Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3 - Zakkaria Sword Arts Tournament (8th Month of Human World Calendar 378)
Part 1
Looking down at the innocent sleeping faces from the high beam above, it made such a thought unwittingly.
Two boys were using the very sturdy dried straw piled up in the very old warehouse as beds, sleeping soundly. Appearance wise, they did not look too weird. The boy, who was lying horizontally as he slept, had flaxen colored hair, and his eyes that were shut now were deep green in color. Either way, it should be a color that could be seen everywhere in the area NNM... «Norlangarth Northern Middle». The height and physique were all within the average for boys at this age.
In contrast, the boy lying on the left with his limbs spread open had pitch black hair and eyes, and that was a rare sight. The chances of seeing dark colors was more common in the East area and the South, and the chances of giving birth to a child with black eyes and hair in the Northern region was rather rare, even though one could not say that there was no chance at all. As the entire population of the Human Empire had grown to such an extent, it may be possible for such an instance to occur. His physique was identical to the boy beside him, as if they were twins.
163 days ago, it was ordered by the «Master» to directly observe the duo. It arrived all the way here from Central Centoria, and was somewhat disappointed. Whether it was appearance or verbalism, they were not much different from those of the same area and age, but it felt that their planning and ability to avoid danger under dangerous circumstances were below average.
It had been half a year since it followed the duo, taking care not to be noticed.
The rainy season passed, and just when the summer was about to pass, it gradually understood why the «Master» fancied those two.
The lack of planning and abiding the rules was merely a display of inquisitiveness and seeking. Also, the black haired boy's imagination and mobility was shocking even to him, who had lived in this world for more than 200 years. Ever since it started watching them, there were many times where it was worried that the boy would break the Taboo Index.
On thinking through it carefully— that should not be the case. He probably should not be able to do such things. He did things similar to what [it] who the «Master» viewed as an archenemy did, destroying the permanent boundaries scattered all over the world in several days...
At this moment, the black-haired boy who was sleeping started moving his limbs as if he saw something. The shirt that acted as pajamas flipped up, and one could only sigh at the sight of him starting to move again without caring that his navel was exposed.
Summer was over, and the night wind was rather cold in this area that could be considered the northern Norlandgarth area. There were many openings in this warehouse, and if he continued to sleep on the straw bed with his navel exposed, the chances of his «Life» getting a slight illness would be very high. The next day— Human World Calendar 378, August 28th could be said to be the biggest hurdle in their journey up till now.
They should have earned enough money by working in this farm for an entire summer, and though it wanted to tell them many times to at least sleep in an inn in the town, it could not interact with them directly. As it felt anxious observing them, both of them continued to sleep in such a simple warehouse—
And in the end, it ended up like this.
...It can't be helped. If I interfere like this, «Master» will forgive me, definitely.
It stood on the high beam and waved its right hand. A spell was muttered, the fingertip let out a green light, forming a ray of «Wind Element».
It cautiously let the «Wind Element» fall beside the black-haired boy, 30 cen towards the dry straw, and steadily «released» it.
A slight breeze was created, whirling up a pile of straw that slowly covered the boy's exposed navel. It was not reliable as a blanket, but it should be enough to cover the cold air blowing through the gaps.
It put its hand down and continued to stare at the two boys who did not notice what was going on before starting to consider what to do next.
The Life was permanently frozen, and the magic caster that was a «Master» had been taking similar missions for almost 200 years. However, it never had any memories of being interested in the observed parties. However, it should be a function that was without «emotion». This body was not that of a human... Or rather, not a main Human Unit in this «Underworld».
Even if it could have predicted that the boy would get a cold right before this important trial, the problem was why it did not ignore this, but used a spell to interfere. Or rather, if his body collapsed, if the spell failed, its long mission to observe would be over, and it could return back to the corner of that large library it missed...
In other words... instead of going home, would its journey with the duo end just like this?
Impossible. This is too illogical. It's like I'm influenced by both of their irregular movement.
I can't continue to think. This isn't part of the mission. All I need is to do is to follow and observe both of them. I have to observe these two people— the flaxen-haired boy Eugeo and the black-haired boy Kirito, move to their destination.
It curled its body back to 5 mil and leaped off the beam. It would not exhaust Life with such a small body, and it would not need to use spells. It landed like settling straw, and silently moved its slender legs to their usual position— the somewhat long black hair of the boy called Kirito.
It fastened its body on the numerous hair strands that were of the same color as it, and for some reason, chided itself for its small body.
The peacefulness, comfort, assurance; amidst all these, there was some sort of intense emotions amongst them all... And it could not think of why it was feeling this way.
—Such inexplicable boys.
It again had this thought, closed its eyes, and went into a light sleep.
Part 2
The next day was the last day of August, and the morning was extremely clear.
Kirito stretched his back and opened his eyes. He looked rather surprised as he grabbed a pile of straw that was covering his torso, and he immediately sat up. He shook his head to wake himself up, and the observer that was hiding in his hair reached its arms and legs out.
It went to near the bottom of the strands of black hair and moved towards the fringe of it. This was its designated spot for observation in the door. As Kirito would occasionally scratch his head, it would have to be careful. A frozen Life merely meant that it would not decrease naturally due to old age, and Life would still be used up when the body got damaged. However, the maximum value of its Life was a lot larger than humans, and even after shrinking, its toughness was nearly completely preserved, so those sudden hits or whatsoever were still bearable.
Kirito did not detect the malt-grain sized observer that was hiding in his hair and slid off the pile of straw. He put his hand on the shoulder of his sleeping partner.
“Oi Eugeo. Wake up. It's morning.”
The rough shaking caused the boy's eyebrows that were of the same color as his hair to jerk slightly while he cracked his eyes open. The green eyes appeared dazed for a moment, but after blinking hard a few times he seemed to grimace as he narrowed them.
“...Morning, Kirito. You're still the same as usual, waking up so early everyday.”
“It should be the other way around. I say, wake up, wake up! We have to finish what we have to do in the morning; let's do some «style» training before breakfast. I still somewhat don't understand the 7th «Style».”
“That's why I told you to practice your «styles» besides just carrying out mock battles... I really can't believe you, trying to pull an all-nighter on the morning of the tournament... No, it's a little weird to say that in the morning. Well...”
“Forget about pulling an all-morning or all-nighter or whatever, we only have this one chance.”
Kirito vaguely said some things as he forcefully dragged Eugeo up, gathered up the straw he had been using as a bed, and stored it into the large wooden barrel at the wall. He picked up the wooden barrel that was filled with straw and headed towards the exit.
The moment he walked out of the warehouse, the light of the new sun entered his eyes. The observer backed itself away and hid in the hut of black hair. Perhaps it was still a little too used to the dark corner of the large library as it did not seem to be too receptive towards the sunlight. However, Kirito happily took a breath of morning air and said this to no one in particular.
“The morning air's so cooling. It's great that I didn't get a cold on such a crucial day.”
And you have the nerve to say so. I won't help you if you sleep with your navel exposed again. The observer could not help but exclaim in its heart, and Eugeo, who moved behind Kirito, said,
“We're going to get sick of sleeping on the warehouse straw sooner or later. How about we spend our lodging fees to sleep in the main house starting tomorrow?”
“Nope, there's no need.”
Kirito grinned —of course, it was impossible to see his face from the base of the scalp, but one could deduce that it was a mischievous grin— as he simply said,
“Because, starting tonight, we're going to be living in the Zakkaria Barracks.”
“...Please tell me where that confidence of yours comes from. Seriously...”
Yare yare. [1] Eugeo shook his head as he carried out a large barrel that was filled with straw, just as Kirito did. Both of them looked rather relaxed, but the weight of this 1-mel diameter sturdy wooden barrel would be pretty shocking even if it was only filled with straw. An ordinary young man of similar age could probably only take a maximum of 20 steps while carrying this barrel.
As for why the two skinny looking boys were not even sweating, the reason was that their «Object Control Authority» was ridiculously high. They could both wield the longsword that was lying against the wall of the warehouse— the Class 45 «Divine Instrument» level object, almost at will.
Then, why would these two seemingly ordinary looking young men, who lived in the countryside, have such great Authority? It had been half a year since it started observing them, and it still did not understand. However, it could at least say that ordinary training or matches up till now alone would not be able to give that value. It would be possible if they were to fight high class wild monsters, but the monsters that were allocated around the village should have been hunted till near extinction. More importantly, those two did not have «Hunter» as their Sacred Task, and if they hunted more wild monsters than what was permitted, they would have broken two clauses on the Taboo Index. If the highly active and energetic Kirito could not do it, it would be impossible to talk about the loyal and honest Eugeo—
There was one possibility left; that they defeated an enemy that would grant an increase in Authority even wild monsters could not match... an «Intruder from the Dark Territory». But on the other hand, this was something that could not be done. Both of them were not guards, and it would be impossible for them to face the Dark Army. Also, the Dark knights who would regularly arrive, the goblin scouts should have been sent packing by the Integrity Knights that were sent over from the Capital Centoria to the Mountain Range at the Edge.
If there was an unexpected «invasion» near Kirito's village... there would be a greater concern as compared to their abnormal growth. That may become a foreboding. That may become a «Prophesized Moment» that was to come one day, yet was thought to happen much later...
As it hid itself in the black hair and pondered about these, both young men had moved the barrels that were filled with straw to the stables beside the warehouse. They filled up the feed buckets of the ten horses fully and took brushes to groom the horses' bodies while they started feeding. This job would be the first thing Kirito and Eugeo had to do in the morning as they live temporary in the «Wolde Farm» on the outskirts of Zakkaria.
After working for a mere 5 months and more, the technique both of them showed in using the comb would make one mistake them for having the Sacred Task «Horse Feeding». Both of them finished grooming the last horse, and all the horses had finished feeding. Then, the 7 o'clock chime came from the Zakkaria Church that was 3 kilolu away. The «Bell of Time-Telling» the Axiom Church built in every village and city could be heard clearly within a radius of 10 kilolu as the sound would not weaken at all, but it would be hard to hear from outside this range. This would be a psychological thought to make sure a Human Unit would not think of moving too far, but it did not seem to be effective on Kirito's group at all.
Both of them used a pail of water to wash their hands and hung the horse brushes on the nail on the pillar. They used their right hands to grab onto the empty barrels, and left the stable. At this moment, an energetic greeting could be heard, seemingly awaiting the duo.
““Good morning, Kirito, Eugeo!””
The owners of the voices overlapped each other completely. They were the 9-year-old twin daughters of the farm owner—Telin and Telulu. Their hair and eyes were reddish-brown, and their shirts and skirt colors were completely identical. The only way to distinguish between them would be the colors of the ribbons on their ponytails. When they introduced themselves, the one with the red ribbon was Telin, and the blue one was Telulu. However, the two mischievous girls would often change their ribbons to make Kirito and Eugeo misidentify them.
“Good morning, Teli...”
Eugeo was about to answer the greeting as per usual, but Kirito stopped him from behind.
“Hold on! It seems a little weird here...”
The girls who heard these looked at each other, and then started laughing,
“Then, what's wrong?” “Is it your imagination?”
Their voices, their mischievous faces, the number and locations of the freckles on their faces were completely identical. Kirito and Eugeo pondered as they mumbled, looking back and forth.
As for why a Human Unit would have twins... or even the extremely rare triplets, even «Master» could not understand completely. After several consecutive cases of Units dying happened in the surrounding areas, the number of twins born increased. These are probably part of the human population adjustment system, and if that were really the case, there would not be a need to make everything the same. However, there were no flaws or strengths that could be used to determine between them.
—Even so, the «Observer» would only see the Unit's Status Window that would be indicated normally...in their terms, it would be the «Stacia Window», so it would be easy to see through the twins' switching their ribbons. In other words, Kirito's instinct was correct.
Believe in your own instincts. The observer who was lying at the root of the black hair muttered. Kirito did not hear this voice, but he raised his left hand to point at the girl with the red ribbon first.
“Good morning, Telulu!”
Then, he pointed at the girl with the blue ribbon.
“Good morning, Telin!”
The moment he finished, the twins stared at each other and exclaimed, “You got it!” They moved their hands that were hidden behind them up till now to the front, each holding a rectangular rattan basket.
“Here's your reward for guessing it correctly. Breakfast's Mulberry pie, you know!”
“We were very enthusiastic in picking the mulberries, you know! We spent a day picking them so that both of you can win in the tournament today!”
“Oh. I'm happy. Thank you, Telulu, Telin.”
Kirito put the wooden barrel beside his feet and reached his hands out to pat the two girls on the head. The twins showed smiles as they stared at Eugeo with a slightly worried expression.
“...Are you unhappy, Eugeo?”

“Don't tell me you hate mulberries?”
Immediately, the boy with the flaxen-colored hair hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, it's not that. I like it too! ...It's just that I thought of something in the past. Thank you.”
On hearing that, the twins showed a smile of relief and ran off to the round table placed between the stables and the rangeland. Kirito looked away from the girls who were preparing breakfast with crisp movements as he walked to Eugeo and patted him on the back.
“We have to win the tournament today and quickly rise to the top ranks in the army so that we can go to Centoria next year... To Alice. Right, Eugeo?”
Eugeo nodded hard at this soft but powerful voice.
“Yeah, that's right. The five months I've spent learning the «Aincrad-Style» from you was for this goal, Kirito.”
This was a one-lined conversation, but there were many significant messages in them.
Amongst these messages, there was a term the observer, who had lived for more than 200 years as a caster, had not heard of— That inconceivable sword style name.
And also, there was the ultimate goal of the duo— The Unit called «Alice».
If the Alice mentioned here would be the same Unit as the Alice that existed in its memories... These two's wishes would be so distant and vague.
That was because she was in a very, very high place in the «Centoria Cathedral» located in central Centoria...
“Kirito! Eugeo! What are you two doing!”
“Hurry up! Or else Telin and I are going to finish breakfast!”
The twins who finished their preparations exclaimed, and Kirito hurriedly pushed Eugeo's back as he ran over.
This jerking interrupted the observer's thoughts and caused it to snap back to reality. For the past 5 months, it had been reminding itself many times that thinking was not the job of an observer. But it always found itself thinking in the end... No, it was worried about the future of these two.
It clung hard onto the black hair strand and sighed for the umpteenth time today.

After a noisy breakfast, the twins left them with the words, “We'll cheer for you!” and left.
They set the ten horses into the rangeland and cleared the stables. Normally, they would use a wooden sword to start practicing, but it was different today. The duo washed their bodies and hair beside the well —at this moment, the observer would leave Kirito's head and hide in the treetop nearby— and they changed out from their work-clothes into their own clothing. They then headed to the main farmhouse not too far away.
The wife of the farm owner, Toriza Wolde had a very straightforward personality as a female owner of the farm. That was probably why she heartily hired the two of them who looked a little weird. It was the same today as she encouraged Kirito and Eugeo, who came to greet her, with a hearty voice and prepared their lunch boxes. As she sent them off, she quipped, “If you fail, forget about being soldiers in this town. Be Telin and Telulu's husbands!”, and this statement caused the two young men to show very complicated smiles.
They left the main house and walked down 3 kilolu on the path leading to the city. Both of them basically never talked to each other, and such a situation itself had never happened before. Most likely, it was due to nervousness. Every year, on the 28th of August, the town of Zakkaria would hold the «Norlangarth North area Swordsmanship competition», and there would be people from more than 50 surrounding towns or villages taking part. Basically, all the participants would either be people with the Sacred Task «Guard», and Kirito and Eugeo would be the only ones without such a role.
There would only be two people who could join the Zakkaria army forces, one from the east and west block respectively, and both of them must not fail if they wanted to fulfill their dream, which would be the greatest hurdle for them. However, the problem would be what would happen if both of them were assigned to the same block, and the two young men probably did not consider this at all—
As it continued to let its thoughts run wild, the sound of kemuri grass bursting, *PON*, could be heard in their path.
It poked its head out from Kirito's front scalp, and saw the streets that were on the other side of the short hill, made from reddish-brown sandstone. This would be the largest town in the NNM area, Zakkaria. At this point, its population was 1950, and it was less than 10% of Central Centoria, but this day would still be really buzzing in this largest tournament that occurred every year.
As they walked to the West gate, Eugeo whispered,
“...In fact, if I had not seen it for real, I might really suspect whether Zakkaria town is real.”
“Why?”
The boy with the flaxen-colored hair smiled as he heard Kirito's question,
“That's because... Basically none of the adults of Rulid Village have even seen Zakkaria. The ex-guard chief Doyke had the right to take part in the tournament, but he never exercised it until he retired. I would never even get the chance to go to Zakkaria or something as the «Gigas Cedar Cutter». If it were a place where none of us in the village had went to before, and a place I couldn't see...”
“So you verified it for yourself.”
Kirito muttered in place of Eugeo, and then smiled as he added on.
“It's great that Zakkaria does exist. If this town exists, it proves that Centoria wouldn't be a lie.”
“Yeah. It's... really inexplicable. We went on our journey from Rulid village for the past 5 months, and even though we knew that this world doesn't just include that village, it still feels amazing now... It's really amazing.”
Though it could understand the words of the boy Eugeo, it felt that Eugeo's amazement was really weird. The «Master»'s caster who had lived for countless years had seen Centoria and the entire human world that was 1,500 kilolu. Its information capacity far surpassed all Human Units except for the «Integrity Knights». However, there were other unknown areas as well. That would be the other side of the «Mountain Range at the Edge» that surrounded the human world... The Dark Territory. There were only a few rumors about how there were several towns and villages there and how there was even a large pitch-black city there... One of these days, it should have the chance to use its eyes to prove their existence.
Impossible... These are all baseless imaginations, but if we continue to observe these two, maybe one of these days—
Most likely, it was thinking about such things.
The sudden unexpected tremor nearly caused it to fly out from Kirito's head. It frantically grabbed tightly onto the black hair and continued to look in front without thinking about anything.
What entered its eyes was a horse that raised its front legs up. "Hihihihihi", it let out a crying-like sound as it looked like it was trying to shake off the Zakkaria guard that was riding on it. The shaking just now was probably Kirito bending down, trying to avoid the horse gallop.
At the West gate of the town 10 Mel away, the horse-riding squad was located at the stone bridge in front of the moat, and the horse started to go out of control at the moment Kirito was about to cross it.
“St...Stop, STOP!”
The soldier sitting on the saddle desperately tried to pull the reins, trying to calm the horse down, but it did not seem to show any effect. Live animals like horses would require a lot of Control Authority, but a Unit that had the Sacred Task of a «Guard» should be able to fulfill this condition.
In that case, there would be very few reasons as to why a horse would not listen to its rider and go crazy. For example, insufficient feed or water causing the Life to decrease, or that it sensed a highly dangerous large wild monster closing in— However, these two scenarios did not seem probable.
As it continued to deduce, the horse that went berserk started raising its front legs hand. Kirito, who was right below it as he ducked to dodge, could not avoid completely. The people passing by, who realized the strange situation currently happening, all cried out. Even an adult male's Life would be reduced by half once he was stomped on by a horse with such momentum... If it kicked the wrong location, it would be possible for the Life to deplete completely.
“DAN-DANGER...!”
Someone shouted this, and at this instant, Kirito moved, not backwards — but forward. He moved by the horse hooves that landed and went beside it, using his arms to grab onto the horse head tightly, saying with a sharp tone,
“Eugeo, behind!”
As he said that, the partner had already taken action. While Kirito was restraining the horse, Eugeo went behind and quickly reached his right hand out to grab the base of the tail that continued to swing. His lightning quick fingers took out something from between the brown-colored hairs, and at that moment, that berserk horse that was rampant suddenly became obedient.
Kirito gently patted the nose of that horse that was panting a lot.
“Okay, okay, it's fine now— Guard-san, please let go of the rope.”
The still very young soldier on the saddle nodded his pale face and relaxed the tightly leashed rein. At the same time, Kirito moved his hand away from the head of the horse and took a step back. The horse then turned around and galloped back to its designated location on the right side of the stone bridge. The crowd around them let out a sound of relief.
The observer could not help but sigh in a relieved manner together with the onlookers as it remained in Kirito's hair, subconsciously reaching its arms out to block itself in front. In was to cast a protective spell to protect Kirito from being kicked by the horse. No, if Kirito did not take action back then, it might have used it for real. As an observer, that was something that was not allowed.
The boy who did not know of a small passenger in his front hair heave a sigh as he put a hand on his chest, went to his partner, and whispered,
“...A « Large Marsh Horsefly»?”
“Correct.”
Eugeo muttered back softly and looked around. Once he checked that the pedestrians who had stopped had started walking and that the soldier was focusing on his beloved horse, he handed the thing in his right hand over for Kirito to see.
What was in his hand was a winged insect 4 cen long with red and black stripes on the abdomen. It looked like a bee, but there was no poison sting on it. However, there was one sharp protrusion at the mouth.
Amongst the «harmful insects» that existed to limit the Human Unit's movements, this was not a particularly dangerous one as it would not bring direct harm to humans. Though it could deal very little damage to the Life through bloodsucking, it would only target horses, cattle and goats. The reason why the soldier's beloved horse went rampant was because it was bitten by the Large Marsh Horsefly in the butt.
“Feels weird...”
Kirito muttered as he scooped that pest that was killed the moment it was caught from Eugeo's hands.
“There shouldn't be any swamps around nearby, right?”
“Yeah. I was told on the first day we worked at the Wolde farm. The nearest swamp is near the west forest, and we definitely must not bring horses there.”
“The west forest is around... 7 kilolu from Zakkaria. It shouldn't be possible for a Horsefly that lives near the swamp to fly all the way here.”
In response to Kirito's question, Eugeo tilted his head slightly, and quickly said with a somewhat vague tone,
“Even so... It's still possible for them to slip into some merchants baggage on the way here, right?”
“...Well, that may be possible.”
As the boys continued to talk, the pest that was between Kirito's fingers lost its red color at a very fast speed. The Life of insects were very low, and «Dead Insects» had even less Life, so it would only remain as a corpse for about a minute.
Soon, the Large Marsh Horsefly that was dyed light grey let out a soft voice as it disintegrated like sand, releasing itself from the very small body as it disappeared.
"Fuu", Kirito blew his fingers, nonchalantly looked around, and let out a slight snort.
“Anyway, whether it's you or me, we're really lucky that we didn't get hurt right before this important tournament. Good thing we were living with the horses at the farm every day.”
“Ah, yeah. If we join the army, how about we try out being cavalry?”
“We came all the way here, so don't say things like 'if', Eugeo. We'll definitely join the army no matter what kind of obstacles there are.”
Eugeo stared back at the grinning Kirito with a shocked expression.
“Obstacles... We have to win in the tournament, so there will be a lot of opponents.”
“Ah... Yeah, that's right. What I wanted to say is, don't let down your guard right before the tournament. Maybe there might be many unexpected incidents like what happened just now.”
“Eh, it's really unexpected for you to be such a cautious person, Kirito.”
“Of course. I don't go well with those reckless people who don't think through before they act.”
After saying that, Kirito patted Eugeo on the back,
“Alright, let's go fill our stomachs before the tournament.”