Chapter 8

Dinner was just between Iskahn, Sheyta, Kirito, Ronie, and Leazetta, but it was

a pleasant, lively evening, as though Ronie were back home in North Centoria.

Iskahn brought out exotic dishes, some of which almost seemed like pranks,

such as rainbow lizard skewers and deep-fried sparking shrooms, but Kirito

devoured them all with gusto, often screeching at the culinary results, much to

Leazetta's cackling delight. The sight of their daughter enjoying herself left

Sheyta and Iskahn beaming.

Ronie finished her meal with a newfound appreciation for the warmth of

infants and families. She took her second bath of the day and headed back to

her guest room.

The bath was much smaller than the one at Central Cathedral, of course, but

considering that it was nearly at the top of a palace five hundred mels tall, it

was nothing short of a miracle that there was fresh hot water available around

the clock. It didn't seem to involve sacred arts, like at the cathedral, so it was

quite a mystery as to how they were able to get so much hot water there in the

first place. Afterward, she learned that when this had still been just an

untouched mountain, hot spring water emerged near the top, and in the

process of carving out the palace, the builders had utilized that water vein for

the kitchen, baths, and internal heating.

The room was warm, and the bed was soft, compared to the cheap inn where

they had stayed the night before, so Ronie changed into the nightclothes she

was offered and grew sleepy before the nine o'clock bells. They'd be returning

to the human realm in the morning, so an early bedtime was good, but a part of

her didn't want the day to end. She lay on her side, facing the north wall.

On the other side of it, Kirito would be getting ready for bed. Perhaps he was

already asleep. They'd been together for over forty hours since leaving

Centoria, but it felt like she hadn't been able to tell him anything important to

her yet.

The truly important thing was her duty to guard him, of course—she wasn't

here so she could chat with him. Nevertheless, she had to desperately fight the

urge to get out of bed and go knock on his door.

Kirito already had a partner: Asuna. She was a real-worlder like him, as

beautiful as Stacia and kind to everyone, but as strong as could be when she

drew her blade. In the war, Ronie could only huddle in the wagon and tremble,

but Asuna had fought desperately to protect Kirito, suffering tremendous

wounds in the process. Ronie didn't have the right to compete with someone

like her.

I can't tell him how I feel. Never.

She pulled the thin blanket up to her head and shut her eyelids tight. But the

sleepiness she'd allowed to slip away from her did not want to return.

Due to the exhaustion of the long trip, however, Ronie did eventually fall

asleep without even extinguishing the ore lamps—until she was awakened by

the sound of distant shouting.

Darkness lay outside the window; her body told her that it was probably two

or three in the morning. She focused on her hearing without moving from bed

and was about to close her eyes again and chalk it up to a dream when she

heard the sound again. It was clearly a very tense, heated voice coming from

beyond the door. There were several sets of rushing footsteps.

She got out of bed in her pajamas and pressed her ear to the door. The

footsteps, presumably belonging to guards, faded away in the direction of the

stairs, so she quietly opened the door and saw that Kirito was poking his head

out of his room at the same time.

"What do you suppose they're shouting about?" she asked as the drowsy

delegate trotted over to her.

"I don't know…but it sounds like the guards all rushed to the floor below

us…," he mumbled, blinking until he was fully awake. He draped his cloak over

her shoulders and said, "We should go check it out."

"Um…are you sure?"

"We might be able to help them with something," he said, patting her on the

shoulder.

"Fine…but if we're only going to be in the way, then you have to come right

back with me!" she cried out as Kirito started running down the hallway.

There was another shout, much clearer and louder, right as they reached the

forty-eighth floor. "Get back!" said a voice that was unmistakably Iskahn's.

Kirito and Ronie shared a look and rushed south down the wide hallway.

When the passage split at the end, they took the right fork and saw a large set

of double doors. Whatever function this room served, it was an important one;

the heavy obsidian doors were decorated with fine silver trim. They'd been

thrown open, and shouts of fear and revulsion from the guards poured out.

Kirito and Ronie rushed down the last twenty mels of hallway and into the

chamber.

Countless dazzling sources of light assaulted their vision on either side as they

did, briefly blinding them. The ten or so guards farther in were holding ore

lanterns that reflected off countless weapons, pieces of armor, jewels, and

other items filling the large room. This had to be the armory—or perhaps the

treasure repository—of Obsidia Palace.

"You monsters!" shouted Iskahn, his voice coming from the other side of the

guards.

Kirito drew his sword and leaped cleanly over the throng of guards, vanishing

beyond them. Ronie had no choice but to follow his lead, getting a short

running start before jumping, cloak whipping over her nightwear.

In addition to the characteristic consecutive techniques of Kirito and Asuna's

Aincrad-style swordfighting, the two of them placed heavy emphasis on quick

steps and big jumps, tactics that Ronie was working hard to master. Thanks to

that, she was just able to clear the group of guards. She heard them shout with

surprise behind her, but there was a more pressing matter that occupied her

attention now.

A few mels ahead of them were Iskahn and Sheyta, both in their nightclothes.

And beyond them were two dark figures.

Monsters really was the only word to describe them. Their shape was similar

enough to that of a human or demi-human, but their necks and arms were

much longer, and their mouths were perfectly round circles with rows of

inward-pointing fangs that stretched and contracted ceaselessly, like a certain

species of fish. Four eyes lined each side of the elongated heads, wings of thin

membrane grew from their backs, and a long tail dangled from each of their

waists.

"Are those…minions?!" shouted Kirito. Sheyta and Iskahn glanced back at the

sound of his voice.

"Sorry, guess we woke you up. But we can't let our own trouble spill over

onto our guests! I'm gonna destroy those freakish things with one blow!!"

bellowed Iskahn, clenching a fist that shone like fire. But Sheyta extended her

hand to stop her husband.

"Minion blood is poisonous. You can't attack them barehanded."

"Yeah, but…," Iskahn protested. As if understanding the conversation and

seizing on the moment of opportunity, the two minions hissed aggressively.

It was Ronie's first time seeing a minion, but she knew about them. They were

artificial creatures that served the dark mages of the Dark Territory. Many of

them had been summoned for the battle at the Eastern Gate at the start of the

War of the Underworld, but the Perfect Weapon Control art of Commander

Bercouli's Time-Splitting Sword had wiped the entire unit out. Since they hadn't

actually done any damage to the human army, they had come off as little more

than large bats, but in truth, they were much more horrifying than that. They

stood nearly two mels tall, and the claws at the ends of their lanky arms were as

long and sharp as knives.

They were also resistant to all kinds of elements, as well as thrusting and

bludgeoning attacks. The most effective means of damaging them was a slash

from a sharp blade, but Iskahn and Sheyta had no swords, of course. Too late to

do anything about it, Ronie wished that either she or Kirito had brought the

swords from their bedrooms.

"Supreme Commander, let us handle this!" shouted one of the guards behind

them, but Iskahn refused to move.

Whatever orders the minions were under, they only made those threatening

hissing sounds, without actually attacking. A number of shelves were toppled

over to the sides of the creatures, and jewelry and accessories were spilled

everywhere, but the monsters were not stealing them.

How were these creatures able to sneak into the treasure repository near the

top of the palace without attracting any attention from the guards anyway?

Ronie wondered.

She soon got her answer, however: The huge wings on their backs meant they

had no need to climb up all those stairs. They had just blended into the dark of

night and come in through a window. She glanced behind them and saw, on a

distant wall, the broken metal frame of the window in question.

And if they could do that, then…then…

Thoughts exploded in Ronie's mind like sparks right as Kirito gasped beside

her.

"Out of the way, you two!" he shouted, thrusting out his right hand. Pale light

shone around his outstretched palm—thirty frost elements, all at once.

Sheyta and Iskahn leaped to the sides immediately. Kirito promptly shot the

frost elements forward and unleashed them around the two minions.

Ordinarily, simply unleashing frost elements would cause their effect to be

diffused over a large area, but this chill blast clung only to the minions, as

though shaped by some advanced arts, freezing the ink-black creatures with

white ice.

"Gshyaaaa!!" the minions screeched, their long heads writhing, but soon

even their mouths were frozen, stopping them cold. It was a tremendously

powerful demonstration, but the minions had been created from clay and were

hardy against flames and ice. Even frozen, they would not be suffering much

damage as far as their lives were concerned…

But Kirito had an answer for this, of course. With his hand still outstretched,

he commanded, "Now, you two!!"

"All right!!" shouted Iskahn triumphantly as he leaped. Sheyta followed his

lead.

"Raaaah!!" His punch burst straight through the body of the minion on the

right. Then Sheyta used the side of her hand as a makeshift blade to graze the

left minion in a vertical descent.

A moment later, the right minion exploded into a million pieces, and the left

minion split into two symmetrical halves. Because both of them were frozen

solid, not a single drop of their toxic blood spilled.

The guards in the back cheered, and Iskahn turned around with an

exasperated but impressed smile. "You're even crazier than the stories about

you suggest, Kirito. I always heard that even for the most advanced of mages,

five elements generated by a single hand was the maximum…"

"We can talk later, Iskahn!" Kirito said, interrupting his own praises. He

sounded even more agitated now than he had when he was giving orders

before. "The minions weren't trying to steal treasure or attack us. Whoever set

them loose was just buying time!"

It was at that point that Ronie's previous flash of inspiration turned into

tangible alarm. Sheyta's face went pale as well.

"Oh no…," she murmured, speeding off. Ronie and Kirito rushed through the

guards like the wind and bolted out of the treasure repository.

"We'll go, too!" shouted Kirito.

Iskahn tightened his nightclothes, which were in the style of those worn in the

eastern empire, and began to run, his bare feet slapping against the polished

obsidian floor. "Wh-what do you mean?" he asked. "Diversion from what…?"

"I think whatever the mage is after is something far more precious than

jewels," Kirito called back.

"Far more precious…?" Iskahn repeated. His eye suddenly shot open with

alarm. Ronie almost imagined that she heard his reddish-gold hair standing on

end.

"Leazetta," the pugilist gasped. His feet glowed a pale red.

He shot off the floor with a bang!, leaving it cracked like a spiderweb. He

pulled away from the other two with superhuman speed and reached the stairs

a few seconds behind Sheyta, who was in the lead. Iskahn bounded up to them,

skipping four or five steps at a time, Kirito following right behind with smooth

footwork.

Ronie ran as best she could, grappling with a fear that threatened to paralyze

her body. She ascended the stairs and rushed into the corridor of the fortyninth floor, but the other three were already out of sight. She only heard their

distant footsteps.

She continued running after them, past the baby's room, which she'd been

taken to when she first arrived at the palace, and to the room at the end of the

hall, which was presumably the bedroom of the parents. She hurtled through

the open doorway and found a hideous smell stinging her nostrils.

The room was dark, lit only by a single ore lamp, but the large, shattered

window frame, the dark pool of blood in front of it, and the two collapsed

guards were very clearly visible.

The miasmic pool of blood, which probably belonged to a minion, spread

beneath the fallen guards. They were both breathing but groaning in agony,

either from their wounds or from the effect of the poison. Only Iskahn was

visible otherwise.

"Gude! Gaihol!" shouted Iskahn, casting toward them. "What happened?!"

One of the guards motioned for him to get back with a wave. "No,

Commander, don't touch it…"

The other one grimaced, more out of bitter regret than pain. "A while after

you two went down below, we heard the window breaking…and when we went

inside, a black monster was there…We nearly managed to vanquish the

creature, but all of a sudden, a dark mage was in the room, casting a charm of

blindness on Gude and me…"

When the second guard stopped, panting, the first one continued the story:

"We got covered in the monster's blood, and it sapped our ability to move. The

mage picked up Leazetta from the bed and went out the window on the

monster…and that's the last thing I saw…"

"...I see…," said Iskahn, audibly clenching his jaw.

On the right side of the room, there was a bed for two near the wall, with a

small child's cradle on the other side. Leazetta must have spent the daytime in

the bright, sunlit baby room before coming here at night to sleep with her

parents.

That adorable baby, just three months old, had been kidnapped. It was such a

horrible thought that Ronie was frozen with shock. Sheyta and Kirito returned

to the room from the terrace on the other side of the broken window.

"…We can't find them. No response on the dark-element search art," Sheyta

murmured quietly.

Kirito shook his head, too. "I couldn't sense anything, either," he said with

chagrin. Then he turned to the guards collapsed on the floor and raised his

hand, generating elements as he had in the treasure room. This time it was not

the white of frost elements, but light elements. There were about ten of them,

which he split into two groups and pressed against the guards' bodies.

A warm glow suffused the two, and the majority of the black liquid pooling on

the floor simply vanished, as if evaporated by the light. The guards rubbed their

own bodies with wonder, breathing heavily, and then bounced to their feet and

bowed deeply to Sheyta and Iskahn.

"Commander, Ambassador, we are utterly shamed by our inability to fulfill

our duty!"

"We were charged with protecting Leazetta with our lives, and now they must

be forfeit as punishment…"

Iskahn reached out and grasped the shoulders of the two men. "None of that

is going to return my daughter to me. I'd rather have your strength in the fight

to take Leazetta back."

Despite the way his heart must have been torn to pieces, Iskahn kept his voice

under control and lifted the men back to an upright position. "The first thing I

want to know about is the appearance of this dark mage. Did you see a face?

Hear a voice?"

"Well…," said the taller guard, the one named Gude. "The figure wore a black

hood pulled low, hiding their face…I couldn't tell you any details about the

mage's voice. I couldn't even tell if this person was a man or a woman…"

"I see…" Iskahn bit his lip.

Kirito picked up the questioning. "How many minutes passed between the

mage escaping through the window and us coming back to the room?"

The heavier-set guard, Gaihol, answered, "Three…maybe only two minutes…"

"Two minutes…?" Kirito repeated, frowning. He looked out the window at the

night sky.

Sheyta was taken aback by this, too. She murmured, "They rode on an injured

minion and vanished in just two minutes…?"

According to what they taught in the dark-arts lectures at the Great Library, a

minion's flight speed was equivalent to a human being's running speed. This

was five hundred mels per hour in the air, so whatever the direction, it seemed

impossible for them to be completely out of sight in just two minutes, but the

dark mage could perhaps have used some kind of hiding charm. In any case, if

Kirito and Sheyta couldn't find them, Ronie didn't stand a chance.

Racked with the feeling of futility, she crossed the room to the baby's bed.

The cradle was empty, of course, except for an adorable pacifier and little bear

and dragon plush toys. The sight tore her heart to pieces.

Ronie was pulling her gaze away from the bed when she happened to notice

something strange had fallen onto the dragon plush toy. She reached out for it.

It was a sheaf of parchment, bound with red string. This clearly was not a

child's toy.

"Um…I found this in the bed…," she said, holding out the parchment. Iskahn

shot across the room like lightning to take it. He snapped the tough-looking

string with his fingertips and opened it up. The pugilist's one good eye stared,

and air rasped from his throat. He stumbled and sat down on the bed.

Sheyta snatched the paper away from him. Shock spread across the knight's

features. She bit her lip and handed it to Kirito next. Ronie stood next to him so

she could read the dark letters on the parchment.

By sundown on the twenty-first day of the second month, the Human

Unification Council's swordsman delegate must be publicly executed in the great

coliseum for the crime of an attempted assassination of the Dark Territory's

supreme commander, and his head must be sent back to the human realm. If

this requirement is not met, the head of an innocent babe will be delivered to

Obsidia Palace.

"…N…no..."

Ronie shook her head again and again. The twenty-first day was today. That

meant they had only thirteen or fourteen hours until sundown, the deadline for

the execution.

Her first thought was that Iskahn and Sheyta would never let Kirito be

executed. But then she realized that their beloved newborn daughter's life was

at stake. What could be more important to them?

Ronie reached down and brushed her left side without thinking. There was no

sword to be found. Like Kirito, she had left her weapon in the bedroom.

And even if she had it on her person…if Iskahn and Sheyta did the unthinkable

and followed the abductor's demands, could she actually fight them? If Kirito

and Ronie ran away, Leazetta would die.

She couldn't imagine abandoning that sweet, innocent babe to this horrible

fate. But it was also her duty as a bodyguard to protect Kirito; she couldn't

allow him to be executed. It was the last thing she could do.

Ronie was conflicted like she'd never been before in her life. She wanted to

look over at Kirito's face as he read the parchment, but she couldn't even budge

her neck to turn.

"Um…my lord…," stammered Gude the guard, standing along the wall with his

partner. He was probably curious about the contents of the parchment, but

Iskahn just lifted a weary hand and pointed toward the door.

"Gude, Gaihol, go into the hall and do not let anyone inside."

"Yes, sir…"

They gave salutes in the Dark Territory's style, then headed for the door.

Along the way, Gaihol stopped and turned back. "Um, there is one more thing

to report…"

The four others turned to look at the squat guard, who hunched his short

neck to appear even shorter.

"It's nothing especially important," he continued, "but…right after the dark

mage and the monster left out the window, I felt like I heard a strange noise."

"Noise…? What kind?" Sheyta queried.

Gaihol opened and closed his mouth several times, searching for the right

words. "It was like…a stone mortar and pestle turning, like a grinding sound…"

"Stone mortar and pestle…?" repeated Iskahn. He knew much about this

castle, but it didn't seem to be a familiar idea to him. Gaihol saluted again, left

the room with Gude, and closed the door.

A heavy silence filled the bedroom until Kirito said, "Iskahn, Sheyta…I'm sorry.

It's my fault this has happened…"

"…What are you talking about? You're not responsible for this," snapped

Iskahn from the bed, despite the fact that he must have been beside himself

with worry. "It's my fault. I let Lea's guard be thinned out, and I fell right for

that diversion. But…And I hate to make excuses, but the dark mages' minions

aren't supposed to be able to fly to this height. Only the dragon riders of the

dark knighthood can get this high, but they're forbidden from approaching any

point but the landing platform around the back. So I just assumed that no one

would be able to sneak through the window, coming after us…"

His hands clenched atop his knees to the point of cracking. Sheyta walked

over to her husband and placed a slender hand on his.

"Even still, I'm the one who invited this situation," repeated Kirito, still

holding the extortion letter. "Ronie recognized the possibility that the murder in

the human realm could have been a trap to get me to travel to Obsidia. But I

assumed that if I traveled to Obsidia in a single day, whatever conspiracy was

being concocted couldn't catch up with me. The people who stole Leazetta

were a step ahead of me, though…They had people in both lands, and they

have a means of communication faster than a dragoncraft."

"Dragon…craft? And you can use that to travel from Centoria to Obsidia in a

day?" Sheyta marveled.

"Yeah. I'll show it to you sometime. But your daughter comes first…," Kirito

said. He looked at the parchment again and continued, "Their purpose, I

presume, is to pit the human realm and dark realm against each other again. If

we ignore them, they're certain to make good on their threat. I'm going to give

everything I have to get Leazetta back…but if I fail to find her, then I want you

to—"

"Don't say it!!" snapped Iskahn, preventing Kirito from saying execute me.

Ronie had heard from Kirito and Asuna before about the workings of how

they traveled to the Underworld from the real world. They lay down to rest in a

Divine Object of sorts called an Ess Tee Ell, which transported their souls, but

only their souls, to the Underworld. Because of that, if they lost all their life

value in the Underworld, they would not die. Their souls would return to the

real world, where they would reawaken.

That was probably on Kirito's mind now. But if he went back to the real world,

he most likely would never be able to return to the Underworld, according to

the two of them. To Ronie—and to all the other people who had met Kirito and

shared their time with him—that meant he might as well be truly dead. The

human realm…the entire Underworld…still needed him.

She couldn't put words to the storm of thoughts and emotions running

through her, so instead, Ronie took a step closer to Kirito and squeezed the

sleeve of his black shirt. Sheyta saw her do it, and the corners of her mouth

softened the tiniest bit. She nodded to Ronie to put her at ease.

"First I will go to the dark mages guild headquarters in the north district. I'm

certain that it was an unaffiliated mage who burst into this room, but if the

minions' formula has been improved somehow, we might be able to unravel the

mystery from there."

"All right…I'll go with you. If it's just you, the damn mages might try to weasel

their way out of telling the truth," said Iskahn, jumping to his feet and lifting the

silver headband from the headboard of the bed so he could place it around his

forehead. Sheyta tore off her nightclothes and started to change, which forced

Ronie to hide her eyes with alarm.

Kirito, meanwhile, was looking out the broken window again. He bit his lip

pensively, deep in thought. The couple was done changing by the time he

turned back and said, "Is it possible that the mage and the minion who

kidnapped Leazetta returned to the castle on a different floor?"

Iskahn scowled and grunted. "Hmm…All the windows are locked at this hour,

and if they broke through one to get inside, the guards on that floor would

notice…but if there's a mole in the palace, they could open a window to let

them inside…"

Sheyta agreed with him and added, "We'll have all the guards search the

entire palace."

"Can Ronie and I help with that?" Kirito requested. Iskahn agreed without

hesitation.

"Please do. If there are more minions about, we'll need your power. Take

this."

He opened a small drawer in the footboard of the bed, pulled out a silver

necklace, and tossed it to Kirito, who caught it one-handed. Iskahn jabbed a

thumb at his own headband. "This is the sign of the military's supreme

commander, and that's the sign of his deputy. Show that and give them my

name, and you can get away with just about anything."

"Got it. Thanks," Kirito said, placing the chain around his neck; from it hung a

small silver pendant with a crest on it. Iskahn marched over to the swordsman

with big strides and clasped Kirito's shoulder.

"…Please," he said simply, the only word that needed to be said. Then he

turned and rushed out of the room with Sheyta. The door opened, then shut,

and as if on cue, the bells for the four o'clock hour softly played their melody.