Sword Art Online - Volume 20 - Chapter 7

7 
The air was full of the brassy three o’clock bells’ ringing. 
Asuna set down her cup of dark cofil tea on the table and said, “Kirito, you should eat something. Even a snack would be good.” 
“Mm…Oh…” 
Kirito looked up, arms crossed, and started to reach for the wooden tray of treats before pausing to look at her. It was as though he’d just realized something. 
“Wh…what is it?” 
“Oh…Just remembering that you used to say that to me all the time,” he said, wincing. Asuna knew at once that he was talking about the real world, not this simulation. She sat down in the chair next to him and smiled. 
“That’s because whenever you get fixated on something, you forget to eat, and sometimes you never even realize you’re hungry.” 
“Yeah…Yui would scold me for that, too,” he said wistfully before throwing her a look. He must have sensed something in her expression, because he reached out and gently stroked her hair. She let him do it, and the stabbing pain in her chest began to ease, bit by bit. 
They would probably never again see their “daughter” Yui, the top-down AI created in the original SAO. Even Yui’s processing power would be completely inadequate to match the hyper-accelerated pace of the Underworld, and there were no means of connecting anyway. 
At the end of the Otherworld War, Lisbeth and Silica had explained how it was Yui who guided them, Sinon, and Leafa to the Underworld. She’d summoned the whole gang, explained the state of the Underworld and Alice’s importance, and asked for their help. 
If it hadn’t been for Yui, the decoy force that Asuna joined would have been wiped out, and Emperor Vecta would have gotten away with Alice in his clutches. The thought that they would never see the daughter who’d done so much for them—without even the chance to say thank you—was incredibly painful, but she would surely understand. She would know that Kirito and Asuna had no other choice, and that even separated by the walls of time and space, they would forever love her. 
Apparently, Yui had described Alice as “the evidence of the existence of all the VRMMO worlds, beginning with SAO, and the many people who lived in them.” In that case, Asuna had to give her everything to protect this world. Now that the path to peace between the two realms was finally opening up, she had to do whatever she could to prevent war from returning. 
“…We’ve got to be strong,” Kirito murmured, as though reading her thoughts. He patted her back with the hand he’d been caressing her hair with, then picked up a nougat treat filled with nuts and fruit and popped it into his mouth. The Underworld was a virtual place, but unlike in Aincrad, if you were hungry for long enough, it would eventually affect your life value, and lack of nutrition could lead to disease. Eating was just as important here as it was in the real world. 
To no surprise, the investigation at the South Centorian city office this morning revealed that no order to transfer the three mountain goblins had been given, and no officials were sent to the inn. The guard who was present testified that the order certificate had the government’s stamp on it, but the actual symbol was simple enough that it would be easy to forge. But only if you could evade the Taboo Index, which outlawed all forgery of seals and signatures in the first place. 
If the man—technically, just an arm holding a dagger—that Asuna saw through her past-scrying had killed Yazen, then naturally, he was not bound by the Taboo Index. If he was the same person as the false official who kidnapped the goblins, forging a seal would be child’s play. 
The government investigation finished after noon, and once the result was in, they started a search through all of South Centoria for the abducted goblins. The city was vast, but it was still only a quarter of the entire breadth of Centoria. And the city guard’s office kept twenty desert wolves with sharp noses that were supposedly capable of detecting if a goblin was being held in a building just from sniffing at the doorway. They were expected to finish searching all buildings by the evening, so Kirito and Asuna were spending the day waiting in their room at the cathedral in agony. 
They wanted to join in the search, but Commander Fanatio had pleaded with them to stay inside, worrying about the possibility that this abduction, like the murder of Yazen, was intended to be a trap to lure the delegates into a vulnerable position. They were at least going to wait in the fiftieth-floor meeting room, but this time it was Ayuha who told Asuna that the best way to recover from the strain of her past-scrying was by getting proper rest in her own room. 
Ayuha Furia was the foremost master of sacred arts, and even she couldn’t properly use past-scrying. She suspected that Asuna’s ability to wield it in such a short span of time had to do with Stacia’s power. 
For over a year, Asuna had been patiently and persistently explaining that she was from the real world and was not the Goddess of Creation, Stacia, reborn, but the members of the cathedral, including the Integrity Knights, still didn’t fully believe her. In order to prevent any further misunderstandings, she forbade herself from using the Unlimited Landscape Manipulation ability…and yet, just a week ago, she had to shift the top of the cathedral to the side, just to avoid a terrible collision with Kirito’s Dragoncraft Unit One. 
In any case, Ayuha theorized that Asuna’s mind had built up a certain resistance to a huge influx of information, and that was how she could withstand the stress of past-scrying. But that didn’t decrease the actual fatigue caused by it, and Asuna had experienced that for herself, so she wasn’t going to be abusing the ability. But the safety of the three mountain goblins was a grave issue that connected directly to the well-being of the entire Underworld. 
If a human like Yazen was killed, and the three abducted goblins were framed for the deed—or even if they simply turned up dead—the carefully nurtured glimpse of peace between the two realms would be dealt a terrible blow. 
If the search of South Centoria didn’t turn up the goblins, there would only be one option left to them: Asuna would have to perform past-scrying at that inn again to investigate where the carriage went. But that posed its own problem. It was impossible to follow a target while maintaining the art, so as soon as the carriage left the sight of the crystal disc, she would have to move locations and look into the past again. And just the one instance of past-scrying yesterday nearly knocked her out. Asuna didn’t know if she could perform it multiple times in a row, even with breaks in between. 
The severe look on Kirito’s face was probably because he was desperately hoping they’d have the goblins in safe custody before such a thing became necessary. But that hope was growing fainter by the moment. Two and a half hours had passed since the search began, and they hadn’t found the three goblins or even the carriage used to spirit them away. 
Kirito had only eaten one snack before going silent again, so to ease his anxiety, Asuna tried changing the topic. 
“By the way, I hear the apprentice knights went on a trip?” 
“Huh…? Oh…yeah,” he said, looking back out the window. “I guess Ronie’s dragon, Tsukigake, has started getting picky about eating, so they went out to the lake to try to fix the problem.” 
“Really…? I didn’t know dragons had likes and dislikes about food,” she said, giggling. 
Kirito’s lips curled into a grin, too. “Apparently they do. Stablemaster Hainag gave her a piece of advice: Get them to try eating the very fish they catch.” 
“Ah. Yes, the food you get yourself always tastes better, doesn’t it? I remember going into the mountains at my grandpa’s house in Miyagi to pick wild herbs and mushrooms…” 
Memories of her younger years flooded back into her mind, a reassuring warmth that helped her briefly forget the present distress. 
On that note, all the ingredients she’d used to cook things here came from the markets of Centoria; she’d never acquired them from the wild herself. Food in the Underworld began losing life as soon as it was harvested, and that life value was tied directly to flavor. Next time she got the chance, she’d have to try picking some fresh ingredients herself. 
“Where’s the lake they went to?” she asked out of curiosity. 
“Um, I think it was in the middle of the imperial holdings in the north. Apparently, the ice over the lake has only just melted…but…,” Kirito said, his words coming slower and slower until he trailed off for good. 
Asuna looked at him inquiringly. The delegate was staring at a point in space, his face slack. Eventually, his brow creased, and he whispered to himself, “But could they have been taken…not within Centoria, but somewhere outside…like the old private holdings…?” 
It was clear that the unspoken subject of that sentiment was the missing goblins. 
Asuna shook her head at once. “That’s not possible. After the incident with Yazen, every person or carriage going through the South Centoria gate has had to submit to a thorough search. Goblins might be small, but they couldn’t possibly hide three of them in a vehicle…And all of them would be trussed up or knocked out, right?” 
“I agree that they couldn’t get through the south gate. But…what about the others?” he asked. 
She stared at him. “You mean…if the carriage went through the Everlasting Walls to East or West Centoria…?” 
“Maybe even twice, up to North Centoria.” 
“Hmm…” 
Asuna mulled over this idea. It had never even occurred to her. 
The Everlasting Walls, which split Centoria and the rest of the human realm with their three-thousand-kilor span, were a wonder that even Asuna with her considerable VR experience could only admire. Apparently, Administrator had summoned them in the span of a single night with sacred arts—and even with the Unlimited Landscape Manipulation ability of the Stacia account, Asuna couldn’t imagine repeating the same feat. She would be unable to withstand the massive data flow into her fluctlight and would become comatose after ten kilors of wall, most likely. 
Because of this recognition, Asuna considered the Everlasting Walls to be impenetrable obstacles and had never, ever thought of walking atop them, like Kirito did yesterday. So she’d simply eliminated the possibility of the carriage with the mountain goblins sneaking through the walls from her mind. 
“…In order to pass through any of the four gates in the Everlasting Walls, you need a Cathedral-issued pass or a one-day travel certificate from one of the four city governments,” Asuna said. “But…” 
“The kidnapper was already able to forge a notice of transfer from the South Centoria city government. A copper travel pass might be difficult to pull off, but a certificate on sheepskin parchment…By that point, we’re getting into very similar methods to what we saw in Obsidia…” 
The man in the black robe who abducted Leazetta, the daughter of Sheyta and Iskahn, was in hiding on the top floor of Obsidia Palace, which everyone believed to be completely sealed off. The means that he used to get inside still weren’t clear. But the pattern of actions was very similar to this goblin abduction, it had to be admitted. 
Kirito pursed his lips briefly. He shot to his feet. “Let’s expand the search for the goblins to North, East, and West Centoria, as well as the private lands outside of them.” 
“I agree…,” said Asuna, standing up as well. She looked toward the window on the south wall. 
The red sandstone buildings of South Centoria were lit by the afternoon sun. Gold color already lined the sky to the west. 
“But it’s already evening. Won’t it be difficult to search outdoors at this point? And those lands are very large…” 
“Yeah…that’s true. But while we can start searching the private holdings in the morning, we should start on the city right away. I’ll go to the fiftieth floor. You stay here, and—” 
His mouth was suddenly blocked by a finger. Asuna said, “I’m going with you, of course. Don’t worry, all the fatigue from the past-scrying is gone.” 
“……All right,” Kirito said, picking up another nougat off the platter on the table, then popping it into Asuna’s mouth in revenge. “Then you’d better eat up to build your strength.” 
She started to say “I know,” but with the treat in her mouth, it came out more like “Gamh mbow.” 
The pair raced up the great staircase to the fiftieth floor and into the meeting hall, where they instantly drew the attention of the people situated around the table. 

The first to speak was the white-robed Ayuha Furia. 
“Lady Asuna, you must stay at rest; I insist!” 
“I’m fine now, Ayuha. I got a good nap, and I’m feeling much better,” she replied at once, pushing the leader of the sacred artificers brigade back into her seat. 
Next it was Fanatio, dressed in uncharacteristically lightweight armor, who turned on Kirito. “Swordsman Delegate, I’m afraid we haven’t heard any good news yet. The search in South Centoria started in District Ten, and they’ve reached the mansions in District Three without any results. It’s been a swing and a miss so far.” 
The phrase swing and a miss had to have come from baseball, which briefly distracted Asuna as she wondered how such a phrase could exist in a world where that sport didn’t, but this was the least important thing at the moment. 
“About that, Fanatio,” she said, too hasty to even bother sitting in her usual seat, “we think there’s a possibility that the carriage holding the mountain goblins passed through the Everlasting Walls and left South Centoria.” 
The spacious meeting room went silent. Seated at the round table were Ayuha, Fanatio, and the knights Renly, Nergius, and Entokia. Deusolbert was located at the temporary search headquarters set up in District Five of South Centoria, and the head of intelligence, Xiao Choucas, was off with her subordinates engaging in their own investigation. 
The first to speak was Entokia, who was quite loquacious for a senior knight. 
“Hmm, wouldn’t that be pretty unlikely to pull off? To pass through one of the Season Gates, you’d need a pass from the Axiom Church, and the pontifex made those with sacred arts.” 
“Oh…really? Then if the ones that exist now ran out, it’s impossible to make more?” Kirito asked. 
The knight’s head bobbed, close-cropped blue hair staying crisp and firm. “I believe so. I heard they were fashioned in such a way that even the greatest artician could not replicate the detail…” 
“That is correct. They are constructed such that the golden symbol of the Axiom Church glows on the copper pass when subjected to the light, but even Sir Bercouli and I were never told how it was made,” added Fanatio. That settled the question of whether it could be faked. 
Kirito rested his wrists on the table and folded his fingers. “We can consider the shortage of passes at a later time; for now, it’s very good to know they can’t be faked. The problem is that even without a permanent pass, there’s still a way through the gates.” 
“The one-day certificate, you mean,” said Ayuha. Kirito and Asuna nodded. The knights all had brief looks of shock, and Nergius finally opened his mouth to speak. 
“Meaning that the rebels have not just forged an order of transfer from the city government but a travel certificate for passing through the gates. How many violations of the Taboo Index do they intend to make…?” 
“Cool your head, little Negi. The rebels have already killed a man, so it’s clear they have no fear of the Taboo Index,” said Fanatio. Nergius sucked in a breath, probably to protest her nickname for him, but it only emerged as a resigned sigh. 
Instead, Renly patiently lifted his hand before speaking. “But, Kirito, if the kidnappers have passed through any of the Season Gates…we haven’t been checking the contents of any carriages outside of South Centoria. Is it possible they’ve left the capital entirely…?” 
“That’s right,” Kirito said to the boy knight. “I think we need to expand the search for the goblins to East, West, and North Centoria, and also into the formerly private lands outside the city. But it’s getting dark already for today…” 
“We can prepare to search the private lands starting at dawn. We’ll get right to searching in the city. I will take the lead on that,” said Fanatio, standing up. Kirito bowed to her. 
“Thank you, Fanatio. I appreciate your help.” 
“It’s nothing, really. I just want you to stay here and behave, young man,” she said, verbally skewering the anxious swordsman as she strode to a wooden cradle set up nearby. She gave the sleeping Berche’s head a loving caress, spoke a few words to the servant waiting nearby, then hurried out of the hall. 
Usually during the meetings, it was Tiese or Ronie who looked after the infant. But they weren’t at the cathedral this time, Asuna remembered. 
Just then, Kirito spoke up. “Um…I’m not going to join in the search, but I would like to go outside for a bit.” 
He spoke as though seeking permission, but only Fanatio and Deusolbert could tell the delegate no, and they were not present. The three knights and one artician exchanged looks. 
Nergius spoke for the rest by asking “Where do you plan to go?” 
“The truth is, the apprentices Ronie and Tiese went out to the lake on the northern emperor’s private estate. They were having their dragons catch fish, or something…” 
“Ah, fixing a bad eating habit?” Nergius realized. 
Entokia promptly added, “That’s right, I remember that Negio’s dragon Shionade stopped eating anything relating to melon one day as a little pup. That was a lot of trouble to fix, wasn’t it? We had to go deep into the southern jungle to find the legendary melon, the sweetest in the world…” 
“Not that I asked you to accompany me,” Nergius said, deadpan. He turned to Kirito. “The lake in the northern estate is Lake Norkia, correct? It’s surrounded by open grassland, as I recall…Not the kind of place where a rebel could hide.” 
“Well, that’s true. But knowing them, if they, let’s say, saw a suspicious carriage ride by, they’d probably decide to investigate it by themselves…” 
Asuna couldn’t help but agree. Ronie and Tiese were good girls, but after Kirito’s tutoring at the school, they’d picked up a little bit of a reckless streak. And now they were apprentices working hard to be recognized as full-fledged knights, so it was easy to imagine their hard effort spilling over into risky behavior. 
“It’s ten kilors to Lake Norkia, so I’ll just zip over there to get them and come back. It’ll only take an hour…Forty-five minutes, even,” Kirito reassured them, getting to his feet. He headed for the elevating chamber to the north, rather than the staircase to the south. That was presumably so he could fly from the higher floors of the cathedral. 
Asuna quickly stood up and added, “I’ll go, too!” 
Kirito turned back to face her, then glanced at Ayuha. The woman in the white robe was clearly concerned with this idea, but she gave in, realizing she couldn’t stop them. Still, she didn’t forget to say “Return promptly,” so Asuna gave her a polite little bow and trotted to catch up with Kirito. 
“Um, if there’s any sudden activity in the city, I will go to inform you!” shouted Renly. Kirito called back “Please do!” and opened the door to the elevating disc shaft. The two leaped through it and quickly shut it behind them, then exhaled. 
“You look like you’re thinking ‘We escaped!’” Asuna jibed, side-eyeing her partner. 
Kirito shook his head rapidly. “No, I’m not thinking that at all. I’m just worried about Ronie and Tiese…” 
“Ha-ha-ha, I know. I’ll move the disc.” 
They stood on the silver disc resting on the floor, and she put her hands around the glass tube standing in the middle of it. 
Previously, Airy the operator had manipulated this elevator with sacred arts, but the process was now automated. The large canister embedded in the floor of the elevator shaft was loaded with a great number of wind elements, and by pressing a floor-number button on the wall, it would expel the necessary number of wind elements to push the disc to that height, then burst them as needed to provide the upward pressure. It still had the glass tube for wind-element generation on the disc, however, so that the rider could use it manually in case of emergency. In other words, instead of the gentle speed of the automated function, you could choose to operate it manually. 
Kirito started to say “Just practice safe driving, plea—,” but she generated ten wind elements inside the tube without listening to the end of that statement. When Airy had given her a lesson on how to work the platform, she’d said “Release three when you start your ascent, then one each time you start to lose speed,” but that was the gentle mode when carrying passengers; she’d told Asuna in secret that you could make it go faster. 
“Burst!” she commanded, unleashing six of the elements. Green light flashed inside the tube, which emitted a blast of air from its bottom, rocketing the disc they stood upon high into the shaft. 
“Wh-whoa…!” Kirito shouted, grabbing Asuna’s shoulders. He always seemed perfectly calm when flying by dragoncraft or Incarnation, but this shaft was frightening to him for some reason. Asuna had heard that it was because he’d nearly fallen from the top of the cathedral before she’d arrived in the world, but he didn’t like to talk about the details. 
But the fact of the matter was that Alice the Integrity Knight had told Asuna what had happened, while the Otherworld War raged around them. Before he had the ability of flight, he’d dangled from the exterior of the eightieth floor with nothing but a sword to support him. That was surely a terrifying experience, she believed. But seeing Kirito, who was now mentally older than her, whimpering like a child inside this elevator shaft made her want to shoot them up even faster. 
As their six-element ascent started to decelerate, she let off the remaining four. The disc shot upward again, and Kirito clung to her back with a shriek. That was enough teasing for her to be satisfied, and they had just reached the ninetieth floor, so she stepped on the pedal that locked the disc’s position to the wall. 
The shaft once connected the fiftieth floor through the eightieth, but in the process of automating it, they added a new shaft from floor one to fifty and extended the existing shaft up to the ninetieth floor. That was, of course, because the Great Bath on that floor was now open to all, but there was no exit to the outside there, so they had to take more stairs up to the ninety-fifth, the Morning Star Lookout. 
This was where they’d eaten lunch with Ronie and Tiese and Hana the cook yesterday, but when sunset was approaching, the aerial garden took on a much different atmosphere. The sunlight seared directly through the openings on the side as it descended, making it feel much like a miniature version of the sunset on the floating fortress Aincrad. 
Asuna loved to watch the sunset here, but now was not the time. Kirito rushed ahead to the opening on the north end and reached out his arm to her. She sidled up to him so he could cradle her body. 
“Listen…I know we’re in a hurry, but…fly safely, okay?” she said. 
He gave her a silent grin, then transformed the hem of his black leather jacket into dragon wings. Asuna clung to him as the wings spread wide. 
She was relieved that he was going to use the quiet Incarnation flight over the speedy but loud method of wind-element flight…but that relief lasted only a moment. Kirito bounded off the platform, and the black wings beat powerfully against the air to stabilize them briefly… 
And then they shot across the sky with an acceleration many times that of the elevating disc when she used six elements at once. A wall of air smacked their faces as the tallest spire of North Centoria’s palace zoomed closer. She knew that the cathedral was much taller, but she couldn’t help shutting her eyes when they passed over the spire. 
If he can go this fast with just Incarnation, what would it be like if he used all of his power to fly with wind elements? she wondered. Then she recalled that she’d felt that once before. 
It was at the end of the Otherworld War, a year and three months ago. 
When Kirito woke from his comatose state, he had used maximum-speed wind-element flight to chase after Emperor Vecta, who had abducted Alice. At the time, Asuna knew nothing about the geography of the Underworld, so it was only afterward that she understood how far he’d flown them. In fact, he’d flown a distance of more than six hundred miles in just five minutes, carrying Asuna in one arm. That would be nearly 7,500 per hour, ten times the speed of sound. 
Kirito’s mastery of Incarnation was strong enough to lift a metal dragoncraft now, but that feat back then was truly a divine miracle. First the flight, then returning Alice’s dragon and its brother to egg form to save them from mortal injury, and lastly fighting against the super-account of Emperor Vecta—including a Perfect Weapon Control art that turned the entire sky of the Underworld from day into night. 

 

The question was, did Kirito exhibit special powers at that singular moment, or was he simply holding back his strength now? If the latter, then there was no reason for Kirito to conceal his powers of Incarnation when Ronie and Tiese were in danger, Asuna thought. 
She was clinging harder to his shoulders when, as though waiting for that signal, brilliant-green light burst into her vision, and a sequence of explosions sounded just behind her. They accelerated as violently as though struck by some giant’s hammer, and Asuna screamed.