Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Alicization Beginning Read online

  “We didn’t slack off, really! We already finished our morning job.”

  Alongside Eugeo’s quick excuse, Kirito, behind him, reacted accordingly with “Yeah yeah.”

  Alice’s pupils emitted a strong light to the two again, then her cheeks softened.

  “If you have enough energy to fight after finishing, I wonder if I should ask Garitta-san to increase the workload for you two?”

  “A-Anything but that!”

  “Just kidding. ——Well, let’s quickly have lunch. Today is so hot, if we don’t eat it soon, it’ll go bad.”

  Alice then put the wicker basket on the ground, took a large sized cloth from inside, and spread it out. She selected a flat ground and laid the cloth down, on which Kirito quickly took off his shoes and jumped over to sit on it. Eugeo sat down after him, then, in front of the two hungry workmen, the food was lined up one by one.

  Today’s menu was salted meat and baked bean stuffed pie, black bread cheese sandwiches and sliced smoked meat, several kinds of dried fruit, and milk squeezed in the morning. Even though the food aside from the milk could be well preserved, the intense sunlight of the seventh month could still rob «Life» away from the food without mercy.

  Alice gave the ‘hold on’ command to Kirito and Eugeo, who were nearly diving into the food, as if she issued it to a dog, then quickly sliced the symbol in the air and confirmed the «Window» of each food starting from the bisque jar containing milk.

  “Uwa, the milk has ten minutes remaining, the pies also have not more than fifteen minutes. And I even ran here…… well, then we’ll just have to eat quickly. But make sure to chew it properly too.”

  When the Life of the food was exhausted, it became the so-called «Rotten Food», of which even a single bite would cause terrible symptoms such as stomach ache to those without a very strong stomach. Eugeo and Kirito were already irritated enough and started biting the big sliced pie without saying a word.

  The three of them continued chewing their food without talking. It was obvious with the two hungry young boys, but Alice also made one wonder where she put all the food she ate with her slender abdomen. The food was cleared up one by one. First was the three slices of pie, followed by nine slices of black bread, then the jar of milk was depleted, after that, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

  “——How did it taste?”

  It was Eugeo who answered Alice’s question in his serious tone, as she cast a side glance toward them.

  “Yeah, today’s pies are good. Your skills sure have improved, Alice.”

  “I-Is that so? I still feel there was something missing in the taste though.”

  Embarrassed, Alice said while facing sideways, Eugeo exchanged a wink with Kirito before smiling. Their boxed lunch had been made by Alice since last month, but even as it was declared so, the difference between the food made with help from her mother, Sadina-obasan, and without was obvious. They understood that techniques couldn’t be acquired without practicing for a long time, and that applied to everything —— however, Eugeo and Kirito also understood that it was better not to let it out of their mouth.

  “Anyway——”

  Kirito said while pinching a yellow marigo from the dried fruit bottle.

  “With the trouble it takes to make delicious boxed lunch, I want to eat it at a slower pace. I wonder why the heat has to make the food go bad……”

  “Why? Hmmm……”

  This time, without hiding his bitter smile, Eugeo shrugged in an exaggerated manner.

  “You said a weird thing huh? Summer making Life go down faster is just how things work. Be it meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, they become bad immediately if you leave them alone, right?”

  “I know that, I asked why, didn’t I? If it’s winter, even if you left a raw salted meat outside for many days, it still won’t go bad, would it?”

  “That’s…… because winter is cold.”

  Kirito bent his lips like an unreasonable child at Eugeo’s answer. His black pupils, which were unusual in the northern region, shone with the light of disobedience.

  “That’s right, it’s just as Eugeo said, the cold will make the food long-lasting. Not just in the winter. If it’s cold, even during this season, we could still keep the food for a long time.”

  This time Eugeo was dumbfounded, he lightly kicked Kirito’s shin with his toe.

  “Don’t say it like it’s easy. Cold? Summer is hot, that’s why it’s summer. Are you thinking about using the absolutely taboo weather control art to call snow down? The next day the Integrity Knights from the capital would fly here to get you.”

  “Y-Yeah…… Nothing we can do……? I feel like there is a way, some easy way……”

  While Kirito muttered that with his frowning face, Alice who was quietly listening to their conversation while using her finger to curl the tip of her pigtail hair up until now said,

  “It’s interesting.”

  “W-What do you mean, Alice?”

  “No, not about using the banned art. It doesn’t need to be at a scale enough to cover the entire village, but just small enough to be able to put into this boxed lunch basket is good enough, isn’t it?”

  On hearing what she said as if it was perfectly normal, Eugeo unintentionally turned to Kirito, who was nodding. A smile floated on Alice’s face before she continued,

  “There’re a few things which are cold even in summer. Like water from the deep well, or the leaves of Silve. If we put those in the basket, wouldn’t it become cold inside?”

  “Ah…… that’s true.”

  Eugeo folded his arms and thought.

  At the center of the open space in front of the church, there was a fearfully deep well which had been dug since Rulid village was founded, the water which was drawn was so cold that it could make hands go numb even in summer. Also, in the northern forest, there were some Silve trees growing, its leaves were cold and when squeezed, released a pungent aroma, but it was very useful as treatment for bruises. Probably having a jar of water from the deep well, or wrapping the pie with Silve leaves would make it possible to keep the boxed lunch cold while carrying it between places.

  However, Kirito, who also slightly paused to think, slowly shook his head and said,

  “Just that, I think it won’t work. The well water becomes lukewarm just a minute after it is drawn, Silve leaves might keep its coolness longer, but I don’t think it could keep the insides of the basket cold for the duration to cover the distance from Alice’s house to Gigas Cedar.”

  “So, do you have any other methods?”

  Alice, whose good idea was shot down, asked while pouting. Kirito scratched his black hair in silence for a while, then suddenly said in a low voice,

  “Ice. With a lot of ice, it’d be more than enough to keep the boxed lunch cold.”

  “Oh you……”

  Alice shook her head in amazement.

  “It’s summer now. Where exactly can you find ice? Even the grand market in the capital won’t have it!”

  She said in a tone like a mother scolding her unreasonable child.

  Eugeo, on the other hand, could recall the bad feeling, as he had seen Kirito making this tight-lipped face before. This childhood friend, when such a light floated in his eyes, when he spoke in such a tone, Eugeo knew from experience that Kirito was thinking about something up to no good. Inside his head, he recalled when Kirito took the honey of the emperor bee to the eastern mountain, or when he broke the jar of milk which had expired a hundred years ago in the church’s cellar, those scenes floated and disappeared in quick succession.

  “W-Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? There’s nothing wrong with eating in a hurry anyway. Also, if we don’t start our afternoon work soon we’ll be late going back.”

  Eugeo said while quickly moving the empty plates back to the wicker basket, as he wanted to break off this disturbing topic. However, when he looked at Kirito’s pupils which were shining brilliantly, as if he had some idea, he ine
vitably realized that his fear had already become reality.

  “……What is it, what plan do you have this time?”

  His question was mixed with resignation, Kirito smiled before answering,

  “Hey…… Looong ago, Eugeo’s grandfather told us a story, remember?”

  “Hmm……?”

  “Which story……?”

  Aside from Eugeo, Alice also tilted her head slightly.

  Before Stacia summoned Eugeo’s grandfather to her side two years ago, a lot of legends were packed behind the white beard, while sitting in the rocking chair in the garden, he always told various stories to the three children sitting near his legs. The strange stories, exciting stories, scary stories, there were hundreds of those stories, so Eugeo didn’t know which story Kirito was referring to. Then his black haired childhood friend coughed while raising his index finger, before saying,

  “Summer Ice, it’s nothing but that, right?　[Bercouli and the Northern White……]”

  “Oi, stop it, you’re joking, right?”

  Eugeo interrupted without listening to the end while swinging his head and hands violently.

  Bercouli, even among the ancestors who founded Rulid village, was the strongest sword user, who served as the first generation’s guard chief. But as it was an old story from three hundred years ago, there were only a few remaining tales of his bravery, what Kirito mentioned, and even among those tales, this was one of the most bizarre tales.

  On a certain day during the peak of summer, Bercouli noticed a big clear rock floating in the river to the east of the village. Upon picking it up, it turned out to be a lump of ice, Bercouli, in his amazement, walked upstream along the river. Before long, he arrived at the end of the world, the «Mountain range at the Edge», as he continued following the narrow river, he faced a huge cave opening.

  Bercouli stepped into the cave against the blowing freezing wind, after he overcame various dangers, he arrived at the largest hall. What he saw there was a huge white dragon, which had been said to have protected the Human World’s boundary. The figure of the dragon, which curled its body over the countless amount of variously sized treasure, made Bercouli realize it was sleeping, but even with his courage, he still approached it on tiptoe. Among the treasure, he discovered a beautiful long sword, and he really wanted to own it no matter what. He softly took the sword without waking the dragon up, and ran away as fast as he could —— that was the plot summary. The title was　[Bercouli and the Northern White Dragon]

  Even for the mischievous Kirito, surely he wouldn’t be thinking about breaking the village’s rules to go beyond the Northern pass and searching for the real dragon, would he? While half praying, Eugeo fearfully asked,

  “You mean, we’ll watch Ruhr river and wait for an ice block to float down…… is that right?”

  However, Kirito snorted before simply saying,

  “Waiting like that, the summer will just end before we can get anything. I don’t want to imitate Bercouli and go find the dragon. In that story, it mentioned the icicles at the entrance of the cave, right? Just two or three of those would be enough for testing on the boxed lunch.”

  “You, like I said……”

  Eugeo became speechless for several seconds, then he turned to his side, looking for Alice to substitute him in objecting this reckless boy’s ideas. Then he noticed that her blue pupils were shining with a brilliant light, he dropped his shoulders in his mind.

  Eugeo and Kirito were the number one brat duo of the village, they made elderly people sigh and scold the duo on a daily basis. However, only few knew that their many misdeeds were secretly aided and abetted from behind by Alice, the village’s number one honor student.

  That Alice currently had her right index finger at her lips, as she remained silent for several seconds, suddenly blinked and declared,

  “——That’s not a bad idea.”

  “N-Not you too, Alice……”

  “Certainly, only children were prohibited from going beyond the Northern pass. Try to recall properly. The exact sentence of the rule said, [Without adult supervision, children must not go play beyond the Northern pass.]”

  Eugeo and Kirito unintentionally exchanged glances.

  The village’s rules or «Rulid Villager’s Standards» as its formal name was the old writing half in paper and half in leather, its two cen thickness was kept inside the village chief’s residence. It was the first thing all children who went to church school had to memorize. And after that, after having to hear their parents and the elderly keep saying ‘In the rules’, ‘According to the rules’, the rules were ingrained in their heads by the time they turned eleven —— was what they thought, however, it seems that Alice accurately remembered all of the text, word for word.

  ……No way, don’t tell me even the empire’s fundamental law which is two times thicker has also…… no, even perfectly memorizing the village rules is already……

  While Eugeo’s glance was filled with such thoughts, Alice cleared her throat once, then continued in a teacher-like tone,

  “Isn’t it right? We aren’t going there to play, that’s forbidden by the rules. But searching for an icicle isn’t playing. Prolonging the Life of the boxed lunch isn’t just for us, it also helps people who work on the fields and pastures, right? So this can be interpreted as a part of work too.”

  After the flowing speech, Eugeo exchanged glance with Kirito again. Although his partner’s black pupils initially seemed to have some slight hesitation, but it was immediately melted away like an ice block floating in a river in summer——

  “Yeah, that’s right, absolutely right.”

  While folding his arms, Kirito nodded with a serious face.

  “Because it’s work, even if we go beyond the pass until the «Mountain range at the Edge», it still doesn’t break the village’s rules. Look, Balbossa-san is also always saying, right? ‘Work isn’t just that which was ordered, if you’re free then look for work!’, like that. If they got angry, we can just refer to his saying, then it should be fine.”

  The Balbossas were a wealthy family which owned the village’s largest wheat fields. The current head of the house, Nigel Balbossa was a fifty year old man who still had a good body; even though his house could harvest many times more than the rest of the village, he still wasn’t satisfied, whenever he met Eugeo on the street, he always greeted Eugeo with a sarcastic ‘Still can’t cut down that annoying Cedar yet?’. Rumor said that he requested the chief for priority to cultivate the new land once Gigas Cedar has been cut down. Eugeo’s response was, ‘Before that happens, your Life would already be long gone,’ of course he only said so in his mind.

  Even though Kirito’s idea to use Nigel’s words as an excuse for going beyond Northern pass was attractive, but having served as the restraint of the group for so long made Eugeo unable to stop saying ‘But’.

  “……But, going to the Mountain range at the Edge isn’t breaking just the village rules but ‘that’ too, right? Even we go past the pass and arrive at the base of the mountain, we still can’t enter the cave……”

  Upon hearing that, Alice and Kirito made a serious face.

  «That» which Eugeo said was the absolute law which governed all people of the vast Human World, its authority was far beyond the «Norlangarth North Empire Fundamental Law», let alone the «Rulid Villager’s Standard» —— Its name was «Taboo Index».

  It was issued by the «Axiom Church», the great tower which seemed to reach the heavens, located in capital city Centoria. The thick book which was bound using a pure white leather was provided not only to the north empire that Eugeo lived in, but also at least one to every town and village in the east, south, and west empires.

  The Taboo Index, unlike the village rules and the empire’s laws, just as its name implied, was the list of «Things one does not attempt». It started with a wide range of taboos like «Treason against the Church» or «Murder», «Thievery» until the subdivision entries like the lim
it of beasts and fish to be caught each year, or food that can’t be fed to the livestock, the number easily exceeded one thousand entries. For all children attending school, aside from learning to write and calculate, the most important subject was to memorize all of the Taboo Index. —— Or rather, not teaching the Index in school is considered to be breaking the Index.

  Although the Taboo Index and the Axiom Church possessed such tremendous authority, but there seemed to be land it couldn’t extend to. Beyond the «Mountain range at the Edge» which enclosed the world was the Land of darkness —— or «Dark Territory» in the sacred words. Therefore, traveling to the Mountain range at the Edge was already prohibited by the Index in the first place. To Eugeo, it was meaningless to only go to the base of the mountain without going into the cave.

  Alice would find the way to challenge the Taboo Index like always, but thinking like that is already a great taboo in itself. Eugeo stared at his other childhood friend while thinking so.

  Her long eyelashes brightened under the noon sunlight filtered through the foliage like a very fine line of golden thread, Alice sank into silence for a while —— Soon after, she suddenly lifted her face, then said with the usual disobedient light shining in her pupils,

  “Eugeo. Your prohibited term is also inaccurate this time.”

  “Eh…... you’re lying.”

  “I’m not lying. What is in the Index is like this: The first chapter, third passage, eleventh paragraph,　[Not anyone is to go beyond the Mountain range enclosing the edge of Human World]……Beyond the mountain, naturally it means «Climb beyond». It doesn’t include going into a cave. Also, our objective isn’t to go beyond the mountain range, but to obtain ice, right? There is no　[Do not search for ice in the Mountain range at the Edge]　written in the Taboo Index at all.”

  To the words gushing smoothly out in Alice’s sweet and clear voice like a church’s smallest bell, Eugeo didn’t say another word. Instead, he felt what Alice said was somewhat correct.

  ——But, up until now we haven’t gone to the Northern pass before, we have only went along the Ruhr river until the twin ponds, I don’t know what lies beyond that, this is the season that has many annoying bugs by the waterside too……