Selka who had been silently pushing the wheelchair so far came to a stop while saying, “Let’s take… a break”, waking up Alice from her musing once again.
Her left hand gently touched her little sister’s back while she panted with sweat glistening on her brow.
“Thank you, Selka, I will push from here on.”
“I wanted to push, all the way, until the fork…”
“You already pushed a hundred mel more than the previous time, didn’t you? That helped out a lot.”
She found out from the village that situations like this would be where an elder sister, older by many years, should give her little sister some spending money, but unfortunately, she did not have even a single copper coin in her pockets. Losing even a mere shear would be horrible in her current financial situation, so she carries around money only when out to shop.
To make up for that, she brushed Selka’s bright brown hair. Her little sister smiled with her breathing calmed down, but Alice noticed faint gloom on her expression and tilted her head.
“What is it, Selka? Is something bothering you?”
She asked while holding the wheelchair’s grips and Selka opened her mouth after brief hesitation.
“…Erm… there’s another request to deal with the trees at the cleared land from uncle Barbossa for you, big sister…”
“What, is that all? There is nothing for you to worry about, thank you for delivering the message.”
Alice replied with a smile, but her sister’s crestfallen expression lifted with a discontented pout.
“But… those people care only for themselves. Don’t you think so too, Kirito?”
She questioned Kirito, sitting on the wheelchair, but the youth looking downwards gave no response, naturally. Still, Selka’s tone turned increasingly intense as though he was in agreement.
“Neither Barbossa-san nor Redack-san bother trying to let you stay in the village, so how could they still get you to help out when they’re in trouble? I know I am the one delivering the message, but you don’t have to accept it if you don’t want to, big sister. I will be sure to bring food from home for you.”
After letting a giggle escape from those words, Alice pacified her sulking little sister.
“Though your feelings make me happy, there is really no need to be bothered over it, Selka. I like the cabin and I feel blessed enough, staying close to the village. …I will go immediately after Kirito is done with his lunch. Where is it?”
“…The cleared land in the south, he said.”
Selka softly replied and spent a short while silently walking beside the wheelchair.
With just a little more to the fork heading towards the log cabin, she suddenly spoke in a firm tone.
“Sister, my time as a sister apprentice will end next year and I will receive some wages, even if it’s not that much. When that time comes, you can stop helping those people, okay? If it’s for you, big sister, and Kirito, I… I will always…”
Alice gently hugged Selka whose voice came to a stop there.
She felt her tawny hair on her cheeks, a sensation much the same despite the clearly different color, and whispered.
“Thank you… But I feel blessed enough simply with you close to me, Selka…”
Seeing off Selka, who waved her hand endlessly in reluctance to part, Alice returned to the log cabin with Kirito and quickly prepared lunch.
Though she had become somewhat capable of housework recently, her skill at cooking alone remained stubbornly lacking. Compared to the Fragrant Olive Sword, the kitchen knife bought from the village’s general store seemed as unreliable as a toy and twenty or thirty minutes would pass in the blink of an eye as she nervously sliced the ingredients.
Fortunately, Selka had delivered that freshly baked pie today, so she cut it into smaller portions and fed Kirito. By bringing the pie to his mouth with a fork and waiting patiently, his lips would eventually open slightly, accepting it into his mouth. With that, Kirito would slowly, slowly chew as though replaying his memories of how he used to eat.
While Kirito’s mouth moved, she would eat the pie filled with apples and cheese herself, savoring its taste. It was likely Sadina Schuberg, the village chief’s wife, who made it. Mother to Selka, and Alice.
When she still lived at the Central Cathedral, she could freely dine on the rare delicacies from around the Human World squeezed on the table in the large dining hall. Sadina’s homemade pie both looked and tasted humble in comparison, but it seemed several times more delicious. Alice did feel a little peeved that it seemed to get more reaction out of Kirito than her own cooking, however.
Upon finishing the meal and the cleaning up, she sat Kirito on the wheelchair once again and placed the two swords on his lap.
The front garden shone golden in the afternoon sunlight as they left the cabin. The days were growing shorter lately and it would swiftly turn to dusk should her mind wander. Reaching the southern fork with a quick pace, she pointed her feet towards the west this time round.
The forest came to a stop shortly after she walked straight, with the wheat fields ready to be harvested stretching out. The densely packed village of Rulid could be seen beyond the heads of grain, swaying excessively under their weight. The spire shooting noticeably high up in the middle of the red bricked roofs, erected in rows, was that of the church where Selka lived.
Neither Selka nor Azariya, the sister entrusted with the church, knew the Central Cathedral managing the Axiom Church organization in the Human World’s four empires was now no more than a fanciful illusion with no master. Still, the small church that served also as an orphanage stayed in operation without issue.
Even with the cathedral descending into chaos with the death of the highest minister, there was no apparent impact on the lives of the masses. The Taboo Index functioned as always, still constraining the masses’ awareness. Could they truly take up arms and fight to protect the Human World?
They would likely obey if ordered by the Axiom Church or the emperors. However, that alone could not bring them victory against the forces of darkness. Knight Commander Bercouli must be aware of that grave reality at the very least.
What would decide the course of battle in the end was neither the priority level of weapons nor the usage authority of arts, but the strength of one’s will. Kirito’s struggles as he upset that hopeless difference in battle potential, defeating numerous integrity knights, Chief Elder Chudelkin, and even Highest Minister Administrator, served as proof for that.
Taking on the looks given by the villagers laboring in the wheat fields, entwined with vigilance and anxiety, with her chest puffed out, Alice whispered to her master in swordsmanship in her heart.
—Oji-sama, for the masses living in the Human World, peace might not be something to protect but something granted for all of eternity.
—And the ones who nurtured that idea must be… the Axiom Church, the Taboo Index, and us, the Order of the Integrity Knights.
Even at this very moment, Knight Commander Bercouli should be toiling away, training the forces of the four empires in Central Capital Centoria and producing their equipment. Or perhaps he was already mobilizing troops to the «Great East Gate» the frontier of the Eastabarieth Empire where the fighting will be fiercest. He must be wanting for even an additional knight around, both as an assistant with practical experience and as military capability after war breaks out.
—That said, I am now…
Going through the wheat fields while sunken in her contemplation, she exited at the cleared land spreading out towards the south of the village. Stopping the wheelchair right before the dug black soil, she scanned through the vast plot of land.
It was said that a massive forest larger than the one in the east, where Alice and Kirito lived in, stood here until a mere two years ago.
However, thanks to Kirito and Eugeo felling the Gigas Cedar, the «demonic tree» towering above all else as it ruled over the forest and endlessly absorbed sacred powe
r, the village’s men could now engross themselves in expanding the fields, or so Selka had said with an exasperated look.
A gigantic pitch-black stump remained right in the middle of the cleared land and to its south, vigorous chopping noises rang out from the axes of tens of villagers. The potbellied man standing in a corner, issuing booming instructions all about without an axe in his hands, was the master of the largest farm in the village, Nygr Barbossa.
Though somewhat reluctant, Alice still pushed the wheelchair over the narrow, beaten path. Kirito made absolutely no reaction even as he passed along the stump, the vestiges of the enormous tree he once fell; his head remained hung down as he held the two swords.
The first to notice the approaching pair were young men from the Barbossa family, resting atop the trunk of a freshly fallen tree. The trio, seemingly fifteen or sixteen years old, watched Alice, who had a scarf wrapped over her blonde hair, without reserve before shifting their gaze towards Kirito in his wheelchair. Deep jeering could be heard as they exchanged words in an undertone.
Upon ignoring them and passing through them, one of the youths shouted out in a drawl.
“Uncleee, she’s hereee.”
Nygr Barbossa, who was screaming everywhere with his hands on his waist, vigorously spun around at that and showed a smirk on his greasy, round face. His large mouth and narrow eyes reminded her of Chief Elder Chudelkin somewhat.
Still, Alice returned the best smile she could muster and gave a slight nod.
“Good afternoon, Barbossa-san. I heard you had work for me, so…”
“Oooh, ooh, if it isn’t Alice, I’m glad you’re here.”
His two hands spread out, approaching haltingly, as his round tummy quivered; Alice was convinced he desired an embrace, but after a look at the wheelchair before her, he fortunately gave up on that.
In exchange, Nygr stood a mere fifty cen on her right before spinning his huge frame and pointing at a towering, large tree between the forest and cleared land.
“Look, you can see it, can’t you? We’ve spent all our time on that frustrating platinum oak since yesterday morning, but this pathetic amount is how much progress was made even with ten adult men swinging their axes at it.”
The index finger and thumb on his right hand formed a smallish semicircle.
The large white and brown tree with a trunk of a mel and a half across had spread its roots deep into the earth, stubbornly rejecting the laborers. Two men swung their large axes in turn even now, but the notch carved in its trunk was shallow indeed, at less than even ten cen.
Sweat poured down the men’s bare upper bodies like waterfalls. Their chests and arm muscles were developed well enough, but their handling were rather stiff, perhaps due to the lack of need to wield an axe in their daily activities.
One of the men had his right leg slip as she watched and struck a wrong spot at an angle. The axe snapped at the middle of its handle and unrestrained laughter from the man’s co-workers immersed him as he fell hard on his buttocks.
“Good grief, what are those blockheads doing…”
Nygr moaned and looked at Alice once again.
“At that rate, I have no idea how many more days will it take for that one tree. And while we were stuck here with that, Redack’s men have already expanded the land by twenty mel in every direction!”
After uttering the name of the next most influential farming household after the Barbossas, Nygr kicked away a pebble at his feet. His breathing had grown distraught, but all of a sudden, a full smile appeared on his face as he let out a wheedling voice.
“And that’s how it is, I know our agreement was for once a month, but could you treat it as an exception just this once and lend me your strength, Alice? You probably don’t remember, but I spared… no, treated you to sweets time after time when you were young. You were such a cute little miss back then, you see, no, no, of course, that’s not to say that’s any different now…”
Alice interrupted Nygr’s words while holding back her sigh.
“I understand, Barbossa-san. I will treat this one particular time as an exception.”
Getting rid of trees and rocks, like the platinum oak before her eye, obstructing the land clearing was Alice’s current sacred task—no, her temporary source of income.
Naturally, it was not work officially assigned to her. There was an incident about a month into her peaceful life on the outskirts of the village where a gigantic fallen rock sealed the road towards the cleared land to the west. The episode of Alice rolling that rock away on her own as she came across it spread through the village as a rumor and before she knew it, they depended on her for assistance on tasks like this.
It was a fact that money was necessary if she were to continue living with Kirito, so she was thankful for the offers. Still, as Selka was worried that the men would bother her with an endless stream of requests if she took on the physical labor without complaint, she decided to limit her help to once a month for each farming household.
Nygr should be bound by every single rule laid in the Taboo Index, the fundamental laws of the Norlangarth Empire, and those of the village, but it came as no surprise to her that he would send two requests within the month despite that being a violation of the agreement. Though he had not broken through the «seal of the right eye»—what was «Code 871» according to the highest minister’s words—like Alice or Eugeo, it was likely he simply felt Alice to be beneath himself. He must felt no need to naively abide by some agreement made with an ex-convict living in some hut on the outskirts of the village.
Even with those thoughts in her mind, Alice nodded at Nygr once again before parting from the wheelchair. She took note of Kirito’s status, but he seemed unconcerned by the clamor in the surroundings. After telling him that she would be right back in her heart, she walked towards the large platinum oak.
The men who noticed Alice showed smirks or blatantly cluck their tongues. However, there were now few unaware of Alice’s strength, so they distanced themselves from the tree without a word en masse.
Taking their place before the great tree, Alice quickly drew a seal of sacred letters with a finger on her right hand and brought out its «Stacia Window». Its quantity of Life was quite a figure, as expected of one that ten adult men would have trouble against. Using a borrowed axe as usual would prove ineffective against that priority level.
Returning to the wheelchair in a jog for the moment, she bent down and whispered softly.
“I apologize, Kirito. I would like you to lend me your sword for a little while.”
She gently touched the black leather sheath with her right hand and felt his left arm tense up slightly as it held the sword.
However, after patiently looking into his blank eyes, the strength eventually left his arm and a hoarse voice escaped his throat.
“…Aah…”
This was likely a fragment of his memories rather than her feelings actually getting through to him. What controlled Kirito now were not his thoughts but the memories resident in his breast.
“Thank you.”
Whispering so, she slowly brought up the black sword from his arms. After affirming that Kirito remained docile, she returned back to the platinum oak.
But still, this was a splendid tree. Though it could not compare to the great ancient trees rising around Central Capital Centoria, it must be over a hundred years old.
Alice gave an apology in her heart before stabilizing her footing.
Her right leg forward and her left leg back. She gently placed her right hand on the grip wound with black leather of the «Night Sky Sword» unevenly set on her left hand. She measured the distance to the tree with her left eye.
SAO 15 - Alicization Invading Page 5