“Ki-Kirito onii-chan… there are too many. We have to run…!”
“It’s fine. Just have your crystal ready until I tell you to get away.”
Kirito answered with a calm voice, ruffled Scilica’s hair, and then walked towards the other side of the bridge. Scilica stood there in shock. It was just too reckless. She thought of this and called him:
“Kirito onii-chan…!”
As soon as her voice rang through the field–
“Kirito…?”
One of the bandits muttered. His smile faded and he frowned; his eyes moved from one side to another as if he was trying to remember something.
“Those clothes… the one-handed blade without a shield… «The Black Swordsman»…?”
His face grew pale as he stepped back.
“Thi-this is serious Rosalia-san! That bastard… he’s a beater and… a clearer…!”
At his words, the expressions of all the other members hardened with shock. Scilica was surprised as well. She just stared at Kirito’s back, one which she couldn’t call wide, totally taken aback.
She knew that he was quite a high-level player after watching him fight. But she never even dreamed that he was one of the «Clearers», the elite group of top-class players who went into the frontline dungeons, where nobody had even set foot in before, and even defeated bosses. She heard that they concentrated solely on clearing SAO, and it was hard to even see them on the middle floors–
Even Rosalia stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds before she came to her senses and screamed:
“Wh-why would a clearer be wandering around here!? He probably just called himself that to scare us! What he’s wearing is just some cosplay. And– even if he really is «The Black Swordsman», he should be a pushover with this many people!!”
As if their vigor had returned with her remark, the huge axe-wielder who stood at the head of the orange players shouted:
“Ye-yeah! If he’s a clearer then he should have a lot of items and money too right!? This is a really big chance!”
All the bandits agreed and drew their weapons. The numerous bits of metal glinted with heinous light.
“Kirito onii-chan… it’s impossible to win, run!!”
Scilica shouted desperately with the crystal grasped tightly in her hand. As Rosalia had said, he wouldn’t be able to win no matter how strong he is with this many enemies. But Kirito didn’t move. He didn’t even draw his weapon.
They seemed to have taken this as a form of resignation; the nine players, which didn’t include Rosalia and the other green player, all drew their weapons and raced against each other to reach Kirito first. They stomped across the short bridge and then– “Yiaaa!!”
“Dieee!!”
They surrounded Kirito, who had his head bowed down, in a half circle before they all hit him with their weapons. Kirito’s body shook violently from the force of nine attacks.
“No–!!”
Scilica screamed as she covered her face with her hands.
“No! Stop! Kirito onii-chan’s going to, d…die!!”
But they didn’t listen.
Some of them laughed manically, while others kept swearing as they continued to attack Kirito as if they were intoxicated by the violence. Rosalia, who stood at the middle of the bridge, couldn’t stop her excitement from showing as she stared at the tragedy while licking her finger.
Scilica wiped her tears and grasped the handle of her dagger. She knew that she couldn’t do anything even if she jumped in, but she couldn’t just stand there and watch anymore. Then, just as she was about to take a step towards Kirito– she noticed something and stopped.
Kirito’s HP bar wasn’t decreasing.
No, it was merely decreasing by a little bit, despite the endless rain of blows. Yet even that was filled back up after a couple of seconds.
The bandits finally noticed that the black swordsman in front of them showed no sign of falling and their expressions became confused.
“What the hell are you guys doing!? Kill him!!”
At Rosalia’s anxious order, the blows rained down for a few more seconds. But there was no change in the situation.
“Hey… what’s going on…?”
One person made a face as if he had seen something utterly bizarre before he stopped moving and stepped back. His surprise quickly spread to the eight other members, who then stopped attacking and widened the distanced between them and Kirito.
Silence fell upon the area, and in the middle of it, Kirito slowly raised his head. A quiet voice sounded:
“–About 400 every 10 seconds? That’s the amount of damage you nine dealt to me. I’m on level 78, my HP is 14,500… add that I automatically regain 600 points every 10 seconds with «Battle Healing». You all can’t defeat me even if you keep hitting me for hours.”
The bandits stood there with their mouths wide open, as if they were in shock. Eventually, the two-handed sword user, who seemed to be the sub-leader, said in a dry voice.
“Is… is that even allowed…? It doesn’t even make any freaking sense…”
“Yeah.”
Kirito spat the words out:
“Just a difference in numbers makes such a ridiculous disparity in strength; that’s the unreasonable part of level system MMORPGs!”
The bandits stepped back, as if they were intimidated by Kirito’s voice, which seemed to hide something behind it. Their surprised faces were replaced by looks of terror.
“Che.”
Rosalia tutted and then drew out a teleport crystal from her hip. She raised it high up into the air and opened her mouth:
“Teleport–”
Even before she could even finish the sentence, the air seemed to vibrate for a split second and Kirito was then standing right in front of her.
“Ack…”
As Rosalia froze for a moment, Kirito took the crystal out of her hands, then grabbed her collar and dragged her back towards the other bandits.
“Le-let me go!! What are you trying to do you bastard!!”
Kirito threw her towards the group of bandits, who were standing there dazed, and then started rummaging through his pouch without saying a word. The crystal he took out was also blue. But the color was far deeper than a teleport crystal.
“The person who had asked me to do this bought this corridor crystal with all the money he had. He said that he set the prison area of the Black Iron Castle as the exit. So I’ll be teleporting all of you to prison, and «The Army» could cover the rest from there.”
Rosalia, who was sitting on the ground, stayed silent for a while before she smiled like it was a bluff.
“—And what if I say I don’t want to?”
“Then I will kill every single one of you.”
Her smile froze on her face at Kirito’s short answer.
“—Is what I want to say… but in that case I’ll just use this.”
Kirito took out a small dagger from the inside of his coat. One could see a vaguely green liquid on the surface of a blade by examining it carefully.
“Paralysis poison; it’s a level five poison, so you guys won’t be able to move for about ten minutes. That’ll be enough to throw you all into the corridor… Go by yourself, or be thrown in; it’s your choice.”
Nobody was bluffing now. After seeing all of them bow their heads in silence, Kirito put the knife away, raised the deep blue crystal up high, and then shouted.
“Corridor open!”
The crystal shattered in an instant and a blue whirlpool of light appeared.
“Damn it all…”
The tall axe-wielder walked into the corridor first with his shoulders sagging. The rest of the orange players then disappeared into the light one by one, some quietly, while others swore as they walked in. After the green player that gathered information followed them, the only person left was Rosalia.
The red haired bandit didn’t even try to move after all of her comrades disappeared into the corridor. She sat with her
legs folded and looked up at Kirito as if challenging him.
“…Well, have a go if you want. If you hurt a green you’ll become an orange…”
Kirito grabbed her collar before she even finished talking.
“I’ll tell you this: I’m a solo; becoming an orange for a day or two doesn’t even mean anything to me.”
Kirito spat out coldly before dragging her up and over to the corridor. Rosalia resisted as she flailed her arms and legs about.
“Wait, please, stop! Forgive me! Huh?! …Ah, right, you, won’t you work with me? With your skills we could take down any guild…”
She never finished what she was saying. Kirito threw Rosalia headfirst into the corridor. After she disappeared, the corridor shined brightly for a moment and then vanished.
Everything was calm again.
The spring field that was full of the natural sounds, of chirping birds and running water, became quiet again as if everything that just happened a few moments ago were a lie. But Scilica couldn’t move. Her surprise about Kirito’s true identity, her relief at the disappearance of the bandits, all of these emotions flooded in at once, leaving her unable to even open her mouth.
Kirito tilted his head and silently watched the speechless Scilica for a while before he finally said something in almost a whisper:
“…Sorry, Scilica. It seems I ended up using you as bait. I considered telling you about myself… but I thought that you would be scared so I didn’t.”
Scilica tried desperately to shake her head, but she couldn’t; countless thoughts spun about her mind at the same time and were overwhelming her.
“I’ll take you to the village.”
Kirito said this and began to walk. Scilica somehow managed to force her voice out towards his back.
“My—my legs won’t move.”
Kirito looked back and offered his right hand with a smile; as Scilica grabbed tightly onto his hand she could finally smile.
The two remained mostly silent until they reached the Weathercock Tavern on the thirty-fifth floor. There were lots of things that Scilica wanted to say, but she just couldn’t talk, as if there was a pebble stuck in her throat.
When they went up to the second floor and entered Kirito’s room, the red light of the sunset was already streaming in though the window. Scilica finally managed to speak with a trembling voice to Kirito, who seemed to have become a black silhouette because of the light.
“Kirito onii-chan… are you going to leave…?”
After a long silence, the silhouette nodded slowly.
“Yeah… I’ve been away from the front lines for five days already. I need to get back to clearing the game as soon as possible…”
“…I suppose you’re right…”
To tell the truth, Scilica wanted to ask him to take her with him.
But she couldn’t.
Kirito’s level is 78. Her level is 45. With a level gap of 33– the difference separating them was painfully clear. If she followed Kirito to the front lines, Scilica would be cut down in an instant. Even though they were logged into the same game, a wall higher than anything in the real life stood between their separate worlds.
“…I…I…”
Scilica bit her lip and desperately tried to hold back the emotions that threatened to overflow; two streaks of tears formed from those feelings and rolled down her cheeks.
Suddenly, she felt Kirito place his hands on her shoulders. A low and gentle voice whispered right next to her:
“Levels are just numbers. The strength in this world is nothing more than an illusion. There are things far more important than that. So let’s meet again in the real world. If we do, we’ll be able to become friends again.”
To tell the truth, Scilica wanted to lean against the black chest in front of her. But as she felt Kirito’s words spread their warmth through her bursting heart, she realized that she shouldn’t expect any more from him. She then closed her eyes and muttered:
“Okay. It’s—it’s a promise.”
She detached herself from Kirito, looked up at his face, and was finally able to smile for real. Kirito smiled as well and said:
“So, let’s call out Fina.”
“Okay!”
Scilica nodded and waved her right hand to summon the main window. She scrolled through the item inventory and took out «Fina’s Heart».
She put the sky blue feather that popped out of the window on the tea table and then took out «Pneuma’s Flower» as well.
With the pearly white flower in her hand, she closed the window and looked up at Kirito.
“All you have to do is to drip the droplet of water that’s in the middle of the flower onto the feather. Once you do that Fina’ll come back.”
“Okay…”
As she stared at the sky blue feather, Scilica whispered in her mind.
Fina… I’ll tell you lots and lots; about the amazing adventure that I had today… and about the person who saved you, who became my brother for just a day.
With tears in her eyes, Scilica tilted the flower in her right hand towards the feather.
(End)
Warmth of the Heart (Aincrad 48th Floor, June 2024)
The gigantic waterwheel spun steadily, filling the entire shop with a calming sound.
Even though this was just a small house for support-class use amongst the player-exclusive housing, its price rose like the tide because of that waterwheel. When I first found this house in the main district of the 48th floor Rindaasu, my mind suddenly went ‘this is it!’, right before its price horrified me.
From that moment on, I began to work like crazy, borrowed money from various sources, and managed to accumulate three million Coll within just two months. If this was the real world, my body would be covered in muscles from all the times I had swung my hammer, and my right hand would be full of thick calluses.
But all that paid off, as I acquired the deed just a step ahead of my competitors and opened «Lizbet’s Special Weapon Shop» at this house with the waterwheel. That happened three months ago during the cool Spring.
Part 1
After quickly drinking my morning coffee – thank god this is Aincrad – while listening to the revolving waterwheel as if its sounds were a BGM, I changed into my blacksmith uniform and glanced at my image in the full length mirror that hung on the wall.
Even though I called it a blacksmith uniform, it wasn’t anything even resembling overalls, but actually looked more like a waitress uniform: a dark red top with puffed sleeves and a flared skirt of the same color, plus a pure white apron over that and a red ribbon atop my chest.
I wasn’t the one who picked these clothes; it was actually a friend of mine who was also a regular customer. According to her, ‘you have a baby face so stiff clothes don’t suit you.’
Well that’s what she said, and I was like ‘mind your own business!’ But sales jumped twofold once I started wearing this uniform, so I had no choice but to keep wearing it.
Her advice didn’t just stop with my clothes, but even went to my hair; it was now customized to be extremely pink and fluffy. But based on the customer responses, it seemed that this look suited me.
I, blacksmith Lizbet, was fifteen when I first logged onto SAO. I heard back in the real world that I looked younger than my age, but that became even more pronounced in this world. When my pink hair, large blue eyes, and small lips combined with the old-fashioned apron, my reflection in the mirror felt almost like a doll.
Since I was a middle schooler in the other world with no interest in fashion, the gap grew even wider. Somehow I had gotten used to how I look, but since my personality doesn’t change as easily, I had scared some customers with my outbursts from time to time.
I checked if there was anything that I forgot to equip before I went to the front of the shop and flipped the ‘CLOSED’ sign. I looked at the few players that had been waiting for the shop to open, then showed them my best smile and greeted them.
“Good morni
ng! Welcome!”
Actually, it hadn’t been all that long since I was able to do this naturally.
Running a shop had been a longtime dream of mine, but doing so in a game was very different from in the real world. I experienced firsthand how hard reception and service was when I first started as a street vendor with an inn as my base.
Since keeping a smile on was too hard, I decided to win through quality, and it seemed that leveling my weaponsmithing skill like crazy was the answer, as many of my regular customers continued to peruse my weapons even after I opened this shop.
After I finished greeting them, I left the reception to my NPC clerk and holed myself up in the workshop that was attached to the store. There were about ten items that needed to be made to order today.
As soon as I pulled the lever on the wall, the bellows began using the mechanical power from the waterwheel to blow air into the furnace, and the polisher started spinning. I took out an expensive piece of metal from my inventory and stuck it in the furnace, which had began to heat up. After heating the metal enough, I moved it over to the anvil with a pair of tongs. I knelt on one knee and grasped my hammer, then called up the pop-up menu and chose the item I wanted to make. Now all I had to do was hit the chunk of metal for the designated number of times and the item would be forged. There was no technique required for this and the quality of the resulting weapon was random; but I thought that the end result depended on how much I concentrated, so I tensed all my muscles and slowly raised the hammer. Then, just when I was about to strike the metal–
“Hey, Liz!”
“Ahh!”
The door to the workshop opened loudly and I missed; instead of the metal, I struck the anvil with a pathetic clang and a spray of sparks.
As I raised my head, the intruder was scratching her head and smiling with her tongue stuck out.
“Sorry~ I’ll be careful next time.”
“I wonder how many times I’ve heard that– …Well, at least it was before I started.”
I stood up with a sigh and put the piece of metal back into the furnace before placing my hands on my hips and turning around. Then I looked up at the girl who was slightly taller than me.