Sword Art Online - Volume 8 - Early and Late Read online

  Kirito pulled the leash and turned the horse before slapping its hind. The black horse was released from rent, and the sound of it galloping away could be heard, overlapping the voice that seemed to lack courage.

  “Yo, PoH. Long time no see. You’re still in that strange get-up.”

  “…I don’t want to be told that by you.”

  PoH’s response had a killing intent that couldn’t be hidden.

  Johnny Black then stepped forward and obviously raised his voice.

  “You bastard…! Aren’t you the relaxed one!? Don’t you know the situation you’re in!?”

  Using his left hand to stop his subordinate who was swinging the dagger, PoH raised the chopper knife in his right hand onto the shoulder from behind and tapped.

  “It’s just like what this guy said, Kirito. The cool entrance is good, but even you can’t handle the three of us alone at the same time, right?”

  Schmitt, who was still paralyzed, clenched his left hand which was the only one that he could move.

  The situation was just like what PoH described. Even Kirito, who had top-notch fighting ability amongst the clearing group, couldn’t possibly beat the top 3 of Laughing Coffin at the same time. Why? At least he should have brought «The Flash» along too?

  “Well, it’s impossible.”

  Kirito calmly answered with the left hand on his waist, but he quickly continued.

  “But I already drank an antidote potion and brought many healing crystals, so I should be able to hang on for about 10 minutes. With this, I should be able to hang on until the reinforcements arrive. Either way, do you think the three of you can take on 30 people from the clearing group?”

  PoH, who was retorted back with a line that was almost the same, clicked his tongue under the hood. Johnny and XaXa looked around at the surrounding darkness in unrest.

  “…Suck.”

  Soon, PoH cursed and moved his right foot back.

  He snapped his left finger, and his subordinates went several meters back. Yoruko and Caynz were released by the red Estoc and knelt down weakly.

  PoH raised the chopper in his right hand and pointed it at Kirito, growling,

  “…«Black Swordsman». One of these days, I’ll make you crawl on the ground while your important comrades are rolling in the tragic sea of blood. Just wait and see.”

  After saying that, he spun the large chopper knife on his fingers skillfully before putting it into the holster at his waist. The black leather poncho swayed, and the leader of «Laughing Coffin» turned around before jumping off the hill nonchalantly while the other two subordinates followed suit.

  Johnny Black still looked like he was worried about the clearing group that was about to rush here as he quickly walked away, and the Estoc user under the ragged mantle—Red-Eyed XaXa took a few steps forward before turning back, staring at Kirito with the faint glowing eyes under the skull before whispering,

  “Looks, cool there. Next time, I will ride on a horse, to hunt you down.”

  “…Then, please practice as much as you can. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

  On hearing Kirito’s response, XaXa let out a deep breathing sound before chasing after his allies and disappearing.

  Part 12

  The three shadows walked down the hill and vanished into the night. I continued to stare at the orange cursor that came with the Searching Enemy Skill effect.

  I once met the leader of Laughing Coffin, PoH and exchanged words with him, but this is the first time I’ve met his subordinates; the poison dagger user with the childish attitude and appearance, and the Estoc user wearing a very tattered robe. Of course, their names weren’t indicated in the cursor. To play it safe, I intended to ask Schmitt their names later, but after thinking about it, we’ll probably be fighting for real the next time we meet. To be honest, I really don’t want to know the names of these two people when we will have to kill each other using swords.

  Thus, I’ve watched them until the Searching Enemy Skill cursor’s range could no longer detect them.

  Criminal players normally couldn’t enter the streets and villages that have the «Anti-Criminal Code» in them. Once they stepped inside the area, they would be attacked by a large number of NPC guards that were as strong as demons. All the transfer gates on each floor were all located in the main streets of each floor, so if those three wanted to move to another floor, they could only use a transfer crystal to move to ‘a village outside the area’ or use a very expensive teleport crystal or walk down the dungeon tower that were cleared to move up and down.

  I guess they probably used the first method, but this alone would mean that they had to use up 6 transfer crystals going to and fro, and to those guys, this isn’t a small expense. I swallowed my saliva and watch the 3 cursors disappear from my sights before subconsciously heaving a sigh of relief.

  Seriously, these are guys that I didn’t expect to show up at all. Those three guys actually knew that Schmitt —— a forward leader of the Divine Dragons Alliance Guild with the highest HP and defenses, would appear at this location.

  However, I guess it’s possible to know immediately where the source of this information came from.

  I turned my sights away from the wilderness that was covered in darkness, summoned the window and quickly responded to Cline, who should be bringing more than 10 people here, with, [Laughing Coffin escaped. Wait in town].

  I then take out the antidote potion from my pouch and put it in Schmitt’s hand. I looked at this hulking guy drink it down with trembling hands and looked away to the other two who were slightly further away.

  It couldn’t be helped that I had some sarcasm in my tone to the two players who dressed up as death gods and were looking really pale now.

  “Nice to meet you again, Yoruko-san, and…nice to meet you for the first time, Caynz-san.”

  Yoruko, who should have scattered into many polygons several hours ago and disappeared, looks up at me and grimaced.

  “I wanted to apologize to you after everything was over…you probably wouldn’t believe me even if I said so.”

  “Whether I believe you or not, I’ll have to see what you treat me. Let me say this first. Don’t give me some suspicious looking ramen or okonomiyaki.”

  Standing beside the dazed Yoruko, the stiff looking guy takes off his black robe —— the first murder victim of this ‘inside area’ incident Caynz lowered his head.

  “We’ve met for the first time —— probably not, Kirito-san. Our eyes did meet at that moment.”

  The words that were said in such a calm manner caused me to finally recall.

  “Speaking of which, it was really like that. When you died, ah, no, when you teleported away the moment your armor was destroyed, right?”

  “Un, that’s right. I had a premonition at that moment that you might see the truth behind this fake death.”

  “You’ve overestimated me. I was completely fooled.”

  This time, it’s my turn to give a wry smile. The air that had finally calmed down tensed up again with the clinking of the armor on Schmitt.

  “…Thank you for saving me there, Kirito…but how did you know that those three would come here?”

  I looked back at the giant’s face that was looking straight at me and pondered on what to say.

  “It’s not that I knew, but a possibility I deduced. If I had known that PoH would be the enemy, I would have run away in fear too.”

  This vague answer that came out unconsciously was not without a reason too.

  What I’m going to say is probably going to bring a huge shock to the three of them —— especially Yoruko and Caynz. The two of them who wrote the entire script and proceeded with the act with them as the lead didn’t notice that there was a ‘producer’ behind this hiding in a corner. I heaved a sigh and started to narrate with a voice as calm as possible.

  “…It was just 30 minutes ago when I felt that it was weird…”

  The incident ended, so I should hand things ov
er to Yoruko, Caynz and Schmitt.

  On the second level of an inn that had a clear view of a certain bar on the 20th floor, I said this to Asuna and leaned my back on the chair.

  They probably wouldn’t start killing each other. Then, it’s better of the person who started this ‘ring incident’ and triggered this ‘inside area incident’. I noted confidently, and Asuna answered ‘yeah’ and nodded in agreement.

  In the midst of the silence —— I suddenly felt that inside my chest, there was some really thin piercing feeling inside me.

  There should be something I had to think about. There was definitely something I had to think about. But I didn’t know what it was. It was that kind of anxiety.

  What Asuna said just now when we were watching the bar seemed to be related to the feeling right now. I just had this thought and inadvertently said to her. “Well…”

  “…What is it?”

  I looked at the KoB sub-leader-sama, who sat on the chair and looked up. I used about 80 percent of my analytical ability to analyze this sense of disagreement and asked a very thoughtless question.

  “Asuna, have you, gotten married before?”

  The response to this question was a bone-chilling stare with killing-intent. She also stood ready to attack with a tightly clenched right fist with body leaning forward.

  “JUST JOKING! FORGET ABOUT IT! IT DOESN’T COUNT!”

  I hurriedly shouted as I was grabbed by the front while my hands and head were shaking frantically, and I hurriedly added on.

  “It’s not like that, nothing really behind this…didn’t you just mention about marriage?”

  “I did say so. So what?”

  She continued to stare at me viciously. I started to tremble, but continued to force myself to say,

  “Erm…to be specific, it’s something you said…something romantic and plastic or…”

  “NOBODY SAID THAT!”

  In the end, Asuna nearly caused the Anti-Criminal Code to activate as she kicked my calf and corrected my memory.

  “I said that it’s romantic and pragmatic! I’m telling you, pragmatic means ‘realistic’!”

  “Realistic…as in marriage in SAO?”

  “That’s right. In a certain sense, there’s no room to hide as the item storage is shared.”

  “Storage…shared…”

  That’s the thing.

  These words were stinging my chest, the origin of that little sharp pain.

  Married players would have their item storage space unified company, and the quantity would be counted as for 2 people. While it’s very convenient, it’s very prone to marriage scams where rare items were stolen and the spouse ran away.

  I had been wondering about this system all this time.

  Overwhelmed by this overpowering anxiety, I asked again.

  “Then…what happens to the storage when a couple gets divorced?”

  “Eh…?”

  It seemed like it was completely unexpected as Asuna widened her eyes. She tilted her head slightly and placed her fist that was about to hit me under her chin before saying,

  “Erm well…I do remember there are a few options, like Auto-allocations, Item choosing or something like that…there are others, but I don’t actually remember…”

  “I want to know more about this. What should I do…oh yeah, Asuna, how about we try it?”

  I didn’t know if I could consider myself smart or lucky for not continuing.

  «The Flash» let out a killing intent that was many times stronger than before, holding the scabbard of the named blade «Lambent Light» tightly in her left hand. She smiled and said,

  “What do you want me to do with you?”

  “…How about we…send a mail to Heathcliff and ask him?”

  ——Just one minute later, I got a mail in response. On it, the item storage division during a divorce was clearly stated. As expected of the man who was basically a living encyclopedia of the system.

  Besides the Auto-value allocations and Item choosing Asuna mentioned just now, it seemed that there was an Auto-allocation by percentage. In other words, it even included the possibility of a divorce fee. This was a really pragmatic system.

  I continued to listen to Asuna, who was reading the message, and continued to think.

  Of course, these were options that can be chosen when both parties agree to a divorce. If they don’t agree with the allocation, the system would not allow them to divorce. However, it’s impossible for all examples of divorce in this world to be settled in such a rational manner. If it’s such that one side had to divorce but the other party doesn’t agree, there isn’t any family arbiter or something like that in this world.

  What answered this doubt was the last paragraph of words in Heathcliff’s mail.

  “…«On a side note, unconditional divorce can only happen if one party sets the item allocation ratio to zero percent for himself and 100 percent for the other party. In this example, once the divorce is set, any other items that can’t be stored will all drop beside the user. Kirito-kun, if someone asks for an unconditional divorce out of you, I suggest you head to a single-person’s room in an inn to hide for the time being»…that’s what it’s written.”

  Asuna, who finished reading the mail, gave a vague expression as she closed the window.

  I subconsciously stared at that face and continued to mutter a certain part of that message.

  0 for oneself, 100 for the other party. 0 for oneself…100 for the other party…

  “Ahh…!”

  What was a sting that felt out of place as it stung my chest suddenly became a sharp pain.

  A small little prick suddenly increased in size. My heart started to turn anxiety into doubt, which then turned into surprise thanks to belief, and finally materialized into fear.

  “Ah…ahhh…!!”

  I shouted as I kicked the chair down, standing up and grabbing Asuna, who was in front of me, on the shoulders. «The Flash», who was so shocked that she cringed back, let out a cry that was different from before.

  “Wait…what, what is it…don’t tell me you thought of something here…”

  I didn’t have time to think about the meaning behind these words and could only let out a moaning-like voice,

  “100 for oneself and 0 for the other party. There’s only one way to make this form of divorce.”

  “…Eh…? Wha, what did you say…?”

  I grabbed onto those slender shoulders tightly and pulled that petite face over to me before whispering in her ear,

  “By death. The moment the marriage partner dies, the storage will revert back to its original size. Whatever items that can’t be stored will drop. That means…that means…”

  My trembling throat swallowed saliva, and I continued,

  “…In other words, the moment the leader of the «Golden Apple» guild, Griselda, was killed by someone, the ring inside her storage wouldn’t go to the criminal…it’d go to either her marriage partner, Grimlock, or materialize and drop on the ground as an object.

  The hazel-colored eyes right in front of my eyes slowly blinked twice.

  The doubtful expression on her face suddenly became a serious chill.

  “The ring…wasn’t snatched away…?”

  Upon hearing this almost voiceless question, I couldn’t immediately respond. I moved my hands away from Asuna and stood up, leaning my back on the window sill before whispering,

  “No…it’s not like that. You can still say it was taken away. Grimlock, he took away the ring that existed in his storage. He wasn’t the culprit behind this illusionary ‘inside area incident’, but the culprit behind the ‘ring incident’.”

  The rapier dropped down from Asuna’s left hand, letting out a heavy metallic sound as it landed on the ground.

  “…I was still feeling strange about this just 30 minutes ago… I say, Caynz-san, Yoruko-san, those two weapons you two have…the spiked short spear and dagger, where did you get them from?”

  On hear
ing me ask, Yoruko exchanged looks with her partner, and answered,

  “…To carry out our ‘fake inside area PK’ plan, it was necessary for us to have a continuous pierce damage type weapon. We visited many weaponsmith-sans, but couldn’t find these kinds of unique weapons…if we ordered them, the weapons would have the name of the creator on it, and once someone asked the person who made the weapons, he would immediately know the ones who ordered it, us, the victims.”

  “In this situation, we could only contact someone who hasn’t been seen since the guild got disbanded…the husband of the leader, Grimlock-san. We explained to him our plan and requested him to make the necessary piercing weapons. We didn’t know where he was, but the friend list still had his name on…”

  Caynz continued on with the explanation and finally mentioned this name. I gathered my concentration on my ears and paid attention.

  “Grimlock-san, he didn’t actually approve of this. On the message he replied us, he just wrote that he hoped that she would have a good sleep. But after we continued requesting him, he finally made the two, no, three weapons for us, and the day the weapons were sent to us just happened to be 3 days before Kains-san died.”

  From these words, I could tell that Yoruko and Caynz viewed Grimlock as the victim when his wife was murdered.

  I took a long breath and forced out words from my word that would bring about a great shock to both of them.

  “…Unfortunately, the reason why Grimlock was against your plan wasn’t because of Griselda-san. The exaggeration of this ‘inside area PK’ would bring about a lot of attention, and may end up with somebody discovering the truth. That’s because, when it’s not a divorce, but death that removes the linked storage…what will happen to the things inside?”

  “Eh…?”

  It seemed that Yoruko didn’t quite understand the meaning behind this sentence as she tilted her head slightly.

  It’s not unreasonable though. No matter how affectionate couples were in Aincrad, it’s really rare for people to take the next step that was marriage, and there would be fewer people who’d divorce. Also, it’s extremely rare that the reason was because one side died. Let alone me, even Asuna believed that the ring drop definitely landed in the killer’s hand the moment Griselda-san was killed.