With a low growl, the ape dropped its club onto Silica, who was standing stock-still. She fell to the ground, unable to withstand the shock. Her HP bar shot sideways, plunging into the yellow warning zone.
She couldn’t summon a single thought. Get up and run away. Use a teleport crystal. Silica had a number of options, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but watch as the club approached for a third time.
The clumsy weapon glowed red, and just as she was about to reflexively close her eyes…
A small shadow leaped in front of the club in midair. There was a heavy, percussive thud. Visual effects and blue feathers flew outward, and a tiny HP bar shrank to its left edge.
Pina was crushed on the ground. She raised her head, looking up at Silica with round blue eyes. She let out a small kyuru…and exploded into glittering polygonal shards. One of her long tail feathers floated through the air to settle on the ground.
Something within Silica audibly snapped. The invisible threads that held her captive were gone. Before the sadness, she felt rage. Rage at herself for letting a single blow drive her to panic and paralysis. But more importantly, rage at herself for throwing a fit over a silly fight, and being arrogant enough to think she could escape the forest on her own.
Silica nimbly leaped backward, evaded the monster’s next swipe, then tore into the beast with a roar of her own. Her dagger flashed again and again, tearing into the ape-man.
Upon seeing its fellow taking critical damage, the first Drunk Ape tried to butt in again. Silica stopped its club with her left hand, not bothering to evade. Her HP did drop, but not as much as if it had hit her directly. Silica ignored the ape. She only had eyes for the third, the one who’d killed Pina.
She used her small size to slip inside the enemy’s defense, driving her dagger into the ape-man’s chest with all of her strength. With a splashy effect signaling a critical hit, the enemy’s hit points were gone. It screamed, exploded.
As the shards flew around her, Silica turned and silently charged her new target. Her health gauge was already in the red danger zone, but she wasn’t even cognizant of it anymore. Only the enemy she needed to kill filled her narrowing vision.
Just as she was engaging in a reckless charge beneath the downward trajectory of a club, all thoughts of death forgotten—
A horizontal white light lashed out and struck the two Drunk Apes from behind.
Instantly, their bodies were split into upper and lower halves. First one, then the other, burst into flying fragments.
Silica stood in disbelief, then saw that a single man was standing behind the evaporating pieces. His hair and coat were black. He wasn’t all that tall, but his entire body seemed to emit a predatory intensity. Silica stumbled backward in instinctive fear. Their eyes met.
But his gaze was gentle, and as deep as the night. He slid his sword into the scabbard over his back with an audible ching, then opened his mouth to speak.
“…Sorry I couldn’t save your friend…”
At the tremor of his voice, the last strength from Silica slipped away. The tears flooded out one after the other, unstoppable. Her dagger fell out of her hand, clattering on the ground. But Silica worried only for the unmoving blue feather and fell to her knees before it.
As the white-hot rage that had gripped her faded away, sadness and loss filled its place deep in her chest. That in turn led to tears, which spilled down her cheeks without end.
The AI programming for familiars wasn’t supposed to contain routines in which the creature actively attacked enemy monsters. Which meant that when Pina darted into the path of the oncoming club, it was an act of personal will, a sign of the friendship that had built up between the two over the last year.
Her hands on the ground, Silica choked out the words between sobs.
“Please…don’t leave me all alone, Pina…”
But the pale blue feather gave no response.
2
“I’m sorry,” the swordsman in black said again. Silica desperately blinked back tears and shook her head.
“…No…It’s my fault…I was stupid. Thank you…for saving me…”
She had to squeeze out the words between stifled sobs. The man slowly approached, knelt before Silica, and spoke hesitantly.
“About that feather…Does it have a designated item name?”
Silica raised her head, confused by this unexpected question. She rubbed the tears away and looked at the pale blue feather again, concentrating hard.
Now that she thought about it, it seemed strange that just one feather was left behind. When things died in SAO, whether monsters or players, they disappeared entirely, from equipment to items. Silica extended a trembling hand, then tapped the feather with her pointer finger, like clicking a mouse. A translucent window appeared, listing the weight and name of the item.
PINA’S HEART.
Just before Silica could burst into tears again, the man hurriedly butted in.
“W-wait, wait. If her heart item is left behind, there’s a possibility you can revive her.”
“Huh?”
Silica snapped to attention. She looked up into his face, mouth half open.
“It’s not common knowledge, since it was only just recently discovered. On the south end of the forty-seventh floor, there’s an outdoor dungeon called the Hill of Memories. It’s actually pretty difficult for a pleasant name like that, though…Anyway, there’s a flower that grows on the top of the hill, and it’s supposed to resurrect famil—”
“R-really?!” Silica shrieked, hopping to her feet before he could finish. A light of hope was shining on her heart once again, which moments ago had been plunged into mourning. But…
“…The forty-seventh floor…”
Her shoulders slumped. That was twelve floors above, well out of her safe range. Just as she looked back to the ground dejectedly, the man murmured and put a hand to his head.
“Hmm…For travel cost and a bit extra, I could go get it for you. The problem is, I hear the flower won’t bloom unless the beast-tamer who’s lost her familiar goes there herself…”
Silica smiled at the surprising kindness of his words.
“It’s okay. I’m grateful for the information. As long as I work hard and level up, I’m sure someday…”
“It’s not that easy. You only get three days after the familiar has died to bring it back. Once you reach that point, the item name goes from Heart to Memento…”
“What? No!” Silica shouted.
Her current level was 44. If SAO was a typical RPG, it would be balanced so that the floor number corresponded with the player level best suited for it. But given the permanent consequences for dying, you wanted to be a good ten levels above your current floor.
Which meant that if she was going to the forty-seventh floor, she’d need to be level 55 at the lowest. But it was simply impossible to gain more than ten levels in three days—two, if she was giving herself enough time to actually get to the hill with the flower. Silica was very diligent in her adventuring, and it had taken her an entire year to reach her current state.
Silica slumped to the ground in despair once again. She picked up Pina’s feather and with both hands, she cradled it to her chest. She rued her stupidity and helplessness, and the tears came again.
Somewhere above, she heard the man rising to his feet. She wanted to thank him again before he left but didn’t have the willpower to open her mouth.
Instead, a shining, translucent system window popped into view: a trade prompt. She looked up to see that he was manipulating the same window above. Various items were appearing in the trading list: Silverthread Armor, Ebon Dagger…She had never seen any of them before.
“Um—” she started, but the man cut her off bluntly.
“This equipment should give you a boost worth five or six levels. If I go with you, we’ll probably manage.”
“Wha…”
Silica just stood there, mouth open. She stared at him, uncertain of h
is intentions. The system recognized her focus and brought up a green cursor to the upper right of his face, but in typical SAO fashion, it only displayed a simple HP bar—no name or level.
It was hard to guess his age. The commanding presence of his trim blacks, coupled with a relaxed manner, spoke of someone much older, but the eyes hidden behind his long bangs were naive, and the feminine roundness of his face suggested adolescence. Silica summoned the courage to ask.
“Why…are you doing all of this for me…?”
She was wary above all else. Much older men had approached Silica on several occasions, and one had even proposed to her. At age thirteen, this meant nothing but terror to Silica. She’d never even gotten a love letter from a classmate at school.
Eventually, Silica learned to avoid male players who seemed to have ulterior motives, and it was common knowledge that any deal in Aincrad that appeared too good to be true, probably was.
He scratched his head again, searching for the right answer. He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again. Looking away, he finally muttered, “Well, this isn’t some comic book…so if you promise not to laugh, I’ll tell you why.”
“I won’t laugh.”
“You look…like my little sister.”
It was such a silly reason that Silica couldn’t help but burst into giggles. She tried to cover her mouth, but it wasn’t enough to stop them from escaping.
“Y-you said you wouldn’t laugh…”
He slumped his shoulders and sulked, a pained expression on his face. That just made her laugh harder.
He’s not a bad person after all…
It was while Silica was stifling her giggling that she decided it was worth a shot to trust the man’s good intentions. She was already prepared to die. She had nothing else to lose, and this was her only chance to revive Pina.
She gave him a slight incline of the head and said, “Thank you for your help. First you saved my life, and now this…”
Silica looked down at the window and entered all of her col into the trade margin. There were more than ten pieces of equipment on his side, and they all seemed to be rare items you couldn’t buy elsewhere.
“Um, I realize this is nowhere near enough for all of those…”
“Nah, I don’t need the money. These are all leftovers, and it sort of fits the reason I came here, anyway,” he muttered mysteriously. He hit the OK button without accepting the gold.
“Thank you…This is all too much. Um, my name is Silica.”
Just a little bit, she was expecting him to be surprised at the name—“You’re that Silica?!”—but it seemed he hadn’t heard of her. For a second she was disappointed, and then she reminded herself that being conceited was what had gotten her into this mess.
The man nodded, then extended a hand.
“I’m Kirito. Guess we’re working together for a bit.”
She grabbed his hand, and they shook.
The man named Kirito pulled a map of the Forest of Wandering out of the pouch hanging off his waist, checked to see which direction the exit of the forest was, and started walking. Silica trotted after him, putting Pina’s feather to her lips and silently reassuring it.
Just wait, Pina. I’ll bring you back, I swear…
The main city of the thirty-fifth floor was a pastoral farm town, full of houses with white walls and red roofs. It wasn’t that large of a place, but it was currently a hotbed of mid-level player activity, so it was swarming with people.
Silica considered Frieven to be her hometown, down on the eighth floor. But since she didn’t have the money to actually buy a home there, it was really no different from buying inn rooms on any other floor. The biggest difference was the taste of the food served by the NPC proprietors, and Silica found this cook’s cheesecake to her liking. She’d been in town for two weeks before finally starting on the Forest of Wandering.
Silica walked down the large avenue to the teleport square with Kirito in tow, looking around curiously. Soon, players she recognized began calling out to her. Word had gotten around that she was unaffiliated again, and the party invitations were flowing.
“U-um, I appreciate the interest, but…” Silica did her best to politely decline the offers, then glanced to the side at Kirito. “I’ll be in a party with him for a little while.”
The disgruntled crowd protested, then shot suspicious looks at her new partner.
Silica had seen his ability for herself, but his unassuming looks and reserved manner did not currently project an aura of strength to the crowd.
He wasn’t even equipped with any expensive-looking gear—he wore no visible armor, just an old, faded leather coat over his shirt. A single sword was slung over his back. Not even a shield.
“Hey, you.” A tall man with a greatsword who was the most persistent of her suitors approached Kirito and looked down on him. “I haven’t seen you around before, and I don’t appreciate your cutting in line. We’ve been after her for ages.”
“That said…that’s just the way the cards fall sometimes, you know…?”
Kirito scratched his head, uncomfortable with the attention. Silica turned to the accoster, slightly disappointed that Kirito hadn’t given him more of an argument.
“Um, I asked him to join me. Sorry!”
She bowed deeply one more time, then grabbed the sleeve of Kirito’s coat and walked away briskly. The men waved longingly after her, announcing they’d send more messages. She cut across the teleport square and down the main street, which stretched northward.
Once the crowd of players was no longer in sight, Silica gave a sigh of relief and looked up at Kirito.
“I-I’m sorry about all of that.”
“No worries.” Kirito grinned at her, as if to show it didn’t bother him in the least. “I didn’t realize you were so popular, Miss Silica.”
“Just call me Silica. And I’m not…They’re just inviting me to be their mascot, to make them look better. And…I let that attention get to my head…and wound up alone in the forest…and that’s when…”
Thoughts of Pina brought back the tears.
“It’ll be all right,” Kirito said, perfectly calm. “We’re going to bring Pina back. Don’t worry about it.”
Silica wiped away her tears and smiled at him. Oddly enough, she couldn’t help but believe him.
Eventually, a two-story building much larger than the others came into view on the right side of the street. It was the Weathervane, Silica’s inn of choice. Suddenly, she realized that she’d brought Kirito here without checking with him first.
“Oh, um…where is your home, Kirito?”
“I always stay on the fiftieth floor…but it’d be a pain to go back, so I’ll just stay here for the night.”
“Great!” Silica clapped her hands. “The cheesecake here is fantastic.”
But just as she was pulling Kirito into the inn, a group of four or five people emerged from the item shop next door. It was the party she’d been working with for the previous two weeks. The men in front headed toward the square, oblivious, but the woman in the back just happened to turn around, and Silica looked straight into her eyes out of reflex.
“…!”
It was the very last person she wanted to see: the spearwoman she’d squabbled with, leading to her breakup with the party in the Forest of Wandering. She hid her face and tried to sneak into the inn without comment.
“Oh, is that Silica?”
She had no choice but to stop now.
“…Hello again.”
“Well well, you made it out of the forest. How fortunate of you.”
The woman with flashy red curls of hair, whose name was something like Rosalia, chuckled with a sneer.
“No use crawling back to us now, though. We already divvied up the items.”
“I told you I didn’t want any! Excuse me, I’m busy.”
She tried to cut the conversation off short, but the woman wouldn’t let her go. When she noticed the empty space on Silic
a’s shoulder, a nasty leer crossed her lips.
“Oh? What happened to your little lizard?”
Silica bit her lip. A familiar couldn’t be placed in item storage or kept elsewhere. If she didn’t see Silica’s friend around, there was only one explanation. Rosalia knew that, of course, but she played dumb, a smile sneaking across her lips.
“Uh-oh, does that mean what I think it does…?”
“She died…but—!” Silica glared at the spearwoman. “I’m going to bring Pina back to life!”
Rosalia’s smug eyes widened slightly. She gave a soft whistle.
“Oh, so you’re going to visit the Hill of Memories. Can you actually handle it at your level?”
“She can,” Kirito cut in. He stepped forward, swinging his coat in front of Silica. “It’s not that hard of a dungeon.”
Rosalia gave Kirito an appraising look, and her red lips twisted into another sneer.
“Oh, did she lure you into working with her, too? You don’t look all that tough.”
Silica was shaking with helpless anger. She hung her head, trying to fight back tears.
“Let’s go.” Kirito put a hand on her shoulder and guided her into the inn.
“Good luck, I guess.” Rosalia chuckled after them, but they didn’t turn around.
The first floor of the Weathervane was one large restaurant. Kirito sat Silica at a table in the back, then went up to the NPC at the desk. He checked them in, clicking the menu above the counter, then returned.
When he sat back down across from her, Silica prepared to apologize for that bit of unpleasantness, too. But Kirito held up a hand to stop her, and he was smiling.
“Let’s get something to eat first.”
The waiter came by at that moment with two steaming mugs. They were filled with a curiously scented red liquid.
Kirito gave a toast to the formation of their new party, and Silica took a sip of the hot beverage.
“…Tasty…”
The spiced scent and sweetly sour flavor reminded her of the hot wine her father had let her taste ages ago. But Silica had tried every drink on the menu during her two-week stay and didn’t remember this particular flavor.
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