Sword Art Online - Volume 22 - Chapter 3.2

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“……Ho-hai-hee,” I murmured interestedly in the middle of chomping on thick, chewy udon noodles. 

Across the dining table, Suguha glanced at me. 

“It’s rude to talk with your mouth full, Big Brother.” 

True, eating with my chopsticks in one hand and a tablet in the other was not exactly the proper etiquette for mealtime. Nevertheless, I swallowed the mouthful I was chewing and stated with great authority, “Obviously, it’s okay to eat udon while multitasking.” 

“…Then what about curry udon?” 

“Nope.” 

“…And kitsune udon with fried tofu?” 

“Okay.” 

“…What about nabeyaki udon served in a hot pot?” 

“Nope.” 

“I have no idea where your standards lie.” Suguha sighed. She took a bite from her chilled udon soup (topped with seasoned egg, steamed chicken, boiled shrimp, okra, mekabu seaweed, perilla leaf, and chopped nori) and slurped the noodles. 

We’d logged out of ALO about fifteen minutes earlier. Our mother wasn’t home yet, for the usual reasons, so we were having a late dinner. It felt like we were getting too accustomed to this kind of meal, because it was quick to make and clean up afterward. 

I was making a mental note to have a proper three-item meal tomorrow when her voice drifted over the table again. 

“So what do you see, then?” 

It took me a second to recognize that she was referring to my “Ho-hai-hee” statement. 

“…I’m amazed you could detect that I was saying ‘Oh, I see’…Er, sorry. I meant, I was talking about the Aesir.” 

“Oh, so you were looking that up already.” 

“I only just read a brief synopsis of the concept,” I said, handing Suguha the tablet, which was displaying the contents of an online encyclopedia. While she glanced at it, I debated whether to split open my egg to let the yolk mix with the udon, or to just pop it into my mouth. Suguha snorted boldly. 

“…What?” 

“Come on, Big Brother. You can’t look at this and think you’ve understood anything. This is the most surface-level explanation.” 

“Oh…it is?” 

“Yes. If you really want to know more, you have to start with Odin’s father, the giant Borr, and his father, the original god, Búri…See, in Norse mythology, the history of the world starts with a huge tear in the fabric of existence called Ginnungagap—” 

“S-stop, hold on,” I interrupted. “We can go over the origin of the world some other time. Eat up quick before your noodles get cold.” 

Suguha looked perturbed but obliged, placing the tablet down and picking up her chopsticks again. She used them to cut the boiled egg in half, sending the yolk into the noodle broth. Its creamy yellow shine was so enticing that I did the same and slurped some up with the noodles. 

I felt bad about interrupting her chance to lecture, but I didn’t need any knowledge that detailed at the moment. The only thing I was curious about was the possibility of a continuation of the Pillager of the Deep quest, not a hypothetical land of the Aesir that might exist in ALO. 

Following Kraken’s deceitful instructions, we pulled the Holy Child’s Egg out of the underwater temple; Leviathan took it from us and said he would transfer it to a “new chamber.” But I doubted that was the happy conclusion to that story line. I had no idea what the child was—and since it was hatching from an egg, it couldn’t be human—plus Kraken didn’t seem to have given up yet. And on top of that, I wanted another shot at fighting that giant octopus. 

Maybe there was a bit of personal sentiment mixed in there. But to me, this was clearly meant to be the intro to an entire questline rather than a single quest. 

In an ordinary questline, finishing one quest would automatically begin the next, along with a quest marker pointing the way forward. But on rare occasions, it was left to the player to follow the information provided by the first quest and go to some place or perform some action to reveal the next step. 

If this questline was one of the latter type, there should be some hint as to what to do within the conversation between Kraken and Leviathan…but… 

“…Brother. Big Brother!” 

I suddenly realized that Suguha had been calling my name, and I came to my senses with a start. 

“Uh, wh-what?” 

“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that tomorrow morning is the start of our big dojo cleaning. We need to get to bed early tonight so we’re up bright and early.” 

I had, of course, completely forgotten. But I didn’t let that show. 

“Got it, got it. I’ll be asleep by one…or two at the latest.” 

She gave me a piercing, skeptical look, but I evaded it by taking my empty dish to the kitchen. 

I lay down on my bed and glanced up my headboard to view my alarm clock upside down. 

It was eleven thirty. Back in the Aincrad days, this was right in the middle of the nighttime active hour, when I would take my sword to lucrative grinding areas in search of good loot. 

Of course, leveling-up your character (not that ALO actually had levels, technically speaking) was essential. Especially for me, because I had started over fresh after SAO; there was a period where I was engaging in some hard grinding in the hopes of catching up with Asuna and the others. 

But of course, I would never again have the most powerful motivation of all—the prickling sense of danger, of needing to level-up to increase my chances of survival. And this, obviously, was a good thing. I did not desire to go back to that deadly world. 

Still, perhaps there was a part of me that still wanted something. Something like a game, but not…Something that would bring a breathtaking reality to the little garden of the virtual world. 

The moment that Kraken’s single attack put us on the brink of death, only to give way to Leviathan’s trident, felt like that something to me. Despite being a story event in accordance with the quest, it also seemed like it might be a completely spontaneous happening, something no human hand had written… 

“…I mean, I just think that would be cool; that’s all,” I murmured to hide my embarrassment as I turned out the lights, preparing for an early bedtime before our big cleaning day. 

Then, ten seconds later, I reached up and felt around until my hand found the AmuSphere. I placed it on my head and quietly gave the vocal command. 

“Link Start.”