User blog:Gsimenas/Rainbow Bridge

Seeing as no one was doing Rainbow Bridge and I wanted to practise my Japanese a bit, I figured I'd make a little surprise by translating it.

''Note: Only part 1-3 are translated so far. There are 2 more parts left. Also, the part 2 and 3 hosted here haven't been fully proofread yet.''

If anyone notices a mistake or has a better way of phrasing something, let me know in the comments.

Part 1
A castle shining in a madder-red colour, floated in the distance of the violet sky.

Two months have passed since the reborn Aincrad was implemented, yet when I look up from the surface of Alfheim's ocean, I still find myself captivated by a mysterious sensation. I just cannot believe that this small structure, and the floating castle that once existed in the skies of a different world, were really of the same size.

Of course, if I spread the wings on my back, take flight and ascend towards the New Aincrad in the faraway sky, before long, the castle will reveal all of its majesty that I will not be able to fully picture. After landing on the first floor from the aperture in the outer circumference, there will be a vast field with various mountains and lakes. I guess that walking from one side to the other will take as much time as it did in the old Aincrad.

While still trying to comprehend that, I continued with my own thoughts.

About being trapped inside that castle during those two years. About wandering through the roadless wastelands, fighting atrocious monsters, encountering lots of people, and then being separated from them. About my battle with Heathcliff on the 75th floor, where we were both defeated and the death game came to an end. I wondered if that was truly reality.

Or.

About landing in Alfheim in search of the slumbering Asuna, and successfully releasing her from the cage of malice at the end of a short but hectic journey. And now, about how I’m spending the tranquil days together with former allies and new friends in both the real and virtual worlds. Again, I wondered if this is a reality.

While I was surrounded by such endless thoughts, I silently looked up at the floating castle illuminated by the evening sun, and——

Suddenly, a loud, horn-like koooo――――n sound broke out next to my feet. My avatar’s legs lost their ground, as the grayish-white texture of the ground shook violently. Reflexively, I raised my arms and grabbed Asuna’s hand with my right, and Klein’s with my left.

“Woah, wh-what the--?”, Lisbeth screamed.

“I-it can’t be planning to drop us off here, can it―?”, Klein shouted.

“If so, we could just fly, right?", Agil calmly retorted right away.

The small hole in the ground in front of us spread out suddenly, and a large quantity of water was blown out of it with the force of a geyser.

“Kyuuuuuu!” “Hawawaaaaa!”

These screams were from the small dragon Pina who was just above the hole, and the Yui who was riding Pina, respectively. Although the abrupt water current shot up to no less the five meters, at that moment Pina spread out its wings and restored her balance, lightly hovering over the top of the water fountain. Joyful laughter resounded, as if I had imagined Yui's scream two seconds ago.

While using my left hand to avoid the small drops of water that were falling down, I exchanged glances with Asuna, and we both gave a wide smile simultaneously.

“......Wow, it spouted like a tide, huh.”

At that moment, Asuna nodded and answered,

“What can I say, it is a whale, you know.”

That's true. The party comprised of 7 people, including me, Asuna, Leafa, Silica, Lisbeth, Agil and Klein, and also Yui and Pina, were travelling on the sea, on the back of a giant white whale ― one with such a huge size that even an Evil-God Class monster would flee.

Everyone uh-huhed to express their agreement to Asuna's remark and, as the whale’s spouting ended, Yui came down from the skies and said while flying to Asuna’s left shoulder,

“This does not mean that the whale-san in the real world actually sprays water from its blowhole. It is just that when they exhale close to the surface of the sea, ocean water is also carried along!”

“Whaaaat?!”, the seven people exclaimed in unison.

Yui, who just showed her usual encyclopedic knowledge and strong memory, simply said “ahem” and set her small hands upon her hips. While thinking that her posture was lovely, I once again looked up at the floating steel castle in the night sky.

As the reborn Aincrad revolves around the skies of Alfheim at a considerable speed, the outline of the castle I saw a while ago was getting smaller and smaller. I motionlessly fixed my eyes onto the location approximately one-fifth of the castle from the bottom—— the place where the profoundly memorable 22nd floor should be.

Although, for now, only the first ten floors have been opened, I'm sure that we will eventually climb up and reach the 20th floor and beyond. When I see the log house built in the depths of the snow-covered forest once again, will I truly be able to believe, I wondered. Believe that the former Aincrad disappeared to distant memory. And believe that the world where games are meant to be played has returned.

The white whale carried us from Thule Island in Alfheim’s southwest sea to a beach in Sylph territory. Then, with a voice that sounded like a giant tuba, it prompted us to get off. After watching us safely get off his back and land on the white, sandy beach with a gentle expression in the eyes, it turned around leisurely, and swam towards the bright red evening sun in the horizon, in the company of a school of dolphins.

“Whale-saan, thank yooou! Let us ride on your back again sometime, okaaaaay?!”

In response to Yui’s voice, the white whale spouted a very high column of water once again, and its large body sank into the ocean bit by bit. Before long, it could no longer be seen. Yui, who was sitting on Asuna’s shoulder, gently lowered her hands that she had been waving affectionately.

While smiling, I called out to that slightly lonely-looking face.

“I’m sure you’ll meet it again someday. The quest back then looked like it was hinting that it will somehow continue.”

"Oh, ho-hold it right there, Kiri-no-ji!"

The loud voice that interrupted me and spoiled the atmosphere of the farewell was of course Klein’s. While scratching his unshaven face, he continued with an expression that could not be understood.

“What the heck was the deal with that quest? Like the mermaid princess turning out to be an jii-san, the jii-san turning out to be a giant octopus, then the giant octopus turning out to be the lord of the abyss, and something about divine beings; I didn’t get any of that stuff.”

“The first one about the mermaid princess was merely your aspiration.”

Although I gave a tsukkomi sort of retort by reflex, I too could not give an immediate reply to Klein’s doubts. Fleetingly looking around my allies, I saw that the former devil of clearing Asuna, the Norse mythology expert Leafa, the intellectual Agil, as well as Lisbeth and Silica, had all folded their arms and said “hmmm”.

Today is ―― July 25, 2025, Friday.

In order to grant Yui’s wish of “seeing a whale”, we challenged the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest that was rumoured to have a large, aquatic-type monster.

We were requested, by an ojii-san, to search for an item in a dungeon ― just a common errand-type quest ―― or so we thought. But the truth was that the ojii-san was actually pulling our strings. Unwittingly, we ended up stealing a treasure that was sealed in an Underwater Temple. Well, this was still a common plot, but from here on, the super rapid development, or should I say, an overly rapid plot twist began. The ojii-san had seven HP bars and transformed into a gigantic octopus-type monster, «Kraken the Abyss Lord», who beat us to a near death status with ease - just a single hit from a single tentacle. But, before we could even think that the quest was impossible, a gigantic oji-san, calling himself «Leviathan the Sea Lord», descended from above. Just as the two of them completed their hard to understand conversation, Kraken sunk into the depths of the sea Leviathan then recovered the pearl (which was actually a large egg) that we had taken out of the temple and, at that moment, a “quest cleared” fanfare played ―― It was such an incomprehensible quest, even after thinking about it again and again.

Still dumbfounded, we were initially discouraged by the thought that the rumoured aquatic-type monster was Kraken, but then the oji-san calling himself lord of the seas summoned a white whale, which took us to this beach. So, in any case, the initial objective of Yui getting to see a whale was accomplished. And we all lived happily ever after―― although that is true, I understand Klein's feelings of wanting to say “I didn’t get any of that stuff”.

After humming for a while, I looked around faces of my comrades, and said,

“I wonder if anyone can accurately remember the talk between the octopus and the ossan?”

If this was in a conventional MMORPG, we could just scroll up the message window with a mouse wheel and browse through the conversation that took place during the quest; however in VRMMORPGs, there’s basically no such convenient function. Therefore, there’s a technique of using a crystal to record an event’s conversation if it sounds l important. However, this time, we didn’t have such a luxury at all.

In response to my query, the six of them simultaneously tilted their necks, and then shook their heads left and right.

“Heh, indeed a vanguard-only party with no mages at all.”

Just as I finished my comment with a sigh mixed in, Liz raised her right hand overhead with the motion of a pitcher about to throw the ball, and consecutively thrusted her index finger towards me three times.

"You too! Can't talk down! Other people!"

“......Yeah, sorry.”

However, at that moment, Yui flew up from Asuna’s shoulder, and landed on my head with a pose just like Leviathan's descent at the Underwater Temple.

“I guess it cannot be helped. Although it is kind of cheating, let me reproduce the conversation!”

All of us shouted “ooo” in an amazed voice, and, puffing her chest with an "ahem" sound, the pixie began the narrative while skillfully imitating the tone of the octopus and the oji-san.

Leviathan: “It's been a long time, my old friend. I see you're up to your old tricks.

Kraken: “The same to you. How long will you be satisfied as a servant to the Æsir? You're an embarrassment to the name 'Lord of the Sea'.”

Leviathan: “I am satisfied with being a king. And this is my domain. Knowing that, do you still wish to fight, Lord of the Abyss?”

Kraken: “For now, I shall withdraw. But I shall not give up, my friend! One day, I shall claim the prince's power, and make the accursed gods pay! Until that day!......”

Leviathan: “That egg belongs to the one that will someday rule all the sea and air. I must find it a new home, so I shall take it back.”

“......That is all!”

After Yui's reproduction of the conversation ended, all seven people applauded. Even Pina, sitting on Silica’s head, flapped its wings lively.

“Thank you, Yui.”

After thanking my daughter for the job well done, I started pondering about it once again and continued my speech,

“Hmm…… The proper nouns that concern me are «Æsir» and «Prince». I have a feeling that I've heard something like that somewhere, but……”

“Heere!”

The one who said this while raising her hand enthusiastically, was the mage and swordswoman, Leafa. Possessing the most knowledge about myths and folklore among all of our party’s members, she stepped forward and explained with a clear enunciation,

“The Æsir are a family of gods that come from Norse mythology! You guys have heard of gods like the chief god Odin, the thunder god Thor, and the mischievous Loki among others, haven’t you?”

“I have I have I have”

Six people gave their acknowledgement one after another, and Leafa gave a big nod in return.

“Then, as for the Prince……”

“Go on go on go on”

“I have no idea at all!”

Bam, all of us openly made a falling to our back motion, and started pondering again.

The next one to speak was the, Silica.

“Err, in short, the Kraken-ojii-chan detests the Æsir, but, since he hasn’t been able to win yet, he wants to obtain the «Prince’s power» to become stronger…. is that how it is?”

“If even that giant octopus’s ridiculous power was no match for the Æsir, I wonder what kind of power do they have……”, said the Lisbeth, while tossing her metallic gloss pink hair.

“Well, they are gods after all”, said the Asuna, adding on to the conversation. Then, the one who interrupted with a self-important tone was the, Klein.

“That’s right, ya younglings might not know, but Odin is actually of the strongest class. The moment he’s summoned, bam! And the monster is sliced into two……”

“Oi oi, that’s not the plot within the myth.”, the Agil inserted a tsukkomi with a stunned expression, and everyone, including Yui, burst into laughter.

Understanding the parody in Klein’s remarks, I formed a wry smile as well. While doing so, I thought about why I felt a faint sense of discomfort in this conversation.

The answer immediately came.

During the quest, Kraken and Leviathan appeared as NPCs until the very end ―――Even though they were essentially boss-class monsters. It can be expected that their conversation was nothing but a scenario written by the scenario writer-shi of «Ymir», the company that manages ALO.

And yet, all of us talked about Kraken and Leviathan as if they had their own individual consciousness.

Perhaps the reason for that is that their words sounded far too human. The remorseful and angry expression of Kraken, unwilling to accept his defeat and declaring "I will not give up!", inadvertently led us to think that "Hmm that octopus must have went through a lot..."

Or possibly, Kraken and Leviathan …… are not mere NPCs?

Asuna and I encountered and adventured with a female dark elf knight during the early stages of old Aincrad’s floor clearing. She was called Kizmel, but, despite being an NPC, she was not just a moving object that repeated standard phrases. Her ability to reply to our words… could even be regarded as volition.

ALO has a software architecture that is almost identical to the one in the old SAO. That means, even when looking at the ability of, the existence of «Highly Intelligent NPCs» like Kizmel was already possible.

However, in that case……won’t Kraken become an existence that doesn’t just act according to the quest’s script, despite being a quest NPC? Meaning that obtaining something like the «Prince’s power», rising against the Æsir, such things are all that big octopus’s own will……?

“……………That can’t be the case, right?”

Realising that my thoughts were going too far into the field of absurdity, I halted such mutters and conjectures. At the exact instant, Klein, who had been facing Silica and the others, lecturing them on how powerful were the Odin and Bahamut of the good old days, suddenly started shouting hysterically. “Awwww, crap! I have a pizza delivery order at ten o’clock!”

“Oi oi, that's in three minutes. You know, it will take ten minutes to fly to Swilvane from here.”

At Agil's calm points, Klein held his head with both of his arms and bent backwards as much as he could.

“MY SEAFOOD PIZZA AND DRAUGHT BEER――!”

With the nostalgia brought up by the line that I had also heard a long time ago, I went to the katana user and tapped him on the sleeves of his large Japanese-style armour.

“We’ll watch over you until your avatar disappears, so calm down. You must enjoy it to the max this time, yeah.”

After I said that, Klein blinked for a moment and then expressed that he understood the meaning of my words with a light “hehe” laughter.

“Right. In that case, I’ll take you up on your kind offer and excuse myself for the day.”

"I offer my best regards to all the shrimps, crabs, cuttlefish and octopuses on the pizza~"

While making a complicated-looking face to Liz’s words, Klein opened his main menu.

“Well then, great work, everyone!”

After tapping on the logout button, the salamander’s avatar automatically switched to a one knee kneeling position, closed its eyes and stopped moving.

In ALO, to prevent people from «Escaping» from player skirmishes, the player’s avatar will remain on site for a little while when logging out in the field. Naturally, it’s highly likely that monsters would target the player. The player would then find themselves in the form of a when they logged in later.

Therefore, when logging out outside the area, a player’s allies would normally protect their avatar until the timeout elapses and the player’s avatar disappears. Thankfully, it doesn't look like that this beach has many strong monsters spawning, thus I looked away from Klein’s body and proposed,

“If anyone else beside him wants to logout, go right ahead.. I’ll watch over you till the end.” At my words, Asuna was the first to bring up her right hand apologetically.

“Err….. then I’ll be logging out too, if it’s okay……”

Although I haven’t met her yet, I have heard stories that Asuna’s mother was a very strict person, so I nodded quickly.

“It’s fine. Thanks for today.”

“Yeah, thanks to everyone for today too, thank you for the great work!{{{NoteTag|The first instance of thanking is “今日はありがとう” (lit. thanks for today), while the second instance is お疲れ様でした, which is a set expression for thanking someone for their work.}}”

As Asuna nimbly operated the menu to log out and her avatar switched to a standby position, Agil, who has to stock his shop for tomorrow, Liz, who has a TV show she wants to watch, and Silica, who has to complete today's homework, all requested to instantly log out and left the fairy homeworld together.

When Silica went into a standby posture, Pina, who was sitting on Silica’s head, began to look around restlessly, as if trying to protect her avatar. “How noble”... while thinking that, I stretched my limbs.

At that moment, my eyes met Leafa's, who had taken the exact same pose at the exact same time.

Somehow, we grinned together, and then I turned my eyes towards the west horizon.

Before I became aware of it, the sun had completely set, with only a deep vermillion left above the horizon. Yui, who was sitting on my head, used my shoulder as a springboard to plunge into my chest pocket, and made a lovely yawn.

“……Papa, the whale-san was really big, was it not?”

I gently brushed the head of the pixie who said this in a sleepy voice with my fingertips.

“Yeah. Let’s ride it again someday.”

“Yeah……”

Yui nodded and closed her eyelids, then, immediately afterwards, she began sleeping, breathing softly.

Yui, an AI independent from ALO’s system, has no need to sleep like a human, but when she has a large quantity of information input and nothing urgent to process, she often conducts memory sorting in a sleeping state. In all likelihood, today’s adventure was being played back in Yui’s dream right about now.

After a while, at first Klein’s avatar, then Asuna’s, after that Agil’s, Liz’s, and Silica’s avatars, as well as Pina, all scattered into beads of light and disappeared.

I faced Leafa and, while casually extending my right hand, said,

“Well then, Sugu, shall we return to Swilvane in one flight?”

Upon that, my imouto pouted lightly.

“You know, Onii-chan, since we’re not in the water, we don’t have to fly while holding hands.”

“Ah…...I-I see… Sorry, didn't mean to……”

However, the blonde mage-and-swordswoman quickly snatched the hand that I withdrew.

“However, since I’m better than you in the sky, from here on, I'll be leading the way!”

“......I-I’m counting on you”

We spread our wings at the same time and took off from the sandy beach that was being dyed in purple.

Returning my glance to the northeast, the gigantic silhouette of the World Tree in the background of the sky, where stars had begun twinkling, came into my view. Before us, a cluster of green lights glittered like jewels. It was the dear Sylph territory capital, Swilvane.

After confirming that Yui was in her place in my pocket, Leafa and I nodded, and we took off riding on the sea breeze.

Part 2
“............Haruhohohee……”

I muttered this in and unintelligible voice, while chewing my chewy udon.

At that moment, Suguha, who was on the opposite side of the dining table, looked over here with upturned eyes.

“That's bad manners, Onii-chan.”

It's true that holding chopsticks in my right hand and a tablet terminal in my left while eating a meal probably isn't appropriate. However, after swallowing the udon in my mouth with a gulp,

“I should be deciding on how to eat my bukkake udon.”

“......Then, what about karē udon?”

“No way.”

“......How about kitsune udon?”

“That's fine.”

“......And what about nabeyaki udon?”

“No way.”

“I don't get your standards at all……”

Sighing, I slurped the chilled bukkake udon (with hot spring eggs, steamed chicken, boiled shrimp, okra, thick wakame leaves, shiso and shredded nori as toppings) in one mouthful.

We logged out from ALO around fifteen minutes ago. As usual, our mother has yet to return home, thus the two of us made a late dinner; however, lately, I feel as if we've also been favouring the «quick to make and simple to clean» route too much.

Let's make at least three meals for tomorrow―― while secretly deciding thus, I again heard the voice from across the table.

“Then, what was with that ‘I see’?”

“It took me a second to understand that the question was about the 「haruhoho」 that I uttered a while ago.

“......That 『I see』 was about me understanding something….. no, about the Æsir story.”

“Oh, so you investigated that promptly.”

“Although you may say so, it's only to the extent of reading a rough outline.”

I presented the tablet, where the corresponding article of an online encyclopedia was displayed, to Suguha and considered whether I should crack open the preserved hot spring eggs and mix them in with the udon, or simply bite into them. However, faster than I could come up with a solution, Suguha fearlessly and scornfully laughed.

“......What is it?”

“It's completely useless, Onii-chan. Why did you say “I see” with just this? This has nothing but a mere outline written.”

“I-is that so?”

“Yeah. If you really want to know, it did not begin with the head god Odin's father, the giant Borr, nor Borr's father, the first god Búri…… Err, first of all, in Norse mythology, the beginning of the world began with a large rift, called Ginnungagap……”

“S-stop stop. Let's save the beginning of the world till later, when we have time for you to tell me about it without rushing. Hey, we'd better eat quickly or the udon will grow stale.”

At my interruption, Suguha made a displeased face, but obediently put down the tablet and took the chopsticks into her hand again. Without hesitation, she cracked the hot spring eggs and mixed the egg yolk that flowing out into the noodles. As that golden radiance was too beautiful, I did the same and vigorously slurped it.

Although I thought that interrupting the earnest lecture was inexcusable, I haven't needed such detailed information so far. Because, as far as I know, the Æsir realm does not exist in ALO――probably, and the «Deep Sea Plunderers» may or may not have a continuation.

Leviathan did say 『I am going to move it to a new home』when he took away «Prince's Egg», which we had taken from the Underwater Temple after being so splendidly tricked by Kraken. With this issue being solved, we had a feeling that this wouldn't end with ‘and they lived happily ever after’. What the heck is that prince or something―――it's not a human, as it was going to be born from an egg―――but I have no idea. Kraken also seemed like he hadn't lost yet, as he didn't seem too satisfied with pent-up revenge.

This merely has a few personal feelings mixed in, but, wouldn't this lead into a quest and not a single instance quest after all?

In ordinary campaign quests, if one of the quests is cleared, the player can receive the following quest and the new destination will be specified via markers. However, there are rare cases, in which the players themselves must guess which place they should go to and what should they do based on the information that they had received up to that point.

If we assume that that this campaign is of that type, there were supposed to be hints for the location, where the next quest could be accepted, in the conversation between Kraken and Leviathan…...but…….

“......-chan, come on, Onii-chan.”

Suguha called me several times while I was pondering before I finally came to my senses and raised my head.

“Eh, wh-what is it?”

“I hope that you haven't forgotten that we're doing a major cleanup of the dojo tomorrow. Don't stay up late tonight; we have to go to bed soon.”

Of course I forgot about it, but without saying a word, I nodded.

“I get it I geet it, I'll go to sleep in one… make that two hours, I promise.”

I avoided my imouto's eyes with a questionable look, and escaped to the kitchen with the now empty plate.

In my room, I rolled in bed and looked up at the alarm clock on my headboard while upside down

It was 23:30. At around this time in the old Aincrad, I would be in the midst of my «night phase», secluding myself in a high-efficiency hunting ground and continuing to swing my sword.

Of course, I don't lack levelling (although ALO doesn't have levels) in ALfheim. Particularly because I had reset my stats inherited from SAO, thus, in order to catch up with Asuna and the rest, there were times when I worked vigorously towards hard hunting.

But of course, there was no chance of experiencing the trepidation from before—that throbbing motivation to level up in order to live on.

Needless to say, that's a fortunate thing. By no means do I think of things like wanting to return to that world.

However, somewhere in my heart, I may be continuing to wish. For something that is a game, but not a game…… for something in the miniature garden of the virtual world that could invoke breathtaking «reality».

I felt an sign of that «something» the moment Leviathan's trident came down in the nick of time, when we were about to be wiped, after being driven to a near-death state by Kraken's blow. So in that event of pre-established harmony, it wasn't someone's written plot and was really an accidental development…………?

“......No, well, it would just be interesting if that were the case…...”

I muttered that monologue to hide my embarrassment, and, in order to prepare for tomorrow's major clean up and go to bed early, I turned off the lights of my room.

After ten seconds had passed, I fumblingly grasped the AmuSphere and mounted it on my head, and then recited the voice command in a whisper.

“Link Start.”

Part 3
By my standards, going to bed no later than in two hours is a sufficiently early time to go to bed.

While making such an excuse, I landed in Alfheim, which, similarly to the real world, was wrapped in a veil of darkness.

This time onwards is the peak time for nearly all net gamers, thus the main street of the Sylph capital Swilvane was thriving with plenty of fairies. Of course, most of them were Sylphs, but a considerable number, when compared to some time ago, of other race players could be seen.

Gazing at the street from the window of the inn that I used for logging out, I could see that the Cait Sith, who had made an alliance with the Sylph, were the most plentiful of the other races. After them would be the and, whose territories were close by. Although, geographically, the Salamander territory is adjacent to the Sylph, they were still formally in the middle of a war with the Sylph, thus it’s not a surprise that red-haired players could not be found.

My race, the, are not in a hostile relationship with the Sylphs, but, at any rate, their territory is on the other end of the realm with the World Tree in between. And, in the first place, there’s also the fact that the Spriggans are an unpopular race, so, like the Salamanders, not even one Spriggan could be seen on the main street.

For a short while, I thought about how I should move to my destination without standing out too much, then took out a cloak with a hood from my storage and tried covering myself with it. Furthermore, after also reciting the chant for the illusion magic spell «Moonshade Lurk», I stepped out of the inn with light steps.

The Moonshade Lurk spell makes it hard for other people to see the player, but only while the player is in a shade created by the moon (in other words, it has zero effect in dungeons which are not reached by moonlight in the first place). Although it’s a spell with such a questionable hiding ability, it’s the limit of my magic skill. Luckily, the moon was shining brightly this night and Swilvane has heaps of side streets, thus I advanced in a half run while trying not to step out of the shadow as much as possible.

After moving for several minutes and arriving at the heart of the city, I stopped for a moment and looked forward.

Right before my eyes, a that was not less than a hundred meters in diameter extended, in the middle of which towered the most beautiful building in Swilvane――the Sylph lord mansion. The three-storey building was surrounded by a deep moat, with only two bridges: one in the north and one in the south, connecting it to the road. The rotary was entirely illuminated by the pale moonlight, leaving entirely no shade for me to hide myself in.

Two NPC guardians, who looked very strong, stood in the vicinity of each of those bridges, raising their high. Only players registered in the lord mansion’s register of names could pass through there.

If I’m not mistaken, Leafa was also supposed to be registered, but even outsiders who were in a party with someone who was registered could not pass. Trying to fly over the moat outside the guardian’s field of vision may seem like a good idea, but, of course, such a cheap trick was useless. It seems that there is a barrier that nullifies all magical powers of outsiders, including the ability to fly, within the premises of the lord’s mansion.

It’s not that I wanted to break in, it’s that it would be common courtesy to catch a member of the staff coming out and going into the mansion to convey a message inside; however I would, as much as possible, like to avoid this night’s visit from becoming a rumour in the distant future.

“............!”

When I thought to that extent, I sensed the arrival of the moment that I was aiming for, prepared myself by lowering my stance.

The moon that shone palely in the corner of the night sky was becoming concealed by a black shadow from the right side. It was an artificial lunar eclipse that took place in Alfheim every night. It was the floating castle Aincrad, which revolved in high altitude, overlapping with the moon for only a mere dozen of seconds. Moreover, the complete obstruction of the moon light only occurred for merely a little under five seconds.

As the pale disk was slowly going into an eclipse, all of the light finally disappeared―― in other words, at the moment when all of Swilvane sunk into Aincrad’s shadow, I jumped out of the back lane.

The street in this area without stores was quiet, but that does not mean that there weren’t any players at all. I expected my body would continue to be obscured by the effects of Moonshade Lurk, but, while praying that the sharp-eared Cait Sith would not catch the sound of my footsteps, I traversed the rotary in an instant. At the middle point of the two bridges, I raised my foot at the cast iron fence that separated the moat from the road and jumped with all my might.

As soon as a player stepped on the deep black surface of the water, they could no longer use their wings nor any magic. According to rumours, some kind of dreadful aquatic-type monster lurked inside the some ten-meter wide moat, and it seems that players who fall down turn into Remain Lights at the bottom of the moat without being seen. As my Remain Light would appear on this side of the moat, if it came to this, my attempt at intrusion would be found out.

Jumping ten meters without the help of the flight ability was absolutely impossible even for the agile Spriggans. In the air, I drew out my sword from my back and, while falling, I extended forward to the limit. The point of the sword just barely got stuck into the stone block on the opposite bank.

If this was an ordinary rock that was lying in the field, the sword forged by the master smith Lisbeth would have simply teared it to pieces, but it was impossible to destroy structures in a town. With a reverse grip, I forced the tip of the sword into the block with all my might, and my body was thrown forward by the recoil.

With an additional small jump, my left hand somehow reached the opposite shore. While sheathing my sword into my scabbard, I nimbly crawled up. When I hit the stone with the point of my sword, a slight metallic sound rang, but, luckily, the bridge guardians haven’t moved.

I brought my body down again and ran. The moment I dived into the shade of a garden tree, the short lunar eclipse ended.

“............Phew.”

While taking a light breath, I looked up at the lord’s mansion before my eyes. My destination was, of course, the centre of the the top floor. I don’t know if the other part of the visit was there, but in case she was absent, there was nothing I could do but wait for a while.

From this point on, I wouldn’t be able to obtain the divine protection of the Moonshade Lurk spell. While praying that there weren’t any guardians within the building, I stored the sword on my back to my item storage and then, aiming to open the front entrance, I began stealthily moving.

After five minutes.

Having one way or another finally reached my destination, in front of the elegant double door on the third floor of the lord’s mansion, I again checked left and right.

There were no figures of people in the vast corridor. It seems that the majority of the administration department players were in the middle of a friendly chat in a hall on the second floor. Anyone and everyone could come up to here without question, but if the person that I should meet with was on the second floor, it will be all for nothing. While praying that my good luck would continue to the end, I dusted the hood that I was wearing and knocked on the door.

After a little while,

“Come in.”

That was the reply of a familiar voice. Taking a breath in relief, I pulled the silver door handles and speedily slipped inside through a minimum opening.

At the same time as I closed the door with my hand behind my back, the female player, who was operating the lord-exlcusive window at the large desk in front of me, raised her head.

When the Sylph female lord, Sakuya, who was tucked in a graceful kimono-style costume, recognized me, she first raised her eyebrows, then slanted her neck, and, lastly, raised the index finger of her right hand.

“May I confirm something just in case?”

“Anything at all.”

“You didn’t come here because you’ve been employed by the Salamanders to take my head…...have you, Kirito?”

“Eh…… is it possible according to the system? In other words, is there such a thing as…… me, a Spriggan, passing the lord killing bonus to the Salamanders?”

“Oh really….. Ah, no no, of course the answer is no.”

While raising both of my hands to indicate that I had no hostility towards her, and coming to this point, I spoke of my goal.

“The truth is, there’s something that I’d like you to tell me.”

“............You intruded into the lord’s mansion with a reason like that at best?”

“Yeah, well…… That’s because I’m not registered as a friend with you, so I can’t send you messages…… and, moreover, I don’t want this to be heard by other people……”

I explained the circumstances after that remark that sounded somewhat like it was said by a girl from a romantic comedy, and then the lord-sama lightly shook her head left and right and nodded.

“............I see. However, it is because I am a lord for the time being. In this situation, I would be limiting what you could ask, if you were another race. However, you also seem to be my lifesaver, hm?

“Ah, that is fine. It is not that I came here for you to tell me the Sylph’s military secrets. Besides, I am of course prepared to offer my own information as compensation.”

“Is that so? I wonder what would you tell me?”

“The method of infiltrating the Sylph lord’s mansion and the countermeasure for it.”

At that moment, Sakuya blinked with surprise and then laughed loudly. I had no choice but pray that the laughter would not reach the floors below.

While drinking the wine, which looked like it was high-class, and was personally poured by the lord, little by little, I explained the reason for my visit without an appointment over again from the beginning.

After my story was finished, Sakuya, who had been listening in silence, slowly nodded.

“Around ten days ago, I also did the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest.”

“Eh, the lord-sama did it…...personally?”

“Occasionally, even I want to pass through a dungeon. Besides, I have participated in Aincrad’s floor boss raids several times.

“Th-that is true.”

“However…………”

With the manner of a lord-sama, she drank up her wine in one breath and slightly bent her head to the side.

“When the members of the administration department and I did the quest, neither Kraken, nor Leviathan came.”

“Eh?”

“When we handed the pearl or egg that we found in the temple to the ojii-san NPC who hadn’t changed, he expressed his gratitude as usual and the quest was cleared. After that, the ojii-san summoned a gargantuan giant squid, and that guy seized us with its tentacles and transported us to the sandy beach, but…… honestly, that was not a very enjoyable personal experience.”

“Gi…...Giant squid you say? In that case, I would have wanted to see…… no, errr, in other words, does that mean that whether or not you hand in the pearl leads to a divergence in the development of the plot?……”

“It appears to be so. Or perhaps I should say that people normally hand it in, I guess.”

I responded to Sakuya’s bitter smile with my own bitter smile.

“Weell, I tried handing it in, but…… just as I was about to do so, it was confiscated by Asuna……”

“Haha, you can’t make light of her sixth sense.”

While looking at me and nodding, Sakuya laughed for awhile, then, while pouring herself a second helping of wine, she said.

“We’ve come to an understanding concerning the quest’s divergence route. So…… in the end, what is it that you want to ask me?”

“Err…... I was wondering whether you happened to know about a «New Home» that Leviathan mentioned in the end…… For example, besides the aforementioned underwater temple, have you encountered a building that resembles the temple somewhere……?”

“Hmm…… I can’t remember such a place right away, but……”

After thinking for a bit, the lord operated her exclusive menu, a large map that filled her large desk was displayed. Several times more detailed than that of us commoners, it was a complete map of Alfheim.

“Speaking of classified information, this is also classified information, but fine. This map has recorded all unique points: discovered quests, significant buildings and stone monuments, secret paths etc.. Let’s see if I can look up «home» with this……

White digits flashed on the map and, suddenly, the results were displayed on the search window. The number of matches: zero.

“Then the «Prince»…...is not listed. «Kraken»…… «Leviathan»…... neither of them are listed.”

“How about «egg»?”

“Isn’t that a little too vague…...Look, more than a hundred matches. Search for, protect, destroy, cook among other things to do with the egg of [something]; at this rate, there is a great amount of quests.”

“I-is that so…… Hmm……”

While staring at the ground plan of the fairy homeworld, I played back the conversation between the Lord of the Sea and the Lord of the Abyss in my mind.

It’s been a long time, my old friend…… as a servant to the Æsir…...One day, I shall claim the prince’s power…...the one that will someday rule all the sea and air…………

――All the sea and air.

“S-say, Sakuya-san.”

“What?”

“Does that map record unique objects in the three dimensional coordinate system?”

“Of course.”

“Then, first of all, could you tell me the point that’s in the lowest place? Oh, and not including Jotunheimr.”

Sakuya nodded and nimbly sorted the information.

“The lowest coordinates are -98 meters. The quest name is…...«Deep Sea Plunderers».”

The pupils of the lord shone with a momentary flash of light. I nodded in return, and voiced my next request.

“Then, next up, the point at the highest place. Not including Aincrad.”

“......That doesn’t even need to be looked up.”

“Huh……?”

“Because I know the answer. The mystery at the topmost location in Alfheim……”

While pointing at the back of the large window with the thumb of her left hand and broadly grinning, the beautiful lord laughed.

“That’s the summit of the World Tree.”

Credits

 * Raw: Takazuki
 * Translation: Gsimenas, 1caiser
 * Editor: 1caiser, Dennis Lee, Pryun