Kizmel noticed my stunned silence and said matter-of-factly, “I knocked them all into the lake and broke their oars.”
A quick examination of the water around the ship showed a fair amount of splashing indeed, as the soldiers swam away for safety. Clearly, the soldiers knocked into the water were following an algorithm that told them to withdraw. After a while, they all began swimming away to the north.
There were still five or six enemies left on the right ship, but there was no way to move it anymore. I put my sword away and picked up the Tilnel's oar, guiding it between the enemy ships and back to a point where we could see the main confrontation.
At this point, there were six ships standing for the Dark Elves, and eight in an active state for the Forest Elves. Not only were the overall numbers much closer, but with most of them engaged in shipboard combat now, there was little threat to the Dark Elf ships themselves.
“Good...Let’s sink the enemy flagship before we get into another battering ram battle!” I urged Asuna and Kizmel, turning the Tilnel hard starboard.
About a hundred yards from the castle deck, where most of the naval combat was happening, the six remaining Dark Elf ships and an equal number of Forest Elf ships were lined up east to west, their sides pressed together so that fighters could engage in battle. The Dark Elves were clearly on the losing end, but they would hold up for a little while yet.
The two remaining Forest Elven ships were situated to the rear. At the head of the flagship stood the commander in glorious silver armor and flowing white cape, his arms crossed. He didn’t seem concerned with us, despite the fact that we’d neutralized his three-ship swing force.
If he assumed that his forces were going to emerge triumphant, we could use his carelessness to ram the ship successfully.
“Asuna, Kizmel, let’s do the usual,” I suggested, and pulled the folded Argyro’s Sheet from the rear of the boat. I didn’t know if the same trick would work again, but there was no harm in being prepared. When the three of us spread the sheet over the Tilnel, it plunged the interior into darkness, but enough light got through the thin fabric to give us a view of the outside.
“...Gonna approach nice and slow,” I whispered, moving the oar gently. I was afraid of the sheet being ripped off if we went too fast, so I sent us toward the flagship as quickly but carefully as I could manage.
Another twenty yards closer, and we’d take off the sheet and charge. We inched closer, closer...
But just when we were within five yards of the ambush point, the Forest Elf commander pulled his sword from his waist.
“Crap!”
“Did he spot us?!”
Asuna and I tensed up, and Kizmel carefully placed her hand on the hilt of her saber. But the commander’s longsword was pointed not at the concealed Tilnel.
“Now! Ships one and two, begin the charge! Ships five and six, clear a path!!”
His voice echoed over the lake like thunder. Suddenly, out of the six Forest Elf ships engaged in combat, the two middle ones split to the sides.
That left two Dark Elf ships with their sides completely exposed, including the flagship.
“Oh no!” I exclaimed, quickly tearing the Argyro’s Sheet off the boat and stuffing it into the space at the stern. Even as I did that, two Forest Elven ships were plunging toward the helpless Dark Elf boats.
“Stop that at once!” Asuna fumed as I rowed madly. The Tilnel sent up white wake in pursuit, but the Forest Elf flagship had at least a twenty-yard head start on us.
“We’re not going to make it in time,” Kizmel commented.
Two seconds later, the enemy flagship’s crude ram crushed a hole in the Dark Elven flagship’s beautiful hull in a deafening crash.
Just an instant later, the second enemy ship collided with the other Dark Elf boat. The two victimized ships took on water through the massive holes in their sides and began to sink.
“Damn youuuuuu!!”
The Dark Elf commander roared with sheer loathing as he fell into the water. Upon a second glance, the Dark Elves who had fallen into the water over the course of the battle were all treading water in place. Unlike the Forest Elves, they were not swimming toward a particular place, but it seemed to expose a similar rule: Once they had fallen into the water in this battle event, the system did not allow them to rejoin the fight.
Even after his perfectly timed maneuver had destroyed the Dark Elf flagship and its cohort, the Forest Elf commander did not rest. He raised his sword again.
“Ships one and two, forward! All soldiers, prepare for landfall!”
“Ugh,” I grunted. I used all of my strength to row, but the two enemy ships were already proceeding through the new hole in the formation before the Tilnel could catch up. Nothing stood in their way to the castle pier now.
“Damn! We’ve got to make our way through that hole, too!” I announced, but the Forest Elf ships that had made way for their flagship to pass through were now returning to their positions in the line. The gap grew smaller by the moment, but it was too late for us to pull back now.
“Nuaaah!” I roared, using 120 percent of my strength to paddle. The tip of the Tilnel plunged into the tiny space remaining.
The keels of the enemy ships and the port and starboard sides of our boat made contact with an ugly scraping sound. In the upper left, the ship’s durability gauge dropped from 80 percent to 70. But with its expensive materials that had cost Asuna and me our willpower and stamina to collect, and the best skills of old man Romolo, the Tilnel pried its way through the blockade of the much larger gondolas and pushed onward.
“We’re through!”
“You can do it, Kirito!”
Asuna and Kizmel’s encouragement gave me a second wind of energy that put a snap back into my rowing. Now that we were moving quickly again, the two ships ahead of us were a good fifty yards away. It wasn’t clear that we’d be able to catch up to them in time.
Under a minute later, my fears were confirmed. The two ships made contact with the dock while we were still twenty yards behind.
Twenty soldiers, including the commander, leaped onto the dock with a roar. Ahead of the mass of Forest Elves was-a group of just six Dark Elf guards at the castle gate. It seemed like they ought to be able to just lock the gates and stay inside, but even those sturdy-looking doors wouldn’t last long in these circumstances.
“Can’t the priests help, Kizmel?! Don’t they have magic...er, charms they can cast?!” Asuna asked in a panic, but the Dark Elf only shook her head.
“I’m afraid the priests stationed in the castle are merely officials with no combat experience. They must be locked up in secret rooms underground, trembling with fear by now.”
“No...”
Asuna bit her lip. I kept up my rowing at max power and asked a different question.
“What about the viscount and children?! Are they in hiding with the priests?!”
“...I do not know...After all, Yofel Castle has never fallen since ancient times. I cannot guess what decisions the viscount will make.”
Though it was easy to forget, if Asuna and I were progressing through the “Elf War” questline properly, Kizmel shouldn’t have been present. So unlike the other soldiers here, she wasn’t given a specific role in the fight and could therefore act freely with us.
But what about Viscount Yofilis?
He was a master with the rapier, but couldn’t be exposed to strong sunlight due to his illness, so he was stuck in his pitch-black office during the daytime. I had figured that piece of background was unrelated to this event, because it seemed apparent that the moment the Forest Elves touched down on the castle dock, we had failed the battle event.
But as a matter of fact, the battle wasn’t over when the twenty elves reached the dock. The four remaining Dark Elf ships were fighting hard to prevent any further units from breaking through, and the six guards at the gate ahead were bravely brandishing their spears.
There had to be a way to find victory yet
within these dire circumstances.
Though I had no proof, I couldn’t help but feel that Yofilis was that key to victory. There were too many mysteries surrounding him. Enough that they could easily support a longer questline...
“Asuna, Kizmel!” I called to my companions. “We’re going to cut the Forest Elves off!”
“All right!”
“It’s in your hands!”
I sent the ship racing along the pier. We passed the ranks of advancing elven soldiers and put on the brakes once the Tilnel was just near the castle gate. I leaped onto the pier–no time to drop anchor.
The six ally spearmen were standing firm before the gate in a straight line that was as wide as the pier. The enemy had formed three similar lines of six, with the commander in the rear and a caped swordsman who appeared to be his aide. I stared at the ranks of marching soldiers with their longswords and shields, and a color cursor popped up.
The cursor that popped up was redder than those of the swordsmen and spearmen we’d fought until now. Their title was Forest Elven Light Warrior–a bit more imposing. It seemed the soldiers aboard the flagship and its companion vessel were a rank higher than the norm.
On the other hand, our castle guards were Dark Elven gatekeepers. I didn’t know if that was higher or lower than a light warrior, but our inferiority in numbers was apparent. The three of us lined up certainly couldn’t block the entire pier, and we couldn’t prevent the guards from being overwhelmed by three times their number of Forest Elves. On top of that, the naval battle wouldn’t hold out much longer. If the four remaining Dark Elf ships crumbled, the enemy would have reinforcements soon.
Did we trust that we could persevere and fight here?
Or follow my baseless instinct?
After an instant of indecision, I made up my mind.
“You two, hold out here for just five minutes!”
“What about you, Kirito?!” Asuna asked, looking worried. I wasted no time in reassuring her.
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to call for backup. Don’t push it, though. If you’re in danger, run away for safety at once!”
I struck their shoulders bracingly and passed between them to run toward the back. As I approached the compact line of Dark Elf guards, I held the sparkling sigil ring high in the air.
“Let me through!”
The miracle power of the Sigil of Lyusula caused the guards to part down the center and the gate behind them to crack open just a bit. When rowing the gondola, I was using all of my strength stat, but now I let my agility number do the talking and raced through the castle gate and the front garden as the doors rumbled shut behind me.
Once I had pushed my way through the castle door, the interior was dead silent. Even the maids and nobles had gone into hiding.
If the viscount himself had evacuated for another location, this was all for nothing. But I could do nothing but trust that it would work out. I raced through the entrance hall to the great stairs and up to the top floor.
By the time I reached the fifth floor of the castle, one of the five minutes I had promised Asuna and Kizmel was gone. I took a hard right corner with my body tilted over and saw the great door at the end of the hall, but the guards were no longer there. I put on the brakes just in front of the door, a sinking feeling in my chest.
“My lord, I wish to enter!” I shouted. After several endless seconds, that odd voice sounded from behind the door.
“Come in.”
I pushed the door open and stepped into the spacious office. As usual, the only light was the tiny lamp on the desk, and I couldn’t see where I was stepping. But given that I had passed through here several times to turn in quests, I was familiar enough with it to quickly cross the room and stop before the desk.
I ran all the way to this spot on a hunch, but I had no idea what to say when the moment came. For one thing, the viscount was not an NPC with a high-functioning AI like Kizmel. He probably wouldn’t even respond properly unless I used terms that matched his database...and yet, before I could even speak, his calm voice sounded from the darkness beyond the lamp.
“It seems the battle is going poorly.”
I nodded and explained the situation. “Y-yes, my lord. Four of our ships have been sunk, including the flagship, and the enemy forces are on the castle pier.”
“I see...Then it is only a matter of time until the enemy reaches this point.”
“...At this rate, it could be twenty...no, fifteen minutes.”
“Then I shall wait for them here. Warrior of humankind, your assistance is appreciated. Take your companions and leave this castle.”
Two minutes had passed. If I was going to keep my promise to Asuna, I had to be out of this room and heading downstairs within another two minutes. I clenched my fists, trying to quell my rising panic.
“From the very start, the Dark Elven morale has been inferior to the Forest Elves’. I believe this stems from the lack of their true battle commander.”
“Ahh. And who would their true commander be?”
“You, my lord.”
I thought I detected a self-deprecating smile at my blunt answer, but that could have been my imagination.
His right hand extended from the darkness and tapped the blackwood desk twice.
“...I’m afraid that is not possible. It might be hard for a young human like you to understand, but if you fight eternally, defeat is guaranteed to arrive eventually. If Yofel Castle is fated to fall today, and I to the enemy’s blades, then such is the guidance of the Holy Tree. The people of Lyusula must accept that fate.”
There was such deep resignation in his sonorous voice that I could not believe it was a prewritten line of dialogue.
I unclenched my balled fists and stretched the fingers, then clenched them again with all of my strength.
“My lord, your soldiers are still fighting now! They must be waiting to hear the voice of their liege. Kizmel explained your illness to me. If you are going to wait for death in the darkness, why not venture outside so that you can deliver a final message to your guards?!”
I expected my plea would go in vain. I must have missed some kind of quest related to the viscount’s illness. Maybe if I’d completed it, he could have overcome his aversion to powerful light and gloriously led the Dark Elven troops into battle, rather than leaving it to that haughty, useless commander...
As I expected, the castle’s master had no response for quite some time. When the three-minute mark passed, I realized that my instincts were wrong and started to turn to leave the room.
But then–
“Young human. Answer just one question.”
I turned to see that a golden ? mark was floating in the darkness. Some kind of quest had just begun. As I held my breath, I felt a clear, colorless gaze with a hidden strength pierce my soul.
“Why do you lend your aid to the people of Lyusula and not Kales’Oh?”
It was such a simple question that I had no immediate answer. Telling him that it was “because we were playing the Dark Elf faction of the campaign” wasn’t a real answer.
When faced with the opening of the “Jade Key” quest on the third floor, Asuna and I chose the Dark Elf champion–Kizmel– without much debate. It was because I had done that in the beta. At the core, that’s all it came down to.
“At first...I didn’t have a real reason,” I started to explain, no plan or certainty in mind. “But that’s not true anymore. Both I and Asuna love Kizmel. So I want to help her protect her people and her nation.”
Another long silence filled the darkness of the chamber.
Later–much, much later–I learned that the program that controlled the world of Sword Art Online was able to monitor the emotions and mental states of its players. In other words, if I’d lied to flatter Viscount Yofilis, the system would have seen that and possibly failed the quest.
When she heard that, Asuna beamed and said, “It’s a good thing you answered honestly because you’ve always been a ter
rible liar.”
Just before the timer hit four minutes, the golden quest marker disappeared without a sound. There was no little bleep to signal it had been completed; instead, the viscount spoke with a stronger tone than I’d heard yet.
“I shall take your words for truth. Therefore, I will answer you with truth. Young swordsman, the tale about my illness that you heard from Kizmel...”
The chair creaked as he rose. Faint footsteps circled around the desk and to my side. A scent of forest floated in the air, and a voice of merriment reached my ears.
“...Is a lie.”
“...Huh?!”
“Follow me.”
The footsteps led away, and there was a thunking sound somewhere on the north wall. Midday sunlight pierced the darkness filling the room. Standing in the middle of the rectangle of pure white cut out of the wall was a slender silhouette, its long hair streaming in the wind.
It must have been a secret door along the wall. But this was the fifth floor of the castle. We had to be a good fifty feet above the ground. There was no way to jump down.
But the viscount's figure was suddenly gone. I raced to the opening in shock and looked down to see window frames jutting just two inches from the wall, forming a staircase that descended down to the first-floor entrance. The viscount was leaping nimbly down the series of ledges.
A chill shot up my back when I looked down, but there was less than a minute left. I could hear frantic clashing and the sound of sword skills coming from beyond the closed gate. The HP bars for Asuna and Kizmel had both lost over 20 percent since I left.
“...I can do this,” I told myself, and stepped onto the ledge just below the opening. All I had to do was leap to each successive window ledge, five feet below the one above. That was a much smaller jump than the daredevil gondola jumping I’d attempted in Rovia.
When I reached the ground about ten seconds after the viscount, I let out a huge heave of relief.
Finally, I was able to take an accurate measure of Viscount Yofilis. His clothes were fittingly noble: a rococo-styled frock coat covered with moiré and buttons, a vest, pants that stopped below the knee and white tights. A white tie packed with frills sat on his chest, and his long black hair was tied behind him. At his waist was a fragile rapier, even thinner than the standard