“Wha…?”
That was exactly what I’d been hoping to ask her about. I scooted several inches closer out of sheer fixation—until a hard stare from Asuna held me at bay.
“If those throwing picks are indeed fashioned from the spikes of the dragon Shmargor, then the story of the human hero Selm fighting the dragon should be useful to consult. As I recall, Selm gained the assistance of an elven sage and constructed a tool to stop the dragon’s poison…”
“Ooh…and how do you create that item?” I asked, leaning forward again. This time, Asuna was paying attention to Kizmel, so I didn’t attract her ire.
“Was the sage a dark elf or a forest elf?”
Kizmel replied to these questions with a short shrug. “I heard the story from my grandmother when I was a child. I’m afraid I don’t recall the finer details. But I believe a dark elf storyteller would have a full and proper recollection of the story of Shmargor.”
“S-storyteller? Where can we go to meet such a person?”
Please, please, let it be somewhere on a floor we’ve already cleared out, relatively close to the main town! I prayed. It was answered with surprising helpfulness.
“There is a storyteller in this very castle. But as a general rule, they are very old and spend most of the day sleeping, so you will need to visit the library around the middle of the day.”
“Nice!”
I just barely held back from throwing in a “Sweet!” as well. It wasn’t confirmed yet that we’d be able to craft an antidote, but even the possibility was welcome.
As for Asuna, she found her interest drawn to something else. She turned to face Kizmel, rippling the surface of the bath.
“I’ve never seen an elderly elf before…Are they youthful in appearance, too?”
“Our elders rarely venture outside the city; that is why. As for their appearances…Well, I find that a difficult question to answer.”
“Oh. Of course. I’ll just look forward to finding out in person.”
“That is a good idea. I think I’ll get out now. What about you two?” the knight asked. We looked at each other for the briefest of moments, then agreed that we were done, too. I turned around, still crouched, and headed for the men’s dressing room—though it didn’t make sense to me why you’d have separate dressing rooms that led into the same bath. But before I left, one last question crossed my mind, and I turned back around.
“Oh yeah, Kizmel—”
Into my line of sight leaped the upper half of the standing knight—and Asuna desperately using both hands to cover her up. I quickly averted my eyes.
“Hmm? What is it, Kirito?”
“Uh…I-I’ll ask in the lounge! Um, s-see you later!”
I quickly beat a breaststroke retreat across the bath for the stairs before any further attacks could come my way.
One of the nice things about SAO was that wet hair and skin dried very quickly upon leaving the water. So I didn’t need to towel off as I headed down the dark hallway to the changing room, equipped a black shirt and pants, and entered the lounge. The women weren’t back yet, and no one else was visiting the place, so I slumped lazily into one of the rattan chairs along the wall and heaved a deep sigh.
I had no issues with bathing in general, but it had been the source of trouble more than once or twice since I partnered up with Asuna: I had to wear a skimpy suit with a bear logo on it in Yofel Castle, and there, I got my head dunked. I had to guard Asuna while she bathed at the dark elf camp on the third floor, where Kizmel barged in on me. Nothing much happened on the second floor, but on the first…
“Actually…I think bathing was the start of all this…” I muttered, pouring water from the pitcher on the table into a glass and drinking it all down.
As a matter of fact, when we first met, Asuna hadn’t removed her red riding hood for anyone, and the moment when it first felt like the distance between us was closing the tiniest bit was when she came to the place I’d been renting out in Tolbana on the first floor of Aincrad. Her visit was to use my bath.
With exquisitely poor timing, Argo the info dealer arrived while she was bathing, having run across her while trying to slip into the bathroom to change equipment. But if I hadn’t been renting out a place with a deluxe bath in the first place, we might not have ever found ourselves working together.
So no matter how many times it led to incidents, I couldn’t hold ill will against the baths of Aincrad…I just needed to make sure I knew the men’s and women’s baths were fully separate next time.
The swinging door with the circle mark on it opened, and Asuna and Kizmel returned. The fencer was wearing a yellow tunic I’d never seen before, while the knight was in a shimmering purple gown—both noticeably more sheer than their usual clothes, which flustered me at first (even though it seemed unnecessary to get worked up about, after what had just happened in the bath).
Fortunately, Asuna’s memories of that disaster had been overwritten by the pleasure of her first Aincrad bath in a natural hot spring. She threw herself into the rattan chair on my right, a look of bliss on her face, and said, “Ahhh…that was good…”
I handed her a cup of cold water, which she gulped down. “Pweeh!”
Kizmel sat in the chair on my left, elegantly folding her long legs, and said, “It is indeed quite a splendid bath we have here. It is a shame I will have to move again, once my duty on this floor is over.”
“I see. You’ve got a busy life, Kizmel…You’ve got the, um…Jade and Lapis and Amber Keys stored in a safe location, right?”
“But of course. They are in the treasure repository on the fourth floor of the central hall.”
“T-treasure repository, huh…?”
I’d sure like to see that. But I bet it’s the type of place where I’ll get yelled at, I wondered selfishly, but Asuna had a much more practical thought in mind:
“Kizmel…aren’t you worried that the forest elves might attack in search of the keys again, like they did at Yofel Castle?”
This was a very good question. Thick stone walls and massive gate aside, this place would make a significantly easier target than Yofel Castle, which was surrounded by water on all sides. The forest elves had put so much effort into seizing the keys back, it was hard to imagine them giving up after one defeat.
There could be enemy soldiers sneaking up outside the gates even as we sat here. The disquieting thought nearly got me up out of my seat.
“…No. You need not worry about that,” Kizmel stated. Both Asuna and I stared at the side of her face. Something in the faint gloom of her expression told me the source of her certainty.
“Oh, I see. The area outside this castle…”
“That’s right. The wasteland that surrounds us is so desolate and dry…that neither dark elf nor forest elf can last within it for long. Inside the castle, we are protected by the blessings of the spirit tree, but if that tree was to die out, we would be forced to abandon this place.”
When I visited Castle Galey in the beta, the dark elf who gave me the quest—neither Kizmel nor Count Galeyon, just a nameless commander—told me the same thing. I took it at face value at the time, but now it only brought fresh questions.
“But then, how will you get the key on this floor back? You can telep…er, travel through the spirit trees at the castles on the fifth and seventh floor, but the key is still far from this place, isn’t it?”
“That’s correct,” she admitted. There still seemed to be a faint note of mourning on her features, but when she turned to us, she was wearing her usual languid smile. “But do not fear. This castle is equipped with a means to leave in the case of a sudden emergency. It will allow us to cross the arid wastes.”
At that, my partner and I shared a meaningful look. We didn’t need to speak aloud to understand each other.
“Kizmel,” Asuna said, “Kirito and I will retrieve the hidden key on this floor. We might not be as strong as you, but we’re much tougher than we used to be.”
“I do not doubt that,” the elf replied, looking hesitant, “but I cannot expect you to do the job for me. The friction with the forest and Fallen Elves is our problem…And think of it this way. If you had not saved my life in the Forest of Wavering Mists, I would have been killed by that forest elf—or we would have fought to our mutual deaths, at best. How can I be allowed to stay safe and sound in a castle while allowing you two to do all the dirty, dangerous work?”
“Just like this, that’s how!” I wanted to shout, but the look on the proud knight’s face prevented me. Asuna appeared to have more to say on the matter, but I waved her back and said, “All right…then let’s go and get the key tomorrow. But don’t take unnecessary risks. If any of it seems tough, you must promise to tell us at once.”
I held out my left pinkie finger, which Kizmel stared at.
“What is wrong with your finger?”
“Oh, uh…It’s a human custom. When you make a promise, you intertwine your pinkies.”
“Ah. Like this?”
Kizmel hooked her right pinkie around mine and moved her hand up and down. Asuna got up from her chair saying “Me too!” and held out her right hand to Kizmel, who used her free hand to do the same, smiling awkwardly.
“It is a strange custom, but it feels fun. I promise not to take unnecessary risks, if you promise to prioritize your own safety.”
“Of course!” Asuna and I replied in unison. The knight beamed.
After the underground bath, she led us to the dining room on the second floor of the central hall.
It was dinnertime, and many elves were present. There was even a small stage, upon which two elves in fanciful costumes were playing a lute and flute. Some of the soldiers were even singing quietly along to the tune.
The food itself was noticeably simpler than the full-course meal at Yofel Castle, but this way suited my taste better, and the stew of tubers and meat on the bone was good enough that I asked for seconds.
After deciding when we’d meet in the morning, we said good-bye to Kizmel at the third-floor hallway of the west wing—even though the knight’s room was just next to ours—and returned to our guest chamber. We let out heavy breaths and found ourselves glancing at each other.
It felt like I needed to apologize for my scandalous behavior in the bath, but Asuna was sending a silent signal for me not to say anything at all. My game window said it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet, which, on a typical day, meant I’d head back out for some night activity, but we were tired from the dungeon spelunking and crossing the wasteland today and agreed that we should get an early bedtime.
But we failed to realize that we hadn’t yet faced the greatest peril of the day.
This guest chamber was another suite, where the living room was located in a separate area from the sleeping area. But unlike the place we stayed the night before, there was only one bedroom door.
We looked at each other again, then crossed the living room and opened the door. The bedroom was equally decadent, but there was just one queen-sized bed in the center of the room.
Last night, I’d slept on the sofa rather than my bed, so I could just do the same thing—except that was because Asuna had fallen fast asleep first. Knowing how my partner hated to be given special treatment, I suspected…
“Um…I’ll just sleep on the sofa, okay…?”
“You’re not going to get a good night’s sleep that way.”
I would’ve protested, but she was actually right, and she knew it.
While sleeping in SAO, the player’s real-life body was in a sleep state as well, but the NerveGear kept faithfully sending virtual bodily signals all the while. If you slept on a fancy bed, you would feel the softness envelop your back. If you slept outdoors on the ground, it would be rough and uncomfortable. Naturally, the latter would provide shallower sleep, often failing to result in anything more than a surface-level snooze.
The sofa in the living room was large enough, and its mattress was nice and thick, but because the seat cushions were mounded, it wasn’t suitable for lying down on. When I was soloing on the first floor, I camped out all the time—with a blanket, at least—so I could sleep on this, but whether Asuna accepted that or not was a different matter.
“Listen, I can sleep anywhere. Don’t mind me, just take the bed and—”
“We are game partners, aren’t we?” Asuna interrupted.
She was correct, of course.
“Y-yeah?”
“So it would be wrong to place all the burden on one of us.”
Again, she was absolutely correct.
“…Y-yeah.”
“Then this is the only option.”
She dragged me by the sleeve into the bedroom and peeled back half the covers on the large bed. Right in the center of the perfectly pristine white sheets, she drew a line two feet long down the middle with her finger.
“This is the border.”
I hadn’t heard that word since the time we slept in Kizmel’s tent in the dark elf camp on the third floor, and the surprise brought a burst of laughter to my lips—and a fierce glare from Asuna.
“A-all right…I get it. I understand. Capisce.”
Asuna gave me a scowl back, but she indicated this was sufficient and put the covers back.
While we’d landed on a compromise for the bed issue, the circumstances were a little—no, a lot—different from the tent. Sleeping on the ground there meant excusing a lot of potential contact under the general experience of “roughing it.” But in a proper building, a proper bedroom, a proper bed, there could be no excuses. The border drawn on the sheets was as fragile and perilous as the Line of Control in Kashmir.
But for being so susceptible to spontaneous accidents, the fencer exhibited surprising fortitude toward this situation.
“Well…I’ll sleep on this side,” she said, taking the half farther away from the window and slipping under the blanket. With her back to me, she opened her window, pressed a button or two, then closed it. I heard a swishing sound under the covers, which was probably her changing into pajamas.
Then she wriggled down deeper until only the back of her head was visible. It seemed her strategy was to fall asleep as soon as possible, which seemed like the right call to me, so I tapped the wall and turned off the lights in the bedroom and living room.
There was a window on the west bedroom wall, and gauzy moonlight trickled through the lace curtains. The day started off cloudy but cleared up in the afternoon. Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow, I thought, trying to distract myself as I entered the side of the bed opposite Asuna.
The bed was about six feet across, so as long as I stayed on the very left edge, far from the border, I didn’t need to be conscious of my partner’s presence, physically speaking. Whatever the mattress was made of, it had just the right mixture of support and softness, and the blanket was light and as warm as a down comforter. I had to admit that Asuna was right; the sofa out there and my heavy-duty camping blanket were a far cry from this kind of comfort.
My head sank into the massive pillow, and my eyelids closed, and despite the situation, I felt the sleep fairy sneaking up on me. There we go—fall asleep, fall asleep, and get an extra room tomorrow…
“Are you still awake, Kirito?”
“………Ayup.”
The fairy had scampered away. If she said “Just checking,” what kind of a snappy response should I have? But the follow-up from over the border was not what I was expecting.
“You know how there’s that anti-harassment code? The thing that came up in Mr. Romolo’s workshop on the fourth floor when you tried to wake me up?”
“Y…yes.”
This ominous topic dispelled my sleepiness entirely. Now I had no idea where she was taking this.
“I was just thinking…you pushed me over when we were in the bath.”
“N-no…I was keeping you from going orange.”
“But you pushed me over.”
“………Ayup.”
<
br /> “So why didn’t the anti-harassment code activate?”
Why didn’t it…?
I didn’t have an answer on the tip of my tongue. I had to think about it.
“Um…Does it not show up if you’re in a party together…? No, because we were partied up on the fourth floor…Maybe it depends on the time of contact…? But no, I don’t remember touching you for very long on the fourth floor, either…”
“It’s not an issue of how you make contact. When you tried to wake me up, you just touched my shoulder, and it went off, but it didn’t happen when you pushed me over naked.”
“P-please don’t say it like that…” I begged.
Indeed, it wasn’t logical that the code activated just from touching her shoulder, and yet, pressing against her without any equipment on didn’t do a thing. Was there any other condition that was different between the workshop and the underground hot spring, aside from party configuration and time of contact?
“Mmm-hmmmm…”
I chased away the sleep fairy, who was trying to sneak back into my mind. But the soft, fluffy bed was just so soft and fluffy, and if it was any softer and fluffier, it would soft…fluff…
“……Ah.”
The instant I began tumbling off the precipice into sleep was the hint I needed.
“When it happened…you were sleeping.”
She must have been nodding off, too, because her reply came at a delay.
“…What? The code activated because I was sleeping? You mean it won’t go off if you’re awake…?”
“…No, I don’t think that’s it…But that’s the only thing I can think of…”
“Hmm……”
After another silence of many seconds, my temporary partner surprised me once more.
“Pinkie…”
“Eh?”
“Hold out your pinkie.”
I wriggled my little finger through the blanket, then remembered the invisible line.
“But the border—”
“One finger’s worth of trespassing can be overlooked. Hurry it up.”
“Okay…”
Hesitantly, I stretched my arm, sticking out my pinkie near the centerline of the bed. After a few moments, what I assumed was Asuna’s pinkie brushed mine and grabbed it. On instinct, I squeezed back.
Sword Art Online Progressive 5 Page 18
