It happened then. Alice"s lips moved, letting out a brief sound.
"Selka."
And following that, once more.
"Selka..."
This time, those eyes that appeared dark blue lifted towards the starry skies up above.
"...I can"t remember. Neither her face nor her voice. But... this isn"t the first time I called out this name. My mouth, my throat...
my heart, they remember."
"...Alice."
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I swallowed my breath and called out, but as though my existence wasn"t reflected in Alice"s eyes any longer, she continued whispering, quietly.
"They had called it out countless times. Day after day, night after night... Selka... lka......"
My gaze was fixed upon Alice in incredulity as clear liquid, forming into beads, occupied her long eyelashes and spilled over, glittering as they caught the starlight. Her tears flowed on without stop, softly falling onto the marble between Alice and me.
"It"s true, isn"t it... I have a family... A father and a mother...
and a sister related by blood... somewhere under these night skies..."
That faltering voice eventually turned into a feeble sob.
I instinctively reached out with my right hand and was brushed off by Alice with the back of hers.
"Look away!"
Shouting that out with a teary voice, Alice harshly drove her right hand into my chest and wiped her eyes time after time with her left hand. But those tears made no attempt to stop and the knight eventually hugged her knees with both hands, pressed her face into them and her shoulders began to tremble violently.
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"Uu.... ughh... uuu..."
Before I realized, something blotted out my two eyes as well, watching the integrity knight sobbing away in a stifled voice.
I wil - I wil defeat Administrator and bring Alice back to her hometown.
Gathering my resolve once more, I final y realized the reason behind the tears surfacing in my own eyes, belated as it might have been.
Even if everything went according to plan, the one meeting with Selka at Rulid Village would not be this crying golden integrity knight before my eyes. The moment she regained her sealed memories, Alice would recal those days she spent with Eugeo and Selka in Rulid, and in al likelihood, forget the months and years she served as an integrity knight for the church.
In other words, this personality, Alice as an integrity knight, would simply vanish.
It would return to how things were meant to be. Though I tried to convince myself so, I couldn"t stop myself from pitying the knight sobbing away with her back curled up like a child.
A hopeless pity for Alice Synthesis Thirty who must have continuously longed from the depths of her heart for the 157.
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warmth of a family, lost and beyond her reach, during the many years she lived in this cathedral.
It took quite a while for those violent sobs to gradual y diminish in volume and turn into a quiet weeping.
I, on the other hand, had successful y stiffened my slackened tear glands two or three minutes ago and switched my thoughts on our plans from now on.
The most ideal outcome I could think of now would be as fol ows.
We would resume climbing the wal upon the rise of the moon and return into the tower from the ninety-fifth floor.
Somewhat avoiding the planned battle against Alice there, we would join up with Eugeo. Whether we use the dagger he held, meticulously made by Cardinal, on Alice would depend on the situation.
After that, we would either have to defeat our greatest hurdle, Integrity Knight Bercouli Synthesis One, or convince him-it would be a great help if Eugeo had driven him away, but I suppose holding that hope would be too much-then charging into the highest floor of the cathedral, where our ultimate enemy, Administrator, sleeps.
We would render the highest minister powerless while she continued sleeping, take Alice"s "memory fragment" that should 158.
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be secured somewhere in the room, and return the girl"s memories and personality.
Finally, I would establish contact with Rath"s staff in the real world via the system console and get them to acknowledge the preservation of the current Underworld and the stop the incoming "load experiment phase"-in other words, the major invasion from the land of darkness...
It was a string of missions of extreme difficulty that made me feel faint just thinking about it. I couldn"t help but think how every one of those goals had less than fifty, no, thirty percent chance of succeeding.
However, I couldn"t stand not taking action any longer. That long, long period of time, this two years spent in the Underworld, no, perhaps ever since that day I logged in to the death game, SAO, instead, might have been all for me to meet with these new humans like Eugeo, and to gain a reason to protect them.
Kayaba Akihiko said this while gazing upon the col apsing Aincrad in the crimson sunset skies. That he wanted to create a true alternate world. I had no plans for succeeding that man"s purpose, but what could be labeled a "true alternate world"
was taking place right before my eyes.
"The Seed", pa.s.sed down to me by the copy of Kayaba"s personality made countless VR worlds germinate and bloom in 159.
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the real world. And be it coincidence or inevitable, the light cubes storing the souls of Eugeo and the other inhabitants of the Underworld were compatible with the nexus of The Seed. If I sought some sort of significance from the SAO incident, beyond what Kayaba had been trying to achieve-I would definitely find it here, in this Underworld; that was what I felt.
I no longer had a path of return. After all, I had already come this close to the final goal, the highest floor of the Central Cathedral, spending a whole two years since I woke up in the forest south of Rulid.
However, if I had bring up a pressing concern that I couldn"t ignore any longer, however insignificant it might be.
That would be the doubt if I truly desired to clear those many objectives from the depths of my heart; that would be my one and only question...
"...You"ve said this some time ago, haven"t you?"
Hugging her knees with her eyes turned down, Alice suddenly muttered so.
I put a temporary stop to those complicated, entangled thoughts and lifted my face. A frail voice that still sounded blubbery came at me.
"After the tower"s wall broke and we were thrown outside...
you said that you had planned this revolt to correct the 160.
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esteemed highest minister"s mistakes and to protect the Human World."
"Yeah... I did."
I nodded towards the golden hair flowing down Alice"s back.
Several more seconds were spent in silence after that, before the knight slowly moved her lips.
"...I have yet to believe in everything you had said. However...
it does seem to be the truth that minions from the land of darkness have been positioned on the outer walls of the tower...
and that the integrity knights were not from the Celestial World, but gathered from the Human World with their memories sealed away. That is to say... I cannot deny that the esteemed highest minister have been deceiving us, her loyal servants, any longer..."
My breath stopped and I listened intently to Alice"s words.
Integrity knights, with their memories removed and a piety module inserted into their fluct lights, should compelled into an absolute loyalty towards Administrator. Fact was, no matter how hard Eugeo and I tried to persuade them, none of the integrity knights we had met thus far could verbally express doubts towards the church.
With that consideration in mind, it was a real shock Alice could voice out what she just did. Did the girl truly possess something other artificial fluct lights lacked? I stared on 161.
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without a sound, looking on as the golden knight continued talking in a whisper while holding onto her two upright legs.
"But on the other hand, it is true that the primary order given to us integrity knights by the esteemed highest minister was to defend against the invasion from the Dark Territory. Over ten knights are battling at the mountain range at the edge atop their flying dragons even now. If the esteemed highest minister hadn"t formed the Integrity Knight Order, the Human World would have already been a.s.saulted by the forces of darkness."
"That..."
-That, however, isn"t how the world was supposed to be.
The resources for growth monopolized by the integrity knight, or to put it in plain words, the experience points, were original y meant to be given to many of the commoners. Like what Eugeo and I had done in the northern cave, the villagers of the world should have picked up swords on their own accord and fought with the invading goblin soldiers, becoming stronger.
However, Administrator had robbed them of that potential.