Sword Art Online - Volume 2 - Chapter 2

Warmth of the Heart (Aincrad 48th Floor, June 2024)
The gigantic waterwheel spun steadily, filling the entire shop with a calming sound.
Even though this was just a small house for support-class use amongst the player-exclusive housing, its price rose like the tide because of that waterwheel. When I first found this house in the main district of the 48th floor Lindus, my mind suddenly went 'this is it!', right before its price horrified me.
From that moment on, I began to work like crazy, borrowed money from various sources, and managed to accumulate three million Col within just two months. If this was the real world, my body would be covered in muscles from all the times I had swung my hammer, and my right hand would be full of thick calluses.
But all that paid off, as I acquired the deed just a step ahead of my competitors and opened «Lisbeth's Special Weapon Shop» at this house with the waterwheel. That happened three months ago during the cool Spring.


Part 1
After quickly drinking my morning coffee — thank god this is Aincrad — while listening to the revolving waterwheel as if its sounds were a BGM, I changed into my blacksmith uniform and glanced at my image in the full length mirror that hung on the wall.
Even though I called it a blacksmith uniform, it wasn't anything even resembling overalls, but actually looked more like a waitress uniform: a dark red top with puffed sleeves and a flared skirt of the same color, plus a pure white apron over that and a red ribbon atop my chest.
I wasn't the one who picked these clothes; it was actually a friend of mine who was also a regular customer. According to her, 'you have a baby face so stiff clothes don't suit you.'
Well that's what she said, and I was like 'mind your own business!' But sales jumped twofold once I started wearing this uniform, so I had no choice but to keep wearing it.
Her advice didn't just stop with my clothes, but even went to my hair; it was now customized to be extremely pink and fluffy. But based on the customer responses, it seemed that this look suited me.
I, blacksmith Lisbeth, was fifteen when I first logged onto SAO. I heard back in the real world that I looked younger than my age, but that became even more pronounced in this world. When my pink hair, large blue eyes, and small lips combined with the old-fashioned apron, my reflection in the mirror felt almost like a doll.
Since I was a middle schooler in the other world with no interest in fashion, the gap grew even wider. Somehow I had gotten used to how I look, but since my personality doesn't change as easily, I had scared some customers with my outbursts from time to time.
I checked if there was anything that I forgot to equip before I went to the front of the shop and flipped the 'CLOSED' sign. I looked at the few players that had been waiting for the shop to open, then showed them my best smile and greeted them.
"Good morning! Welcome!"
Actually, it hadn't been all that long since I was able to do this naturally.
Running a shop had been a longtime dream of mine, but doing so in a game was very different from in the real world. I experienced firsthand how hard reception and service was when I first started as a street vendor with an inn as my base.
Since keeping a smile on was too hard, I decided to win through quality, and it seemed that leveling my weaponsmithing skill like crazy was the answer, as many of my regular customers continued to peruse my weapons even after I opened this shop.
After I finished greeting them, I left the reception to my NPC clerk and holed myself up in the workshop that was attached to the store. There were about ten items that needed to be made to order today.
As soon as I pulled the lever on the wall, the bellows began using the mechanical power from the waterwheel to blow air into the furnace, and the polisher started spinning. I took out an expensive piece of metal from my inventory and stuck it in the furnace, which had begun to heat up. After heating the metal enough, I moved it over to the anvil with a pair of tongs. I knelt on one knee and grasped my hammer, then called up the pop-up menu and chose the item I wanted to make. Now all I had to do was hit the chunk of metal for the designated number of times and the item would be forged. There was no technique required for this and the quality of the resulting weapon was random; but I thought that the end result depended on how much I concentrated, so I tensed all my muscles and slowly raised the hammer. Then, just when I was about to strike the metal—
"Hey, Liz!"
"Ahh!"
The door to the workshop opened loudly and I missed; instead of the metal, I struck the anvil with a pathetic clang and a spray of sparks.
As I raised my head, the intruder was scratching her head and smiling with her tongue stuck out.
"Sorry~ I'll be careful next time."
"I wonder how many times I've heard that— ...Well, at least it was before I started."
I stood up with a sigh and put the piece of metal back into the furnace before placing my hands on my hips and turning around. Then I looked up at the girl who was slightly taller than me.
"...Hey, Asuna."
My friend and regular customer, the rapier-wielder Asuna, crossed the room as she walked towards me and sat down on the wooden stool. She then pushed back the long chestnut-brown hair that went past her shoulders with her hand. All of her movements seemed to shine, as if she was a movie star, and dazed me even though I've known her for ages.
I sat down as well on the chair in front of the anvil and leaned my hammer against the wall.
"...So, what is it today? You're pretty early."
"Ah, I want you to take care of this."
Asuna took off her rapier, with the blade still in its sheath, and then threw it. I caught it with one hand and pulled it out. The rapier was a little dull from the long period of use, but it wasn't bad enough to give the blade any trouble cutting.
"It's not that out of shape is it? It's a bit early for polishing."
"Yeah you're right. But I want it to be all shiny."
"Hmmm?"
I looked at Asuna carefully. Her knight outfit with the red crosses on white and her miniskirt was the same as ever, but her boots shined as if they were new and she even wore a pair of silver earrings.
"You're being strange~ Now that I think about it, it's a weekday today. What about your guild's clearing quota? Didn't you say that you guys were having a hard time with the sixty-third floor?"
After I said this, Asuna gave an embarrassed smile:
"Yeah— I got a vacation today. Because I have a promise with somebody later today..."
"Ohh~!"
I shifted closer towards Asuna while still sitting on my chair.
"Tell me more. Who are you meeting?"
"Se-Secret!"
Asuna blushed and avoided my gaze. I crossed my arms, nodded, and then spoke:
"Ah~ I thought that you were strangely brighter these days. So you finally got yourself a boyfriend."
"It-It's not like that!!"
Asuna's cheeks turned to a deeper red. She coughed and then asked me a question while glancing at me slightly:
"...Am I, really all that different nowadays...?"
"Of course~ When I first met you, you only concentrated on clearing dungeons! I thought you were a little too stiff, but then, starting this spring, you began to change a little; like taking a rest from clearing the game on a weekday — that's something you would never have done back then."
"Ri-Right ...maybe I really have been affected..."
"So, who is it? Someone I know?"
"I... don't think so... most probably."
"Bring him over next time."
"It's really not like that! It's still, well... a one way thing..."
"Hmm...?"
This time I was really surprised. Asuna was the sub-leader of the strongest guild, KoB, and one of the top five best looking girls in Aincrad. There were as many boys who wanted Asuna's attention as there were stars in the sky, but I never even dreamed that the opposite existed.
"Well, y'know, he's a really strange person."
Asuna said with her eyes gazing off into the distance. She had a soft smile on her lips. If this was a romance manga, then there would be flower petals in the background right now.
"Should I say that he's unpredictable, or that he just takes everything at his own pace... yet in spite of all that, he's really strong."
"Oh, stronger than you?"
"Yeah, like really; if we duelled, I wouldn't even last one minute."
"Ohh~ I could count the number of people who can do that with my fingers."
As soon as I began going through the list of clearers in my head, Asuna started waving her arms.
"Ah, don't imagine him~!"
"Well, I'll look forward to seeing him soon. And if that's the case I'll rely on you for advertising as well!"
"You never miss a chance. I'll introduce him —Ah, oh! Polish it quickly!"
"Right, right. I'll get it done right now so just wait a moment."
I stood up with Asuna's rapier in my hand and walked over to the revolving polisher in the corner on the room.
I drew the thin blade from its red sheath. The weapon was categorized as «Rapier» with the unique name «Lambent Light». It was one of the best swords I've ever made. Even if I use the best raw materials, the best hammer, the best anvil, and the best everything, the quality of the weapon still differed due to the random factor. Therefore, I would only be able to make a sword of this quality every three months or so.
I slowly held the sword against the polisher with both hands. There was no technique involved in polishing weapons either, but I had no intention of neglecting it.
I slid the blade across the polisher from the hilt to the tip of the sword. Sparks flew out as a clear, metallic sound rang about, and at the same time a shimmering gleam returned to the blade. When the polishing process finished, the rapier returned to its clear silvery appearance, shining with the light of the morning sun.
I sheathed the blade again and threw it over to Asuna. Then I caught the 100 col silver coin that she tossed over to me at the same time with the tips of my fingers.
"Thanks!"
"I'll ask you to repair my armor later as well... but I'm running out of time now so bye!"
Asuna stood up and hung the rapier to her side on the sword belt.
"I wonder what he's like~ Maybe I should go along."
"Ehh, n-no!"
"Hahaha, I'm joking. But bring him along next time."
"S-Soon."
Asuna waved her hand and ran out of the workshop as if she was running away. I let out a deep sigh and collapsed into my chair again.
"...Must be good."
I smiled somewhat bitterly at the words that popped out of my mouth.
A year and a half had passed since I came to this world. Because of my personality, I didn't dawdle and instead poured everything into making my shop flourish, which had gotten me this far. But now that I had set up a shop and almost completed my smithing skill, I was starting to miss the company of people again, most probably because I didn't have a clear goal anymore.
Since there weren't many girls in Aincrad, quite a few guys have tried to get close to me, but for some reason I never really felt like responding. So when it came to this subject I felt pretty envious of Asuna.
"Will a «Fabulous Meeting» quest come to me as well, I wonder~"
I mumbled, then shook my head to get rid of these strange thoughts and stood up. I took the piece of metal, which was red hot by now, out of the furnace and put it back onto the anvil. I supposed this guy would be my partner for the time being. With these thoughts lingering about, I raised my hammer and struck down. Hiiyaa.
The rhythmic sound of metal resounding through the workshop would usually clear my mind for me, but today the lump in my heart just wouldn't go away.
It was noon of the next day when he visited my shop.


I finished all of the weapon orders yesterday and was nodding off on the rocking chair on the terrace in front of the shop.
I was dreaming. It was a dream about when I was still in elementary school. I was a diligent and quiet kid, but I had this habit of falling asleep during the first afternoon lesson. The teachers often berated me for drifting off.
Back then I looked up to this young male teacher who had just graduated from university. I still felt embarrassed about getting reprimanded, but for some reason I really liked the way he woke me up. He would softly shake my shoulder and say in a low, quiet voice—
“Erm, I'm sorry but...”
“Ye-Yes, I'm sorry!”
“Wha?!”
I shouted and jumped up like a spring. In front of me stood a male player with a surprised expression fixed onto his face.
“Huh...?”
I looked around at my surroundings. It wasn't the classroom filled with rows of desks. The trees planted along the street, the waterway that ran beside the wide stone road, the court that was covered with grass; it was my second home, Lindus.
It seemed that I had been daydreaming for the first time in a while. I coughed to hide my embarrassment and greeted the person who appeared to be a customer.
“Wel-Welcome. Are you looking for a weapon?”
“Erm, yes.”
The boy nodded.
He didn't look like someone on a really high level. He looked only a little older than me; black hair with a simple shirt, pants, and boots. The only armament he had was the one-handed sword on his back. The weapons in my shop required high stats and I was worried if he was on a high enough level, but I didn't let that show and led him into my shop.
“The one-handed sword display is over here.”
As I pointed towards the case that displayed the basic weapons, he smiled a bit awkwardly and spoke.
“Ah, well, I wanted to order a custom made one...”
I became even more worried. Even the cheapest custom-made weapons, which needed special ingredients to forge, were over a hundred thousand col. If he started panicking at the price, then I would be embarrassed as well, so I tried to avoid that situation.
“The price of metals right now is a bit high, so I think it might be a little expensive...”
I told him that, but the boy clad in black said something totally unbelievable with an uncaring expression.
“You don't have to worry about the price. Please just forge the best sword that you can right now.”
“...”
I just stared at the person's face for a moment and then somehow managed to open my mouth.
“...Well, even if you say that... I have to have some sort of idea about the quality...”
My tone was slightly rougher than usual, but he didn't seem to care about that and simply nodded.
“Well I suppose that's true. Then...”
He took off the sword on his back, still sheathed, and gave it to me.
“How about a sword with a similar or better quality than this one?”
It didn't look like a very impressive weapon. A handle with black leather twined around it; a hilt of the same color. But when I took it with my right hand—
It's heavy!!
I almost dropped the thing. The strength stat prerequisite was incredibly high. As a blacksmith and mace wielder, I was pretty confident in my strength stat. But I would never be able to swing this sword.
I hesitantly drew it from the sheath and the almost pitch black blade gleamed. I could tell that it was a high-quality sword with just a glance. I clicked it with my finger to call out the popup window: category «Long-sword/One-handed», unique name «Elucidator». It didn't have a maker name, which meant that this wasn't the work of a fellow blacksmith.
You can separate all weapons in Aincrad into two groups.
One is «Player made», which meant weapons made by us blacksmiths. The other included weapons that one gained from adventuring as «Monster drops». Needless to say, blacksmiths don't like drop weapons all that much. I couldn't even begin to count all the names like 'Unnamed' or 'No brand' that were given to them.
But this sword seemed to be a very rare item amongst monster drops. If you compared the average quality of player-made weapons and monster drops, the former was better. But once in a while, «Demon Swords» such as this one appeared — that was what I heard.
Anyhow, my pride was now on the line. As a blacksmith, there was no way I would lose to a drop weapon.
I returned the heavy sword and brought out a long sword that was hanging on the back wall of the shop. I had forged this sword a month ago and it was the best I could make right now. The blade that I drew from its sheath had a reddish tinge to it, which appeared as if it was covered by fire.
“This is the best sword in my shop right now. It most probably won't lose to yours.”
He took the sword wordlessly, swung it with one hand, and then cocked his head.
“It's a bit light.”
“...I used a speed type metal for it...”
“Hmm...”
He made a doubtful expression and swung the sword a few more times before he turned his gaze towards me and asked.
“Can I test this for a bit?”
“Test what...?”
“Durability.”
The boy drew his sword, which he had been holding in his left hand, and put it on top of the counter. He then stood before it and slowly raised the red sword with his right arm.
I realized what he was about to do and tried to stop him.
“Wa-Wait! If you do that your sword will break!”
“If it's a sword that would break so easily then it's useless. If that happens I'll deal with it then.”
“That's...”
That's totally crazy, is what I was going to say, but I stopped myself. He held the sword up above his head and his eyes shone sharply. Soon, the sword began to shine with a blue light.
“Hyah!”
With a shout, he swung the sword down at an amazing speed. The two blades clashed against each other before I even had the time to blink, and the impact rang loudly within the shop. Because the resulting flash was so bright, I squinted to take a look, and then involuntarily took a step back...
The blade was broken neatly in two and had been completely destroyed.
—The blade of my best work.
“AHHHHHH!!”
I screamed and rushed to his right hand. I took the remaining half and carefully examined it from every angle.
...Repair... was impossible.
As soon as I came to that conclusion and sagged my shoulders, the remaining half scattered and became polygon fragments. After a few seconds of silence passed, I slowly raised my head.
“Wha...Wha...”
I grabbed the boy by the collar as my lips trembled.
“What are you going to do—!! It's broken—!!”
“I-I'm sorry! I never even imagined that the sword I swung would break...”
...*Snap*.
“In other words, do you mean to say that my sword was weaker than you thought it was!?”
“Errr— ummm— well, yeah.”
“Ah!! Now you're just going straight out!?”
I released his collar, put my hands on my hips, and straightened my chest.
“I— I'm telling you! If I had the right materials I could make weapons that would snap your sword just like that as much as I want!”
“—Oh?”
He smiled at the words I said in anger.
“Then I would really like to ask you to make that; something that could just snap this sword just like that.”
He took the sword on the counter and sheathed it. The blood finally rushed all the way up my head and—
“So that's how it's gonna be!? Fine! Then you help too! Start with helping me get the ingredients!”
I knew I just made a mistake, but the milk was already spilt. There was no way I could back down now. Yet he wasn't shaken at all and rudely scrutinized me.
“...Well, I don't mind, but wouldn't it be better if I went by myself? It would be a problem if you got in the way.”
“Argh—!!”
To think that there really was a person who was this good at getting on people's nerves. I waved my arms about wildly and protested like a little kid.
“Do-Don't take me so lightly! Even if I look like this, I'm a master mace wielder!”
“Whew~”
The boy whistled. Now he was just enjoying himself.
“Well then, I'll look forward to it. —Anyways, I'll pay for the sword I broke.”
“There's no need to do that! Just remember that if I make a sword that's better than yours, I'll make you pay bucket loads!”
“Fine, as much as you want. —I'm Kirito. I hope we get along together until the sword is done.”
I crossed my arms and looked away.
“I hope we get along too, Kirito.”
“Uwa, you're calling me by my name just like that? Well, I'm fine with it. I hope we get along, Lisbeth.”
“Kaaah—!!”
—It was the worst first impression ever for forming a party.




Part 2
Rumors about «That Metal» began to circulate amongst the blacksmiths about ten days ago. Of course, the ultimate goal of SAO was to reach the top floor and beat the game. But other than that, there was also a variety of other missions: quests from NPCs, guard missions, treasure hunting, and more. But because the reward usually included desirable equipment, most quests had a cooldown time after they were completed before they would become available again. There were even quests that could only be finished once, which really drew attention from the players.
One of these missions was found in a hamlet in the corner of the 55th floor. A certain white-bearded village leader NPC would say—
There was a white dragon that lived in the mountains to the west, which ate crystals each day as its food and stocked large quantities of it to create an extremely valuable and rare metal within its stomach.
This was obviously a mission that awarded amazing materials, so a large number of people immediately formed an assault party that would be able to easily defeat the dragon.
—But they didn't get anything. The dragon dropped only a small quantity of Col and some poor quality equipment, which didn't even reimburse the cost of the healing potions and crystals used.
After that, everyone guessed that the metal had only a chance of dropping, therefore many parties spoke to the elder and then defeated the dragon, but still no one found the metal. Within one week, countless white dragons had been killed, but not a single party managed to find the metal. Someone finally suggested that there must be special conditions which must be met, so now everyone was trying hard to find out what those were.
After listening to my explanation, the man named Kirito, who sipped on the tea which I didn't want to make, who sat on my workshop chair with his casually crossed legs, replied 'Ah...' and nodded lightly.
"I've heard about this too. There does seem to be a chance to get rare ingredients. But so far no one has gotten anything right? Would we really get anything if we go now?"
"Amongst all the circulating theories, one of them claims that 'the party must include a blacksmith', because there aren't many blacksmiths who properly trained their combat skills."
"So that's why; actually that does sound kind of right — if that's the case, then we should get going soon."
"......"
I stared angrily at Kirito's face.
"I'm surprised you've managed to live till today with such a lack of common sense. This isn't goblin hunting! We have to form a good party and..."
"But if we do that, then even if the material drops, there's a chance we won't get it right? What floor is that white dragon on?"
"...55th floor."
"Heh— Then I should be fine even by myself; you don't even need to help."
"...Are you insanely strong, or just insanely stupid? Whatever, I don't care, the sight of you crying while teleporting away also sounds pretty interesting."
Kirito simply chuckled, finished his tea without answering, and placed the cup back down on the table.
"I'm ready to leave anytime; what about you, Lisbeth?"
"Ah— Never mind, since you're not going to add an honorific anyway, just call me Liz... the white dragon's mountain isn't very big, so we should be able to return today. Let me just make a few simple preparations."
After opening a console window, I first put on some simple armor over my skirt, then confirmed that my mace was in my inventory and made sure that I had enough potions and crystals.
I closed the window and said ok, then Kirito stood back up. Luckily, there were no customers in sight as we went from the workshop to the shop entrance. I quickly flipped the sign on the door.
I raised my head and looked out; the sunlight passing through was still bright, so there was still quite some time before it gets dark. Whether we retrieve the metal or not — the latter being more likely no matter how I thought about it — I wouldn't want to come back too late.
That being said.
—How did I wind up in this strange situation...
After leaving the store, I walked towards the gate plaza while thinking deeply.
I definitely had a bad impression of the black-dressed man leisurely walking beside me — as it should be. Not only did everything he say make me angry, he was also some arrogant megalomaniac, and most of all, he broke my masterpiece.
But still, I was walking alongside a man whom I just met. We even formed a party and prepared to hunt monsters on another floor; it was just like— like a da...
Arriving at this, I immediately forced a stop to that thought. I had never experienced anything like this until now. Although I was pretty close to several male players, I've always made excuses to avoid going out with them with just two people. I wanted to make sure that the first person I paired up with would be someone I really liked, or so I thought.
But when I came to my senses, I was already with this weird man... How did it end up like this!
Completely oblivious of my inner turmoil, Kirito saw a food vendor near the gate of the plaza and rushed over. By the time he turned around, a huge hot dog was already in his mouth.
"Doo yu van son duu?"
...My inner thoughts were instantly filled with a sense of helplessness and I felt like an idiot for being the only one worrying over it. So I yelled back:
"Yeah!"
The crisp taste of the hot dog — more precisely, a mysterious food that looked like a hot dog — still lingered in my mouth when we reached the rumored hamlet on the 55th floor.
We also didn't have any trouble with the monsters in the field.
Considering that the front line was on the 63rd floor right now, the monsters here were pretty strong. But my level was about 65, and that braggart Kirito should be just as strong, so we went through quite a few battles almost completely unscathed.
The only mistake was that the theme of this floor involved fields of snow and ice—
"Achoo!"
I sneezed loudly as soon as we entered the small village and relaxed. Because all the other floors were in an early summer season, I became too careless. Not only was there a layer of snow on the ground here, but every building still had huge icicles hanging from the roofs.
This bone-chilling winter cold made my entire body shiver like crazy. Kirito, who stood beside me, put on an exasperated expression and said:
"...You didn't bring any other clothes?"
"...No."
Then, the seemingly lightly-dressed Kirito operated his window. A black leather cape materialized, which he placed over my head.
"...Are you alright yourself?"
"It's all a matter of willpower."
Every line this man said gets on my nerves. But the fur-lined cape looked pretty warm, so I couldn't resist it and quickly put it on. I let out a sigh of relief as the cold bite of the wind immediately disappeared.
"Umm... which one do you think is the elder's house?"
As Kirito said this, I looked around the tiny village, and found an especially large house across from the central plaza.
"It should be that one right?"
"Right."
We both nodded and started walking.
—Several minutes later.
As we predicted, we found the white-bearded elder NPC and successfully initiated a conversation. His story was full of useless details that started from his long and boring childhood, into his teenage years, past his difficult days in adulthood, and then abruptly mentioned a white dragon in the mountains to the west. By the time he finally finished, the orange light of the setting sun had already covered the entire village.
We left the village elder's house feeling completely wiped out. The snow that covered the houses were stained orange by the setting sun. It was an image beautiful beyond comparison, yet—
"...I never expected just receiving the quest would waste that much time..."
"Unbelievable... well, what now? Should we wait until tomorrow?"
I turned my head and looked at Kirito.
"Hmmm— I've heard the white dragon is nocturnal though. Is that the mountain?"
Looking towards the direction Kirito pointed at, I saw a white peak reaching into the sky. Although I say that, the structural limitations of Aincrad meant the height couldn't possibly exceed 100 meters, so climbing the mountain shouldn't be difficult.
"Alright, let's go then. I want to see your crying face as soon as possible anyway."
"Just don't become overwhelmed by my magnificent sword skills."
We both turned our faces away from each other with a 'Hmph'. But somehow, how should I put it, even though I was arguing with Kirito, my heart began to feel a little shaky—
I forcibly shook my head to get rid of these stupid thoughts and then began to crunch my way through the snow.
Although the white dragon's mountain looked dangerously steep from far away, we discovered that it was actually very easy to climb.
When I thought about it, many impromptu teams managed to accomplish this without any trouble, so there was no way it could be hard.
Even though it was already evening, which affects the strength of spawned monsters, the strongest that would appear right now were ice skeletons called «Frost Bone». Furthermore, bone-type monsters were no match for my mace. I simply continued to smash them apart with clear crunching sounds.
After walking up the snow-covered roads for several dozen minutes and turning towards the plunging icy cliffs, we had already reached the mountaintop.
The bottom of the next floor was extremely close. Huge columns of broken crystal pillars stood out from the thick layer of snow. The purple light of the setting sun refracted through these columns and scattered into the rainbow colors of the spectrum, painting a scene that can only be portrayed in dreams.
"Whaa...!"
Just as I cheered without restraint and was about to dash over, Kirito grabbed onto my collar to stop me.
"Oi... What are you doing?!"
"Hey, get ready to use the crystals first."
Against his extremely serious expression, I could only meekly nod. I materialized the crystals and then put them into my apron pockets.
"Also, it'll get dangerous from here on out, so it would be best if I continued on alone. Once the white dragon appears, just hide behind that crystal pillar over there and absolutely do not come out."
"...Why? My level is pretty high too! I wanna help too!"
"No!"
Kirito's black pupils stared directly into my eyes. The moment our eyes met, I understood that this person was truly worried for my safety from the bottom of his heart, so I let out a huge sigh and backed off. I didn't say anything and simply nodded lightly.
A smile spread across Kirito's face as he patted my head and said "Alright, let's go." I could only keep on nodding.
It felt like the atmosphere suddenly changed entirely.
After travelling all the way here with Kirito, could it be that my feelings had changed? Or did I get caught up in the mood—? Either way, I completely did not recognize this as a life-threatening encounter.
Over half of my experience came from forging weapons, so I had never entered any merciless battlefields.
But I felt that this person was different. He had a gaze that only one who fought every day in the most dangerous places could have.
I continued to walk with my scrambled emotions before we soon arrived at the center of the peak.
We quickly looked around, but found no sign of the white dragon. However, we saw an area sealed by crystal pillars—
"Wow..."
There was a gigantic cave opening of at least ten meters in diameter. The light reflected off the walls reached down the deep hole, while an impermeable darkness covered even the deeper regions.
"That's really deep..."
Kirito kicked a small chunk of crystal into the hole. The falling crystal glittered briefly before completely disappearing without even a sound.
"Don't fall down."
"As if I would!"
Not long after I replied, a sharp feral screech pierced out from the cave and spread across the entire mountain through the air that was stained blue by the sunset.
"Hide behind there!"
Kirito pointed towards a gigantic crystal pillar nearby and spoke in a commanding tone. I hurriedly followed his instructions while waving exaggeratedly at Kirito's shadow and yelling:
"Hey... The white dragon's attacks are slashes using both claws, freezing breath, and blizzard assault... B-Be careful!"
After quickly adding that last phrase, I saw Kirito, who kept his back towards me pretending to be cool, gave a thumbs-up with his left fist. The space in front of him began to shake, and a huge shape exploded outwards from the hole.
Various large, strangely-shaped polygons appeared in a continuous stream. As those polygons appeared — they began connecting with one another and the identity of the huge shape grew more evident. The shriek that made people quiver uncontrollably resounded once again. Countless shards scattered outwards in every direction before disappearing into the light rays.
A white dragon covered in scale-like shards of ice had appeared. It slowly beat its gigantic wings while hovering in the skies. The situation was frightening — or it could be more appropriately described as extremely beautiful. It stared with large, ruby-colored eyes, casting a contemptuous look down upon the two of us.
Kirito calmly reached his hand towards his back and unsheathed his jet-black one-handed sword with a perfect chime. Then, as if the sound had sent off a signal, the white dragon opened his huge jaw — and with a hardened sound, sprayed out a wave of white gas.
"It's the breath! Get out of the way!"
Even though I screamed, Kirito didn't budge a single inch. He stood perfectly still and thrusted upwards with the sword in his right hand.
There was no way such a thin weapon could block a breath attack—
As soon as I thought this, the sword began to spin like a windmill centered in Kirito's hand. Based on the light green color of the effect, it must be a sword skill. In just a second, the sword reached speeds invisible to the human eye and looked like it had become a shield of light.
The icy breath streamed directly towards the light shield while emitting a dizzying white light, which forced me to avert my eyes. But, when the cold air slammed into Kirito's sword-shield, it dispersed as if it had evaporated.
I quickly focused on Kirito's body to confirm his HP.
Maybe it was impossible to completely block the breath, because his life bar was slowly draining. But the shocking part was, the damage taken was recovering within just a few seconds. This must be the really high level battle skill «Battle Healing» — but to raise this skill, one must sustain enormous amount of battle damage. Considering the current floors, that was impossible to do so without endangering oneself.
Kirito — just who is he...?
Only now did I begin to seriously wonder about the identity of this black swordsman. His absurd power made him seem like a key strategic player. But his name wasn't amongst the list of KoB-dominated top guild players.
At this moment, Kirito, who accurately predicted the end of the icy onslaught, made his move. He burst through the snowy mist and leapt towards the dragon hovering in midair.
Normally, when fighting a flying enemy, one should first attack with a halberd or some sort of throwing weapon; only after long-range weapons knocked the enemy down to ground-level first did the short-ranged weapon users join the fray. But shockingly, Kirito flew upwards until he almost touched the white dragon's head, where he began to initiate consecutive sword combination techniques in midair.
With a sharp ring, Kirito's onslaught pummeled the white dragon's torso at a speed faster than the human eye could follow. Even though the white dragon retaliated with both of its claws, the difference in their capabilities was simply too much.
By the time Kirito slowly descended back down to the ground, the white dragon's HP bar was already down by over a third.
—It was single-handed slaughter. Watching this unbelievable battle made my spine shiver endlessly.
Suddenly the white dragon aimed at the grounded Kirito and blasted its icy breath, but this time he sprinted to dodge the attack and then leapt back up into the air. With a deep and heavy sound, a single powerful attack struck the target, and the white dragon's health dropped significantly.
The HP bar immediately changed from yellow to red, and the battle should conclude with just one or two more attacks. I decided that this time I would honestly praise Kirito's skill and took one step out from behind the crystal pillar.
At that moment, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, Kirito suddenly shouted:
"Idiot! Don't come out yet!"
"What? It's obviously about to finish right? Just hurry up and end it..."
As I replied in a loud voice—
The dragon, flying even higher than before, fully expanded its wings. As its wings beat forward, the snow directly below the dragon went flying with a *bang*.
"......?"
As I stood frozen in shock by the scene before me. Kirito stabbed his sword into the ground several meters in front of me and moved his mouth like he wanted to tell me something, but his profile was immediately blocked by the snow. A moment later an incredible pressure, like a wall of wind, hit and easily blew me into the air.
Crap... The blizzard attack!
As I tumbled across the air, I finally remembered what I myself had just said about the white dragon's attacks. Thankfully, this skill didn't have much attack power, so I took virtually no damage. I spread open both my arms and took a posture for landing.
But as the snow dispersed — there was no ground in the clearing up ahead.
It was the gigantic hole atop the mountain peak. I had been blown into the air directly overhead this huge pit.
My thoughts immediately stopped; my entire body completely froze.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
With my mind completely paralyzed, I could only utter these words, while my right hand reached towards the air in vain—
—A hand covered in only a black-leather glove suddenly grasped my fingers.
My unfocused eyes suddenly sprang open.
...!
Kirito, who had been confronting the white dragon far away, sprinted over here at a frightening speed and leapt into the air without hesitation. He extended his right hand to grab onto mine and then pulled me into his embrace. After that he loosened his right arm to wrap around my back and hugged me tightly.
"Hold on tight!"
As I heard Kirito's voice reverberating beside my ear, I forgot myself and tightly hugged his body with both of my arms. We began to descend only an instant later.
In the center of the cave opening, the two of us fell straight down while holding onto each other. The wind howled in our ears and our coats flailed about wildly.
If this hole extended down to the surface of the floor, then falling from this height meant certain death. This thought suddenly passed through my mind, but I just didn't feel like this was actually happening right now. All I could do was to keep staring dumbly at the disappearing circle of white light.
Suddenly, Kirito's sword-wielding right arm began to move. He raised the sword forcibly and then swung it forward. A flash of light burst out, accompanied by the loud echoing *clang* of metal striking one another.
The strong counterforce changed our fall trajectory, pushing us towards the cave walls. The blue icy walls gradually approached, and I couldn't help but bite down my teeth. We were going to crash—!
Just as we were about to collide with the wall, Kirito raised the sword in his right hand once again and stabbed it into the wall at full power. Fiery sparks exploded outwards as if the weapon had struck a whetstone. The sudden attack slowed our falling speed, but it was unable to completely stop our descent.
The screeching sound of metallic cutting continued as Kirito's sword kept on cutting the wall of ice. I turned my neck to look down and noticed that we could already see the white snow-covered bottom of the cave. I watched it come closer and closer, until there were only a few seconds left before we crashed. I wanted to at least refrain from screaming, so I bit down on my lip and tightly held onto Kirito.
Kirito let go of his sword, used both arms to hold me tightly, and rotated his body so that he was on the bottom. Then—
An impact. A huge sound.
The snowflakes that were blasted into the air by the force of our fall began to land lightly on my cheeks before melting away.
The cold sensation pulled back my scattered thoughts. I opened my eyes, and my gaze met with that of Kirito's black pupils as he laid extremely close to me.
Kirito was still hugging me tightly; he raised the corner of his mouth and smiled weakly.
"...Still alive?"
I nodded back weakly and replied:
"Yeah, still alive."
For several dozen seconds — or maybe several minutes, we simply laid motionlessly in that position. The heat from Kirito's body allowed my entire self to relax and my mind to go completely blank.
After a while, Kirito let go of my arm and slowly stood back up. He first picked up the sword that fell nearby and returned it to his inventory, and then pulled out from his waist pouch a bottle of what was probably a high-class recovery potion, as well as another bottle for me.
"Anyhow, just drink it."
"...Okay."
I nodded and sat up to receive the potion while checking my own HP bar. I still had about one-third left, but Kirito, who had struck the ground directly, was already in the red zone.
I pulled off the cork and gulped down the sweet liquid in one breath, then turned towards Kirito. Remaining in my relaxed posture, I began to move the lips that have such a hard time saying anything nice.
"Ummm... Th-Thank you for saving me..."
Kirito weakly showed his usual sneer and replied:
"It's still too early to thank me."
He quickly glanced towards the sky.
"...Thank god the white dragon didn't chase us, but how are we going to get out of here..."
"Eh...? Can't we just teleport?"
I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a sparkling blue crystal to show Kirito. But—
"That probably won't work, since this is a trap made especially for players, I doubt we'll be able to get out that easily."
"How could this be...?"
Kirito hinted at me with his eyes to try it out, so I held the crystal tightly and commanded:
"Teleport! Lindus!"
—My shout echoed emptily off the frozen walls before finally disappearing. The crystal simply continued to sparkle silently.
Kirito squeezed my shoulders lightly without making any sound.
"If I thought we could use crystals, then I would have already used it when we were falling. But because this place felt like it would be an anti-crystal zone..."
"..."
I dropped my head in despair; Kirito put his hand on my head with a *pat* and tousled my hair.
"Alright alright, don't cry. If we can't use crystals, then there must be another way out of here."
"...Maybe not, maybe this is an inescapable pit that guarantees death... Or should I say, we're already dead!"
"Hmmm, maybe you're right."
Watching Kirito nod in agreement made me lose all the energy in my body once again.
"What...What kind of attitude is that!? Can't you be a little more positive?"
After I suddenly yelled, Kirito smiled and said:
“That angry expression is much more like you, keep it up!”
“Wha......?”
My cheeks flushed red and my body froze in place. Kirito then lifted his hand from my head and stood back up.
“Well, let's try some things out. Any ideas?”
“...”
I smiled bitterly at Kirito, who was clearly unaffected by the situation we were in and kept up his usual attitude. Feeling a bit more cheerful, I slapped my cheeks with both hands and stood up.
I surveyed my surroundings; the cave's bottom was a flat surface of ice with a hint of snow. The diameter should be about 10 meters just like the cave's opening. The icy walls near the top continued to reflect rays of light from the setting sun, but this place would soon be completely engulfed by darkness.
I looked around, but there was no visible way out on either the walls or the floor. I put both my hands on my waist, ran my brain at full capacity, and told Kirito the first idea that came to mind.
“Mm... Can we ask for help from someone?”
Kirito denied it instantly:
“Uh—— I'm guessing this place is considered a dungeon.”
Players registered as 'friends,' such as Asuna in my case, can communicate through a type of mail called 'private message.' However, that function cannot be used within a dungeon, nor could the 'trace system' be used to locate them.
I opened the message window in blind hope, but as Kirito said, it was unavailable.
“Well... How about we shout at other players who come to hunt the dragon?”
“I think we are about 80 meters away from the apex, so my guess is that our voices won't reach that far.”
“I guess so... Wait! Now you come up with an idea!”
When I retorted at Kirito, upset at him for constantly putting down my ideas, he replied with something preposterous:
“Run up along the wall.”
“......Are you an idiot?”
“Well, let's find out.”
While I stared at him with a dumbstruck expression, Kirito walked up to one side of the cave and started dashing toward the walls on the opposite side with unnatural speed. The snow blew off the floor and a gale of wind smashed into my face. Just as he was about to hit the wall, Kirito crouched and leaped upwards with explosive force. He stepped on the walls at an unbelievable height and then started running diagonally along the wall.
“Oh my god...”
As I watched in awe, Kirito was already far above me and running upwards in a spiral along the walls like one of those ninjas from a third-rate movie. His silhouette got smaller and smaller—
Then, as he was a third of the way up, he suddenly slipped.
“Ahhhhhhhh!!!”
Kirito floundered about as he fell towards my head.
“Kyaaaaa!!!”
As I backed off screaming, a human-shaped hole appeared right where I was standing. A minute later, after Kirito finished his second health potion, I sat down next to him and sighed.
"I kept thinking you were an idiot, but I never even considered that you were this stupid..."
“I would have succeeded if the initial approach was longer.”
“Not a chance.”
I blurted out softly.
Kirito ignored my words and returned the empty potion bottle to his pouch. After stretching his arms, he said:
“Well, it's getting too dark, so let's just camp here. Fortunately, I don't think any monsters spawn in this hole.”
The sun had already set, and the bottom of the hole was getting quite dark.
“I guess so...”
“Well then...”
Kirito opened a window and materialized several things. A camp stove [1] , a pot, several small sacks that I couldn't tell what they were for, and two mugs came out.
“...You always carry these around?”
“I tend to camp out in the fields quite often.”
He said it with such a serious expression that I don't think he was joking.
He clicked on the stove; it lit with a *fwoosh* and illuminated the place with a soft orange glow. Kirito put a pot over the stove, then tossed in a few chunks of snow before pouring in the contents of those small sacks. He closed the pot with a lid and doubled clicked it; a timer window for cooking then popped up.
Soon I began to smell a herbal aroma. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't eaten anything since that hot dog in the morning. My stomach suddenly demanded food loudly as if it just remembered that it was starving.
The cooking timer disappeared with a *pin pon*, and then Kirito split the contents of the pot into two mugs.
“Don't expect too much, my cooking proficiency is zero.”
“Thank you...”
The warmth transferred to my hands through the mug that Kirito handed to me. It was a simple soup of dried meat and herbs, but the ingredients' item levels seemed to be high and it was more than delicious. The heat also spread throughout my cold body.
“What a mysterious feeling this is... I don't feel like this is real.”
I mumbled as I drank the soup.
“I mean this situation, camping in an unexplored area and having a meal with a stranger...”
“Ah, I guess so... since you are an artisan. I make PuGs [2] with random players and camp with them quite often.”
“Hmm, really? ...Tell me some more, about the dungeons and everything.”
“Huh? Mm...okay. I don't think it's that interesting though... oh wait, before I start......”
Kirito collected the empty mugs and pot, and returned them to his inventory. He opened the panel again and materialized what looked like two rolled up chunks of cloth.
After he unfolded them, they revealed themselves to be sleeping bags. They looked similar to their real world equivalents, only significantly larger.
“These are high-end items. Perfect heat preservation, plus a hiding effect against aggressive monsters.”
He tossed me one as he smiled. When I laid it on the snow, it looked like it could fit three people of my size. Dumbfounded by the size of it, I spoke to Kirito:
“It's remarkable that you bring these things everywhere, and especially two of them......”
“Well, I should utilize my inventory space for something.”
Kirito quickly unequipped himself and laid down in the sleeping bag on the left. I also unequipped my cloak and mace, and rolled into the sleeping bag. It was a high-end item all right; the inside was very warm, and a lot fluffier than it looked. We were a meter apart with the stove in between us. But I was still feeling a little... embarrassed, so I spoke again to get rid of the silence:
“Mm...yeah, go on with the story...”
“Oh, sure...”
Kirito slowly started talking after he laid his head on his hands.
He told me about the time when he got trapped by MPK —— criminals who purposely gathered mobs to ambush other players —— in a dungeon. And a story of fighting a boss mob with low damage but an obscene amount of health for two full days by taking turns to sleep with other players. There was also the time he rolled dice with 100 other players for a rare item. All of his stories were thrilling, delightful, and somewhat humorous. His stories also made one thing obvious—— he was one of the Clearers, those who risk their lives on the frontline. But that also meant this person was burdened with the fates of thousands of players. He wasn't the type of person who should risk his life just to save me.
I turned toward Kirito and looked at his face. His black eyes were reflecting the light from the stove.
“Hey... Kirito, can I ask you something...?”

“—Why so serious all of a sudden?”
“Why did you save me at that moment...? There was no guarantee that you would have succeeded. Well, it was more likely that you were just going to die with me, so... Why......?”
Kirito's expression hardened for a second, but he immediately relaxed to his usual face and responded with a calm voice:
“...I would rather die alongside them than watch someone else die without doing anything. Especially if that someone is a girl like you, Liz.”
“...You really are an idiot. You are probably the only one who would say such a thing.”
Although I retorted sarcastically, my eyes couldn't help but weep. A part of my heart ached, and I tried my hardest to control and hide it. I haven't heard such stubborn, upright, and warm words since I came to this world. No, I haven't heard such words even before in the real world.
The painful feelings of loneliness and wanting to interact with others more that had been buried deep within a corner of my heart suddenly flared and engulfed me like a tempest. I wanted Kirito's warmth close enough for my heart to feel—
Without realizing it, the words spilled forth from my mouth:
“Would you... hold my hand?”
I turned towards Kirito, pulled my right arm out of the sleeping bag, and reached towards my left.
Kirito's eyes widened slightly, but he answered 'Yes' in a small voice and held out his left hand. When our fingers touched, we both jerked our hands away for a second, but then reached in again to grasp our hands together.
I held onto Kirito's hand tightly, which was a lot warmer than the soup that I just ate. Although the back of my hand was still laying on the ice, I didn't feel any coldness. I felt human warmth. I felt like I had finally figured out what the longing was that had settled in a corner of my heart ever since I came to this world.
Because I was afraid of becoming aware of the fact that this world was an illusion— that my real body was somewhere far away, unreachable no matter how hard I tried, I continued to set goals for myself and focused everything on my job. I convinced myself that leveling up my blacksmithing skills and expanding my store was my reality.
But some part of me always knew that this was all a fake, nothing more than simple data. What I starved for was true human warmth.
Of course, Kirito's body was also data. The warmth that I feel now were just electric signals for my brain to react to. But I finally realized that it didn't matter. I could feel his heart —— whether in the real world or in this simulated world, this was the only truth.

As I held Kirito's hand firmly, I smiled and closed my eyes. Although my heart was beating faster than ever, sleep came to me regrettably quick and dragged my consciousness into the pleasant darkness.


Part 3
A refreshingly sweet scent gradually drifted past my nose; I slowly opened my eyes and saw the entire world enveloped by a white glow. The dawning light, which had already been reflected several times down the icy walls, caused the snow at the bottom of the cave to glitter.
I shifted my eyes and noticed a teapot sitting atop the lantern, with vapor wavering above it. Looks like that's where the smell was coming from. In front of the lantern sat a person in black clothes whose face I could only see from the side. But as soon as I saw that figure, a small flame seemed to ignite within my heart.
Kirito turned his head, revealed a tiny smile, and said:
"Morning."
"......Morning."
I replied. As I prepared to get up, I noticed that my right hand, which should have been hanging outside when I went to sleep, was neatly placed back inside the sleeping bag. I brought the warmth that lingered in that palm to my lips, and then suddenly jumped up.
Kirito brought a steaming mug to me, who had just crawled out onto the snow. After thanking him, I accepted the mug and sat down beside him. In it was a kind of flowery tea with a mint-like aroma which I had never tasted before. As I slowly drank the tea one sip at a time, allowing it to gently sink into my body. My heart pleasantly warmed up.
I shifted my body, leaning it right against Kirito's. As I turned my head, our eyes met for an instant before quickly separating. For a short while, only the sounds of two people drinking tea could be heard.
"Hey......"
Finally, I murmured with a small voice while my eyes continued to stay fixed on my cup.
"Hmmm?"
"......If we really can't get out of here, then what should we do?"
"Spend every day sleeping."
"That sure was a quick reply. Think about it a little more!"
I smiled as I prodded Kirito's arm with my elbow.
"......Although, that wouldn't be bad either......"
After saying this, I began to lean my head towards Kirito's shoulder—
"Ah......!?"
Kirito suddenly cried out and leaned forward. I, losing my support, ended up falling onto the ground with a *plop*.
"Geez, what was that for!"
I complained angrily as I straightened my torso back up, but Kirito stood up without even looking back. Following that, he sprinted towards the middle of that circular pit.
While in doubt, I also got up and followed him.
"Just what is it?"
"Oh, just a little......"
Kirito knelt down onto the floor and began to brush aside the snow, piled up on the ground, with both hands. He quickly dug up a deep hole as a scraping sound reverberated. And then—
"Ah!?"
A beam of silvery light suddenly flashed into my eyes. Something buried deep inside the snow was reflecting the light of the rising sun.
Kirito dug that thing out, seized it with both hands, and then stood back up. Unable to restrain my curiosity, I peered into it from an extremely close distance.
It was a transparent, silvery-white, rectangular object. Just slightly bigger than both of Kirito's hands. It was of a familiar shape, with a familiar size — a metallic material. But I had yet to see one of this color.
I tapped the material lightly with my right hand's fingers. An automatic window immediately popped up. The object was named «Crystalite Ingot».
"This— Isn't this..."
As I looked up towards Kirito's face, he too, nodded with a confused expression.
"Yeah... This is the metal we've been looking for... I wonder why it's here..."
"But, just why was it buried here?"
"Hmm......"
Kirito continued to stare at the ingot grasped in his right hand as he thought about it, before letting out a short, "Ah..."
"...The white dragon eats crystals...... which are refined in its stomach to become...... Hehe, so that's how it goes!"
He seemed to have figured it out and started showing a smile, then tossed the metal ingot towards me. I hurriedly caught it with both hands and held it close to my chest.
"Hey, what's with that! Don't just stop after figuring it out yourself!"
"This cave isn't a trap. It's the dragon's nest."
"Eh-? Eeh?"
"In other words, that ingot is the dragon's excretion. Its feces."
"Fe..."
While my cheeks were twitching, I dropped my glance at the ingot at my chest.
"Geeee"
Without thinking, I threw it back at Kirito.
"Woah"
That was repelled back by Kirito skillfully with his fingertips. After childishly throwing it at each other repeatedly, it finally came to a closure with Kirito making quick work of expanding the item field to store the ingot.
"Well, anyway, we accomplished our goal. Now, all that's left is......"
"If only we could get out of here..."
Both of us sighed as we exchanged glances.
"For the time being, there's no choice but to try everything we can come up with."
"I guess so. Aah, if only I had wings like the dragon..."
It happened the moment I said that. Realizing something, I left my mouth agape, at a loss for words.
"...What's up, Liz?"
Facing towards Kirito, who was peering at me, with his head tilted to the side.
"Hey. You said this place was the dragon's nest, right?"
"Ah. As long as there are feces, that's..."
"That's not important! Dragons are nocturnal, now that it's morning, shouldn't it be returning to its nest..."
"..."
For a short while, my glance met with Kirito's, who became silent, and then both of us looked up into the sky at the entrance of the hole. Exactly at that moment...
Far up, high in the air, within the circular-cut white light, a blurred black shadow was born. That shadow grew ever bigger as we stared at it. It took only an instant before I could soon see a pair of wings, a long tail and four feet armed with claws.
"It's...It's..."
We backed off together. However, of course, there wasn't any place to escape to.
"It's here———"
Both of us shouted while drawing our respective weapons.
The white dragon, that swooped down into the pit, noticed our presence and made a high pitched cry, stopping just before hitting the ground. Its red eyes with vertical pupils were filled with clear hostility towards the intruders of its nest. However, there was nowhere to hide at the bottom of the narrow hole. I prepared my mace while suppressing my nervousness.
Similarly, Kirito readied his one-handed sword and moved in front of me, quickly saying.
"Listen, stay behind me. Drink a potion immediately after losing even a little HP."
"Y-Yeah..."
I simply nodded obediently this time.
The dragon opened its vast mouth and roared once more. Its wings created a gust of wind, which made snow whirl into the air.
*Bitan!* *Bitan!* The dragon's long tail was striking the ground, each hit digging a deep ditch in the snowy surface.
Brandishing the sword in his right hand without pause, as to gain the initiative, Kirito suddenly ceased his movement just as he was about to charge forth.
"...Ah... Maybe..."
He let out in a low voice.
"Wha-What's the matter?"
"No..."
Without answering my question, Kirito kept his sword in its scabbard, abruptly turned around and firmly embraced me with his left arm.
"Ehh!?"
Without understanding anything, I panicked and I was further raised up to Kirito's shoulder.
"H-Hey, what are you— Wahh!!"
A *Zuban!* rang out with the impact, and together with that, the surroundings' scenery went blurry. Kirito dashed towards the wall with violent force. Just before crashing, he did a great jump, and just like yesterday's attempt to escape, he began running on the curved wall surface. However, as if there was no intention to ascend, the orbit stayed level. The dragon's head heartily turned and continued targeting us, however Kirito continued running at a speed exceeding what the dragon could follow.
A few seconds later, when Kirito finally landed on the bottom of the hole, my eyes were completely spinning. Finally opening my eyes after blinking them countless times, before me was the rear of the dragon. It had lost sight of us and was restlessly swinging its head left and right.
Just as I thought that Kirito was planning to attack from behind, he surprisingly quietly approached the dragon— With his right hand stretched out, he forcefully grabbed the tip of the dragon's swaying tail.
At that moment, the dragon let out a high-pitched cry. A shriek of surprise— or maybe that was just my imagination. Being increasingly unable to comprehend Kirito's intentions, I was just about to let out a scream too.
All of a sudden, the white dragon spread out both of its wings and began a sharp ascent at terrific speed.
"Oof!"
The air struck my face. Without even the time to think about that, our bodies flew out in midair with a force like that of being shot out of a bow. While we held onto the dragon's tail, it shook left and right as it ran up the pit. The circular bottom of the pit became distant very quickly.
"Liz! Hold on!!"
In response to Kirito's voice, I clung onto his head in a trance. The sunlight that shone on the surrounding ice ridges grew steadily brighter with the pitch of the sound of the cutting winds changing subtly— At the moment I thought the world exploded in a white radiance, we were flown outside of the hole.
The moment I opened my squinting eyes, a bird's-eye view of the vast 55th floor spread out below me.
Directly below me was a beautiful cone-shaped snowy mountain. Slightly further off, a small village. Beyond the vast snow field and the thick forest, the pointed roofs of every house of the main district were joined together. The scene where all of these were glittering, struck by the radiant sunlight, even made me forget about the terror, and I unintentionally cheered.
"Waa..."
"Yeah—!!"
Kirito too shouted loudly, and let his right hand go from the dragon's tail. He carried me like a child and entrusted himself to the inertia, dancing in the air.
The flight was only for several seconds, yet it felt like ten times that. I believe I was smiling. The overwhelming light and winds were sweeping through my heart. My emotions were being sublimated.
"Kirito— You know, I!!"
I shouted with all my heart.
"What!?"
"I-I like you!!"
"Come again!? I didn't hear that!!"
"It's nothing!!"
Clinging on tightly to his head, I burst out in laughter. Eventually, this moment, which felt almost like a miracle, ended, and we closed in on the ground. Turning about one last round, Kirito greatly widened his legs and took up a landing posture.
The snow went, *Bafun!*, as it flew up into the air. A long glide. Pushing our way through the white crystals like a snow-plow as we were slowing down, we finally stopped near the mountain summit.
"...Fuu."
Kirito took a breath of air and dropped me onto the ground. With reluctance, I turned my head and unwrapped my arms from him.
The both of us looked towards the direction of the big hole together; the dragon which seemed to have lost sight of us slowly flew circles in the skies.
Kirito placed his hand on the sword on his back, drawing the blade slightly, but immediately soon returned it to its scabbard with a *cling* sound. With a light smile on his face, he faced the dragon and said softly.
"...You must have been troubled by all of those turning up to hunt you till now. Once the method of getting the item is spread, the people coming to kill you should be gone too. So from now on, live without worries."
—Facing a monster, which only moved according to the system configured algorithm, and doing such a thing; that was something I would have thought of as stupid up till yesterday. But for some reason, I somehow felt that I could meekly welcome Kirito's words into my heart now. Reaching out with my right hand, I gently grasped Kirito's left hand.
The both of us silently watched over the scene as the white dragon turned its head about, before giving a single clear cry and descended into its nest. Silence arrived.
Before long, Kirito glanced this way, and spoke.
"Well then, let's get back?"
"I guess so."
"Want to go with the crystal?"
"...No, let's walk back."
I answered while smiling and stepped forward holding Kirito's hand. I then realized something and looked at Kirito's face.
"Ah... The lantern and bedroll and such, we left them behind, didn't we."
"Now that you mentioned it... Well, it's okay. Somebody might make use of it."
We exchanged glances and laughed, this time for sure, we began to slowly walk the mountain trail, following the road home. I took a quick look around my nearby surroundings, the skies were clear, without a single cloud in the sky.

"I'm back!"
I vigorously opened the door of my dear home.
"Welcome back."
Despite the store-tending female NPC standing at the counter merely giving a polite reply to my greeting, I waved my hand and turned about, looking around my store. I had only been away for a mere one day, but strangely enough, it seemed fresh.
Kirito, who had bought take-out from the same stall as yesterday, entered the store behind me, with a hot dog held in his mouth.
"It's almost noon after all, so you should have just eaten it in that stall."
As I voiced out my complaints, Kirito grinned as he waved his left hand, bring out a window.
"Before that, let's get to making it already, the sword."
Deftly manipulating the inventory, he materialized the silver ingot. Carefully catching it — ignoring the origin of the item for the moment — I nodded.
"That's right, let's do it. Come over to the workshop."
Opening the door behind the counter, the thudding sound of the waterwheel became conspicuously louder. Pulling down the lever on the wall, the bellows began to move, delivering air in. The furnace immediately began to glow a vivid red.
I gently dropped the ingot into the furnace, and turned back towards Kirito.
"A single-handed straight sword is fine, right?"
"Yep. I'm counting on you."
Kirito nodded as he sat on the circle stool meant for visitors.
"Understood. —Just a word of warning, but the end result has an aspect of randomness to it, so don't expect too much from it, alright?"
"We can just go get it again if it fails. This time with a rope."
"...Yeah, a long one."
Recalling that grand fall, I unwittingly let out a smile. Dropping my sight to the furnace, I noticed that the ingot seemed to have been sufficiently heated. Taking it out with pliers, I placed it onto the anvil.
I picked up my favorite smithing hammer from the wall, did the setup on the menu, and took another glance towards Kirito's face. In reply to his silent nodding, I smiled, and grandly lifted the hammer over my head.
I forged my spirit in as I hit the metal gleaming crimson; along with a clear *Kan!* sound, bright sparks generously scattered about.
Within the section on smithing in the Reference Help, about the manufacturing process, "According to the type of weapon being created, and the rank of metal used, the ingot will need to be hit a certain number of times." was all that was used to describe it.
In other words, during the deed of striking the metal with the hammer, there was no possibility for the player's skill to affect anything; this should be how it should be read, but there were all kinds of rumors and occult-like theories floating about SAO, that the precision of the striking rhythm and the fighting spirit of the blacksmith is able to manipulate the result, such goes the firmly ingrained opinions around.
I think of myself as a rational person, but I only put faith in this theory through my long time of experience. Therefore, I would lose any excess thoughts when producing arms, concentrating my awareness within the right hand throwing down the hammer, striking without stop with my mind blank— that is what I believed.
However.
While hitting the ingot, producing refreshing clanking sounds, various thoughts whirled about in my mind now, unable to leave.
If the sword was made successfully, and the request finished— Kirito would naturally return to the clearing at the frontlines, and there should not be many chances to meet up. Even if he comes for maintenance on the sword, that would be once every ten days at best.
Something like that— I don't want something like that. I felt a voice shouting so within myself.
While hungering for the warmth of another— No, that was why, that was the reason why I hesitated shortening the distance with any particular male player up until now. I was afraid of the lonely winter within me completely changing with love. That was not true love, just a delusion created by an illusionary world; that was what I thought.
But last night, while feeling the warmth from Kirito's hands, I realized, that those feelings of hesitation were the illusionary thorns that bound me. I am myself— The blacksmith, Lisbeth, and at the same time, Shinozaki Rika. Kirito was the same. Not a character from a game, but an actual living human being. Hence, my love for him; these feelings are real too.
If I manage to hit up a satisfying sword, I'll confess my feelings to him. That I want him to be by my side, that I want him to come back to this home from the labyrinth, everyday, that's what I'll tell him.
By the time the ingot was forged, its radiance shining ever brighter, the feelings within myself too, seemed to have been firmed up as well. I felt my feelings flowing out from my right hand, streaming into the weapon born from the hammer.
—And so, the moment had finally arrived.
I did not know how many times it had occurred thus far — probably somewhere between two hundred to two hundred and fifty times — immediately following the sound of the hammer, the ingot let loose a noticeably dazzling white gleam.
The rectangular object changed its shape bit by bit as it shone. It began growing palely from its front and rear, and next, a bulge that resembled a hilt swelled outwards.
"Ohh..."
Letting out murmurs of wonder in a low tone, Kirito got up from the chair, and approached. As we watched over side by side, the object generation was completed in several seconds, finally revealing its shape as a single long sword.
Beautiful; it was a truly beautiful sword. As a one-handed longsword, it was rather gorgeous. The blade was pale, and though not to the extent of a rapier, it was slender. As if it had inherited the property of the ingot, it could be seen as extremely slightly transparent. The blade was colored a blinding white. The grip was silver, with a slight tinge of blue.
«A World Where The Sword Symbolizes The Player»; as if to support that promised phrase, the variety of weapons set up in SAO were outrageously numerous. If one were to list down the names peculiar to the weapons included in each category from the start, it was said that it would likely be thousands of lines long.
Unlike a normal RPG, the diversity of those distinguishing names spread out further as the rank of the weapons increased. Lower ranked weapons, for example, within the one-handed longswords, «Bronze Sword», «Steel Sword»; for the swords with such dull names, countless numbers of them existed in this world; but as for weapons of the highest rank such as the one present here right now, taking something like Asuna's «Lambent Light» for example, there is likely only one in the world, literally a one-of-a-kind object.
Of course, rapiers with the same level of ability, regardless of whether they are player-made or dropped from monsters, probably do exist. But each of them has a different name, possessing different appearances. And with that, high level weapons have a certain charm to them, becoming something like a partner with whom you share your spirit with.
Since the weapon's name and appearance are decided by the system, even we, the manufacturers, do not completely understand it. I lifted up the sword glittering atop the anvil— or at least, I tried to; I was surprised by the weight, unsuitable for its elegant outward appearance. It had a physical strength requirement that was not inferior to the black sword Kirito holds, «Elucidator». Straining my back, I brought it up before my chest with a cry.
Reaching out with a finger on my right hand supporting the base of the sword blade, I gave it a single click. I looked into the popup window that rose to its surface.
"Well, its name seems to be «Dark Repulser». It's the first time I've heard that, so I don't believe it's mentioned on the information store's list at the moment. —Here, try it out."
"Okay."
Kirito nodded and, reaching out with his right hand, he gripped the sword's handle. He lifted it up with actions that seemed unaffected by its weight. Waving his left hand to draw out the main menu, he manipulated the equipment figure, targeting the white sword. With this, the sword would be equipped to Kirito in the system, allowing for its numerical potential to be confirmed.
But Kirito immediately closed the menu, and having taken several steps back, he switched it to his left hand, swinging a few times with swishing sounds.
"—How is it?"
I asked without delay. Kirito gazed at the blade for a short moment in silence, but— soon, he smiled with a broad grin.
"It sure is heavy. ...It's a good sword."
"Really!? ...Alright!!"
I assumed a triumphant pose with my right hand without thinking. With that hand reached out, I bumped it against Kirito's right fist.
It had been a while since I felt this way.
Long ago— During the time I did sales from a street stall on the main streets of the tenth floor, I felt this way when my recklessly made arms were praised by customers. I'm glad I became a blacksmith, that was what I would honestly feel, from the bottom of my heart for that instant. When I went on to master my skills and move on to do business with only the high leveled players, I had forgotten about this feeling before I realized it.
"...It's a problem with my heart, huh... all of it..."
Towards the words I casually leaked out, Kirito inclined his head with a curious look.
"N-No, it's nothing. —Putting that aside, let's have a drink somewhere. I'm hungry."
Raising my voice to hide my embarrassment, I pushed Kirito's shoulders from behind. I thought to get out of the workshop in that posture, but— a question suddenly came to me.
"...Hey."
"Hm?"
Kirito looked back over his shoulder. That hung on his back; the black one-handed sword.
"Speaking of which— In the beginning, you did say, a sword equal to this one, didn't you. That white one certainly is a good sword, but I don't think there's much difference with that monster dropped one. Why would you need two swords resembling each other?"
"Aah..."
Kirito turned about, staring at me with an expression that showed that he was hesitating over something.
"Well, I can't explain everything. If you won't ask any further than that, I can tell you."
"What's with that? Acting all cool."
"Step back a little."
After I stepped back alongside the workshop's walls, with the white sword still hung down, Kirito drew the black sword, from his back with a high-pitched sound, with his right hand.
"...?"
I couldn't comprehend his intentions. After having manipulated the equipment figure earlier, with the current system, his equipped status should be only the sword in his left hand; holding onto another weapon with his right hand should not be of any use whatsoever. On the contrary, with something that's considered an irregular equipped status like that, it would not be possible to activate sword skills.
Glancing towards my confused face for a mere instant, Kirito calmly assumed a stance with the left and right swords. The right sword in front, the left sword behind. Dropping his hips slightly, and with that, in the very next instant.
A scarlet flash effect burst out, dyeing the workshop in its color.
The swords in Kirito's hands alternated, attacking his front with a speed that could not be followed by sight. *Kyubabababa!*, these sounds exerted pressure on the very air, and despite not actually aimed at anything, the objects within the room rattled.
It was obviously a sword technique arranged by the system. But— I have never heard of anything like a skill that uses two swords!
In front of me, standing stock still as I caught my breath, Kirito silently raised his body, having finished the consecutive attack technique that probably reached ten chained hits.
Clearing away both swords— returning only the sword in his right hand to his back, he looked at my face and spoke.
"And well, that's how it is. —I'll need a scabbard for this sword. Can I choose one?"
"Ah... Y-Yeah."
Just how many times had I already been dumbfounded by Kirito. Although I should have been used to it by now, for the time being, I decided to hold back my questions, reaching my hand towards the wall, displaying the home menu.
Scrolling through the storage screen, I gazed through the summary for the stock of scabbards I collected from craftsmen I was close to. Picking out one rather similar to the one equipped on Kirito's back, made from black leather, I materialized it. After I set in a small logo of my shop, I handed it over to Kirito. Kirito, having stored the white sword into the scabbard with a brief sound, opened a window and stashed it away. I thought he would equip both of them on his back, but it didn't seem that way.
"...So it's a secret? That earlier."
"Nn, well, yeah. Don't tell anyone about it, alright?"
"Got it."
Skill information is one's greatest lifeline, so if he tells me not to ask, I won't pursue the matter. That aside, I was glad that he even allowed me even a peek at his secret, and nodded with a small smile.
"...Well then."
Kirito placed his hands on his hips and his expression changed.
"This would be the end of my request. I'll be paying for the sword. How much?"
"Aah, that's..."
I bit my lips for a moment— I verbalized the reply that had always been seething within me.
"I won't need, any payment."
"...Eeh?"
"In return for that, I want Kirito to make me your exclusive smith."
Kirito's eyes showed slight signs of surprise.
"...Just what, do you mean by that...?"
"Whenever you complete your clearing, come over here, and let me do maintenance on your equipment... —Everyday, from now on, without fail."
My heartbeat heightened without bounds. Whether this was a feeling from my virtual body, or perhaps my actual heart, too, was throbbing in the same way as well— I wondered about that in a corner of my mind. My cheeks were on fire. Every single part of my face must have turned completely red right now.
Even Kirito, who had always maintained his poker face, seemed to have realized the meaning behind my words, and hung his red face down from shyness. I had always thought of him as older, but after seeing him in that state, it appeared like he was of the same generation, or perhaps even younger than me.
I mustered up my courage and took a step forward, taking a hold on his arm.
"Kirito... I..."
I cried those words out so loudly the time we escaped from the dragon's nest, but when speaking of it now, my tongue refuses to move. I kept staring into Kirito's black pupils, willing that single word to come out one way or another— It was then.
The workshop's door was forcefully opened. I released Kirito's hand by reflex, and jumped.
"Liz, I was so worried!!"
The person, who rushed in right after that instant, hugged me with the same force as a body slam while shouting out in a large voice. That chestnut-colored long hair softly danced in the air.
"Ah, Asuna..."
Asuna continued speaking without pause, staring closely at my face, locked in a dumbfounded expression, the entire time.
"Messages couldn't reach you; your map position couldn't even be traced; not to mention your regular customers didn't know anything about it, so just where did you go last night!? I even went all the way to the Black Iron Castle to check, you know!"
"So-Sorry. I just got stuck in a labyrinth for a bit..."
"A dungeon!? Liz, you went alone!?"
"Nah, with that person..."
I pointed in the direction diagonally behind Asuna with my glance. Asuna spun around, and after noticing that swordsman dressed in black standing there, looking bored, she froze with her eyes and mouth left open blankly. Following that, in a voice an octave higher—
"Ki-Kirito-kun!?"
"Eeh!?"
This time, it was my turn to be amazed. I looked over at Kirito, who was standing up straight, just like Asuna.
He gave a small cough, and spoke as he raised his right hand.
"Well, Asuna, it's been a while... or not, I suppose. A couple of days."
"Y-Yeah. ...That was surprising. I see, so you came here right away. If you had told me, I could have come along."
Asuna hid her palms behind her, and laughed shyly, tapping the floor repeatedly with the heels of her boots. I saw those cheeks slightly tinged with the shade of cherry blossom pink.
And I understood the entire situation.
It was not mere coincidence that brought Kirito to this shop. Keeping that promise with me, Asuna recommended this place... to the person in her heart.
—Just what should I do...? Just what should I do?
All that swirled around in circles within my mind, were those words. I felt like the heat from my entire body was slowly flowing out from the tips of my feet. I can't feel any strength. I can't breathe. Emotions came forth, without any way to release them...
Turning around to face the rigid me, Asuna casually spoke.
"This guy, did he say anything rude to Liz? He probably requested for one absurd thing or another, right?"
And with that, she slightly inclined her head to the side.
"Eh... But, that would mean, that you were with Kirito-kun last night?"
"W...Well..."
I took a step forward in that instant, grasped Asuna's right hand, and pushed open the door of the workshop. I looked towards Kirito for a bit, and rapidly spoke as I tried to not look at his face.
"Please wait for a short while. We'll be right back, so..."
I pulled Asuna's hand in that manner, exiting through the counter. Shutting the door, we went outside the shop through the gap between the display windows.
"Wait, wait, Liz, what's the matter?"
Despite hearing Asuna's questioning voice, I silently headed towards the main street, continuing to walk at a quick pace. I just couldn't bear to stay in front of Kirito any further. If I didn't escape, it seemed like I would have run into the realization that I had lost my way.
As though she had noticed my abnormal state, Asuna silently followed without saying another word. I gently released the girl's hand.
We entered the side street facing east, walked for a short while, and found a small sidewalk cafe that seemed like it was being hidden by the high stone wall. There wasn't a single customer. I chose a table at the edge, and sat down on a white chair.
Asuna peered into my face as she sat on the opposite side, not giving any impression of her thoughts.
"...What's the matter, Liz...?"
I strained to gather the slightest bit of vigor I could, putting a large smile on my face. The same smile as always, the one from times we cheerfully exchanged gossip.
"...Well, it's that person, isn't it...?"
Crossing my arms, I leaned in to look into Asuna's face.
"E-Eeh?"
"The one Asuna likes!"
"Ah..."
Asuna casted her eyes down, her shoulders appearing to narrow. She gave a nod with her cheeks blushed.
"...Yeah."
*Throb*; as I ignored the sharp pain that jabbed itself into my chest, I showed a broad grin yet again.
"Well, he certainly is a strange person; a really strange one."
"...Did Kirito-kun do something...?"
I gathered all my might and replied with a nod, to the worry-looking Asuna.
"He just went and broke the best sword in my store all of a sudden."
"Wah... So-Sorry..."
"It's not really something Asuna has to apologize for."
Looking at Asuna who was crossing her hands as if she had done the deed herself, something deep within my chest throbbed further.
Just a bit more... It's just a bit more, keep going, Lisbeth.
Whispering to myself in my heart, I somehow managed to maintain my smile.
"Well, anyway, to create the type of sword requested by that person, it turned out that a rare metal was necessary, so we went to the upper floors to get it. And during that, we got caught in some minor trap, you see; we had trouble escaping from it, that's why I wasn't back."
"So that was it... You could have just called for me, ah, messages couldn't be sent either, huh...?"
"I should have invited Asuna along too, sorry about that."
"No, the guild had clearing activities yesterday, so.... So, did you make the sword?"
"Ah, yeah. Geez, I wouldn't want to do this kind of troublesome work again."
"You should definitely charge him a real high price for that."
We started laughing at the same time.
I kept a small smile on my face, and mentioned one final comment.
"Well, he's weird, but certainly not a bad person. I'll be rooting for you, so do your best, Asuna."
That was the limit. The end of my words trembled.
"Y-Yeah, thanks..."
As Asuna nodded, she inclined her head to the side and looked into my face. Before she could see what were hidden under my eyelids, I sharply stood up, and spoke.
"Ah, oh no! I-I had an appointment arranged to buy some stock. I'll be going down for a bit!"
"Eh, in the store... What about Kirito-kun?"
"Go keep him company, Asuna! I'll be counting on you!"
I turned about, and broke into a run. I looked at Asuna, behind my back, and hurriedly waved my hand at her. There was no way I could turn back.
After I ran towards the gate plaza, all the way to a place where I could not see that open cafe from, I took the first turn, bending towards the south. I kept to the edge of the town, aiming at the areas without players, single-mindedly running without pause.
When my view distorted, I wiped my eyes with my right hand. Wiping them over and over again as I ran.
When I noticed, I had reached all way just before the castle walls that surrounded the town. Before the gently curving walls stretching out, large trees were planted in regular spaces from each other. I entered the shade under one of them, standing still with my hand on its trunk.
"Uguu... Uu..."
My voice leaked out from my throat, without the slightest attempt to muffle it. The tears I had desperately forced back streamed out one after one, vanishing as they poured down my cheeks.
It was the second time I had cried since I came to this world. From the time I panicked and cried on the day I first logged in, I convinced myself that I would cry again no more. I thought that I did not need these tears, forcibly flowing down due to the emotion expression system. But I have never felt tears more feverish, more painful than the ones running down my cheeks right now, not even those that flowed in the real world.
When I was talking with Asuna, there was one thing that never managed to get out. "I like that person too," these words almost came out countless times. However, there was no way I could say them.
At the workshop, the instant I saw Kirito and Asuna turn to talk to each other, I understood that there was no place for me beside Kirito. That is because— On that snowy mountain, I had exposed Kirito's life to danger. No one can stand beside that person, aside from one who possesses that same stout heart. That's right... Like for example, someone like Asuna...
The two were connected by a powerful pulling force, much like the pairing between a meticulously made sword and sheath. That was what I felt strongly. And beyond all else, Asuna had been constantly thinking about Kirito for countless months, and with the hard work she put in to narrow the gap between them bit by bit, day after day, there was no way I could just do something like thrust myself into that relationship all of a sudden.
That's right... I had known Kirito for no more than a single full day. Going on an adventure I was unused to with an unfamiliar person, my heart must have been just surprised by that. It wasn't the truth. These weren't my true feelings. If I were to fall in love, I wouldn't hurry; slowly thinking about it— I should have always, always thought of it as that.
But still, just why were these tears still flowing out?
Kirito's voice, his actions, all of those expressions he had shown in those twenty-four hours floated by before my shut eyelids one after another. The sensations of him brushing my hair, taking hold of my arm, his hand grasping mine. His warmth, the heat from that beating heart— As these seething recollections passed through me, a sharp pain resounded deep within my chest.
Forget it. It's all a dream. Wash it all away with these tears.
Holding tightly on the trunk of a tree by the side of the road, I cried. Looking downwards while stifling my voice, I continued crying. These tears would have dried up sooner or later in the real world, but it seems that these scalding liquids overflowing from my eyes had no intention to ever stop flowing.
And— from behind me, that voice came.
"Lisbeth."
My entire body trembled with a start as my name was called out. That tender, gentle voice, still left with echoes of its original boyish tone.
It must be a dream. There was no way he could be here. Thinking that, I turned my face upwards, without even bothering to wipe my tears away.
Kirito stood there. The eyes within those black forelocks, showing an ache from a grief unique to him, looked at me. I briefly glanced back at those eyes, and soon murmured with a quaver in my voice.
"...That's no good, coming here right now. I would have returned to the usual energetic Lisbeth in just a little more too."
"..."
Kirito silently took a step forward; he tried to reach out with his right hand. I shook my head lightly, stopping him.
"...How did you find this place?"
Upon hearing that, Kirito pondered, and pointed towards the middle of the town.
"From over there..."
At the point of that finger, far off from here, the spire of the church, built opposing the gate plaza, jutted up above the ripples of buildings.
"I gazed throughout the town, and found you."
"He, he."
My tears silently continued streaming down as before, but after listening to Kirito's answer, a smile floated to my mouth.
"You're as ridiculous as always, huh?"
Even that part of him... I liked that. To a hopeless extent.
I felt yet another surge of sobbing welling up within myself. I frantically held it down.
"Sorry, I'm... fine, you see. Hurry up and get back to Asuna already."
The moment I managed to say and was about to turn around, Kirito continued his words.
"I—I wanted to give thanks to Liz."
"Eh...?"
Befuddled by the unexpected remark, I stared at his face.
"...I, in the past, there was a time when my guild members were annihilated... With that, I decided never again, to ever get close to others."
Kirito gave a fleeting frown, chewing on his lips.
"That's why, usually, I avoid forming a party with anyone at all. However, yesterday, the moment Liz invited me to do that quest, it went fine for some reason. I kept thinking it was strange throughout the day. Just why was I walking alongside this person..."
I forgot the pain in my chest for an instant, taking a look at Kirito.
That means— That means, I was...
"Until now, no matter who asked, I rejected all of them. When those I knew... No, even for those whose names I didn't even know, just by watching others battle, I just froze in fear. I couldn't help but want to just run away. That's pretty much why I had always secluded myself at the foremost of the foremost of the frontlines, where people rarely came. —When we fell in that hole, I even thought that it would be better to die together than be the one left behind; that is definitely not a lie."
He showed a faint smile. It felt like a boundless amount of self-condemnation laid deep within that, taking my breath away.
"But you lived. It was unexpected, but the fact that I was able to live on with Liz made me really glad. And, that night... When you gave me your hand, everything was laid bare. Liz's hand was warm... This person is still alive, that was what I thought. I, and everyone one else as well, we definitely don't exist just for the sake of welcoming death someday; I believe we live for the sake of living on. So... Thanks, Liz."
"..."
This time, a true smile rose up from deep within my heart. Driven by a mysterious strong emotion, I opened my mouth.
"I was the same... I was the same; I have always been searching for that. For a special something true, in this world. To me, that was the warmth from your hand."
All of a sudden, that thorn of ice pierced deep within my heart gently melted away, that was similar to what it felt like. My tears had also ceased some time ago. For a short period of time, we stared at each other in silence. That sensation that appeared during the time we flied made its entrance once again, brushing against my heart for a mere instant, and vanished.
I was rewarded. That was what I believed.
The words from Kirito just then engulfed the broken fragments of my love that had cracked apart, and I felt them sinking down somewhere deep inside.
I swiftly blinked my eyes once, shaking off small drops, and opened my mouth to speak with a smile.
"Those words earlier, be sure to let Asuna hear them too. That girl is suffering too. She wants Kirito's warmth, after all."
"Liz..."
"I'm fine."
I nodded softly, holding onto my chest with my hands.
"This fever will remain for just a little longer. So... Please, Kirito, end this world. I'll be sure to work hard until then. But, when we return to the real world..."
I grinned with an impish smile.
"We'll go right into round two with that."
"..."
Kirito smiled as well, giving a deep nod. Next, he swung his left hand, opening a window. Just as I wondered what he was up to, the «Elucidator» was removed from his back, stored into the inventory. Following that, he manipulated his equipment figure, materializing a new sword in its place. «Dark Repulser», the white sword filled with my emotions.
"From today onwards, this sword will be my partner. The bill will... be settled for in the other world."
"Oh, now you've gone and said it. It'll come at quite a cost."
As we shared laughter, we bumped our right fists against each other.
"Well, let's get back to the store. Asuna must be tired of waiting... And I'm getting hungry too, anyway."
I said that, and began to walk after getting up in front of Kirito. For one final time, I firmly wiped my eyes, scattering the last of the tears still in the corners of my eyes, and they vanished into beads of light.


Part 4
The cold was noticeably harsher today,
I entered my workshop while rubbing my hands together. Pulling the lever on the wall, I warmed my hands over the furnace that had immediately ignited, burning red hot. The thudding sound of the waterwheel remained the same at least, but the early winter right now was already this cold. If midwinter were to come and the small river at the back freezes over, I was worried over just what would happen to me.
I thought hard for a short while before coming to my senses with a start, and consulted my scheduler. There were still eight items piled up in the list of orders due today. The day will soon come to an end if I don't hurry and settle them.
The first order was a lightweight-type one-handed straight sword. I peered through my list of ingots, picking out one that was a good compromise between budget and performance shortly after, and tossed it into the furnace.
At this point in time, my mastery of the hammer had increased, and I even got my hands on some new metals, so I have been able to constantly hit up high leveled weapons. Selecting a time when the fire has heated to a suitable temperature, I placed the ingot onto the anvil. Setting up the hammer, I swung it down with great vigor.
But, when speaking about one-handed straight swords— Not a single sword was able to exceed that particular sword I forged back in the summer of this year. That fact is frustrating, and at the same time, a relief.
That sword that had buried the fragments of my heart was probably spiritedly rampaging through the faraway frontlines yet again today. Although I do tend to it on this very whetstone before my eyes every now and then, unlike normal weapons, the transparency of its blade seemed to increase with use. For some reason, it seemed unlike the numerical consumables that run out sooner or later; it felt more like it would break apart once its duty had been completed— that was what I predicted.
But well, that was probably still a future that wouldn't be here anytime soon. The frontlines were now on the seventy-fifth floor. That sword would still have to work on for longer still. Within the right hand of that person— Kirito's.
When I noticed, it seemed that I had already finished hitting it for the required number of times; the ingot started to change its shape as it shone with red light. I watched this magical instant pass with my breath held, and picked up the sword that soon appeared to examine it.
"...Average, I guess."
Murmuring so, I placed that onto the worktable. Without delay, I started picking out the next ingot. This time was a two-handed axe, with the focus on its reach...

A time long after the start of noon, I somehow managed to finish off all of the orders, and stood up. Moving my head around in circles, I stretched my body vigorously. As I took a breath of relief, a small photo hanging on the wall entered my vision.
Making peace signs while joined together, Asuna and me. Beside Asuna, standing half a step below, Kirito with a wry smile. It was taken in front of this building. Around half a month ago— when the news of the two's marriage came in.
No matter who you might ask, those two certainly suit each other, but getting to that goal eventually took an entire half a year. I was getting impatient, and tried to poke my nose into their relationship in various ways, and when I was finally informed of the news of their marriage in the end, I was really happy for them. But still— I felt just the slightest, heartrending ache.
I still see what happened on that night in my dreams. Recollecting that single dreamlike night that shone like a modest gem within these two years with barely any ups-and-downs. Even right now, after three months had already passed, it still warmed my heart like glowing embers.
"...Even so..."
It certainly was amazing, I murmured thus in my heart, and softly traced the photo with my finger. Even though I consider myself to be a rational realist, to think that I had such an unreserved disposition was something that I didn't even notice at all.
"I had always loved you, until the very end."
Giving a firm tap onto a certain spot on the photo, I shifted my thoughts. Wondering if I should make a simple meal for my late lunch, or perhaps eat out for the first time in a while, I stepped out of my workshop— it happened then.
A sound effect that I had never heard till now resounded loudly from above. *Ding*, *ding*, a sound resembling a bell alarm... I immediately gazed at the ceiling, but it seemed that the sound was coming from even higher, reverberating from the direction of the upper floors.
I was just about to run out hurriedly, when something that surprised me even further happened. Although the reason behind it was obvious, the store-tending NPC, who stood at the counter, not needing a single day of rest since the opening of the store, suddenly vanished without even a single sound.
"...!?"
I blinked my eyes, and stared at the space where the girl stood till earlier, but there was no sign of her return. The situation was getting more and more convoluted.
To me, who stumbled my way out, an even more astonishing experience caused me to stand stock still.
On the bottom of the upper floor that spread out, a hundred meters above, right before that barren grey roof—gigantic red letters were suspended, spaced tightly together. I stared absorbed at them; the two English lines, "Warning", and, "System Announcement", were arranged on a checkered pattern.
"System... Announcement..."
It was a scene I had seen before. There was no way I could have forgotten it. Two years ago, on that day this death game started, the exact same spectacle appeared behind that hollow avatar that announced the change of rules to the ten thousand players.
Finally looking around my surroundings after being frozen to that for several full seconds, I spotted many other players, looking up at the upper floor while standing straight up, just like me. Frowning as I felt something off about this scene, the reason instantly came to mind.
Usually, while walking through the streets, there would be NPCs hawking their wares; not a single one was around. I believe they probably disappeared at the same time as the one tending to my store did, but... just why—
All of a sudden, the ringing alarm sound stopped. After a moment of silence, this time, what came down was a tender female voice, in that same loud volume.
[We will now be announcing an urgent notice to all of the players.]
It was completely different from the voice of the Game Master, Kayaba Akihiko, from two years ago, being an artificial synthetic voice with the sounds of electronic noise mixed in. It was obviously an announcement made through the game system, but with barely any presence of the management in SAO, this was the first time I had heard of an announcement done via these means. I strained my ears to listen while holding my breath.
[The game will now be entering forced administration mode. All monsters and item spawns will be suspended. All NPCs will be dismissed. The hit points of all players will be fixed to their maximum amount.]
A system error? Did some fatal bug appear...?
That was what I thought for an instant. My heart was gripped with unease. But in the next moment—
[Aincrad Standard Time, November the seventh, fourteen-fifty-five, the game has been cleared.]
—And the system voice reported thus.
The game, has been cleared?
I could not understand the meaning of those words for several seconds. The other players around too, stood still with their expressions frozen. However, upon hearing the line it led to, all of them sprung up.
[All players will be logged out in sequence. Kindly wait at your current location. I repeat...]
Suddenly, "Wooah!", and such huge cheers of joy erupted. The ground, no, the whole of the Floating Castle Aincrad trembled. Everyone was hugging each other, rolling about the ground, shouting out loud with their hands raised towards the sky.
I didn't move, didn't say a word, simply standing in front of my store. I somehow managed to lift up my hands, and covered my mouth.
So he did it. He— Kirito did it. With his usual recklessness...
That was what I believed. After all, the foremost frontlines were still at the seventy-fifth floor, but with the game cleared like this, this absurd, thoughtless, act of foolhardiness was definitely Kirito's deed.
I felt like I heard soft murmurs close to my ears.
—I, kept my word...
"Yeah... Yeah... Finally, you did it..."
With that, hot tears spilled from my eyes. Without bothering to wipe them away, I thrust my right hand up with all my might, jumping up and down without stop.
"O—Oh!!"
Cupping my hands to my mouth, so as to reach him, who should be on the upper floors far away, I cried out as loud as I could.
"We will, definitely meet again, Kirito—!! ...I love you!!"
(End)