Sword Art Online - Volume 8 - Early and Late

by Reki Kawahara

  I stared at the entrance of the bar and quickly finished off this large sand baguette before letting out a sigh of satisfaction. I looked at Asuna, who was elegantly chewing beside me, and indicated my thanks before asking,

  “Thanks for that. Speaking of which, when did you buy a bento? We went by the roadside stalls just now, but there was nothing so good being sold, you know?”

  “Didn’t I say that the durability was about to finish? It’s because I thought about this that I already prepared it this morning.”

  “Heh…as expected of the person in charge of the KoB clearing group. I never thought of eating at all…oh yeah, which shop is this from?”

  The sand baguette with the suitably baked bread with vegetables and roast meat in between was a rather high ranking dish amongst my famous shops list. During this time, I’ll have this during the clearing. I thought about this as I deliberately asked, but Asuna shrugged her shoulders slightly and gave an answer I was rather surprised by.

  “It’s not sold.”

  “Eh?”

  “Not sold by shops.”

  Why must there be silence now? Why aren’t you saying anything? I tilted my head to think for a while before realizing. Since it’s not bought from an NPC shop, she must have made it herself, this KoB sub-leader.

  I spaced out for about 10 seconds before discovering a small crisis. Damn it, what should I say? I already felt awkward ignoring Asuna’s get-up in the morning. I couldn’t repeat this here now.

  “Eh…erm, how to put it…eh, it’s a waste to finish it like this. Oh yeah, I might as well auction it at the Algade market. Probably can earn a lot there hahaha.”

  GANK! Asuna used her white leather boots to kick the chair hard, causing me to straighten my back and tremble. The tense few minutes pass by, and Asuna finished her share before saying softly,

  “…He didn’t come here.”

  “Eh, u, un. Yeah. But according to Schmitt’s words, it doesn’t seem that he comes around every night. And if that black robed guy was Grimlock, he wouldn’t feel like eating after PKing…we probably have to wait for another 2, 3 days.”

  After saying quickly, I stood up to check the time again. Only 30 minutes had passed since we started watching, but I was already mentally prepared to wait for Grimlock to appear no matter how long it took, but I wonder what her excellency, the sub-leader thought.

  As I thought about this and turned my eyes to her, I found that Asuna, who was leaning deeply into the back of the chair, had no intention of getting up.

  …Don’t tell me the words I just said was interpreted as ‘we’ll stay here for two, three days’? As I thought about this while my palms got sweaty, Asuna again whispered,

  “I say, Kirito-kun.”

  “Ye…yes!”

  The words that were said next were fortunately—or not, different from what I thought.

  “What about you? If you were a member of the Golden Apple guild and got a super rare drop, what would you say?”

  “……”

  I spaced out and ponder for several seconds before saying,

  “…You’re right. I’ve always hated such trouble, which was why I’ve been fighting solo…in those MMO games I played before SAO, I once experienced seeing other people hiding rare drops or keeping all the profits of the sale to themselves, causing the guild to break up…”

  The main motivation for MMO players, basically, is mostly to get that sense of superiority, and I can’t deny that. The simplest way to get this sense of superiority is to be ‘strong’; through training of the strength and using powerful rare equipment to beat monsters or other players. This feeling of exhilaration as a player, to put it radically, can only be experienced in net-games. Right now, the reason why I will continue to train hard for long periods is undoubtedly to be called a member of the ‘clearing group’ and get respected by others.

  If I’m in a certain guild, and during a party play, we get a very outstanding piece of equipment—and if there’s someone suited to equip such a thing in the guild.

  Will I say something like ‘You should have this’?

  “…Probably not.”

  I whispered this out and shook my head.

  “I won’t say to my allies that I want it, but I am not a saint who’ll smile and hand it over to the other players. That’s why…if I’m a member of the Golden Apple, I’ll agree with auctioning it out. What about you, Asuna?”

  I asked, and Asuna immediately answered without hesitation,

  “It’ll belong to the one who beat it.”

  “Heh?”

  “For us in KoB, we follow such a rule. Any item that’s randomly dropped in a party play would belong to that lucky person who picked it. SAO doesn’t have a Combat Log process, so we can only declare what items we get. This is the only method to avoid the hassle to having to hide things, and also…”

  At this moment, she paused. She’s still looking at the entrance of the inn, but Asuna’s expression wasn’t that stern anymore.

  “…It’s because of this kind of system that the responsibility of ‘marriage’ in this year is so big. Once married, both people’s item storage will be linked together, right? In that case, what treasure that can be easily hidden can’t be hidden once married. On the other hand, if someone once hid a rare item he picked up, he can’t get married to a member of his own guild. The «Storage Link» is actually a rather pragmatic system, but I feel it’s rather romantic.”

  That tone of hers really has a sense of longing. I couldn’t help but blink a few times. Then I don’t know why I even got excited all of a sudden as I said in an excited voice without thinking much,

  “Is, is that so. I see. The, then, if I party with you next time, Asuna, I definitely won’t hide any drops I get.”

  GATAN! With that sound, Asuna immediately fell back together with the chair.

  As the room was not lit, I can’t see her face, but I can see some expressions on «The Flash»‘s face while under the blue and white light. She finally raised her right hand and yelled,

  “Do…don’t be stupid! Such a day won’t happen in ten years! Ah, I, I’m talking about partying with you! I say, are, are you seriously watching? What’ll happen if you lose him!”

  GA—after such an outburst, Asuna suddenly turned right, even I, who hadn’t looked away from the bar even during the conversation, was more or less hurt. But as I wanted to argue back ‘I’m looking’, I suddenly thought of something.

  That ring that caused the Golden Apple to collapse; when it dropped at first, whose storage did it end up in?

  Right now, this might not be important, but if the person killed the leader and took the ring away, wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to hide the ring right at the beginning? In other words, the one who declared the drop is the only player who couldn’t possibly be the one who killed the leader.

  On thinking that I should have asked Schmitt more about this, I couldn’t help but frown. Asuna and I never registered Schmitt as a friend, so we couldn’t send a message to him to check with him. We can send instant messages to each other even though we’re not friends if we just know each other’s names, but this kind of message couldn’t be sent on the same level, and the number of words I can type were rather little.

  I’ll just ask him the next time we meet. We’re not looking into the ‘ring incident’ half a year ago, but the ongoing «Inside area PK». I wondered as I continued to take out the parchment Schmitt wrote to me.

  I said to Asuna, who was giving an incredulous look from the side, ‘don’t look away from the bar for now’, and checked the names of all the Golden Apple members listed on the parchment.

  Griselda, Grimlock, Schmitt, Yoruko, Kains…the names were written in messy alphabets, and amongst them, 3 are no longer in this floating castle.

  We can’t have any more victims. We definitely must find Grimlock and find out how the inside area murders took place.

  I told myself this in my heart and got ready to keep the parchment
into the item storage.

  But just when the small lambskin was about to change from the materialized item into a name in the system—

  My stare was suddenly sucked by a point on the parchment.

  “…Eh…?”

  I hurriedly pulled my eyes near the lambskin, and the Detail Focus System started to take effect, causing the details on the words of the lambskin to increase.

  “…Wha, what’s this…”

  On hearing me mutter, Asuna, who was still staring at the inn, asked something,

  “What is it?”

  However, I didn’t have the mind to answer her question as I merely thought of the significance and the reason of this situation in front of me, and then tried to deduce the intention.

  —Several seconds later.

  “Ah…ahhh…!”

  I shouted as I kicked the chair before getting up. The parchment in my right hand shook violently in response to the shock I got.

  “I see…so that’s how it is!”

  I pant and shouted, and Asuna gave a doubtful, impatient and anxious voice.

  “What? You discovered something!?”

  “We…we…”

  I squeeze my hoarse voice from my throat and closed my eyes hard.

  “…We didn’t see the truth. We thought we saw it, but we didn’t. For the «Inside area murders»—weapons, skills, logic never existed in the first place!!”

  Part 9

  This is what I heard later on.

  The player of the clearing group, Schmitt, who was the leader of the DDA Heavy Armor warriors «Defender» group, didn’t think of sleeping nor taking off his heavy metal armor even after returning to his room in the headquarters of his own guild.

  His room was located deep inside the stone pal—a fort might be more suitable—and the walls on all four sides had no windows. Actually, nobody other than the guild members could enter the guild headquarters thanks to the system, so it was rather safe for him if he stayed inside the room. Though he told himself this, he couldn’t look away from the door.

  Will the doorknob silently turn the moment he looks away? Will the death god in the hooded robe glide in like a shadow and unknowingly stand behind him?

  The people around him thought that he was a brave tank fighter, but the biggest motivation as to why Schmitt has been fighting hard to maintain his ability amongst the top few in the clearing group was that ‘he was scared of death’.

  On a certain day about a year and a half ago, after this death game started, he was pondering hard in the middle of the plaza in the Starting City. No, he was bewildered. He wondered what he should do so as to not die. The best means was to stay inside the Starting City and not leave. All the main streets were protected by the «Anti-Criminal Code» absolutely, so if he stayed inside, the digitalized life—the HP bar would not drop at all.

  But, Schmitt, who was a netgamer and a sportsman in real life, understood clearly that the rules would change. Could he conclude definitely that the SAO rule where the «city is the safest area» would last forever—until the game was completely cleared? What if on one day, it wouldn’t be like an ‘inside area’ incident, and all the gates had large numbers of monsters rushing in like an avalanche? The players who never left the Starting City without even earning a single experience point would be unable to do anything other than move about in a helter-skelter manner.

  That’s why, in order to survive, he still had to become stronger. He also had to use safe means and must not take any risks.

  Having been bothered over this for the entire day, Schmitt finally chose to ‘become sturdy’.

  First, he went to the weapons store and bought the strongest armor and shield he could afford and used the remaining money to buy a polearm. He then went to the north gate of the city, found a party that focused the most on safety amongst the numerous parties gathering players and joined them. The first time he went to hunt was to have ten people gather to kill the weakest monster in SAO, the small wild boar.

  After that, Schmitt spent a long time to hunt in order to make up for experience and continued to increase in level. The increase in levels were obviously far less than the beaters who were gathered in small groups or fighting solo and carrying out high-risk hunting, but the insistent philosophy towards being ‘sturdy’ cause him to finally become a leader of the strongest guild in the clearing groups, the «Divine Dragons Alliance».

  Thanks to his hard work, Schmitt now can be said to be amongst the strongest in Aincrad in terms of HP, equipment defences and the defensive skills he trained.

  He believed that if he was holding the large Guard Lance with his right hand and the Tower Shield in his left hand, he would be able to hang on for 30 minutes even if three monsters of the same level as him attacked from the front. Schmitt just wondered if those people wearing leather armor that was like paper and using offensive-oriented weapons and skills for damage dealing—like a certain black solo player he met several minutes ago—were all weirdos with something wrong in their minds. In fact, amongst all the character builds, the ones with the lowest death rate are really the tanks with sturdy armor. Of course, they lacked the ability to exterminate enemies, so they had to join large parties.

  Schmitt, who already had what’s considered the «Strongest Defense», could finally shake off the ‘fear of death’ that had been affecting him. That should be the case.

  However—

  Right now, there was a killer who could nullify large HP, armor abilities, defensive skills and all sorts of protection the system could provide. Also, this guy was targeting him.

  A ghost—of course, he never actually believed that it was a ghost.

  No, he couldn’t affirm that now. Right now, even the absolute law of the «Anti-Criminal Code» was being bypassed like a black mist by that death god, who used a small short spear and a dagger to take away the lives of others. Wasn’t that the electronic ghost created by ‘that woman’ when she was killed and sent her grudge through the Nerve Gear?

  If that’s the case, no matter how strong the fort’s walls were, how heavy the locks were, or how impenetrable the headquarters of the guild was, none of them would have any effect.

  That person will definitely come. She will definitely come over while I’m sleeping and kill me. She’ll use the third jagged weapon to stab me and take my life.

  Schmitt sat on the bed, using the silver gauntlets to cover his head and pondered.

  To escape from her revenge, there was only one path left.

  He had to beg for forgiveness. He had to kneel on the ground with his forehead touching the ground to beg for forgiveness and let its vengefulness disperse. He had to personally admit his guilt—half a year ago, he had tried to get stronger. No, he tried to get sturdier, and tried to get into a stronger guild, but made a single mistake—and really regretted it. If he did this, even if the other person was really a ghost, it will forgive me. I was just possessed at that moment. I was captivated by the words of that person and committed such a small crime—no, it can’t be considered a crime, just a little rudeness. I didn’t expect such a tragedy to occur.

  Schmitt swayed slightly and stood up, opened the storage, took out one of the teleport crystals, that were as many as the hills which he would use in emergencies, and materialized it into an object. He clenched it with his right hand in a weak manner, took a deep breath and whispers in a hoarse voice.

  “Transfer…«Ralback»”

  His sights were covered by the blue light, and the moment the lights became thin, he was already standing in the midst of the night.

  It’s past 22:00, and this was a cleared level. There didn’t seem to be any other players at the transfer gate plaza of the 19th floor. The surrounding shops all had their shutters pulled down, and there were no NPCs walking outside at all. There was a feeling that he wasn’t inside the area, but standing inside the field.

  Until half a year ago, the «Golden Apple» was still at a corner of this village, and had a small little guild h
ome here. What should be a very familiar scene here made Schmitt feel like the entire village was resisting him.

  The body under the thick armor trembled, and Schmitt continued to walk out of the village, letting his legs, that seemed to be too tired, move forward.

  His destination was a small hill that was a 20 minute walk from the main streets. Of course, it would be ‘outside the area’, and the Anti-Criminal Code wouldn’t be in effect. However, Schmitt had a huge reason to go there. He had to go there to let that black-robed death god forgive him. There was no other way.

  Schmitt looked like he was dragging his feet as he climbed up the hill, and looked far away at the things that seemed to be standing under the shrubs, and his body trembled intensely.

  It was a stone-made tombstone, eroded by wind and covered with moss, the grave of the «Golden Apple», the dead swordswoman Griselda. The moonlight that seemed to be basking down from somewhere imprinted the cross-shaped sign onto the ground. The night wind that would occasionally blow by from time to time blew into the wilted wood, letting out a rustling cry.

  The trees and the tombstone here should be just an ordinary landmark, and it was a scenery-like decoration the designer had casually set up. However, several days after Griselda was killed, and when the Golden Apple had been disbanded, the remaining seven people decided to use this place as her tomb and buried her long sword here—or more accurately, put it at the bottom of the tombstone and let its durability decrease such that it would disappear naturally.

  That was why the tombstone didn’t have an inscription on it. But if he wanted to confess his sins to Griselda, this would be the only place.

  Schmitt wordlessly knelt down, almost rolling as he crawled in front of the tomb.

  He put his forehead on the ground that was mixed with sand, his teeth grit a few times before he could finally open his open it with all he had, saying in an unexpectedly clear voice,

  “I’m sorry…it’s my fault…forgive me, Griselda! I…I, didn’t expect things to end up like this…I had never thought of killing you!!”