That was all. No RPG experience points, level, or statistics. I bit my lip and mulled it over.
“Hmm…Object Control Authority. I wonder if that’s it…”
Based on the sound of the words, I expected it was a parameter that controlled usage of items. But there was no way to guess what exactly the number thirty-eight meant in that context.
I sighed and looked up. There was Eugeo, dutifully absorbed in swinging his ax. A thought occurred to me, and I closed my own window to examine the Blue Rose Sword’s instead. I loosened the end of the package, pulled the hilt out a little bit, made the sign, and tapped it.
In addition to the sword’s durability, which was nearly as high as the Gigas Cedar’s at 197,700, it showed me what I was looking for. Right below was a line reading Class 45 Object, which likely corresponded to the control authority from my window. My authority was thirty-eight—not enough.
I closed the sword’s window, tied it back up, and lay down on the spot. Through the branches of the Gigas Cedar, I could see little tiny patches of blue sky. I exhaled a long breath. The information was valuable, but it also confirmed in inarguable numerical values that I couldn’t use the Blue Rose Sword. If I could raise my authority level to forty-five, that problem was solved, but I didn’t know how to go about doing that.
Assuming this world operated on a rough approximation of VRMMO rules, and I wanted to raise some parameter of mine, it would probably involve either extensive, repetitive practice or going out and killing monsters to earn experience. I didn’t have the time or inclination to do the former, and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any monsters for the latter. Normally coming across a legendary weapon that was above my equip level was the source of motivation to keep grinding levels, but without a clear means of doing that, all I had left was frustration.
Hardcore MMO fans always said the most fun stage of a game was right at the start, when there were no wiki sites compiling information yet and you had to figure everything out yourself. When I got back to the real world, I was never going to say that again, I swore to myself, albeit pointlessly. Meanwhile, Eugeo finished his fifty whacks and turned to me, wiping away his sweat.
“How do you feel, Kirito? Can you swing the ax?”
“Yeah…the pain’s gone.”
I swung my legs to rock myself up to my feet and reached out for the ax. He was right; the Dragonbone Ax was almost laughably light compared to the Blue Rose Sword.
All I could do was pray that the act of swinging the ax somehow raised that particular statistic. I clenched the handle in both hands and pulled it back for a swing.
“Aaahh…Now, this is paradise…” I moaned, the instant I hit the hot water. A bath was just the trick after the rare experience of hard physical labor.
The bathroom in Rulid’s church had a large copper tub installed next to a ceramic tile floor, with an oven on the outside of the building that burned logs to heat the water. I didn’t think medieval Europe had baths like this, but whether it was installed by the world creators’ design or was the evolutionary result of three centuries of simulation, it was nothing short of a blessing to me.
After dinner, Sister Azalia took Selka and the two other girls into the bath first. After that, the four boys and I got our turn, and the rowdy kids had just gotten out after satisfying their natural desire to cavort. Somehow, the water filling the large tub was not the least bit cloudy. I scooped up a handful of the clear liquid, splashed it on my face, and let out another relaxed, satisfied moan.
Thirty-three hours had passed since I had been abandoned in this world.
I couldn’t guess how much time that was in the real world without knowing how fast the fluctlight acceleration was, but if it was working in real time and my absence was unexplained, my family and Asuna would be very worried by now.
The very thought of it made me want to leap from my luxurious bath and race to find an escape from this place. But at the same time, I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t want to stay here and get to the bottom of the world’s mysteries.
The fact that I was mentally present as Kazuto Kirigaya, complete with real-world memories, had to be an irregular occurrence. I was sure of it. It meant I was capable of wreaking undue havoc on the delicate simulation taking place. They did not simulate three centuries of incredibly in-depth history just so someone could come along and contaminate it.
That meant that I was both standing at the edge of a terrible precipice and also in possession of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This was my first and last chance to figure out the true goal of Rath, the mysterious start-up with inexplicably vast and secretive funding.
“No…that’s just another excuse…” I said beneath the surface of the water, the words emerging as bubbles.
Perhaps I was just being driven by simple desire as a VRMMO player: I wanted to “conquer” the world—to make my way through without a player manual, relying on nothing but my mind and instincts—as I improved my sword skill and defeated countless worthy foes, until at last I had seized the glory of being the strongest alive. It was the stupidest, most infantile desire.
Strength in the virtual world was an illusion of numbers. I’d come to reckon with that on several occasions. When Heathcliff stopped my elite Dual Blades skill, when the Fairy King Oberon laid me low, when I fled for my life from the pursuing Death Gun—each time left me with painful regret and the determination never to make the same mistake again.
But once again, the embers smoldering in the very root of my soul were lighting that fire under me. How many people in this world could lift the Blue Rose Sword with ease, unlike me? How powerful were the Integrity Knights that upheld the law and the knights of darkness who opposed them? Who sat in the highest seat of the Axiom Church, the structure that ruled this world…?
Without realizing it, I swung my hand up, and my fingers broke the surface of the water, throwing droplets against the far wall.
Meanwhile, a voice beyond the changing room door brought me to my senses.
“Huh? Is someone still in there?”
I sat upright when I recognized Selka’s voice.
“Y-yeah, it’s me—Kirito. Sorry, I’m coming out.”
“Oh…n-no, it’s fine, take your time. Just make sure you unplug the tub and put out the lamp when you’re done. I’m going back to my room now…Good night.”
I heard her start to scurry away, and an idea occurred to me. “Oh…Selka, I wanted to ask you something. Do you have any time tonight?”
The footsteps stopped, replaced by a hesitant silence. Eventually she responded, just loud enough for me to hear. “I have…a bit of time. But the kids are already sleeping in my chamber, so I’ll wait for you in your room.”
She trotted off without waiting for a reply. I stood up in a hurry, pulled out the wooden stopper at the base of the tub, extinguished the lamp on the wall, and exited to the changing room. The water dried up without needing a towel, which helped me get into my clothes faster, and I raced down the quiet hall and up the stairs.
Selka looked up from the bed, dangling her feet, when I opened the door. Unlike last night, she wore a simple cotton shift with her brown hair tied in a braid.
She picked up a large glass from the bedside table and offered it to me.
“Oh, thanks,” I said, sitting down next to her on the bed and drinking the chilled well water. It felt like moisture was permeating my dried body from head to toe.
“Ahh, nectar, nectar.”
“Necktar? What is that?” Selka asked, looking confused. I panicked, realizing that the word must not exist in this world.
“Umm…it’s something you say about water that’s extremely delicious and feels like it’s healing you…I guess.”
“Ohh…So like elixir, then.”
“Wh-what is that?”
“It’s holy water that a monk has blessed. I’ve never seen it myself, but they say that drinking a little bottle of it will bring back the life decreased by injury or illness.”
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“Ohhh…”
It made me wonder how they’d lost so many people to disease if such a thing existed, but I decided it was probably better not to ask. At the very least, this world and the stately Axiom Church that ruled over it were not quite the benevolent paradise I first took them to be.
Selka accepted the empty glass from me and prompted, “If you have more questions, make them quick. I’m only forbidden to enter the boys’ room after the bath, not the guest room, but I feel like Sister Azalia will give me a scolding anyway if she finds out.”
“Um…sorry about that. I’ll make it quick. I wanted to ask…about your sister.”
Her delicate shoulders twitched under her white gown.
“…I don’t have a sister.”
“Not anymore, right? Eugeo told me that you had an older sister named Alice, and—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Selka’s head jerked up, startling me.
“Eugeo did? He told you about Alice? How much did he say?”
“Err…well…that Alice studied the sacred arts here at the church…and that an Integrity Knight took her away to some big city several years ago…”
“…Ahh…” She dropped her glance to the floor and continued, “So Eugeo didn’t forget…about Alice…”
“Huh…?”
“The people of the village—Father, Mother, Sister Azalia—none of them will ever talk about her. Her room was tidied up and emptied years ago…like she was never there to begin with. So I thought everyone had just forgotten all about her…even Eugeo…”
“As a matter of fact, not only does he remember her, he still seems to be quite concerned for her. So much that if he didn’t have his Calling to keep him busy, he would rush down to that city to find her,” I said.
Selka was quiet for a few moments. She eventually mumbled, “I see…So the reason Eugeo doesn’t smile anymore…is because of Alice.”
“Eugeo…doesn’t smile?”
“Yes. When my sister was around, he was always beaming. It was hard to find him not looking happy. I was still young, so I don’t remember it that well…but ever since she was taken away, I feel like I never see Eugeo smiling anymore. In fact…even on his days off, whether he stays inside or goes into the forest, he’s always alone…”
I found this statement to be a bit strange. Eugeo was rather reserved, it was true, but he didn’t seem to be hiding his emotions from me. During our chats coming to and from the forest and on our break times, he had even laughed, and more than a few times.
If he wasn’t smiling around Selka or the villagers anymore, was it…out of guilt? Guilt that he was the reason beloved Alice, the future Sister at the church, was taken away, and that he hadn’t been able to save her? And he could stand to be himself around only me, an outsider who didn’t know what happened back then?
If that was true, Eugeo’s soul could not be a simple program. He had the same level of intelligence and humanity as I did…He had a fluctlight. And he had lived through six whole years of self-torment.
I had to go to the central city, I realized again. Not just for my own sake but to get Eugeo out of this village so he could find Alice and the two could be reunited. And the Gigas Cedar had to be eliminated for that to happen…
“…What are you thinking?” Selka asked, rousing me out of my thoughts.
“Oh…just thinking, like you said, Eugeo must still care a whole lot about Alice right now.”
As soon as the thought tumbled out of my mouth, Selka’s face seemed to warp a bit. Those clear eyebrows and big eyes clouded with loneliness.
“Yes…I suppose you’re right.”
Her shoulders slumped. Even I, hardly the most intuitive toward feelings, could tell what this meant.
“Selka…do you like Eugeo?”
“Wha…that’s not true!” she protested hotly, then turned away, red down to her neck. She looked down for a while, and when she spoke again, her voice was suddenly tense. “I just…can’t take this…Father and Mother never say it, but I can tell they always compared me to her and were disappointed. Same with the other adults. That’s why I left home to live at the church. And yet…even as she teaches me the sacred arts, all Sister Azalia thinks about is how my sister learned them all on the first attempt! Eugeo doesn’t treat me like them…but he avoids me. Because every time he sees me, he thinks of Alice. And that’s not my fault! I…I don’t even remember what she looked like anymore…”
Watching the little girl tremble in her pajamas stunned me to my core. Somewhere in my brain, I’d told myself that this was all a simulation, and while these people might not be pure programs, they were something less than real. But sitting next to a crying twelve-year-old girl was not something I was prepared to handle. Eventually Selka rubbed the moisture out of her eyes.
“I’m sorry for losing control.”
“N-no…it’s fine. I think you should cry when you need to,” I said, a pretty weak excuse at consolation, but as Selka wasn’t spoiled by the ever-present entertainment media of twenty-first-century Japan, she smiled and took it to heart.
“…Yeah. You’re right. I think I feel a bit better now. It’s been a really long time since I cried in front of anyone.”
“That’s really brave of you, Selka. Even at my age, I cry in front of people all the time,” I said, thinking of this scene and that, involving Asuna and Suguha. Selka’s eyes went wide.
“Wait…you have your memory back, Kirito?”
“Er…N-no, not in that sense…I guess I just feel that way…A-at any rate, I’m only me, I can’t be anyone else…so you should focus only on what you can do, Selka.”
Again, it might as well have been ripped from a book of clichés, but Selka thought it over and took it to heart. “You’re right…Maybe I’ve just been averting my eyes from myself…and my sister…”
The realization that I was actively trying to pull Eugeo away from this sweet, poor girl filled me with guilt. But just then, a pleasing melody came down from the bell tower above.
“Oh…it’s already nine. I need to get back now. Oh…what was it you wanted to ask, again?” she wondered, but I said that I’d already figured out enough. “Well, in that case, I’m going back to my room.”
She hopped down to the floor and took a few steps to the door, then turned back.
“Hey…did you hear the reason why the Integrity Knight took my sister away?”
“Uh…yeah. Why?”
“I don’t know it. My parents won’t say anything…and I asked Eugeo once, years ago, but he wouldn’t tell me. Why was she taken?”
I hesitated a bit, but the answer tumbled out of my mouth before I could reconsider.
“Well…I think he said they went up the river to a cave that goes through the End Mountains, and then she put her hand on the ground of the land of darkness…”
“…I see…Past the End Mountains…” she mumbled, lost in thought. But soon she bobbed her head and chirped, “Tomorrow’s a day of rest, but prayer is at the usual hour, so make sure you get up. I won’t be coming to rouse you this time.”
“I-I’ll try my best.”
Selka grinned briefly, opened the door, and disappeared through it.
As her tiny footsteps pattered into the distance, I flopped down on the bed. I was hoping to get more information on this mysterious Alice, but her sister had been too young at the time to retain much memory of her. All I had learned was just how deep Eugeo’s feelings for Alice went.
I shut my eyes and tried to imagine the girl named Alice.
But of course, no face floated into my mind. The only thing I thought I caught a glimpse of on the backs of my eyelids was a glint of golden light.
The next morning, I would come to a very nasty realization of just how naive my plans were.
4
My eyes opened at the clanging of the five-thirty bell and I leaped out of bed, emboldened by the realization that I could do it on my own after all.
I threw open the eastern
window, stretched, and sucked in a lungful of the cold daybreak air. The more I breathed in, the more it wiped away the last cobwebs of sleep clinging to the back of my mind.
In the room across the hall, I could hear the children starting to wake. I slipped on my clothes, determined to get down to the well to wash up before they did.
The tunic and cotton pants that served as my “starting gear” had no visible stains yet, but according to Eugeo, their life dropped faster and faster the less you washed them. So it was probably time to think about acquiring another outfit. That would be one of the things to ask Eugeo about today, I decided as I headed out the back door to the well.
I transferred a few cups of water from the bucket to the basin, splashed some on my face, and heard someone coming up behind me at last. I straightened, shaking the water from my hands, expecting to see Selka.
“Oh…good morning, Sister.”
It was Sister Azalia, wearing her pristine nun’s habit. I bowed hastily, and she returned the gesture and said hello. The perpetual frown tightening her lips seemed especially harsh today, which raised my hackles a bit.
“Um…Sister…is something…?” I asked.
She blinked, hesitating momentarily, then said, “I cannot find Selka.”
“Uh…”
“Do you know anything about this, Kirito? She seemed to have taken a liking to you…”
For a second I panicked, thinking that she might be suspecting that I’d done something to the girl, but I soon realized that this could not be the case. The ironclad Taboo Index that none dared to violate governed this world; Azalia would not imagine in her wildest dreams that someone would actually kidnap a child. She assumed that Selka had vanished of her own volition and was simply asking me if there was any information I might possess about it.
“Umm…No, I haven’t heard anything. Today is a day of rest, correct? She hasn’t gone back to her family?” I suggested, trying to kick-start my recently awakened mind, but she immediately shook her head.
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