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Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.6




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Part 6
The weather was wonderful the next morning.
While feeling the weight of the boxed-lunch Selka made for us in our right hands, Eugeo and I walked toward the south, along a road we wouldn’t come back on for a long time.
When we arrived at the junction which lead to the narrow path toward the forest where Gigas Cedar once stood, I saw an old man standing there. The deeply wrinkled face was covered with a white moustache, his backbone was straight, the glint in his eyes looked like it could penetrate through me.
As soon as he saw the elder, Eugeo smiled happily and started running.
“Garitta-jii! I’m glad you are here. I didn’t get to meet you yesterday.”
I remembered when I had heard that name. He was surely the predecessor of the «Gigas Cedar cutting duty».
A tender smile floated under the moustache of the the elder Garitta as he placed his hands on Eugeo’s shoulders.
“Eugeo, you certainly managed to cut down the Gigas Cedar, which I could only make a cut about a finger deep…… Could you tell me how you did it?”
“It was this sword and……”
Eugeo pulled the Blue Rose Sword out from the scabbard on his left waist slightly, then he turned and looked at me.
“More than anything, his…… it’s thanks to my friend. His name is Kirito. He’s really a ridiculous guy.”
I hurriedly lowered my head while thinking ‘What the heck is with that introduction.’ Elder Garitta walked to me before giving me a piercing look with his sharp eyes —— and gave a broad smile immediately.
“So you’re the rumored «Vector’s lost child», huh. I see….. such a variable companion.”
It was the first time I ever heard something like that, while I tilted my head trying to figure out the meaning of his words, the elder pointed his left hand toward the forest and continued speaking,
“Now, I’m sorry that I interfered with your long awaited departure, but I would like you to come with me for a little while. As I need you to do something.”
“E-Err. Kirito, it’s okay, right?”
I nodded as I didn’t have any particular reason to deny the request. The elder smiled again, before beckoning us as he stepped on the narrow path into the forest.
Even though I only commuted along this path daily for a week, I sensed a deep emotion that felt like nostalgia, as we walked for about twenty minutes, before we arrived at the large clearing.
The ruler of the forest, which stood tall as if it could reach the heaven across the long centuries of time, now lay with its great body quietly. Thin ivy had started to clamber over its jet black bark, in a far distant future, I thought it would decay and return to the earth.
“……What is the matter with the Gigas Cedar, Garitta-jii?”
The elder didn’t answer Eugeo’s question but walked toward the top of the fallen trunk. We chased after him in a hurry, but were greeted by a maze which was created from the branches of the Gigas Cedar and the other trees intertwined together. When I looked carefully, the black branches of the Gigas Cedar, no matter how thin they were, there was not a single one which had been damaged, although some had pierced into the ground or the rocks. Their toughness was really astonishing.
We got some scratch wounds on our bare arms as we struggled through the branches, and before long, we arrived next to elder Garitta who looked invigorating as he stood still. While using his palm to wipe the sweat off his forehead, Eugeo said in a grumble,
“What is here, exactly?”
“This.”
What the elder pointed at, was the topmost point of the fallen Gigas Cedar, its treetop extended straight out. It was a small branch which hadn’t grow yet, its length was considerably long, the tip was tapered sharply like a rapier.
“What’s with this branch?”
To my question, the elder stretched his gnarled right hand and stroked the part of the treetop which was about five centimeters thick.
“In all of the branches of Gigas Cedar, this is the one which had inhaled the most blessing from Solus. Now, use that sword and cut it off from here. Cut it in a single blade strike, many strikes may damage it.”
The elder used his hand to chop at the part about one meter and twenty centimeters from the tip, before taking several steps backward.
Eugeo and I exchanged glances with each other and nodded. After taking his boxed-lunch, I also stepped back.
When the Blue Rose Sword was drawn out of the scabbard, it shone brightly with a light blue under the sunlight, the elder beside me whispered a faint sigh. ‘Perhaps everything would have changed if I had that sword when I was young,’ —— I thought this kind of regret probably echoed within his mind, but glancing at his calm face, I couldn’t read his mind at all.
Although Eugeo had set up his sword, he didn’t move at all. The tip of the sword shaking slightly probably due to the hesitation in his mind. The branch which was as thick as the wrist, perhaps he doesn’t have the confidence that he could sever it in one hit?
“Eugeo, let me do it.”
As I stretched my hand forward, Eugeo nodded obediently and offered the hilt of the sword. After receiving the boxed-lunches, he went to stand next to the elder.

I stared at the black branch thoughtlessly, then swung the sword upward and immediately slashed it downward. Kishi— with a clear sound and a light response, the blade passed through the place I aimed at. The long black branch which fell down right after that was caught by the blade of the sword, before it sprung up. As it spun in the air while falling down, this time I caught it with my left hand. It was cold like ice and I slightly staggered due to the heavy weight on my wrist.
After I returned the Blue Rose Sword to Eugeo, I used both hands to offer the black branch to elder Garitta.
“Just wait a little bit.”
As he said that, the elder took out a thick cloth from his bosom, before carefully wrapping the branch in my hands with it. In addition, he tied it up with a leather string.
“Now it’s good. When you arrive at the capital Centoria, bring this branch to the north seventh ward, and give it to an artisan named Sadre, who set up his shop there. He will be able to make a powerful sword from it. It certainly wouldn’t be inferior to that beautiful blue silver sword.”
“R-Really, Garitta-jii!? That would be great, as I was worried about the future as we only have one sword even though there’re two of us. Right, Kirito?”
Eugeo said in a happy voice, I replied with ‘That’s right,’ as I nodded while smiling. But I could feel that the jet black branch in my open arms became slightly heavier as I rejoiced.
To both of us, who were bowing our heads repeatedly, the elder gave a smile.
“It’s just my farewell gift. Be careful on the way. Because nowadays, there are not only good Gods reigning in this world. ……I’ll stay here to watch this tree for a little bit. Farewell Eugeo and the young traveler.”

After following the small path and exiting back to the main road again, the fine weather until now started to decline as some small black clouds sprung out from the east.
“The breeze is a bit humid now. We better go before it’s too late.”
“……That’s right. Let’s hurry.”
I nodded in response to Eugeo, the leather string of the cloth wrapped branch of Gigas Cedar was firmly tied to my back. The thunderous roar from the far distance away resonated with the heaviness of the branch, and my mind trembled slightly.
A pair, two swords.
Is that a hint, a sign of something in the future?
Shouldn’t I bury this parcel in the depths of this forest? that moment of thought made me stop moving. But, what is the reason that I fear it will be necessary? I don’t get it at all.
“Hey, let’s go, Kirito!”
As I lifted up my face, the bright smile of Eugeo, who was anticipating the unknown world, entered my eyes.
“Alright…… let’s go.”
It was just one week ago that we met, but for some reason I felt as if he had been my best friend for a long time, I walked side by side with the boy on the road extending to the south —— toward the heart of Underworld, the place where all answers to the puzzle were awaiting us, as we started to quicken our pace.


(Alicization Beginning End)


Afterword
This is Kawahara Reki. I have now delivered the first volume of 2012,?Sword Art Online 9 Alicization Beginning?.
Since the release of volume 8 last year, it had been half a year of vacant. During that time, under various circumstances many things happened, so first off, I have to apologize for the wait. I’m sorry! I’ll do my best next time!
……Then, I feel like I should talk about this book’s content, now… what should I write…… While I would like to avoid spoiling things for those who look ahead and read the afterword first, no matter how I put it, it’d still be a spoiler storm! So I decided to put a warning line. Please note that beyond the line would be the Dark Territory! Ha…… now let’s start with the spoilers……
——————Spoiler Line——————
Volume 7 which has Asuna as the main character, and volume 8 which is a compilation of side stories, both took place before Kirito-sensei’s new journey in volume 9. Although he traversed from the virtual game worlds of SAO, ALO, to GGO, the world this time is at last, prohibitively «Difficult new game», as he has to challenge it from level 1. ……Although that was how it should be…… but he was able to use various sword skills right off the bat, please put it as love and respect……
As the writer myself, I tried many new things in the world which made an appearance in this volume, the «Underworld». To give a concrete example, Kirito didn’t meet a girl…… err no, that wasn’t the case; how far the straight fantasy ball using the net game context could go, about NPC, or in the other words, AI, which hadn’t been touched up close until now, how could I focus on that, I want to expand the wrapping cloth to the limit of the «VRMMO stuff» using those things. When thinking about how to have the story unfold later, it made me feel like working harder on the next volumes!
Then the next, while it might belatedly, I want to talk about the animation adaptation of this?Sword Art Online?. As I started writing at the end of 2001, and was silently serializing?SAO?the following year at the corner of the web novel world, I thought about the day that it would become an anime…… I remember the time that I said “Let’s make a GIF anime” with no confidence at all. This miracle was only made possible because of the the hard work of the illustrator abec-san; Miki-san who is in charge and said three years ago “Let’s publish this too!”; Tsuchiya-san, the assistance, whose HP bar of his tight schedule stays in deep red; and all readers who continue supporting the works from this writer, I thank you again. Of course, this original novel is still far from finished!


A certain day in December 2011, Kawahara Reki



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