"Thank you very much."
Sensei; I held back the urge to add that while trying to return the handkerchief, but the grand knight quickly averted her face and said a single line- "Wash it and return it before you get slashed by me."
The future looked grim indeed. How could I persuade this grandiose knight to avoid the battle after we return into the tower and to meet up with Eugeo?
An image of my partner, who was probably climbing up the stairs in the tower about now, went through my mind as I looked around, and noticed the afterglow in the sky had completely disappeared without my notice and several stars were already blinking away. We managed to drive away the minions somehow, but the moon had risen and an extremely slight bit of s.p.a.ce resources had been restocked, but that was unlikely enough to make new pitons with.
I thrust Alice"s handkerchief into my right pocket and scanned the narrow terrace from left to right this time round.
The petrified minions lined up in a row from a few meters away to the wal "s corner seemed like they wouldn"t come alive if we didn"t get any closer. It might be possible to crush them before their petrification was lifted if we dash in and slash at their vitals with our swords, but I couldn"t think of any merit in testing that risk.
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Alice.
As a result, we could only meekly wait here for a few hours until the moon rose.
Honestly, I would warmly entertain the thought of sitting down and resting now, but Alice would likely be offended greatly throughout that whole time. I held back a sigh while thinking about how I should initiate a talk with the integrity knight who had her face turned away.
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Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli.
Chapter 10.
Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli 5th Month of Human World Calendar 380 I hadn"t felt this isolated for a long time.
Eugeo murmured in his heart as he climbed the long staircases on his own.
Eugeo had pa.s.sed his days immersed in swinging that axe in the forest, his eyes, ears, and heart shut away, ever since that summer eight years ago when he could do nothing more than look on as Alice was bound onto a flying dragon"s foot and taken away. Not a single person in the vil age, including his family, brought up this major incident of the vil age chief"s daughter getting taken away by an integrity knight with him, practically treating that very act as a taboo in itself-or rather, it could have been as they avoided Eugeo who was a close friend of Alice.
However, much like the vil agers, Eugeo also kept them, as wel as his memories of the incident, at a distance. Not acknowledging his own weakness and cowardice, he tried to turn his eyes away from the past and future by sinking deep into a muddy bog by the name of resignation. -But.
That one boy, who wandered in without a single belonging to his name in the spring two years ago, tugged Eugeo out from that bottomless swamp with all his might. They repel ed a group of goblins and fel ed the Gigas Cedar together; he bestowed confidence and a goal to Eugeo once more.
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He was always by his side when they rushed out from Rulid Village, when they advanced onto the capital through Zakkaria City, and when they trained day after day at the Sword Mastery Academy-Kirito was there. Though it was awry from their initial plans, their success in infiltrating their final goal, the Axiom Church"s Central Cathedral, and surpa.s.sing numerous obstacles to arrive at this high position was unmistakably thanks to his black-haired partner guiding him and cheering him on.
And yet, despite how the highest floor was a mere distance away, Kirito had vanished from Eugeo"s sight. Amidst the fierce battle against Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty, created from his childhood friend, Alice Schuberg, with false, implanted memories, Kirito"s full armament control art mingled with the knight"s and brought forth an abnormal power and bored a huge hole through the cathedral"s wall.
The pair were sucked out from the tower in the blink of an eye and the huge hole returned to the wal it originally was immediately thereafter. The marble wall showed not the slightest sign of budging even when slashed at with the Blue Rose Sword or hit with the greatest thermal elemental offensive arts he possessed.
In all likelihood, the cathedral"s outer walls had a permanent self-repair art performed upon them. A sacred art so ridiculously advanced that Eugeo couldn"t even imagine the first line for it to the extent of his knowledge. Hence, even if he moved the stone wall by a mere cen after al his desperate effort, it would probably be restored to how it was. Opening up a hole in the wall, even for a moment, must have been because Kirito and Knight Alice"s full control arts concealed a power that
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exceeded what the art user who casted that self-repair art on the tower"s outer wal s had expected.
To put that another way, they couldn"t have died from simply getting thrown out if they possessed such power. Especial y Kirito, who definitely had more capability in reacting to unexpected situations even when compared to the higher ranked integrity knights. He must have resisted the fal somehow and had already started on an ascent from outside the tower. And that likely applied to Knight Alice too.
The current Alice was a guardian of the absolute Axiom Church, so he couldn"t imagine her cooperating with Kirito, but at the very least, she should chase after him if he were to climb the wall. An opportunity to use the short sword granted by Cardinal should present itself again if he could reunite with them somewhere on the higher floors.
Believing thusly, Eugeo opened the door on the southern end of the eightieth floor, "Cloudtop Garden", and started on the grand staircase up on his own. Al while shaking off the sense of forlornness and helplessness that seemed to have crept up his back ever since he became alone.
It wouldn"t be strange to be dragged into a new a.s.sault at any time, so he ceased running and advanced with caution, but he didn"t feel any human presence even after pa.s.sing the eighty- first and eighty-second floors.
They had driven away "Frost Scale Whip" Eldrie, "Conflagrant Flame Bow" Deusolbert, the apprentice knights, Fizel and Linel, "Heaven Piercing Sword" Fanatio and her subordinates, "Four Oscil ation Blades"; that brought the count to nine integrity knights in total, but those called "Knight Commander" and
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"Chief Elder" were stil in the tower, and of course, the highest minister, Administrator, lay in wait as wel .
He could hardly imagine the most eminent being in the Axiom Church, and thus, the world, would suddenly appear, but the Knight Commander and Chief Elder couldn"t possibly let him pa.s.s through to the highest floor without resistance. As such, he strained his senses to their limits and cautiously ascended the staircase with his hand on his Blue Rose Sword, but his mind couldn"t help but to get invaded by superfluous thoughts.
How are Kirito and Knight Alice doing at the moment?
Is Alice chasing Kirito as he climbs the tower"s outer wal s? Or maybe their battle is continues even now while dangling off the tower"s walls? Or perhaps... the mysterious charm from that human known as Kirito had made even Alice, as aloof as she was, draw back her sword...?
Eugeo sensed an unfamiliar feeling wel up in his chest the moment he thought that. That acted as a stimulant, the discord he felt when he swung his sword towards the fal en Integrity Knight Deusolbert several hours ago p.r.i.c.kling yet again.
Aware that Deusolbert was the one who took away Alice from Rulid Village eight years ago, anger and hatred urged Eugeo into action as he tried to thrust an end to the knight. However, in that moment Kirito held him back, Eugeo felt a strong sense of inferiority towards his close friend.
You wouldn"t have just watched on like me back then. You would have thrown care to the wind and attacked the integrity knight in an attempt to save Alice; he thought.
That strength and kindness of Kirito might reach even the heart of the integrity knight, Alice. Of course, Alice as she was
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now, was a so-cal ed fake with her memories stolen by the highest minister. But... if it was that Kirito, who tried to help Deusolbert and even Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio, who brought him to the verge of death... perhaps......
"--That"s not possible."
Muttering so, Eugeo forced his stream of thoughts to a stop.
There was no purpose in thinking any further. Upon regaining the "memory fragment" safe kept on the highest floor of the cathedral and returning it to Integrity Knight Alice"s soul, the current Alice would vanish along with al of her memories. And the real Alice, the person most important to Eugeo, would return.
I wil embrace the awakened girl tightly and definitely say it this time. That I wil protect you... I wil protect you forever.
That moment wil arrive tomorrow, or this night if circ.u.mstances al ow it.
Hence, there was no need for idle thoughts now, it was the time to do nothing but to advance forth.
Just as the seven o"clock bel rang out in the evening from somewhere in the cathedral, the staircase came to a stop.
That made the count he kept, of the floors pa.s.sing by, reach a round ten. In other words, this was the ninetieth floor. He had set foot onto the crucial section of the Axiom Church at long last.
No stairs further up could be seen anywhere in the broad hall.
There was only a single grand door at the northern wall. There was no mistake that a vast area utilizing the entire floor, like the fiftieth and eightieth floors, lay ahead.
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