“That tree was already planted in your heart, I suppose. No matter how strong the winds are, it will not bend, and continues to look up at Solus in the sky... Kirito, I want to see that power you're hiding.”
“...”
“This has nothing to do with the match against Uolo. It's just that, I want to see... No, I want to know. I want to know all about you as a swordsman before I graduate from this Academy.”
Deep within the twilight blue eyes, little stars seemed to sparkles right in front of my eyes.
The beautiful face that looked like it could take anyone's soul away was only 5mm away from me before I realized it. At this moment, a slight pain happened right in the front of my hair, causing me to recover sharply. I blinked and started to think again.
I never showed Rina-sempai the «amazing» Aincrad style, the high level sword skills, but not because of some petty reason like using it as a secret weapon.
That was because I couldn't use it with this level 15 wooden sword that was used for competitions and training. The most I could use was the 2 consecutive hit skills «Snake Bite» and «Vertical Arc». No matter how much I tried, I couldn't use 3 consecutive hit skills. I tried it with a metal sword of the same level, but it was the same. I could only use the 4 consecutive hit sword skills when I was equipped with the level 45 Divine Tool «Blue Rose Sword» that chopped down the Gigas Cedar. I still didn't know why, but there was no such restriction in the old SAO.
Anyway, since sempai wants to see me give my «all», I can't just bluff through with the 2 consecutive hits. Thus, there's only one way left. I have to borrow the Blue Rose Sword from Eugeo, and at this point, I could use the strongest 4 consecutive hit skills with that sword.
If I asked Eugeo, he would definitely agree, but to be honest, I'm still somewhat hesitant. The Blue Rose Sword belonged to Eugeo, and the sword had the soul of a swordsman. This belief was already ingrained deeply in my mind. For some reason, I couldn't imagine myself using my best skills because of this conscious restriction of this idea that it was a borrowed item. However, I couldn't borrow the swords with highest priority from the Academy's armory, and those weren't my swords.
It can't be helped then. Looks like I have to borrow the Blue Rose Sword. I made this decision and said,
“—I understand. But sorry, please give me one day. Tomorrow, at the same time, I'll definitely show you... the best sword skills I can show.”
Once I finished, Rina-sempai's lips showed a slight smile on her face, but seemed to quickly realize something as she frowned,
“But it's a rest day tomorrow. Training is forbidden. You can't use this training arena.”
“...This isn't training.”
I answered. For some reason, sempai showed a somewhat intrigued expression as she tilted her head,
“Then, what is it?”
“Eh, to put it...”
I rearranged my words slightly and said out what I thought,
“It's a gift. You taught me a lot of things during this one year, sempai. I heard that there's a tradition in the Academy, that the valet has to give the senior a gift on the day before graduation. I'll give you a sword skill, sempai. If it's a gift, it'll be fine even if it's a rest day.”
These words of mine caused sempai to show a little wry smile.
“You never changed at all. I never heard of using a sword skill as a graduation gift before... But at this point, I might as well tell you this...”
“Eh... You mean?”
“The truth is, the fact that I named you as my valet would be a breaking of tradition. It's a stupid tradition here... that «Noble children have to choose other nobles of a lower class when choosing a valet». When I named you, many noble representatives came to the swordsmen trainee dorm to protest.”
“Fufufu.” Rina-sempai let out a slightly weird laugh, but my lips couldn't help but become numb as this was the first time I heard of such a thing...
The nobility sempai was referring to was the special class of the Norlangarth Empire, all of them ranked from «First class Nobility» to «Sixth Class Nobility», and ranked above them would be the royal family. Chairman Uolo's Levanteinn family was of Second class Nobility, while the Celulute family was of Third class. In other words, they were of a higher position than the Zakkaria leader's family that were of Fifth Class.
In contrast, the me in this world (and in real life) was an ordinary civilian amongst civilians, and undoubtedly, I would be the lowest class of the population. If we're talking about someone who's not a noble, but very famous in the social world and had lots of land— I would have to mention the chief of Rulid Village, Gasupht Schuberg, and Bano Wilde, whose house Eugeo and I resided in. These had family names after their own names, but the lowest of the lowest people weren't even allowed to do so.
It was only after Eugeo and I managed to enroll in the Imperial Master Sword Academy that most of the students here were mostly nobles and children of rich merchants; those of common birth formed only 20% of the whole. It was a complete double standard during enrollment. Eugeo and I had to spend half a year getting the Zakkaria captain's recommendation letter required for the examination, but once I realized that the nobles could take part without any conditions, I felt like sending a letter of complaint to the Liberal Arts Department.
Anyway, once I got enrolled, in terms of school rules, those of nobles weren't treated any differently from those of common birth... But there was an invisible difference. I (and Eugeo was most likely the same), spent a year ignoring the rumors others spread, but I never thought once that this was because Rina-sempai chose me as her valet.
“Since... Since there was such a custom, why did you still choose me...? If it were based on entrance ranking, there were 6 others above me. They're all nobles, so if you chose one of them, there probably won't be any disputes...”
“But those 6 merely earned points through performances, right? I have no interest in the beauty of the style. To me, your performance was the most exciting instead of what the testers chose... No, instead of it being exciting, I should say...”
Rina-sempai did not continue as she shut her mouth, showed a slight smile, and continued,
“...At this point, I won't say why I chose you. That's because I'll be graduating soon. More than that, let's talk about tomorrow. If the gift you're going to give me is a display of the Aincrad-style secret moves, I'll gladly accept it, Kirito.”
“Ah, ye-yes. Glad that you'll like it.”
“...However, I'm a little concerned. Based on the explanation you gave just now, it seemed that you decided on things here because you forgot that you had to give me a gift— I suppose I can interpret it this way...”
“No, of course not, how can that be! I had been thinking of that ever since the beginning. Really!”
I hurriedly denied it. “That's it for now then.” Rina-sempai showed a cool expression, and it changed,
“We'll leave that for later. It's time to decide the winner in our match.”
“Eh? —Ah.”
At this point, I remembered that we're still in a sparring match. However, before I could even make a proper response, the wooden swords that were slightly touching each other slightly gave a strong feedback. It wasn't a sword skill, but rather, one of the few parrying skills of the Celulute style «Still Water» that was used to blow the opponent away while the swords were touching.
I jumped back forcefully, not taking this hit head on. Unlike the «Active Water» move from before, the «Still Water» would give a very strong burden to the legs, and after use, there would be a short pause. Also, sempai didn't have the whip in her left hand.
Let's end this with a forward leap. I landed, and raised my sword high up.
At this moment, I felt a chill down my spine.
Rina-sempai was definitely wielding the wooden sword with both hands— But the whip that was supposed to be behind her disappeared. Where exactly did it disappear to!? I widened my eyes, but I couldn't stop my sword skill. The
one handed charge attack «Sonic Leap» was activated, and the blade let out a blue glow...
At exactly the same time as the sword skill was activated.
Rina-sempai's left hand moved away from the wooden sword and reached above. She looked like she grabbed onto something as she then swung it out. A white snake-like thing came flying out from her palm, right at me, wrapping around my body that was about to charge in.
The whip I thought flew far away was actually at the ceiling above the court. It had been dangling there while our blades were clashed.
As I realized this, I fell backwards as the back of my head slammed into the floor.
I blankly stared at the stars that appeared in my sight, and seemed to sense a deep sigh 'haa' coming from my forehead.
Part 2
The Norlangarth Imperia, no the largest city in the Human World «Centoria» was a fortified city surrounded by a circular wall 10km in diameter... or in terms of the units in this world, KiloMel.
The first level of the floating city of Aincrad that didn't exist at this point just happened to be a circle 10km in diameter too. In other words, these two large areas are exactly the same, whether it was in terms of area or shape. This city had a size that was inexplicable for a city in the virtual world, and the population here was over 20,000.
Also, this city had a rather unique structure. The sturdy city walls that meet in an X intersection divided the streets into 4 areas. To put it in another perspective, these 4 walls that intersect at right angles formed a fan shape as they gathered.[3] What was most shocking was that these four cities were all called «North Centoria», «East Centoria», «West Centoria» and «South Centoria», the capitals of the 4 Empires that ruled the vast Human World.
In other words— the capitals of the 4 Great Imperials that owned this parcel of land that's divided in a fan-shape like area are all in the middle of this Human World, all separated by a mere wall.
I was shocked once I realized this. In a capital, the king and the main army, the Knights' Headquarters would definitely be there. Wouldn't there be a final battle started immediately if a war breaks out? — I nearly said these words to Eugeo, but managed to stop myself before I could. In this world, where thieving, let alone killing wouldn't happen at all, it would be impossible for wars to happen between the Empires.
Even though there would be a need for an identification handprint when we cross the large marble wall —seemed like it was called the «Immortal Wall»— the border, but on a closer look, the North Centoria we're in had quite a few black-haired Eastern Empire people, tanned Southern Empire people and skinny Western people who were merchants and tourists. They were all foreigners, but I didn't know if it was because they were able to communicate perfectly through languages (though there were some accents) as it seemed that they wouldn't have any disputes between them.
I couldn't even feel the animosity against other countries, let alone war. The reason why it became like this was definitely because of the pure white tower that was standing at the center of the Capital, the center of the Human World.
The Axiom Church's Centoria Cathedral.
The top always looked to be shrouded, seemingly melted within the sky, so I could not see exactly how many hundred meters tall it was. It probably looked very majestic when viewed from the bottom, but the squarish Church ground was surrounded by the tall walls as well, so it would be impossible to peek inside. The «Immortal Wall» that stood in the center of the streets of Centoria was connected tightly to the four corners of the white Cathedral walls... or rather, it would be more appropriate to say that the walls were extended out from the Cathedral.
On a side note, this Immortal Wall not only covered the streets of Centoria. It also reaches through the city walls, extends out through the grasslands, forests, deserts, until it reached the bottom of the endless «Mountain Range at the Edge», 750km away. Naturally, this world did not have some form of construction machinery or something like that, so it was scary imagining exactly how much time and manpower was required to build this wall.
That meant that the authority of the Axiom Church was absolute.
This magnificent tower, this castle, where one could see the 4 Empires the Kings lived in from above, stood in the middle of the Human World. Perhaps, in this kind of absolute difference, in this Underworld, the designation between people of different countries were about the same as the «residents of Tokyo» and «residents of Saitama» to me— that was the feeling I had.
Then, exactly what was the need to divide the Human World that did not have even 100,000 people into 4 Countries? My mind had this question, and up till now, I still didn't get the answer. At the same time, I had no idea why there was the existence of the Axiom Church that existed above the countries?
In the Axiom Church, there were civil officers like «priests» and «patriarchs», and also military officers called the «Integrity Knight», but there weren't a lot of them. It seemed that there were less than 100 of them. Rina-sempai told me this before. In contrast, the total number of knights and soldiers in the 4 Empires totaled to around 2000 people. However, there were no records of the kings rebelling against the Church before... Was this because even the kings couldn't go against the Church and the Taboo Index? Or that several Integrity Knights were still stronger than the army of 2000? Or is it a combination of both—?
The majesty of the Centoria Cathedral that grew into the sky could be seen anywhere in the campus of the Master Arts Academy. Once I ended my final practice-in-name with Rina-sempai, I walked out of the elite swordsmen dorm quickly, through this still slightly cold spring evening, and looked up at the large white tower that was dyed orange and blue afar.
At this point, is the observer, who's standing on the roof of that tower, looking down at this Human World, someone from the real world like me? Or is he too a person of Underworld, an Artificial Fluctlight? Even if our plan could be carried out successfully, it will take another year and a half for me to find the answer to this problem. Of course, if the acceleration of 1000 times occurred without a hitch, only 10 hours would have passed in reality, but this amount of time was really too long from my perspective.
It had been 2 years since I awoke in the forest near Rulid village. During these two years, I had been hounded with countless sleepless nights that caused me to tremble, by the anxiety over the lack of grasp on the situation and the yearning to meet Asuna, Suguha, my parents and my friends.
But at the same time— I had a bit of fear about finding the «exit» at the top of the Cathedral. Once I logged out from this world, it would mean that I would be saying goodbye to the many people in this world. Selka and the other children I had not met for a long time, the few friends I made at school, Solterina-sempai who had been watching over me and trained me as her valet for this past year, and naturally, my one and only «partner» Eugeo.
Ever since a long time ago, I couldn't treat them as simple AIs. Other than the small difference of being in a different soul medium, they were humans like me too. We spent 2 years moving from Rulid to Zakkaria, and finally to Centoria, and I had a firm belief of this during this time.
No, it wasn't just a simple love of friendship with Eugeo and the rest. To this inexplicably wide and beautiful world, I...
I cut off my thoughts at this point, took a deep breath, and buried it deep within me.
I looked up at where I was headed, and an old looking building appeared in my sights. The stone building was 2 storeys tall, and the roof had green slate tiles laid. This was the dormitory where the 120 trainees of the Centoria Master Swords Academy live in.
If possible, I really wanted to leap into the roof of the second level to get back into my room to reduce the hassle, but according to the rules of the dormitory, I couldn't do so. Unlike the elite swordsmen dorm that looked rather relaxed, this novice swordsman dorm and the intermediate trainee dorm that was located slightly far away had strict rules similar to the Knights of Blood in the old SAO.
I made
up my mind and walked up the stone steps at the front entrance, being ever cautious as I pushed aside the doors of the dorm. I tentatively stepped into the entrance lobby, took 1, 2 steps in— and suddenly, there was a slight cough from the right side. Nerve-wracked, I turned over to look at the source of the voice, and exchanged looks with the woman sitting behind the counter. The tea colored hair was tied up properly, and her appearance was literally the embodiment of the term 'stern'. She was on the older side of 25 here.
I put my left arm as close to my waist as possible, put my right fist on the left side of my chest, gave a 'Knight's Salute', and loudly declared,
“NOVICE TRAINEE KIRITO HAS RETURNED BACK TO THE DORM!”
“...But it seemed that you were later than the specified time by 38 minutes.”
Watches didn't exist in this world, so humans could only check the time through the chimes of the «Bells of Time-Telling» located all over the city, including the Academy every 30 minutes. Normally, one would require a specialized high level spell to accurately tell the time, but for some reason, she— Miss Azurika, the dorm supervisor, seemed to be using some outside system skill or something else to know that the time was 5.38pm.
I kept my Knight's salute, lowered my voice by quite a bit, and answered,
“That's because I received extended teachings and practical tips from my mentor, elite swordsman Celulute.”
On hearing these words, Sister Azurika stared at me with her blueish-grey eyes. Whether it was the stern presence that surrounded her or the seemingly familiar name, I was reminded of a certain person. I once thought of asking her before I leave “Do you have a relative in the North called Sister Azariya?”, but unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to do so. Whenever I talked to her, I would most likely get a reminder or a warning, like now,
“...It can't be helped since a valet trainee's duty is to accept the guidance of a swordsman. But Novice Trainee Kirito, perhaps you never used it as a duty, but an excuse for coming home late... You never cleared this suspicion throughout this past you.”