But this man’s clothes were eye-scorchingly bright. His right half was bright red, while his left half was blue, with golden buttons to hold in his rotund belly. The fellow’s trousers were also split colored, as were his shoes.
There wasn’t a single hair on his round head, only an angled golden hat resting on the smooth scalp. It was similar in shape to Cardinal’s, back in the Great Library, but without the tastefulness. On top of all this, his height was barely over one mel.
Eugeo recalled the midsummer solstice festival in the sixth district of Centoria, where a band of traveling acrobats featured a ball-riding clown dressed in similar attire. But it was clear from the look on the man’s face that he was not meant to bring joy and laughter.
His age was impossible to guess. The man’s skin was abnormally white, his nose round, and his cheeks sagging. His vivid red lips were wide open in a leering grin. His eyes were very thin, almost crescent shaped, and turned up so that he appeared to be laughing, but the look in his eyes themselves was cold.
The red-and-blue clown hopped along down the walkway, then leaped forcefully onto the frozen bath. His menacingly pointed shoes crunched two of the delicate ice roses.
“Hoh-hohhh! Hoh-hoh-hoh!” he chuckled, though it wasn’t clear what he found amusing. The little man clapped his hands and continued reducing the nearby roses to shards of glass. He proceeded toward Eugeo and Bercouli, crunching loudly all the while.
He came to a stop a few mels away, kicked one final rose for good measure, then looked at them at last. His red lips split open, emitting that hideous voice.
“Oh-ho…very poor form, very poor form indeed, Commander. You aren’t planning to kick the bucket here, are you? That would be clear rebellion against our lovely pontifex, wouldn’t it? If she should awaken, she will be quite furious.”
Despite seeming completely unconscious just seconds before, Bercouli opened his trembling mouth to emit a low rasp. “Prime Senator…Chudelkin…You have no reason to interfere in a battle between swordsmen…you cretin…”
“Hoh-hoh-hohhh!” the little clown chuckled, clapping his hands and hopping in place. “Swordsmen! Battle! Oh, how you make me laugh, hoh-hoh-hoh!”
He hissed with laughter in a way no human being ever did.
“Bold words, coming from the man who went as soft as a cloud against this filthy traitor! You didn’t use the flip side of your Time-Splitting Sword, did you, Commander? You could have killed that arrogant upstart before he so much as uttered a word, if you wanted! And that in itself is treachery to our great lady!!”
“Shut up…I fought…to the utmost of my ability…And more importantly, you lied to me…This kid…ain’t some assassin from the Dark Territory…He’s far more admirable than a disgusting meat blob like you…”
“Siiiilence! I will wrench your head from your body!!” screeched the little man. His eyes bulged, and he bounced into the air like a ball, then landed feetfirst on Bercouli’s head. Then he wobbled back and forth on his perch, screeching and carrying on.
“The only reason we’re having this problem in the first place is because you accursed knights can’t be trusted to do a single job right! You’ve been beaten soundly by a pair of miserable children, and I’m afraid the laughter is threatening to split the skin off my sides! When my lady awakens, we’ll revisit every single one of the knights…and at the very least, you and the vice commander will be reprocessed, I can tell you that much!”
“What…the hell…are you talking…about…?”
“Oh, enough from you. Shut up, shut up. Just go to sleep.”
The little man perched atop Bercouli’s head thrust out the pinkie finger of his right hand in a theatrical gesture. Then he licked his red lips and screeched, “System Caaaaall! Deep Freeeeze! Integrator Unit, ID Zero Zero One!”
The sacred art was totally unfamiliar. It was a very short cast, and that meant it wouldn’t be super-powerful, if it was an attack. And yet…
“Hrng,” grunted Bercouli. Then his body—hair, skin, even clothing—began to turn a dark gray. It wasn’t a freezing effect as much as it was turning him into a stone statue. The light went out of his eyes, and his body beneath the ice turned the color of mud. At last, the odd little clown, Prime Senator Chudelkin, hopped off Commander Bercouli’s head.
“Hoh-hoh-hee, hoh-hee-hee…As a matter of fact, we’ve no use for a geezer like you anymore, Number One. We’ve got a much more useful pawn now…haven’t we?”
Then the clown’s needle-thin pupils fixed on Eugeo. A horrible fear colder than any ice raced up his spine.
That was when Eugeo hit his limit. He tried to focus on the red-and-blue shoes crunching roses as they approached, but even that was gradually covered in gauzy darkness.
Kirito.
…Alice…
Their names were the last thoughts Eugeo had before he blacked out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE SENATE’S SECRET, MAY 380 HE
1
A violent shiver overtook my body, and my eyes snapped open.
I’d merely closed my lids with my back leaning against the wall, and somehow I’d fallen right to sleep. It was like one of those nightmares where you forget all about it as soon as you awaken. Its only remainder was traces of fear and panic.
I sat up and looked around; nothing seemed different. We were on the narrow terrace ledge running around Central Cathedral at about the eightieth floor. The sun had gone over the horizon long ago, leaving the sky as dark as freshly ground ink. But no matter where I looked, the only light I found coming through the cloud layer was stars, no moon. I felt like I’d heard the eight o’clock bell a while ago, but it would still be some time before the moon goddess blessed us with her meager resources.
The Integrity Knight Alice, as a sign of caution toward me, was kneeling so far away that she was nearly in the reaction range of the nearest gargoyle—er, minion—with her eyes closed. I wanted to use this downtime to speak with her and hopefully find a clue that would allow us to avoid hostilities, but she was clearly not interested in chitchat. If only Eugeo were here, he could’ve used his dagger from Cardinal to prick Alice and solve the issue immediately.
And what was he doing now…?
Now that I thought about it, in the two years since I’d met him near Rulid, there had never been a situation in which I couldn’t see him immediately if I wanted—until right now. We slept outdoors on our long journey to Centoria, complained about sharing a cramped inn floor, and even shared dorm rooms the entire time we were at Swordcraft Academy. It was simply a given that we were always together, and although I didn’t always think about him, I felt oddly lonely now that we were apart.
No—it wasn’t that simple.
Here in the Underworld, the ultimate virtual realm, I’d finally found the very first person of my gender that I could truly call a best friend. It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but that was the plain truth of it.
Before I’d been trapped in the deadly game of SAO, I considered all the other boys at school to be childish. I was reserved in my interactions with them. That standoffish nature of mine didn’t change much once I was trapped in that virtual floating castle. I’d met men like Klein and Agil who were good, well-adjusted souls that I found common ground with, but we never reached that level of true friendship when you bare your secrets to the other. Even with Asuna, the deepest relationship I’d ever had, I wasn’t able to confess my inner weakness until just before the moment Aincrad crumbled and our minds were about to vanish.
I didn’t think I had some kind of special power or ability that nobody else did. Between athletics and scholastics, I didn’t stand out in any particular area at school.
But when I became a prisoner of SAO, I was immediately ranked among the top players of the game pushing our progress forward, a pleasure that I believe bewitched me. And yet, the qualities that helped me stand out were the sum experience of totally immersing myself in full-dive games from the moment they first appeared, and th
e specific SAO knowledge I stockpiled as a beta tester prior to release. None of it had to do with my innate talent or ability as a person.
After I gained my freedom from SAO, my reputation for strength in VR had to be continually upheld, lest I lose that valuable image. I was trapped by the knowledge that others knew me not as the weak, mortal Kazuto Kirigaya, but as Kirito the hero, champion of the game of death. And I couldn’t deny that I had been leading them (and myself) to that conclusion, even though I knew deep down that the more layers of that artifice that built up, the further I got from the truly important things.
So when I first realized after meeting Eugeo that I didn’t have to pretend to be anything, I was amazed—and wondered why.
Because unlike me, Eugeo had an artificial fluctlight? Because he didn’t know Kirito the SAO hero? No, the greatest reason was that here in the Underworld, a place that was both real and false, Eugeo was blessed with far greater ability.
His natural talent for the sword was tremendous. Perception, decisiveness, reaction speed: I’d been fighting through plenty of VR worlds, but he was greater in all categories. If my fluctlight’s battle processor was a current-model silicon CPU, then Eugeo’s was a next-generation diamond CPU. I was still playing the role of instructor to him, but it was only because I had more experience and knowledge. If Eugeo kept improving at his current pace, it wouldn’t be long before our positions were switched.
Like sand sucking up water, Eugeo had absorbed all the combat strategies I’d built up over the last few years, which I grandiosely called the Aincrad style. I couldn’t help but feel a strangely deep joy and satisfaction in his progress. This swordplay had been the source of my personal pride, and yet nothing more than gaming techniques—and it felt like Eugeo learning and making them his own had turned that skill into something real for the first time.
If I could solve all the problems afflicting the Underworld and escape safely with Eugeo’s fluctlight intact, I wanted to have him dive into ALfheim Online instead—I was certain that the lightcube was capable of interfacing with all Seed-based VR worlds equally—so that he could meet Asuna, Leafa, Klein, and all the others. Here’s my first pupil and best friend, I’d say to them.
I couldn’t wait for that moment to arrive. At that point, for the very first time, I’d finally be on the same level as the many people who supported and helped me…
“What are you grinning about?”
I blinked, startled out of my reverie by the sound of a voice to my right. I turned to see Alice, who was watching me with an unpleasant look. I quickly brought up a hand to rub at the corner of my mouth as I protested, “Er, I was just…thinking about some stuff ahead…”
“Based on the slack-jawed smile I was seeing, you’re either a tremendous optimist or a tremendous idiot. At a time when our escape from this stone ledge is far from guaranteed.”
The respite of our perch had not dulled her tongue. I wasn’t familiar with the Alice from Rulid, who was the original basis for Alice the knight, but if her personality was like this after being restored, I could easily foresee a situation back in the real world, post-escape with Eugeo, where she’d clash with some of the more stubborn members of our group, like Sinon and Lisbeth.
On the other hand, there was still a veritable mountain of problems to solve before I even got close to that ultimate good ending. Our first order of business was to escape this terrace with its creepy minion statues, but not only was I still waiting for the spatial resources needed to generate more climbing hooks; my own mental and physical resources—such as my gurgling empty stomach—were also rapidly reaching their limit.
I nonchalantly rubbed my belly with a hand as I composed the most serious expression I could. “I think we’ll be able to resume climbing when the moon is up. It’s not too hard of a process as long as I can make those wedges. It doesn’t seem like there are more minions up above…The biggest problem, as I see it, is that I’m so hungry, even the thought of climbing this sheer wall another few dozen mels is making me dizzy…”
“…It’s that side of you that displays your lack of discipline. So you missed a meal or two. Are you really such a child that you cannot function at all without it?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m just a kid, blah-blah-blah. I happen to be smack in the middle of my growth period. And unlike you fancy Integrity Knights, I actually lose life if I don’t eat regularly.”
“Just so you’re aware, Integrity Knights feel hunger, and we lose life if we do not eat, too!” Alice snapped back.
At that moment, a cute, high-pitched squeak emitted from her midsection, and I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. Instantly, her face went red and her hand snapped over to the hilt of her sword.
I scrambled backward about fifty cens and stammered, “W-wait, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! You’re right—you’re just as alive as anyone else. Of course you get hungry, too.”
I hunched myself smaller, and in the process noticed the sensation of something moving in my left pocket. When I touched it, I instantly recognized the texture and thanked my past preparation and stubborn greediness.
“Ooh! Manna from Heaven. Look what I’ve got here.”
I pulled out two steamed buns. I’d stuck them in my pocket before we left Cardinal’s library. Eugeo and I ate half of them earlier in the day, but I’d completely forgotten about the other two. They were a bit impacted by all the fierce combat earlier, but I wasn’t going to complain.
“…Why did you have those in your pocket?” Alice asked, looking utterly annoyed by this sudden revelation.
“Tap your pocket, and you get two buns,” I said cryptically, referencing a children’s song that I was certain Alice wouldn’t understand, then displayed the buns’ window to ensure they had enough life to guarantee safety. They looked shabby now, but Cardinal had crafted them from some very high-value tomes in her library, and their durability rating was astonishingly high as a result.
Still, a cold, hard steamed bun wasn’t going to be tasty the way it was. After a bit of thought, I spread my fingers and chanted, “System Call. Generate Thermal Element.”
There wasn’t enough magical power in the air for a full climbing hook, but there was for one little bit of heat. A flickering bit of light appeared over my palm. I moved it closer to the buns in my other hand and said, “Bur…”
But before I could finish the word burst, the knight’s hand shot over my mouth, as quick as lightning.
“—Mmph?!”
“Are you utterly stupid?! You’ll be charred to a crisp!” she snapped, eyes full of fury and annoyance and disdain. She snatched the food from my hand. I moaned in disappointment, right as the tiny heat element evaporated.
The knight didn’t even look at me as she zipped her hand and recited, in singsong fashion, “Generate Aerial Element…Thermal Element…Aqueous Element.”
Between her thumb, index, and middle fingers appeared lights of orange, blue, and green. To my befuddlement, Alice then continued the command and manipulated the three elements in complex ways. First the wind element formed a spherical vortex, inside of which she floated the two buns. Next she added the heat and water elements, and when all three were mixed, she unleashed them.
With a little fssh! the wind barrier soon turned pure white. It looked quaint and peaceful, but I knew that inside, it was a swirl of heat and steam. In other words, she had constructed an impromptu steaming device.
Thirty seconds later, the trio of elements had concluded its duty, and it expanded until disappearing. The buns fell into Alice’s outstretched hand, as puffed and round as if they were brand-new, and wafting steam.
“H-h-here, give it— Wha…Whaaaa—?!” I wailed as Alice made to devour both of the steamed buns before I could so much as reach out to them. She stopped just before they reached her mouth and said, in a tone that suggested dead seriousness, “I’m joking.” Then she handed me one, which I took with great relief and blew on before taking a hefty bite.
I understood that
everything in the Underworld was a kind of dream object taken from a vast collection of memories—but even still, the soft, steamed bun and juicy, succulent meat sent me into a brief state of nirvana. It took just three bites for the precious food to vanish into my stomach—or more accurately, return to the fluctlight memory field—leaving me with just a combination of satisfaction, disappointment, and one very hearty sigh.
It took Alice four bites to devour her bun, and she exhaled the same way I did. I was struck that the Integrity Knight, practically an avatar of pure battle, could have such a girlish side.
“Ah, I see,” I remarked. “You can steam a bun without even any tools. I guess it makes sense that you’d be Selka’s sister, after how good she was at cooki—”
Midsentence, a hand shot out and grabbed my collar. This time, it was not annoyance or disgust that marked Alice’s features. Those blue eyes were furious as exploding sparks, her cheeks were pale, and her lips were trembling. She practically hoisted me up with nothing but her right hand and rasped, “What…did you just say?”
Only then, at that belated moment, did I finally recognize my terrible slip of the tongue.
The golden-haired Integrity Knight staring a hole in me from less than a foot away was none other than Alice Zuberg, Eugeo’s childhood friend and sister to the apprentice nun Selka—but she herself had no memory of this. Eight years ago she was taken to Centoria and subjected to the Synthesis Ritual that made her into an Integrity Knight by taking away her most precious memory and installing a Piety Module that blocked the rest.
As far as she knew now, Alice was a knight summoned from Heaven to uphold the peace and order of the realm and fight against invasions from the darkness. According to what had been implanted in her mind, the Axiom Church and its ruler, Administrator, were all-powerful and trustworthy. She would never believe the truth: that Administrator was finding promising people around the world and transforming them into her pawns to uphold her own power and greed.
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