His gauntleted hand gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled. Orlando’s weapon was, like mine, an Anneal Blade. It appeared to be powered up to a similar level. If he was going to strike Nezha’s unprotected back, it would only take three or four hits to finish the job.
“Orlando...”
I called out the name of the paladin who had just helped defeat the boss monster minutes ago.
You spent far more time with Nezha than I ever did. But I can’t stand here and watch you kill him–no matter what that does to my reputation.
I put all of my weight into my right foot, preparing to dart forward the instant he raised his blade. At the same time, I sensed Asuna shifting position as well.
“Don’t do anything, Asuna.”
“No,” she said flatly.
“Don’t you get it? If you interfere with this, you won’t be allowed among this group anymore. You might even be labeled a criminal.”
“I still won’t stop. Don’t you remember what I said the first time we met? I left the Town of Beginnings so that I could be myself.”
“...”
I didn’t have any time or arguments with which to convince her. Instead, I merely signed in resignation and nodded.
Somehow, the angry shouting that filled the coliseum had turned to silence again, everyone watched wide-eyed, waiting with bated breath for the fateful moment.
And perhaps because I was concentrating so hard...I picked out the quiet voice from Orlando’s helmet, even though I was nowhere near close enough to hear it. “I’m sorry...I’m so sorry, Nezuo.”
The paladin laid down his sword next to the chakram on the ground. He took a few steps and got down on his knees next to Nezha, facing the same direction, removed his helmet, and put his hands flat on the tile.
Beowulf, Cuchulainn, Gilgamesh, and Enkidu followed his lead, setting down their weapons and helmets and getting into a line with Nezha at the center.
Amid dead silence, the five–no, six Legend Braves bowed in apology to the rest of the raid.
Eventually, Orlando spoke up, his trembling voice the only sound in the coliseum,
“Nezuo...Nezha is our partner. We’re the ones who forced him to commit that fraud.”
14
“So why do we have to be the errand-runners here?” Asuna grumbled as she trudged along.
I shrugged and answered, “What can you do? It’s just the way it is.”
“No, not that! We were a party of two during the first boss fight, but this time we had a full six!”
“Only because Agil was considerate enough to let us join him. We’ll need to thank him when this all blows over.”
Asuna raised an eyebrow at me. “W-what?”
“Nothing. I’m just wondering if your skill at getting along is earning a few proficiency points.”
“That’s...” my line, I wanted to say, but I held it in. “That should be clear, since I have a gift for him, too.”
“Oh? What’s that, the Mighty Straps you found in the labyrinth?”
“...Ooh, good idea. I’ll have to give those to him, too.” I patted my fist into my palm.
Asuna looked at me doubtfully, then her eyes went wide with understanding.
“Oh, I know! You’re going to foist that thing you’ve been keeping in the inn chest off on Agil!”
“Indeed.”
She was referring to the large Vendor’s Carpet that Nezha left with me when he abandoned his blacksmithing and went off to learn the Martial Arts skill. It was an expensive and useful item, but offered little benefit to a combat-focused character. Plus, it couldn’t be placed in one’s inventory, so it had to be rolled up and hoisted around by hand.
“Agil might be a warrior, but he seems likely to know some promising future blacksmiths, wouldn’t you suspect? I’m sure Nezha would be happy knowing that it went to good use.”
“But what if Agil himself wakes up to the lures of running his own business?”
“...Then I’ll be his first customer,” I answered glibly.
Asuna sighed and glanced ahead. We were walking up the spiral staircase between the second and third floors. But for some unknown design purpose, the stairs spiraled around the entire eight-hundred-foot-wide tower, meaning that we actually had to walk a distance of over 2,500 feet...plus height.
But because there were no monsters on the staircase, it was still a much easier exit from the tower than going from the boss chamber all the way down to the front entrance.
As the roving strikers (or, if you prefer, leftovers) of the raid, Asuna and I had been given our orders by Lind: to leave the labyrinth, which was shut off from all instant messages, and deliver the news of our victory to all the players who were eagerly awaiting an update.
Normally this would be the job–no, privilege–of Lind or Kibaou. But the main raid force could not leave the boss chamber for another hour or so. Not because they were locked inside but because they were too busy talking. The debate raged on about how to deal with Nezha and the Legend Braves.
But I no longer had any concerns about the outcome of that discussion. The instant that Orlando and his partners had laid down their weapons and admitted their sins, the conclusion was foretold. No matter how heated up the group was, they weren’t so bloodthirsty that they would execute a group of six players, and the addition of the Braves to the guilty side changed the equation: Now Shivata and the others could realistically be repaid for their lost weapons.
Orlando explained every last detail of the deception and removed all of his equipment, not just the sword and helm. The other four followed his lead, and produced a small mountain of high-level gear that would fetch a price beyond my estimation.
He told the group that if they turned all of these items into cash, it would surpass the value of the lost weapons–they’d sunk their own honestly earned money into the armor as well–and serve as a repayment for all the victims of their scheme. If there was col left over, it could be used as a potion fund for the next boss battle.
Now that the damages were able to be repaid, the remaining problem was the player who died because his weapon was stolen.
Under the current configuration of SAO, no amount of money could make up for a lost life. The Legend Braves offered to go find the fellows companions and apologize in person, if that would help in any way. When they asked the dagger user who’d brought this story up, he backed down on his assertion, saying that it was just a rumor and he didn’t know the name.
In the end, the group decided to ask the information agent to discover the truth of the matter. The first controversy over player-swindling in Aincrad was about to reach a close without bloodshed, but there was one problem remaining: how to convert the dozens of pieces of high-powered equipment into cash.
There was always the option of selling them to NPC merchants in town. But the NPC’s prices were always kept below the market rate by the “invisible hand” of the system in order to combat inflation. If we were going to get the maximum value, the transitions had to be with other players.
The people with the most col and the largest need for good equipment were the front-line players. So Lind and Kibaou considered the possibility of selling that equipment to the few dozen players present in the boss chamber and donating the money to Shivata’s group of three. Of course, there were more victims of the scheme than just the people present here, so proper payment would need to be made once everyone went back to town.
So the delay in leaving the boss chamber was due to a spontaneous auction. Sadly, none of the items was suitable for agile leather-wearers like me and Asuna–and even if there were some, I wouldn’t have been in the mood to buy and equip them. As we stood around feeling relieved that a peaceful solution was found, Lind came over and said, “If you don’t have anything better to do, could you leave the dungeon and tell the newspapers that our conquest was successful?”
I couldn’t find a good reason to decline his request, so I p
rodded the reluctant Asuna, and we went out the door in the back of the chamber to the next floor. Agil and his friends waved good-bye, but we didn’t have an opportunity to say anything to Nezha the former blacksmith.
As soon as Orlando and his friends lined up around him, his little back trembled and shook with constant sobs.
“Well, it seems like the case of fraud is going to wrap up safely...What do you suppose Nezha and the Braves are going to do next?” Asuna wondered as she climbed the gently sloping staircase.
I mulled it over. “Depends on them. They can’t prevent the tale of the Braves’ shady behavior from spreading around the front line. Either they’ll have to avoid everyone here and go back down to the Town of Beginnings, or start over from scratch and try to reach our level again. Before we left, Lind told me that if they wanted to, he’d allow them to keep a minimum of col necessary for the equipment they’ll need to hang around. But no matter what they choose, they won’t treat Nezha like a third wheel.”
“Hmm...To be honest, I’m still not sure how I feel about Orlando...But if they do make it back to the front line, I’ll do my best to work with them. I mean, even you did all right with Lind and Kibaou, didn’t you?”
I nearly missed a step.
“I-I haven’t changed my attitude a bit! If anything, they’re the ones who are acting weird. Kibaou’s totally anti-tester, and Lind’s trying to raise an elite fighting force, so solos like me are only an obstacle to his goals. And yet, both of them were being oddly normal...”
Asuna momentarily looked frosty when I uttered the word solo. She sighed and said, “As usual, you’re completely clueless.”
“Huh? How so?”
“If all of the frontier players were under the lead of either Lind or Kibaou alone, they would have been much more open about excluding you. But the blue Dragon Knights and the green Aincrad Liberation Squad are jockeying for power even as they work together, right?”
“Um, yeah...”
“In the current situation, they’re both on edge. They think that if they antagonize you too much, you’ll end up aligning with the other team.”
“Me? With either blue or green?” I came to a standstill and chuckled. “Ha-ha, no way. They’d shut the door in my face, even if I actually wanted to join. I’m the evil beater, right? I mean, even today...”
I shut my mouth and started hopping up the steps. Asuna hurried to catch up, looking skeptical, then raised a finger in sudden understanding.
“Hey, by the way, what happened to the boss’s last attack bonus? On Asterios the Taurus Xing, I mean. I didn’t get the prompt.”
“Uhh, ahh, umm...”
“And now that I think about it, didn’t you win the LA on Colonel Nato and General Baran? You didn’t get the king too, did you...?”
“Um, well, that’s, uh–hey, is that the exit?”
“Oh, no, you don’t! You did win it, didn’t you? What did he drop? Tell me!”
Suddenly we were both jogging up the stairs. At the end of the gently curving staircase was a thick door decorated with a relief. The scene was of two swordsmen facing off among gnarled old trees. The left was dark-skinned, and the right was pale, but both were slender and fragile, with pointed ears.
The picture was meant to represent the theme of the floor ahead, I thought to myself.
Nezha–no, Nataku. You were the real MVP of the second floor. Come on back to us. The front line’s a scary, dangerous place...but it’s where you’ll find what you really wanted. And the front line needs you, too. After all...
“In a way, the third floor is where SAO really starts,” I said aloud. Asuna caught up to me, looking puzzled rather than harassing me more about the LA. “It is? Why is that?”
I started off with my now-familiar, unhelpful refrain: “Um, well...”
And savoring each and every step, I crossed the final thirty feet of the second floor of Aincrad.
AFTERWORD
Hello, this is Reki Kawahara, author of Sword Art Online Progressive 1.
The word progressive might make you think of video formats, but in this case it is meant in the “incremental increase” sense. I chose this title to represent the task of conquering Aincrad bit by bit, from the very first floor. From this point on, I’ll be using the abbreviation SAOP.
So first of all, I should explain why I decided to start writing this series.
If you’ll permit me to repeat what I said in the afterword of the first volume of SAO, I wrote the story as a submission for the Dengeki Novel Award, so I had to finish the story with the game being beaten, right in the very first installment. Later on, I wrote a number of shorter prequel stories that filled in gaps (see Volumes 2 and 8), but they’re more like little episodes, and don’t focus on the meat and potatoes of the players advancing through game.
So I’ve always harbored a secret desire to write about how Kirito and the others cleared each floor and defeated each boss in the game, it just didn’t really happen until now. Because I’m now trying to write it all over again from the first floor, it creates a number of issues.
Biggest of all is how to deal with Asuna, the heroine. In the previously published series, Kirito doesn’t get to know Asuna until much, much later. If I depicted Kirito as working with Asuna on the first and second floor of Aincrad, it would contradict what I’ve already published.
For a long time, I wavered between two options: avoiding that contradiction by starting off Progressive with a different heroine, or embracing the contradiction and going with Asuna right from the start. Ultimately, I admitted to myself that it didn’t feel right having anyone but Asuna at Kirito’s side, and I suspect that most of my readers feel the same way. So I decided to have Kirito meet Asuna right away.
Of course, I’m certain that some readers will not be able to accept the contradictions with what I’ve written before, and that’s okay. But I will do my utmost to make sure that the choices I make line up with the established events as best I can. My hope is that you’ll be able to overcome my inconsistency and enjoy this new series for what it is.
Now that I’ve gotten my customary apologies out of the way, let’s go over each of these stories.
“Aria of a Starless Night,” the story of the first floor of Aincrad, picks up right after the story of “The First Day,” which is found in Volume 8 of the main series. We see characters that had only appeared in name before, such as Kibaou, future leader of the Army, and the information dealer, Argo the Rat. Then, of course, there are old favorites like Agil before he became a businessman, and Asuna when she was just a beginner to MMORPGs. It was a very strange mix of the new and familiar as I was writing. Of course, Kirito is still Kirito.
Part of the point of Progressive is to explain the systems of in greater detail, so “Aria” spends a lot of time covering the concept of a “boss raid.” I hope you really got the feel for a great big group of eight parties of six members each. If it didn’t make sense to you, watch the second episode of the SAO anime series, please! Ha-ha.
The story of the second floor, “Rondo of a Fragile Blade,” features a whole host of new faces. It took me quite a while to decide if the character of Nezha should be a man or a woman. Eventually, I got the feeling that having him be a girl would pose a whole new set of problems, so I took the easy route in making him a man.
I meant to have this tale feature the weapon upgrading system, but I let it slip away from me a bit, and the result was more of a mystery story surrounding the concept of upgrade fraud. Since there wasn’t much fighting in the early part of the story, I wanted to feature a nice, meaty boss battle, and ended up bringing out quite a nasty boss for just the second floor of the game. If that happened in a real MMO, I would totally throw in the towel!
Those two stories made up the first volume of SAOP. I’ve already got the title of the third-floor story picked out: “Concerto of Black and White.” In game system terms, I’m going to focus on the theme of campaign quests.
Well, now that I’ve gone and done a sneak peek for the next volume, I should probably come clean and admit that I don’t think I can write more than one volume of Progressive a year. So if I cover two floors a year, when will I actually get to the seventy-fifth floor...? I’m too scared to consider the possibilities! Hope to see you in Volume 2!
And of course, I’ll be continuing with the main SAO series. Part Three of the Alicization arc, Volume 11, should be coming out in December. Kirito and Eugeo will be tackling the mysteries of the Underworld. Please check it out.
Also, the continuation of SAO means that I’ll need to skip Accel World this time around. Deep apologies! But since Volume 9 and 10 of that came put in quick succession, it should be back to its normal schedule now. I’m not sure how long I will be able to keep up writing a book every other month (in fact, it’s already looking hairy)...but I’ll do my best!
Thanks once again to my illustrator abec for eagerly tackling series at once, to my editor Mr. Miki for eagerly (I think) tackling this five hundred-page monster of a book, and to my vice editor Mr. Tsuchiya for dealing with the ulcers (I assume) of waiting for my very late replies to every message. And to those of you who read to the end of this very thick book, the greatest LA bonus of my gratitude!
Reki Kawahara–August 2012
Sword Art Online Progressive - Volume 01 Page 20
