' most secret power, a force that worked on the very laws of

the world, Incarnation. But normally, it did not create any sound or light. How

much power was he focusing to make it react this way?

"...Hah!!" he shouted, swinging the hand down with tremendous force.

White light shot forth in the form of a blade edge, much like Renly's DoubleWinged Blades, instantly crossing over a kilor of space and hitting the handrail

of a small terrace right at the top of the palace. With her excellent eyesight,

Ronie could see little fragments of obsidian falling off the handrail.

"Wait…K-K-Kirito, what are you doing?! You just damaged the palace!!" she

hissed, even more startled about that than the fact that he'd thrown an

Incarnate Sword an entire kilor. She tugged his black cloak in a panic, but he got

to his feet with practiced ease.

"That's nothing. Mix a little charcoal powder with glue and pack it on, and the

marks will disappear…I think. Besides, look," he said, lifting his hand again to

point. She could see a small figure emerging onto the distant terrace he'd just

struck. It was too far away for them to make out its face, but the silhouette was

slim enough that it was definitely a human. The person noticed the damage to

the handrail, then leaned over the edge to look at the world below.

There was nowhere for Kirito and Ronie to hide on the riverbank, even if the

palace was over a kilor away. The person on the terrace caught sight of them…it

seemed.

The figure put a hand to its mouth.

Ronie only realized that the gesture was a whistle once a gray dragon spread

its wings and took flight from the larger launching platform on the rear side of

the mountain. The dragon rose as it rounded the side of the mountain, and then

it hovered near the terrace in question. The figure hopped onto its back and

pointed right at the side of the river where Ronie and Kirito stood.

"Th-th-that's b-b-b-bad news! They've completely spotted us!!"

"That was quick. Very sharp."

"I don't think this is the time for idle admiration! We need to get moving,

or…"

But her tugging on his cloak proved futile. Kirito grabbed Ronie's arm and

stood her in front of him instead. The dragon was now plunging downward,

directly toward them.

Well, I guess I have to do my duty as bodyguard! she told herself, squeezing

the hilt of her newly acquired longsword.

Just three seconds later, the gray dragon reached the space overhead and

beat its wings to control its descent, and the rider hopped nimbly off its back,

landing on the rocky riverside without a sound. Like the two of them, it was

wearing a hooded cloak that kept its face hidden from sight.

The person wore no sword, but based on their mastery of the dragon, they

must have been an elite dark knight. Ronie stood before Kirito, maintaining

maximum vigilance to ensure that she was ready to draw her sword at any

moment.

But…

The gray dragon landed after its rider, the ground shaking beneath their feet,

and extended its long neck to sniff first Ronie, then Kirito. Then it trilled, soft

and friendly, and nuzzled Kirito's head with the side of its long snout.

"Huh…?" Ronie was stunned. She'd heard that the dragons of the Dark

Territory, like those back home, were very proud and standoffish with

strangers. It was impossible for one to let down its guard this way around a

stranger…But then she noticed the many lance scars on the dragon's gray

scales.

"Oh…is that…?"

But Kirito answered the question before she could get it entirely out of her

mouth. He rubbed under the chin of the dragon with both hands and said,

"There, there. Good to see you again, too, Yoiyobi. How have you been?"

She would never forget that name. It belonged to a legendary dragon who'd

fought bravely on its own against an army of red knights in the War of the

Underworld. It was the partner not of a soldier of darkness, but of an Integrity

Knight—a person who was another legendary figure, the Silent Knight…

"…Is…is that you…Lady Sheyta?" Ronie asked the hooded soldier.

The figure lowered its hood and said, "Kirito…Ronie. What are you doing

here?"

Sheyta Synthesis Twelve.

Among the current state of the knighthood, she was one of the oldest knights

after Fanatio and Deusolbert, and according to rumor, her skill with the sword

was equal to that of the original commander, Bercouli Synthesis One.

Her divine weapon had been a gift from the pontifex herself. The Black Lily

Sword could cut anything in the world, and Sheyta had used it to great effect

against the hordes of pugilists and red knights in the war, in a true battle of one

against many. But once the war was over, she had left Central Cathedral; now

she lived in Obsidia Palace as the ambassador plenipotentiary for the council.

In other words, she was the perfect person for Kirito and Ronie to make

contact with—the only problem had been how Kirito would summon her to

meet them. The fact that he'd thrown an Incarnate Sword at the castle and the

one person they'd needed had come out to investigate seemed more like a

planned outcome than a lucky happenstance.

Ronie suppressed her desire to interrogate Kirito, choosing to observe their

interaction with bated breath instead.

"I'm sorry to startle you like this, Sheyta," Kirito apologized, lowering his hood

and scratching his head in embarrassment. It was the only idea I could come up

with to get your attention…"

The faintest look of chagrin crossed Sheyta's reserved, beautiful features.

"Yes, you did startle me. When I realized that someone had hit the edge with a

blade of Incarnation from across the river, I thought that Commander Bercouli

had come back to life."

Her manner of speaking was simple and flat, with none of the daintiness of

her sex, but she was wordier than she had been in the past, and the tone of her

voice felt softer somehow.

"…But how did you know that I was in that room?" Sheyta asked.

Kirito shrugged. "Because it felt the most dangerous, I guess."

Sheyta repeated his gesture, looking a bit disgruntled. "I thought that I was

shutting off my sword spirit. If you can sense me from such a distance, then I

still have much improvement ahead of me."

This told Ronie at last that Kirito hadn't been simply guessing about the target

of his Incarnate Sword. The gesture he had made with his fingers before the

light appeared around his hand must have been him searching for Sheyta's

presence. It was a skill that she knew she could never replicate. But…

"Um, Kirito, if you have such incredible powers, did you really need to engage

in what is essentially a child throwing a pebble at his friend's window?" she

interjected.

Kirito turned to her and grinned. "What's this? Have you been visited by a boy

like that before?"

"I—I wasn't speaking from personal experience!"

"Then maybe you were the one using it to—"

"N-no, of course I've never done anything like that!" she protested vigorously.

Sheyta gave them a thin, wry smile and then said to Ronie, "The long journey

must have been tiresome. You may rest in the castle."

She gestured with her hand, and Yoiyobi lowered its body. There was no

saddle on the dragon's back, but that meant there was enough room for the

three of them to squeeze on together.

With Ronie in front, Kirito in the rear, and Sheyta sitting between them, the

veteran dragon took a quick run along the riverbank and gracefully took off,

easily handling the weight of three people and two divine weapons.

With a powerful beat of its wings, the dragon rose rapidly, heading for the top

of Obsidia Palace. The guards must have noticed by now, but they would know

that it was the ambassador's dragon, and they hadn't raised an alarm about the

scene.

Within two minutes, Yoiyobi brought them to the terrace, lowered the trio,

then cried and returned to the larger platform on the other side of the

mountain. When the huge creature was out of sight, Ronie walked over to the

obsidian handrail to inspect the location Kirito had struck with his Incarnation.

As she feared, there was a chunk over a cen deep missing from the feature.

That's going to get us yelled at, she thought, looking away—but when she

actually glanced down at the sight before her, that brief concern of hers was

entirely forgotten.

"Oh…wow…!"

Below her was the entire city of Obsidia. Unlike Centoria and its orderly, radial

patterns, this was a city of chaos and disorder, but that just made it seem even

more bold and alive.

"Over there, that looks like the ground itself is stacked up in several layers…

Oh, and is that a coliseum? It's huge—Kirito, look!" Ronie said, pointing with

excitement.

Over her shoulder, Sheyta said, "There are many other things to see here, and

if you have the time, I would recommend some sightseeing…but on the other

hand…" She turned away from Ronie and gave Kirito a piercing glance. "I

assume you didn't sneak out to visit for fun. Has something happened in

Centoria?"

"That's right," Kirito confirmed. He snapped to attention. "Ambassador

Plenipotentiary Sheyta, I request an urgent meeting with Commander Iskahn."

The room leading to the terrace was full of warm, bright light, by the

standards of the dark realm. The walls and ceiling were painted a pale pink, the

curtains were pale yellow, and the rug was the green of fresh grass. The large

fireplace burned rocks instead of firewood, and it was warm enough that if

Ronie kept her cloak on, she might break into a sweat.

It was a surprising choice of decoration if this was Sheyta's room, she thought,

but the real answer became apparent to her very quickly.

There was a small bed about a single mel long on the far side of the fireplace,

and as Sheyta walked over to it, there was a stunningly warm and gentle smile

on her face. She turned and beckoned Ronie and Kirito over in silence. They

snuck closer and peered at the bed, where a baby wrapped in a pure-white

blanket was sleeping soundly.

It was no more than three months old, with a tuft of soft hair that was dark

red; its nose, mouth, and the hands clutched beside its head were all so tiny it

was hard to believe.

According to the stories, this baby was the child of Sheyta and Iskahn, the

leader of the pugilists guild. It was a girl, as Ronie recalled. She whispered to the

mother, "What is her name…?"

"Leazetta," Sheyta said with a note of pride. She looked at Kirito and added, "I

got the first syllable from the Green Swordswoman, Leafa."

"You did…? I had no idea," murmured Kirito, smiling as he gazed down at the

sleeping infant.

A gentle, comforting silence filled the next twenty seconds, only to be broken

by the sound of the door to the hallway swinging open and the world's worst

example of a nasal baby-talk voice gushing forth.

"Lea, it's time for your yummy-nummy miiilk…"

A young man carrying two trays entered the room. His short curly hair, the

golden-red color of fire, was held in place by a simple headband made of silver,

and despite the winter season, he wore only a thin linen shirt. He sported short

pants and sandals, but the rippling muscles and countless scars visible on his

exposed shoulders and arms, along with his gouged-out right eye, indicated that

he was a battle-hardened warrior.

In contrast, however, the slackened, goofy smile on that warrior's face was

many times more blissful than even Kirito's expression when eating a honey pie.

It left Ronie aghast.

The one-eyed man eventually noticed Ronie and Kirito standing near the bed,

and his smile faded. His thick brows curled upward with suspicion, and his eyes

glanced back and forth between them and Sheyta.

Before the man said anything, Kirito raised his hand and said, "Hey, Iskahn.

It's been a while."

The supreme commander of the Dark Territory and champion of the pugilists

guild, Iskahn, flared his one eye as wide as it could open. "Is…is that K-K-Kirito?!

Why is your face colored like that…? I mean, what are you doing here?! The

next meeting isn't until March!"

"Actually, I had a bit of an errand to run. Sorry to barge in on you without

notice."

"W-well, that's all right…but hang on. Wait, wait, wait." A deep furrow ran

through Iskahn's forehead. Sheyta slid over to her husband and took the trays

from his hands. The pugilist seemed not to even notice it, he was so lost in his

thoughts. "Kirito, did you…did you just hear that…?"

"Hear what…? Oh, about the yummy-nummy milk? You've really taken to

fatherhood, haven't you? Ha-ha-ha."

"Don't you 'ha-ha-ha' me! Now that you've heard that, I can't let you leave

unharmed. I've gotta pound that memory right outta your head!" he shouted,

clenching his powerful fist, the skin glowing with pale-red flames.

"Um, K-K-K-Kirito…?" stammered Ronie, unsure of how to fulfill her role as

bodyguard in the moment. He held out a hand to push her back and stood

before Iskahn, thrusting out his left palm.

"Bring it!!"

"Raaaah!!"

Iskahn leaped. He left a red burning trail in the air, launching a punch with

such speed that Ronie couldn't follow it with the naked eye. It made contact

with Kirito's palm.

There was an explosive impact that sent the curtains and other decorative

cloths swaying. It was clearly a devastatingly powerful punch, but Kirito stayed

in place with no more than a slight backward lean, stopping Iskahn's blow with

his one hand.

The pugilists' leader and the human realm's swordsman delegate went still,

right and left hands connected. Eventually, Iskahn raised his head and smiled.

"Good to see you haven't lost your touch, Kirito."

"Same to you, Iskahn."

Beside the men smiling creepily at each other, Sheyta held the trays with illdisguised irritation. Ronie approached the bed, wondering if the sound had

woken the baby. Instead, Leazetta was happily sleeping away without any

notice of the clamor that had just happened. She really was the child of the

strongest knight and pugilist in the world.

When the guards came, drawn by the sound of the blast, Iskahn pushed them

back through the doorway and instructed them to bring two more chairs, which

joined the two already lined up by the window. The guards were wary of Kirito

and Ronie, of course, but they relented when Iskahn told them not to worry and

that he would explain later. That was the effect of either the Law of Power or

the trust Iskahn engendered as a leader.

After the guards left, the nine o'clock bells rang, and the baby awoke as if on

command, scrunching up her face and crying. Sheyta scooped Leazetta up from

the bed and sat down in one of the chairs to give her milk from a bottle

fashioned out of phibo-tree nuts, which existed in the human realm as well.

When heated, phibo nuts became as translucent and hollow as glass bottles,

and the nipple-like stem even had just the right amount of resiliency and

perforation to allow liquid to pass through. For that reason, it was said that

Terraria had created the plant precisely for babies. Now that Ronie knew about

the real world, it was hard not to take that statement literally—that they really

had been created, just by real-worlders, not Terraria.

Sheyta, in a trance, watched Leazetta drink noisily, then lifted her head and

said, "Would you like to hold her?"

"May I?" Ronie asked.

"Of course."

She took the baby with her left arm and the bottle with the right and moved it

to the baby's mouth. Leazetta's eyes stared at Ronie, gray like her mother's, but

she resumed drinking the milk at once. Ronie had given Berche milk just like this

several times at the cathedral, but holding a baby girl felt very different.

"I would have liked to nurse her myself, but the pugilists have their own

secret mixture of milk formula," Sheyta explained.

Iskahn sensed the comment and turned away from his conversation about the

latest news with Kirito to say, "You bet. If she drinks the formula, she'll never

get sick, her bones will grow hard, and she'll be a good, strong child."

The term milk in the case of this mixture was an ordinary sacred word—a

term that did not originate from the common tongue but was understood by all

—and referred to cow's or goat's milk heated to skin temperature and mixed

with certain medicinal elements specifically for infants. What that mixture

consisted of varied by family and region—thus, Sheyta's reference to the secret

formula. Ronie often heard that mother's milk was best, as Sheyta had said, and

perhaps it was true, but if it weren't for phibo-nut bottles and milk mixture, it

would be far more difficult for busy farming and merchant families to raise

babies.

For her part, Leazetta had no complaints about the pugilists guild's secret

recipe, and she drank it down in short order, then burped. She still looked

sleepy, so Sheyta took her back from Ronie and laid her down in the bed again.

When she returned and sat down in the chair, her expression had gone from

that of a mother to that of a knight.

"So what happened?" she asked, all business.

Kirito proceeded to tell them about the murder that had occurred two days

earlier in South Centoria. Iskahn and Sheyta listened in silence, but when the

story reached the topic of Oroi, the mountain goblin and murder suspect, they

both inhaled. But they did not interrupt, so Kirito continued the story,

explaining how he and Ronie had used a "dragon" to fly out of the human realm

and reach Obsidia the night before.

"…I see…That's a hell of an ordeal we've put you through," said the

commander, but the delegate just shook his head.

"No, I just wish I could have sent a messenger to warn you first…but I knew

that it would be next month before they got an answer and completed the

return trip."

Contact between Centoria and Obsidia at the moment happened through

horse-bound messengers who traveled between a series of ten towns and forts.

The entire process took a whole two weeks to get from one end to the other.

And that wasn't even taking into account the danger of the many larger magical

beasts that lived in the Dark Territory and might attack the messengers.

"True…If only we could find that master skull…," grumbled Iskahn, eliciting an

understanding nod from Kirito.

So it fell to Ronie to ask, "Um, what's a…master skull?"

"Oh, that. I didn't know about it until after the war, either. During the War of

the Underworld, Emperor Vecta used a Divine Object to give orders to Iskahn

and the rest of the ten lords. It was a big master skull and ten slave skulls that

went together. When he spoke into the master, his voice would instantly come

out of the subsidiaries, no matter how far away they were."

His explanation left her wide-eyed. "I-instantly…?! If we had such a thing,

there would be no need for letters or messengers at all."

"No, there wouldn't…But it's a one-sided conversation from master to slave,

so you couldn't actually go back and forth with just that one set," Kirito noted.

"But after the war, the master skull and several of the slaves went missing, so

even that much is out of grasp for now," Iskahn explained, exhaling deeply and

shaking his head. "But the bigger problem is this murder in the human realm.

It's impossible… The people who go on vacation in the human realm have to

take a document forbidding theft, fighting, and killing, in the name of the Dark

Council of Five and myself, supreme commander of the Dark Army. I sign every

last one of those…so as long as the Law of Power exists, there's only one person

in the entire dark realm who can ignore those orders."

Ronie assumed that he was speaking about himself, of course. But then

Sheyta interjected, "Two people."

"...Only two people," Iskahn corrected himself, scowling. The corners of

Kirito's mouth curled upward briefly.

"I agree with you," he said. "As a matter of fact, the dagger Oroi supposedly

used to kill the human housekeeper vanished from the armory. I think it was

most likely a temporary weapon, generated with steel elements…though that

was Ronie's suspicion, not mine."

"Sounds like your pupil's got a good head on her shoulders."

"Sh-she's not a pupil, really…," Kirito said awkwardly.

Ronie began to wonder exactly what she was to Kirito, but she pushed the

thought out of her mind and raised her hand to say, "Um, I was thinking a little

more about that…The murder weapon was a re-creation of a mountain goblin

dagger that was realistic enough for Oroi to mistake it for the real thing for a

moment. So we've been assuming the whole time that a dark mage was

involved in the incident somehow. But…"

She paused momentarily, looking at Sheyta and Iskahn in turn, and

summoned up her courage to ask, "On that note, what is the state of the dark

mages guild now…?"

Husband and wife shared a quick glance. Iskahn cleared his throat and

answered, "I was going to report on this at the next meeting…Regrettably, we

don't have a clear idea of the current state of the guild."

"What does that mean?" Kirito asked, his brows knit.

"After the Green Swordswoman slew Dee Eye Ell, a mage by the name of Kay

Yu Vee took over. But though I don't know much about dark arts, even I could

tell that she did not have the strength to maintain the guild," Iskahn said.

Sheyta added for clarity, "Even my skill with such arts is higher than hers."

"Upon further investigation, we found that when Dee was still alive, Kay was,

at most, tenth in the internal hierarchy. Meaning that a whole bunch of the

senior membership up and vanished."

"…Didn't nearly two thousand dark mages die in the battle at the Eastern

Gate? Wouldn't that suggest they were in that group?" Kirito pointed out.

Iskahn scowled. "I doubt it…They're as tenacious as magical beasts when it

comes to clinging stubbornly to life. If Dee hadn't fought with the Green

Swordswoman, she'd still be alive today. They're not considerate enough that

the top-ten mages would just up and die in battle together."

He looked back to Ronie and concluded, "So it's possible that the dark mages

guild currently taking part in the Council of Five is just an empty shell. The real

strength of the mages might be in hiding somewhere. And that means they

might have had a hand in this trouble in the human realm. But…Ronie, was it?

You seem to think differently."

"That's right. I don't have the evidence to completely deny that possibility…

but I did think it was strange. If the real culprit is the dark mages guild in hiding,

why would they need to create a false weapon from steel elements? Wouldn't

they have been able to get a real goblin dagger pretty easily…?"

"…That's a good point. To a goblin, a dagger with their clan symbol on it is a

pretty important item, but they're still mass-produced cast-iron pieces. You

could easily come up with one or two by stealing or buying them from the right

person," Iskahn muttered.

"If the true culprit's aim is to frame Oroi for the murder and escalate tensions

between the two realms, having a real dagger would be a more effective

method," Kirito agreed. "So if they weren't able to do that, would it mean that

the culprit is…someone on the human side…?"

"That would raise an even bigger mystery," Sheyta pointed out, and her

almond eyes narrowed even further. "On the human side, we are bound by far

stricter laws than in the dark realm. Murder is a very clear violation of the

Taboo Index. So if the person who killed the housekeeper is from the human

realm, that would mean they are capable of ignoring the Taboo Index."

Kirito and Ronie nodded together in silence. That point had been raised in the

discussion with Fanatio after the incident as well. Even an Integrity Knight

unbound by the Taboo Index could not simply take the life of an innocent

citizen like Yazen the housekeeper entirely of their own volition.

"We just don't know anything for sure," Kirito murmured, slowly shaking his

head. Iskahn bobbed his head, lost in thought. Eventually, he clapped his hands,

cutting through the figurative fog surrounding them.

"All right! We understand the situation now. Unfortunately, we'll probably

need to cancel the sightseeing travel business to the human side for a time…"

"Yeah…We're keeping a lid on the information within Centoria for the time

being, but if a second or third incident occurs, even the Unification Council

won't be able to control the situation. I plan to temporarily close off the Eastern

Gate and have the visitors currently staying in Centoria return home as soon as

possible," Kirito said, with deep regret. "Also…as for Oroi the mountain goblin…

We're keeping him in Central Cathedral for now, but we can't let him go right

away. He might be able to give us more information, and we might be able to

find out why he was framed. Oroi's from the Ubori clan on Saw Hill. I'm afraid

that…"

"I understand. I'll send an envoy to the Ubori to explain the situation," Iskahn

agreed. He turned his one eye to the window, then looked back at Kirito. "That

settles the matter of the tourists going to the human realm…but what about the

traders coming here from your side? There's a caravan of them staying in

Obsidia at the moment."

"Hmm, that's a good question…," said Kirito, folding his arms.

As part of the cultural exchange between the two sides, in addition to tourists

visiting the human realm from the dark realm, the human side sent its own

trading caravans to Obsidia. It was on a test scale for now, with just a few

wagons' worth of goods selected for trading to see what worked and what

didn't, but there were many exotic things here that couldn't be found inside the

human realm, like those illumination ores. The bigger merchants could smell a

major opportunity for business in the making, and they were pounding down

the door with applications to be part of the caravans.

"…If the responsible party is an organizational power and it has members here

in Obsidia, then they could be looking to cause the reverse of the humankilling…Say, one of the human traders killing a resident of Obsidia. But the

caravans have veteran men-at-arms and arts-users as personal guards, and

they're not allowed to wander around freely, either…so it wouldn't be that

easy, I'm thinking," Kirito explained.

Sheyta agreed. "I don't think there's any need to cancel the trading business

—not right away, at least. The caravans are bringing many valuable medicines

and reagents here, so their presence is more welcomed than I might have

thought…Just in case, I'll put a pupil on the caravan while they're staying in

Obsidia."

"P-pupil…? I thought you were here on a solo assignment, Sheyta…," Kirito

remarked, his darkened face wide with surprise.

With a mixture of concern and pride, Iskahn said, "That's the thing. Sheyta's

currently both the ambassador plenipotentiary and a guest master of the dark

knighthood."

"Wh-what does guest master mean…?"

"When she went to observe the knights, their young captain challenged her to

a sparring match, so she used a borrowed sword—and not even the actual

sword, just the scabbard—and beat him raw. Now she's got her own training

hall at the knights' headquarters."

"I only have a handful of pupils; less than ten. But they've all got great

potential," Sheyta explained.

"Ah…I see…," said Kirito, who was clearly at a loss for words.

She added, "You should come to the hall and give them a good

demonstration."

"Oh, uh, g-gosh, I've barely trained in the traditional styles of swordplay at

all…," Kirito mumbled, trying to edge away with the chair.

Iskahn reached out and clasped his shoulder. "That's perfect. After the

knights, you can come to the pugilists' training hall, too. There are plenty there

who doubt your true ability, and I need you to show them the Law of Power."

"I-I'd rather not! I've changed my mind; I want to be a bureaucrat!"

Oh dear…I don't think he's getting out of this one, thought Ronie, enjoying

Kirito's panic.

Kirito and Ronie used Sheyta and Iskahn's private bath to wash off the dust of

their travel, as well as their faces, and were taken to guest rooms on the same

floor of the palace. Their unannounced visit was explained to the rest of the

staff as an urgent envoy party.

It was not mentioned that Kirito was the swordsman delegate of the human

realm, so the guards eyed his light armor with suspicion—envoys weren't

typically armed—but they changed their attitude when they noticed the

weapons the two carried. Divine Objects were even rarer in the Dark Territory

than they were in Centoria.

They took a short rest in the two adjacent guest rooms, then joined Iskahn

and Sheyta for lunch in the afternoon. They were guided around Obsidia to the

headquarters of the dark knighthood and the pugilists guild by carriage in the

afternoon. Kirito was nearly placed into a match with the massive, one-armed

deputy captain of the pugilists guild but just barely managed to argue his way

out of it by claiming, "I'm only on secret assignment!"

After that, they visited the central market and the great coliseum, but of

course, the entire day wasn't just about sightseeing. Kirito and Iskahn spent

much of the trip exchanging opinions about the incident and the culturalexchange business, and Ronie was ever vigilant in her duty as a bodyguard. Of

course, with the elite Integrity Knight Sheyta the Silent along, it was unlikely

that Ronie's services would be necessary.

At that point, a thought belatedly occurred to her. When Sheyta had flown

down on Yoiyobi, and over the course of their trip through the city, she hadn't

been wearing a sword. As the carriage trundled back toward the palace, Ronie

shifted down the long bench in Sheyta's direction.

"Um, Lady Sheyta? You don't have a sword with you…?"

The knight's eyes narrowed briefly with fond reminiscence. "No. The Black Lily

Sword was my first and last blade."

"…"

Ronie still couldn't quite fathom what it meant for an Integrity Knight to lose

the divine weapon that their heart and soul was fused with. She had no followup question, so Sheyta touched Ronie's hand reassuringly and smiled. "I am no

longer Silent. I am Sheyta the Unarmed. And I am very pleased about that…

although there are times that I recall the Black Lily and feel lonely."

"Oh…I see…"

I could never imagine the distant heights she inhabits, the apprentice realized

in that moment.

Then it was Sheyta's turn to ask an unexpected question. "Did you just get

that sword?"

"Y-yes…that's right. I haven't given it a name yet," Ronie admitted. She traced

the silver hilt.

"I see. Your ties to it are shallow still, but it is a very good sword. Treasure it…

because wars might end, but a knight's battles never do."

"Yes, ma'am!" Ronie said crisply. Across from them, Kirito and Iskahn looked

over in surprise.

Eventually, the carriage passed through the castle town and crossed the

bridge to the gate that was the official boundary of Obsidia Palace.

Standing at five hundred mels, the palace was a far cry from Central

Cathedral's height but was still fifty stories, all told. It did not, however, have an

automated levitating platform to transport people up and down. The stairs

were the only means of getting to the upper levels, but it was said that this also

served as a countermeasure against attacks.

The four of them climbed without stopping to the forty-ninth floor, where

Iskahn and Sheyta lived. Kirito and the married couple were not fatigued by the

trip, but Ronie was breathing heavily for a minute or two after they stopped—a

sign that she had further physical improvements to make.

She thanked the three of them for waiting while she collected her breath, but

then she noticed that the great staircase continued farther upward. "Um…Lady

Sheyta, what is above us?"

It was the supreme commander, not the ambassador plenipotentiary, who

answered the question. "The fiftieth floor is the throne room. I've only gone in

once or twice, though."

"Throne room…? For the emperor?" Kirito asked.

Iskahn scowled and nodded. "That's right. When Emperor Vecta appeared a

year or so ago, it happened on the floor right above us."

"C-can we go and see…?" he asked, curiosity written on his face. Iskahn threw

out his hands.

"I'd offer, of course…but the moment Vecta died—the moment you killed him

—the door to the fiftieth floor was locked up by the Chains of Sealing again, and

there's nothing you can do to sever them. There's a legend that says you can

see the End Mountains and Eastern Gate from the fiftieth floor, so I wish I could

go in again…"

The Integrity Knight of whom it was said there was "nothing she couldn't cut"

nodded severely. "I borrowed a sword from the treasure repository to test it

out, and I couldn't cut the chains. I could've done it in one swing with the Black

Lily Sword, however."

"Hmm…"

It was clear to Ronie from the look on Kirito's face that he really wanted to try

it with the Night-Sky Blade, so she quickly tugged on his sleeve twice. He picked

up the mental Don't you dare!! signals from her and backed down, but not

before one last longing look at the staircase.

"All right. Guess I'll have to forget about seeing the throne room."

"I'll make it up to you, though: We'll put together a dinner of all sorts of stuff

you've never eaten before."

"That sounds fun," Kirito agreed.

Sensing the conversation was over, Sheyta took a step backward. "I'm going

to give Leazetta her milk now. I'll see you at dinner."

"Oops, I've got to go with you. I've only seen my little girl's face once today."

The two new parents headed off. Kirito waved at them as they went, then

took another glance at the stairs to the top floor. Ronie just shook her head in

silence.

"I know, I know," he said, smirking. "C'mon…Let's go back to our rooms."