November 29, 2022 Twenty-three days had passed since the Day of Beginnings.
Of the nearly ten thousand players trapped inside Sword Art Online, more than nineteen hundred were already dead.
Among the roughly one thousand players who had participated in the Closed Beta Test, the death toll had also surpassed three hundred.
The player population was falling at a terrifying rate.
Even now, nearly six thousand people remained inside the Town of Beginnings, clinging to the hope that someone in the real world would eventually find a way to rescue them.
Only a small fraction had been willing to leave the safety of the city and venture into Aincrad.
And despite the enormous price already paid, only a few dozen members of the front-line clearing group had gathered in Tolbana, the current frontier town.
Their exploration of the First Floor Labyrinth was finally approaching completion, and there was a good chance that they would locate the Floor Boss room within the next few days.
At the moment, however, Shindo was sitting in a dessert café near Tolbana’s fountain plaza.
He had just sent Asuna and Mito a message containing a map of the town and his current location and was now waiting for them to arrive.
The difference in their levels had been too large when they last parted, so Shindo had chosen not to remain with them.
His immediate priority had been to grow stronger as quickly as possible and push through the First Floor Boss.
At least during the early stages of the game, that was one of the few things he could accomplish through his own strength.
That did not mean he had simply left Asuna and Mito to fend for themselves.
Shindo had compiled what he remembered from the beta into several long messages and sent the information to them.
With Mito, a former front-line beta tester, guiding her and Shindo’s information filling in the gaps, Asuna should be able to grow far more smoothly without having to suffer through so many situations where she could do nothing but endure whatever happened to her.
Sometimes hardship taught people important lessons.
But in Shindo’s opinion, fighting a genuine boss and surviving it could teach someone far more than pointless cruelty ever would.
After leaving Horunka Village, Asuna and Mito had not come directly to Tolbana.
Instead, they had stopped at Razer Village, which lay roughly halfway between the two towns, and only set out for Tolbana the day before yesterday.
Across the table, Aiko and Yuuki were leisurely enjoying cake and black tea.
Each girl held her cup in both hands and took small, careful sips, their eyes practically sparkling.
Genuine happiness had finally appeared on their faces for once.
Apparently, tea and sweets were more than enough to please even these two relentless grinding maniacs.
Ever since forming a party with Shindo, the three of them had followed what could only be described as a hellish training schedule.
They rested as little as possible and refused to return to town unless they had exhausted the recovery crystals they were carrying.
That routine had continued all the way until yesterday.
Aiko and Yuuki had thrown themselves into leveling with the kind of desperation one might expect from people trying to save themselves before the end of the world.
During that entire stretch, Shindo had rarely seen either sister behave as openly girlish as they did now.
For all three of them, this was one of the few genuinely peaceful moments they had enjoyed since entering SAO.
While Shindo remained focused on his system menu, Aiko and Yuuki exchanged a glance before apparently deciding to entertain themselves at his expense.
“Shindo-kun, are the friends you’re waiting for girls?” “Yeah.” Shindo answered without looking away from the menu.
“Are they cute and pretty?” “They are.” “Are they your type?” “Yeah, they’re my type—” Shindo’s fingers stopped.
He slowly looked up.
“Wait.
What exactly are you two asking me?!” Aiko smiled innocently.
“Your true feelings, of course.
And the information might make useful bargaining material next time.” Shindo immediately adopted his most serious expression.
“Aiko-chan, that’s a dangerous way of thinking.
You’re going to corrupt Yuuki-chan.” Completely unconcerned, Aiko wrapped both arms around her twin sister.
“Yuuki thinks so too, don’t you?” Yuuki nodded in agreement while sipping her tea.
There was still a small dab of white cream stuck near the corner of her mouth.
Shindo sighed and changed the subject.
“You two really like the desserts here, huh?” “Mm…
I wouldn’t say it’s exactly because we like them,” Aiko replied.
“The flavor just feels special.” “Special?” “Because we’ve never tasted anything like this before.” Shindo looked between them.
“You mean neither of you has ever had cake in the real world?” “No.
Never.” Aiko’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly, and before Shindo could follow up, she added, “But I can’t tell you the reason, Shindo-kun.
Sorry.” “That’s fine.
I wasn’t going to force you to explain.” Shindo could already make a reasonable guess.
There was no need to push them now.
He could ask when they were closer and when the sisters themselves were willing to talk.
A new mail notification suddenly appeared on his system menu.
Shindo turned back and opened it.
The sender was Mito.
As expected, she was letting him know that they had arrived in Tolbana.
“They’re here.
I’m going to meet them.
Want to come?” He looked toward Aiko and Yuuki.
“Mm.” Neither girl objected.
They promptly finished the rest of their tea in one go and rose from their seats.
The three met Asuna and Mito at the fountain plaza.
The number of people accompanying them, however, was slightly different from what Shindo had expected.
Two other players were following behind Asuna and Mito, one male and one female.
Judging from the atmosphere between them, Shindo suspected they were already romantically involved in the real world and had simply carried that relationship into SAO.
“Shindo-kun!” Asuna and Mito waved from a distance as they approached.
“Been a while, Asuna, Mito.
Everything okay?” “Mm.
And we really have to thank you for the maps and strategy information you sent us,” Asuna replied.
“The trip from Razer to Tolbana went really smoothly.” Both girls looked cheerful.
It seemed they had finally managed to move past what had happened in the western forest.
“Glad it helped.
I was worried some of the beta information might’ve become useless after the full release.” Shindo’s attention then shifted to the two players behind them.
He recognized both immediately.
Yuna.
And Nautilus—the player who would later be known in the real world as Eiji Nochizawa.
Naturally, recognizing them on sight was not something Shindo could openly reveal.
“Hello.
Nice to meet you,” the girl said first.
“My name is Yuna.
I’m not especially good at fighting…” Her eyes were open and sincere as she smiled.
“But if there’s a song you’d like to hear, I can sing it for you.” The young man beside her followed with a much more restrained introduction.
“Nautilus.
I specialize in swordsmanship.
If there’s fighting to be done, I should be useful.” “Nautilus has really good combat instincts,” Asuna added.
“And Yuna’s special «Chant» Skill helped us a lot on the way here.” Mito nodded in agreement.
At the same time, both she and Asuna noticed Aiko and Yuuki standing behind Shindo.
“Mito and I met them in Razer Village,” Asuna explained.
“They’d gotten caught up fighting a field boss, so we…
well, we helped them out the same way you helped us before.” For some reason, Mito blushed slightly when the subject came up.
Shindo did not notice.
His attention remained on Yuna and Nautilus.
“My ID is Shindo.
Sword specialist, Level 13.” He stepped aside so the others could see the sisters more clearly.
“I’m Aiko,” the older twin said, “and this is my younger twin sister, Yuuki.
We’re both sword specialists, and we’re one level below Shindo-kun.” Once Shindo, Aiko, and Yuuki finished introducing themselves, the seven of them had at least become acquainted.
Shindo glanced once more at Yuna and Nautilus.
Thanks to the knowledge from his previous life, he had a reasonable understanding of what both of them were capable of.
“We’ll probably be facing the Floor Boss soon.
Every reliable person we can add to the group improves our chances.” He checked the time.
“It’s already getting late, so since we’re the ones who’ve been staying here, why don’t you all spend tonight at the farmhouse we’re renting?” Then he added the real bait.
“There’s a pretty nice farm just outside Tolbana with a hot spring bath.
They even have unlimited milk afterward.
I think you’d like it.” Shindo made absolutely no attempt to conceal the temptation in his voice.
“Really?!” Asuna reacted exactly as expected.
Shindo smiled.
“I may be a ‘problem student,’ but I don’t lie about things this important.” Asuna smiled at his self-deprecating remark, while the very idea of a hot spring had already filled her with anticipation.
“But aren’t we supposed to be preparing for the Boss?” Nautilus remained unusually serious.
Perhaps after spending so long in constant danger, he had grown accustomed to maintaining a state of tension and found Shindo’s casual suggestion difficult to understand.
“Sure, but you still need to relax once in a while,” Shindo replied patiently.
“Keep a string pulled tight forever and eventually it’ll snap.” His expression became a little more thoughtful.
“And the longer we stay here, the easier it becomes for the boundary between this world and reality to blur.” He looked upward, as though he could somehow see all of Aincrad above them.
“We still have ninety-nine floors over our heads.
We’re not clearing all of them overnight.” That much was undeniable.
Even in the original timeline, the front-line players had needed two full years to reach the Seventy-Fifth Floor.
If Kirito had never uncovered Heathcliff’s true identity, clearing Aincrad completely would naturally have taken even longer.
People needed to fight in SAO.
But they also needed to live.
The two were not actually contradictory.
It was simply a lesson that different people learned at different times.
In the end, Nautilus and Yuna did not refuse.
With Shindo leading the way, everyone returned to the farmhouse that had become his temporary base in Tolbana.
The seven of them gathered in the café on the ground floor and ended up having something resembling a small tea party.
Yuuki had initially been a little reserved around so many unfamiliar people, but she seemed to take an immediate liking to Asuna.
She even chose the seat beside her, and as their conversation continued, Yuuki gradually became much more animated.
At some point, Yuna began singing softly.
The song was LiSA and Uru’s “Saikai.” For some reason, it fit the atmosphere almost perfectly.
The romantic feeling of the original song seemed to take on something broader here, becoming a more elusive emotion that was difficult to name.
In this strange and distorted world, the melody made it feel as though the connections between them still possessed something unquestionably real.
As the song rose toward its chorus, Yuna lifted one hand and wordlessly invited the others to join her.
Perhaps carried along by the mood, the girls ended up taking one another’s hands.
Shindo and Nautilus, meanwhile, sat at a small bar counter in the shadows with cups of coffee in front of them.
Compared with the laughter on the other side of the room, both boys were remarkably quiet.
“Nautilus, do you think enjoying ourselves like this in a death game is wrong?” “Yes.” Nautilus answered without hesitation, then looked toward Yuna.
“But she looks happy.” His gaze returned to Shindo.
“Is this what you’d call the composure of someone strong, Shindo?” Shindo raised his cup to his lips and let the bitter liquid spread across his tongue.
“There’s a saying about enjoying life while you can, Nautilus.” He rested one arm against the counter.
“Even beta testers die because traps were changed after the beta.
They die after getting surrounded by Little Nepents near beginner villages.
And when we finally start challenging Floor Bosses…
more people will probably die there too.” His voice remained calm.
“The point is that nobody in SAO can guarantee they’ll keep surviving forever.” Shindo looked at him directly.
“I’m no exception.” He lifted his coffee cup slightly toward Nautilus in a small toast.
“This isn’t about forgetting reality and drowning ourselves in pleasure.
It’s just a little downtime after fighting under extreme pressure.
We don’t live like this every day.” A faint trace of exasperation entered his expression.
“How long do you think Aiko, Yuuki, and I spent grinding like we were in hell just to reach our current levels?” He tapped the edge of his status window.
“My level is proof enough.” Then Shindo glanced toward Yuna.
“But you have someone you desperately want to protect.” Nautilus’s expression shifted.
“That can make you stronger,” Shindo continued, “but it can also make you weaker.” He turned back toward him.
“So which one do you want it to make you, Nautilus?” After saying that, Shindo poured himself another cup.
The so-called coffee in SAO was little more than a drink with something resembling the aroma of cocoa and an overwhelming bitterness.
Personally, Shindo preferred the taste of low-level healing potions.
Their strange mixture of bitterness and citrus always reminded him of the lemon tea he had loved in the real world.
“Do you have someone you want to protect, Shindo?” Shindo smiled.
“Yeah.” He paused briefly before continuing.
“But it’s not just one person, and I don’t want to limit it to one person either.” His expression remained perfectly natural.
“If I had to put it more accurately…
I want to protect everything I can.” “Everything?” Nautilus stared at the boy sitting across from him.
It was an outrageously grand thing to say, yet Shindo spoke as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
“I take back what I said earlier, Shindo.
Compared with what you were saying before, that sounds much more like the confidence of someone who’s strong.” “I think it’s about time we wrapped this up, Nautilus.” Shindo did not respond to the observation.
He simply set down his coffee and walked toward the others as their little gathering approached its end.
“It’s getting late.
Meeting new friends is great, but we should stop here for tonight.
Tomorrow we’re going back to fighting MOBs around the Labyrinth.” “Shindo-kun…
you’re surprisingly terrible at reading the mood.” Aiko sounded deeply dissatisfied.
She gave him an openly pleading look, while Asuna and the others also seemed reluctant to end the evening.
“No.” Shindo rejected them without mercy.
“Who was it that barged into my room before sunrise and started making noise about going to the Labyrinth to grind levels?” He folded his arms and raised one finger as though presenting an irrefutable argument.
“And besides, being bad at reading the mood isn’t exactly a crime!” “Shindo-san is like one of those teachers who checks the dorm rooms at school,” Yuna whispered, shrinking behind Mito.
“He’s unexpectedly scary when he gets serious.” “Nautilus, Yuna doesn’t seem to agree with your assessment of me.” Shindo immediately turned toward him for assistance.
“Shindo, those are completely different issues.” Nautilus refused to be dragged into the argument.
Then he looked toward Yuna.
“But he’s right about this part.
Resting occasionally is what lets us face harder battles afterward.” Shindo was just about to nod approvingly when another notification appeared.
New mail.
From Argo.
It had been several days since Shindo last contacted her, back when they exchanged information about the Labyrinth.
Curious, he opened the message.
Although Argo had sent it, the contents were not actually about her.
Someone had asked her to contact Shindo and inquire about purchasing information on the equipment he was currently using.
Shindo’s expression immediately became one of recognition.
Then he refused without hesitation.
“Diavel, right?” He knew exactly what the other beta tester was thinking.
“Tell him I understand what he’s trying to do, but if beta testers are going to compete, we should do it the beta tester way and compete openly.” Shindo paused before adding another message.
“And Argo, look into the current number of player deaths for me.
Don’t add this one to your old debt.
I’ll pay in col.” Argo took quite a while to answer.
Eventually, her reply appeared.
[I’ll pass your message along to Diavel.
Also, that’s 2,000 col for the delivery fee and 20,000 col for the investigation.
No bargaining!] Shindo stared at it for a moment.
“Yeah, yeah.”