Sword Art Online - Volume 19 - Chapter 6

6 
Dawn rose on February 19th. 
At the enormous dragon stables along the western wall of the cathedral grounds, Ronie rubbed the neck of her little dragon, Tsukigake. 
The juvenile creature trilled lightly and narrowed its eyes in pleasure—or perhaps residual sleepiness. The dragon wasn’t the only one; Tiese’s red head nodded as she leaned against the silver fence. Ronie had wanted to get to bed early last night but couldn’t sleep, so she and Tiese had spent much of the night talking in the living room. 
Though they’d been together nearly two years, one had to wonder how they had never run out of topics to get completely engrossed in. That was probably just how it worked with best friends. It had taken Kirito and Eugeo years to leave Rulid in the distant north, travel to Centoria, enter the academy, and advance to Elite Disciple status, but they’d always enjoyed chatting, debating fight tactics, or simply occupying the same space in blissful silence. 
Tiese was at a major turning point in her life. If she accepted Renly’s proposal—or even if she didn’t—Ronie hoped they could always be best friends. 
“…Well, Tsukigake, I have to go. Do what Tiese tells you and be a good dragon.” 
Ronie straightened up, and the little dragon lifted its head to chirp, “Kyuru!” 
When Tiese finally woke up again, they went to the arsenal behind the cathedral, where Dragoncraft Unit Two had already been pulled out onto the stone surface outside. 
It wasn’t standing upright the way Unit One had been; instead, it rested with three legs on the ground, like it had inside the hangar. In fact, the feet of the craft weren’t clawed like a dragon’s feet; they ended in wheels. 
Kirito, Asuna, Fanatio, and Arsenal Master Sadore were standing near the head, along with one other woman, who looked about the same age as Ronie. That woman was wearing an arsenal work uniform, performing sacred arts on the craft. Ronie realized that this was the generation of wind elements for it to fly. She leaned over to her partner, who was carrying her suitcase for her. 
“Hey, Tiese, do you think that’s…?” 
“Oh yeah. That’s her. She was the operator of the levitating platform before it got automated.” 
“Ohhh…She’s really pretty.” 
“I agree, but from what I hear, she’s been alive at least as long as Deusolbert.” 
“W-wow, I didn’t know…” 
Kirito noticed that the two of them were talking a short distance away, and he waved a hand. “Hey, Ronie, Tiese, over here.” 
“Ah…coming! Good morning!” “Morning!” They called in tandem, approaching. 
The sky was still dark overhead, but now that it was outdoors, Unit Two was even bigger than Ronie had imagined. Not only were there two pilot seats, but the wings were as long as a real dragon’s, and the exhausted apertures in the back were huge. The whole thing was about 40 percent bigger than Unit One, a good seven mels long. 
Now that she was looking at it, she suddenly felt nervous about riding it, but accompanying Kirito had been her idea in the first place, so there was no use getting cold feet. She forced herself to stop thinking about the fiery end of Unit One and greeted Kirito and Asuna with a bow. 
“I’m sorry. I know I’m a little late.” 
“No, it’s still ten minutes to five.” 
It had been quite a while since the four-thirty bell, but Kirito’s announcement about the time was quite confident. He glanced at the new sword on her left hip and smiled. 
“Thanks for agreeing to watch my back, Ronie.” 
“I…I will!” she stammered. She was going to say with my life, but the memory of what Asuna had said last night stopped her. Instead, she squeaked, “I’ll d-do my best!” 
It was a bit childish, but it earned her warm smiles from both Kirito and Asuna. Once she had greeted Fanatio and Sadore as well, she was ready to grab her luggage from Tiese. The case was heavy, being so packed full of supplies. But where was she going to put it on the dragoncraft…? 
“Kirito, I’ve finished loading the wind elements,” said a voice from behind them. Ronie and Tiese spun around to see the former operator of the levitating platform. They were struck by her delicate beauty; she seemed more suited to a church frock or some noblewoman’s dress than the sturdy work outfit of the arsenal. 
“Thank you, Airy. I appreciate it,” said Kirito. The girl named Airy bowed without any change in expression, then stepped back to stand next to Sadore. 
Just then, the gentle chimes of the five o’clock bells played from the cathedral. Kirito promptly clapped his hands. 
“Well then, I suppose we should get going! I’ll take that case, Ronie,” he said, holding out his hands. She gave it to him, and he opened a small door on the side of the dragoncraft and stuffed it into a space that seemed designed for cargo. With that done, Ronie turned to give Tiese a big hug. They didn’t need to share any words; Ronie thought, I’ll be back before you know it, and Tiese returned the sentiment by thinking, Just come home safely. 

 

Ronie loosened her grip, looked into Tiese’s eyes one last time, and headed toward the front end of the dragoncraft, where Kirito was waiting for her. He ushered her to the ladder going from the ground up to the craft’s head. She timidly climbed up until she reached the little elliptical room with seats located front and back. 
The back of the front seat was tilted downward, so Ronie took off her sword and worked herself into the rear seat. It was simple leather stretched over a metal frame, but the material was valuable, supple greater-red-horn leather, so it felt more comfortable than she’d expected. 
Kirito ascended the ladder soon after, returned the seat to its proper position, and took his place in it. Sadore pulled the ladder away, and Kirito turned a handle that lowered the glass ceiling over the tiny space with a clank. 
All of a sudden, Ronie’s heart was pounding. She swallowed hard. 
Tsukigake was still too young to fly, but she had ridden tandem several times on Renly’s Kazenui, Fizel’s Himawari, and Linel’s Hinageshi. The first time or two it had been scary, but soon the delight of carving through the wind outweighed her fear. She didn’t think she had any particular fear of flying, but now that she was in an artificial dragon largely made of metal and was riding inside rather than on its back, she felt more baffled than excited. For one thing, there were no wings meant for beating the air, so how would they return to the ground once they’d lifted off? 
The sight of Unit One exploding flashed through her mind again, causing her to shiver. “Ah…um, Kirito?” 
“What is it?” he asked casually from the front seat. 
Ronie leaned forward, closer to his head, and asked, “Does this dragon fly by unleashing heat elements like the last one?” 
“That’s right.” 
“If we start flying and making an incredible roar early in the morning, won’t it startle everyone in the capital awake…?” 
“I suppose it will,” Kirito murmured, then explained, “but the problem is, we don’t have a long enough runway here, so we can’t take off horizontally. Unfortunately, we’ll have to cheat a bit for Unit Two’s takeoff and landing.” 
She didn’t really understand all the words he’d just said. “Ch-cheat…? Meaning…?” 
Kirito just grinned at her without answering. He grabbed two metal rods attached to the front part of his seat. His hands started glowing faintly, and she held her breath. 
What happened next was not the work of elements. Kirito’s willpower itself was glowing as it interfaced with the laws of the world. That was the light of Incarnation. 
The steel dragon shuddered like a living thing. A moment later, it felt like the body was being lifted upward. 
Ronie looked through the glass lid in alarm. Gradually, the sight of gray cobblestones and Tiese and Asuna waving wildly grew more distant. Kirito was lifting this enormous dragoncraft solely through willpower and imagination. 
It did seem like cheating, Ronie thought as she waved back. As their ascending speed picked up, the people on the ground got smaller and smaller, until they were hidden by the white of the morning mist. The Rose Garden to the north of the arsenal and the white walls of the cathedral came into view instead. 
She lowered her hand and looked forward to see nothing but dark-blue sky before sunrise. The beauty of the faint-red glow on the horizon took her breath away. 
Once they reached the height of the Great Bath on the ninetieth floor of the cathedral, the dragoncraft stopped climbing and began to proceed parallel with the ground. This was a smooth acceleration, like gliding across water—nothing like the powerful beating of a real dragon’s wings. There was no sound, aside from the low howling of the wind around them. Unless someone happened to be looking up at the early morning sky, no one in Centoria would notice their presence. 
With that concern solved, another one gripped her mind. “Kirito…are you sure you can control something this big with just Incarnation?” she asked, leaning toward the front seat. She was instantly worried that she might be distracting him and breaking his focus, but his voice returned as casually as ever. 
“For the time being, yeah. But I feel like it’ll be tough to fly it like this all the way out of the human realm…” 
“Oh…I see…” 
The unfathomable willpower of the swordsman delegate left her stunned. 
As an apprentice Integrity Knight, Ronie underwent Incarnation training, but she found it difficult to advance to the next stage, whether with more-practical exercises like Pole Isolation (standing on only one foot atop a narrow pillar) or Element Communing (preserving elements in midair with willpower) or even with simple Seated Meditation, where all she had to do was sit on the ground and concentrate. 
For one thing, even expert knights such as Fanatio and Deusolbert considered Incarnate Arms, which moved an object about the size of a short sword, and Incarnate Sword, which slashed with unseen blades, to be their ultimate techniques. So Kirito’s Incarnation power was completely off the charts if it kept a huge, metal, two-passenger dragoncraft aloft. 
“…And even with your overwhelming Incarnation, you can’t cross the Wall at the End of the World…,” Ronie murmured. 
Kirito grimaced. “It could be that I’m just lacking discipline…but there’s no point in crossing if I’m the only one who can do it. We need to make it possible to fly large dragoncraft or levitating platforms like the one in the cathedral at regular intervals so that the people of the Dark Territory—the people of the entire Underworld—can come and go freely.” 
As Kirito’s ideas so often turned out to be, the concept of attaching a levitating platform to walls whose height couldn’t even be measured was dumbfounding. Ronie gazed absently through the window. 
The dragoncraft had traveled out of East Centoria, so only fields and meadows covered with the recent snow were visible below. It was a chilly sight to gaze upon, but by March, the planting of wheat would begin, and new greenery would cover the land. 
Ronie envisioned that sight for a few moments, then asked, “Um, Kirito…do we even need to try crossing the Wall at the End of the World? Why not just move the Dark Territory people here? There’s plenty of uncultivated land, with room for more fields and villages…” 
Kirito didn’t have an immediate answer for her this time. Eventually he murmured, “If only everyone in the human realm thought the way you do, Ronie.” 
“Huh…? Wh-what do you mean by that…?” 
“Well, uh…let’s see. At present, we estimate the total population of the realm to be eighty-two thousand. The latest reports suggest that the Dark Territory’s is about the same. The human realm is about one million, seven hundred and seventy thousand square kilors, over half of which is undeveloped forests and plains. So as you say, in terms of land area, we could support the doubling of the total population…I think.” 
Ronie found herself shocked by this for a different reason. “What…? Is it true that the population of the dark realm is over eighty thousand?! And during the war, Emperor Vecta formed an army out of fifty thousand of them…?” 
“That’s how it adds up…Fanatio told me that every able-bodied person over there gets made into a soldier. It’s pretty awful. But I’m sure it’s a custom brought about by the barren land of the Dark Territory. In that world, the ones who fight and take for themselves are the ones who survive.” 
He paused there, leaning back against the seat. The craft briefly wobbled and straightened out again, as though he had momentarily lost focus. 
“…Like the dark realm, the human realm has its own shared understanding that’s been built up over three centuries of history. They know the people of the Dark Territory as terrifying monsters who come over the End Mountains to steal children and livestock. With the opening of trade, there are more tourists and traders going between the two sides, but longstanding prejudices don’t change so quickly. You can control people with new laws and taboos, but you can’t eliminate the instinctual fears and desires that drive them…” His voice was grave. Ronie didn’t know what to say to him. 
He had enough Incarnation power to lift a metal dragon and defeat Administrator and even Emperor Vecta, but Kirito was not a god. He was just a person born in a different world, with the same troubles, worries, and anguish that Ronie dealt with. 
Kirito always got back on his feet, no matter how much he was hurt, and he’d saved the Underworld from an existential danger. He’d received no public honors for this and continued to fight for the sake of the world. Ronie wanted to help him achieve the unprecedented feat of peace between the human and dark realms, but all she could think about was the danger of the path ahead, and she had no helpful advice to offer. 
She had forced her way along on this trip through sheer momentum and determination, but now she could only wonder what the point of her presence was. 
Kirito seemed to sense her sudden change in mood and said, “Listen, Ronie, I’m glad you came along. I’m more likely to accidentally scare the kids over there on first meeting.” 
“Um…you are?” 
“I feel like the stories and rumors precede me now…but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after the war we had…” 
Kirito exhaled to reset his mood and said firmly, “Well, we’re safely away from Centoria, so let’s switch from Incarnation flight over to elemental flight.” 
“O-okay!” she chirped. Then she said, “What…should I be doing…?” 
“Good question. Maintain a communing state with the elements, like you did during Unit One’s test flight, and tell me if anything starts going wrong.” 
“Roger that!” she replied. 
Kirito gave her a strange signal—he pointed his right thumb upward—and then gripped the metal handles again. “System Call, Generate Thermal Element!” he chanted. 
His hands glowed red as heat elements appeared inside the metal handles, which were apparently hollow. With Incarnation, he moved them through the tubes down into the canisters in the middle of the dragoncraft. 
Even the swordsman delegate found it difficult to control the massive craft and tiny elements with Incarnation at the same time, however, and there was more shaking. Ronie reached forward and put her hands on Kirito’s shoulders without thinking. 
She didn’t add any incantations, but she could sense the flow of sacred power swirling through the air around them easing. The shaking of the dragoncraft subsided, and the ten heat elements stayed firmly in place within the canister. 
“Thank you, Ronie,” Kirito said, patting her hand and exhaling. “Discharge.” 
The command released all the heat elements, creating a massive burst of flames. The pressure pushed the flames toward the end of the canister at the rear of the dragoncraft. Along the way, the flames mixed with the wind elements that had been loaded into a different canister before takeoff, and it was compressed into a single burst, like a gout of flaming dragon breath that roared out of the exit aperture at the back of the craft. 
The sudden burst of acceleration pushed Ronie back in her chair and trapped the air in her throat. The clouds floating by outside the window shot past them. In terms of speed alone, Kirito’s wind-element flight from Central Cathedral to the city guard’s building in South Centoria had been faster, but at present, the dragoncraft was under almost no Incarnation control. In other words, an adept sacred arts user, with practice, might be able to fly it just like Kirito was doing now. 
Ronie briefly wondered if this, more than trying to tackle the Wall at the End of the. World, was the real benefit to humanity, but that inkling of a thought was quickly snuffed out by the roaring that filled the tiny space. 
She clutched the frame of her seat with all her strength and shouted, “K…Kirito! How fast is this dragoncraft going right now?!” 
“Hmm, let’s see,” said Kirito without much concern. “The maximum speed of an Integrity Knight’s dragon mount is about a hundred and twenty kilors per hour, and it’s more like eighty for continuous flight over long distances without fatigue. But I’d bet this thing is going about two hundred and fifty kilors per hour right now…” 
“T…twice as fast as a dragon??!” 
“I bet we could get to three hundred per hour at maximum output. But Sadore said to keep it at eighty percent,” Kirito said, pointing at one of the many rounded dials in front of his seat. The needle attached to it was trembling a few ticks short of the highest speed. 
“Three hundred kilors in an hour…,” Ronie murmured. She shook her head, unable to fathom such a thing by any practical measurement. 
What she could understand was that if the dragoncraft continued on at this speed, it would reach the distant end of the earth—Obsidia Palace, three thousand kilors away—in just half a day. And there was no one who could do anything about a craft flying at such a speed and height. 
Was there really a point to me coming along? she wondered again as she allowed herself to sink into the vibration of the seat. 
They crossed the End Mountains and continued flying through the red sky of the Dark Territory for about fifteen hours. Despite two breaks along the way, her butt and back were starting to ache when Kirito finally pointed ahead. 
“There, you can see it.” 
She squinted over his shoulder and saw a faint light on the distant, darkened horizon. It was just a vague blur at first, but as they drew closer, it turned into a collection of countless individual lights. 
“So that’s…the capital of the Dark Territory…,” Ronie murmured hoarsely. “You’ve been there before, haven’t you?” she asked Kirito. 
“Yes, but just the one time. And it was an unofficial visit, so I hardly got any time to see the castle or the town or anything.” 
“I’m guessing that will be the case this time, as well,” she murmured. 
He seemed to take her statement as one of disappointment, because Kirito looked over his shoulder and grinned at her. “Not only is this visit unofficial, I didn’t even let Iskahn know ahead of time. See, there are certain things we can get away with this way.” 
“G-get away with…?” 
She felt yet another sense of foreboding—it seemed to happen quite frequently when she hung around with Kirito—and looked out the window again. 
The dragoncraft was traveling at less than half its maximum speed, but that was still fast enough that the lights of the town ahead were starting to take clear shape. Unlike the neatly compartmentalized districts of Centoria, the plethora of lights below seemed to have no patterns, except that in total they made a kind of crescent-moon shape. In the middle was a blackened rock mountain that stuck up into the sky like a spear. 
The lights continued up the mountain, because the mountain itself was Emperor Vecta’s palace. That mammoth formation, shaped by its exposure to the elements over many years, was said to be just as impressive as the Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral—but in the darkness, you could make out only its silhouette. 
“About ten kilors to go…Okay, let’s switch back to Incarnation flight and land this thing,” Kirito said, to Ronie’s shock. 
“What? We’re going down this far away?” 
“Yep. I’m sure that it would cause a riot if we lowered this craft right onto the city or palace, out of nowhere…” 
Kirito squeezed the metal rod that he called a control stick, and he used Incarnation to steadily extinguish the heat elements burning away inside the sealed canister. The roar that filled the tiny room (which he called a cockpit) steadily grew quieter until it was gone. 
Without its source of propulsion, the dragoncraft lost altitude until Kirito firmly held it aloft with Incarnation again. Ronie had experienced this landing sequence before, when they stopped for a break, but she still felt nervous, and she squeezed the frame of the seat harder. 
She made a mental note to ask for some kind of bar near the rear seat to hold on to, once they got back to Centoria. As they descended, she felt stages of weightlessness similar to the experience of using the levitating platform at the cathedral. With a little thump, the dragoncraft fell still, and Kirito stretched in the front seat. 
“We made it, Ronie. Now we fly with our own power.” 
Despite carrying two swords, a small bag, a large bag, and the unexpected luggage that was an entire additional person, aka Ronie, Kirito crossed the remaining ten kilors with wind-element flight in a blink. According to him, given the weak sacred power of the Dark Territory, ten kilors was about the limit you could achieve there for stable flight. 
Inevitably, Ronie had to be pressed tight to Kirito’s body during the flight, and while it caused her heart to race at first, that feeling was promptly neutralized by the realization that being in his arms made her nothing more than another piece of luggage to carry around. 
They landed on a wide street heading to Obsidia’s castle town. The cobblestones were as worn and smooth as if they’d been polished, indicating that humans, demi-humans, and carriages created heavy traffic during the day. But after ten o’clock at night, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. 
This was usually the time that Ronie would be in bed already, so the moment her feet hit the ground, the fatigue of the long travel and the late hour both hit her at once, and she had to shake her head to maintain focus. This was where her guard duty truly began… 
Except that as he attached the Night-Sky Blade to his left hip, Kirito’s next words were “Let’s go search for an inn.” 
Ronie blinked. “Uh…w-we aren’t going to the castle?” 
“The gates will be closed at this hour, and I’m sure Iskahn’s already asleep. If we try to sneak inside and any guards spot us, they’ll assume we’re assassins.” 
“…Good point…” 
They’d crossed the entire Underworld in order to address a murder mystery that involved a mountain goblin being framed for the deed. It would be a bad joke if they got confused for assassins now. 
“All right. But what inn will allow humans like us to stay without being suspicious of—,” Ronie started to ask, but Kirito was already rummaging in his small leather bag. He pulled out something small; by the faint light of the town ahead, she could see that it was some sort of solution. 
“Now, if you’ll excuse my reach,” Kirito said, handling the solution. She leaned closer to see. 
“Eengk!” she yelped as he wiped something on her face. She froze with shock at the sensation, and Kirito quickly used both hands to apply the solution. He rubbed her cheeks, her forehead, her ears, and even below her chin, then stepped back to inspect her. 
“Yeah, that looks good.” 
“What…is this…?” 
She rubbed her cheek herself, but the sensation was already gone, and nothing came off on her fingertip. Kirito just grinned and did the same to his face. His skin was a bit more tan than that of Ronie and Tiese, who’d been born in Norlangarth, but it was still around the average tint for a resident of the human realm. Now it was getting darker and darker before her eyes. 
In just a matter of seconds, Kirito had turned a shade of brown that resembled cofil tea. In fact, he looked like he came from Sothercrois…or even the Dark Territory… 
And then it hit her. 
“Oh…y-you just disguised us as darklanders?” 
“Yep. Both you and I have dark hair, and it’s winter now, so I figure that if we just change our faces a bit, we might pass.” 
Belatedly, Ronie realized that her own face had changed, and she touched her cheeks again. Kirito saw her do it and smiled. “It’s fine, I swear. You actually look pretty good.” Her cheeks grew hot beneath her hands. 
“Th-this isn’t permanent, right?” she asked, a little sharper than necessary to hide her embarrassment. 
He looked a bit nervous. “Y-yeah, of course. Cutoconia the herbalist assured me that it would wear off on its own in about eight hours.” 
“On its own…? What is it made of?” 
“It sounded like we’re better off not knowing,” Kirito mumbled. He reached out to fix her ruffled hair, then looked to the east. 
In Centoria, there was a large gate and a guard station at the border to the city, but Obsidia’s castle town seemed to have nothing of the sort. There was just an increase in the density of buildings as the street went on, until you were in the middle of a city. There were no guards in sight. 
“…I think we should be fine, but if anyone happens to ask us who we are…Let’s see. We can say we came from Faldera looking for work, and we’re hus—We’re brother and sister.” 

Ronie let go of her cheeks and repeated, “Fal…dera? What’s that?” 
“It’s a town about thirty kilors to the southwest.” 
In truth, she also wanted to know what Kirito had been about to say before he changed it to “brother and sister,” but she decided not to pursue that topic. “All right. Let’s go, then.” 
She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and reached down to the bag resting on the street to grab the still-unnamed sword resting on it and hang it from her belt. She reached down again for the bag this time, but Kirito lifted it first. 
“Ah…You know, I can carry my own bag…” 
“Oh, but I’m your big brother now, and brothers always carry their sisters’ luggage around,” he said with a grin. With her bag in hand and his own leather satchel over his shoulder, he took off down the road. She had no choice but to follow, wondering what she should call him once they were in town. 
The light grew brighter and brighter as they walked along the road, and they soon began to pass other humans and demi-humans. It made Ronie both relieved and nervous. 
On first glance, nearly all the buildings in this castle town seemed to be made of a blackish stone, and there were few instances of trees or water; overall, it felt stifling compared to Centoria. But the lamps that were attached everywhere on houses and roadside posts cast off red, yellow, and purple light, even late at night, giving the place a colorful, festive ambience. 
“What are those lamps burning?” she asked. 
“Ore they mine from nearby mountains,” Kirito answered promptly. “A chunk the size of your fist will burn for ten days, apparently.” 
“Wow, that sounds very handy.” 
“You could sell it for a hefty price over in the human realm, I’m sure, but handling the material is tricky. It’ll burn all on its own unless it’s submerged in water, which makes long-distance transport difficult…” 
They walked onward, chatting about this and that, and the area up ahead got steadily busier. Noise was emanating from an open square with a number of carts along the edges and with tables set up in the middle where many men were eating and drinking. 
About half of them were dark-skinned humans, with more than a few orcs and goblins as well, but they sat at separate tables. Even after the Peace Pact of the Five Peoples, the differences that separated the races that lived in the Dark Territory had not gone away, Ronie realized. 
Kirito saw what she was looking at and said, “It’s still a huge change that they’ll drink in the same place at all. See how the pugilists and the orcs are sitting at adjacent tables and occasionally trading comments?” 
“Oh, you’re right…It looks like they’re toasting, too…” 
A burly pugilist with no shirt on despite the February chill lifted a wooden mug and shouted something, and an orc sitting next to him slammed his own mug into it. As she watched this happen from the edge of the square, Ronie found herself murmuring, “The orcs came to rescue the pugilists during the War of the Underworld when the pugilists were nearly wiped out…I hear the orcs still speak with godlike reverence about the ‘Green Swordswoman’ who led them.” 
Ronie hadn’t been there herself, but she knew that the Green Swordswoman, Leafa, who’d vanished with the conclusion of the war, was Kirito’s sister, who had come from the real world. 
Kirito’s darkened face pinched with pain very briefly, but he soon regained his usual aloof expression. “Yeah…there’s no doubt that our quick peace with the Dark Territory was thanks to Leafa. And that’s why we have to protect this peace, now that it’s here.” 
“…I know.” 
Ronie could keenly sense the fundamental unease she’d been trying to forget all day now lapping at her heels like waves. Kirito patted her on the back. 
“Well, it’s late now, but we should get some dinner. I’m tired of eating travel rations.” 
“Huh…? W-we’re going to eat here?” 
“Yeah, doesn’t the food from the carts smell so good…? If I were able to resist this kind of temptation, I wouldn’t be getting yelled at by Fanatio and Deusolbert all the time,” Kirito said, as though that excused his behavior. He fixed his grip on the bags and began to walk into the square. 
Ronie had no choice but to follow, and soon a fragrant smell was tickling her nostrils and reminding her of the emptiness of her stomach. Six carts were lined up along the edge of the square, but at a glance, it was hard to tell which of them sold what. 
In these situations, Ronie usually waffled between different options until Tiese got fed up and chose for her, but her red-haired partner was not here. She looked over at Kirito, intent on assessing the decision-making ability of the swordsman delegate. He was muttering, “Mmm, those skewers look good…but look at the time—I should probably go with the noodle soup over there…Oh, but those steamed buns, too…” 
Chagrined, she recalled that Kirito was usually the one who couldn’t make up his mind and needed Eugeo to decide. Then another thought occurred to her, and she tugged on Kirito’s cloak. 
“Um, Kirito? Before you start buying any food…do we have the money they use over here?” 
“……” 
His face transformed from shock to despair in several distinct stages. 
In the human realm, currency came in four categories: thousand-shia gold coins, hundred-shia silver coins, ten-shia copper coins, and one-shia iron coins. Technically, there was also a ten-thousand-shia platinum coin, but it was used only for transactions between the government and major merchants, so ordinary citizens and lower nobles never actually saw or used them. 
To Ronie, money had always meant shia, but of course, the coins stamped by the Axiom Church with a profile of Stacia’s face were not going to be used in the Dark Territory. They must have their own currency here. 
Having just realized this himself, Kirito’s shoulders slumped, crestfallen. 
“…They don’t use money in the cathedral, so I completely forgot…” 
“W-wait…Are you saying you didn’t bring any shia, either…?” 
Ronie wasn’t sure how to react to this. She just stared at the delegate in numb disbelief. 
There was a gold coin sewn into the back of Ronie’s sword belt, in case of emergencies, but it wasn’t going to be useful here. Then she detected an even bigger problem and asked Kirito, “Does this mean we can’t stay at an inn, either…?” 
“Well…I suppose it does,” he agreed gravely. 
Ronie sighed, right in his face. “If we had gone in to stay without a coin to our name, how were you planning to pay for it?” 
“I dunno. I just figured it would come out of my inventory automatically—ka-ching,” he said, a sequence of words that meant nothing to her. He was still looking at the food carts with stubborn dedication, then finally he surveyed the palace that jutted through the night sky. 
“Ah well. We’ll just have to pray that Iskahn’s still awake and sneak into Obsidia Palace…” 
Who was just saying that the last thing we want to do is be confused for assassins?! 
Ronie took a deep breath, preparing to tear into him, when she saw a large figure appear over their heads as they whispered between themselves in a corner of the square. 
“…?!” 
She looked up, forcing herself not to reach for her sword as her instincts screamed at her to do so. It was a very large man, probably one mel and ninety cens in height. 
His exposed torso, rippling muscles, and studded leather belt, along with the many, many scars running across his bronzed skin, were the marks of a pugilist. Beneath his scraggly hair, his face was so red that even by the light of the ore lamps, it was clear he’d been drinking for quite a while. 
“What’s wrong, pal? Not enough money to eat?” he said. There was no overt hostility in his voice, which helped Ronie relax the tiniest bit. 
Kirito nodded, not bothering to hide the pathetic look on his face, and in the voice of a starving man—she couldn’t be sure whether this was an act or not—said, “Y-yes, that’s right…I came here from Faldera with my sister, looking for work, but we ran out of funds along the way.” 
“Ah, from Faldera? My old man’s from there!” the man said. Ronie instantly felt a chill run down her back at the thought of having to discuss memories about a place of which she only knew the name and nothing else, but fortunately it did not turn into that. Instead, the man slapped Kirito’s shoulder with a massive hand as leathery as a glove and said generously, “Then it’s my treat, from one Falderan to another!” 
“Th-that’s not what I was aski…,” Kirito started to protest, seemingly feeling guilty, but the pugilist pushed him onward into the square. Ronie hurried to keep up with them. 
The pugilist guided them to the smallest and dingiest of the six carts in the square. The owner, who stirred an ancient pot with a long ladle, sported such long, overgrown bangs that the only thing she could discern about him was the fact that he was a human male. In the corner of the faded cloth banner hanging from the canopy of the cart were the words OBSIDIA SOUP, which seemed to be the name of the dish being served. 
“This is the best stuff in this square. Though none of my companions seem to agree!” the drunken pugilist said, laughing uproariously. 
Kirito tried to back away, his cheek twitching. “I—I don’t know, sir. I’m getting a bad feeling about…” 
“That’s what they all say at first. Just take my word for it and give it a try. Three bowls, Pop!” the pugilist proclaimed to the server, pulling three copper coins from the small sack hanging off his belt and dropping them on the long, blackened board. If these were the same value as the copper coins in the human realm, then this mysterious Obsidia soup was ten shia to a bowl. That would be very cheap, even for cart food. 
The server set out three wooden bowls on the board without a word and poured heavy ladlefuls of the pot’s contents into them, then provided wooden spoons. He picked up the coins, still silent, and returned to his stirring. 
Unperturbed by the sullen nature of the man—either because he was used to it or because he was drunk—the pugilist picked up two of the bowls and presented them to Kirito and Ronie. At this point, they had no choice but to accept, so they thanked him and accepted his gift. 
Inside the bowls was something that could be described only as a thick brown soup. It contained many things, but the broth was so muddy that it was impossible to determine what had been stewed into it at a glance. 
At the urging of their new friend, who picked up his own bowl, Ronie sat down next to Kirito at an empty table and grabbed her spoon, trying to summon her courage for the task. 
She scooped up a small amount of the liquid, which looked like stew that had been slow-cooked for three whole days, blew on it, and took a taste. At first, she found it very spicy, but that soon turned to a sourness, then a strange mixture of richness and bitterness, followed up by a faintly sweet aftertaste. 
“……Kirito, what would you call this flavor…?” she asked him under her breath. He finished tasting his own, looking thoughtful, and stared down at the wooden spoon. 
“I would say…the flavor’s pretty similar to what I remember, but it’s strangely edible. In fact, I might even say this is good…” 
“What…? You’ve eaten this before?” 
Kirito looked over at her, seemingly coming out of a daze, and shook his head. “Oh, n-no, never mind. There was a place that served a similar dish in…a place I lived long ago. In fact, the guy serving it even looks a little like him, but that doesn’t matter…The soup that I’m familiar with was like a fight between spiciness, sourness, bitterness, and sweetness where everybody loses. But this Obsidia soup, it’s like the flavor is more comfortable, more mature. It’s kind of softened, in a way…” 
“That’s it! I knew you’d understand, pal!” said the pugilist, who had already finished a third of his bowl. He slapped Kirito on the back. “They say this pot’s been bubbling the same mixture, with ingredients and water for the broth being added, ever since Obsidia was founded over two hundred years ago. I bet there ain’t a single dish like this over in the human realm! Ga-ha-ha-ha!” 
“Y-yeah, I bet not…,” Kirito agreed awkwardly. 
Ronie struggled to contain her shock. “T-two hundred years…?! How does the food’s life last for so long?! Soups and stews usually go bad after five days, even in winter…” 
“That’s just how great Pop is,” the pugilist stated proudly, pounding his own chest as though the cart owner were a prized family member. “Pop never steps away from the cart, and he keeps the flames just low enough so the pot never cools off or burns. If you keep the flames going like that indefinitely, the life of the pot’s contents never goes down. That means he eats his own three meals a day out of this very pot…and you can’t say that for anyone else in the dark realm—or the entire Underworld itself—if you ask me.” 
“E-every day…?” Ronie repeated, shocked. She looked at the cart. The sullen owner was staring down and stirring the pot, his face hidden as usual. 
“…Does that mean his life was frozen, too, so he’s been alive…for over two centuries?” she wondered. 
This seemed to be an entirely new concept to the pugilist. He looked from the bowl to the cart several times, back and forth, then shook his head. “Nah. Who do you think he is, that pontifex they speak about from the human realm? I’m sure it’s just a family tradition passed down through the generations.” 
“Y-yes, of course,” Ronie agreed. She scooped up a blob of something in the middle of the bowl and timidly inserted it into her mouth. Within one or two bites of what seemed like poultry, a rich flavor flooded her tongue. Despite the very odd flavoring, this soup might prove to be addictive with time—perhaps. Eventually. 
Kirito had gotten used to it much faster than Ronie had, and he had already emptied his bowl. He exhaled with great satisfaction. “Ahhh, that was good…I think. It might not be a stretch to say so…” 
Then he stretched and bowed deeply to the pugilist sitting across the table. “Thank you very much for this meal, good sir. I will never forget the kindness you’ve shown us.” 
“Oh, no problem at all,” said the man, who had long since finished his own bowl. His drunken face broke into a sloppy smile. “If you find good work here and are stable enough to eat all the Obsidia soup you want, then you can return the favor with a bowl for me…if all goes well…” 
He slapped his face with a meaty hand and rubbed it until the smile was gone. “See…you might find it harder than you think to earn gainful employment for both brother and sister in Obsidia, my friend.” 
“Oh…really? But it’s so busy here in the middle of the night. The city seems bustling to me…” 
“To appearances, sure. But that’s just because there are more people now…and even that won’t last much longer…” 
A goblin selling booze walked by, and the now deflated pugilist bought a suspicious-looking little bottle. He took a swig, grimaced, and handed it over. Kirito accepted it with some hesitation, sipped at it, and began coughing violently. The pugilist took the bottle back with a wicked grin. 
“This is what the flatland goblins settling near the town make. It tastes like crap, but it’s cheap, and they sell a good amount of it. Because of that, the alehouses in the city are losing business, and the merchants guild is fuming. Before the war, the guild would have hired mercenary troops to raid the goblin settlements and put them all to the sword, but now that the Peace Pact of the Five Peoples is around…” 
“So you’re saying…because of the demi-humans moving to Obsidia, humans are losing their jobs…?” 
“It’s not just because of them. There are lots more humans, too…Folks like yourselves,” the pugilist said with a shrug. He glanced up into the darkness above. “If you came from Faldera, then you don’t need me to tell you that the land’s too brittle all over. Humans and demi-humans have suffered from hunger and thirst since the start of time. The great war that ended the Age of Blood and Iron started out as a squabble over a single lake, they say…” 
Ronie and Kirito didn’t know much about the history of the Dark Territory, so they could only nod in silence. The pugilist took another swig of cheap liquor and continued, “And our ancestors managed to survive through this harsh wasteland because of that saying: One day, the gate to the human realm will open, and we’ll all live in a fertile land of dreams.” 
Ronie felt herself stiffen at these words, but the pugilist didn’t notice her reaction. 
“You and your sister were probably too young to be part of the campaign, but when Emperor Vecta came back a little over a year ago and said we were gonna invade their realm, the excitement was overwhelming, as you might imagine. The saying was finally comin’ to pass, we thought…But the Integrity Knights from the human lands were even more monstrous than we realized…and we didn’t know there would be an army on the other side, either. It was all chaos and combat; and before we knew it, the emperor had been beaten by some swordsman from afar, and the war was over…” 
Ronie glanced sidelong at the “swordsman from afar,” whose forehead was beading with sweat, even more than when he had tasted the infamous soup. The pugilist, who couldn’t have imagined who he was actually talking to, propped his cheek against his fist. 
“If the war had kept going, mighta been the end of all the five peoples. So I got no complaints about peace with the Human Empire, but at the same time…our dream of having fertile lands is gone, too. That’s the reason all the goblins, orcs, and young humans have come flooding into Obsidia…They think there might be a slightly better life here. But just because the city’s big doesn’t mean there are limitless jobs to be done. If you’re human, you might get a job in the knighthood…but you and your sister look too scrawny for that kind of work…” 
The pugilist’s eyes, heavy from fatigue and booze, blinked sleepily at them, and Kirito decided that the time was right. He bowed and said, “Thank you for everything, sir. The Obsidia soup was delicious…I will repay your goodwill one day.” 
“Yeah…Good luck, kids…” 
And with that, he finally fell asleep. They got up, careful not to disturb him. 
Elsewhere around the square, the goblins and orcs had left as well, leaving only a few of the pugilists behind, passed out at the tables. Most of the carts were packing up for the night, except for the soup stirrer, who continued his careful work. Apparently, it was true that he slept with his pot. 
“…Guess we should look for an inn to stay at,” Kirito said, yawning. 
“But what about the cost?” Ronie quickly reminded him. “I don’t think we’re going to get lucky again like with the food.” 
“Oh, it’ll work out.” He grinned and started walking to the eastern exit of the square, leaving her with no choice but to hurry after him. 
The closer they got to the center of the city, the more ore lamps there were—and the more noise. But after what the pugilist had said, the colored lamps seemed more like meager resistance against the barren land, and the buzz of conversation was just a reflection of accumulating frustration. 
Kirito solved the money issue by selling a knife he had tucked away to a roadside merchant, a surprisingly simple solution. He also got directions to a cheap place to stay, and they continued walking. The swordsman delegate was less talkative than usual, so Ronie tried her best to keep the conversation light, without making too much noise. 
“So the money here is called vecs. Do you suppose one vec is roughly equivalent to one shia?” 
“Huh…? Oh, s-something like that. Still, that would mean that ten vecs for a cup of Obsidia soup is really cheap…” 
“Are you hoping to have another bowl?” 
“I can’t hide anything from my former page,” he said, looking more like the old Kirito, and patted Ronie on the head. Then he pointed to a building on the right up ahead. “That looks like the place the roadside merchant recommended.” 
The blackish stone walls featured a cast-iron sign bearing the sacred letters I-N-N like inns in the human realm. A vague sense of unease rippled through Ronie’s chest, but it dissipated before she could put word to what was bothering her. 
“…What’s the matter, Ronie?” Kirito asked, but she shook her head. 
“It’s nothing.” 
“All right…It’s been a long day. Let’s get some sleep.” 
He shifted his grip on their bags, one big and one small, and headed for the door beneath the sign. Despite being nearly midnight, the inn was still open for business, fortunately. The owner was a human woman in her forties, and she gave Kirito and Ronie a very piercing gaze for the better part of a minute—but she did not treat their story about being siblings coming from Faldera for work with any skepticism. 
Kirito did not seem to anticipate that this made-up background story might cause new problems. The woman promptly said “If you’re siblings, you’ll want one room, then!” and started pushing them to a room on the second floor without hearing a single word of protest—and only after she had made sure to collect the hundred-vec nightly cost. 
“Make sure you’re out by the ten o’clock bell in the morning! I’ve already put out the fire for the bath, so if you want to wash up, you’ll need to visit the bathhouse farther ahead. If you say you’re a guest with me, they’ll give you a discount!” 
It was hard to tell if this was an act of kindness or cheapness on her part. But moments later, the woman left them to go back downstairs. 
Ronie stood there in mute shock, and Kirito said uncomfortably, “I’m…sorry about this, Ronie. This only happened because I was fixated on staying at an inn…” 
“N-no, it’s not your fault…” 
“I’ll just find somewhere outside to sleep. You can use the room.” 
“F-find somewhere…?” 
“There’s bound to be some side alley or park where I can rest. I’ll be safe on my own. You get a good night’s sleep. I’ll be back in the morning,” Kirito said, and he made to leave out the window, but she grabbed his cloak first. 
“N-no, you can’t, Kirito! It’s too cold. You can’t go copying the pugilists, or you’ll get sick!” 
Inside the room, there was a simple bed, along with a two-seat sofa. Even Ronie was too tall for her legs to fit all the way on it, but it wouldn’t be impossible to sleep that way. 
“I’ll sleep on the sofa. You take the bed. Please.” 
“H-huh? B-but…doesn’t the Taboo Index or Basic Imperial Law have some rule somewhere about unmarried men and women sleeping in the room?” 
“No, there’s no such rule. What it forbids is k-kissing on the lips…and……” 
“And what?” Kirito asked, leaning closer. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him forcefully toward the bed. 
“N-no matter what the rules are, you are the human world’s swordsman delegate, and I’m already an Integrity Knight, apprentice or not! So it doesn’t matter!” 
“Aaah!” Kirito yelped at being shoved, tripping on his feet and landing on the bed. She quickly undid the string of his cloak to take it off, yanked the boots off his feet, and shoved him into the bed properly. 
She pulled the padded comforter up to his neck, smoothed it over him, and then patted him politely on the chest through it. The delegate looked at her with chagrin and said, “You’re like my mom or something, Ronie.” 
“Oh…s-sorry, it’s just that when I was a child, this is what my mother did for us.” 
“I see…I’d like to meet your parents one day,” he murmured, gazing up at the ceiling. Ronie remembered going home the previous month, and the memory threatened to dredge up all the marriage offers her parents had dangled in front of her, before she shooed the thought away. 
“I…I’m sure they would be delighted to see you,” she said, thinking, Though my little brother would be happiest of all. Kirito grinned and closed his eyes. Within a matter of seconds, she could hear him breathing peacefully. He’d seemed fine all throughout the day, but the act of flying that dragoncraft three thousand kilors must have been mentally exhausting. 
Relieved that he had gone to sleep in the bed without protest, Ronie took off her own cloak and, with a bit of trouble, put out the ore lamp by pouring water inside it. 
She sat down on the sofa against the wall, placed her shoes neatly on the floor, and lay down on her side. As she expected, her toes stuck out, but using the heavy cloak of fine western wool as a blanket, she found the cold did not bother her. 
She felt sleep coming on at once but resisted it by staring at Kirito’s profile, which was lit by the soft glow of the city through the window. She wondered what would happen if he really did come to visit her family…and then something occurred to her. 
Leafa the Green Swordswoman couldn’t be Kirito’s only family member. Back in the real world, he must have parents, perhaps other siblings, and friends. But Kirito had never spoken about his family. 
Does he…ever wish he could go back? 
Of course he must. Ronie’s family was still in Centoria, very close by, and even she got homesick for her parents and brother sometimes. 
But she didn’t have the courage to ask Kirito about that. What would she say if he admitted to her that he wanted to go home someday? She didn’t even know if there was a way to get back to the real world now. 

 

I wonder what kind of place it is. 
The real world was a source of fear and distaste, not fondness, to all the Underworlders who’d fought in the great war. Ronie was no exception. Just the thought of a world producing those terrible red knights who’d wiped out the armies of the human and dark realms made her limbs grow cold. 
But on the other hand, the real world was also the home of Kirito, Asuna, and the warriors who’d come to the aid of the Human Guardian Army during the war. 
In the Underworld, there were good people and bad people. Perhaps the real world was the same. But that thought wasn’t enough for her to wish the gate between them would open again. 
What had Alice the Integrity Knight seen and felt when she traveled to that distant place? Would the day come when she might return and speak of those experiences…? 
Ronie found herself shaken by the same odd feeling she’d gotten when she saw the sign on the outside of the inn, but the weight of her eyelids was growing irresistible, and she fell asleep for the very first time in a foreign land.