Sword Art Online - Volume 25 - Chapter 9

9

“Good morning, Kirigaya,” said Dr. Rinko Koujiro at the security gate on the fifth floor of the building. She seemed sleepy.

“Good morning. I’m sorry to force you into the office so early in the morning,” I apologized.

“It’s all right. I live very close by.”

“Really? Where do you live, Rinko?” I asked. Roppongi was presumably a very expensive place to live, I figured.

But Dr. Koujiro just pointed at the ceiling farther down the hall. “Two floors up.”

“Ah, I see…Practically living at the office, then.”

“There are two more empty apartments, so if you get hired by Rath in the future, you could live here, too.”

“Ah…wait, what?!”

I panicked, because I was sure I hadn’t told her that I was hoping to work for Rath in the future after school. But the professor just gave me a mysterious smile and headed down the hallway without another word.

The familiar Soul Translator room was empty.

This round of Underworld investigation would include Asuna and Alice, but my scheduled arrival was two hours earlier than theirs. That was because we had logged out in very different places at the end of the previous session, which meant I needed to travel inside the simulation to the coordinates where they would log in. Barring any trouble, the travel itself wouldn’t take more than half an hour, but after the series of unexpected situations last time, I couldn’t take anything for granted. I would need to walk as quietly and surreptitiously as possible down the streets back to the Arabel mansion.

With this mission at the forefront of my mind, I took off my jacket and went to lie down on one of the two STLs. Dr. Koujiro input some commands on the tablet controller so the gel bed automatically adjusted its density to fit my body better.

“As I’ve said many times before,” she started to say, but I cut her off.

“Safety is the top priority, I know. If anything happens, I’ll log out right away.”

I lifted my left hand and folded in my fingers in a staggered order: pinkie, middle, thumb, ring, index. It was an awkward demonstration, which earned me a smirk from the professor.

“I’m serious, though,” she said. “If anything happens to you again, I won’t have any excuse to give your parents this time.”

“I’ll keep it at the forefront of my mind at every moment. And my parents aside, I’m sure that Asuna’s dad would sue you for any trouble…”

“If the former CEO of RCT took us to court, I’m sure that even Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka would have trouble wriggling out of that one.”

“…Speaking of which, what’s his public position now? I met him enjoying some fine cakes in Ginza, but I thought that, on paper, Ground Self-Defense Force’s Lieutenant Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka died on the Ocean Turtle,” I pointed out.

For some reason, Dr. Koujiro made an annoyed face and shrugged. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that. He said he would show up around this evening, so if you see him, you can ask him for yourself. Are you all set?”

I pushed the mental image of Kikuoka’s smirk out of my head and nodded. “Yes, good to go.”

“Then let’s get started. Just remember, once you’ve finished traveling to your end point, log out immediately. Got that?”

“Understood.”

She made a face that said she didn’t believe me, but she tapped on the tablet screen anyway. The STL’s overhead block slid down and covered my head.

A mysterious sound like the lapping of waves filled my consciousness, separating my fluctlight from waking reality and transporting me to a far-off land.

As the tunnel of blinding light whisked me through, I tried to recall the situation when I had last logged out. I couldn’t have forgotten it…I was sitting in the back seat of the black luxury vehicle with the circled-cross logo and about to shake hands with a mystery man who called himself the Integrity Pilot commander, when a disconnect command from the real world forcibly extracted me from the simulation.

……Wait a second.

I hadn’t considered this before. Could that mean I would reappear…?

“Aaaah?!” I shrieked the moment my eyelids opened.

That was because a huge truck was racing right for me. I nearly created an Incarnate wall in front of me, only stopping myself just in time. Doing so would have crushed the truck and caused a reading on those Incarnameters, sending those friendly police officers—er, the North Centoria Imperial Guard—to pay me a visit.

Instead, I was going to leap to the right out of the way, but it wasn’t actually necessary.

With the blast of a whistle, the truck slowed down. I could see a man in a light-gray cloak standing in front of the truck, holding a glowing red baton sideways in a command to stop.

The truck came to a halt, put its right-turn indicator on, then eventually moved lanes and ran just to the left of me. Breathing a sigh of relief, I felt I finally had the leeway to examine where I was in wider detail.

I was standing in the center lane of a three-lane road. The sky was clear, but the angle of the sunlight was shallow. The Underworld time of day was synchronized with the real clock, so it was also just after seven in the morning here. Many automobiles—wait, was it mechamobiles?—drove through the lanes on either side. Any car in the middle lane was stopped by the man in the gray cloak and forced to change lanes.

I had logged out of the last session in the middle of a car ride. So naturally, the next time I went back in, I appeared at the same coordinates—I just didn’t consider that other cars might be traveling in that same space. But it seemed that someone in this world had anticipated that possibility and placed a traffic management specialist here for me.

In fact, the spot where I was standing was surrounded by yellow-painted poles and chains. I logged out on this spot around 5:10 PM on September 30th, so that meant they had placed this traffic impediment here for over sixty hours in the middle of a major traffic artery, just for the sake of a man whose return time was a total unknown.

I walked over to the man in the gray coat, whose back was to me, and spoke up to express my appreciation for his efforts.

“Um, thank you…”

He bolted around with alarm and stared at me for several seconds, as if looking at a ghost. At last, he stammered, “Y…y-y-you…you’re real…”

“Um, y-yes?”

“S-sorry, nothing. I’m from the North Centoria Traffic Bureau. You must be Kirito, right?” said the man, who was in his thirties and looked quite earnest.

“That’s right,” I said.

“Then please get in that mechamobile over there,” he said, pointing off to the left. Between the first lane and the spacious sidewalk, there was a parking lane of the sort seen in Europe and North America, where a beautiful deep-blue midsize sedan was waiting. I didn’t see any writing on the side, but the silver circled-cross insignia shone on the front door.

“B-but I need to go somewhere…”

“A car from the city guard will come shortly, and that will only make matters more complicated. Move quickly!”

His tone was so urgent that I couldn’t argue any further. This man had been braving the chill of midwinter—taken in shifts, I assumed—to manage traffic on my account, after all.

“…All right, I will. Um, thank you so much,” I said, bowing deeply. The man’s eyes widened, and he gave me a crisp salute. Next, he used his traffic baton to stop the number one lane, and I stepped over the chains and ran for the blue car on the side of the road. The left rear door opened as I rushed around the back, and a quiet voice said, “Please, get in.”

At this point, I couldn’t argue much. Asuna and Alice were scheduled to dive in at nine o’clock, so I just had to make sure I was at the Arabel mansion by then.

Discarding my hesitation, I slid into the rear seat of the car, and the door shut automatically behind me. Only the driver was inside, so it must have been operable from the front seat, like a real-world taxi.

The moment I was in my seat, the mechamobile put its right blinker on and smoothly rolled into motion. The fact that it would react to the heat element just from stepping on the accelerator, without needing to run an engine, made it more like an electric vehicle. I had assumed that the level of scientific tech in the Underworld was around the post-WWII era of the real world. But aside from the lack of computers, everything else seemed to be slightly more advanced than that, actually.

Exhaling, I took a look at the driver, who had been totally silent since that first request. The driver wore a dark-blue uniform nearly the same color as the car, which matched the uniform worn by Stica Schtrinen and Laurannei Arabel when they rescued me from the interrogation room at the city guard’s office. But this driver was neither of them. Based on his voice, I suspected he was a young man.

It was at this moment that the driver spoke up again. “Pardon me. I’m Operator Second Class Lagi Quint of the Underworld Space Force, Integrity Pilothood. I was ordered to escort you to the space force base.”

“H-hi, I’m Kirito.”

I felt disappointed that I had no official title to attach to my name, but “Second Year Student, Returnee School” didn’t sound very impressive, and I would die of embarrassment if I introduced myself as the Black Swordsman. To be strictly accurate, Alice arrested me when I was the sixth-rank elite disciple at North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy, so I hadn’t graduated yet, but it was two hundred years ago, so all the records would have been purged by now.

It wasn’t clear where in the Pilothood’s hierarchy “operator second class” rested, but based on the firm look in Lagi’s eyes, he didn’t seem to be the type open to small talk. I looked out the window instead at the scenery running past, including mechamobiles large and small.

After ten seconds, I finally noticed something. “Wait…You said we were going to the base? Isn’t your base outside of Centoria…?” I asked, leaning forward.

“That’s right,” said Lagi, keeping his eyes on the road. “There’s a bit of traffic, so it will take about thirty minutes to get there.”

“Um…I need to be at the Arabel mansion by nine o’clock…”

The analog clock embedded in the mechamobile’s dashboard said it was 7:28. If we got to the base by eight, I doubted they would let me go in another thirty minutes, after the trouble they’d gone through to control traffic for me, and there was no guarantee they’d give me a ride to the Arabel house.

But Operator Second Class Lagi simply said, “I’m aware of that. Your companions will be greeted by someone else.”

“Oh…uh, th-thanks…”

I bowed again, but even still, I needed to tell Asuna and Alice about this before they dived in, which required logging out. How did the Integrity Pilots process the way that I just appeared and disappeared without a trace?

In any case, if truly necessary, I could escape from any place. And though I didn’t want to do it, I could break through walls with Incarnation or cut through them with a sword…

That was when I belatedly realized I was unarmed.

Of course. Before I got arrested by the guards in our previous dive, I’d handed the Night-Sky Blade and Blue Rose Sword to Asuna and Alice. They would be able to return the swords when we met up again, but I would have no weapons until then. If only we had an inventory system in this world, I’d be able to pull out a sword or two or three or four, but sadly, it was not that convenient here.

If they can give us a status window, they could at least give us a usable inventory, I grumbled to Chief Researcher Takeru Higa in the real world, before leaning back against the seat again.

The mechamobile headed north up the core road that split the center of North Centoria, passing the city center (which seemed bigger than I remembered) before proceeding through a grand gate out of the city.

With one less lane now, the road continued north. Spacious farm fields and pastures stretched out on either side, bounded by mammoth white walls that glowed with the morning sun. Those were the Everlasting Walls that split the human realm into four pieces, national borders that Administrator had erected centuries ago, still present so many years later.

Amid the farms on the left side was an occasional glimpse of blue running through it: the surface of the Rul River. And straight ahead, far over the horizon, loomed the curve of the End Mountains that surrounded the realm.

At their foot, I would probably still find the village of Rulid today. But none of the people I knew were there anymore. Sister Azalia, Old Man Garitta, Elder Gasfut…and of course, Eugeo.

I clasped my hands, struck by another wave of longing and homesickness.

But I had to accept it already. Not a single one of the people I loved was still alive in this world. If I got teary-eyed every time I thought about Ronie, Tiese, and Sortiliena, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my mission.

And technically speaking, there was still one person I might possibly meet again: Alice’s sister, Selka Zuberg. She’d been placed in a deep freeze, to await her sister’s return on the eightieth floor of Central Cathedral.

Seijirou Kikuoka’s mission for me was to learn the identity and intentions of the person who’d broken into the Underworld. But before that, I wanted to bring Alice and Selka together. That possibility was the one thing that was keeping Alice going in her time in the real world.

Meanwhile, the mechamobile’s left-turn indicator was on. It turned off the main road onto a gentle ramp until it faced a massive structure in the distance.

It was a trapezoid pyramid shape, supported by a complex truss system. It wasn’t all that tall, I thought at first, but that was only in comparison to Central Cathedral. The pyramid had to be at least three hundred feet tall on its own.

The dull silver exterior was 80 percent metal and 20 percent glass. Even in the real world, it would look like near-future architecture.

“So that’s the space force base…?” I murmured.

“That’s correct,” replied Lagi, his voice swelling with undisguised pride.

“And who, uh, designed it?”

“It is said that His Majesty the Star King did it himself.”

There you are again, Star King!

My lips twisted into a wry grimace as I replied, “Ah, I see.” Lagi glanced at me through his rear view mirror but said nothing else.

If the trapezoidal pyramid-shaped command center of the Centoria base of the Underworld Space Force was huge, it was only keeping up with the size of the grounds.

After passing through some kind of security checkpoint at an imposing front gate, the silver building was beyond a parking garage so huge that it could probably store all the mechamobiles in Centoria. I assumed we were heading for the building, of course, but the mechamobile turned left in front of the garage and moved to the south side of the base.

Eventually, I saw a large water surface ahead on the left. I called up a mental map of the area outside of North Centoria and deduced that this was probably Lake Norkia.

Thick forest ran along the western side of the lake. The car took a right turn, then a left, passed through another gate, and headed into the forest. We spent several minutes on the road, dark under the heavy tree canopy despite the morning sun, until finally reaching an ancient-looking iron gate. I didn’t see any guards, but somehow, the two sides of the gate opened automatically as the mechamobile approached. A little while later down the road, the trees suddenly opened up.

In the center of the circular clearing, which measured a good hundred yards across, there sat a very old-looking mansion. The composition of the scene reminded me of our log cabin in the Great Zelletelio Forest, but this building looked completely different. The walls were gray stone, and the roof was blackish stone slate. It was three stories but with very few windows, giving it a fortress-like appearance.

But despite being winter, the flower planters in the front garden were blooming wildly, which did counteract some of the coldness of the building. If not for those flowers, I might assume they were bringing me here to kidnap or eliminate me.

The mechamobile trundled over the worn cobblestones and came to a stop at last before the mansion. It was exactly eight o’clock, just as he’d told me.

The left door opened on its own, and Lagi said, “Thank you for your patience, Kirito. We’re here.”

“Thank you for the drive. And for waiting on the street all those days,” I said, a bit of extra encouragement, before stepping out of the car.

The mingling scents of the forest and flowers were refreshing, and I filled my lungs. The sound of the front door of the mansion opening drew my attention.

What I saw there caused me to hold back the breath I was about to expel.

Crossing the entrance porch and descending the short set of steps was a thin man in a perfectly pressed uniform the same color as Lagi’s, wearing a cylindrical hat pulled low over a white leather mask.

It was Eolyne Herlentz, commander of the Integrity Pilots.

I was so stunned that I merely stood rooted to the spot as he approached, boots clicking. When Eolyne reached me, he lifted the brim of his hat ever so slightly and said, “Forgive me for not removing my hat, Kirito. It’s a rather bright and sunny day for this season.”

Midwinter seemed like an odd time to complain about the sun being too strong, I thought, but then I recalled what this man had said to me in the car three days ago. Eolyne claimed that he hid the top half of his face behind the mask because the skin around his eyes was weak to the light of Solus.

“Oh…it’s cool. I don’t mind,” I said, letting out the breath I’d been holding at last. Eolyne smiled faintly. It seemed more cynical than warm, and I suddenly realized that while I’d maintained a formal politeness with Operator Second Class Lagi Quint, I was speaking to the Integrity Pilot commander as if we were equals. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind.

I could see Eolyne blink behind the thin glass lens in the aperture of his mask. He extended his right hand. “I’m delighted to see you like this. Hello again, Kirito.”

I’d been about to shake his hand when I got logged out last time. I hesitated, imagining that it might happen again, but it wasn’t so late that Dr. Koujiro was going to pull me out yet.

“…Nice to meet you,” I said, summoning my determination and clasping Eolyne’s thin, long fingers in my own.

No, sparks did not fly in my brain, nor did I suddenly receive a flood of new information.

His skin was just a little bit cold. His grip was strong, contrary to his delicate appearance. That was the extent of what I felt from the contact.

After just a second, he let go, his facial expression unchanging. He glanced over my shoulder and said, “Thank you for driving, Lagi. You may return to the base now; I’ll contact Captain Feagle.”

I turned to see Lagi, who was standing by the mechamobile, giving Eolyne a swift salute before he rotated to my direction and faced forward again. “Understood, Commander. Operator Second Class Quint, returning to Cattleya Company.”

He lowered his hand and got back into the vehicle, then smoothly turned it around and traveled back the way we’d come. As I watched the taillights recede, I thought, Now how am I going to get back to Centoria? I’d just have to trust Lagi that Asuna and Alice would be given a ride of their own.

“Come this way,” Eolyne said, beckoning me up the steps leading to the mansion’s door.

He brought me to what appeared to be a tearoom on the east end of the second floor. The hallway was dark enough that lights were needed even during the day, but in here, the morning sun got through the lattice windows on the south and east wall well enough. For a “tearoom,” it was still larger than the combined living and dining room at the Kirigaya household, with furniture as deluxe as anything at Central Cathedral. But everything, including the building itself, was so old-fashioned and worn that you could call them antiques. It stood out even more, being attached to the futuristic space force base.

Despite the many questions I was burning to ask, Commander Eolyne sat me down on the sofa by the window, then disappeared into the adjacent room. Eventually, a fragrant smell came drifting over, which did quite a number on my still-empty stomach.

But whether I ate in the real world or not, it would have no effect on my sense of hunger in the Underworld. That meant that before my fluctlight had descended into this body, it had already been several hours since its last meal. I hadn’t eaten anything with young Phercy at the Arabel mansion, and the city guards who took me in for questioning didn’t even offer a steaming bowl of pork cutlet and rice to tempt me into talking. On my first dive into space following the maximum acceleration phase, Stica and Laurannei escorted us to the Arabel house, where they served some light sandwiches…Was that the last meal I’d had here?

This cascading realization upgraded my hunger into starvation, and I started to wonder if I would get in trouble for using Incarnation to transform one of the knickknacks on the table into a donut when Eolyne returned at last.

He had removed his coat and hat. My eyes were drawn to the flaxen hair that hung over his mask, so it wasn’t until a few moments later that I noticed he was carrying a large tray containing cups, a pot, a water jug, and other odds and ends. I was so startled by the commander himself preparing the tea that I rose from the couch in a half stance, where he stopped me.

“You may remain seated.”

I did as he said. Eolyne crossed the carpeted floor with practiced ease until he reached the sofas and set down the tray on the low table. He removed a cup and saucer and set them down in front of me, then poured the liquid from the pot. The scent was similar to coffee but not quite the same: the familiar delight of cofil tea.

Eolyne filled his own cup next, then put the pot back on the tray and set out a plate that was probably the source of the smell that had been amplifying my hunger for the past few minutes. It held a pair of round golden pastries, about four inches in diameter. Could they be?

“Are those honey pies from the Jumping Deer?” I asked.

Eolyne paused in what he was doing, then replied, “Yes. I’m surprised you’re familiar with it.”

“I ate them many times, long ago. The name popped up in the car the other day, too.”

“Unfortunately, I bought these last week and kept them frozen until today.”

“Frozen? But they’re so hot…,” I murmured with surprise. On the one-seat sofa to the right of the table, Eolyne’s masked face curled into a smirk.

“You have ovens in the real world, don’t you?”

“Um, yes. Good point…”

“It’s not as good as buying them fresh from the bakery, of course, but I’ve put lots of research into how to reheat them. Go on, eat up.”

He motioned to me, and I didn’t need any further encouragement. I thanked him, then first took a sip from the steaming cup. I was so distracted by the thought of the pies that I didn’t think to let my cofil tea cool first, and I gulped the boiling-hot liquid down.

“Aaaah!” I yelped, earning me a very slightly annoyed look from Eolyne, then a glass full of ice water from the pitcher. I quickly cooled my throat with a nice long drink, then thanked him and reached for a honey pie this time. He had placed little forks next to the plate, but poking at the pies was against the point. I grabbed one, opened wide, and took a big bite.

The crispy texture of the pie crust, the rich sweetness of the honey baked into the filling, the refreshing scent of siral…Nothing about the pie had changed in two hundred years. I felt as though the crust texture was slightly lighter when I bought and ate them at the Jumping Deer’s storefront, but it was a minor difference.

I had eaten half the piece in a trance before I finally sighed and murmured, “It’s good.”

Instantly, I felt several emotions I’d been holding back bubble up all at once, and I shivered involuntarily.

The room had a traditional Norlangarth interior design. I was surrounded by the scent of cofil and flavor of honey pie. On top of that, Commander Eolyne’s gentle voice and the winter morning sun shining off his flaxen hair. All these things combined to pry with compelling force at the lid I kept over my memories.

I wanted to stand up, reach over to grab Eolyne’s shoulders, and shout, “Take off that mask and show me your face! What’s your connection to Eugeo anyway?”

But something the Integrity Pilot commander wore about him just barely kept me seated on the couch.

It was like a barrier: invisible, extremely thin, but unbelievably strong. There was an impenetrable wall around his heart that prevented me from getting any closer, something I’d never felt from Eugeo.

Wringing out all the Incarnation I had, I placed the half-eaten honey pie on the plate and took another sip of cofil tea. The mixture of bitterness and acidity was just the way I…no, Eugeo liked it.

“It’s good,” I repeated, drawing a chuckle from Eolyne, who had grabbed a pie from the plate just the way I did.

“Shouldn’t the legendary Star King have a better vocabulary than that?”

“…I keep telling you, I’m nothing as fancy as that.” I shrugged. “I’ve told Stica and Laurannei many times that I have no memory at all following the Otherworld War. I don’t even remember where I lived in that time.”

“In other words, you have no evidence to deny this claim?” Eolyne pointed out.

Oh yeah, I realized, then shook my head. “B-but the Star King ruled over two planets at once, right? That’s not my style at all. Plus, the names of the Star King and Queen were stricken from all the records, from what I hear. Why did Stica and Laurannei and you think I was the Star King? Um…sir,” I added hastily. “Also…”

Eolyne held up a hand to stop me in my tracks. “Not so fast. I can’t answer any of your questions if you keep asking them.”

“Oh…sorry.”

I finished the other half of my cup of cofil tea to calm myself down. Eolyne promptly poured me more, so this time I added a little bit of cream. The sight of the marbling effect as it swirled on the surface struck me as strange.

“…That’s not milk in this tiny pot, it’s cream. Did the Underworld have cream before…?”

“It is said that the King and Queen discovered the process to make it.”

“…Oh. Uh-huh.”

“And you can just call me Eolyne; you don’t have to say sir or commander. I’d prefer to just call you Kirito anyway.”

“Er, sorry, I just…”

I lost my composure a bit, thinking it was an indirect bit of sarcasm, but the commander’s mouth maintained the same subtle smile as before. While I considered what to say, Eolyne added some cream to his own cofil and gently stirred it in with a silver spoon.

“I almost never have the chance to have someone call me that anyway. I consider it a valuable experience.”

“W-well, if you insist, I can do that…By the way, is the Herlentz family a really famous name?”

The cup paused on its way to his lips. But it was not out of outrage or displeasure; he stared at me for a moment, then chuckled softly. “I see. If your memory only lasts until two hundred years ago, I guess it only makes sense that you wouldn’t know. Well…in a sense, it is famous. The Herlentz family was founded by the legendary hero and first Integrity Knight commander, who fought the dark god Vecta in the Otherworld War: Bercouli Herlentz.”

“…?!”

I was so shocked that I nearly spit out the cofil tea with cream onto Eolyne’s face. Thankfully, I swallowed it instead and exhaled with relief that I didn’t choke. Carefully returning the cup to its saucer, I made my surprise known in a different, safer way.

“Th-that was that old guy…er, Commander Bercouli’s last name?!”

Eolyne suddenly fell silent, still holding his cup. Then he shook his head and murmured, “So…you really have met Bercouli the Hero. I’m actually starting to feel like you indeed came here two centuries ago.”

I had to hold my tongue to keep from adding that it was only two months ago for me. I still wasn’t sure yet exactly how well Eolyne and the girls understood the connection between the Underworld and the real world.

Instead, after another bite of the honey pie, I said, “Well…I really only exchanged a few words with him, at best. My partner traded blows with him in a one-on-one duel, but I was somewhere else at the time.”

“Partner?” asked Eolyne curiously. I opened my mouth.

His name was Eugeo. He had the same voice, the same hair, and probably the same color eyes as you.

But with difficulty, I swallowed those words. If I mentioned Eugeo’s name, Eolyne might react in some way. And the thought of what might happen if he did nothing sapped the courage to attempt this test.

“…Yes. He did so much to help me…More of a best friend than a partner…,” I answered haltingly, before getting back to the matter at hand. “More importantly, the knight commander I knew was named Bercouli Synthesis One…And I’m pretty sure the Integrity Knights didn’t have families…”

“Hmm. How should I explain…?”

Eolyne sank into the luxurious sofa seat and crossed his leg over the other. He folded his hands over his knee and waved the polished toe of his boot back and forth.

“Before becoming an Integrity Knight, Bercouli was an adventurer who traveled from the capital to the northernmost reaches of Norlangarth. Did you know that?” he asked casually.

I was about to say that I did, but I stopped myself.

Until two centuries ago, everyone believed the story that the Integrity Knights were protectors of the Axiom Church, summoned from the heavens—even the knights themselves. Either the truth was widely known in this era or Eolyne knew this fact because it was part of his privilege as commander of the Pilothood. I wasn’t sure which, but I decided to match his story.

“Y-yeah…my partner told me about that. It’s treated like a children’s fairy tale, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. You can buy many children’s storybooks about Bercouli in bookshops across Centoria. Although most of the stories were created posthumously…At any rate, before he left Centoria, Bercouli belonged to the Herlentz family.”

“…I see. So that’s his story…”

The Integrity Knight named Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One had originally been Eldrie Woolsburg, I knew. So it would make sense that the other knights had their own family names—assuming they weren’t peasants from the rural countryside, where people didn’t always have them.

“But was there always a noble family in North Centoria called the Herlentzes…?”

Nearly all the children of noble families attended the Imperial Swordcraft Academy, so I heard many famous names while I was there, but Herlentz was completely unfamiliar to me.

Eolyne just shrugged. “It would make sense that you didn’t know about it. The Herlentz family had no heir around the year 100 HE, and the line died out. The name was revived with the child Bercouli had with the knight’s second commander, Fanatio Synthesis Two. Their child became the third commander of the knighthood and called himself Berche Herlentz Forty.”

“Gahk!” I coughed, nearly spitting up my cofil tea.

“Kirito, are you all right?” he asked, getting up. But I held out a hand to stop him as I collected my breath.

“F…Fanatio and Bercouli had a kid?! They were…like that?!”

“They were, but…how did you not know that?”

“I just…Well, the Fanatio I knew was the kind of career-driven woman who would kill any man who looked upon her bare face, so…,” I mumbled.

But then I remembered meeting Fanatio again at the Eastern Gate after the war—and how different she had seemed. She wasn’t covering her face with her helmet anymore, and she was a helpful and reliable elder-sister type who was very kind to Asuna and me.

If this was true, however, it would mean that she was already carrying Bercouli’s child at the time. The baby was born just a few months after peace was made with the Dark Territory. It was tearing me up inside that I didn’t have any memories of that point.

The truth was, in fact, that completing my current mission in the Underworld required memory of what happened after the Otherworld War. Was there any way to regain at least fifty years of memories, if not all two hundred? But then my mental age would be seventy. Would that completely change my personality…?

I shook my head to clear these thoughts and stared at Eolyne. Though half his face was hidden, everything else about him reminded me exactly of Eugeo, from his build to his little gestures. From the time I first encountered him in the last dive until today, I’d entertained the thought that maybe he was some descendant of Eugeo’s.

If his story was true, however, Eolyne was not a descendant of Eugeo, but of Bercouli.

“Hmmmm…,” I grumbled. I could sense that, behind his mask, the pilot commander’s brows were knit, so I hastened to explain, “It’s just—I don’t mean to be rude, but you know, you don’t look very much like Bercouli…”

A cynical smile curved at the edges of Eolyne’s mouth, the one way in which he did not resemble Eugeo.

“That would make sense. I was adopted into the Herlentz family.”

“A…adopted? Meaning…you have no blood relation to Bercouli…?”

“I very much doubt it. The present chairman of the Stellar Unification Council, Orvas Herlentz, still bears a passing resemblance to Bercouli’s portrait.”

“Orvas…”

I repeated this new name several times in my head. That was definitely a new one to me.

“So does that mean…this Orvas is your father?”

“That’s right. My adoptive father, strictly speaking.”

I could sense just a bit of stiffness in Eolyne’s speech, and I found myself staring straight into his eyes through the holes of the leather mask.

“…What is it?”

“Oh, er…I was just wondering if maybe you and your father weren’t on the best terms…”

The pilot commander’s mouth dropped open. Then he smirked deeper than any I’d seen thus far—or perhaps it was just an expression of embarrassment.

“Oh, goodness…No, we’re not on bad terms at all. I’m grateful to him for raising me, and I respect him as a soldier and a statesman. I believe he probably loves me just as much as if I were his true son,” he said quietly, looking out the window and then suddenly back to me. “Why am I talking about this with someone I’ve only just met?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just continue that thought.”

“You are…a very strange man. Very well, I’ll tell you. I’ve always had a good relationship with my father. But his three biological children…particularly my brother who is one year older than me is at a rather difficult age in his life.”

“A difficult age…? How old are you, Eolyne?”

“Twenty.”

Two years older, I thought, then realized my mistake. I was two years older in this world than in reality, which meant…

“You’re my age,” I murmured, staring at the spotless white mask. “Wait, so you’re running the Integrity Pilothood at age twenty? But the Integrity Pilots are in charge of both the terrestrial army and the space force, aren’t they? Um…I apologize if this comes off as rude, but aren’t you a little young to be leading the entire military like that?”

“Yes, much too young,” Eolyne replied without anger. He sighed deeply. “But the position of Integrity Pilothood commander is the only job in all public offices of the Underworld that is designated personally by the previous person to hold the title. The only qualification is that you are a member of the pilothood, with no restrictions on age or birth. Eight months ago, in April of Stellar Year 582, I was named the successor to this position by the previous commander. The person has the right to decline, and the Star King can veto, but the Star King has been gone for thirty years, and I didn’t have any choice but to say no…”

“…Why not?”

“I can go into that later…The point is: My father is very pleased that I am leading the Integrity Pilothood at my age, but my brother is not pleased at all. And it has caused considerable tension between my father and my brother.”

He spread his hands to demonstrate his lack of power to fix the situation. I glanced at the building looming beyond the trees and asked, “Is your brother also an Integrity Pilot?”

“No, he’s in the ground force. Their base is outside of South Centoria, so there are few opportunities for the two of us to meet in person.”

“I see…”

That meant this young man, at the age of twenty, was leading what I previously knew as the Integrity Knighthood—although considering the scope of the organization now, it was far larger than the knighthood from two centuries ago. I couldn’t imagine the weight of the responsibilities on his shoulders.

It was strange to think about a man in his position spending his morning in this lonely, outcast mansion, preparing cofil tea and heating up honey pies for a stranger, but I still had more questions to ask him. Since I understood the source of the Herlentz name now, I was more curious about how Eolyne had been brought into the family, but it was a delicate topic that was difficult to broach…

Sensing his chance while I was lost in thought, Eolyne said, “Well, you’ve heard plenty about me. Now it’s your turn to speak, Kirito.”

“Uh…w-well, as long as it’s something I can answer…,” I agreed, glancing around the tearoom. Fortunately, there was a large clock on the wall, but it was already 8:40. In the real world, Asuna and Alice would have arrived at the Roppongi office already and were preparing for their dive. I had to let them know I wouldn’t be able to get to the Arabel mansion, but that they would have a ride to come meet me.

“…Before that, do you mind if I log…er, bounce out…I mean, return to the real world? I’ll be back right away,” I said timidly, earning me a very displeased look from the commander.

“You’re not just saying that so you can disappear for three days again?”

“N-no, not at all. I’ll return in five…no, three minutes.”

“I suppose I cannot stop you; I have no means of keeping you here. Perhaps I will bake the second round of honey pies while I wait.”

“That’s a very strong incentive for me to come back,” I said, grinning at Eolyne. Suddenly, another sharp pain ran through my chest. I’d traded jabs with Eugeo just like this hundreds of times. Despite the incredible similarity of his voice and tone, everything else that I learned about his background just reinforced the conclusion that he was a total stranger with no relation to Eugeo—just another individual in this era of the Underworld.

“…Well, I’ll be right back,” I said, waving briefly to stifle the pang. I input the log-out command with my left hand.

Until the bright light enveloped me and hid everything from sight, Eolyne maintained his faint smile and never once broke eye contact.

From the closest train station to Asuna’s house, Miyanosaka Station on the Tokyu-Setagaya Line, to Rath’s office in Roppongi, the commute was troublesome, if not quite as chaotic as getting to the returnee school. The shortest route required getting off the Setagaya Line at Sangenjaya Station to transfer to the Tokyu–Den-en-toshi Line, then changing to the Oedo Line at Aoyama-Itchome Station, and finally getting off at Roppongi Station. And the Oedo Line’s Roppongi Station was the deepest subway station in Japan; it took over five minutes just to get up to the surface from there.

When her brother was a student and would complain, “If only there was a line that went straight from Shibuya to Roppongi or Azabu,” she would snap, “Maybe you should stop going out at night.” Little did she know that she, too, would make the very same wish, years later. As she stood in the largely empty Saturday-morning train, gently rocking as it traveled along the rails, she decided that the next time she went to Rath’s office, she would try taking a bus from Shibuya Station instead. This thought was running through her mind when she noticed that there was a Kamura commercial running on the train’s digital screen inside the car.

As the video cut between different images of smiling people of all ages wearing Augmas, she imagined for an instant that she had just seen Shikimi Kamura among them. But there was no way a member of the Kamura family would appear in their own commercial. She closed her eyelids and tried to banish the phantom smile from her mind but couldn’t stop her thoughts from traveling back to the recent past.

During lunch period yesterday, Asuna had waited for Shikimi in the hallway, intent on fulfilling her promise to eat lunch with the girl this time. But after five minutes of valuable lunch period time, there was no sign of her. Asuna tried going to Shikimi’s classroom, and they stated that she was absent today.

They hadn’t exchanged contact information, so she knew Shikimi hadn’t intentionally left her hanging, and of course the girl had every right to be absent due to physical distress or personal matters, just like anyone else. Still, Asuna couldn’t help but feel something was strange about her absence. If she had to describe it, it was like Shikimi Kamuro’s detailed, perfectionist life road map had been thrown astray by unforeseen factors.

But she was overthinking things. On Monday, Shikimi would come to see Asuna again, apologize for her absence, and invite her to lunch once more. And until that moment, Asuna needed to get a firm grip on her emotions so she wasn’t rattled for no good reason again.

Everyone had their own path through life. Shikimi chose to go from Eterna Girls’ Academy to a college overseas so she could build a dazzling future as the heir to the Kamura Company, and Asuna had her own path to travel. It was a path with Kirito, attempting to forge harmony between the real world and the Underworld, between humans and artificial fluctlights—a difficult but very worthwhile path.

There was no telling how many years it would take. She might not achieve it while she was still alive. But if so, that was simply her fate. It was a fate that had been determined for her the moment she put on the NerveGear and found herself trapped in a gigantic floating castle, a fate that she couldn’t give to anyone else. Her extreme struggles until the early hours of the morning in Unital Ring each night and the dive she was about to undergo into the Underworld weren’t simple detours. Shikimi might not understand or have an iota of interest in VRMMOs, but there was no reason to be ashamed of that. If the girl asked what Asuna did on her days off while they chatted over lunch, she would answer honestly. If Shikimi decided that it made Asuna not worth fraternizing with, that was better than pretending to get along with her based on a lie.

Isn’t that right, Yuuki?

The thought of her dearly departed friend caused Asuna’s eyes to shoot open. It was the very moment that the train car slid into Roppongi Station.

I dived back in, ten seconds before hitting the three-minute mark I promised Eolyne, and was promptly met with a sweet, bracing scent.

As though perfectly timed for the moment I opened my eyes, a tray with a steaming, fresh-baked honey pie landed on the table. A voice said, with no small surprise, “Oh, you’re back right on time.”

“…What would you have done with this pie if I was late?” I asked, looking up.

The pilot commander wore a bemused smile below his face mask. “I would have fed you a cold pie, of course. You can only reheat a frozen honey pie once. Try it again, and it’ll turn hard as a rock.”

“…Good to know. I’m glad I made it in time,” I said with relief. Eolyne sat down on my right, so I asked, “Um…do you have more frozen honey pies?”

“I do. Are you really that hungry?”

I was hungry enough that I could eat another ten of these delicious pies, but I wasn’t asking for my own sake.

“No, I was hoping to give some to my friends, who should be arriving soon,” I said, thinking of Asuna and Alice, whom I’d seen at the Roppongi office’s STL room during my two minutes and fifty seconds back in the real world.

Eolyne’s head bobbed. “Ah yes, I see. Don’t worry about that. I’ve got another twenty or so in the freezer.”

“Freezer…” I couldn’t help but be taken aback; it was a familiar word in the real world, but I’d never heard it spoken before in the Underworld. “Are you chilling them with one of those coolers?” I asked, using the name of the device Phercy had mentioned.

But Eolyne shook his head. “No. This is an old building…Placing all the piping necessary for a cooler like the kind in Centoria would require so much work, the entire building would need to be rebuilt.”

“How old are we talking about, actually?”

“I’d say it’s easily three hundred years old. It was originally a villa in the private holdings of the imperial family of Norlangarth.”

“Three hund…,” I repeated, then realized that that wasn’t the part to gawk at. Why was Eolyne using a villa belonging to the imperial family like his own private property? Unless…

“Wait…Were you from the Norlangarth imperial bloodline…?” I whispered, hushed.

Eolyne looked stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter. “Ha-ha-ha…Is that what you think? Well, I guess I can see why you might interpret what I said that way…Sadly, the answer is no.” His chuckles subsided, and he took a sip of the fresh cup of cofil tea he’d prepared. “I wasn’t born to such a prestigious family. Just the opposite, in fact.”

“Opposite?”

“That’s another story we can discuss later. You were asking about the freezer,” Eolyne said, yanking the conversation back on track. He lifted his pointer finger. “As I said, we can’t install large sealed canisters, so we use stand-alone freezers and ovens here. You don’t have to get the pipes installed, but it means you have to recharge the frost and heat elements on your own.”

A pale-blue light appeared on the tip of his finger. He extended his middle finger next, which generated a red point of light. Generating elements without a spoken command required a considerable amount of Incarnation power, and generating frost and heat elements at the same time, then holding them in the air, was an act of phenomenal skill.

Holding the two elements just an inch apart caused the heat and chill to mix, creating a trail of steam as the dots shrank and finally disappeared after ten seconds. As he blew on his fingertips to dispel the lingering steam, I stared at Eolyne and said the first thing that came to my mind.

“If you can do that…won’t you get detected by those Incarnameter things? What if the city guard sends a car after you?”

“Anything as minor as generating elements won’t be picked up unless you’re in the same room as the device,” he said.

“O-ohhh…”

I held out my fingers to do the same, but Eolyne squeezed them shut.

“You are the exception, Kirito. Your Incarnation power is off the charts, and that means that even tiny actions you take will cause massive Incarnate waves.”

“I-Incarnate waves?”

“They’re like ripples in space that the Incarnameter detects,” he explained, then let go of my fingers and sank back down into the sofa. “And now I think we have reached the purpose of this conversation. Earlier, before you returned to the real world, I said that it would be your turn to speak next.”

“Y…you did,” I agreed.

The pilot commander fixed me with a stare through his mask. As though declaring that he was done making long, winding detours, he asked me a question that could not have been more direct.

“Star King Kirito, what is the reason that you have come back to the Underworld at this particular time?”

“……”

Eolyne would know if I tried to fool him, and any passing trust I’d built up through our interactions would easily evaporate into thin air, I could sense.

So I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to speak. “First of all…as I’ve said many times, I have no recognition or memory of being the Star King of this place. So if what you want from me is information that the Star King would know, I cannot help you.”

“…Right,” Eolyne said, brushing away a strand of wavy hair that fell in front of his mask. “I understand that. But earlier, Kirito, you asked why I thought you were the Star King, when his name has been removed from all records, didn’t you?”

“I did ask that.”

“The answer is simple. The name has only been hidden, not lost. Though their numbers are few, there are still a few people alive who know the names of Star King Kirito and Star Queen Asuna. I am one of them.”

“……I see.”

If he was bringing up Asuna’s name, too, then there was no point in denying it any longer. I wasn’t interested in fully accepting this role, but assuming it was true that I’d once held the role of Star King, I could only pray that I hadn’t decided on the title myself.

“Well, setting aside the matter of the Star King for the moment,” I said, pantomiming placing an invisible object in empty space off to the left, “the reason I returned to the Underworld can be broadly split into two parts. One is to discover the identity and purpose of someone who has slipped into this world, who is not me nor my two companions.”

“……”

Eolyne’s mouth tightened just a bit, but he motioned for me to continue.

“And the other reason…is to bring back to life someone who is supposedly in a state of deep freeze in Central Cathedral.”

Just in case, I chose not to mention Selka’s name or the exact place where she was resting, but Eolyne seemed to recognize what I was talking about. He mulled it over, nodding to himself.

“……Yes, I see. Both of these answers were not what I expected, but neither are outside of the bounds of my responsibilities or creed. As the commander of the Integrity Pilothood, I believe I will be able to help with both of them.”

“And the price.…?” I asked, assuming he wouldn’t offer for free.

Eolyne leaned forward, and in as quiet a voice as he could possibly produce, whispered, “I want you to help me, too.”

Behind the thin glass lenses of the eyeholes in his mask, I could sense a powerful determination in those jade-green eyes. I nodded, my chin practically compelled beyond my discretion, but paused in the act.

“As long as it is within my ability and creed.”

“Heh…” He chuckled. “That shouldn’t be a problem. In fact…I have a feeling that your goals and my request are at least somewhat overlapping.”

“What do you mean? What is your request…?”

“I want you to go to Admina with me,” he said casually, a statement that I did not understand at first. Where was Admina, again…? And then I remembered.

“H-huh?! Admina, like…the planet Admina?!” I yelped, pointing at the ceiling of the tearoom—and past it, to the sky and to outer space beyond.

Eolyne just grinned and said, “That’s right.”