Chapter 7

The air was full of the brassy three o'clock bells' ringing.

Asuna set down her cup of dark cofil tea on the table and said, "Kirito, you

should eat something. Even a snack would be good."

"Mm…Oh…"

Kirito looked up, arms crossed, and started to reach for the wooden tray of

treats before pausing to look at her. It was as though he'd just realized

something.

"Wh…what is it?"

"Oh…Just remembering that you used to say that to me all the time," he said,

wincing. Asuna knew at once that he was talking about the real world, not this

simulation. She sat down in the chair next to him and smiled.

"That's because whenever you get fixated on something, you forget to eat,

and sometimes you never even realize you're hungry."

"Yeah…Yui would scold me for that, too," he said wistfully before throwing

her a look. He must have sensed something in her expression, because he

reached out and gently stroked her hair. She let him do it, and the stabbing pain

in her chest began to ease, bit by bit.

They would probably never again see their "daughter" Yui, the top-down AI

created in the original SAO. Even Yui's processing power would be completely

inadequate to match the hyper-accelerated pace of the Underworld, and there

were no means of connecting anyway.

At the end of the Otherworld War, Lisbeth and Silica had explained how it was

Yui who guided them, Sinon, and Leafa to the Underworld. She'd summoned

the whole gang, explained the state of the Underworld and Alice's importance,

and asked for their help.

If it hadn't been for Yui, the decoy force that Asuna joined would have been

wiped out, and Emperor Vecta would have gotten away with Alice in his

clutches. The thought that they would never see the daughter who'd done so

much for them—without even the chance to say thank you—was incredibly

painful, but she would surely understand. She would know that Kirito and

Asuna had no other choice, and that even separated by the walls of time and

space, they would forever love her.

Apparently, Yui had described Alice as "the evidence of the existence of all

the VRMMO worlds, beginning with SAO, and the many people who lived in

them." In that case, Asuna had to give her everything to protect this world. Now

that the path to peace between the two realms was finally opening up, she had

to do whatever she could to prevent war from returning.

"…We've got to be strong," Kirito murmured, as though reading her thoughts.

He patted her back with the hand he'd been caressing her hair with, then

picked up a nougat treat filled with nuts and fruit and popped it into his mouth.

The Underworld was a virtual place, but unlike in Aincrad, if you were hungry

for long enough, it would eventually affect your life value, and lack of nutrition

could lead to disease. Eating was just as important here as it was in the real

world.

To no surprise, the investigation at the South Centorian city office this

morning revealed that no order to transfer the three mountain goblins had

been given, and no officials were sent to the inn. The guard who was present

testified that the order certificate had the government's stamp on it, but the

actual symbol was simple enough that it would be easy to forge. But only if you

could evade the Taboo Index, which outlawed all forgery of seals and signatures

in the first place.

If the man—technically, just an arm holding a dagger—that Asuna saw

through her past-scrying had killed Yazen, then naturally, he was not bound by

the Taboo Index. If he was the same person as the false official who kidnapped

the goblins, forging a seal would be child's play.

The government investigation finished after noon, and once the result was in,

they started a search through all of South Centoria for the abducted goblins.

The city was vast, but it was still only a quarter of the entire breadth of

Centoria. And the city guard's office kept twenty desert wolves with sharp

noses that were supposedly capable of detecting if a goblin was being held in a

building just from sniffing at the doorway. They were expected to finish

searching all buildings by the evening, so Kirito and Asuna were spending the

day waiting in their room at the cathedral in agony.

They wanted to join in the search, but Commander Fanatio had pleaded with

them to stay inside, worrying about the possibility that this abduction, like the

murder of Yazen, was intended to be a trap to lure the delegates into a

vulnerable position. They were at least going to wait in the fiftieth-floor

meeting room, but this time it was Ayuha who told Asuna that the best way to

recover from the strain of her past-scrying was by getting proper rest in her

own room.

Ayuha Furia was the foremost master of sacred arts, and even she couldn't

properly use past-scrying. She suspected that Asuna's ability to wield it in such a

short span of time had to do with Stacia's power.

For over a year, Asuna had been patiently and persistently explaining that she

was from the real world and was not the Goddess of Creation, Stacia, reborn,

but the members of the cathedral, including the Integrity Knights, still didn't

fully believe her. In order to prevent any further misunderstandings, she

forbade herself from using the Unlimited Landscape Manipulation ability…and

yet, just a week ago, she had to shift the top of the cathedral to the side, just to

avoid a terrible collision with Kirito's Dragoncraft Unit One.

In any case, Ayuha theorized that Asuna's mind had built up a certain

resistance to a huge influx of information, and that was how she could

withstand the stress of past-scrying. But that didn't decrease the actual fatigue

caused by it, and Asuna had experienced that for herself, so she wasn't going to

be abusing the ability. But the safety of the three mountain goblins was a grave

issue that connected directly to the well-being of the entire Underworld.

If a human like Yazen was killed, and the three abducted goblins were framed

for the deed—or even if they simply turned up dead—the carefully nurtured

glimpse of peace between the two realms would be dealt a terrible blow.

If the search of South Centoria didn't turn up the goblins, there would only be

one option left to them: Asuna would have to perform past-scrying at that inn

again to investigate where the carriage went. But that posed its own problem. It

was impossible to follow a target while maintaining the art, so as soon as the

carriage left the sight of the crystal disc, she would have to move locations and

look into the past again. And just the one instance of past-scrying yesterday

nearly knocked her out. Asuna didn't know if she could perform it multiple

times in a row, even with breaks in between.

The severe look on Kirito's face was probably because he was desperately

hoping they'd have the goblins in safe custody before such a thing became

necessary. But that hope was growing fainter by the moment. Two and a half

hours had passed since the search began, and they hadn't found the three

goblins or even the carriage used to spirit them away.

Kirito had only eaten one snack before going silent again, so to ease his

anxiety, Asuna tried changing the topic.

"By the way, I hear the apprentice knights went on a trip?"

"Huh…? Oh…yeah," he said, looking back out the window. "I guess Ronie's

dragon, Tsukigake, has started getting picky about eating, so they went out to

the lake to try to fix the problem."

"Really…? I didn't know dragons had likes and dislikes about food," she said,

giggling.

Kirito's lips curled into a grin, too. "Apparently they do. Stablemaster Hainag

gave her a piece of advice: Get them to try eating the very fish they catch."

"Ah. Yes, the food you get yourself always tastes better, doesn't it? I

remember going into the mountains at my grandpa's house in Miyagi to pick

wild herbs and mushrooms…"

Memories of her younger years flooded back into her mind, a reassuring

warmth that helped her briefly forget the present distress.

On that note, all the ingredients she'd used to cook things here came from

the markets of Centoria; she'd never acquired them from the wild herself. Food

in the Underworld began losing life as soon as it was harvested, and that life

value was tied directly to flavor. Next time she got the chance, she'd have to try

picking some fresh ingredients herself.

"Where's the lake they went to?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Um, I think it was in the middle of the imperial holdings in the north.

Apparently, the ice over the lake has only just melted…but…," Kirito said, his

words coming slower and slower until he trailed off for good.

Asuna looked at him inquiringly. The delegate was staring at a point in space,

his face slack. Eventually, his brow creased, and he whispered to himself, "But

could they have been taken…not within Centoria, but somewhere outside…like

the old private holdings…?"

It was clear that the unspoken subject of that sentiment was the missing

goblins.

Asuna shook her head at once. "That's not possible. After the incident with

Yazen, every person or carriage going through the South Centoria gate has had

to submit to a thorough search. Goblins might be small, but they couldn't

possibly hide three of them in a vehicle…And all of them would be trussed up or

knocked out, right?"

"I agree that they couldn't get through the south gate. But…what about the

others?" he asked.

She stared at him. "You mean…if the carriage went through the Everlasting

Walls to East or West Centoria…?"

"Maybe even twice, up to North Centoria."

"Hmm…"

Asuna mulled over this idea. It had never even occurred to her.

The Everlasting Walls, which split Centoria and the rest of the human realm

with their three-thousand-kilor span, were a wonder that even Asuna with her

considerable VR experience could only admire. Apparently, Administrator had

summoned them in the span of a single night with sacred arts—and even with

the Unlimited Landscape Manipulation ability of the Stacia account, Asuna

couldn't imagine repeating the same feat. She would be unable to withstand

the massive data flow into her fluctlight and would become comatose after ten

kilors of wall, most likely.

Because of this recognition, Asuna considered the Everlasting Walls to be

impenetrable obstacles and had never, ever thought of walking atop them, like

Kirito did yesterday. So she'd simply eliminated the possibility of the carriage

with the mountain goblins sneaking through the walls from her mind.

"…In order to pass through any of the four gates in the Everlasting Walls, you

need a Cathedral-issued pass or a one-day travel certificate from one of the

four city governments," Asuna said. "But…"

"The kidnapper was already able to forge a notice of transfer from the South

Centoria city government. A copper travel pass might be difficult to pull off, but

a certificate on sheepskin parchment…By that point, we're getting into very

similar methods to what we saw in Obsidia…"

The man in the black robe who abducted Leazetta, the daughter of Sheyta

and Iskahn, was in hiding on the top floor of Obsidia Palace, which everyone

believed to be completely sealed off. The means that he used to get inside still

weren't clear. But the pattern of actions was very similar to this goblin

abduction, it had to be admitted.

Kirito pursed his lips briefly. He shot to his feet. "Let's expand the search for

the goblins to North, East, and West Centoria, as well as the private lands

outside of them."

"I agree…," said Asuna, standing up as well. She looked toward the window on

the south wall.

The red sandstone buildings of South Centoria were lit by the afternoon sun.

Gold color already lined the sky to the west.

"But it's already evening. Won't it be difficult to search outdoors at this point?

And those lands are very large…"

"Yeah…that's true. But while we can start searching the private holdings in

the morning, we should start on the city right away. I'll go to the fiftieth floor.

You stay here, and—"

His mouth was suddenly blocked by a finger. Asuna said, "I'm going with you,

of course. Don't worry, all the fatigue from the past-scrying is gone."

"...All right," Kirito said, picking up another nougat off the platter on the

table, then popping it into Asuna's mouth in revenge. "Then you'd better eat up

to build your strength."

She started to say "I know," but with the treat in her mouth, it came out more

like "Gamh mbow."

The pair raced up the great staircase to the fiftieth floor and into the meeting

hall, where they instantly drew the attention of the people situated around the

table.

The first to speak was the white-robed Ayuha Furia.

"Lady Asuna, you must stay at rest; I insist!"

"I'm fine now, Ayuha. I got a good nap, and I'm feeling much better," she

replied at once, pushing the leader of the sacred artificers brigade back into her

seat.

Next it was Fanatio, dressed in uncharacteristically lightweight armor, who

turned on Kirito. "Swordsman Delegate, I'm afraid we haven't heard any good

news yet. The search in South Centoria started in District Ten, and they've

reached the mansions in District Three without any results. It's been a swing

and a miss so far."

The phrase swing and a miss had to have come from baseball, which briefly

distracted Asuna as she wondered how such a phrase could exist in a world

where that sport didn't, but this was the least important thing at the moment.

"About that, Fanatio," she said, too hasty to even bother sitting in her usual

seat, "we think there's a possibility that the carriage holding the mountain

goblins passed through the Everlasting Walls and left South Centoria."

The spacious meeting room went silent. Seated at the round table were

Ayuha, Fanatio, and the knights Renly, Nergius, and Entokia. Deusolbert was

located at the temporary search headquarters set up in District Five of South

Centoria, and the head of intelligence, Xiao Choucas, was off with her

subordinates engaging in their own investigation.

The first to speak was Entokia, who was quite loquacious for a senior knight.

"Hmm, wouldn't that be pretty unlikely to pull off? To pass through one of the

Season Gates, you'd need a pass from the Axiom Church, and the pontifex

made those with sacred arts."

"Oh…really? Then if the ones that exist now ran out, it's impossible to make

more?" Kirito asked.

The knight's head bobbed, close-cropped blue hair staying crisp and firm. "I

believe so. I heard they were fashioned in such a way that even the greatest

artician could not replicate the detail…"

"That is correct. They are constructed such that the golden symbol of the

Axiom Church glows on the copper pass when subjected to the light, but even

Sir Bercouli and I were never told how it was made," added Fanatio. That

settled the question of whether it could be faked.

Kirito rested his wrists on the table and folded his fingers. "We can consider

the shortage of passes at a later time; for now, it's very good to know they can't

be faked. The problem is that even without a permanent pass, there's still a way

through the gates."

"The one-day certificate, you mean," said Ayuha. Kirito and Asuna nodded.

The knights all had brief looks of shock, and Nergius finally opened his mouth to

speak.

"Meaning that the rebels have not just forged an order of transfer from the

city government but a travel certificate for passing through the gates. How

many violations of the Taboo Index do they intend to make…?"

"Cool your head, little Negi. The rebels have already killed a man, so it's clear

they have no fear of the Taboo Index," said Fanatio. Nergius sucked in a breath,

probably to protest her nickname for him, but it only emerged as a resigned

sigh.

Instead, Renly patiently lifted his hand before speaking. "But, Kirito, if the

kidnappers have passed through any of the Season Gates…we haven't been

checking the contents of any carriages outside of South Centoria. Is it possible

they've left the capital entirely…?"

"That's right," Kirito said to the boy knight. "I think we need to expand the

search for the goblins to East, West, and North Centoria, and also into the

formerly private lands outside the city. But it's getting dark already for today…"

"We can prepare to search the private lands starting at dawn. We'll get right

to searching in the city. I will take the lead on that," said Fanatio, standing up.

Kirito bowed to her.

"Thank you, Fanatio. I appreciate your help."

"It's nothing, really. I just want you to stay here and behave, young man," she

said, verbally skewering the anxious swordsman as she strode to a wooden

cradle set up nearby. She gave the sleeping Berche's head a loving caress, spoke

a few words to the servant waiting nearby, then hurried out of the hall.

Usually during the meetings, it was Tiese or Ronie who looked after the

infant. But they weren't at the cathedral this time, Asuna remembered.

Just then, Kirito spoke up. "Um…I'm not going to join in the search, but I

would like to go outside for a bit."

He spoke as though seeking permission, but only Fanatio and Deusolbert

could tell the delegate no, and they were not present. The three knights and

one artician exchanged looks.

Nergius spoke for the rest by asking "Where do you plan to go?"

"The truth is, the apprentices Ronie and Tiese went out to the lake on the

northern emperor's private estate. They were having their dragons catch fish,

or something…"

"Ah, fixing a bad eating habit?" Nergius realized.

Entokia promptly added, "That's right, I remember that Negio's dragon

Shionade stopped eating anything relating to melon one day as a little pup. That

was a lot of trouble to fix, wasn't it? We had to go deep into the southern jungle

to find the legendary melon, the sweetest in the world…"

"Not that I asked you to accompany me," Nergius said, deadpan. He turned to

Kirito. "The lake in the northern estate is Lake Norkia, correct? It's surrounded

by open grassland, as I recall…Not the kind of place where a rebel could hide."

"Well, that's true. But knowing them, if they, let's say, saw a suspicious

carriage ride by, they'd probably decide to investigate it by themselves…"

Asuna couldn't help but agree. Ronie and Tiese were good girls, but after

Kirito's tutoring at the school, they'd picked up a little bit of a reckless streak.

And now they were apprentices working hard to be recognized as full-fledged

knights, so it was easy to imagine their hard effort spilling over into risky

behavior.

"It's ten kilors to Lake Norkia, so I'll just zip over there to get them and come

back. It'll only take an hour…Forty-five minutes, even," Kirito reassured them,

getting to his feet. He headed for the elevating chamber to the north, rather

than the staircase to the south. That was presumably so he could fly from the

higher floors of the cathedral.

Asuna quickly stood up and added, "I'll go, too!"

Kirito turned back to face her, then glanced at Ayuha. The woman in the

white robe was clearly concerned with this idea, but she gave in, realizing she

couldn't stop them. Still, she didn't forget to say "Return promptly," so Asuna

gave her a polite little bow and trotted to catch up with Kirito.

"Um, if there's any sudden activity in the city, I will go to inform you!"

shouted Renly. Kirito called back "Please do!" and opened the door to the

elevating disc shaft. The two leaped through it and quickly shut it behind them,

then exhaled.

"You look like you're thinking 'We escaped!'" Asuna jibed, side-eyeing her

partner.

Kirito shook his head rapidly. "No, I'm not thinking that at all. I'm just worried

about Ronie and Tiese…"

"Ha-ha-ha, I know. I'll move the disc."

They stood on the silver disc resting on the floor, and she put her hands

around the glass tube standing in the middle of it.

Previously, Airy the operator had manipulated this elevator with sacred arts,

but the process was now automated. The large canister embedded in the floor

of the elevator shaft was loaded with a great number of wind elements, and by

pressing a floor-number button on the wall, it would expel the necessary

number of wind elements to push the disc to that height, then burst them as

needed to provide the upward pressure. It still had the glass tube for windelement generation on the disc, however, so that the rider could use it

manually in case of emergency. In other words, instead of the gentle speed of

the automated function, you could choose to operate it manually.

Kirito started to say "Just practice safe driving, plea—," but she generated ten

wind elements inside the tube without listening to the end of that statement.

When Airy had given her a lesson on how to work the platform, she'd said

"Release three when you start your ascent, then one each time you start to lose

speed," but that was the gentle mode when carrying passengers; she'd told

Asuna in secret that you could make it go faster.

"Burst!" she commanded, unleashing six of the elements. Green light flashed

inside the tube, which emitted a blast of air from its bottom, rocketing the disc

they stood upon high into the shaft.

"Wh-whoa…!" Kirito shouted, grabbing Asuna's shoulders. He always seemed

perfectly calm when flying by dragoncraft or Incarnation, but this shaft was

frightening to him for some reason. Asuna had heard that it was because he'd

nearly fallen from the top of the cathedral before she'd arrived in the world, but

he didn't like to talk about the details.

But the fact of the matter was that Alice the Integrity Knight had told Asuna

what had happened, while the Otherworld War raged around them. Before he

had the ability of flight, he'd dangled from the exterior of the eightieth floor

with nothing but a sword to support him. That was surely a terrifying

experience, she believed. But seeing Kirito, who was now mentally older than

her, whimpering like a child inside this elevator shaft made her want to shoot

them up even faster.

As their six-element ascent started to decelerate, she let off the remaining

four. The disc shot upward again, and Kirito clung to her back with a shriek. That

was enough teasing for her to be satisfied, and they had just reached the

ninetieth floor, so she stepped on the pedal that locked the disc's position to

the wall.

The shaft once connected the fiftieth floor through the eightieth, but in the

process of automating it, they added a new shaft from floor one to fifty and

extended the existing shaft up to the ninetieth floor. That was, of course,

because the Great Bath on that floor was now open to all, but there was no exit

to the outside there, so they had to take more stairs up to the ninety-fifth, the

Morning Star Lookout.

This was where they'd eaten lunch with Ronie and Tiese and Hana the cook

yesterday, but when sunset was approaching, the aerial garden took on a much

different atmosphere. The sunlight seared directly through the openings on the

side as it descended, making it feel much like a miniature version of the sunset

on the floating fortress Aincrad.

Asuna loved to watch the sunset here, but now was not the time. Kirito

rushed ahead to the opening on the north end and reached out his arm to her.

She sidled up to him so he could cradle her body.

"Listen…I know we're in a hurry, but…fly safely, okay?" she said.

He gave her a silent grin, then transformed the hem of his black leather jacket

into dragon wings. Asuna clung to him as the wings spread wide.

She was relieved that he was going to use the quiet Incarnation flight over the

speedy but loud method of wind-element flight…but that relief lasted only a

moment. Kirito bounded off the platform, and the black wings beat powerfully

against the air to stabilize them briefly…

And then they shot across the sky with an acceleration many times that of the

elevating disc when she used six elements at once. A wall of air smacked their

faces as the tallest spire of North Centoria's palace zoomed closer. She knew

that the cathedral was much taller, but she couldn't help shutting her eyes

when they passed over the spire.

If he can go this fast with just Incarnation, what would it be like if he used all

of his power to fly with wind elements? she wondered. Then she recalled that

she'd felt that once before.

It was at the end of the Otherworld War, a year and three months ago.

When Kirito woke from his comatose state, he had used maximum-speed

wind-element flight to chase after Emperor Vecta, who had abducted Alice. At

the time, Asuna knew nothing about the geography of the Underworld, so it

was only afterward that she understood how far he'd flown them. In fact, he'd

flown a distance of more than six hundred miles in just five minutes, carrying

Asuna in one arm. That would be nearly 7,500 per hour, ten times the speed of

sound.

Kirito's mastery of Incarnation was strong enough to lift a metal dragoncraft

now, but that feat back then was truly a divine miracle. First the flight, then

returning Alice's dragon and its brother to egg form to save them from mortal

injury, and lastly fighting against the super-account of Emperor Vecta—

including a Perfect Weapon Control art that turned the entire sky of the

Underworld from day into night.

The question was, did Kirito exhibit special powers at that singular moment,

or was he simply holding back his strength now? If the latter, then there was no

reason for Kirito to conceal his powers of Incarnation when Ronie and Tiese

were in danger, Asuna thought.

She was clinging harder to his shoulders when, as though waiting for that

signal, brilliant-green light burst into her vision, and a sequence of explosions

sounded just behind her. They accelerated as violently as though struck by

some giant's hammer, and Asuna screamed.