Sword Art Online - Volume 2 - Aincrad (Side Stories)

by Reki Kawahara

  “Hey, what’s with that! Don’t just stop after figuring it out yourself!”

  “This cave isn’t a trap. It’s the dragon’s nest.”

  “Eh- Eeh?”

  “In other words, that ingot is the dragon’s excretion. Its feces.”

  “Fe…”

  While my cheeks were spasming, I dropped my glance at the ingot at my chest.

  “Geeee”

  Without thinking, I threw it back at Kirito.

  “Woah”

  That was repelled back by Kirito skillfully with his fingertips. After childishly throwing it at each other repeatedly, it finally came to a closure with Kirito making quick work of expanding the item field to store the ingot.

  “Well, anyway, we accomplished our goal. Now, all that’s left is……”

  “If only we could get out of here…”

  The both of us sighed as we exchanged glances.

  “For the time being, there’s no choice but to try everything that we can come up with.”

  “I guess so. Aah, if only I had wings like the dragon…”

  The moment I spoke that. Realizing something, I left my mouth agape, at a loss for words.

  “…What’s up, Liz?”

  Facing towards Kirito, who was peering at me, with his head tilted to the side.

  “Hey. You said this place was the dragon’s nest, right?”

  “Ah. As long as there are feces, that’s…”

  “That’s not important! Dragons are nocturnal, now that it is morning, shouldn’t it be returning to its nest…”

  “…”

  For a short while, my glance met with Kirito’s, who became silent, and then both of us looked up into the sky at the entrance of the hole. Exactly at that moment…

  Far up, high in the air, within the circular-cut white light, a blurred black shadow was born. That shadow grew ever bigger as we stared at it. It took only an instant before I could soon see a pair of wings, a long tail and four feet armed with claws.

  “It’s… it’s…”

  We backed off together. However, of course, there wasn’t any place to escape to.

  “It’s here———”

  Both of us shouted while drawing our respective weapons.

  The white dragon, that swooped down into the pit, noticed our presence and made a high pitched cry, stopping just before hitting the ground. Its red eyes with vertical pupils were filled with clear hostility towards the intruders of its nest. However, there was nowhere to hide at the bottom of the narrow hole. I prepared my mace while suppressing my nervousness.

  Similarly, Kirito readied his one-handed sword and moved in front of me, quickly saying.

  “Listen, stay behind me. Drink a potion immediately after losing even a little HP.”

  “Y- Yea…”

  I only nodded obediently this time.

  The dragon opened its vast mouth and roared once more. Its wings created a gust of wind which made snow whirl into the air.

  “Bitan!” “Bitan!” The dragon’s long tail was striking the ground, each hit digging a deep ditch in the snowy surface.

  Brandishing the sword in his right hand without pause, as to gain the initiative, Kirito suddenly ceased his movement just as he was about to charge forth.

  “…Ah… Maybe…”

  He let out in a low voice.

  “Wha- What’s the matter?”

  “No…”

  Without answering my question, Kirito kept his sword into its scabbard, and abruptly turned around and firmly embraced me with his left arm.

  “Ehh!?”

  Without understanding anything, I panicked and I was further raised up to Kirito’s shoulder.

  “H- Hey, what are you— Wahh!!”

  A “Zuban!” rang out with the impact, and together with that, the surroundings’ scenery went blurry. Kirito dashed towards the wall with violent force. Just before crashing, he did a great jump, and just like yesterday’s attempt to escape, he began running on the curved wall surface. However, as if there was no intention to ascend, the orbit stayed level. The dragon’s head heartily turned and continued targeting us, however Kirito continued running at a speed exceeding what the dragon could follow.

  A few seconds later, when Kirito finally landed on the bottom of the hole, my eyes were completely spinning. Finally opening my eyes after blinking them countless times, before me was the rear of the dragon. It had lost sight of us and was restlessly swinging its head left and right.

  Just as I thought that Kirito was planning to attack from behind, he surprisingly quietly approached the dragon— With his right hand stretched out, he forcefully grabbed the tip of the dragon’s swaying tail.

  At that moment, the dragon let out a high-pitched cry. A shriek of surprise— or maybe that was just my imagination. Being increasingly unable to comprehend Kirito’s intentions, I was just about to let out a scream too.

  All of a sudden, the white dragon spread out both of its wings and began a sharp ascend at terrific speed.

  “Oof!”

  The air struck my face. Without even the time to think about that, our bodies flew out in midair with a force like that of being shot out of a bow. While we held onto the dragon’s tail, it shook left and right as it ran up the pit. The circular bottom of the pit became distant very quickly.

  “Liz! Hold on!!”

  In response to Kirito’s voice, I clung onto his head in a trance. The sunlight that shone onto the surrounding ice ridges grew steadily brighter with the pitch of the sound of the cutting winds changing subtly— At the moment I thought the world exploded in a white radiance, we were flown outside of the hole.

  The moment I opened my squinting eyes, a bird’s-eye view of the vast 55th floor spread out below me.

  Directly below me was a beautiful cone-shaped snowy mountain. Slightly further off, a small village. Beyond the vast snow field and the thick forest, the pointed roofs of every house of the main district were joined together. The scene where all of these were glittering, struck by the radiant sunlight, even made me forget about the terror, and I unintentionally cheered.

  “Waa…”

  “Yea—!!”

  Kirito too shouted loudly, and let his right hand go from the dragon’s tail. He carried me like a child and entrusted himself to the inertia, dancing in the air.

  The flight was only for several seconds, yet it felt like ten times that. I believe I was smiling. The overwhelming light and winds were sweeping through my heart. My emotions were being sublimated.

  “Kirito— You know, I!!”

  I shouted with all my heart.

  “What!?”

  “I, I like you!!”

  “Come again!? I didn’t hear that!!”

  “It’s nothing!!”

  Clinging on tightly to his head, I burst out in laughter. Eventually, this moment which felt almost like a miracle ended, we closed in to the ground. Turning about one last round, Kirito greatly widened his legs and took up a landing posture.

  The snow went, “Bafun!”, as it flew up into the air. A long glide. Pushing our way through the white crystals like a snow-plow as we were slowing down, we finally stopped near the mountain summit.

  “…Fuu.”

  Kirito took a breath of air and dropped me onto the ground. With reluctance, I turned my head and unwrapped my arms from him.

  The both of us looked towards the direction of the big hole together; the dragon which seemed to have lost sight of us slowly flew circles in the skies.

  Kirito placed his hand on the sword on his back, drawing the blade slightly, but immediately soon returned it to its scabbard with a cling sound. With a light smile on his face, he faced the dragon and said softly.

  “…You must have been troubled by all of those turning up to hunt you till now. Once the method of getting the item is spread, the people coming to kill you should be gone too. So from now on, live carefree.”

  —Facing a monster, which only moved according to the system configu
red algorithm, and doing such a thing; that was something I would have thought of as stupid up till yesterday. But for some reason, I somehow felt that I could meekly welcome Kirito’s words into my heart now. Reaching out with my right hand, I gently grasped Kirito’s left hand.

  The both of us silently watched over the scene as the white dragon turned its head about, before giving a single clear cry and descended into its nest. Silence arrived.

  Before long, Kirito glanced this way, and spoke.

  “Well then, let’s get back?”

  “I guess so. “

  “Want to go with the crystal?”

  “…No, let’s walk back.”

  I answered while smiling and stepped forward holding Kirito’s hand. I then realized something and looked at Kirito’s face.

  “Ah…The lantern and bedroll and such, we left them behind, didn’t we.”

  “Now that you mentioned it… Well, it’s okay. Somebody might make use of it.”

  We exchanged glances and laughed, this time for sure, we began to slowly walk the mountain trail, following the road home. I took a quick look around my nearby surroundings, the skies were clear, without a single cloud in the sky.

  “I’m back!”

  I vigorously opened the door of my dear home.

  “Welcome back.”

  Despite the store-tending female NPC standing at the counter merely giving a polite reply to my greeting, I waved my hand and turned about, looking around my store. I had only been away for a mere one day, but strangely enough, it seemed fresh.

  Kirito, who had bought take-out from the same stall as yesterday, entered the store behind me, with a hot dog held in his mouth.

  “It’s almost noon after all, so you should had just eaten it in that stall.”

  As I voiced out my complaints, Kirito grinned as he waved his left hand, bring out a window.

  “Before that, let’s get to making it already, the sword.”

  Deftly manipulating the inventory, he materialized the silver ingot. Carefully catching ahold of that— ignoring the origin of the item for the moment— I nodded.

  “That’s right, let’s do it. Come over to the workshop.”

  Opening the door behind the counter, the thudding sound of the waterwheel became conspicuously louder. Pulling down the lever on the wall, the bellows began to move, delivering air in. The furnace immediately began to glow a vivid red.

  I softly dropped the ingot into the furnace, and turned back towards Kirito.

  “A single-handed straight sword is fine, right?”

  “Yep. I’m counting on you.”

  Kirito nodded as he sat on the circle stool meant for visitors.

  “Understood. —Just a word of warning, but the end result has an aspect of randomness to it, so don’t expect too much from it, alright.”

  “We can just go get it again if it fails. This time with a rope.”

  “…Yea, a long one.”

  Recalling that grand fall, I unwittingly let out a smile. Dropping my sight to the furnace, I noticed that the ingot seemed to have been sufficiently burnt. Taking it out with pliers, I placed it onto the anvil.

  I picked up my favorite smithing hammer from the wall, did the setup on the menu, and took another glance towards Kirito’s face. In reply to his silent nodding, I smiled, and grandly lifted the hammer over my head.

  I forged my spirit in as I hit the metal gleaming crimson; along with a clear “Kan!” sound, bright sparks generously scattered about.

  Within the section on smithing in the Reference Help, about the manufacturing process, “According to the type of weapon being created, and the rank of metal used, the ingot will need to be hit a certain number of times.” was all that was used to describe it.

  In other words, during the deed of striking the metal with the hammer, there was no possibility for the player’s skill to affect anything; this should be how it should be read, but there were all kinds of rumors and occult-like theories floating about SAO, that the precision of the striking rhythm and the fighting spirit of the blacksmith is able to manipulate the result, such goes the firmly ingrained opinions around.

  I think of myself as a rational person, but I only put faith in this theory through my long time of experience. Therefore, I would lose any excess thoughts when producing arms, concentrating my awareness within the right hand throwing down the hammer, striking without stop with my mind blank— that is what I believe.

  However.

  While hitting the ingot, producing refreshing clanking sounds, various thoughts whirled about in my mind now, unable to leave.

  If the sword was made successfully, and the request finished— Kirito will naturally return to the clearing at the frontlines, and there should not be much chances to meet up. Even if he comes for maintenance on the sword, that would be once every ten days at best.

  Something like that— I don’t want something like that. I felt a voice shouting so within myself.

  While hungering for the warmth of another— no, that was why, that was the reason why I hesitated shortening the distance with any particular male player up until now. I was afraid of the lonely winter within me completely changing with love. That was not true love, just a delusion created by an illusional world; that was what I thought.

  But last night, while feeling the warmth from Kirito’s hands, I realized, that those feelings of hesitation were the illusional thorns that binded me. I am myself— The blacksmith, Lizbet, and at the same time, Shinozaki Rika. Kirito was the same. Not a character from a game, but an actual living human being. Hence, my love for him; these feelings are real too.

  If I manage to hit up a satisfying sword, I’ll confess my feelings to him. That I want him to be by my side, that I want him to come back to this home from the labyrinth, everyday, that’s what I’ll tell him.

  By the time the ingot was forged, its radiance shining ever brighter, the feelings within myself too, seemed to have been firmed up as well. I felt my feelings flowing out from my right hand, streaming into the weapon born from the hammer.

  —And so, that moment has finally arrived.

  I do not know how many times has it occurred thus far— probably somewhere between two hundred to two hundred and fifty times— immediately following the sound of the hammer, the ingot let loose a noticeably dazzling white glean.

  The rectangular object changed its shape bit by bit as it shone. It began growing palely from its front and rear, and next, a bulge that resembled a hilt swelled outwards.

  “Ohh…”

  Letting out murmurs of wonder in a low tone, Kirito got up from the chair, and approached. As we watched over side by side, the object generation was completed in several seconds, finally revealing its shape as a single long sword.

  Beautiful; it was a truly beautiful sword. As a one-handed longsword, it was rather gorgeous. The blade was pale, and though not to the extent of a rapier, it was slender. As if it had inherited the property of the ingot, it could be seen as extremely slightly transparent. The blade was colored a blinding white. The grip was silver, with a slight tinge of blue.

  «A World Where The Sword Symbolize The Player»; as if to support that promised phrase, the variety of weapons set up in SAO were outrageously numerous. If one were to list down the names peculiar to the weapons included in each category from the start, it was said that it would likely be thousands of lines long.

  Unlike a normal RPG, the diversity of those distinguishing names spread out further as the rank of the weapons increased. Lower ranked weapons, for example, for one-handed longswords, «Bronze Sword», «Steel Sword»; for those with dull names like those, countless numbers of those swords exist in this world, but as for the weapons of the highest rank such as the one present here right now; taking something like Asuna’s «Lambent Light» for example, there is likely only one in the world, literally a one-of-a-kind object.

  Of course, rapiers with the same level of ability, regardless of whether they are player-made or dropped from m
onsters, probably do exist. But each of them has a different name, possessing different appearances. And with that, high level weapons have a certain charm to them, becoming something like a partner with whom you share your spirit with.

  As the weapon’s name and appearance are decided by the system, even us, the manufacturers do not completely understand it. I lifted up the sword glittering atop the anvil— or at least, I tried to; I was surprised by the weight, unsuitable for its elegant outwards appearance. It has a physical strength requirement that is not inferior to the black sword Kirito holds, «Elucidator». Straining my back, I brought it up before my chest with a cry.

  Reaching out with the finger on my right hand supporting the base of the sword blade, I gave it a single click. I looked into the popup window that rose to its surface.

  “Well, its name seems to be «Dark Repulser». It’s the first time I’ve heard of that, so I don’t believe it’s mentioned on the information store’s list at the moment. —Here, try it out.”

  “Aah.”

  Kirito nodded and reaching out with his right hand, he gripped the sword’s handle. He lifted it up with actions that seemed unaffected by its weight. Waving his left hand to draw out the main menu, he manipulated the equipment figure, targeting the white sword. With this, the sword would be equipped to Kirito in the system, allowing for its numerical potential to be confirmed.

  But Kirito immediately closed the menu, and having taken several steps back, he switched it to his left hand, swinging a few times with swishing sounds.

  “—How is it?”

  I asked without delay. Kirito stared at the blade for a short moment in silence, but— soon, he smiled with a broad grin.

  “It sure is heavy. …It’s a good sword.”

  “Really!? …Alright!!”

  I assumed a triumphant pose with my right hand without thinking. With that hand reached out, I bumped it against Kirito’s right fist.

  It has been a while since I felt this way.

  Long ago— during the time I did sales from a street stall at the main streets of the tenth floor, I felt this way when my recklessly made arms were praised by customers. I’m glad I became a blacksmith, that was what I would honestly feel, from the bottom of my heart for that instant. When I went on to master my skills and move on to do business with only the high leveled players, I had forgotten about this feeling before I realized it.