Chapter 11.
The Secret of The Chamber of Elders 5th Month of Human World Calendar 380
1.
My two eyes flashed open upon the onslaught of a sudden, violent shudder.
I had only planned on shutting my eyelids with my back against the wall, but I suppose I must have fallen asleep sometime. I had forgotten any details of that scary nightmare I saw the moment it rattled me awake... or so the lingering fear and unease clinging on in my head seemed to imply.
I briefly checked out the surroundings while rousing my upper body, but there appeared to be no difference from before.
I was atop a narrow terrace created on the outer walls of the Central Cathedral, probably around the eighty-eighth floor. The sun had sunk beyond the horizon in front for quite some time and the darkness covered the skies as though ink had been smeared over it. However, no matter how much I scanned through, I could see only multiple stars through the gaps in the clouds, lacking of the moon I impatiently awaited. I seemed to have heard the night"s eight o"clock bell a while ago, but it 129.
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appeared it would still take more time before the moon G.o.ddess would begin resupplying the meager s.p.a.ce resources she could.
Integrity Knight Alice, having agreed to a truce, might be expressing her wariness of me through physical distance as she sat, hugging her knees with her eyelids shut, at a position on the verge of entering a new gargoyle"s... no, " minion""s reaction range if she went any further to the right. I personally hoped to grab hold of a clue to avoid that approaching battle, even by a little bit, through conversation in this lull, but it appeared she had no intention of being receptive to idle chatter. The problem would have been settled by simply p.r.i.c.king Alice with the dagger carefully produced by Cardinal and held by Eugeo if only he was here, though.
And just what was he doing about now-?
Now that I thought about it, in these two years ever since I met him in the forest south of Rulid, this might be the first time we had fallen into such a situation that we were barred from meeting each other regardless of our wills. We lined up on the gra.s.s or complained as we equally shared a narrow bed in some cheap inn during the long journey until we reached the capital and were always in the same room in the dormitory even after we enrol ed in the Sword Mastery Academy. We spent time together as though it was a natural thing to do and I hadn"t been deliberately conscious of his presence, but being separated was strangely irritating.
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No- It was beyond what a simple word like that could describe, I know for sure.
In this ultimate virtual world called the Underworld, I gained someone of the same gender whom I could call a close friend for what was likely the first time in my life. It was certainly embarra.s.sing to state it out, but I couldn"t help but to admit it.
Before getting imprisoned within the death game, SAO, I had considered the male students of my school childish and had always kept them at a distance as mere a.s.sociates.
That incurable tendency of mine didn"t change much even when imprisoned in that floating castle in a virtual world.
Fortunately enough, I managed to befriend several extremely matured adults such as Klein or Agil, but still, I doubt we had reached a level of intimacy where I could expose the depths of my being. Even despite my deep intimacy with Asuna, the only time I could expose my inner weaknesses was right before Aincrad crumbled away, when both of our consciousness were on the verge of disappearing.
It wasn"t like I thought that I possessed some special ability unlike others or anything of that sort. In actual fact, there was nothing I could boast of in school, both athletically and academically.
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in SAO, I must have been fascinated by the pleasure that came with excelling. The primary factors that boosted me among the top players were my "familiarity" from continual indulgence in VR worlds since fulldive-type games were developed and my "knowledge" acc.u.mulated from my time in SAO"s beta test, things utterly unrelated to my personal capabilities.
However, even after getting released from SAO, I couldn"t maintain myself, my persona, without continuing to prove my "strength in VR worlds". I was imprisoned by the complex those around me had, of recognizing me more as the hero, Kirito, who cleared the death game, instead of the flesh-and- blood, feeble Kirigaya Kazuto; or rather, I couldn"t even deny I might have been leading them on to do so myself. Despite how I knew in the depths of my heart, that perpetuating such bravado would put me further away from what truly mattered.
Hence, when I met Eugeo in this world and realized that I could comfortably stand before him without any pretension, as my real self, I was surprised and pondered on the reason.
Because Eugeo was an artificial fluct light unlike myself?
Because he didn"t know the hero of SAO, Kirito? No, that wasn"t it. The greatest reason was definitely-because Eugeo possessed far more ability than myself in this Underworld, a world both real and virtual in a certain sense.
His natural talent with the sword was simply tremendous. No matter what was compared, be it our perception, our judgement, 132.
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or our reaction speed, he would leave me, who had been through harsh battles in VR worlds, in the dust. If the circuit for combat mounted on my fluct light was said to be a silicon CPU from bygone days, Eugeo"s would be the latest diamond CPU. I might still look like the mentor at the current moment, but that was merely because I had a larger wealth of experience and knowledge; nothing more than that. If Eugeo continued to improve at his current pace, the day our roles reverse wouldn"t be too far off.
The extensive experience with combat burnt into my body ended up with that grand name, "Aincrad style", but I couldn"t help but to feel a mysterious happiness and profound satisfaction when Eugeo absorbed it like water on sand. The "swordsmanship" that formed the foundations of my ego for a long time, despite me thinking it really wasn"t anything more than a technique for games, seemed truly tangible for the first time only after it was refined and blossomed within Eugeo-I could even claim to feel that way.
If I could successfully solve all of the problems surrounding the Underworld and bring Eugeo"s fluct light over into the real world, I would have him dive into ALfheim Online-the interface for light cubes was almost certain to be compatible with VR worlds based on The Seed-and introduce him to Asuna, Leafa, Klein, and the rest. As my first apprentice who had inherited my skill with the sword, and a close friend.
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I couldn"t wait until that moment. I believe that moment would be the first time when those many people who had supported and helped out would be truly......
"Why are you grinning away?"
A voice suddenly came from the right and I blinked my eyes, putting a stop to my daydreaming.
Turning my face that way, I saw Alice gazing at me with a somewhat disgusted expression. I roughly wiped my mouth with the back of my right hand and spoke.
"No, I was just... thinking a little about things from now on..."
"You must be quite an optimist to make that sloppy smile from that, or perhaps just a fool. When even escaping from this stone ledge seems doubtful."
As usual, a bitter tone. I didn"t know Knight Alice"s former personality, the Alice from Rulid, but if her character stayed this way even after her memories returned, I could easily imagine her locking horns with those like Sinon or Lisbeth if she escaped to the real world with Eugeo and I introduced them to my comrades.
There certainly was a mountain of problems to get through before that ultimate good ending from my daydreams could occur. The one with utmost priority would be to escape from this terrace filled with rows of those repulsive minion statues, but along with the deficiency of the s.p.a.ce resources needed to 134.
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create pitons and all, my willpower-and-stamina resources... or to be specific, the hunger tormenting my empty stomach, was nearly at its limit.
Inconspicuously pressing down on my bel y with my right hand, I replied with the most serious face I could muster.
"I believe we should be able to continue climbing the wall when the moon rises. It"s not that hard as long as we can create pi... those wedges. And it doesn"t look like there are any more minions set up above.... It"s just that, putting aside the problem regarding sacred power, thinking about climbing this steep wall for another few tens of mel alone is making me feel so hungry, I"m getting dizzy..."
"...That"s exactly what I find irresponsible about you. It"s merely skipping a meal or two, what are you, a child?"
"Yeah, yeah, well, I"m a kid after all, I mean, I"m still barely considered as a growing child, you know? Unlike you amazing integrity knights, my Life will fal like a brick if I don"t eat."
"I will state this first, but us integrity knights, too, get hungry and have our Lives reduced if we don"t eat!"
The corners of her eyes coldly raised and Alice declared so.
In that moment, a cute noise came from around the girl"s stomach and I couldn"t contain an unintentional, stifled laugh.
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The esteemed knight"s face instantaneously turned red and upon seeing her right hand swiftly grab hold of her sword"s grip next, I retreated around fifty centimeters in panic.
"Wah, wait, I"m sorry! I guess that makes sense, you"re stil living even if you"re an integrity knight. It"s only natural to get hungry if you"re living."
Shrinking while lining together those artless words, I noticed the sensation of something being squeezed in the left pocket of my trousers. Thrusting my hand in, wondering what it could be, I recal ed what it was upon my fingers making contact and gave thanks to my own wisdom and greed.
"Ooh, it"s a.s.sistance from up above. Look, I found something good."
What I pulled out were two steaming meat buns. Those I stuffed into my two pockets when I left Cardinal"s Great Library Room. Half were shared with Eugeo and eaten for lunch, but I totally forgot about those left over. They were more or less squashed after those numerous fierce battles, but I couldn"t very well ask for the world in a situation like this.
"...Why do you have those in your pocket?"
Alice had an expression like she was stunned from the depths of her heart and took her hand off her sword.
"I hit my pocket and there were two meat buns."
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Using that phrase that Alice definitely didn"t understand4 as a smokescreen, I quickly displayed the "window" of the meat buns and confirmed that they still had much of their Life remaining. They looked shabby, but as they were created from those precious, ancient book objects by Cardinal, their durability were shockingly high.
That said, chewing on these now cold and tough meat buns as they were wouldn"t bring out any taste. After some thought, I stretched out my left hand and chanted a command.
"System call. Generate thermal element. "
Even if it wasn"t enough for piton creation, there was apparently enough s.p.a.ce resources for creating a small thermal element as a unreliable, flickering, orange point of light appeared atop my palm. Bring the two meat buns held in my hands closer to the thermal element, I started on the next command.
"Bur..."
- st; before I could continue, a hand reaching out from my side like a flash of lightning pinned down my mouth.
"Mghh!?"