Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running

by Reki Kawahara

  However, the intense atmosphere that came from the arena seemed to add on to the pressure on the boy Eugeo, and his face that was already whiter than Kirito immediately went pale.

  “...Do, do we really have to fight here...?”

  Kirito grabbed the arm of his partner who said that with a hoarse voice, ignored his emotions and complaints as he dragged him, one step at a time, to the participant registration window that was located at the front entrance of the Meeting Venue.

  It was possible that most of the participants, who were either living in this town or were already residents of Zakkaria, should have finished their registration. A rather old bearded guard was sitting near the table of this temporary stall. Kirito fearlessly walked to the table and said loudly.

  “Two people. Please register us.”

  On hearing that, the guard raised his grey eyebrows, and first sized up Kirito and Eugeo with a doubtful expression before coughing lightly, and said,

  “The only ones who can take part in the tournament are only people who have the Sacred Task of a guard from the northern towns or villagers, or apprentice guards in Zakkaria, or alternatively...”

  “This is the «alternate». I say, that.”

  Kirito nudged Eugeo on the side, who then hurried reached his hand into his tunic chest pocket, taking out what was a parchment envelope, and took a letter.

  “Let me see...fm, so it's a written letter from the village chief of Rulid village. 'The two young men who have been entrusted with this letter have finished their Sacred Task granted by God Stacia. They wanted to seek a new path, and this is the proof.' I see.”

  At this moment, the middle aged guard stroked his beard.

  “In other words, two young brats from the northernmost Rulid village, who aren't guards, want to find a new Sacred Task and wanted to become members of our Zakkaria guards."

  “That's right.”

  Kirito answered back with a fearless smile, and then quipped,

  “But we won't be staying around as guards here. Next time, we're going to head to Cen—”

  Eugeo knocked him in the flank. He then continued on for his silent partner with a very quick tone,

  “Tha-That's how it is. Please allow us to register for the next swordsmanship tournament.”

  “Fm. Okay.”

  The guard nodded, flipped open the tablecloth and handed a pen made of red copper.

  “Write down your name, your birthplace and your sword school.”

  “...Sc-School, is it?”

  Eugeo's hand that was reached out stopped, and Kirito took the pen from beside. It was not a highly durable parchment paper, but a common paper script made from white silk grass. It had all sorts of names in different handwritings, filling up the paper.

  The black-haired boy wrote the name Kirito in the common language in this Human World and his birthplace as Rulid village at the end. He put the pen down for a short while, and then continued to write down the name of the school. «Aincrad Style».

  It had been five months since the observer had been watching the two boys, and while there were all kinds of doubts during that time, the greatest one would be this name. There were approximately 30 sword styles in this world, but this was the first time it heard of the name Aincrad-style.

  Perhaps it's a style the rebellious Kirito would create himself after attaining some sword skills. That was what I first thought, but it doesn't look that way. This mysterious Aincrad school is different from other schools; instead of having only one «Secret Style», this might have at least 10...

  As it pondered, Eugeo finished his registration after Kirito —and of course, the school was the same— and handed the pen back to the guard. The guard put the pen back, brought the script back to himself, and again raised his eyebrows.

  “Fm. In the past I wielded a sword for a long time, but I never heard of this school before. Does Rulid have such a school nearby?”

  The guard's question was to be expected. Though there were more than 50 participants' names written on the script, half of them learnt the «Zakkalight Style», , and more than half of them were from the «Norgal Style» that was widely spread through the Norlandgarth Empire. There was no such oddly-named small school.

  However, Kirito simply showed a calm expression.

  “That's a school that was recently set up.”

  He answered, and the slightly pale looking Eugeo nodded his head as well. Of course, the guard would not refuse any registration because of a school, and after nodding 'I see', he handed them two bronze plates, each thinly engraved with the numbers. Kirito got '55', and Eugeo got '56'.

  “Please head to the participant rest area before 11.30. We are going to assign participants into east and west blocks through a draw. At 12, we'll have the preliminaries, and we will use swordsmanship performance to reduce each block down to 8 people. You have to do move 1 to 10 in order, understood?”

  After hearing the guard's question, Eugeo immediately nodded, and Kirito showed a somewhat doubtful expression as he nodded.

  “Alright. Next will be the main show. We're going to carry out matches and reduce the number of people from 8 to 4, to 2 and to 1. That person... the winners from both East and West block, will then be granted the Sacred Task of being a Zakkaria guard.”

  At this moment, both of them nodded at the same time. The observer that was hiding in Kirito's hair shook and started thinking the same thing it had been wondering about several hours ago.

  Both their goals were to enter the guards. Thus, both of them would have to be assigned into the East and West block each, pass the preliminaries and win in the main tournament. However, if the two of them were to be drawn into the same block, their plan would have failed. In regards to this problem, these two carefree young men should have some form of plan...

  —The answer it got to its doubt was during the time when both of them finished their registration successfully, went to the plaza nearby, and divided the meat bun and the kebab.

  “...I say, Eugeo... If we're in the same group, what should we do?”

  Kirito, who quickly finished up the meat bun that was divided in half, asked,

  “...What do you say, Kirito?”

  Eugeo, who finished the first kebab, answered.

  In other words, both of them did not think. It was to be expected, but the observer felt like its head was going to just drop off. THINK! It prevented itself from falling victim to the urge of yelling out as it took its frustrations out by pulling the hair gently. Kirito lifted his right hand, and the observer hastily moved to the top of the head while he scratched his forehead hair. Even at this moment, this young man just said something really optimistic in conclusion,

  “Well, things will naturally fall in place. Don't worry. We'll definitely be in different blocks. I did pray to Stacia-sama and Solus-sama and Te...Tereri...”

  “Terraria-sama!”

  “Yup, I made my wish to that Terraria-sama.”

  "Haa", the observer that was on Kirito's head let out a soft sigh that overlapped with Eugeo's sigh. It walked back to its original position and muttered in its heart.

  ...There's nothing you can do. But is that alright, young man?

  30 minutes later, right when the bell was about to chime at 11.30, both of them entered the tournament restroom.

  The wide room that was approximately 20 Mel long had 4 sturdy looking benches on the west half of the room; and the participants were facing east. There were 4 slightly posh looking chairs placed there. They were empty at the moment, but there was a guard at the reception window.

  The moment Kirito and Eugeo stepped into this room, they were stared at by the 54 other participants.

  These adult men all looked like they had some amazing skills. Amongst them, 10 of them were wearing the Zakkaria apprentice guard uniform. Most of them were young, but the people from the neighboring towns who were chosen to be guards seemed to be in their primes. There were also people who had long beards and also those showing the n
erve-wrecking scars on them.

  Eugeo straightened his back in shock as he was stared at by these strong and ferocious participants, but Kirito looked rather calm as he looked around the room and softly said,

  “...Great...”

  “Wha-What's great?”

  Kirito brought his face over to Eugeo, who said so with a really tense voice, and softly answered,

  “There are no female participants.”

  “...I say, Kirito...”

  “You're the same as well. It'll be hard for you to fight against a girl.”

  “Tha-That's true... or rather, I never even thought of such a possibility before.”

  “If possible, I really hope that such a situation will not happen until we reach that Four Empires Unity Tournament or something.”

  “You don't say. I heard before that the Western Empire has a knight squadron comprised fully of women.”

  “.........Ah!?”

  And so, these two started their usual conversation without any sense of tension and the 54 ferocious participants soon lost their interest in these two young men, turning their faces that seemed to say 'these two young men are most likely going to be eliminated in the preliminaries' and started checking on their borrowed swords and adjusting their leather gloves.

  Kirito again looked around the rest room, seemed to think of something, walked away from Eugeo, and headed off to the benches the participants were sitting on. He moved between the benches and breathed hard at a very fast speed. One could not tell why he did this at all.

  After looking around for 5 minutes, Kirito finished inspecting all the participants, and again went back to Eugeo. He brought his mouth to the ear of his mystified looking partner, and muttered,

  “Don't move your face. Second bench, the young man furthest in, do you see him?”

  Eugeo twitched his eyes slightly as he followed what Kirito told him to do, and nodded,

  “Yeah, that guy in apprentice guard clothing?”

  “Be careful if you fight that guy. He might do something.”

  After hearing that, the observer, who was as shocked as Eugeo, probed its head out from the front of Kirito's hair. There was a young man with sandy-colored hair that was sagging slightly, and he had a reddish-brown uniform on him. The age, as seen from the data in the «Stacia Window», was 18, and his Life value and Object Control Authority were below average, so there should be nothing worth taking note of.

  “Eh... Is it someone you know?”

  Eugeo muttered, and Kirito shook his head.

  “Nope, but... You might understand if I express it this way. That guy's personality is similar to Jink.”

  The Unit called Jink was the current guard captain in the Rulid Village both of them were born in. To them, he was a petty and unsociable person.

  A Human Unit had to obey many rules and regulations, it would not mean that they were all friendly. If for example, there were people like the ones at the Wilde farm who would earnestly treat others, then there might be people who would look down on others, get in the way of others or make use of others in ways not stated in the laws. Rulid Village's Jink would be like that, and if Kirito's words were true, that seemingly harmless apprentice guard would—

  “...Someone like Jink. He might try something like applying Shikami grass juice on my sword or something.”

  Eugeo frowned as he muttered, and Kirito tilted his head.

  “Well... Won't that be against the rules?”

  “It won't reduce the Life of the sword, but it can be used for polishing it. It will be hard to smell it once it's applied. I had been pranked on by him many times when I was young, and couldn't concentrate in practice, so I really have to hand it to him.”

  “...I see. Then, don't lose the sword you borrow. Don't let down your guard in the match. It's fine if I get assigned to the same group as that guy, but...”

  “In that case, don't do anything crazy even if he does something, Kirito.”

  “...I'll try.”

  Kirito calmly chuckled as he nodded and turned around. He went to the Admission Window, used the registration bronze tablet. This was a tournament, however metal swords, instead of wooden swords, were used. Even though the Priority is lower, the power would still be enough to wear down a human's Life. Of course, as there was the rule that they were to fight until they nearly get hit, it would be definitely—unquestionably impossible to have any bleeding.

  Both of them held onto their swords tightly, and 4 men walked in from an obscure entrance right when they sat down on the front bench. They were guards who were all dressed in bright red uniforms, and the bearded guard at the registration counter before was amongst them.

  The 40-year-old man who had golden leader epaulets made a simple greeting, and a young soldier moved a very large box into the rest room. The leader patted the box, and said,

  “In this box, there are small balls of blue and red colors, each numbered from 1 to 28, 56 altogether. Each of you need to put your hand into the hole at the top of this box and take out a ball. The red color indicates the east block, and the blue indicates the west block. The performance in each preliminary will be carried out in number order. If there are no questions, please take a ball each, starting from the front...”

  Before the leader could even finish his words, Kirito immediately stood up and walked towards the box. Eugeo hurriedly followed, and soon, the other participants started standing up. *Gatagata*.

  It moved from the front of Kirito's hair to the edge to look, and it could see a hole that was approximately 10 cen in diameter on the wooden box. However, it was dark inside, and the observer's eyes could only identify the shapes of the ball. At the same time, Kirito clicked his tongue, and the observer understood his intent on drawing first. If there were many balls in the box left, it might be possible to see the color of the upper-most ball through the hole. He was probably waiting for this moment.

  Really, how can he still be so relaxed? He must be a very smart boy, but unfortunately, he lacks knowledge. In this world, the rule is that 'normal peeping methods can't work when it's done on a ballot box that can't be seen from the inside'. He has to have something that can get rid of this nature of the box— like a spell that creates a ray of light inside the box or one that can improve eyesight

  “What's wrong, young man? Draw one.”

  The leader prompted, and Kirito slowly reached his right hand into the box. He could only rely on luck for Eugeo and him to be assigned to different blocks when he could not see the color of the balls, but—

  ...I'll help you out this time.

  The observer muttered in its mind as it suddenly jumped off from the front hair the moment Kirito reached his right hand into the box. It used the shadow of the wrist as a cover and leaped through the hole and into the box.

  The hand that was reached into the box grabbed onto the first ball it touched, and pulled it out. The observer was able to see the color in the box. Kirito drew a blue colored ball — the west block.

  Once it realized this, it adjusted its body size from the smallest 5 mil to 10 cen, 20 times the size; and though much smaller than its original size, this would be enough. Its arms grabbed onto a wooden ball and raised it slightly. Of course, the color was red.

  Several seconds later, the white arm reached into the box tentatively, and even without a «window», one could tell that it belonged to Eugeo. The observer pushed the red ball into the shaking hand that was moving in a lost manner, completely unlike the decisive Kirito. The hand jerked in a somewhat shocked manner, but it quickly grabbed onto the ball and drew it out fast. At the same time, he let out an "Ehh!", which sounded really delightful.

  It probably took him several seconds to open his hand, and after that, there was a cry, “Yes, Kirito! It's red!” After that, both of them scampered off while seemingly grumbled at by the 3rd participant.

  ...Really, always creating trouble for people.

  It grumbled, shrunk its body, and was about to leave the ballot
box when it suddenly thought of something.

  Why is Kirito so worried about that young apprentice guard with the sand-colored hair? The observer really wanted to know the reason. Well, then, I'll let that apprentice fight against Kirito instead of Eugeo.

  I'll leave for now and come back later, or maybe I should stay inside for a while then. Anyone who opens the box and look inside will likely be shocked. I'm only 10 Cen big, but there shouldn't be any organism that's so big in the Human Unit world.

  It hid his presence for several minutes. After the umpteenth time, a seemingly skinny arm reached in, and from the «window», it could tell that the arm belonged to the apprentice guard. It sent the blue ball it had prepared into the hand that was searching around in a psychotic-like manner. He did not suspect anything at all as he pulled his hand out to check, and the observer heaved a sigh of relief. This time, it shrank its body down to the smallest possible and onto the arm of the next person that reached into the box.

  It continued to cling tightly onto that person's arm until it reached the bench, and then risked itself by scampering on the floor towards the feet of the boys who were sitting on the innermost side. It then climbed up their leather boots that had a crack, through the back of the cyan-colored shirt, and hid inside the black hair. It went back to the front of the hair and sighed deeply again again.

  No matter what, interfering with the draw was against my duty as an observer. If «Master» knows about this, I might get scolded.

  No, I might be able to observe more efficiently by separating Kirito and Eugeo into different blocks, and I put Kirito and that apprentice guard into the same block to obtain more information. I'm definitely not thinking of anything other than that, let alone because of this. Even if— that apprentice guard has some ill intent, I won't interfere in his match with Kirito by using spells. I definitely won't do such things.

  Part 4

  The «Bell of Time-Telling» in the Zakkaria Church chimes loudly at noon in a melody, and the spectators.

  In the midst of the clapping and the smoke grass, the 56 tournament participants lined up in two rows, moving from the rest room to the arena. Eugeo's row turned to the right towards the stage of the East block, and Kirito's row turned left to the West block. The 56 participants lined up near the stages and bowed to the leader of Zakkaria who was seated on the South block, the VIP seats.