“So…what do we do n…” I started, then realized that I hadn’t checked something with her first. “Er, I mean…if you want to go, I’m not going to hold you back.”
My temporary partner looked surprised at that, so I added, “I mean…if you got formally invited to the Christmas send-off party and you’re refusing because of me, you don’t need to—”
“Oh, that?” she interrupted, cutting me short. She snorted. “No, don’t bother yourself. I had no intention of going from the start. I’m not one for flashy parties.”
“O-oh, I see. Well, then…umm…”
Before I could suggest that we clear up two or three quests and level up before nightfall, I stopped myself.
I had no particular attachment to Christmas Eve, but that didn’t necessarily hold true for Asuna. She knew what day it was—and talented fencer though she might be, she was still a young woman…I thought.
“…Do you…want to try it here?”
“Try what?”
“Having our own…Christmassy thing.”
The fencer stared right into me, her eyebrows tensing, as if simulating several possible answers. She ended up choosing the turn-your-head-away-in-a-huff response.
“N-no, that’s not necessary. I don’t have anything prepared…and it just doesn’t feel like Christmas in this tropical island village.”
For a moment, I almost thought the weather-controlling system heard her. The onslaught of golden afternoon light abruptly dimmed, and the sparkling blue surface of the lake went a cloudy gray. A chilly wind from across the lake rustled her long hair.
“N-no way,” she whispered. I followed her gaze.
There was a tiny white dot falling silently from the cloudy sky.
It caught the breeze and wandered over through the open terrace of the restaurant to land on my gloved hand. The white dot melted promptly, leaving a tiny chill on the palm of my hand.
Then came another and another. Seen there were countless white points dancing in the air.
“…It’s snow…” I mumbled. True, it was December, but I’d never seen snow in Aincrad before. In fact, I’d hardly ever felt what I would call a wintry chill.
According to what I read in an article before the game trapped me inside, SAO was supposed to re-create the actual season outside, depending on which floor one was on. But the fourth floor couldn’t be one of those specially aligned ones. This snow must be from a special holiday event, just for Christmas.
Soon the huts of dried tropical grasses were white with snow. Some NPC children raced along the nearby walkway, giggling and screaming.
As I took in the surreal sight of the tropical island turning to a winter wonderland, I heard a reluctant sigh from beside me.
“Why did it have to do this…?”
I looked back to see Asuna watching the snow with wide-open eyes. I couldn’t possibly read the expression on her face.
At the very least, I knew that the little white flurry dancing past her light brown eyes was beautiful. Eventually, she noticed me staring at her and blinked several times.
“…Just when we escaped the main city and came here, so I could avoid thinking about Christmas,” she mumbled. “It’s not fair.”
“Huh…? You were trying not to think about it? But…didn’t you say…?”
I pressed my fingers to my temples and dredged up my memory of a conversation from nearly two weeks ago.
“Didn’t you say that it might snow on Christmas, when we were tackling the second-floor labyrinth?”
She pursed her lips in mild embarrassment. “I’m surprised you remember that. Maybe I did say that, but I’m in no mood to enjoy the holiday given the circumstances. We should be pushing farther rather than throwing parties. Besides, you didn’t even bring it up until just minutes ago.”
“Huh? Bring…what up…?”
As soon as I asked, she gave me a dirty look. “If you wanted to have a Christmas event, you should have told me a few days earlier, so I could have prepared. And if you’re not going to bring it up until the day, it’s only natural to assume you weren’t interested in that.”
“Huh? Prepare…?”
“Prepare what?” I wanted to ask, but I already knew the answer. The three essential elements to any Japanese Christmas celebration were fried chicken, cake, and presents. The first two could be arranged at an NPC shop, but not the presents.
I didn’t have a single considerate item that Asuna might be happy to receive in my inventory, of course, so bringing up the suggestion of a Christmas party was not to be taken lightly.
Then again, if I really inspected my entire item list, there might be a surprise here or there, I thought stubbornly, but it was a meaningless idea. When Asuna said she didn’t have anything prepared, she had to be talking about a Christmas present, and knowing her perfectionist nature, she would not want to settle for picking out a present from her unwanted leftovers, rather than something conceived as a gift from the start.
Besides, it was clear from Asuna’s explanations that she was pretending to shun the big Christmas party in town and focus on the game as a rationale because I hadn’t said anything about the holiday before now.
“…It’s my fault. I’m sorry,” I said automatically.
“Huh…? N-no, you don’t need to apologize,” she said, surprised. But I kept my head bowed low.
“No. I brought up Christmas on the second floor and then forgot all about it by the time we got here—it’s messed up. If we can’t take our mind off the game for this day, at the very least…”
“This is…kind of throwing me off,” she said awkwardly. I looked up, half-afraid of what I would see. She shrugged and didn’t really look that angry. “Listen, if I really wanted to have a Christmas thing, I should have spoken up about it. But I didn’t, so you don’t need to apologize to me. I’m happy just seeing all of this.”
I looked out at the village again. The steadily falling snow was already piling up two inches high, which made it look like the village of Usco itself was faintly glowing.
It did put me in a traveling mind, but I knew that if snow was falling all over Aincrad, there must be better views for it. The stunning setting of Rovia was no doubt improved even more with a coating of snow, and there would be beauty to spare in the forest city of Zumfut, Urbus nestled in its mountain, and even the Town of Beginnings at the very bottom.
But while it would be easy to travel between these cities with the teleporter, getting back to the gate was too far a distance. We’d have to travel across nearly half of the six-mile-wide floor to get to the gate, and it would be surrounded by all the members of the DKB and ALS in the midst of their party. Now wasn’t the time to show up in their midst.
We’d have to find someplace here on the fourth floor to be the setting for our white Christmas…
Suddenly, an image flashed into my head.
A place I visited in the beta. A dusty building jutting alone out of a wide, wasted landscape of sand and rocks. But there were no more dry, dirty wastelands on this floor anymore. Yes, that spot would do…
“…Hey, Asuna.”
“What?”
She tilted her head toward me. I cast my hesitation aside and made my suggestion.
“It’s not something physical I can give you…but there is something I’d like to give you, to make up for it…”
“…”
She stared at me with large eyes for a few long moments, then mumbled, “Well, you’re free to offer it. Just don’t expect anything in return.”
We refueled on consumable items in snowy Usco and went ahead with accepting quests, then set off in the Tilnel again through the falling powder.
If this was happening in the real world, there would be plenty of discomfort: too cold, not enough visibility, snow piling up in the gondola. But in the virtual world, the worst that happened was slightly worse vision and nothing that interfered with our rowing. The boat passed through the evening crescent lake and to the river that exite
d to the south.
There was no hint of monsters in the water, either due to it being Christmas Eve or just too cold with all the snow. I used that to my advantage to pick up the speed, and we slid smoothly over the placid surface.
Eventually the shape of a faded gray tower loomed in the far distance. It was the labyrinth tower at the south tip of the floor, the means by which we would reach the next floor up. It was still nearly two miles away, but the menace of the boss waiting on its highest level emanated out to prickle the skin.
“You aren’t taking me there, are you?” Asuna turned around to ask me. I quickly shook my head.
“N-no. Our destination’s over here,” I said, pointing out the southeast branch of a fork in the river up ahead.
Eventually the cliffs standing tall over us on either side began to change color. The blackened basalt-style rock featured fine horizontal lines carved right across like engraving. Using my memory of the beta and the map in my menu, I took us left and right through several branches in the river.
About an hour after we left Usco, our way was blocked by a nearly pure white wall at the end of a dimming valley.
“Hey, it’s a dead end!” Asuna shouted, but I only put more strength into my rowing.
“Don’t worry—that’s where we’re headed!”
“B-but I can’t see what’s ahead. What if there’s a wall—?”
“We’re fine! It’s just normal mist…Well, not normal exactly.”
She turned back, skepticism on her face. I grinned at her and shot the Tilnel right into the thick white fog.
Within seconds, I couldn’t even see Asuna sitting seven feet ahead of me. When I sucked in a deep breath, the chilly dampness of the air contained the fresh, lively scent of forest.
“Huh…?! Wait, is this mist actually—”
She couldn’t even finish before the mist abruptly cleared away, restoring our view.
It was a great circular lake, several times larger than the caldera lake where we fought the Biceps Archelon. The falling snow dyed most of the surface white. I pulled the oar out from the water and let the ship coast forward.
As the Tilnel silently glided through a world of white, a black silhouette eventually appeared ahead.
It was a fearsome and grand palace…no, fortress, standing tall in the middle of the lake. Four towers of differing heights stood over the roof of the building thick with snow, each one waving a triangular pennant. They featured a crossed horn and scimitar on a black field.
“Is that…the Dark Elf flag?!” Asuna cried, her voice ragged with surprise and hope.
I already knew that there was a Dark Elf fortress here. In the beta test, the “Elf War” campaign quest resumed here with another series of brief duties before ending in a long dungeon that carried the story over to the next floor.
But here in the retail game, there were already major differences from what I remembered. The Fallen Elves were making deals with the Water Carriers Guild in town to buy huge quantities of lumber, and a shadowy figure named General N’ltzahh was overseeing their operation. These things were not present in the beta.
Because of that, I was planning to only visit this fortress once I had collected as much related information as I could. But given that we’d already passed the field boss’s lair on the fourth day on this floor, we’d be heading into the labyrinth tower much quicker than on the second or third floors. Asuna and I were probably the only people actively following the Elf War questline among the frontline group now, so if we didn’t act with haste, the two guilds would pass by and leave us behind.
But this reason might have been nothing but an excuse. I just wanted to show my partner this sight.
“…It’s beautiful,” Asuna murmured, staring at the snowy castle as we approached. “More beautiful than any castle I’ve seen in real life.”
“Are you talking about…so-and-so’s castle at the theme park? Or the real thing in Europe…?” I asked carefully. She smiled and didn’t elaborate.
Castles were a fantasy RPG staple, but this might have been the first proper castle in Aincrad so far. The building’s design was about the same as in the beta, but the impression it left was completely different now that it was in the midst of a picturesque lake, rather than a flat, dried basin. Especially on Christmas Eve frosted with a layer of snow.
The Dark Elf army fortress was walled with white stone, its steeply angled roof gray slate tile. Orange light spilled from its countless arched windows, a perfect counterbalance to the indigo gloom of evening. The building itself was completely isolated from the surrounding land, and several large black gondolas were moored at the long pier straight outside the front gate.
Guided by a lantern emitting bluish light at the tip of the pier, I slid the Tilnel into an empty space along the dock. No alarms had sounded or guards had come running yet.
I stashed away the oar and leaped onto the stone pier, then turned to catch the expertly tossed rope and place it over the bronze bitt. Asuna reached over for a helping hand to step off, and we walked to the middle of the pier for a better look.
The front gate was still a distance away, but the castle’s grand visage was clear to behold. The highest of the towers had to be more than a hundred and fifty feet off the ground. The scale of the structure rivaled that of the giant baobabs that made up the city on the third floor.
Orange light from the windows spilled onto countless roofs, peaks, and eaves. I stared at the fantastical sight until a small voice hit my ears.
“…Thank you. It’s a wonderful present.”
“Well…as long as you think so, it was worth rowing across the entire floor to see…”
I glanced over at her and grinned.
“But that’s only half of the present.”
“Oh…?”
I put a hand on her back and gently pushed, urging her on. She would figure it out before long, so I had to rush my perceptive partner along to preserve the surprise.
Ahead on the pier was a massive gate made of dark and gleaming plates of thick metal, with very large, heavily armed (by elvish standards) guards on either side. I took one look at their stunningly long halberds and had to steel myself to push onward.
The moment I came within twenty feet of the gate, the right guard barked, “Halt!”
Meanwhile, the left one said, “This place is not for humankind!”
They crossed their halberds in midair. I was relieved to recognize the same lines of dialogue from the beta and pulled out what I had prepared from my belt pouch and held it aloft.
“My name is Kirito! I request an audience with the master of this castle!”
The dialogue probably wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to play the part, so I stifled my embarrassment and pushed forward with it.
The two guards looked at the sealed scroll I held aloft, bearing the same seal as the one on the castle flags—the invitation given to us by the commander of the Dark Elf forces on the third floor. Their halberds clanked back to a standing state.
The next moment, the massive metal gate split open with a deep rumble. I breathed a sigh of relief and nudged Asuna into the castle grounds.
The next moment, a cry of surprise escaped her lips.
“Ooohh!!”
The castle’s front garden enveloped us with all the beauty of a great work of art. Trees, planters, and cast-iron fences all frosted with powdery snow were glittering in the light of the lamps. The long approach to the castle doors was absolutely pristine—not a single footprint. I almost didn’t want to step onto it.
If everything was the same as in the beta, we’d be able to walk freely about the castle. Between the dining hall, the various stores, and even the dungeon-like cells, there was plenty worth exploring, but our first destination was already set in stone.
We opened the door and walked inside. Asuna exlaimed in wonder again.
In the center of the main hall with its red rugs was a marble fountain filled with glittering water. Beyond that was a grand
staircase, and wide hallways extended to the left and right. Familiar Dark Elf NPCs glided forward on the sound of unseen violins, but unlike on the third floor, very few of these elves had weapons.
“I don’t see any players,” Asuna remarked, then nodded to herself. “But of course there aren’t. That wall of mist we passed through to get to the lake was switching us to an instance map, wasn’t it?”
“Good answer. We will never run across another player here, so we’re free to laugh and scream and sing all we want.”
“I-I wasn’t going to do any of that. Anyways, let’s take a look around,” she said, her aggrieved look giving way to excitement as she tugged on my sleeve.
“Sure thing, but I already know our first destination: this way.”
I pulled her hooded cape in return and dragged her down the hallway to the right.
Yofel Castle, the Dark Elf fortress, was laid out in such a way that the main building connected the four main towers in the shape of a rectangle with one open side. For the most part, the right side of the castle was a station for soldiers, while the left side housed the castle’s inhabitants and servants. But I wanted the center courtyard.
We walked down the hallway past several soldiers, then turned left at a corner. I found a small door straight ahead and softly pushed it open.
Back out in the open air, we were met by a place less dazzling than the front garden, but somehow much more mysterious and sacred. Thorny hedges sprouting little black flowers blocked the way left and right like a maze, preventing us from seeing farther ahead.
We walked over the snowy cobblestones with the pale lantern light as a guide. I could see that someone had left footsteps down the center of the path. Asuna and I shared a look, and we hurried along the trail before the falling snow covered the tracks.
When we had passed through the thorny maze, we ended up in a beautiful garden surrounding a stunning conifer. Brick flower planters and bronze benches alternated around the tree. Its jutting branches kept the snow back, so the footprints disappeared near the entrance to the garden.