“All you do is cheer me up…Maybe you’re right. I hope you are.”
Silica felt the warmth in her chest begin to spread. She was delighted that he had opened up to her.
Eventually, they reached the southern gate of town. A silvery arch hung over the path, vines bursting with white flowers twined over the slender metal frame. The main street continued through it, into the green hills to the south before vanishing in the spring haze.
“Well…here’s where our adventure starts.”
“Yep.”
Silica let go of Kirito’s arm and pulled herself together before nodding.
“Between your level and that equipment, none of the monsters here should be unmanageable for you. But…”
He rummaged in the small pouch fixed to his belt, pulling out a sky-blue crystal and dropping it in Silica’s palm. It was a teleport crystal.
“You never know what might happen out there. If something unexpected occurs, and I tell you to get out of there, use this crystal to jump back to this town. Got that? Don’t worry about me.”
“B-but—”
“Just promise me that. I’ve…lost an entire party before. I don’t want to make that mistake again.”
Kirito’s face stayed hard, and Silica had no choice but to nod. He repeated his demand for a promise, then smiled to put her at ease.
“All right, let’s go!”
“Okay!”
Silica grabbed the dagger on her waist and swore inwardly that she wouldn’t panic like she had yesterday. She was going to use all of her strength to fight.
However…
“Aaaaagh! Wh-what is that?! It’s so creepy!!”
Just a few minutes after they’d headed south into the forty-seventh-floor wilderness, they had their first encounter with a monster.
“Eeeek! Get away from meee!”
A simple description for the unsettling thing that pushed its way through the tall grass might be a “walking flower.” Its dark green stem was as thick as a human arm, and the countless roots that split off from the base gripped the ground firmly. Atop the stem—or torso, if you wanted to call it that—was a huge yellow sunflower-like head with a gaping, toothy mouth in the middle, the interior a poisonous shade of red.
Two meaty-looking vines snaked out of the middle of the stem, suggesting that the monster attacked with its arms and mouth. The man-eating flower leered widely and lunged at Silica, brandishing its tentacle-like arms. Silica’s love of flowers only made her recoil harder in disgust at the delicate plant’s grotesque caricature.
“I said, go away!” She swung her dagger wildly, eyes mostly closed. Kirito’s exasperated assurance soon followed.
“Don’t worry, it’s super weak. Just aim for the whitish part right beneath the flower, and—”
“B-but it’s so grooooss!”
“You’re never going to last if you can’t handle this. Some monsters have multiple flowers, some are like giant flytraps, some have a million slimy tentacles…”
“Yeeeeek!!”
Kirito’s descriptions were giving Silica goose bumps. Her panicked sword skill was predictably, woefully inaccurate. In the momentary pause after she unleashed the skill, the flower slipped in close, wrapping its two vines around her legs and lifting her up into the air with surprising strength.
“Wu-hah!”
Silica’s vision spun upside down, and the system’s virtual gravity callously did its work, sliding her skirt downward over her belly.
“Gwaaaa!”
She shrieked, extending her left hand to hold the skirt in place while she swiped out with the right, trying to sever the vine. Her unfamiliar position made that difficult. Face red with frustration, Silica finally shrieked for assistance.
“H-help me, Kirito! Don’t look, but help me!”
“That’s…kind of impossible,” he murmured, covering his eyes with one hand. The giant flower shook her left and right in apparent entertainment.
“W-would you…just…knock it off?!”
Silica removed her hand from her skirt to grab the vine, then severed it with a slash. She felt herself fall, but the flower’s neck was now in range, so she tried another sword skill. It struck true this time, and the giant flower head rolled away before the entire creature exploded. Silica plopped to the ground amid the flying polygons, then turned to Kirito.
“…Did you see them?”
The swordsman in black peeked at Silica through his fingers.
“…No, ma’am.”
After another five encounters, Silica was getting used to the appearance of the monsters, and their progress was much faster. She did think she was going to pass out when the urchin-like monster slimed her from head to toe with its tentacles, though.
For the most part, Kirito stayed out of the battles, only stepping in to deflect blows with his sword when Silica was in trouble. Experience was awarded in proportion to the damage dealt when fighting with a party. By fighting these high-level monsters and doing nearly all the work, Silica was gaining EXP at a rapid rate, and she had already leveled up once.
A ways down the red brick path, they came to a little bridge over a running brook. On the other side of the bridge was a much larger hill than the others, and the path wound up it to the top.
“That’s the Hill of Memories.”
“It doesn’t seem to have any branching paths from here, does it?”
“Nope. Just one straight trail all the way to the top, but they say you have to fight a considerable number of monsters. Let’s be cautious.”
“Got it!”
Soon. Soon Pina would be alive again. Her pace quickened.
As Kirito warned, the encounter rate rose rapidly as they made their way through the wildly colored flowers up the hill. The plantlike monsters were bigger than before, but the black dagger that Kirito gave Silica was stronger than it looked, and one good combination attack was enough to take down most of their foes.
Speaking of surprises, Kirito also proved to be far more powerful than she’d realized.
She knew that he was at a high level when she first saw him dispatch two Drunk Apes with a single blow, but they were now twelve floors higher in Aincrad and he still wasn’t breaking a sweat. When they ran across multiple monsters, he would leave one and blast the others, returning to supervise Silica seconds later.
But the stronger he proved to be, the more suspicious she became. What had such a powerful swordsman been doing down on the thirty-fifth floor? He made it sound like he had some business in the Forest of Wandering, but she’d never heard of any particularly rare items or monsters emerging from its shadows. She vowed to ask him when this adventure was over.
The incline grew steeper as they made their way up the hill. They fought off ever-fiercer foes and wound their way through a copse of tall trees to see the top of the hill ahead.
“Wowww…”
Without thinking, she rushed forward several steps and raised a joyous shout.
It was like a field of flowers in the sky. Trees surrounded the vicinity, but the entirety of the open space was completely full of beautiful flowers.
“We finally made it, huh,” Kirito said as he approached from the rear, sheathing his sword in the scabbard on his back.
“And is this where…the special flower is…?”
“Yeah. There’s a big rock in the middle somewhere, and the flower’s on top of—”
Silica took off running before he could finish. Sure enough, she could see a shining white boulder in the center of the field. When she reached the chest-high rock, her breath ragged, she peered over to see what was on top.
“Huh…?”
There was nothing there. A few small blades of grass peppered the hollowed-out top of the rock like strings, but there was no flower to be seen.
“It’s not here…Kirito, there’s nothing here!” she called out to him as he reached the rock. The tears came welling up again, unstoppable.
“That can’t be right…There, se
e?”
Silica followed his glance back to the rock to see…
“Ah.”
A new bud was stretching upward from the tender grass even now. The focus system kicked in at her gaze, and the bud sharpened into much finer detail. Two pure white leaves opened like a clam, and a thin, sharp stem sprouted out from between them.
The plant grew thicker and taller before her eyes like a time-lapse video she once watched in science class, and eventually a large bulb formed at the end. Bizarrely enough, the sparkling white tear-shaped bulb was emitting a crimson light from within.
As Silica and Kirito held their breaths, the tip of the growth bulged—and with the chime of a bell, it popped open. Motes of light danced in the air.
The two were frozen still for a moment, content to gaze upon the tiny white flower, a delicate miracle unfolding before their eyes. Seven thin petals opened like starlight, and the gentle glow from within the flower spilled out, to melt into the air.
Silica looked up at Kirito, unsure if she should really touch such a beautiful thing. He flashed her an encouraging smile and nodded slowly.
She returned the gesture and reached out to the flower. The instant she touched the threadlike stalk, it crumbled as if made of the thinnest ice, leaving only the glowing flower in her palm. Holding her breath, she traced the surface with a finger. Silently, the info window popped open: PNEUMA FLOWER.
“With this…I can bring back Pina…”
“Yep. You just have to sprinkle the dew that builds up inside the flower onto the heart item. But there are lots of tough monsters around here, so we should probably head back to town before that. Just a bit more patience, and we’ll be back before you know it. Let’s go!”
“Okay!”
She opened her inventory and placed the flower on top. Once it had shown up in the list, she closed the window.
Silica was dying to use the teleport crystal to return instantly, but she stifled her impatience and started walking. That crystal was exorbitantly expensive and for emergencies only.
Fortunately, they met far fewer monsters on the return trip. Combined with the increased pace of the downward slope, they were back at the foot of the hill in no time at all.
Another hour on the road to town, and I’ll see Pina again…
But just as she was crossing the bridge over the brook for the second time, her heart leaping in her chest, Kirito’s hand came down on her shoulder from behind. She turned around with a start to see a stern glare on his face, pointed toward the grove of trees surrounding the path on the other side of the bridge. He called out a command in a low, menacing voice.
“Whoever’s lying in wait over there, show yourself.”
“Huh…?”
Silica hurriedly focused on the grove, but she couldn’t see anyone. After a few tense seconds, the leaves rustled. A player cursor sprang into being—green, so it wasn’t a criminal.
To her shock, Silica recognized the figure that appeared.
Hair as red as fire, lips the same shade, black leather armor that gleamed like enamel, and a thin cross-shaped spear in her hand—
“R…Rosalia? What’re you doing here?!”
Rosalia ignored Silica’s bewilderment and simply smirked.
“Your Search skill must be pretty impressive to see through my Hiding attempt, swordsman. Have I underestimated you?”
It was then that she at last turned to Silica.
“I’m guessing that you succeeded in procuring the Pneuma Flower, Silica. Congratulations.”
Silica took several steps backward, suspicious of Rosalia’s motive. She had a bad feeling about this, and a second later, that fear was confirmed.
“And now, I need you to hand over that flower.”
“Wh…what for…?”
Now Kirito stepped forward to speak again. “That’s not going to happen, Rosalia. Or perhaps I should refer to you by your proper title: leader of the orange guild, Titan’s Hand.”
Her eyebrows shot upward and the smirk disappeared.
In SAO, players who the system recognized as committing certain crimes—theft, assault, murder—were branded with an orange player cursor rather than green. Because of that, criminals were called “orange players” and their guilds “orange guilds.” Silica was aware of this, but she’d never actually seen one for herself.
“Huh…? But…her cursor is…green…”
“Not everyone in an orange guild is actually orange. The green members identify their marks in town, slip into parties, then guide the victims to an ambush point. Our eavesdropper last night was one of her friends.”
“But…oh my God…”
Silica looked at Rosalia, stunned.
“Th-then…the entire two weeks you were in our party, it was just…”
Rosalia flashed that venomous smile again.
“That’s right. I was gauging the strength of the party, waiting for you to fatten your purses with more gold for the taking. Today was supposed to be my collection day, but”—she licked her lips—“I had to change my plans when the most promising part of the group dropped out, didn’t I? And it seems I made the right call. The Pneuma Flower’s quite a rare item, and demand is high. Good intelligence is worth its weight in gold!”
She stopped there, looking at Kirito, and shrugged.
“And knowing all that, you still went along with her little act. Are you really that dense? Or did she tempt you with that sweet young body?”
Silica saw red rage at Rosalia’s insult. She was about to draw her dagger when Kirito grabbed her shoulder.
“Neither.” He was still calm. “I’ve been looking for you, Rosalia.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Ten days ago, you attacked the Silver Flags guild on the thirty-eighth floor. Four of them were killed; only the leader escaped.”
“Oh…that penniless lot.” She didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
“Well, their leader hung around the teleport gate on the latest floor, tearfully begging anyone who came by to help him get revenge.”
Kirito’s voice was cold now, a sharpened blade of ice that threatened to cut anything it touched.
“But when I decided to take up his request, he didn’t ask me to kill you. He wanted me to put you and your cohorts into the jail beneath Blackiron Palace. Can you understand what he’s going through?”
“Not really,” Rosalia said, uninterested. “What are you getting so worked up about, anyway? It’s pathetic. There’s no proof that the people you kill here are actually dead. Even if it’s true, they can’t try us in court when we get back. And don’t get me started on how silly it is to preach about justice and laws when we don’t even know if we can get back. People like you are the worst—the ones who bring all their logic with them into a world like this.”
Her eyes flashed menacingly.
“So you took that weakling at his word and tracked us down, did you? You must not have anything better to do. Well, I’ll admit that I took your bait…but what do you think you’re going to accomplish, just the two of you?”
A sadistic leer spread across her lips. Twice, she waved her extended finger high in the air.
The next instant, the overgrowth at the sides of the path beyond the bridge rustled wildly as numerous figures emerged from hiding. Several cursors popped into Silica’s view. Nearly all of them were glowing a malevolent orange. There were ten in all. If Kirito hadn’t noticed the ambush, she would have skipped right over the bridge and into their trap. The only other green cursor among all that orange belonged to a man with the exact same spiky hair she’d seen vanishing around the corner of the inn hallway the previous night.
The ten new bandits were all men wearing outlandish clothes. They clinked and jangled with a variety of silver accessories. Most unpleasant of all, they were leering at Silica, their gazes lingering on her body.
Silica hid behind Kirito’s coat, trying to swallow her disgust. She whispered to him, “There are too many of them, Kirito. W
e should teleport!”
“It’s all right. Keep your crystal ready, but don’t use it until I give the command,” he said calmly, patted her on the head, then started walking across the bridge. Silica could only stand there. It was crazy. He was going to get himself killed.
“Kirito!” she shouted after him. The sound rang out across the field.
“Kirito?” muttered one of the bandits. He stopped smiling, his brows crinkling together as he looked around, trying to recall a fragment of information. “That outfit…a one-handed sword with no shield…the Black Swordsman?”
The man’s face turned pale and he scrambled backward several steps.
“I-I-I don’t think this is such a good idea, Rosalia. He’s a beater…one of the old beta testers, and a front-line clearer, to boot…”
The rest of the group froze at that. Silica was just as shocked. She could only stare out at Kirito’s back, which was hardly very big.
She’d had a suspicion from their fights that he was a very high-level player. But she could never have dreamed that he was a “clearer,” one of the top swordsmen or women in the game who took it upon themselves to venture into unexplored labyrinths and beat boss monsters to advance the progress of the game. But she’d heard that clearers only used their strength to push the front line forward and were almost never seen on the mid-level floors…
Rosalia looked as stunned as the others, openmouthed for several seconds, before recovering and shrieking, “A clearer would never waste his time down here! He’s just another one of those cosplay idiots who thinks he can scare us by dressing up as someone more powerful! And even if he is the Black Swordsman, what can one man do against all of us?!”
Emboldened by her argument, the large ax-wielder at the head of the orange players bellowed.
“Th-that’s right! If he’s a clearer, it means he’s got tons of money and items! It just means he’s an even juicier target!”
The rest of the bandits echoed his sentiments, drawing their weapons. The numerous blades glinted wickedly.
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