“Yeaa… Well, they’re still an enormous organization of over a thousand members now, after all. There’s no way they’re monolithic though… But still, if what happened yesterday was a daily affair, they shouldn’t be able to just leave it alone… Asuna.”
“What?”
“Does that guy know about this situation?”
Guessing at who the person referred with those reluctantly spoken words as, that guy, was, Asuna spoke as she held back a smile.
“Well, I guess he would know… Leader Heathcliff is knowledgeable, even about the movements of the Army, after all. But about him, how should I say this, he doesn’t seem to have much interest in anyone aside from the high levelled clearing players… He did ask various things about Kirito-kun ever since the past, but at the time the subjugation of the murder guild, «Laughing Coffin», took place, he just left us with a single line going, I’ll leave it to you. Hence, I believe that he probably won’t mobilize the clearing group for the sake of influencing the Army.”
“Well, it does seem like it’s possible when you consider that guy… But in that case, we can’t really do much with just us around.”
Knitting his brows as he sipped his tea, Kirito suddenly raised his face, and looked towards the entrance of the church.
“Someone’s here. A single person…”
“Eh… Could it be another guest…”
As if to emphasize Sasha’s words, a loud knock resounded within the building.
The one who entered the dining room with Sasha, a dagger hung on her waist, and Kirito, who followed her to be certain, was a female player of tall stature.
Long, silver hair tied up in a ponytail, her appearance giving off the impression of intelligence, her sky-blue eyes shone intensely with light on her sharp, well-featured face.
Hairstyle, hair color, and even the color of the eyes’ pupils can be customised to one’s will in SAO, but as what most of the system had to work with were Japanese, players that suit strong hues of color like this could be said to be fairly rare. Asuna too, had once tried dying her hair to cherry pink herself; it was an unmentionable past where she returned it to brown in disappointment.
She was a beautiful person, and having gained a first impression that included some yearning for her adult-like image, Asuna dropped her gaze once more, towards the girl’s equipment, and her body stiffened up on reflex.
Though it was hidden by an iron-grey cape, on the female player’s body, she wore a dark green coat with leggings well-fitted on her thighs; the metal armor with a dull gleam, was unmistakably the uniform of the «Army». On the right side of her waist was a shortsword, and a curled up whip hung on her left.
The children who had noticed the woman’s appearance sank into silence all at once, and stopped moving with their eyes dyed in vigilance. However, Sasha smiled towards the children, and spoke as though she was easing their distrust.
“Everyone, it’s fine, don’t worry about this lady. Continue your meal.”
The children threw a questionable glance, but with those words from Sasha, whom they had placed their utmost trust in, everyone released the tension in their shoulders feeling relieved, and the clamor immediately returned to the dining room. And the female player who walked all the way to the circular table in the midst of all that took a chair offered by Sasha and sat down with a short bow.
Not understanding the situation, she looked at Kirito questioningly, and him, who sat down onto the chair, too, inclined his head to the side as he faced Asuna and spoke.
“Er, well, this person is Yuriel-san. It seems that she has something to tell us.”
The silver-haired whip-user who was introduced as Yuriel looked straight at Asuna for a moment, before quickly bowing her head and opened her mouth.
“Good to meet you, I’m Yuriel. I belong to the guild, ALF.”
“ALF?”
Asuna asked in return at the name she had heard of for the first time, prompting the woman to give a slight bow with her head.
“Ah, excuse me. That would be the abbreviation, for the Aincrad Liberation Force. I don’t quite like the official name, so…”
The woman’s voice was that of a composed, elegant alto. Feelings of envy grew even larger within Asuna, who had always thought her own voice childish, as she returned the greetings.
“Nice to meet you. I am the guild, Knights of the Blood’s— ah, no, I’m currently retired for the time being, but you can call me Asuna. And this child is Yui.”
Having emptied the serving of soup in the time passed, and presently challenging the fruit juice, Yui suddenly raised her face, closely watching Yuriel. She slightly inclined her head, but soon gave a sweet smile, retreating her gaze.
The moment the name of the Knights of the Blood reached Yuriel’s ears, she opened her sky-blue eyes wide.
“KoB… I see, in that case, it’s no wonder that those guys were easily dealt with.”
Asuna, who figured those guys referred to the assault and extortion group from yesterday, heightened her wariness as she spoke.
“…In other words, you’re here to question the incident from yesterday, is that it?”
“No, no, that’s not it at all. It’s the opposite; it’s more like I wanted to express my thanks for doing a good job.”
“…”
Facing towards Kirito and Asuna, who were silent as they tried to get a hold of the situation, Yuriel straightened herself up.
“Today, I came here with a request for the two of you.”
“A- A request…?”
Nodding as her hair of silver swayed, the swordswoman from the Army continued.
“Yes. Then I’ll start my explanations, from the very start. What is known as the Army, wasn’t quite named that way since long ago… The reason why the ALF became the current name for the Army, is due to the fact a former sub-leader, a man named, Kibaou[3], who is presently the influential head, took control over it. Initially, it had the guild name, MTD… Have you ever heard of it?
Asuna did not recall ever hearing of it, but Kirito gave an immediate reply.
“That’s probably the abbreviation for «MMO Today». At the time SAO started, it was the biggest net-game information gathering site in Japan. The one who formed the guild, should have been the administrator from there. If I’m not wrong, the name was…”
“Sinker.”
At the moment the name was spoken of, Yuriel’s face contorted slightly.
“He… was definitely not trying to make a self-righteous organization like how it is now. All he wanted, was to equally share information and food resources among as many players as possible…”
Even Asuna knew out about the ideals and collapse of the «Army» during that time through hearsay. The ideal of hunting down monsters with many people, lowering the level of danger as much as they could, through which they were able to earn a steady income and spreading that out equally, was not flawed in itself. But the essence of MMORPGs was the scramble for resources by players for themselves, and that had not changed, even with the strange, not to mention, extreme conditions attached to a game such as SAO. No, actually, it could be said that those conditions reinforced that supposition instead.
Therefore, a pragmatic plan and strong leadership for the organization was crucial to realize those ideals, and to add onto that, the Army was much too big. Concealment of acquired items was rampant, coups and revolts happened one after another, and the leaders gradually lost their control over the guild.
“And the one who came to power then, was the man named, Kibaou.”
Yuriel spoke in an unpleasant tone.
“He supported the concept of individualism from Sinker, began strengthening the structure of the organization with players of the upper rank with similar views, and changed the name of the guild to Aincrad Liberation Force. In addition, he drove the hunting down of criminals and monopolization of fields with effective rates up, through the use of an official policy. He had at least considered about the frie
ndship with other guilds by defending the etiquette on hunting areas until then, but after that, he kept up the monopolization for a long period of time through multiple displays of power, sharply increasing the guild’s profits, and caused the supporters of Kibaou to end up gaining political power rapidly. Recently, Sinker has been increasingly resigned to the status of a mere figurehead… While the players from the Kibaou clique have been getting carried away, starting acts of extortion under the pretense of «tax collection», even within the boundaries of towns. Yesterday, the ones who caused all of you that distressing encounter were part of those guys from that faction.”
Yuriel took a breath of air, drank the tea Sasha had made, and continued.
“However, even the Kibaou clique has a weakness. That is, they’re hooked on nothing, but the accumulation of wealth, barely continuing with the completion of the game. The belief of them mistaking the cause for the end, is becoming popular among the tail end of the players… To restrain that dissatisfaction, Kibaou recently took a reckless gamble. Within his subordinates, he assembled a party of ten of the highest levelled players, sending them to finish off the foremost boss.”
Asuna unintentionally met glances with Kirito. The case of the player from the Army, Colbert, who challenged the floor boss of the seventy-fourth floor, «The Gleameyes», without even proper preparations and died a tragic death found a new detail to add on to her memory.
“Regardless of how high those levels may be, from the very start, when compared to those from the clearing group, we cannot deny our lack of competence. …In the end, the party was eliminated, and with the worst possible result of the death of the commanding officer, Kibaou was strongly blamed for that display of recklessness. We were only a short bit away from being able to exile him, but…”
Wrinkles creased on Yuriel’s high nose bridge, and she bit her lips.
“Three days ago, Kibaou, took drastic measures as he was hunted down, setting a trap for Sinker. He used a corridor crystal, set to deep within the dungeon, on the exit, and it ended up in Sinker getting expelled instead. At that time, Sinker went without his equipment, believing in Kibaou’s words, ‘Let’s talk while unarmed,’ in a status that guarantees that one would be unable to break through the mob of monsters from the deepest section of the dungeon and return by oneself. It seemed that he didn’t even carry a teleport crystal with him…”
“Th- Three days have already passed…!? In that case, Sinker-san is…?”
Towards Asuna who replied with a question, Yuriel gave a slight nod.
“His name on the «Monument of Life» was still unharmed, so it seemed that he managed to make it all the way to the safe zone somehow. However, as the location is still the inner portion of a considerably high levelled dungeon, we appear to be unable to take any action… As you know, messages cannot be sent within dungeons, and the guild storage cannot be accessed from inside, so we can’t just send a teleport crystal in either.”
Since using a corridor crystal leading right into a destination of death is a basic technique known as, «Portal PK», Sinker should naturally know about it. However, he probably did not even consider that a sub-leader of the same guild would go to that extent, even with the bitterness between them. Or perhaps, he just did not want to believe it at all.
As though she had read Asuna’s thoughts, Yuriel muttered, “He’s just too much of a good person,” with a sigh, and continued.
“…The only ones able to manipulate the proof of a guild leader, the «Scroll of Contracts», are Sinker and Kibaou, and at this rate, with Sinker not returning, the guild’s personnel management and such, even the finances; it will all be left under Kibaou’s control. The responsibility for not preventing Sinker from falling into the trap lies with his assistant, who would be me, and I have no choice but to go and rescue him. But I have no chance of breaking through the dungeon he is confined within with my level; neither can I call for support from the players of the «Army».”
She bit her lips tightly, before looking straight at Kirito, then Asuna.
“And at that time, I caught wind of news that an amazingly powerful pair appeared within the city, hence it is with the intention to ask for help, that I came here, as I could not just ignore the situation and do nothing. Kirito-san— Asuna-san.”
Yuriel bowed deeply, and spoke.
“I believe this to be extremely impudent of me to ask of this when we’ve just met, but please, wouldn’t you aid me in rescuing Sinker?”
Asuna stared intently at Yuriel, who had ended her long story and closed her mouth.
It may be depressing to say so, but within SAO, words of others cannot be trusted so easily. Even for a matter like this, the possibility of it being a conspiracy to lure Kirito and Asuna outside the range of the town, so as to inflict harm onto them, cannot be abandoned just yet. Normally, as long as there is sufficient knowledge about the game, one would be able to find the holes in the stories of possible liars, but unfortunately, Asuna and company are much too ignorant about the true state of affairs concerning the «Army».
Exchanging a glance with Kirito, Asuna opened her mouth to speak with care.
“—If there’s something we can do, we should offer our strength— that is what I believe. But for that to happen, we would first have to do some research at least, so as to confirm your story…”
“That is— as expected, I suppose…”
Yuriel gave a slight nod.
“I even realise, that this is an unreasonable request… However, it would not be unthought-of for a horizontal line to be engraved into Sinker’s name on the «Monument of Life» of the Black Iron Castle any moment now…”
The silver-haired whip-user’s firm eyes appeared to cloud over, swaying Asuna’s feelings. She keenly felt her desire to believe. But at the same time, the experience she had gathered over these two years in this world warned her, setting off alarm bells about the danger of letting her emotions loose.
Taking a look at Kirito, he too, seemed to be lost in his thoughts once again. Those black eyes intently looking this way reflected the wavering of his heart, between the desire to help out Yuriel and the concern for Asuna’s health.
—It happened then. Yui, who had been silent up till then, abruptly raised her face from her cup and spoke.
“It’s fine, Mama. That person, she’s not lying.”
Asuna was taken aback, and stared hard at Yui. Putting aside the contents of her speech, it was excellent Japanese, as if the way she had faltered with her words up until yesterday was a lie.
“Yu… Yui-chan, are you able to understand something like that…?”
Asking the question as she looked into her face, Yui gave a nod.
“Un. I can’t… really put it into words, but I get it…”
Having heard those words, Kirito reached out with his right hand, ruffling Yui’s head. He looked at Asuna, and grinned.
“Let’s just regret believing in her, instead of regret suspecting her. Let’s go, we’ll handle it somehow.”
“You’re as carefree as ever, huh.”
Shaking her head as she replied, Asuna too, reached out towards Yui’s hair with her hand.
“Sorry about that, Yui-chan. We will be delayed in searching for your friends for a day, but do forgive us.”
She whispered in a small voice, although she was unsure if she really understood it, Yui gave a huge smile and nodded. Stroking her glossy black hair once again, Asuna turned towards Yuriel, and spoke, smiling.
“…We might not be of much help, but do allow us to aid you. The desire to help someone important to you; I too, understand that feeling…”
As tears welled up in Yuriel’s sky-blue eyes, she took a deep bow.
“Thank you… Thank you so much…”
“Let’s save that for after we rescue Sinker-san.”
Asuna gave yet another smile, and Sasha, who was looking over the situation in silence thus far, clapped her hands together.
“In that case,
be sure to get your fill! There’s still more left, so do have some too, Yuriel-san.”
The feeble sunlight of the early winter leaked through the treetops of the roadside trees turning a deep crimson, casting shadows upon the stone paving. Barely anyone passed through the alleys of the Starting City, and coupled with the streets that stretched out forever, the somber impression it gave off could not be denied.
Asuna, with her equipment properly armed, hastened through the roads along with Kirito, carrying Yui, under Yuriel’s guidance.
Asuna naturally tried to leave Yui behind in Sasha’s care, but as Yui stubbornly insisted on going together, she ended up reluctantly bringing her along. Of course, a teleport crystal was prepared for her within her pocket. If the situation calls for it—though it would trouble Sasha—it’s arranged to allow her to retreat away from there.
“Ah, now that I think about it, you didn’t mention something important yet.”
Kirito called out to Yuriel, who was walking in front.
“Which floor is the dungeon in question on?”
Yuriel gave a simple answer.
“It’s, here.”
“…?”
Asuna instinctively inclined her head to the side.
“Here… eh?”
“It’s, well, this Starting City’s… there’s a large dungeon in the underground at the central part of it. Sinker is… probably, in the deepest part of…”
“Seriously?”
Kirito spoke as though he was groaning.
“There wasn’t anything like that during the beta test. What a miss…”
“The entrance to that dungeon, is at the Black Iron Castle— in other words, it’s at the Army’s headquarters. It does appear that it’s the type of dungeon that opens up with the clearing of the upper floors, and it was only found out around the time Kibaou came to power, with them planning to monopolize it within their own clique. It was kept a secret for quite some time, from even Sinker, and of course, myself as well…”
Sword Art Online - Volume 2 - Aincrad (Side Stories) Page 17
