“Hmmm, a place to stay. Although my village is just to the north, but as there are no travellers around here, there is no inn. But…… if you explained your circumstances, perhaps Sister Azariya would help you and let you stay in the church.”
“I-Is that so, that’s great.”
Those were my true feelings. If there was a village, it could be possible that there might be staff from RATH Diving in, or they might be monitoring the village from the outside.
“Then I’ll go to the village. Is it directly north from here?”
My gaze moved, perhaps it was in the almost opposite direction to where I came from, I saw a narrow path stretched out. However, before my feet could start moving, the boy made a gesture using his left hand to stop me.
“Ah, wait a bit. There are guards at the village, it might be difficult to explain if you suddenly went there alone. I’ll go with you and help explain the circumstances.”
“That would help a lot, thank you.”
I smiled as I thanked him, at the same time, muttered in my mind, Apparently you’re not an NPC. Your replies are too natural for the pseudo-personality program which can only act on the preset responses, and the active action toward me just now also wasn’t NPC-like.
Although I don’t know whether he Dives from the development office in Roppongi, or from the main office somewhere in the bay area, but the owner of the Fluctlight which moved the boy in front of me has a really kind personality. As soon as I escape safely, I want to thank him properly.
As I was thinking about those, the boy made a gloomy face again.
“Ah…… but, I still can’t go right now though…… As I’m still working……”
“Work?”
“Yeah. I’m on break now.”
I moved my gaze to something wrapped with cloth beside the boy’s feet, two lumps of what seemed to be part of round bread could be seen. So that’s what he held at first. The other thing was just a water canteen made from leather, a pretty simple menu for a lunch.
“Ah, did I disturb your meal?”
I shrank my neck, while the boy smiled timidly.
“If you can wait until I finish work, I’ll accompany you to ask Sister Azariya to let you stay at the church…… but it would be about four more hours.”
I actually wanted to go to the village and search for the person who could explain this situation to me as soon as possible, but the feeling that I wanted to avoid having more conversation that was like treading on a thin ice was even greater. Four hours wasn’t a short time, when thinking about the consciousness acceleration function of STL, the time in reality would elapse by about an hour and several minutes.
Also, for a reason I didn’t understand, I also felt like I wanted to talk with this kind boy a bit more. I nodded as I said,
“It’s fine, I’ll wait. I may cause you trouble, but I’ll be in your care.”
Then, a smile brighter than earlier floated onto the boy’s face as he nodded in return.
“I see, then… just sit there for a while. Ah…… I still haven’t told you my name.”
The boy extended his right hand, as he continued,
“I’m Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito-kun.”
As I grabbed his strong hand, which contrasted his slender looks, I repeated the boy’s name several times in my mouth. It wasn’t in my memories, I didn’t know what language it came from, but somehow I felt the name was familiar with my tongue for some reason.
The boy who called himself Eugeo pulled his hand back and returned to sit at the base of the great tree, before taking out the round bread from the cloth wrapping and offering it me.
“N-No, I can’t…”
I hurriedly waved my hands, but the boy showed no sign of withdrawal.
“Kirito-kun must be hungry, right? You haven’t eaten anything yet, have you?”
Just as he said, I unintentionally held my hand at my abdomen to suppress the overwhelming hunger. Even though the water from river tasted good, I couldn’t say it could fill me up.
“No… but……”
I was still refraining myself, but the hand pressed the bread forward even more, I then accepted it unavoidably. The boy —— Eugeo grinned and shrugged.
“It’s okay. Even though I said it like I want you to eat, but in truth, I don’t like this anyway.”
“……Then I’ll gratefully accept. To be honest, I’m really hungry to the point I could collapse at anytime.”
‘That’s what I thought,’ As Eugeo laughed and sat down on the root in front of the tree, I added,
“Also, just Kirito is fine.”
“Oh? Then you can just call me Eugeo too…… Ah, just wait a bit.”
Eugeo lifted his left hand to stop me from putting the round bread into my mouth.
“……?”
“Well, since it’s not the ‘Pan’ that can last long, just to be sure.”
As he said that, Eugeo’s left hand moved while his right hand held the bread up. His index and middle fingers stretched and aligned neatly with the other folded fingers. With his hand in that shape, he drew a trace which looked like the alphabets S and C in mid-air.
In front of me, who was watching dumbfounded, his two fingers tapped lightly on the bread, made a strange metal striking sound, and a pale purple translucent rectangle appeared. Its width was about fifteen centimeters, while the height was about eight centimeters. According to my knowledge, this familiar looking four-angled shape, along with the alphabets and Arabic numerals being displayed on it using a simple font, I could understand it right away. This was —— without a doubt, the so-called «Status Window».
With my mouth left opened, I muttered in my brain.
——Then it’s concluded. This place isn’t reality nor the real other world, but the virtual world.
My body felt lightened with relief as soon as that acknowledgement had settled down at the bottom of my abdomen. Now I’m ninety-nine percent convinced, really, without this clear evidence, the anxiety would eat up my whole body.
While the circumstances about the Dive still remains unknown, in the meantime, better get used to this virtual world and enjoy the situation. First off, I should try calling out that window, I stretched two fingers of my left hand straight.
I imitated what I saw by tracing the S and C shape, fearfully tapping my bread, resulting in a sound resembling that of a bell’s, and a purple window floated up. I brought my face close and gazed at it.
The displayed string of characters was unusually simple. It was just [Durability: 7]. I could easily understand that it was the endurance value of this bread. As I thought what would happen when the value reached zero while gazing at the figure; in front of me, Eugeo doubtfully asked,
“Hey, Kirito. Don’t tell me this is the first time you see the sacred arts of «Stacia Window»?”
When I lifted my face, I saw Eugeo with his head tilted as he held the bread in one hand, his window had already disappeared. I quickly made a face that looked like ‘Don’t say something nonsensical like that.’ When I touched the surface of the window, it turned into grains of light and scattered away, I felt slightly relieved.
Fortunately, Eugeo didn’t show any more doubt and nodded.
“There’s still quite a lot of «Life» left, so there’s no need to hurry eating it. But if this is summer, it wouldn’t have this much remaining though.”
Perhaps the «Life» he mentioned is the number displayed next to the item’s durability, and the status window displaying those is called «Stacia Window». Seeing the action command that called the window out being declared as sacred arts, Eugeo wouldn’t know that was the function of the system, but acknowledged them as a religious or magical phenomenon.
There’re still many things to think about, but better shelve them for now and deal with my near-term hunger first.
“Then, itadakimasu.”
I brought the bread into my opened mouth as soon as I finished saying that, but the hardness of the bread
caused my eyes to darken. However, I couldn’t spit it out either, so I forcefully bit and tore it off. I was unintentionally impressed by the sense of wobbling teeth in this realistic virtual world.
It was similar or perhaps even harder than the whole grain bread bought by my younger sister, Suguha. The hungry me operated my chin to chew the thing which was crunchier than necessary, although its taste was passable. With some butter, or a slice of cheese…… no, just grilling it a little bit should be much better, as I thought various ungrateful things, Eugeo, who also frowned while bitting the bread, said as he gave a bitter smile.
“It’s not very good, right?”
I hurriedly shook my head.
“N-No, it’s not like that.”
“It’s fine, no need to force yourself. I usually buy them from the Pan shop in the village before leaving, but as I leave in the early morning so they only had the Pan left over from yesterday for sale. At noon, I don’t have enough time to go back to the village either……”
“Heh…… Then it should be better to bring a boxed-lunch from home……”
To my casual words, Eugeo lowered his eyes with the bread in his hand. I shrank my neck unsure if I blurted something rude, fortunately, he soon lifted up his face and gave a little smile.
“A very longgg time ago…… at noon, there was a person who would bring a boxed-lunch here. But now……”
The green pupils shook, they were filled with a great sense of loss, in that moment, I forgot that this was the artificial world as I leaned my body forward.
“That person… what happened……?”
After I asked, Eugeo looked toward the treetop far above his head in silence for a while, then he slowly moved his lips,
“……The childhood friend. The girl, who was the same age as me…… we were always playing together from morning until evening since we were young. Even after I was given the Sacred Task, she would still bring boxed-lunch here everyday…… But… six years ago…… during my eleventh summer, the Integrity Knight came to our village…… and took her to the capital……”
Integrity Knight. Capital.
Those words of unknown nature were the kind that bore the mark of those who maintained the regularity and the capital of this world, I stayed silent to encourage him to continue.
“It was…… my fault. On one rest day, we both went to explore the northern cave…… but we got lost on the way back and ended up on the other side of the Mountain range at the Edge. You know, right? The Dark Territory where it was written in the Taboo Index not to set our foot on. Although I didn’t exit the cave, she tripped and her palm pressed on the ground outside…… But just because of that… the Integrity Knight came to the village and tied her up in chains in front of everyone……”
Eugeo crushed the half-eaten bread in his right hand.
“……I wanted to help her. I thought it was fine if he took me along with her, and planned to use the axe to attack him…… but… hands too… feet too… I couldn’t move them. All I did was just… watch her being taken away… without saying anything……”
His face was void of expression as he gazed up into the sky for a while, soon after, a faint self-deprecating smile floated to his lips. He then tossed the crushed bread into his mouth and chewed it while looking downward.
I didn’t know what I should say, so I also took a bite of the bread, and thought as I chewed with all my strength.
The existence of the status window proved that this is a virtual world created by the realistic technology, it could be some experiment by someone. However, why did such an «Event» like this happen? After I swallowed the bread, I hesitantly asked,
“……Do you know what happened to her……?”
Eugeo shook his head slightly as he faced downward.
“The Integrity Knight said she’d be executed after the interrogation…… But, what kind of execution, I don’t know. I once… heard from her father, the village chief Gasupht…… that she is already dead…… ——But Kirito, I believe that she’s still alive.”
The next moment,
“Alice is… definitely alive and is somewhere in the capital……”
I inhaled sharply the moment I heard that name.
Again, I felt a strange feeling running in the center of my head. A sense of irritation. A sense of loneliness. And more than those, a sense of nostalgia that shook my soul——
It’s just my delusion. I persuaded myself like that, It’s just what remained after the shock. There is no reason for me to have a personal relationship with Eugeo’s childhood friend, or in other words, «Alice» who is the inhabitant of this world. Surely it was just the reaction to the common noun Alice. Yes —— didn’t Asuna told me yesterday at Dicey Café? «RATH», the company which developed the STL, and the virtual world «Underworld», weren’t those names taken from the novel [Alice in Wonderland]?
Her name fitting with the other two names is a surprising coincidence, there might be a meaning behind it. Also, I noticed another piece of information from Eugeo’s words.
Just now he said six years ago, when he was eleven. It means that he’s now seventeen, but that’s just too long —— his manner of speech is like he has all the memories of those ten years of life, just like me.
But something like that can’t be possible. From what I’ve been told, the Fluctlight acceleration function could speed up to three time, in order to simulate this world for seventeen years, it would require six years in the real world. However, it shouldn’t have been three months since the roll-out of the STL experimental machine yet.
What should I think about this?
This isn’t the STL I know, but inside of an unknown FullDive machine, moreover, it has been running for seventeen years. Or, maybe what I’ve heard about the FLA function being three times was a mistake, and it actually could accelerate more than thirty times. But either of them is equally unbelievable.
Inside my head, anxiety and curiosity were rapidly expanding. I wanted to log out right now and ask the person outside to explain the situation, on the other hand, I also wanted to stay inside and continue chasing after the questions.
After I swallowed the last piece of the bread, I fearfully asked Eugeo,
“Then…… don’t you want to go looking for her? At that… capital.”
I thought ‘Crap,’ right after I asked that. As my words pulled out an unexpected reaction from Eugeo.
The light brown haired boy looked at my face absentmindedly for several seconds, soon after, he whispered ‘Unbelievable.’
“……This Rulid village is at the north edge of the northern empire. Going to the capital to the south, even if we used a fast horse it would still take a week. If we walked, it’ll take two days to reach the closest town, Zakkaria. It’s impossible to reach that place even I leave the village on the dawn of a rest day.”
“Then…… just make some proper preparations for a long journey……”
“Hey Kirito… You look similarly aged as me, weren’t you given a Sacred Task at the village you live in? Abandoning the Sacred Task and going out on a travel isn’t something we can do, is it?”
“……T-That’s true.”
While I was nodding, I carefully observed Eugeo’s reactions.
It’s obvious from the start that this boy isn’t just a simple NPC. From his abundant of expressions and his natural replies, he couldn’t be anything but a real human.
But at the same time, his actions seemed to be bound to the absolute rules which is more effective than the law in the real world. Yes, it’s similar to how the NPC in VRMMO can’t deviate from within their movement boundary.
Eugeo said he wasn’t arrested because he didn’t trespass into the area restricted by the «Taboo Index». In other words, that Index is the absolute rules which binds him, perhaps it has direct control over Fluctlight. While I don’t know what his Sacred Task…, no, what his occupation is, but I couldn’t imagine what job would be more important than the lif
e and death of the girl who was always together with him since birth.
To confirm it, I carefully selected my words and asked Eugeo, who was drinking from the water canteen,
“Umm, in Eugeo’s village, other than Alice-san, is there anyone else who broke the Taboo…… Index and was taken to the capital?”
Eugeo made rounded eyes again, before wiping his mouth and shaking his head.
“Nope. In the three hundred years history of Rulid, the only time the Integrity Knight ever came to the village was six years ago, this is what Garitta-jiisan said.”
As he finished his words, he passed me the leather canteen. I received it and pulled off the cork-like plug after thanking him. I then brought it to my mouth and drank the liquid, which wasn’t cold but had a fragrance, as if it was mixed with lemon and herb. After three gulps, I returned the canteen to Eugeo.
While I wiped my mouth with an innocent look, the insides of my chest was blown by the storm of surprise for god knew how many times.
————Three hundred years!?
Without the so-called «Setting», but instead, actually simulating that long period, then the actual speed of the FLA function should be several hundred times…… or might even reach a thousand times. In that case, if that rate was applied during my continuous Dive test on the first weekend, how much time could I actually feel inside? At the same time I shuddered, I felt light goosebumps on my arms, but I didn’t have time to admire that realistic physiological reaction.
As I obtained more information, the mystery seemed even more complex. Is Eugeo actually a human, or a program? Also, what exactly is the purpose of creating this world——
I couldn’t know more than this without going to the village Eugeo calls Rulid, and make a contact with other people. From there, it’d be great if I could meet people from RATH who knows of the situation…… As I thought so, I somehow managed to smile before saying to Eugeo,
“Thanks for the food. But I’m sorry I took half of your lunch.”
“No, don’t worry. I’m quite sick of that Pan anyway.”
He replied with a very natural smile as he quickly collected the lunch wrapping.