Sword Art Online - Volume 7 - Mother's Rosario Read online

  Sword Art Online

  Volume 7

  ~Mother’s Rosario~

  Written by:

  Reki Kawahara

  Illustrations by:

  Abec

  Translated by:

  Baka-Tsuki

  Translators:

  Aiko

  Teh Ping

  ePUB by:

  Simon

  Prologue

  “— Asuna, have you heard about «Zekken»?”

  Hearing Lizbet’s voice, Asuna stopped typing and looked up.

  “A player’s number? Are you starting a sport’s competition?”

  “No, no.” Lizbet shook her head and smiled. She drank a little from the steaming mug on the table and continued.

  “It’s kanji, not katakana. It’s written with zetsu(絶) from zettai(絶対) and ken(剣) from sword, Absolute Sword.”

  “Absolute… Sword. Is that a new rare equipment or something?”

  “No, no. It’s a person’s name. A nickname… or alias, so to speak. Nobody knows the character’s real name. Anyways, Zekken’s very strong. We don’t know who started using this name, but this person eventually ended up being known as Absolute Sword. Absolutely invincible sword, peerless sword… I guess that’s what it means.”

  Very strong, it really piqued Asuna’s interest when she heard this.

  It goes without saying that she was really confident with her sword technique. As an Alfheim Online player, she chose to be an Undine which focuses on supporting with healing magic, but her previous hot-bloodedness would occasionally arise and she’d unsheathe her rapier and charge into enemy formations. Thus she got a completely inelegant nickname like ‘Berserk Healer’.

  She actively participates in every month’s tournament and having accustomed to ALO’s three-dimensional battles, Asuna is on par with other strong players like the Salamander General Eugene and the Sylph Lord Sakuya. It’s impossible for her to disregard a new strong player’s appearance.

  Saving her completed biology report, Asuna closed her virtual keyboard, picked up the mug next to her and filled it with hot tea with a tap of her finger. She sunk into the wooden chair which grew out of the floorboards and got into a position where she can listen seriously.

  “And…? This Absolute Sword, what is this person like?”

  “Let me think…”

  Chapter 1

  The new Aincrad’s 22nd floor was completely covered in snow.

  It was early January in the outside world, but even though it was winter, the temperature in Tokyo hardly ever drops below zero due to global warming in the recent years.

  But, whether or not it was to show the company’s work ethics, Alfheim continued to be in a state of severe cold. The temperature in the area north of the World Tree frequently dropped down to 10, 20 degrees below zero. If you didn’t prepare cold-resistant equipment or buffs, you wouldn’t even want to fly. Currently, Aincrad floated above the Gnome’s territory, in the far North of the world. The temperature in every floor was so cold that you could see ice crystals even during the day.

  But even though it was so chilly that a brook would get frozen all the way to the bottom, the cold couldn’t permeate into the house, which was guarded by thick wooden walls and a roaring fireplace.

  8 months ago— In May 2025, Alfheim Online had its largest update up to date — 『Floating Castle Aincrad』.

  ALO originally operated on a duplicated system of the death game «Sword Art Online», therefore the server had a complete copy of Aincrad, the stage where SAO was set. In the past, ALO was run by «RECTO Progress», but when a new company bought both the software and hardware, not only did they not delete Aincrad and former SAO players’ character data, they boldly proposed a way for it to exist alongside ALO.

  Of course, they were also trying to combat the decrease in playerbase due to RECTO Progress’ human experiments by using an impactful upgrade. But that definitely wasn’t the only reason. The creators of the new company were all veteran MMO players who’d been playing since the 2D age and couldn’t bear to delete the intricately designed floating castle— That is what Asuna heard from Egil who had connections with someone from the company.

  With Aincrad’s resurrection, Asuna set a small goal in her heart and began to play the game as an Undine healer and rapier user. Her goal was obvious: To save enough Coll, no, Yurudo, reach the 22nd floor before anyone else, and buy the small wooden house deep within the coniferous forest. A long time ago in another floating castle, for 2 short weeks in that exact place, she had formed a family and passed sweet, happy, peaceful days.

  Last May’s update opened the first 10 floors. September opened up the 11th to 20th floors. Then, on Christmas Eve— December 24th night, the door leading to the 21st floor opened. Asuna and Kirito, Cline, Egil, Lizbet, Scilica and Lyfa formed a 7 member party, and rushed up to the next floor as soon as the call celebrating the opening ended.

  The 22nd floor was a sparsely populated floor with nothing but forests, and there were plenty of residences in the village’s main street, so there’d probably be no competitors aiming for the same house. Even so, they rushed like a gale through the 21st floor’s wilderness and challenged the Boss found at the end of the dungeon along with the other parties. Cline later attested that Asuna, despite having spent half her ability points on support, was even more imposing as she fought at the fore of the 50-man group than back when she was the sub-leader of the «Knights of Blood».

  After kicking aside the 21st floor’s boss she defeated herself, hurrying to the wooden house and clicking the OK button to confirm the transaction, Asuna couldn’t help but weep with happiness. —That night, after the party ended and all their friends left, while drinking a toast with Kirito and Yui, who had returned to her girl form, she cried again. This incident was kept secret from their friends.

  Asuna herself wasn’t really sure why she was so devoted to that place. Together with the boy who she seriously fell in love with for the first time, although it was in a virtual world, but having surpassed hardships, this was the place where they finally settled down and spent a brief moment of happiness. It sounded simple, but Asuna felt like it wasn’t just that.

  That house was perhaps, for Asuna who frequently couldn’t find a place to return in the real world, a place where she could feel at «home». A small, warm place where a pair of birds could rest their wings, snuggle up and sleep. A place for her soul to return.

  More importantly, after all the hard work, that wooden house had become a place where their companions could get together. They rarely ever had no guests. Asuna devoted herself entirely to the interior design of the small house, attracting everyone up from the surface. Not to mention companions from SAO, new friends from ALO frequently visited to eat Asuna’s handmade dishes. —Once, due to bad timing, they had a tension-filled meal where both the Sylph Lord Sakuya and the Salamander General Eugene were both present.

  Today— That was January 6th, 2026, a few familiar faces had gathered around the table which «grew out of the house».

  To Asuna’s right sat the tamer Scilica, who had triangular ears unique to Cait Siths. She was currently staring at her math homework on the holographic monitor and whimpering. Similarly, to her left, the Sylph magic swordswoman Lyfa was scowling at her English essay.

  Opposite her, the Leprechaun smith Lizbet sat with her legs crossed and was drinking raspberry liqueur while immersed in a novel sold in-game.

  In the real world it was only 4pm, but time in Alfheim differs. Outside, the sky was almost completely black save for the light reflecting off the falling snow. It was obvious that it was freezing cold outside even i
f you couldn’t hear the wind, but the fireplace inside the house crackled. In addition, a warm fragrance was coming from a large pot, where a steaming stew was seething.

  Like her friends, Asuna had her hands on a virtual keyboard and viewed sites in the browser windows floating around her, successfully completing her report.

  Even though her mother didn’t approve of her doing things she could do in reality in the VR world, working here was more efficient in the long term. Her eyes and hands wouldn’t tire and a number of informative sites which could not fit into her room’s UXGA display floated in easily viewable places.

  Asuna once told her mother that and let her try using a FullDive program dedicated to text editing, but she logged off in just a few minutes saying that she was dizzy and ignored it from then on.

  Indeed there were people who got dizzy in the virtual world, but Asuna who «lived» in the virtual world for 2 years simply couldn’t imagine how that felt. Her fingers moved swiftly without a single error and her essay gradually reached its conclusion—

  At that time, something suddenly leaned on her right shoulder.

  Asuna took a look and noticed Scilica’s black, short-haired head leaning on her shoulder, her triangular ears twitching as she slept with a happy expression on her face.

  Asuna couldn’t help but laugh, and lightly scratched Scilica’s ears with her left hand.

  “Hey, Scilica. It’d be a problem if you can’t sleep tonight because you slept right now.”

  “Mm… Nya…”

  “There’s only 3 days left of Winter Break. You have to work hard on your assignments.”

  Finally she lightly pulled Scilica’s ear and she woke up, startled. She blinked a few times with a dazed expression, shook her head and looked at Asuna’s face.

  “U… uu… So tired.”

  Muttered Scilica, opening her small white-toothed mouth and yawning. All the Cait Sith players Asuna knew got sleepy when they were in this house, making her wonder if it was a racial characteristic.

  Asuna took a look at the holographic monitor in front of Scilica and said.

  “Isn’t this page almost at its end? Why not work hard and finish it?”

  “Fu… Fuah…”

  “Isn’t this room too warm? Should we lower the temperature a little?”

  Hearing that, Lizbet smiled and responded.

  “No, that isn’t it, I’m thinking it’s because of that.”

  “That…?”

  Asuna looked back, seeing Lyfa pointing at something on the East wall next to the fireplace.

  “Ah… So that’s it…”

  Looking in that direction, Asuna nodded understandingly.

  In front of the glowing red fireplace, there was a large rocking chair carved out of wood.

  Deeply seated in the chair, a «Spriggan» with light black skin and short black hair was sound asleep. His previously unkempt hair now stayed down, but his sharp and slightly mischievous face was the same as before. Needless to say, it was Kirito.

  On his stomach, a small, light blue feathered dragon was comfortably sleeping with its body curled up and it’s head buried inside its fluffy tail. That dragon, «Pina», was Scilica’s partner since back during SAO.

  An even smaller pixie with an innocent face slept using Pina’s soft feathers as a bed. The girl with long, straight, glossy, black hair and was wearing a light pink dress was Kirito’s «Navigation Pixie», as well as Asuna and Kirito’s ‘daughter’, the AI «Yui», created in the old SAO server.

  Stacked like a three layered cake, Kirito, Pina, and Yui happily slept on the rocking chair, emitting a sort of magical hypnotic effect. Even Asuna felt drowsy after just looking at it for a few seconds.

  Kirito could actually sleep quite a lot. It’s almost like he was reclaiming the time he lent back during SAO when he had forgone sleep to clear dungeons. In that house, as soon as Asuna’s eyes left him, he sank into his favorite rocking chair and immediately fell asleep.

  Moreover, Asuna didn’t know of anything which was more hypnotic than Kirito’s face as he was sleeping in the chair.

  Back during SAO, whether it was in the wooden house or the second floor of Egil’s shop, whenever Kirito rocked the chair, Asuna almost always sat in it and dozed off with him. That was saying, Asuna had personally experienced and can understand why Scilica and Lyfa are tempted to sleep.

  Mysteriously, Pina, whose actions should be based on simple algorithms, would fly off Scilica’s shoulder and curl up and sleep on Kirito whenever she came across Kirito sleeping.

  This had cast doubt on whether the sleeping Kirito emitted some sort of «Drowsiness Parameter». In fact, Asuna, who was writing her essay at full speed just moments ago, had unknowingly started feeling sluggish…

  “Hey Asuna-san, don’t fall asleep yourself! Ah, Liz-san as well!”

  Getting shaken by Scilica, Asuna lifted her head.

  At the same time, Lizbet, who was on the other side of the table, shakily woke up, blinked and smiled with embarrassement. She swept up her metallic pink hair, unique to Leprechauns, and grudgingly explained.

  “Why do I feel sleepy when I look at that… Could this be the illusionary magic Spriggans are good at?”

  “Haha, how could that be. I’m going to brew some tea to drive away the sleepiness. Although I say that, I’m really just being lazy.”

  Asuna stood up and took out 4 cups from the cabinet behind her. Those were the magical mugs which could «pour out 99 different types of tea with a single tap» they got from a recent quest.

  Placing the cups and a fruit pie on the table, the four of them, including Scilica who was struggling to shake off her drowsiness, immediately took a drink of the warm, fragrant liquid.

  “Speaking of which.”

  At that point, Lizbet thought of something and said.

  “— Asuna, have you heard about «Zekken»?”

  “There have been rumors since around the beginning of the year… It started around a week ago…”

  Saying that, Lizbet nodded at Asuna as though confirming something.

  “Right, then Asuna obviously doesn’t know. You’ve been in Kyoto since the end of the year.

  “Really, don’t make me think of things I hate here.”

  Seeing Asuna frown, Lizbet laughed out loud.

  “Alas, it isn’t easy coming from a distinguished family.”

  “It really isn’t easy. You have to sit and greet people in a kimono all day, and even if you want to 『Full Dive』 at night, the place still isn‘t connected to wireless LAN up to this day. Even though I brought my AmuSphere, it went to waste.”

  She let out a long sigh and finished her tea.

  Since the end of last year, Asuna was half forced to go with her family to the Yuuki head house, in other words her father’s old home. She also had to express her thanks to her relatives who were worried during the two years she was ‘in hospital’, so she couldn’t say she hated it.

  When she was small, Asuna considered spending the beginning of the year with the main family as natural, and was happy that she could meet cousins around her age.

  But, probably around the time she started attending junior high, Asuna gradually began to feel constrained by this custom.

  The Yuuki main family had, without exaggeration, been managing banks as a family business in Kyoto since 200 years ago, tenaciously surviving reforms and wars, the current generation opened a branch in Kansai. Her father Yuuki Shouzou was able to develop «RECTO», a general electronics manufacturing company, in one generation thanks to the main family’s financial assistance. Taking a look at the family pedigree, presidents and bureaucrats were everywhere.

  As if it was natural, Asuna’s cousins and brothers were also «top students» in «good schools». When all the children were seated side by side during the banquet, their parents talked about topics like how their children received praise in a certain competition or how high they ranked in a national exam. While appearing nice on the surface, they wer
e just bickering without end in reality. Asuna gradually noticed a sense of malice in the environment surrounding her, it seemed to her like the purpose of organizing that function every year was to rank all the children.

  In November 2022, during the winter of her third year of junior high, Asuna was trapped in SAO, until January 2025, when she was freed by Kirito. That’s why this was her first new year’s greeting in the last 4 years. In the Kyoto-styled mansion at the head house, Asuna wore a long-sleeved kimono and repeatedly greeted her many relatives starting with her grandparents. In the end, she felt like she had become a reception NPC.

  Even so, meeting the cousins she hadn’t seen for a long time should’ve been a happy event, even though they were joyful about Asuna’s return as though it was a matter of their own, Asuna saw something she hated in their eyes.

  Her cousins all pitied Asuna. They felt sympathetic, sad that Asuna prematurely dropped out of the competition that had been going on since they were born. It was not that she was thinking too much. Asuna could easily tell, having read people’s expressions since she was young.

  Of course, the current Asuna had a completely different personality from that time. In that world, there was a boy who inexplicably changed Asuna. Therefore her cousins’, uncles’ and aunts’ pity only lightly swept against Asuna’s heart. Above all, she was a «swordswoman», a person who fought using her own power. That belief always supported Asuna’s heart, and didn’t change even after that world disappeared.

  But her cousins, who considered VRMMOs poisonous could not understand that value. The same went for her mother who was always slightly unhappy when she was with the main family.

  The obsession to go to a good university and find a good job didn’t exist anymore. Asuna really liked her current school and in another year, she could slowly find what she wanted to do. Of course, forming a family with a boy slightly younger than her in the real world was her final goal.

  — Asuna thought about that on one side, and continued to answer her relatives’ various question with a smile on the other. The most unbearable thing was being alone in a room with a cousin two years older than her on the last night in Kyoto.