Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running

by Reki Kawahara

  “Then, what's wrong?” “Is it your imagination?”

  Their voices, their mischievous faces, the number and locations of the freckles on their faces were completely identical. Kirito and Eugeo pondered as they mumbled, looking back and forth.

  As for why a Human Unit would have twins... or even the extremely rare triplets, even «Master» could not understand completely. After several consecutive cases of Units dying happened in the surrounding areas, the number of twins born increased. These are probably part of the human population adjustment system, and if that were really the case, there would not be a need to make everything the same. However, there were no flaws or strengths that could be used to determine between them.

  —Even so, the «Observer» would only see the Unit's Status Window that would be indicated normally...in their terms, it would be the «Stacia Window», so it would be easy to see through the twins' switching their ribbons. In other words, Kirito's instinct was correct.

  Believe in your own instincts. The observer who was lying at the root of the black hair muttered. Kirito did not hear this voice, but he raised his left hand to point at the girl with the red ribbon first.

  “Good morning, Telulu!”

  Then, he pointed at the girl with the blue ribbon.

  “Good morning, Telin!”

  The moment he finished, the twins stared at each other and exclaimed, “You got it!” They moved their hands that were hidden behind them up till now to the front, each holding a rectangular rattan basket.

  “Here's your reward for guessing it correctly. Breakfast's Mulberry pie, you know!”

  “We were very enthusiastic in picking the mulberries, you know! We spent a day picking them so that both of you can win in the tournament today!”

  “Oh. I'm happy. Thank you, Telulu, Telin.”

  Kirito put the wooden barrel beside his feet and reached his hands out to pat the two girls on the head. The twins showed smiles as they stared at Eugeo with a slightly worried expression.

  “...Are you unhappy, Eugeo?”

  “Don't tell me you hate mulberries?”

  Immediately, the boy with the flaxen-colored hair hurriedly waved his hands.

  “No, it's not that. I like it too! ...It's just that I thought of something in the past. Thank you.”

  On hearing that, the twins showed a smile of relief and ran off to the round table placed between the stables and the rangeland. Kirito looked away from the girls who were preparing breakfast with crisp movements as he walked to Eugeo and patted him on the back.

  “We have to win the tournament today and quickly rise to the top ranks in the army so that we can go to Centoria next year... To Alice. Right, Eugeo?”

  Eugeo nodded hard at this soft but powerful voice.

  “Yeah, that's right. The five months I've spent learning the «Aincrad-Style» from you was for this goal, Kirito.”

  This was a one-lined conversation, but there were many significant messages in them.

  Amongst these messages, there was a term the observer, who had lived for more than 200 years as a caster, had not heard of— That inconceivable sword style name.

  And also, there was the ultimate goal of the duo— The Unit called «Alice».

  If the Alice mentioned here would be the same Unit as the Alice that existed in its memories... These two's wishes would be so distant and vague.

  That was because she was in a very, very high place in the «Centoria Cathedral» located in central Centoria...

  “Kirito! Eugeo! What are you two doing!”

  “Hurry up! Or else Telin and I are going to finish breakfast!”

  The twins who finished their preparations exclaimed, and Kirito hurriedly pushed Eugeo's back as he ran over.

  This jerking interrupted the observer's thoughts and caused it to snap back to reality. For the past 5 months, it had been reminding itself many times that thinking was not the job of an observer. But it always found itself thinking in the end... No, it was worried about the future of these two.

  It clung hard onto the black hair strand and sighed for the umpteenth time today.

  After a noisy breakfast, the twins left them with the words, “We'll cheer for you!” and left.

  They set the ten horses into the rangeland and cleared the stables. Normally, they would use a wooden sword to start practicing, but it was different today. The duo washed their bodies and hair beside the well —at this moment, the observer would leave Kirito's head and hide in the treetop nearby— and they changed out from their work-clothes into their own clothing. They then headed to the main farmhouse not too far away.

  The wife of the farm owner, Toriza Wilde had a very straightforward personality as a female owner of the farm. That was probably why she heartily hired the two of them who looked a little weird. It was the same today as she encouraged Kirito and Eugeo, who came to greet her, with a hearty voice and prepared their lunch boxes. As she sent them off, she quipped, “If you fail, forget about being soldiers in this town. Be Telin and Telulu's husbands!”, and this statement caused the two young men to show very complicated smiles.

  They left the main house and walked down 3 kilolu on the path leading to the city. Both of them basically never talked to each other, and such a situation itself had never happened before. Most likely, it was due to nervousness. Every year, on the 28th of August, the town of Zakkaria would hold the «Norlangarth North area Swordsmanship competition», and there would be people from more than 50 surrounding towns or villages taking part. Basically, all the participants would either be people with the Sacred Task «Guard», and Kirito and Eugeo would be the only ones without such a role.

  There would only be two people who could join the Zakkaria army forces, one from the east and west block respectively, and both of them must not fail if they wanted to fulfill their dream, which would be the greatest hurdle for them. However, the problem would be what would happen if both of them were assigned to the same block, and the two young men probably did not consider this at all—

  As they continued to let their thoughts run wild, the cracking sound of a Smoke grass, *BON*, could be heard.

  It poked its head out from Kirito's front scalp, and saw the streets that were on the other side of the short hill, made from reddish-brown sandstone. This would be the largest town in the NNM area, Zakkaria. At this point, its population was 1950, and it was less than 10% of Central Centoria, but this day would still be really buzzing in this largest tournament that occurred every year.

  As they walked to the West gate, Eugeo whispered,

  “...In fact, if I had not seen it for real, I might really suspect whether Zakkaria town is real.”

  “Why?”

  The boy with the flaxen-colored hair smiled as he heard Kirito's question,

  “That's because... Basically none of the adults of Rulid Village have even seen Zakkaria. The ex-guard chief Doyke had the right to take part in the tournament, but he never exercised it until he retired. I would never even get the chance to go to Zakkaria or something as the «Gigas Cedar Cutter». If it were a place where none of us in the village had went to before, and a place I couldn't see...”

  “So you verified it for yourself.”

  Kirito muttered in place of Eugeo, and then smiled as he added on.

  “It's great that Zakkaria does exist. If this town exists, it proves that Centoria wouldn't be a lie.”

  “Yeah. It's... really inexplicable. We went on our journey from Rulid village for the past 5 months, and even though we knew that this world doesn't just include that village, it still feels amazing now... It's really amazing.”

  Though it could understand the words of the boy Eugeo, it felt that Eugeo's amazement was really weird. The «Master»'s caster who had lived for countless years had seen Centoria and the entire human world that was 1,500 kilolu. Its information capacity far surpassed all Human Units except for the «Integrity Knights». However, there were other unknown areas as well. That would be the other side of the «M
ountain Range at the Edge» that surrounded the human world... The Dark Territory. There were only a few rumors about how there were several towns and villages there and how there was even a large pitch-black city there... One of these days, it should have the chance to use its eyes to prove their existence.

  Impossible... These are all baseless imaginations, but if we continue to observe these two, maybe one of these days—

  Most likely, it was thinking about such things.

  The sudden unexpected tremor nearly caused it to fly out from Kirito's head. It frantically grabbed tightly onto the black hair and continued to look in front without thinking about anything.

  What entered its eyes was a horse that raised its front legs up. "Hihihihihi", it let out a crying-like sound as it looked like it was trying to shake off the Zakkaria guard that was riding on it. The shaking just now was probably Kirito bending down, trying to avoid the horse gallop.

  At the West gate of the town 10 Mel away, the horse-riding squad was located at the stone bridge in front of the moat, and the horse started to go out of control at the moment Kirito was about to cross it.

  “St...Stop, STOP!”

  The soldier sitting on the saddle desperately tried to pull the reins, trying to calm the horse down, but it did not seem to show any effect. Live animals like horses would require a lot of Control Authority, but a Unit that had the Sacred Task of a «Guard» should be able to fulfill this condition.

  In that case, there would be very few reasons as to why a horse would not listen to its rider and go crazy. For example, insufficient feed or water causing the Life to decrease, or that it sensed a highly dangerous large wild monster closing in— However, these two scenarios did not seem probable.

  As it continued to deduce, the horse that went berserk started raising its front legs hand. Kirito, who was right below it as he ducked to dodge, could not avoid completely. The people passing by, who realized the strange situation currently happening, all cried out. Even an adult male's Life would be reduced by half once he was stomped on by a horse with such momentum... If it kicked the wrong location, it would be possible for the Life to deplete completely.

  “DAN-DANGER...!”

  Someone shouted this, and at this instant, Kirito moved, not backwards — but forward. He moved by the horse hooves that landed and went beside it, using his arms to grab onto the horse head tightly, saying with a sharp tone,

  “Eugeo, behind!”

  As he said that, the partner had already taken action. While Kirito was restraining the horse, Eugeo went behind and quickly reached his right hand out to grab the base of the tail that continued to swing. His lightning quick fingers took out something from between the brown-colored hairs, and at that moment, that berserk horse that was rampant suddenly became obedient.

  Kirito gently patted the nose of that horse that was panting a lot.

  “Okay, okay, it's fine now— Guard-san, please let go of the rope.”

  The still very young soldier on the saddle nodded his pale face and relaxed the tightly leashed rein. At the same time, Kirito moved his hand away from the head of the horse and took a step back. The horse then turned around and galloped back to its designated location on the right side of the stone bridge. The crowd around them let out a sound of relief.

  The observer could not help but sigh in a relieved manner together with the onlookers as it remained in Kirito's hair, subconsciously reaching its arms out to block itself in front. In was to cast a protective spell to protect Kirito from being kicked by the horse. No, if Kirito did not take action back then, it might have used it for real. As an observer, that was something that was not allowed.

  The boy who did not know of a small passenger in his front hair heave a sigh as he put a hand on his chest, went to his partner, and whispered,

  “...A « Large Marsh Horsefly»?”

  “Correct.”

  Eugeo muttered back softly and looked around. Once he checked that the pedestrians who had stopped had started walking and that the soldier was focusing on his beloved horse, he handed the thing in his right hand over for Kirito to see.

  What was in his hand was a winged insect 4 cen long with red and black stripes on the abdomen. It looked like a bee, but there was no poison sting on it. However, there was one sharp protrusion at the mouth.

  Amongst the «harmful insects» that existed to limit the Human Unit's movements, this was not a particularly dangerous one as it would not bring direct harm to humans. Though it could deal very little damage to the Life through bloodsucking, it would only target horses, cattle and goats. The reason why the soldier's beloved horse went rampant was because it was bitten by the Large Marsh Horsefly in the butt.

  “Feels weird...”

  Kirito muttered as he scooped that pest that was killed the moment it was caught from Eugeo's hands.

  “There shouldn't be any swamps around nearby, right?”

  “Yeah. I was told on the first day we worked at the Wilde farm. The nearest swamp is near the west forest, and we definitely must not bring horses there.”

  “The west forest is around... 7 kilolu from Zakkaria. It shouldn't be possible for a Horsefly that lives near the swamp to fly all the way here.”

  In response to Kirito's question, Eugeo tilted his head slightly, and quickly said with a somewhat vague tone,

  “Even so... It's still possible for them to slip into some merchants baggage on the way here, right?”

  “...Well, that may be possible.”

  As the boys continued to talk, the pest that was between Kirito's fingers lost its red color at a very fast speed. The Life of insects were very low, and «Dead Insects» had even less Life, so it would only remain as a corpse for about a minute.

  Soon, the Large Marsh Horsefly that was dyed light grey let out a soft voice as it disintegrated like sand, releasing itself from the very small body as it disappeared.

  "Fuu", Kirito blew his fingers, nonchalantly looked around, and let out a slight snort.

  “Anyway, whether it's you or me, we're really lucky that we didn't get hurt right before this important tournament. Good thing we were living with the horses at the farm every day.”

  “Ah, yeah. If we join the army, how about we try out being cavalry?”

  “We came all the way here, so don't say things like 'if', Eugeo. We'll definitely join the army no matter what kind of obstacles there are.”

  Eugeo stared back at the grinning Kirito with a shocked expression.

  “Obstacles... We have to win in the tournament, so there will be a lot of opponents.”

  “Ah... Yeah, that's right. What I wanted to say is, don't let down your guard right before the tournament. Maybe there might be many unexpected incidents like what happened just now.”

  “Eh, it's really unexpected for you to be such a cautious person, Kirito.”

  “Of course. I don't go well with those reckless people who don't think through before they act.”

  After saying that, Kirito patted Eugeo on the back,

  “Alright, let's go fill our stomachs before the tournament.”

  Part 3

  Zakkaria was a town that was surrounded by a rectangular wall from the east to the west.

  The dimensions of the town were 900 Mel from North to South and 1,300 Mel from East to West. The area was approximately 5 times the size of Rulid village in the north where both of them stayed in. As it was right in the middle of a prairie, there was no neighboring rivers or lakes, and their source of water was well water. Thus, this place looked like it was a rather dry place, but there were a lot more plants here than the Southern Empire that was full of towns in the desert.

  The roads and buildings were basically all made from reddish-brown sandstone, and the residents who came to and fro had red-based clothing as well. Thus, the blue-based colored shirts of the two boys, who came from the North, were rather eye-catching. Eugeo lowered his head, seemingly worried about the stares the others showed, but Kirito did not seem to mind as he l
ooked around at the shops on both sides of the road.

  “Oh, the meat buns this shop's selling looks delicious... but the kebab shop sells it cheap for 2 Shears. Ah... Eugeo, which one do you want to eat?”

  Kirito leisurely said so as he turned his head around. He then realized the attitude his partner showed. His black eyes blinked in a dazed manner.

  “...I say, Eugeo. It's been the third time in Zakkaria already. There's no need to be so tense.”

  “Now that you mention it, it really is the third time... But this is the first time I'm seeing so many people after leaving the village.”

  “If you're saying such things after seeing the people in Zakkaria, what will happen when you get to Central? Also, there will be hundreds in the stands at the swordsmanship tournament. Also, Uncle and Aunty Wilde said that they will bring Telin and Telulu in the afternoon to cheer us. Don't let them see you like that.”

  Eugeo, who was patted on the back by Kirito, showed a begrudging expression.

  “...I-I understand. It's only at this moment that I envy your nonchalant personality, Kirito...”

  “You can still say such things with a pale face, Eugeo-kun. Being 'nonchalant' is an important trick in Aincrad-style swordsmanship.”

  “Eh, re-really?”

  “Really, really?”

  As both of them continued to talk, they had already finished walking down the West main road that was approximately 500 Mel long. A tall building appeared right in front of them. This was the «Meeting Venue», the largest facility in Zakkaria. The rectangular shaped plaza that was proportionally smaller as compared to the town was now surrounded by the spectator stands. It was a multi-purpose space that was often used for lords' speeches, concerts and troupe performances, and of course, it was to be used for the Swordsmanship tournament today.

  As the viewing was free, there were many citizens gathered here even when there was almost 2 hours till the opening of the tournament. To a Human Unit who were strictly restrained by their «Sacred Task» and the «Taboo Index» and all the other laws, this tournament that happened once every year would be their only chance of entertainment.