Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 7 - Chapter 6

6

TRYING TO AVOID THE ATTENTION OF THE ALS AND DKB, we slipped through the crowd and out of the arena, where we felt free to exhale with relief. Perhaps they had noticed us a while ago but were too busy to bother caring about us. I’d looked at the odds for the second match, which were currently 2.07 and 2.75. If they bet everything on the higher odds and won again, they’d have at least six thousand six hundred chips.

But why had they been so sure that betting on the lykaon, which had higher odds—meaning less chance of winning—would be successful? Were they just hoping for the bigger payout, or did they have some kind of tip-off about its real chance of winning? I couldn’t help but wonder.

I picked up speed to reach Argo on the stairs back to the first-floor hall and muttered under my breath, “Do you think it’s possible that Lin-Kiba took the same quest you did?”

“Huh? Oh…because they both bet on the Rusty Lykaon,” said the info dealer, instantly catching on to my logic. She considered it and said, “Hmm, I can’t rule it out entirely, but I doubt it. This quest wasn’t in the beta, and it was real hard to find the starting point…I have a hard time imagining that either ALS or DKB found it the moment they came to Volupta.”

She took a breath, then continued, “For one thing, the only match the quest tells ya there’s cheatin’ involved was the one we just saw. Doesn’t explain how they won all the bets in the daytime, does it?”

“Oh…Ah, right…”

That explanation made sense, but it didn’t clear up why the ALS and DKB made so many chips. The monsters in the arena were appearing for the first time in the game, so they couldn’t bet based on experience and knowledge of their abilities. Were Lind and Kibaou just that lucky? If they actually won ten all-or-nothing bets in a row and acquired the Sword of Volupta, I was going to have to take a long, hard look at my game strategy.

My mood was souring, and I had to take a deep breath to re-center myself. I felt like I’d been antsy ever since setting foot in this town. Maybe I still had some lingering enthusiasm for gambling after getting burned in the beta, but I wasn’t a solo player without any obligation to anyone else anymore. I was the one who invited Asuna to play with me on the first floor. I had a responsibility to be her partner until she was ready for the next stage.

With these thoughts in mind, I glanced to my right, where the fencer in question was staring at the red carpet, deep in thought. Unfortunately, my interpersonal communication skill was at too low of a level for me to guess what she was thinking. She would probably tell me if I asked, but even that question was a big hurdle for an eighth-grade boy.

We finished the climb up the stairs to the ground floor hall and rounded the goddess statue on the way to the other end, where the staircase to the second floor waited, guarded by an NPC dressed in black—and a red-velvet rope.

Sandals flapping, Argo strode right up to the tough-looking bouncer, who was probably just as dangerous as the town guard NPCs, and held up a gray metal tag she’d produced at some point.

“Can my two companions and I get through?” she asked. The man silently detached the rope from one of the poles and pulled it back, giving a sullen bow. Argo walked right past him, and Asuna and I followed.

We continued up more stairs, hearing the rope clicking back into place behind us. On the second floor, Argo ignored the VIP high-roller game room and crossed the red carpet to the next set of stairs.

The third-floor hall was octagonal, like the others, but its lights were low, and the carpet was black, seeming to absorb everything it touched. There was supposedly a fourth floor, but I saw no staircase. In the center of the room was a statue that looked like a priest with the head of a fish.

“…Why a fish?” I asked, looking up at the statue.

Asuna tilted her head. “I’ve heard the headgear that Catholic bishops wear is supposed to be in the shape of a fish head…but this doesn’t seem to be related.”

“It’s a creepy-looking face.”

“And not exactly like the ichthyoids from the fourth floor.”

While we talked, Argo stepped to a stately counter in the back of the hall, showing her metal tag to the NPC there. Then she turned back and waved her hand to beckon us closer.

We hurried forward, at which point Argo started walking down a hallway leading farther into the building. The stringed instrument music, which was supposedly being performed on the second floor, was completely out of earshot now. The silence in the hallway was painfully loud. At the end, we turned left, then right, and walked a ways farther before stopping at a door.

“Room seventeen…This is the place,” Argo murmured, then rapped sharply on the dark, heavy door twice.

A few moments later, a faint voice from inside said, “Who is it?”

“Argo. And my companions…er, my assistants.”

After another pause, there was the dainty click of a lock turning. The door pushed open slowly, revealing an interior that was even darker than the hallway.

It made me wonder if we should go back to equipping our gear, or at least our swords—but I thought better of it when I noticed that Argo wasn’t concerned in the least as she walked inside. Technically, I still had my shortsword at my side, so if anything happened, I could at least make do for Asuna until she could put on her full battle equipment.

The room through the door was so extravagant that it immediately made the platinum suite at the Ambermoon Inn pale in comparison. The only light came from a few lamps, but there was plenty of moonlight streaming through a massive window on the south end of the room. In front of it was a sofa that could easily seat five people at once.

Only one person was sitting on it now.

I could just make out the silhouette, but it was quite small. Focusing on it produced a yellow NPC cursor. The name beneath the HP gauge was NIRRNIR, but I wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce it. Above her head was a floating ? symbol, the sign of a quest in progress.

Nurnur…? Neenir…? Near-nire? I tried sounding out various permutations in my head but was interrupted by a woman’s voice to my left.

“I will take what is on your waist.”

“Fwee?!” I squealed, jumping away in pure reaction and bumping into Asuna on my right.

“Hey! Watch out,” she grumbled, but she supported my weight anyway. I whispered a quick apology, then looked into the darkness to the left.

Standing next to the door was a maid in a black dress and white apron…or so I thought at first. She was actually wearing a dark, gleaming breastplate, and her skirt was adorned with lines of arrowhead-shaped metal plates. On top of that, she wore gloves and boots, as well as a rapier on her left hip—except it was a purely thrusting weapon, with no blade whatsoever. An estoc, then.

In terms of anime and Japanese games, warrior maids were practically a tradition at this point, but I couldn’t remember seeing anyone like this in Aincrad before. The color cursor was yellow, like the person on the couch. Her name was Kio, which seemed easy enough to say. Kee-oh.

I was staring at her absentmindedly when the maid, who had crisply parted hair and sharp eyes, glared at me and demanded, “Your sword.”

“Oh…! H-here.”

I was worried about losing my weapon, but I did have the martial arts skill, too, I told myself, removing the shortsword’s sheath from my belt. The maid quickly took it away from me, then pulled it out halfway to examine the blade.

“…Plain steel.”

I was tempted to quip something like “Sorry it’s not pure orichalcum” but thought better of it, because I knew she wouldn’t get it. The maid then placed the shortsword on a nearby rack and stepped back.

“Please do not give offense to Lady Nirrnir,” she said. She pronounced the name something like Neer-nur. I was wise enough not say out loud what an odd and interesting name I thought it was.

With the permission of Kio the warrior maid, Argo walked farther into the room. Asuna and I followed her.

We crossed the absurdly deep carpet toward the regal sofa, until we could finally see this Lady Nirrnir. Now it made sense why her figure seemed so small as it leaned against the many cushions—she couldn’t have been more than twelve years old.

She wore a black dress made of a many-layered but rather transparent material—tulle or organdy or something like that. Her skin was so pale, and her flowing blond hair was so fine and shining that, for a moment, I thought she was just a doll.

Her head moved, revealing features that were beautiful, young, and mysterious in the moonlight. Red lips parted to issue a soft, high-pitched voice with just a hint of a lisp.

“Welcome back, Argo. Did you find your assistants?”

“Yeah, I’ve known them for a little while now. Say hello to Miss Nirr,” said Argo, who seemed no different from her usual self, which didn’t make it any easier to know how to act here. Asuna stepped forward and greeted her in a way I’d only ever seen in movies. She pinched the hem of her dress, pulled her right leg back, and bent her left knee.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Miss Nirrnir. My name is Asuna.”

She straightened up and took a step back. Next was my turn, but I had no skirt in order to mimic Asuna. My brain was overheating, trying desperately to remember what noblemen in foreign movies did. Like Asuna, I pulled my right leg back and crossed it with my left leg, then placed my right hand below my chest and extended my left hand straight to the side, then bowed.

“N-nice to meet you. I’m Kirito.”

I had no idea if this was right, but the girl nodded generously and asked, “Asuna and Kirito…Is this correct?” That was a pronunciation check, something that nearly every AI-run NPC asked. Her intonation was perfect, so we said yes.

“I see. Good evening. Will you sit?”

She pointed not at an empty spot on the enormous sofa but at a three-person sofa facing her. I sat down, then Argo and Asuna, and Kio promptly began setting out teacups on the marble table. When did she prepare that? When she was done, she slid out of sight, holding the tray, to wait at a location equidistant to the sofas. She was close enough that if I tried to do anything funny to her master, she could skewer me with that estoc.

I had no intention of testing out that hypothesis, of course. I thanked her for the tea and took a sip. It was straight tea, with no sugar or milk, but there was a muscat grape scent to it—and just the tiniest hint of sweetness. To my right, Asuna exclaimed that it was delicious, so that told me it was very fine tea, indeed.

Once we’d placed our cups down, Nirrnir straightened up about halfway from her slumped position and said, “Since you’ve come back, does that mean you’ve figured out the cheat involving that doggy, Argo?”

“I’m pretty sure. Go ahead and explain what you found, Kii-boy.”

This caught me by surprise. “Whaaat?!” I protested, but I knew I couldn’t refuse. Instead, I pulled the carefully folded handkerchief out of my pants pocket. I rose to my feet, intending to lean forward and hand Nirrnir the handkerchief, when Kio approached from the right and held out her hand.

“…Ah. Thanks.”

I placed the handkerchief in her palm. Kio opened it up and looked at the red stain in the middle, frowning. She then walked around the back of the ornate couch, knelt at the right side of her master, and held out the cloth.

Nirrnir plucked it out of her hand, looking suspicious.

“…What does this mean, Kirito?” she asked.

“That stain was left behind when the Rusty Lykaon, the winner of the match, hit the side of the cage.”

“So this is…not the dog’s blood? It doesn’t smell like blood,” said Nirrnir conclusively, despite the fact that she had not leaned down to sniff it.

I nodded. “Yes. I believe it’s a dye taken from some kind of plant.”

“A dye…?”

Nirrnir’s big, doll-like eyes narrowed. I’d thought her irises were black, but in the angle of the moonlight, I saw they were a deep red.

“Meaning the dog’s fur was dyed this color?”

“That’s right,” I agreed, and then I explained the trick in as clear a voice as possible: “Rusty Lykaons appear on the western side of this floor, in the Field of Bones. But there’s no reason to dye one the same color they already are…meaning that the pill bug—er, the Bouncy Slater—was not actually fighting a Rusty Lykaon but a more advanced species with a different colored pelt.”

“……”

Nirrnir did not speak after my explanation was over. I started to worry that I might have gotten something wrong, but then the girl moved, returning the handkerchief to Kio. Her left hand remained outstretched, waiting for something.

Kio quickly stashed the evidence handkerchief into her apron pocket, then picked up a wine bottle from a nearby side table. She poured about two fingers of dark liquid into a glass.

Nirrnir allowed her to place the glass into her waiting hand, then drained its contents in one go, which I assumed was red wine. That kid’s drinking alcohol! You’re gonna be in trouble! I thought, but then I realized Aincrad probably didn’t have any laws against underage drinking.

To my surprise, Nirrnir lifted the empty glass, preparing to smash it against the ground. But she composed herself, slowly lowered her hand, and gave the glass to Kio. She exhaled slowly, paused, then looked up at us.

Her fine brows were sharply tilted, and suddenly there was no longer any hint of youth in her beauty. She couldn’t have been more than a year apart from Myia, the girl from the sixth floor, but the force of her presence was unlike any girl I’d ever met.

“…The old Korloy bastard’s really done it now.”

Her voice was hot with the flames of anger, but the presence of an unfamiliar name caused me to ask, “Who’s Korloy?”

“…Explain for them, Kio,” she proclaimed, waving her hand. Kio set the wine glass down on the table, then returned to her usual position and looked down at me.

“Are you aware that the Volupta Grand Casino is run by the Nachtoy family, of which Lady Nirrnir is the matriarch, and also the Korloys, who are relatives?”

I’d never heard either name, not even in the beta. I glanced to the right and saw Argo and Asuna shaking their heads. To Kio I said, “I apologize, I—I did not know that.”

“…That is no surprise, if you are an adventurer newly arrived to this town. The Nachtoys and Korloys are both descendants of the hero Falhari. You must know the name Falhari, surely.”

It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Fortunately, I didn’t need to overturn my jumbled memories, because Asuna bailed me out.

“That’s the person who vanquished Zariegha the water dragon and founded Volupta.”

“Correct. Falhari took for his wife the girl who was to be given to Zariegha as a sacrifice, and they had twin sons. But the boys were terrible enemies, and when they grew up, they battled over the right to be Falhari’s heir. In his old age, Falhari forbid his sons from taking up swords against one another. Instead, he instructed them to tame monsters to do their fighting. By his decree, whoever won three out of five matches would be the next ruler of Volupta.”

“Uh-huh…”

That might have been a more peaceful resolution than twin brothers fighting to the death, but it had to suck for the monsters, I thought.

Nirrnir practically read my mind. “You adventurers have killed countless monsters, too, of course.”

“R-right. You’re correct,” I replied feebly. Nirrnir snorted softly, then waved at Kio to continue.

“…After Falhari the Founder passed on, the twins followed his decree and enacted a five-match series of battles using tamed monsters.”

“Wait, h-hang on,” I said, interrupting just as she had started her explanation. Kio gave me a very cross look. I hunched my shoulders guiltily and asked, “You say tamed as though it’s that easy…Is it even possible?”

“Not for ordinary people like you or me,” the maid claimed. Then she added proudly, “But Falhari the hero knew the secret art of controlling monsters. The twins inherited that power from him and used it to tame them.”

“Secret art…” I repeated, in blank shock. As quietly as possible, I murmured into Argo’s ear, “SAO doesn’t have a monster-taming skill, right?”

“It’s not in the list of skills you can choose. If it exists, it must be an Extra Skill…”

“Oh man,” I muttered, swallowing.

The two Extra Skills in my skill slots, martial arts and Meditation, both required clearing a kind of trial quest from an NPC. Was this quest one of those, too? If we finished it, could we gain the Taming skill that people believed didn’t exist in SAO…?

“May I continue?” Kio asked archly.

I snapped back to attention. “Ah! Y-yes, please do.”

“After the Founder, Falhari, passed on, the twins followed his decree and enacted a five-match series of battles using tamed monsters,” Kio said, repeating the exact same words she’d said before I interrupted. “But neither of them had much confidence in the monsters he’d prepared. So just to see if they were ready to conduct the proper duel, they agreed to an informal test beforehand. They built a wooden fence around an empty space in front of their mansion, with two exits. The plan was to insert the monsters through the exit, so they would fight inside the fence. The test ended up being conducted with a large crowd of curious villagers watching. The monsters simply leaped over the fence or were so strong they destroyed it in their battling. It caused quite a stir.”

Well, no wonder, with just a wooden fence, I thought. But that was not the end of Kio’s story.

“However, there were no deaths or injuries among the townspeople, and the crowd seemed to really enjoy the exhibition. At the time, Volupta was just a small village built on fishing and farming, and there wasn’t much entertainment in Lectio to the east or Pramio to the west. The next week, they held a second test with reinforced fences, and it brought crowds not just from Volupta but Lectio and Pramio as well. They set up stands, placed bets, and gave the event a festival atmosphere.”

“…I think I can see where this is goin’,” whispered Argo. I did, too. Kio was no longer glaring at us, but she was lost deep in her story of the past, making gestures with her hands to punctuate the descriptions.

“The twins noticed this reaction and had an idea. What if, rather than rushing into their best-of-five match to determine the answer, they repeated these test matches over and over? They could draw guests to Volupta each week, eager to spend their money. That hunch was proven correct, and when they officially turned the test battles into a coliseum battle, the visitors poured in from the other two towns. The competition for the inheritance went to the wayside, as the twins took control of the betting themselves, adding warm-up entertainment and other wagering games. Soon they had renovated their family mansion, until it became the Volupta Grand Casino you see today. The twins grew old and passed away, leaving the operation in their children’s hands, then grandchildren, until the last will of Falhari the Founder became no more than a story…”

Kio trailed off there, and Nirrnir added:

“As you saw in the basement, the test fights no longer have any connection to their original purpose. They are held day and night here.”

“……”

Based on the clipped, frank tone of the young lady’s voice, it was impossible to tell what she thought about the decree of the founder, which was now nothing more than an empty husk. I didn’t even know how many generations away from Falhari the hero she was.

According to the dark elf legends Kizmel taught us, Aincrad the floating castle had been carved out of the earth below in the distant past, with all its various towns and villages, and banished to the distant sky, where no magic could reach it. It wasn’t clear how long ago the “distant past” was supposed to be, but it had to be way more than a century or two.

Kizmel had also said, Only Her Royal Majesty possesses all the legends surrounding the Great Separation and the six sacred keys. All that we are told is that this floating castle was created long in the past. But if we knew how many years ago Falhari the hero lived, we could at least establish a minimum range for the “distant past.”

I summoned my courage to ask Nirrnir about that topic. But a split second before I could speak, Asuna said, “If the twins inherited the hero Falhari’s power, does that mean that, as a part of that bloodline, you are able to tame monsters, too, Miss Nirrnir?”

“That’s right,” she replied.

Kio added, “To be precise, it is Lady Nirrnir, the head of the Nachtoy family, and one other…the head of the Korloy family, Bardun. Only they can use the power of ‘employment.’”

“Meaning that half the monsters fighting in the Battle Arena downstairs every day…were tamed personally by you, my lady?”

“Right,” she said, just as briefly. Although, perhaps because Asuna was 50 percent more polite than me, she also added, “However, I do not trudge through forests and mountains and caves. I merely tame creatures that are captured and brought to me. I want to go searching for them. But Kio and the guards will not allow me.”

“Of course not!” Kio interjected. “Your life is in danger from the Korloys, Lady Nirrnir. To venture into the wild would be begging them to attack you.”

“At this point, I would appreciate a good honest attack over all these poisons and tricks.”

I couldn’t help but comment on this rather grisly conversation. “Um, your life is in danger…? I thought the Nachtoys and Korloys run the Grand Casino together. If the person who’s supplying half the monsters for the arena disappears, won’t that be a bad thing for the Korloys’ business, too?”

“Unfortunately, Bardun Korloy has grown too senile to understand obvious logic like yours. Old age is a terrible curse,” Nirrnir said, a rather strange thing for a child to have an opinion about, and she sank back into the cushions. She lifted her crossed legs up into the air, waving gently, and said in a voice not much more than a whisper, “In the past…Bardun cared for me. But as the end of his life grew closer, he became obsessed with prolonging it. Now Bardun is obsessed with gathering all the gold he can to buy scant moments of life, and he’s lost sight of everything else. That is why he’s sunk to these cheap tricks in the arena. The ten percent of each bet that is taken as the casino’s fee goes entirely to the winner of the fight.”

“Buy…life? From who?”

No healing potion you could buy at a shop, nor even the ultra-rare healing crystals you could find on this floor, could prolong your lifespan. Hence my question, but Nirrnir just shook her head, sending her golden waves of hair swaying.

“You do not need to know that. For now…I must thank you for figuring out the trick placed on the lykaon. Kio?”

The maid bowed and walked over to us. When Argo stood up, she put a small leather sack into the Rat’s hand.

“Thanks!” Argo said, taking the sack. The floating ? mark over Nirrnir’s head vanished with a faint sound. The quest we were sharing had been finished. It was the end of our job, but in terms of telling a story, it was quite an unsatisfying conclusion, I thought.

At that very moment, a ! mark appeared right over the reclining girl’s head, the sign of a new quest. Before she had even put the sack away, Argo promptly asked, “Do you have any other jobs, Miss Nirr?”

“Well…I suppose I do. But this one will be quite a lot of work.”

“No problem. Kirito and Asuna will do the heavy lifting,” Argo reassured her. Nirrnir giggled and sat up—and then turned dead serious.

“I will explain what I need. Tomorrow night, the Korloys intend to again use that Rusty Lykaon whose ruse you saw through.”

“Huh? But it lost a lot of hit poi…I mean, it was injured rather badly,” I pointed out.

The girl’s delicate shoulders moved up and down. “I assume they will treat its wounds, of course. That lykaon has already appeared for four consecutive days.”

“So it’s on a four-game winning streak…But wait. Does that mean you could sense that something was wrong about the lykaon before today’s match?”

“It was three days ago…I noticed during its second match,” Nirrnir replied.

“In that case,” I said hesitantly, “why didn’t you use a stronger monster against it? The Bouncy Slater isn’t exactly weak, but…you could go with a Verdian Rock Boar, or a Braising Newt, or…”

Those were names of powerful enemies from the seventh floor, plucked from my memory banks. But the girl made a sour face.

“Rock boars are too big to fit through the cage entrance, and if you fight with Braising Newts, you’re going to have a fire. Besides, how are you going to set up proper odds in a match where one side has an overwhelming advantage?”

“In that case…how do you decide the matchups?”

“I have a handy list of all the monsters that are small enough to fight safely inside the cage, along with their features.”

I noticed Argo twitch at the mention of that list. It was only natural that an info seller would covet that paper. Please don’t try to steal it, I prayed as the young mistress continued her story.

“Based on their relative strength, each monster is classified as one of twelve ranks. Only monsters of the same rank can be placed in direct battle in the arena. Both the Bouncy Slater and the Rusty Lykaon are sixth-ranked monsters.”

“And if I could ask…?”

“First rank is the weakest, and twelfth rank is the strongest. Meaning they used a monster that was at least seventh rank in order to take the place of a sixth-ranked Rusty Lykaon,” she said, reading my mind once again. Nirrnir’s deep-red eyes glinted dangerously. “No matter how the Nachtoys and Korloys may have clashed and bickered, we have always respected the fairness of the Grand Casino. But now Bardun has crossed the line, just for a slight increase in profit. He must be made to pay for this transgression.”

“Hang on; when you said this was gonna be a lot of work, you weren’t talkin’ about assassination, were ya?” Argo asked, no need for subtlety.

The girl grimaced. “No, I would not ask that of you. If I wanted someone killed, I would do it myself,” she said easily. But with those doll-like hands, she could barely swing a dagger, much less a sword. NPC stats couldn’t be identified at a glance, and Myia was way too strong for a child when she fought alongside us on the previous floor, but she’d been trained by her mother, Theano. Nirrnir was a true, pampered lady. We’d know the truth if we got her in the party and saw her level number, but that wasn’t likely to ever happen.

In just two seconds, Nirrnir was back to her default expression. “I would like for you to gather the fruit of the narsos tree—and wurtz stones. If you mix equal parts squeezed juice and stones, then simmer it on low heat, it will turn into a powerful bleaching agent that strips out all dyes from a material.”

“Strips out dye…” I repeated blankly, then realized what she meant. “So we’ll be able to take the artificial color out of the Rusty Lykaon’s fur…?”

“In the arena, right before the match. If the cheating is exposed before a hundred-plus gamblers with money on the line, even wily Bardun Korloy won’t be able to wriggle out of that one.”

“But…in that case, won’t it cause major damage to the reputation of the casino? I imagine it might also hurt the Nachtoy family,” I pointed out gingerly.

Nirrnir just sighed. “It is unavoidable. It angers me that the monsters I brought were killed by one of a different rank, but I cannot overlook cheating at my casino. We will have to issue a public apology and return the money we took from every match the lykaon appeared in.”

Now I was sincerely wondering if she was actually a child. Nirrnir looked from me to Argo.

“So will you accept my request?”

“Hmmmm…”

It was very rare to see Argo being indecisive. She looked at the girl and her maid and said, “You asked me to figure out the lykaon’s deception because you couldn’t have someone from the Nachtoy family camping out in front of the cage, I assume. But do you really need us to gather stones and fruits? You gotta have some experienced monster hunters, and I imagine they could get what you need…”

“Of course, in terms of skill, our hunters are more than capable enough to do the job,” answered Kio. “But there are two problems. First, wurtz stones can be located in the riverbed to the west of Volupta, but there are few of them to be found, and they are black, so they can only be spotted during the day. If someone from the Korloy family was to witness Nachtoy men searching for wurtz stones…”

“You’d tip ’em off that you’re making the bleaching agent.”

“Precisely. And the other ingredient, narsos fruit, grows in the forest in the center of the seventh floor, far from Volupta. The problem there is not the Korloys, but something else. There is a dark elf fortress in Looserock Forest.”

My back straightened the moment I heard that. Asuna probably did the same.

Kio glanced at me but continued her explanation. “The Nachtoys and Korloys have long had a practice of capturing monsters in the forest while the dark elves are not watching. At this point, the dark elves attack as soon as they spot one of our hunting parties. Even our savviest hunters cannot beat the elven knights and bowmen in the forest.”

Of course they couldn’t. The dark elves and forest elves were always set to be many levels more powerful than the monsters that typically appeared on that floor, and here on the seventh, we might see some of their elite classes. Even I couldn’t beat them in a one-on-one fight. Thankfully, as long as we had the Sigil of Lyusula, the dark elves wouldn’t attack us.

Kio, as psychic as ever, gazed at the ring on my left hand and added, “Kirito, Asuna, it would seem that you have a friendship pact with the dark elves. In that case, I do not think they will attack you for simply collecting some fruits in their forest. Although I would not test what happens if you cut down living trees or break their branches.”

“Uh…nope. No cutting down or breaking here.”

“That is a good idea. Now, will you accept this request?”

Only Argo could answer the question. After two seconds of silence, she muttered, “Well, it wouldn’t feel right to stop now,” and stood up. Asuna and I hurriedly followed.

“Awright, you’re on,” said Argo. Instantly, the ! mark over Nirrnir’s head turned to a ?. If it wasn’t my imagination, she might have looked just a little bit relieved.

The little matriarch said, “I’m glad. What I want from you is twenty ripened narsos fruits and, oh, fifty wurtz stones. It is a three-hour trip to Looserock Forest and back, and a person can collect that many wurtz stones in five hours. When you consider the time to juice the fruits and boil the mixture, you will need to bring those materials back by one o’clock in the afternoon tomorrow for us to be ready by the time of the arena match.”

“One o’clock. Got it. We’ll figure it out. Guess we should get some sleep for the night, then.”

“I wish I could let you stay here at the hotel, but I cannot offer you such a gift yet,” Nirrnir apologized, but Argo just smirked.

“Can’t ask ya to break the rules of the Grand Casino, Miss Nirr. Anyway, we’ll be back here by lunchtime tomorrow.”

I bowed quickly to Nirrnir and Kio, wondering if it was wise for Argo to make promises like that. But I didn’t get two steps toward the door before the maid called me back.

“You forgot something, Kirito.”

I turned around and saw Kio handing me the shortsword she’d taken from me—with a very exasperated look on her face. I took it quickly and resumed moving toward the door. I thought Nirrnir might have giggled a little, but that was probably just my imagination.