Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 3 - Chapter 7

7 
EVEN AFTER I WAS RELEASED, Asuna continued to hug the Dark Elf knight for another five seconds. When they let go at last, she traced the side of her eye with a finger and put on an enormous smile. 
“…I always believed we’d see you before long…but I’m still so happy to see you.” 
Kizmel smiled. “So am I. Even after coming here through the spirit tree, I found that I was always thinking of you two.” 
The Dark Elf seemed to be savoring those words as she said them. I understood right away what made her seem different from before. She was wearing only a long dress of deep purple to cover her slender form, and her usual armor, saber, and cape were gone. 
She had never removed equipment in the third-floor camp except for when she was in her own tent, I remembered. Kizmel’s gaze moved from Asuna to me, the smile still stuck on her face. 
“I’m surprised that you knew to find me here. Isn’t this your first visit to this castle?” 
“Y-yeah. Just a…lucky guess,” I stammered. Of course, I knew this spot because it had struck me deeply during the beta test. At the time there was no thorny hedge maze, just a dusty stone path with a single, dried, dead tree in the middle. But there was obviously something more to the place, and thus it stuck in my memory. 
Her smile deepened at my answer, and she looked up at the massive tree stretching over our heads. 
“My sister loved the oil refined from this juniper. Perhaps that’s why I found myself here…” 
“Ahhh…” 
I looked up at the tree and breathed a deep breath in through my nose. My lungs filled with a cool, pure woody scent. 
“So this is a juniper tree,” Asuna noted, sniffing the same smell. “In the world we come from, it’s also used as a flavoring for alcohol.” 
“Is that so? I shall have to try it sometime…At any rate, thank you for coming. I suppose you vanquished the guardian beast in the Pillar of the Heavens without trouble.” 
“Yeah. It helped that the base commander warned us about its poison attacks.” 
Kizmel nodded sagely. “Yes, he is a trustworthy man. I wish to rejoin the advance party down on the third floor as soon as I can, but…” 
She looked down at the dress she was wearing and squinted. The smile came back just as quickly, though, and she patted Asuna on the back. 
“Let’s go back inside. You must be hungry after rowing all this way, yes?” 
“Very hungry,” she responded. They started walking for the door. 
As I trotted after them, I couldn’t help but think, You know, I was the one doing all the rowing. 
Just as I remembered, the dining hall of Yofel Castle was on the second floor of the west wing. 
Inside, there were drool-inducing smells and pleasant chatter atop the gentle strains of string music. All of this had been upgraded since the beta, so I couldn’t help but look around with curiosity. 
Nearly everyone eating at the pristinely set tables was a soldier in leather armor, but there was also a group of what looked like mages in long robes and even a few small children. That seemed strange—I thought that the power of magic had been lost in the creation of the floating castle Aincrad, according to legend. 
As we walked toward an empty table to sit down, Kizmel noticed my stare at the robed figures and leaned in to whisper, “They are priests who serve the Holy Tree. They were dispatched from the palace on the ninth floor to oversee our operation to retrieve the keys.” 
“Priests…” 
I ran a mental search on the term, thinking it was unfamiliar within Aincrad—sure enough, I had no memory of it during the beta. I made a note to look into them more in the future. Asuna asked the next question. 
“And the kids?” 
“They are the children of the castle’s master. Such bright young spirits,” Kizmel explained, beaming as she guided us to a table in the back. 
NPC maids—Dark Elves, of course—brought us out a full-course meal, starting with soup and appetizer. When they brought out roasted chicken for the main dish, Asuna and I couldn’t help but share a look. 
I didn’t think elves had any reason to celebrate Christmas, but the dish was a little too close to tradition; perhaps it was part of the game’s holiday event. 
While they didn’t follow it up with a cake, we had an excellent view of the snow-covered juniper tree in the courtyard through the hall’s large window, which made the meal plenty festive. 
Our main topic of conversation during the meal was the waterways that were central to the fourth-floor experience. Kizmel was most interested in our stories about the inner-tube swim from the staircase to the main town and the battle against the Fire-Bear for shipbuilding materials. 
During that discussion, I asked and discovered that the Dark Elves did not cut down living trees, either, but it was not out of any restrictive law, but rather respect for an aged plant. That made them different from the reluctantly obedient Fallen Elves. 
Fortunately, she said that collecting wood from trees destroyed by monsters was allowed. I was glad that we’d taken the trouble to get the high-quality material. 
Once we finished our fruit dessert, Kizmel took us to the officers’ room on the fourth floor of the east wing. It was quite a grade up from the second-floor ten-man barracks of the beta. But this was a suite room, with two bedrooms and a shared living room. Which meant… 
“Use this room while you are staying at the castle,” Kizmel offered. 
“Oooh, what a lovely place!” Asuna cried, racing to the large window in the back and only belatedly realizing the presence of the doors on either wall. She looked left and right, then back in confusion, but was hesitating on immediately demanding a different room. 
I had the option of requesting it as well, but I was afraid of the significant downgrade to the barracks, and Kizmel spoke up before I could say anything, either. 
“In that case, I will be in the adjacent room to the left. Knock on the door if you need anything. Enjoy your rest tonight; you must be tired.” 
She shut the door, and quiet footsteps faded away. 
“…” 
Left alone in the gorgeous suite, we could only stare at each other in silence. 
“…Well, hey, at least it’s not the first time for this,” Asuna started off. 
I nodded eagerly. 
“It’s pretty much unavoidable if we want to prioritize beating the game.” 
Nod, nod. 
“But…I will say just one thing.” 
Nod? 
“Your Christmas present was reuniting us with Kizmel, right? That was a wonderful present. Thank you.” 
I nodded one last time and mumbled uneasily, “Um, yeah, uh, you’re welcome…But in all honesty, I’m glad we saw her again. She seems a little subdued, though.” 
“Yeah…” 
That seemed to have shifted her mind from the sudden suite dilemma to Kizmel’s current state, as she wore a slightly different look of concern now. 
“The dress looked very nice on her, but I don’t think she was wearing it out of choice. I wonder why she wasn’t in her armor?” 
“Didn’t have her sword, either…Perhaps there’s some state of affairs forcing her to stay here. Wonder if she’ll tell us, if we ask…” 
I glanced over at the neighboring room that housed the elf knight. 
While I’d never spoken of this with Asuna, I knew that Kizmel was different from the other NPCs. While Romolo the shipwright, for example, had engaged in very natural conversation with us, that was because we were careful never to say anything unrelated to the shipbuilding questline. But Kizmel had started talking about why she loved that tree in the courtyard, just from seeing me look up at it. That was far out of the norm for an NPC’s conversational ability, which only responded properly when it heard statements that fit its content parameters. 
But I wasn’t so sure if Kizmel had been special from the very start. When we first met her in the third floor’s Forest of Wavering Mists, Kizmel said, “Do not interfere! Begone from this place!”—exactly the same thing she started with in the beta, down to the word. 
Through some reason I didn’t understand, the quest story, which said that both she and the Forest Elf knight would die, had been overwritten. In that instant, something happened to Kizmel, and she stopped being a normal NPC. Did the fact that she’d been given memory and thoughtfulness beyond the bounds of an NPC mean…she was a high-functioning AI? 
If that guess was correct, it gave birth to a new mystery. Was it the real-life GM who changed her, or was it the system that controlled SAO ? 
In the retail version of SAO , the cage that housed this shocking and unprecedented incident, only Akihiko Kayaba controlled the reins. I had no idea where he was or what he was doing now, but I couldn’t imagine him taking the time to alter the specifications of a single NPC by hand. But neither could I imagine why he would turn it into an AI. 
Meanwhile, I couldn’t even say if the game system was advanced enough to allow for such a function. If it was true, the system that kept this virtual world running was far more than just a program…it was equipped with a level of autonomy that encompassed artificial intelligence on its own… 
A suspicious voice reached my ears as I stared at the plaster wall, completely lost in thought. 
“…Um, hello, Kirito?” 
“Whu—ah! S-sorry, what did you say?” 
“I didn’t say anything.” 
Asuna was leaning against the window with her arms folded, pointing out the two doors with a look. “Which bedroom did you want?” 
“E-either one is fine.” 
“I’ll use this one, then,” she announced, pointing to the door on the east wall. Then I realized that the main room had two other small doors aside from the ones to the bedrooms. One was to the bathroom, and the other looked like a closet. The bathroom was next to the eastern bedroom—she probably didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of bathing while I was sleeping on the other side of the wall. 
I told her to go right ahead, of course, then added something that popped into my head. “But on the third floor of the castle, there should be a super-huge bathing room.” 
“…Super?” 
“Yeah, super.” 
“…With separate baths for men and women?” 
“Yeah…er, wait…” 
According to my memory, the bathing hall was at the very tip of the west wing on the third floor. But I didn’t remember if it had separate baths for men and women. Back in the beta, I preferred to kill as many monsters as possible rather than waste time relaxing in the bath. 
“Sorry, I don’t know for sure,” I admitted, throwing up my hands. 
Asuna sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this. Come on, let’s go.” 
“Let’s…? Me, too?” 
“Well, I don’t know where it is.” 
This was a castle, not a labyrinthine dungeon, so I could probably explain the directions to her, but she spoke with such direct conviction that I didn’t have any option but to accept her command. 
We left the suite and used the grand stairs at the center of the castle to descend to the third floor. I had to fight the urge to open and inspect the contents of the countless doors we passed in the hall, but finally we reached the far end of the west wing. 
There I saw a familiar arch. Through that threshold, the red carpet turned to white marble tiles—I was relieved to see that the bathhouse hadn’t disappeared in the redesign. Beyond the arch, I turned us to the right. 
The hallway came to an abrupt end, with another arched entrance to the left, through which floated the echoing sounds of water. We shared a look and peered through the arch at the same time to see a single, grand changing room. 
“…They don’t split the bath,” my partner said. I coughed awkwardly. 
“W-well, I guess that was the same for the bathing tent on the third floor. Perhaps that’s just how elves do things.” 
It’s probably just a data volume issue, though, I silently added to myself. 
“A-anyway, I’ll just use the bath back in the room; you should enjoy yourself here, Asuna. I’ll see you in a while…” 
As soon as I turned around to flee, a hand caught my back collar. I timidly turned around to see the fencer glaring up at me, a conflicted look on her face. 
“Rrrh,” she grunted. I wondered what kind of nuance I was meant to take away from that, then recalled a similar situation occurring at the bathing tent back in the camp. 
Back then, Asuna was afraid of a male Dark Elf wandering into the tent while she was bathing, so I stood outside on watch. That meant she probably wanted the same thing now. 
“Umm, it’s gonna be pretty hard for me to warn you from the outside of a huge bath like this. Plus, I can’t just block the NPCs from going in…” 
“Rrrh,” she grunted again, looking at the changing room with longing. 
It didn’t seem like there was anyone in the bath now, but there was no saying how long that would be the case. In this instance, Asuna the bathing enthusiast would just have to give up, it seemed clear to me. 
“Rrrh…oh, I know!” she suddenly piped up, leaping into the changing room and sitting in one of the many wicker chairs. She popped up her window and started taking out items left and right. 
A lot of colored cloth and a small box of sewing tools ended up clattering onto the long marble table. I was baffled as to what she was going to do and walked through the arch for a better look. 
Just the changing room itself was huge. The floor and walls were covered in pure white tiles, a shining chandelier hung from the ceiling, and large potted plants sat in the corners. There were no automatic dryers or massage chairs, but there was a pitcher of iced water and several kinds of fruit on the table in the center. 
I nibbled on what looked like a big grape, then tossed the rest into my mouth to watch Asuna work. She used the Crystal Bottle of Kales’Oh to reequip her Tailoring skill and was about to make something with the items she’d just produced. 
As a matter of fact, it might have been the first time I’d ever seen the Tailoring skill at work. Asuna selected a plain white piece of cloth out of her mountain of textiles, then pulled a large pair of scissors out of the box. 
She tapped the scissors next to pull up a list of items she could create. She made her choice, set the scissors to the cloth, then ripped them through with a brilliant metallic shwing! Suddenly, the exact same way as with ingots struck by a blacksmith’s hammer, the cloth started glowing and changing shape. What emerged was two pieces of cloth in exactly the same shape. 
Asuna put the scissors back into the box and placed the two pieces together, then started poking the hem of the cloth with a silver needle. That action had to be analogous to the striking of the ingot with the smithing hammer. Her handiwork was quick and sure, and the sewing was done in moments. 
The cloth started glowing again, then bloomed from its flat state into something properly clothing-like, with actual volume. It was an ordinary one-piece swimsuit. 
“Done!” she exclaimed proudly, holding the swimsuit up. 
“Um…are you going to wear that…into the bath?” 
“That’s not against the rules, is it? Or is my wearing this swimsuit in the bath going to inconvenience you in some way?” 
“Not in the least,” I finished, shaking my head. With the kind of massive bath a castle like this would have, a person could probably treat it like a pool. In fact, it might even be fun. 
I wasn’t particularly attached to bathing in Aincrad, but I had to admit I was a little jealous in this situation. But the only swimwear I had on hand was the pair of bull-logo boxers I got as the Last Attack bonus from General Baran, and I didn’t want to wear those unless it was an emergency. 
I side-eyed the swimsuit my tailor partner was holding up happily against her body and groaned with envy when she looked back briefly and put on a foreboding grin. I had a bad feeling about the pleased smile on her face. 
“By the way, I haven’t given you a present in return yet, have I?” 
“Er…n-no need for that. I didn’t give you a physical present to begin with, after all…” 
“No, but it made me much happier than any store-bought item. So I want to give you back something good. And it is Christmas Eve, after all.” 
“Um, w-well, if you’re offering, I’ll happily accept anything you give me,” I said, shivering inside at her suddenly gentle tone and smile. Asuna sat back down on the chair and pulled out a black piece of cloth from the pile. 
She cut up the smaller cloth with the scissors and sewed it up. When the light subsided, she was holding a pair of surf shorts—black, just the way I liked them. 
“Oooh, cool!” 
I wasn’t afraid to wear these in front of others. I took a step forward in delight, but she held up her right hand to stop me. With that same hand, she selected a brilliant orange scrap from the cloth pile. The three steps of settings, cutting, and sewing took place in an instant, and the swimsuit glowed again. 
From what I could see, nothing had changed. She met my confusion with a smirk, then smartly flipped around the black surf shorts to expose the rear. 
“…Wh-what the hell is that?!” 
There was a brilliant bear-shaped patch on the bum of the shorts, glowing a flaming orange. 
“Here you go. Merry Christmas!” 
She smiled and held them out to me. I had no choice but to thank her and accept them. 
The golden bull on red? 
Or the orange bear on black? 
While I grappled with the ultimate decision, Asuna changed into her white one-piece swimsuit and pushed open the clouded glass door at the back of the room, only to let out a cry of wonder just as grand as any she’d emitted in Rovia. 
I scurried over, shorts still in hand, and peered over her back. Even I had to grunt in amazement. 
The size of the bath chamber was the same as in the beta, but it had received a considerable visual upgrade. The tiles in the floor were an ivory white so pure one could see through them. The bath in the back was made of the horizontally lined ebony basalt that surrounded the lake, but polished to a perfect sheen. It was indeed about as large as a pool. 
The gold faucet set into the wall was pouring out a considerable waterfall of water that filled the tub already, gently cascading over the lip and onto the tile floor. Even better, the western and southern walls of the chamber were made of glass, offering a huge vista of the lake and the falling snow. There were no elves in the bath before us—it must have been too early to bathe. 
“I’m in first!” 
Asuna trotted over the tiles in her bare feet toward the massive tub. I watched the wide-open back of her swimsuit go as I hung back at the entrance. With one last glare each at the red and black shorts, I opened up my menu. 
With two presses of the UNEQUIP ALL button, I placed the black shorts in my bottom underwear slot, stuck the red shorts in my inventory, then raced after my partner, who was standing at the edge of the tub. 
With an enormous leap, I launched myself over her and landed into the bath first, sending up a huge spout of water. The last thing I heard before the water was a strangled yelp. 
“Fgyack!” 
Several minutes later, Asuna’s mood had recovered. She was sitting in the southwest corner of the tub, looking at the night lake below. 
“It’s amazing…The water of the bath and the surface of the lake melt together so that it looks like we’re floating in the sky…” 
Now that she said it, the sight did resemble that image. I just gazed out at the stunning view. 
“You know what they call these pools that look like they connect to the ocean or a lake? Infinity edge pools. You find them at resorts and places like that overseas.” 
“Ooh…Infinity edge kind of sounds like a sword skill,” I said tactlessly. 
She giggled. “You’re right. Probably a dagger skill.” 
“No, I’d say rapier.” 
The conversation seemed light and harmless, but I was actually using all of my concentration and effort to keep my gaze fixed on the lake outside. 
How could I be blamed? Just a few feet to the left, a pretty girl in a white bathing suit was lying facedown and stretching her long legs out to float in the water. No matter how far back I dredged up my real-life memories, there was nothing that featured me alone with a girl in a heated pool like this. 
The eerie floating sensation helped give the scene a powerful tinge of unreality. I sat there, pointlessly counting the snowflakes falling outside, when I heard the sound of a door opening far behind us. 
Asuna promptly sank into the water up to her mouth. I turned around and stared at the entrance to the bathing chamber. 
There was a thin silhouette approaching beyond the floating steam, but I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. I kept staring until a yellow cursor finally appeared, and I heard a familiar female voice. 
“So here you two are.” 
Oh, it’s just Kizmel, I thought with relief. 
In the next instant, Asuna’s hand shot like lightning to the top of my head, clenching my hair and forcing me down under the water. She used that boost to leap out of the tub and run over to Kizmel. 
I popped my head half out of the water, feeling aggrieved, only to see Asuna trying to push Kizmel back through the steam. I couldn’t tell what they were murmuring about from here, but within moments they were both retreating to the changing room for some reason. 
Before I could make up my mind whether to join them or wait here, the door opened again, and they returned to the bathing hall. Asuna looked smug again in her white one-piece, while Kizmel wore a purple bikini over her dusky skin. 
That was when I finally understood why Asuna jumped out of the bath. She intercepted Kizmel in a totally defenseless state and convinced her to go back so she could wear one of Asuna’s handmade swimsuits. 
The Dark Elf followed Asuna into the tub and made her way over to me, sitting on the edge of the tub. 
“So you are wearing your underwear…I mean, ‘swemsoot’ too, Kirito. Humankind certainly has some strange customs.” 
“Uh, I guess,” I grunted. 
A faint smile played over her lips. “But I seem to remember that in the camp’s bathing tent, you were—” 
“G-gosh, what a huge bath this is, though!” I shouted, cutting her off. I kept going, ignoring Asuna’s suspicious glare. “If it’s this big in the fourth-floor castle, I can only imagine how big the bathing chamber is in the queen’s castle on the ninth floor!” 
“But of course. It is located much higher up than this one, with a view of the entire ninth floor,” Kizmel explained. Asuna’s pointed stare melted into that of a dreaming young girl. Kizmel turned to her and looked apologetic. 
“But I’m afraid that only the noble officials and the queen’s sworn knights can use it. Sadly, it may not be possible for humankind to enter…” 
“Oh, I see…But this bath is quite wonderful itself. I almost wish I could live in this castle forever,” Asuna responded 
The Dark Elf knight smiled again, then looked downward, her long eyelashes laid over her cheeks. She scooped up some of the water in her hand and shook her head. “I am happy that you like this castle…but it is best not to stay for too long.” 
“Huh…? Why?” 
“As you’ve seen, Yofel Castle is an impenetrable fortress surrounded by lake water and cliffs on all sides. From time immemorial, it has never fallen to an attack by goblins, orcs, or even Forest Elves.” 
She paused for a moment. I lifted my face fully out of the water to ask, “Isn’t that a good thing? We went to all that trouble to recover the Jade Key on the third floor, and now it’s safe and sound in here, right?” 
“Yes…but because of its safety, the troops stationed here are too lax. They’ve driven back Forest Elf attacks enough, but the Forest Elves have their fortress on land and have barely any ships. Winning every time through an easy advantage causes one’s skills and heart to go soft.” 
The slight irritation I heard in her voice poked at something in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t remember what it was. 
Kizmel kicked at the surface of the water with her long, shapely leg, then murmured unhappily, “On top of that, the priests demand no metal armor within the castle grounds, as they find the noise unpleasant. With people like that around, it’s no wonder that things around here are getting soft…” 
“And that’s why you’ve been in a dress this whole time,” Asuna noted. 
The knight grimaced and nodded. “It looks silly on me, doesn’t it?” 
“Not at all. But…it’s best to wear what you like. I wonder if they would yell at us, too, if we had plate armor.” 
“Most likely. No need to test your theory.” 
“Good idea.” 
They giggled like sisters. Meanwhile, I was trying to pull that thorn out of my memory. 
Long ago, how would the Forest Elves, with their lack of ships, have tried to send a great host of troops to seize the impenetrable Yofel Castle? If they actually used the inner-tube fruit, I wouldn’t mind seeing that. 

However, this meant that if the Forest Elves did indeed acquire an adequate number of ships, the castle’s defenses might not be prepared. But the Forest Elves probably had their own taboo about taking living wood, so they couldn’t arrange for so many ships at once… 
“Oh!” 
At last, the thorn that blocked my thoughts fell out, and I exclaimed in shock. I stood up with a splash and pressed myself against the glass wall behind me, looking down at the lake surrounding the castle. 
The lake, glowing white in the darkness thanks to the snow piling up on the ice, looked otherwise normal. But at this very moment, enough ships to support an army were under construction on the other side of the floor. In the Fallen Elves’ hideout. 
“Wh-what’s wrong, Kirito?” Asuna said. I snapped around to face her. 
“Asuna, today’s the twenty-fourth, right?!” 
“Obviously,” she snapped, omitting the follow-up “ It’s Christmas Eve .” 
I nodded vigorously. It was two days earlier that we’d overheard the conversation between General N’ltzahh and foreman Eddhu—the twenty-second. They’d said that the plan would go into motion in five days. That meant the twenty-seventh…three days from now. 
Calculations complete, I turned to Kizmel, too locked in to bother drinking in the sight of her in the bikini. 
“W-we’ve got trouble, Kizmel. I’m almost positive that the Forest Elves are going to attack this castle in three days with an entire army.” 
The Dark Elf knight’s fine eyebrows tensed. 
“I told you earlier, Kirito. The Forest Elves hardly have any ships, and they cannot bring others down through the spirit tree. Even if they tried to swim to this shore, our ships would scatter them in moments.” 
“That’s the thing…” 
I stopped, unsure of how to explain, but Asuna filled the gap with a gasp. 
“Oh…! Are you saying the Fallen aren’t going to attack Rovia…but here?! ” 
“What? You’ve seen the Fallen on this floor?!” Kizmel demanded, rising from the edge of the tub. We both nodded, then took turns explaining everything that had led to this, starting with the suspicious ship we spotted in Rovia. 
After a good ten minutes of explanation, the sound of the quest advancement notification sounded, and the log window opened to show that part three of the “Shipwright of Yore” quest had finished. Meaning that the “appropriate person” we were meant to alert was someone in the Dark Elf forces…in our case, Kizmel. 
A considerable experience point bonus bumped me up to level 17 and Asuna to 16, but we didn’t have time to celebrate. Kizmel stood up and said sharply, “We can’t be relaxing here! You two, come with me!” 
After a very rushed change of clothes, we were taken to the fifth floor of the castle, which I’d barely visited in the beta. 
Two armed guards stood outside the large chamber door just to the right at the top of the stairs. With a determined glance from the elite knight, they both backed away quickly. 
On the other side of the door was a very large office. But the windows were all covered with curtains, making the room unnaturally dark. We crossed the room, taking care not to trip on the much thicker rug here, then stopped before a heavy desk in the very back. 
The ten-foot-wide desk was made of polished blackwood. As the elves could only fashion wood that had fallen naturally, this must be enormously valuable. With that in mind, I looked carefully at the figure seated on the other side. 
A lamp on top of the desk cast flickering light on a half-written parchment and ink bottle, but for some reason, the light did not reach beyond the desk. I stared hard into the thick darkness enveloping the silhouette until a color cursor popped up bright against the black. 
It read Y OFILIS: D ARK E LVEN V ISCOUNT . What the heck was a viscount? 
While I stood wondering, Kizmel performed the Dark Elf salute of right fist to left breast. 
“Viscount Yofilis, pardon my interruption. I have an urgent matter that requires your attention.” 
After a pause, a voice returned from the darkness. 
“Before I hear your report, may I ask why you have two humans with you, Kizmel?” 
It was a flat voice that could be taken as young or brittle. But I couldn’t tell if it was even male or female in the moment. 
“Ah…” 
Kizmel lowered her head to bow again, and I took a step forward and performed the same salute. The scroll with the details was in my belt pouch, so I produced it and ceremoniously handed it over the desk. 
A slender hand extended from the darkness to take the scroll. With the trace of a finger, the seal evaporated, and the parchment fell open. 
“…Ahh. I see, you are the ones who helped us recover the first key. I suppose it wouldn’t do to feed you to the lake fish, then.” 

I couldn’t tell if that last part was meant to be a joke or not. Viscount Yofilis put the scroll into a drawer on the other side of the desk. 
You’re not giving it back?! That’s our identification inside the castle! 
But my panic lasted only a moment. The viscount pulled something else out of the same drawer and held it out. I quickly put out my cupped hands and caught two rings. They were of delicate silver make, marked with the familiar sigil of horn and scimitar. 
“Wear those, and you will not be harried by the soldiers of Lyusula. Assuming you do not betray our patronage, of course,” the viscount warned. I bowed deeply and backed up next to Asuna. 
The two rings were identical. I handed one to my partner and put the other on my left index finger. Despite my avatar having ten fingers, SAO only allowed one ring to be equipped on either hand. I already had a ring of +1 to strength on my right hand, a reward from a third-floor quest, so this used up all of my ring potential. 
I resisted the urge to rudely check the properties of the brand-new ring and listened in on Yofilis and Kizmel’s conversation. 
“So, Kizmel. What is this report you have?” 
“My lord, according to the human warriors Kirito and Asuna, our sworn foe, General N’ltzahh of the Fallen Elves is on this floor.” 
A moment later, the viscount’s extended hand rapped the blackwood desk. 
“…Ahh. This is indeed important tidings.” 
I figured that this conversation was all a preprogrammed part of the campaign questline, but I couldn’t help but shiver as it felt like the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. 
“What is that villain plotting this time?” 
“Well…it seems that the Fallen have made a serious deal with the Forest Elves,” Kizmel began, and summed up the important points of what we’d told her in the bath. 
The great volume of ships being built in the Fallen Elves’ hideout. The likelihood that the Forest Elves would use those ships to attack Yofel Castle in three days. Their target, the Jade Key being stored in the castle. 
“I see…and do you know the number of ships the Fallen are building?” Yofilis asked Kizmel. She looked at me. I quickly snapped to attention and thought back to the image of the mountain of wooden boxes in the underground storeroom. 
In all honesty, I had no idea how much lumber each box represented or how much was necessary to build a boat. But in that warehouse event, Asuna and I had managed to squeeze into a single box. That had to be a hint. In simple terms, one box would be required for a small two-seat boat. That would mean five boxes for the large ten-man ships moored outside the castle. And there were at least fifty boxes stacked into that storeroom, so… 
“…I believe they are building at least ten ships capable of transporting ten soldiers each.” 
Yofilis’s right hand rapped the surface of the desk again. 
“Hmm. We have eight ten-man ships at the castle. And they will attack with more than that?” 
“My lord, I do not doubt the mettle of the castle’s troops…but should we not transport the first and second keys up to a higher floor?” Kizmel suggested. The viscount did not respond at first, but rapped on the desk more before speaking up. 
“…There is merit to Kizmel’s proposal. We cannot afford for the keys to be stolen again. But the duty of the people of Lyusula has always been to ensure the six keys are spread apart, so they might not be gathered. If we send the first and second keys to the next floor up, they will join the third. This is not a desirable outcome…” 
Kizmel nodded. An uncomfortably heavy silence descended, only to be broken at last by Asuna. 
“Er, my lord? What happens if the six keys are gathered together?” she asked bluntly. I stiffened up, but I wanted to know the answer, too. In the beta, I was too focused on finding and chasing down the keys, but the actual story behind them was never made clear. 
Kizmel turned around first and hastily started, “Asuna, that’s not—” 
But the viscount’s hand from the darkness cut her off. 
“It is fine, Kizmel. I shall explain…but I cannot answer your question, human warrior. Even as the latest viscount of Yofilis, a line extending back before the Great Separation, I only know a small part of the legend surrounding the keys. The only person who knows the entire truth is our queen. No…” 
The viscount trailed off and delivered such a heavy sigh that I almost couldn’t believe this was still part of the campaign quest story event. 
“It might be true that even Her Majesty does not know the real truth.” 
“But Viscount Yofilis,” Kizmel started, her voice hard. 
The viscount raised a hand in apology. “No, forgive me for saying that. Human warrior, this is all I can tell you. The people of Lyusula believe that if the six secret keys are gathered, allowing the door of the Sanctuary to be opened, terrible ruin will come to Aincrad. Meanwhile, our ancient enemies, the Forest Elves of Kales’Oh, have a different interpretation. They believe that opening the Sanctuary will return all the floors of Aincrad to their original locations on the surface and restore the great magic to the elves.” 
“Ah…!” 
Both Asuna and I grunted in surprise. 
Return Aincrad to the surface. 
As Kirito the VRMMO gamer who lived in real life, I assumed that was completely impossible. The hundred floors of Aincrad, which were up to six miles across each, represented a tremendous amount of data. The idea that those hundred floors might be laid out side by side into an even larger map that held them all was preposterous. Now that we were trapped inside the game of death, the producers of the game, Argus, had no doubt gone out of business, the servers under the supervision of the police. 
But did that mean the Forest Elf legend was false and the Dark Elf legend was true? 
No, that was hard to imagine, too. I didn’t know what “terrible ruin” meant in concrete terms, but if it actually meant the destruction of Aincrad and all the NPCs and players within it, that meant every player working the Forest Elf faction in the campaign was in danger of killing everyone here, including themselves. It was impossible to imagine that our GM, Akihiko Kayaba, wanted an end to his little game before we even reached the tenth floor—and based off of a misunderstanding, no less. 
Besides, the “Elf War” questline had a separate conclusion for every player or party who initiated it. I couldn’t see a single player who finished the campaign before everyone else being allowed to dictate the fate of all of Aincrad, and if the Forest and Dark Elf sides finished at the same time, the results would be self-contradictory. 
Terms like ruin and return had to be no more than keywords meant to spice up the scenario and make it more exciting. No matter what happened in the quest, Aincrad wouldn’t actually be affected. 
After a brief moment to reach that conclusion, I was about to breathe and calm myself, when Asuna tugged on my sleeve. 
“Hey, Kirito, didn’t that Fallen Elf general say something about…opening the Sanctuary or whatever?” 
“Eh? Actually…now that you mention it…” 
I searched my memory frantically and succeeded in playing back General N’ltzahh’s speech. I thought it might be important to relate to Kizmel and Yofilis, so I turned to the darkness across the desk and put on my stiff and proper tone of voice. 
“Erm…my lord. General N’ltzahh said thus: When the Fallen Elves gain all of the keys and open the Sanctuary, the greatest magic of humankind would disappear…” 
“…Magic of…humankind…?” Yofilis repeated skeptically. The hand atop the desk flipped over. “Kizmel. Do you know what this magic of humankind is?” 
“Well…though they are far inferior to those of elvenkind, the humans still have a number of ancient charms available to them. The only ones that I am familiar with are the charm of Mystic Scribing, in which their arms and tools are placed within tiny paper scrolls, and the art of Farscribing, to send written messages to distant places in an instant…” 
The former referred to our menu windows, and the latter was instant messages. As far as magic-like abilities that a player could make use of, those were about all I could think of. 
“Ahh. They do sound useful, but…” 
Yofilis seemed to have a habit of stopping to think. The fingers tapped on the surface of the desk yet again. 
“I cannot imagine that N’ltzahh would go to the trouble of aligning with the Forest Elves just to take such paltry charms from humankind.” 
Such abilities might be “paltry” to a magic-wielding elf, but a player without their menu was in dire straits. On the other hand, that outcome was unimaginable. An RPG without its menu screen was like a bicycle without handlebars or pedals. 
A few seconds later, Yofilis’s voice returned, back to the steady cadence of a proper plot-centered conversation. 
“But in any case, the Lapis Key sealed on this floor probably ought to be retrieved. But the castle guards must prepare for the Forest Elves’ siege. Warriors of humankind, will you assist Kizmel in recovering the second key?” 
A golden ! mark appeared in the midst of the darkness. This quest NPC marker was only visible to me and Asuna. For a moment, I wondered if that was another human charm. Asuna and I looked at each another and nodded. 
“Yes, we will help.” 
The exclamation mark turned to a question mark. Thus, the campaign quest resumed on the fourth floor. 
Kizmel bowed deeply to the viscount once more, then turned to us, beaming. 
“It is a critical but dangerous duty, but I am overjoyed to fight alongside you again. Let us work together again, Asuna, Kirito.” 
“You bet!” 
“Let’s do it, Kizmel!” 
No sooner were the cries out of our mouths than a third HP bar and name appeared in our party list to the upper left of my view. 
The instant we were out of view of the guards outside of Yofilis’s chamber, I raised my arms and stretched. 
“Ooooh, that was nerve-racking…” 
“I do not blame you. The viscount is one of the most elderly of even the Dark Elves. I was a bit nervous myself.” 
“You, too, Kizmel? By the way…how old are you? ” I asked nonchalantly, but Asuna elbowed me roughly in the left side, and Kizmel cleared her throat uncomfortably. 
“Kirito, I do not know your human customs well, but among elvenkind, it is considered rude to ask the age of another to her face.” 
“Oh, I didn’t know. S-sorry.” 
“Let us just say that I am considerably younger than Viscount Yofilis.” 
“U-understood. I’m surprised that such a splendid castle master has soft warriors and arrogant priests working in his employ, though,” I muttered as we descended the steps. Kizmel put on a worried look. 
“Yes…but there is a reason. Viscount Yofilis suffers from a very challenging ailment. Because of that, he cannot be exposed to bright light. He has been in that chamber for so long, most of the soldiers here have never even seen his face…” 
“He’s sick? Even though he’s an elf?” 
“Elves are long-lived, but we are not immune to disease. The priests let their influence run unchecked because they are out of his sight. And yet they will be useless in a battle. It is a troubling state of affairs…” 
Kizmel shook her head and stopped in front of her room on the fourth floor, but when she spoke again, she had recovered her normal manner. 
“At any rate, I appreciate the crucial information that you two have brought with you. It is late already, so let us begin our duty in the morning. Get your rest—do not stay up all night.” 
“We promise.” 
“Good night, Kizmel.” 
The Dark Elf smiled and nodded, then retreated into her private room. The brand-new HP bar tinkled into nothing with a sad little noise, but she would rejoin the party when we met up in the morning. 
Asuna and I walked ten yards down the corridor and into the suite room next door. 
I opened my window and checked the time to see that it was somehow past ten o’clock at night already. The snow fell silently outside the window, and the trees in the front garden were already covered in white. 
We stood in the middle of the living room, gazing out at the night view, when I remembered something and lifted my left hand. I tapped the silver ring with my other hand. The properties window told me that it was called the Sigil of Lyusula. 
“Magic effects…ooh, agility plus one…and a small bonus to skill proficiency gain. That’s pretty nice.” 
“Mmm,” Asuna mumbled, looking at my hand. For some reason, she frowned, then looked down at her own hand, went bright red, and quickly touched her right hand with her left. Apparently she’d just changed the finger the ring was on, but I didn’t know why she needed to rush to do that. 
“…S-something the matter?” 
“Nothing!” she stated flatly, so that was the end of that. 
“Umm, well, I think I’ll go to bed…oh, but before that, I was going to ask you something.” 
“…Wh-what?” 
“It’s about the castle master’s name. What’s a v…viss-count?” I asked curiously. 
She gave me a weird look, then sighed a very long sigh. 
“…It’s pronounced vigh-count .” 
“Eh?” 
“You don’t pronounce the s . It’s a noble rank. You heard Kizmel calling him ‘my lord,’ right?” 
“Ohhh, s-so that’s what it meant. Um, so…how high is a viscount…?” 
“Normally, it goes duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron, from highest to lowest. I don’t know how the Dark Elves order it, though.” 
“I see, I see. Thanks for the explanation. So, um…it’s a bit early, but how about six in the morning tomorrow?” 
She agreed without a word. 
“Great. Well, then…good night…” 
I was curious about why my partner would suddenly go so red and standoffish, but I figured she would be back to normal after a good night’s sleep. But just as I opened the door to my bedroom, she spoke up. 
“Kirito.” 
“Er…yes?” 
I turned around to see that the fencer was still standing in the center of the room. She shrugged her shoulders a bit and looked up at me. 
“Um…I said this before we went to the bath, but I mean it—thanks for today. It was more enjoyable and lovely than any Christmas Eve I had in the real world.” 
“…” 
That took me by total surprise. I had no idea how to respond. 
After a few seconds, I found myself asking what I thought was a harmless question in response. 
“…What kind of Christmases did you have back there?” 
“Hmm…” 
She twirled the toe of her boot on the thick carpet and a little smile snuck across her face. 
“There was one time we were supposed to stay home because there would be a family Christmas party, but my father and mother didn’t come home until very late, and I had to eat the cake by myself…Actually, that was pretty much every year.” 
“Oh…I see…” 
I felt ashamed that all I could do was offer simple murmurs in response, but I didn’t have anything better to relate to her. For the last two years, I’d wrapped up my Christmas family celebrations early so I could log in and participate in online in-game holiday events. 
“Well…I’m glad you had a good time. If only we could have gotten a cake prepared,” I mumbled. 
The wan smile on Asuna’s face grew clearer. “Yeah. But…we can save that for next Christmas.” 
“…Yeah. Right.” 
“Well, I’m off to bed. Good night.” 
“Night.” 
I watched her go through the door on the other side of the room, then entered my own and shut the door. It was plenty spacious, though not as much as the common room. There was a double-size bed in the middle, a large chest that served as extra item storage beneath the window, and a dresser with a three-sided mirror, which served no use for me. 
I took off my coat, boots, and protector before flopping back onto the bed. 
“…Next Christmas, huh…?” 
Asuna probably meant it in the most innocuous way possible, but the phrase carried a very heavy meaning. Today was the forty-eighth day of the game of death. We’d taken twenty-eight days to beat the first floor, ten for the second, and seven for the third. It took us three days to reach the midway point of this floor. 
It was reassuring to see our pace picking up, but I didn’t think we could go much faster. If we assumed that each floor would last around a week going forward, that put us on a pace to finish the remaining ninety-six floors in 672 days—about a year and ten months. 
That basically ensured that we would still be stuck in Aincrad by next Christmas. Perhaps Asuna hadn’t been thinking about that when she said it, but looking up at the ceiling and imagining all those floors above it made me feel like I was being crushed with the weight of it all. 
We had an ample safety margin in terms of level, but there was no guaranteed safe zone in MMORPGs. Not if you suddenly got a whole bunch of powerful monsters linked up into a group. Not if you couldn’t recover from a negative status effect quick enough. Not if you slipped and fell from a height of a few dozen feet. Those would be enough to knock my HP to zero, resulting in the NerveGear frying my real brain, wherever I was now. Just like that, Kirito and Kazuto Kirigaya would cease to be, disappearing from two worlds at once, like froth on a riverbed. 
Of course, I had the option of staying put in the Town of Beginnings on the first floor. Instead, I leaped out of the city forty-eight days ago for the next town, driven by something. And before I split up with my very first partner—no, before I abandoned that poor SAO newbie—I left him with a piece of advice. 
We have to get stronger and stronger in order to survive. MMORPGs are a battle over system resources. There’s only so much gold, loot, and experience to go around, so the more you win, the stronger you get. 
I knew that I was right. The reason I’d survived until this day was that I used my beater’s knowledge and experience to skillfully and efficiently earn gold, levels, and rare loot. There were several occasions where I might have died if my level was just one lower or my gear one point weaker. 
But that was because I chose to leave safety and conquer the deadly game on my own. 
Why had I done that? 
I played back what Asuna had said just after I met her in the first-floor town of Tolbana. 
If I was going to just hide back in the first city and waste away, I’d rather be myself until the very last moment. Even if it means dying at the hands of a monster…I don’t want to let this game beat me. I won’t let it happen. 
It was a very Asuna-esque motivation—dangerous, brave, and admirable. But I didn’t have the same thought within myself. 
What about Lind of the Dragon Knights Brigade? Kibaou of the Aincrad Liberation Squad? Diavel, the former beta tester who perished in the battle against the very first floor boss? What reasons had tilted the scale toward actual death, driving them to leave the safety of town into the dangers of the wild…? 
I lay staring at the dark ceiling, unchecked thoughts spiraling through my head, when I just barely heard the sound of the other bedroom door opening out in the living room. 
Probably just Asuna preparing to take another bath, I assumed. But several minutes later, I hadn’t heard the sound of another door opening or closing. Asuna didn’t go from the living room into the bathroom or out into the hallway or even back into her own bedroom. 
“…” 
After another ten seconds of listening, I snuck out of bed, walked over the carpet in bare feet to the door, and carefully turned the knob. 
The lights in the living room were off. But the snowy illumination from the window cast the room in a monotone of light and shadow. 
I slowly panned around the room until I spotted a lonely, rounded silhouette on the large sofa next to my wall, both legs curled up into a ball. 
After a moment of hesitation, I opened the door wide and stepped into the common room. She should have noticed me by now, but Asuna didn’t budge from where she was. 
I approached the sofa as silently as I could, though I didn’t know why. 
“…Can’t sleep?” 
After a few moments, the little head nodded. A few more seconds later, she mumbled, “The room and the bed are just too big…” 
“…I know what you mean. When I used the big barracks room on the second floor to log out in the beta, we were packed into little bunk beds,” I responded, sitting down on the other end of the sofa. 
If only I had the skill to whip up a nice mug of hot milk. Sadly, I had no milk in my inventory, and the room didn’t have a stove. Instead, I did something that I would never normally do: I spoke my own baseless conjecture aloud. 
“Did you start thinking about next year?” 
She went absolutely still where she sat, about five feet away, then nodded again, her forehead pressed against her knees. After a while, her quiet whisper trickled out into the room. 
“Until now, I’ve been trying not to think about the distant future. I told myself that I would only focus on what needed to be done each day. But that’s just the same as trying to run from the future. Not even just thinking about the number of floors left or how much time it would take…I was just trying to avoid facing the question of how much longer I could survive in this place. But then I was sitting in my room, looking out the window…and it all just sort of…bubbled up inside of me…” 
The arms she held around her knees tensed and bulged. 
“…I want to survive until next Christmas and see the snow falling in Aincrad again,” she confessed, terribly painful but nearly soundless. 
I knew that I needed to say something, but my lips felt as though they were glued shut. I couldn’t speak. 
I wanted to say, “You won’t die before next Christmas…or before the day we beat this game. You’ll survive.” But what proof did I have of that? 
Obviously, Asuna’s battle skill was second to none in the frontline group, and the quality of her gear was guaranteed. But just as I’d told myself minutes ago, a single mistake here or an unlucky bounce could easily kill a player. If I couldn’t reassure myself that I wouldn’t die, I certainly couldn’t offer that empty guarantee to someone else. 
After a stretch of silence so long even I didn’t know how much time had passed, I managed to croak something out of my avatar’s throat. 
“…I’m sorry. I can’t say anything. I don’t have the strength to offer you any advice right now…” 
For the very first time, Asuna had revealed her fear of the game and hope for the future, and I was so pathetic that I couldn’t come up with anything better to say back. I stood up, ready to retreat into my room. 
But just as I passed by Asuna on the right end of the sofa, she extended a hand and caught the hem of my shirt. She pulled me down with surprising force until I was sitting next to her. 
“Then get stronger.” 
I held my breath. 
“Huh…?” 
“Get stronger. Until one day…you can tell me, and other frightened people like me, that it’ll be okay.” 
“…” 
Once again, I was left speechless. I looked down at my hands. 
How many levels would I need to gain to be able to say that to anyone? Another twenty or thirty wouldn’t be nearly enough. 
I felt plagued by a sense that the strength Asuna was speaking of was a very different kind—something I didn’t usually find myself thinking about. 
She tilted herself to the left and laid her little head on my right shoulder. 
“You don’t have to say anything now, as long as you sit there until I fall asleep.” 
“Um…uh, okay,” I stammered. Asuna smiled and closed her eyes. 
In less than a minute, I heard true sleep in her breathing. She said until she was asleep, so if I could roll her down onto the sofa and retreat to my bedroom, she couldn’t complain, but given her difficulty in staying asleep, that seemed nearly impossible. 
I was stuck where I was until she eventually woke up. I tried to relax my shoulders and leaned back against the back of the sofa. 
Be stronger. 
That was a command I gave myself when I was racing out of the Town of Beginnings—or fleeing, depending on how you looked at it. I rushed to gain levels, get new gear, and power myself up faster than anyone else, for some reason I couldn’t really explain. I was driven by something I couldn’t name. 
Was it Asuna who gave me a reason? I had to be stronger so that the next time she or someone else revealed their weakness to me, I could be that reassuring presence who said, “No, you won’t die, it’ll be okay.” Was it right for me to think that way…? 
Suddenly, Asuna shivered as she leaned on me. She hadn’t woken up—she must have felt a shiver in her sleep. The winter night seemed a bit chilly for just a sheer tunic. 
If only I had some kind of player skill to whip up a nice warm blanket for her. Sadly there was nothing of the sort in my inventory— 
“…Oh,” I murmured and opened my window. Over in the storage tab, I selected a particular item and materialized it. 
A thin, silvery fabric fell lightly into my hands—the Argyro’s Sheet that came in so handy in the Fallen Elves’ watery hideout. It was big enough to hide an entire gondola, so it would easily serve as a blanket. There was only a bit of durability remaining, but because we weren’t on the water now, it wouldn’t drain anyway. 
I wrapped the blanket around us, and the chill that filled the room seemed to vanish at once, bringing a pleasant sleepiness into my head. 
Before I closed my window, I set my alarm to go off at five thirty in the morning and closed my eyes. 
December 25 and 26 passed in the blink of an eye as we spent them undertaking the “Lapis Key” quests for Viscount Yofilis. 
They weren’t easy quests by any means, but with the latest level-up for the both of us, plus the usual overpowering presence of Kizmel the elite knight, we never really struggled at any point. The prelude quests on the first day had us running back and forth, but by the afternoon of the second day, we found the underwater dungeon that housed the key. We defeated a dullahan-type boss monster, its body covered in verdigris, to gain the second of the secret keys, this one a brilliant marine blue. There were no sneak attacks by masked Fallen this time, and we were back to Yofel Castle before dinner. 
After reporting on the quests to the viscount and receiving our considerable rewards, the large window at the west end of the hallway showed a brilliant sunset. I stretched to my fullest in the red light. 
“Mmmm…Well, we managed to get the second key right as planned. The viscount put it away in that little chamber behind his desk. I wonder if the first one’s in there, too,” I murmured to myself. 
Kizmel answered that question, happy to be back in her familiar armor. “That’s right. That means if the Forest Elves managed to reach the fifth floor of the castle, it’s quite likely they might make off with the keys. Viscount Yofilis might be excellent with the rapier, but he cannot be forced to fight in his sickly state…” 
“Don’t worry, Kizmel. They won’t even step onto the dock, much less reach the fifth floor,” Asuna proclaimed confidently. She’d been quite energetic and spirited the last two days. She must have really enjoyed the chance to fight alongside Kizmel again. “Whether they come with ten or twenty ships, we’ll sink them all!” 
“Ha-ha, I am glad to hear it,” Kizmel said, patting Asuna’s back before she turned to me. “Kirito, Asuna, the fact that we have recovered the Lapis Key in just two days is a sign of not just your own strength, but that of your ship. And what makes me happiest of all is that you chose to give such a beautiful craft my sister’s name…” 
She trailed off and strode toward the nearby window. The north-facing window looked out upon the front garden and gate, as well as the long pier beyond that. To the sides of the pier were eight large gondolas painted black and one little white one—our Tilnel —bobbing in the waves. 
“My sister loved to swim, ever since she was young. She and I often rode on a little pleasure boat in a city on the ninth floor. Looking at the Tilnel brings back old memories…” 
Asuna quietly approached the reminiscing Kizmel from the right. I watched the setting sun sparkle in their hair and thought hard. 
The possibility that a Dark Elf herbalist named Tilnel, who was Kizmel’s twin sister, actually existed as an NPC in Aincrad was very low. SAO ’s service period began only fifty days ago. In a sense, Kizmel’s Dark Elves and their Forest Elf foes were born in that instant. Tilnel was nothing more than data created to serve as background for Kizmel. 
But each time Kizmel spoke her memories of Tilnel, that data in the server got overwritten in a more detailed form. Even a woman who existed only as background information became truth through those memories…it seemed to me. 
I cleared my throat at Kizmel’s left and told her about something Asuna and I had discussed during the key quests. 
“Um, Kizmel. We have a request.” 
“As long as I can help.” 
“Yes, well…our books of Mystic Scribing cannot hold large objects like ships, but we also cannot pick ours up and climb the Pillar of the Heavens with it. When we move up to the fifth floor, we will need to keep the Tilnel somewhere here on this floor.” 
As the Dark Elf listened patiently, Asuna spoke up next. 
“You see, Kizmel, before we leave for the fifth floor, Kirito and I want to leave the Tilnel with you. Even if you just leave her here on the dock at Yofel Castle…” 
Last night, the two of us had discussed whether this would be even possible. If the game system prohibited it, we were afraid that this might cause undue stress on Kizmel’s AI. 
Normally, it was not possible to pass items on to NPCs. When we found the Dark Elf knight’s sigil in the third-floor cave and tried to give it to Kizmel, she claimed that we should pass it to the commander ourselves. And when Asuna gave Kizmel her purple bikini at the bath, Kizmel returned it before they left the changing room. 
But there was no need to change ownership of the item if we were just leaving it moored at the dock. If Kizmel just accepted the Tilnel in spirit, and thought of her sister when she gazed upon it, that was all we could ask for. How to get from this castle to the labyrinth tower was a problem, but we had the inner tubes if it came to that. 
As we waited on her answer with bated breath, the knight turned to the window, her armor clanking. 
After a few moments, her voice emerged—quietly, but with emotion you would never hear from a NPC. 
“…Of course. Of course you can. I will take responsibility for your precious boat. But promise me one thing.” 
“What is it, Kizmel?” 
“Come back to this castle sometime, and give me a ride on her.” 
Then it was our turn to shout, “Of course!”