Alicization Turning

by Reki Kawahara

  Eugeo looked confused. “What do you mean? Stay…cool?”

  For some reason, Kirito averted his eyes guiltily and cleared his throat. “Err, that’s…a mantra of the Aincrad style. I guess you could say it means ‘be calm.’ You can also use it as a farewell.”

  “Ahh, I see. I’ll have to remember that. Stay cool, stay cool,” Eugeo repeated. The unfamiliar phrase was in the same sacred tongue as the special Aincrad techniques, but he found it surprisingly comfortable once he tried it out. He repeated it over and over under his breath, until Kirito started looking awkward and clapped his hands together.

  “Well! The ten o’clock bells will ring soon, so I guess we should call it a night. As for tomorrow, I actually have an errand to run…”

  “Oh no you don’t, Kirito. You can’t slip your way out of this one,” Eugeo said, setting down his cup and glaring at his partner.

  On tomorrow’s day of rest, they were supposed to take their pages, Tiese and Ronie, on a little friendship-building field trip—which would still be within the school grounds. Based on Kirito’s reaction when the idea was brought up, Eugeo had been expecting him to come up with some reason to weasel his way out of it.

  “Listen, it’s been a month now since we started tutoring those two. Sortiliena was nice to you last year when you were her page, right?”

  “Whenever we weren’t training, yes. Wow…that name brings back memories. I wonder how she’s doing…”

  “Don’t go off into a flashback. My point is, now it’s your turn to be the good tutor. They’re coming over at nine in the morning, so make sure you’re ready by then!” Eugeo commanded, jabbing a finger at Kirito. He gave an easy affirmative and got up from the couch.

  They took their dishes over to the sink in the corner of the room, with Kirito rinsing off each piece while Eugeo handled the drying. In Rulid and Zakkaria, they had to draw the water from a well, but in Centoria, nearly all buildings had metal pipes that brought crisp, clean water with just the twist of a faucet. Eugeo thought at first it was the work of a Divine Object like the Bells of Time-Tolling, but it turned out that each district of the series had a huge reservoir well infused with wind-element sacred arts that applied pressure to push it through all the many pipes.

  So the water they got was always fresh, and they didn’t have to worry about it degrading in its bucket. If they’d had this back in Rulid, how delighted would the children be that they didn’t have to go out and draw water each morning? Eugeo considered this as he finished up washing and put the cups back in the cupboard.

  Kirito drank a few deep gulps straight from the tap at the end, wiped his lips, and yawned. “Okay, wake me up at eight o’clock, then. Good night, Eugeo.”

  “Eight is too late! Seven thirty! Good night, Kirito,” he replied, then remembered something and added, “Stay cool.”

  His partner turned to look over his shoulder with a smirk, just short of his bedroom door, and said, “Listen, I know I said that it’s a farewell of sorts, but not before bed every night. Save it for a proper parting.”

  “Sheesh, this saying is more complicated than I thought. Fine…see you tomorrow, then.”

  “Later,” Kirito said, waving and retreating into his room. Eugeo blew out the lamp on the wall and opened the door on the opposite wall.

  His bedroom was nearly half the size of the ten-man rooms at the primary dorm. There wasn’t a spot of dust on the floor after Tiese’s cleaning earlier. He changed into his white pajamas and flopped down onto his soft bed.

  As sleep snuck up on his mind, a portion of the earlier conversation came with it, for some mysterious reason.

  But that does mean they could try anything that doesn’t fall under the Taboo Index or school rules.

  It was what Kirito said about Raios and Humbert. Eugeo had agreed with him at the time, but it was a way of thinking he found very hard to accept.

  From his childhood until now, between the Rulid Village standards, the Zakkaria Garrison bylaws, and now the Swordcraft Academy rules, Eugeo had peered here and there for shortcuts. But he had never once attempted to find a way around the Taboo Index, the greatest set of laws in all of humanity—except that, yes, he had.

  It happened eight years ago, when the Integrity Knight landed at the village to take Alice away. Eugeo set upon the knight with the Dragonbone Ax in an attempt to save her—except that he couldn’t move a step. Even now, recalling the incident caused the inside of his right eye to twitch.

  He didn’t contain an ounce of rebellion against the Integrity Knights or the Church now, of course. The knight had taken Alice away as dictated by the law, so Eugeo would follow that same law to pass through the gate of the church and meet her again. That was why he had left home and come this far.

  But if Kirito was right, and Raios and Humbert would try “anything that doesn’t fall under the Taboo Index,” did that mean that the absolute book of laws, the system put in place at the very creation of the world, was merely something they reluctantly obeyed? In their heart of hearts, was the Taboo Index something they found annoying, distasteful?

  Surely even they wouldn’t go that far. The Taboo Index could not even be doubted. It was the ultimate tome of justice and fairness, equally applied to a common man and to an emperor.

  Eugeo bit his lip as he lifted his gaze to the ceiling, lit with the pale reflection of the moonlight. If one were allowed to defy the Index, then what did that say about his own failure to stop the Integrity Knight from taking Alice, and then spending the next six years chopping away at the Gigas Cedar? What had he been upholding, and to what purpose?

  The core of his right eye twinged again. He squeezed his lids shut, driving away the conflicted thoughts, and allowed himself to slide into an uneasy sleep.

  The Swordcraft Academy grounds, surrounded by tall steel fences, contained a forest that occupied a third of its space. The ancient trees were covered in golden moss, and the way the sun filtered down to the green undergrowth reminded Eugeo of home, but being located so much farther south meant that the wildlife was more varied. Here and there were new creatures he’d never seen up north soaking up the sun: tiny foxes, for instance, or long, narrow snakes colored blue-green. He’d been here over a year now, but the sight still fascinated him.

  “Are you listening, Eugeo?” said a voice at his side. He turned with a start.

  “Sorry, sorry, of course I am. You were saying?”

  “So you weren’t listening!” said the girl with long hair the color of ripe red apples—Eugeo’s trainee page, Tiese Schtrinen.

  He turned away from her eyes, which were the same brilliant color as her hair, and awkwardly said, “The…the forest was so beautiful, I got distracted…I haven’t seen some of these animals before.”

  “Is that so?” Tiese asked, following his line of sight and then shrugging when she saw what he was looking at. “Oh, that’s just a golden flying fox. You can find them in just about any tree growing around the city.”

  “Oh…That’s right—you grew up here, didn’t you? Is your house close by?”

  “My family lives in District Eight, so it’s a bit of a hike from District Five.”

  “Ah, I see…Hmm?”

  Eugeo paused and turned to Tiese. The primary trainee uniform, which he’d thought a bit ugly when he wore it last year, seemed strangely fresh and refined on her. That made sense; if they hadn’t been fellow students, frontier child Eugeo would never have any connection to someone like her.

  “Tiese, you’re a noble, right? I thought I heard that all the noble mansions were concentrated in Districts Three and Four,” Eugeo said politely.

  Tiese ducked her head in embarrassment, then shook it. “Technically, my father’s a sixth-rank peer…but we’re barely lower nobles as it is. Only the fourth-rank and higher nobles can live in the areas near the imperial government. There are lots of restrictions on the fifth- and sixth-rank nobles. Father likes to say, ‘I wish we were commoners; at least they don’t have to fear the hig
her nobles’ judicial authority’…Oh! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry…”

  She bowed, ashamed that she’d said something she considered rude to Eugeo, whose entire family tree was common.

  “Don’t worry about it. Besides, I thought all nobles had that judicial authority thing,” he said, recalling the Basic Imperial Law he’d had to study last year.

  “Not at all!” Tiese protested. “Judicial authority only extends down to fourth-rank. The lower nobles are actually subject to the judicial review of the higher ones. My father’s a scribe for the government, and he says that many of the fifth- and sixth-rank nobles working at the palace and government building have been punished for upsetting higher nobles over some insignificant thing or another. Of course, they’re civilized adults, so it’s not physical punishment but docked pay and things like that.”

  “Oh, I see…I didn’t realize things could be that hard for nobility, too,” Eugeo murmured, surprised.

  The red-haired trainee blushed for some reason and added rapidly, “M-my point is, being the heir to a sixth-rank noble house is noble in name alone. Our lifestyle is pretty much the same as any regular family.”

  “Ohhh…”

  Eugeo couldn’t affirm or deny this, only murmur vaguely. He considered the workings of the empire.

  The government’s Basic Imperial Law laid out the structure of Norlangarthian society. But because the higher Taboo Index covered all crimes and punishments, the imperial law mostly dealt with the regulations of the various classes of citizens—in other words, the rights of the nobles and the rights of the common people.

  In the law class of their first year (the only other academic subjects were sacred arts and history), a certain black-haired student had asked the elderly teacher why the empire had nobles and commoners.

  As a lower noble himself, the teacher was initially at a loss for words. Then he said firmly, “According to the prophecies passed down by the Axiom Church since time immemorial, one day the forces of darkness will invade through the four great passages: the Northern Cave, the Western Ravine, the Southern Corridor, and the Eastern Gate. In order to vanquish the subhuman scourge, all those in the four empires who have the calling of guards and soldiers must rise up to fight as the army of humanity. Our nobility hone their skill, learn sacred arts, and discipline their minds and bodies so that they may lead those forces.”

  While Eugeo was thrilled and moved by this answer, part of him was still conflicted. Two years ago, Eugeo and Kirito had fought a band of goblins in that very Northern Cave the teacher mentioned. Sadly, the goblin captain had knocked him out in the midst of the fight, but the terrifying appearances and raspy, bestial voices of the creatures were still vivid in his memory. He and Kirito decided never to mention the incident while at school. If they did, he suspected that half the female students might pass out in fright.

  Eugeo never wanted to repeat that experience, of course. So he was extremely impressed by the bravery of the nobles to stand at the lead and battle those goblins and the even more fearsome orcs and ogres.

  On the other hand, 380 years had passed since Stacia created the world. In all that time, the forces of darkness had never once invaded the human realm. The higher nobles of the four empires were freed from their daily labor, lived in huge mansions, and even used their judicial authority on lower nobles—all for this supposed preparation against an enemy they’d never seen and whose arrival was uncertain…

  Tiese seemed to read Eugeo’s mind. She sighed and said, “As I’m the eldest child, Father is hoping that by putting me into this school, I might be conferred a fourth-rank title by the time I take over the house, so that I won’t be subject to judicial authority. If I’m chosen as the academy’s representative and get far in the Imperial Battle Tournament, it might not be out of the question…But given that I was only eleventh on the entrance exam rankings, I suppose it might be pointless to hope.”

  She stuck out her tongue and grinned. Eugeo had to narrow his eyes, she felt so radiant to him. He’d come here on a very personal quest—to reunite with his childhood friend—but Tiese was learning swordfighting for the purpose of improving her family’s lot in life. In a way, she seemed to embody the true glory of nobility.

  “No, Tiese…You’re doing great. You worked so hard to make your father happy that you achieved a place in the top twelve primary trainees,” Eugeo told her, full of emotion.

  “Oh, n-no!” she shrieked. “I just got lucky that the demonstration portion happened to line up with my own expertise. And my rank came after a lifetime of training, ever since I was three years old. What you’re doing is way more impressive. It’s hard enough to get here on a garrison recommendation, and not only did you succeed at that, you’re now the fifth seat disciple. I’m actually really honored to be your page.”

  “Aw, geez…”

  He bobbed his head and lifted a hand to ruffle his bangs in embarrassment, then realized it was exactly the sort of thing Kirito would do and quickly took his hand down.

  Tiese claimed that it was an “honor” to be his page, but for her and Eugeo, and Ronie and Kirito, the matchups were more like the guidance of Stacia: in other words, total coincidence.

  The elite disciples determined the pages’ assignments by taking their pick, in order of rank. That meant that as first seat, Raios picked his page out of the top twelve new students first, then Humbert. Eugeo would be fifth and Kirito sixth. But oddly enough, the two talked it over and decided to wait until the end. They wanted the two students whom none of the other ten disciples picked.

  In other words, the two options left to them at the end were Tiese and Ronie. They both seemed at a loss for words when they realized it was two girls—Kirito looked especially uneasy—but Eugeo was ultimately glad for it. After all, the sole, pitiful reason none of the other disciples had chosen the girls was because they were the only sixth-rank nobles of the bunch.

  The girls had no idea what went on during the choosing process, and the boys had no reason to tell them. Eugeo was happy with Tiese as his page, and Kirito was…probably the same way with Ronie.

  So Eugeo cleared his throat and switched topics to his own experience. “Actually, I didn’t have an easy time getting into the academy. I was super nervous. In fact, it was half because of Kirito that I made it in and got to be an elite disciple this year…”

  Tiese blinked, her eyes the color of leaves reddening in the autumn. “What?! So Kirito’s…better than you?”

  “…I’m finding it very difficult to say ‘yes’ when you phrase it that way…”

  Tiese laughed pleasantly, and he looked over his shoulder, worried that his partner wasn’t actually at his page’s side after all. Fortunately, he soon heard Kirito’s voice on the breeze.

  “…So you see, when they attack with a high slash in the High-Norkia style, there are basically only two trajectories you need to prepare for—either straight overhead or diagonal from the top right. Anything else and they’ll need to change their footing, so you’ll have time to adjust accordingly. As for how to choose between overhead or top-right…”

  Well, it might be dry, but at least Ronie seems to be listening to him, Eugeo noted with a smirk, and looked forward again.

  So his reason for learning the sword was to reunite with Alice, and Tiese’s and Ronie’s were to improve the standing of their families. Meanwhile, at every opportunity, Kirito claimed that his goal was the same as Eugeo’s.

  Eugeo wasn’t going to doubt his friendship, but there were times that he felt that Kirito’s reason for practicing wasn’t to gain some tangible goal but purely to master the art of the blade. Such was the perfect mesh of Kirito’s personality and his Aincrad style. They were practically one and the same.

  So far, Eugeo had focused his attention solely on Raios and Humbert in preparation for the official matches next month. But it occurred to him now that, depending on how the matches played out, he might end up facing off against his good friend and teacher.

&nb
sp; He couldn’t win, of course. But more importantly, he couldn’t even imagine crossing swords with Kirito and giving him a serious fight. How would he summon strength into his blade? How would he execute his techniques against a friend…?

  “Oh, how about the side of the pond there?” Tiese said suddenly, pointing ahead and rousing Eugeo from his thoughts. He followed her slender fingers to a thick, short bed of grass along the bank of a beautiful pond. It was the perfect place to set out a picnic.

  “Yeah, that looks good. Hey, Kirito, Ronie! Let’s have lunch next to the pond here!” Eugeo shouted over his shoulder. His best friend gave him that typical dazzling smile and waved.

  The four of them laid out their blanket on the grass and sat down in a little circle.

  “Ahh…I’m so hungry,” Kirito complained, rubbing his stomach theatrically. The girls giggled and opened their picnic basket to set up the food.

  “Um, we made it ourselves, so I hope you like it,” said Ronie Arabel, primary trainee, as she shyly set out the plates. She wasn’t nearly as nervous as she usually was. Eugeo was hoping that through this leisure activity, she would finally realize that the black-clad elite disciple was hardly as imposing as he looked, and then eventually get used to his tutelage.

  Inside the large basket was a veritable feast of white-bread sandwiches packed with thinly sliced meat, fish, cheese, and herbs; fragrant fried chicken; and cake packed with dried fruit and nuts.

  Tiese examined the remaining life of each dish, then Ronie led a premeal prayer of “Avi Admina.” The words were barely out of their mouths before Kirito was reaching for the food. He stuffed a large hunk of meat into his mouth, closed his eyes, and chewed, then spoke in the tones of a teacher.

  “Ah, quite good. In fact, Ronie and Tiese, I might go so far as to say that this is the equal of the Jumping Deer.”

  “Wow, really?!” the girls exclaimed, their faces shining. They shared a glance and burst into smiles. Eugeo took a thin sandwich of dried fish and herbs and dug in.