Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 7 - Chapter 13

13

ONE HOUR LATER, AT 12:50 PM, I WAS WANDERING around the game room on the first floor of the Grand Casino.

Nirrnir gave me waterproof leather gloves for squeezing the fruit, so I didn’t have to suffer the nasty shock twice. I told her vengefully that she could have given them to me from the start, and all she said was, “But that wouldn’t have been funny.”

Kio transferred the bowlful of juice to a thick copper pot, then sank the fifty wurtz stones into it and started the fire. If it was simmered on a low heat for three hours, it should make a small vial of the decolorant bleach. It made me wonder why we didn’t get twice the materials for a backup vial, but I supposed it was one of those RPG situations where you were meant to have just one chance to make it count. But all we had to do was stand at the front closest to the cage, then spray the lykaon with the solution before the fight. It was nearly impossible to fail, it seemed to me.

Nirrnir left Kio in charge of the flames and took Asuna, Argo, and Kizmel to the hotel’s spa—I was invited, too, but respectfully declined. I got a pass for the stairs and went down to the first floor, headed for the bar counter in the playroom, and ordered a club sandwich to fill my stomach. Satisfied at last, I decided to wander around the room for a bit.

That was when I noticed a large player watching a roulette table. He wore a loud shirt over khaki shorts and had long blond hair pulled back with a thin hairband. It was the two-handed-sword user from the DKB, Hafner the “soccer player.” I didn’t see any of his guildmates around.

I was going to give him a wide berth and avoid notice, except that something stuck out to me. According to Liten, the DKB was going to resume activity at noon. But here was one of their primary members, Hafner, wandering around the casino all alone.

After thinking it over, I snuck up behind him and slapped him on the back. “How ya doin’, Haf?”

He twitched and turned around, then made a sour face when he recognized me.

“…Hey, Black. Don’t call me by that nickname. We’re not friends.”

“You just called me a nickname.”

“Well…okay, whatever,” he snorted, then looked around. “Your partner’s not with you?”

I wisely chose not to mention that she was in the bath right now. “Not at the moment. What about you, Haf? I heard the DKB was hitting the road again at noon.”

“Yeah…most of the members are out there crushing quests and leveling up,” he admitted. I supposed he was just honest by nature. But I wasn’t, so I used that leverage against him.

“Then what are you doing here? Shouldn’t one of the sub-leaders be out there watching over the newbies?”

“I don’t have a choice. I’ve got a different job to do.”

“Job…? This?” I pointed to the roulette table.

The man winced. “No, not gambling. Supposedly, if I hang out here before the monster battles start, the guy who sells the cheat sheets is gonna come by…”

He suddenly clamped his mouth shut so hard, his teeth clicked. He grimaced.

“Crap! I didn’t need to mention that. Just get outta here, man.”

But after hearing that, there was no way I could back down. There were some rather ominous key words in that little admission.

“H-hang on. Are you talking about the guy who spoke to you at the gate in Lectio yesterday?”

“Now how would you know about something like that, Black?”

“Just answer the question. The sheet seller from Lectio is going to show up here? Who told you that?” I pressed him.

Hafner’s expression got even uglier, but he answered the question anyway. “I don’t know who. Someone in the guild heard the rumor. It might not be true anyway. See, look over there.”

I glanced in the direction he was surreptitiously pointing. There was a familiar player staked out at a distant roulette table. It was…the trident user from the ALS, Hokkai Ikura.

“Couple more ALS folks playing poker and craps, too. I bet they’re all after the cheat sheet guy.”

“…Meaning the DKB and ALS are both intent on the monster battle today, too…?” I asked, aghast.

Hafner glared at me. “Maybe you’re wondering why we haven’t learned our lesson yet. Well, you saw the ridiculous specs on that sword, right?” He pointed his thumb behind him at the exchange counter in the center of the room—and the golden longsword that outshone everything else at the top of the prize area. “If you get that sword, you’d be unstoppable not just on this floor, but through at least the tenth. You’re a one-handed sword guy, too. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t want it.”

“I’m not going to deny it…The thing is, Kibaou’s a one-handed sword user, but your Lind uses a scimitar, doesn’t he? What’s he going to do, change his main weapon skill?”

“No way, Lind’s not that big of a skinflint. It’ll probably end up going to Shivata if we get the sword.”

Shivata was another sub-leader of the DKB, the track-and-field-looking guy—and he did use a one-handed sword. That made sense to me.

“…But in the arena yesterday, you bet on the favorite according to the cheat sheet every time and lost everything at the end, didn’t you? How do you know the same thing won’t happen today?”

“Seriously, how do you know all that…?” Hafner wondered, scowling again. He folded his arms, a clear signal that he was done talking. “Everything past this point is a company secret. Now get lost, for real this time. I’ve got to catch myself a sheet seller.”

Yeah, and that guy’s almost guaranteed to be a Korloy cat’s-paw.

But I couldn’t tell him that. Hafner wouldn’t believe me at this point. He probably hadn’t even heard the name Korloy yet.

“Fine, fine,” I said. “Thanks for the info, though. I’ll let you in on a little tip.”

“…What?”

“See how the roulette dealer’s wearing a bow tie with a black-and-red pattern? If there’s more black than red on the tie, the ball’s more likely to land black. Same thing’s true of red.”

“…Seriously?” Hafner’s eyes went wide.

I smirked. “It’s only about a sixty-forty split, though. Can’t take it too literally. See ya.”

With a wave, I left the roulette table, and the smile left my face.

Something was fishy if the DKB and ALS were embarking on another big gambling run, relying on the cheat sheets. And this time, the seller wasn’t approaching them directly but was supposedly using a more elaborate ruse, by showing up if they sat around gambling. The difference made it seem much less that they were being ripped off by a scammer.

If the result of the gamble was that someone ended up with the Sword of Volupta legitimately, that was a good thing, but I doubted it would happen. The Korloys had to be plotting a variety of tricks again to take advantage of the two guilds.

I returned to the main hall from the gaming room and headed for the stairs, intent on discussing this with the rest of the group. But I stopped when I realized they might not be back from the spa yet. If I wanted to maximize the use of this time, I could still collect a bit more information.

In fact, Nirrnir had said something earlier that caught my interest—a story about a child who’d snuck into the stable behind the casino and let one of the monsters free out of an abundance of pity, or something…

During the beta test, I thought I had searched every nook and cranny of the casino that was accessible, but I did not know there was a stable behind the back of the building. If there were twenty monsters fighting in the Battle Arena per day, there had to be a place for them to wait. Maybe I’d learn something if I went to check it out.

I passed many visitors in the main hallway and left the casino, then came to a stop in front of the deluxe facade and pretended to be indecisive about which way to go, using the opportunity to examine the area.

If you walked down the stairs from the marble porch of the building, the front gate was just ahead, but there were smaller staircases to the right and left, with small paths running through the decorative plants. I worried about the guards standing on either side of the entrance, but if you weren’t allowed to go in those directions, they would have closed them off to start with, I figured. So I casually stepped down the stairs and headed down the left path.

After twenty meters of carefully manicured plants, the path came to an abrupt dead end. A black wrought iron gate blocked the way, about eight feet tall.

The path on the other side of the building was probably the same way. I’d have to get over this gate to reach the back side of the casino. Somewhere on the rear side of the lot was most likely a gate for ushering in the tamed monsters, and it stood to reason that it was more tightly guarded than the front entrance.

At my current strength and agility, it would be impossible to get over an eight-foot gate with a vertical jump. I probably wouldn’t be able to achieve a feat like that until I was level 80 or 90. Hopefully this game of death was beaten before then, but until then, I put myself to the task of checking the sides of the gate.

The right half of the gate was fixed to the wall that surrounded the casino grounds, and there was nothing on its surface that offered purchase for climbing. But the left gate was attached to the wall of the building, which had alternating marble blocks that stuck out about an inch. It was just barely usable as a handhold—the real question was if I’d be branded a criminal for crossing this fence. Then again, if I did, there ought to be a warning message, like with thievery and inappropriate contact.

If the message appears, I’ll get out at once, I told myself, looking over my shoulder. There were no other visitors or guards on the tiled path. I stepped up to the wall and placed a hand on one of the blocks that jutted out.

I couldn’t get more than my first finger joint for leverage, but the challenge of the climb was far lower than the outer wall mountain of Castle Galey on the previous floor. For one thing, I was so close to the ground I couldn’t possibly suffer any damage in a fall. I steadied my breathing, then used the fingertips of both hands and my toes to grab the wall, and climbed. Once I was above the height of the fence, I moved horizontally to the right. After I was sure the ground below was clear, I jumped off.

My knees absorbed the impact upon landing. I waited in my landing crouch for several seconds, but no guards came rushing over to get me. No warning messages, either.

I stood up and looked around the area. The narrow path and decorative plants were the same as on the other side, but they felt slightly less manicured over here.

Sneaking forward down the path, I soon came to a left turn. I hugged the corner of the building and peered around. Once again, there was nothing but a path running between the building and the wall that surrounded it.

If I kept going, it should take me around the rear of the casino. But the path here was probably a good hundred meters long, and if any guards came around the corner in either direction, there was nowhere to escape. If they caught me, I’d be banned from the casino at best, or imprisoned, or turned into an orange player at worst.

Was it worth taking that much of a risk to investigate this possible stable?

I considered it for a moment, then began walking forward, not back.

If Nirrnir’s strategy to bleach the dye out of the lykaon’s fur worked, the Korloys’ scheme would be brought into the sunlight—or into the underground hall at night, at least—and she’d have the chance to punish the mysterious Bardun Korloy for his crime. Maybe we’d even get back the twenty thousand–plus col they cheated the ALS and DKB out of yesterday.

But that didn’t eliminate the possibility that the Korloy family had another trick up their sleeve. If the plan failed for some reason, and both guilds suffered even greater losses than before, not only could it come with major monetary damage, but it could also severely damage Lind’s and Kibaou’s drive to succeed. The loss of all my wealth in the beta was a funny story now, but if the foundation beneath the feet of the game’s best players in the official release became unstable, that could have a profound effect on many people’s lives. With the specter of the PK gang and Fallen Elves looming overhead, the last thing we needed was another major source of trouble.

Suddenly, I felt an icy sensation on my back, and I stood still.

I turned back, but there was no one behind me. The cause of the chill was my own train of thought.

Was it possible they were behind this, too? After the fifth and sixth floors, was the PK gang plotting to trip up the ALS and DKB from a new, unexpected angle?

No, I was just being paranoid. We passed through the seventh-floor teleport gate at midnight on January 5. The DKB and ALS reached Volupta that same morning. There just couldn’t have been any time for the PK gang to make contact with the Korloys and propose a scam, and it just didn’t seem possible in the first place. The whole reason we were helping Nirrnir in the first place was because Argo had undertaken her quest.

I was overthinking things. If the man in the black poncho and his followers could agitate not just players but NPCs, too, then they were true—…

I stopped that thought in its tracks and headed down the shaded pathway, deeper into darkness.

(To be continued)