Material Edition 29 - Sword Art Online Gaiden X3 [32/33] ②

It took me a bit longer than I had originally anticipated, but here's the continuation of the "What if Raios and Humbert were bitten by poisonous crabs and never stopped Eugeo and Kirito from graduating from the academy" what-if story from ME28. The content of this and the previous one will apparently be collected into the Alicization BD v8 bonus novel, along with a continuation (and supposed conclusion) of this storyline. Since I've already translated half of it, guess I'll finish it up when the BD comes out in 2 days (and I actually get raws from someone, of course). As the latter might take awhile, I might translate this year's choukansha short next while waiting for the raws.

The story here picks off where ME28 ended. The first portion of the text still belongs to part 3 from ME28, apparently, so there is no separate heading for it, while the next portion is titled as "4". The new named character in this ME was named コルシェ, which is awfully similar to Porsche (ポルシェ), so I decided to run with "Corsche" as the translation. There is also a fruit named カーシャ (read as "kāsha") introduced in this ME; the first syllable sounded like "car", so I went with "carsha" (I totally didn't pick this spelling to complement the Porsche reference...). The "Corsche" character I mentioned before speaks in humble (kenjougo) tone, so I tried making her sound excessively formal and polite, while the other new character speaks in old-man style, so I tried to make his language sound more colloquial with various non-standard spelling variants and colloquial abbreviations. The "H'llo" instance accounts for the fact that Kirito shortened "こんにちは" to "こんちは" (not sure if this is intentional, or Kawahara just made an oppsie here). I hope this covers all the technical stuff for this ME.

Now, I did give this story a once-over before publishing it, but I'm only one man and could have easily missed some blatant fuckups, so if anyone notices anything wrong, be sure to inform me. Feel free to drop any other suggestions or impressions in the comments below as well.

On a side note, we might get an OS release soonish, since the initial typesetting for c7 is done. Also, we revised the "MAID iN AINCRAD" comic anthology story with better raws (and slightly refined translation + typesetting), so feel free to give it another look if you want.

Markup explanation:
Itallics mark text that was written in katakana English (I only highlighted the cases where the author uses both English and actual Japanese equivalents for the same thing, or when I needed to emphasise that an English word is used there). In some instances, the author decided to use both English and Japanese equivalents for the exact same word one after the other; in such cases, I marked the English variant in itallics, while the Japanese variant will be emphasised with furigana like this: #Translation into English#(Japanese word) (e.g. #long hair#(chouhatsu) - "long hair" here is a translation of the Japanese word, while "chouhatsu" is a romanisation of the Japanese word in the original text to emphasise that this specific word is in Japanese). I hope this explanation will help avoid any confusion this time (*looks at a certain Cel*).

-Gsimenas

Credits

Raws: Takazuki
Translation: Gsimenas

Sword Art Online Gaiden X3 [32/33]

Index

N/A

Sword Art Online Gaiden X3 [32/33] ②

——Alice!

The moment I heard that name, the around ten different apology phrasing variants I had come up with on the spur of the moment were all blown away from my head.

Alice. That was the name of Eugeo's childhood friend, who had been taken away from Rulid Village by an Integrity Knight nine years ago.

While it's not like people can't have identical first names even in Underworld, the actual incidence of that would probably be considerably lower than in the real world. I don't know how many people are living in the Central Cathedral, but wouldn't the possibility of a second person with the same name living here be rather low?

Though, the woman, who was hiding her bare body with a white bath towel while thrusting her golden sword towards us, had mentioned something that I couldn't ignore when she gave us her name. The third-ranked Integrity Knight—— that's definitely what she said. Meaning, not only is she one of the Integrity Knights, who are the strongest swordsmen as well as arts users in the Human Empire, she's also in the top three among them…… wait, that's not the issue here. As I recall, Eugeo's childhood friend Alice Zuberg was supposed to have broken the《trespassing into the Dark Territory》 taboo and thus taken away to the central capital as a criminal. And they made Alice into an Integrity Knight, one of the guardians of the law, after all that? So there had been such a hidden route to becoming an Integrity Knight, aside from winning the Four Empire Unification Tournament? While I did expect a scenario where she was forgiven for her crime and became a Sacred Arts user, I didn't even consider the possibility of her becoming an Integrity Knight.

Although the mystery only keeps intensifying, Eugeo should at least be able to confirm whether or not the female knight before us is Alice. Even if it's their first meeting in nine years, he should be able to tell if she looks like her.

Arriving at this conclusion in those two seconds of deliberation, I whispered to my partner beside me.

"Hey, Eugeo."

However, no reaction from him. When I glanced at him for a moment, I noticed that his eyes beneath the flaxen curls were both stuck in a wide open state. Witnessing a woman clad in but a single bath towel…… was likely not the cause here.

"I said, hey, Eu……"

"It seems you have no reasonable justification for this, I see."

My attempt to call out to Eugeo was interrupted by 《Alice's》 firm voice. Holding down her towel with her left hand, she brandished the sword in her right hand. Although it still had its sheath on, I was certain that it'd take away eighty… make that ninety percent of my Life if she were to strike me with it using all of her strength.

"……H…… hold it hold it, we do, we do have a justification!"

Seeing as it didn't seem Eugeo would be rebooting anytime soon, I took a step forward and fervently employed my mouth. The female knight's sapphire-like eyes faintly squinted.

"Go ahead and try then."

"Um, well you see…… this guy and I were appointed as Integrity Knight apprentices just thirty or so minutes ago and while we were exploring…… I mean, looking around the Cathedral, we happened to come into this room. I swear to Goddess Stacia that we had not a single milise of an intention of peeping on milady knight's bathing!"

To be precise, we didn't come up to the ninetieth floor for sightseeing; rather, we were looking for Alice, but I couldn't just tell that to——……

Wait, hold on. Even if the reason why Eugeo froze up like that was because we ended up finding Alice this easily, how come Alice herself doesn't recognise Eugeo? As kids, the two played together every day and, even when Eugeo was given the calling of 《Gigas Cedar Cutter》, Alice would bring him a boxed lunch every single day, as far as I've heard. Even if their appearance changed considerably over nine years, you'd think she'd at least have some sort of reaction to him.

If it's come to this, guess we have no choice but to give her our names…… just as I had that idea, Alice had the perfect timing to ask us to identify ourselves.

"Knight apprentices…… you say? You two, what're your names and numbers?"

"Y-yes, ma'am! I am Kirito Synthesis Thirty-three and this guy…… is Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-two!"

I uttered my partner's name with as clear a pronunciation as I possibly could.

However, the knight‘s expression showed no reaction to it.

4

"Hah…… to think that the bath switches from a men's bath to a women's bath and vice versa every two hours… even though it's so huge that you could just build a wall down the middle to separate it into two…… and only the senior knights can use it in the first place, what discrimination……"

Grumbling with complaints, I dropped down onto the sofa with a thud. The cloth-covered sofa unsurprisingly seemed to be high-quality, as the cushions easily took in my weight with their high elasticity.

The room prepared for me and Eugeo on the twenty-eighth floor of the Central Cathedral was, coincidentally or not, structured just like our rooms at the Elite Disciple dormitory at the Swordcraft Academy. When we went through the door marked with a 【２８０８】 plate, we found ourselves in a shared living room that was about twenty jou⁽¹⁾ in size, with doors on the left and right walls, each leading to a personal bedroom about twelve jou in size. The entire room was greatly bigger and had more luxurious furniture than our room at the academy dormitory, but it seems it won't take long to get used to it.

Yet my partner didn't bother looking around the room and instead continued standing bolt upright in the middle of the living room. He seemed like a sleepwalker even when we were climbing down to this room from the ninetieth floor; seems like he still hasn't recovered from the shock.

Can't say I blame him. After all, he suddenly encountered the woman that he's been worried sick about and hoping to see again for the past nine years straight; what's more, she turns out to be an Integrity Knight, as beautiful as a goddess and in the middle of bathing——and to top it all off, seeing Eugeo and hearing his name didn't help her recognise him as her old friend.

"…………"

I stood up after a brief sigh, walked around to my partner's back and placed my hands on his shoulders. Then I pushed him to the sofa, turned his body ninety degrees and sat him down. As I noticed a simple kitchen beside the left wall while looking around the room, I used my unpolished tea-brewing skills to pour in some strongish cofil tea, which I then brought over to the low table in front of the sofa.

After blowing on the cup as it gave off steam to cool it down a bit, I placed it in front of Eugeo, who then reached out to it with his left hand and picked up the handle seemingly under semi-autopilot mode. He then brought the cup to his mouth and sipped on it a bit, before muttering, "How bitter……" At that point, he seemingly regained his consciousness, as he looked at me after blinking a few times.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I peered into my partner's eyes, before asking him a question.

"Eugeo. That Integrity Knight we met…… was your Alice, right?"

It took about a full seven seconds before I got an answer from him.

"……No doubt about it…… There's no way I'd mix her up with anyone. That knight is Alice. That golden hair that reminds you of a wheat field in autumn, and those eyes, more blue than even Lake Ruhr…… just a glimpse from those eyes caused my head to go so numb that I was unable to think about anything……"

"Perhaps you would have been better off getting a good 'ol smack from that sword of hers."

When I cracked a joke, a sulky expression finally replaced his unreadable expression.

"Kirito, you'd be keeping me company in that case, you hear me. Though, Alice isn't one to do anything like that…… is what I'd like to say……"

"That knight doesn't seem to have recognised you as Eugeo, after all, huh……"

When I nervously mentioned that, Eugeo bit down on his lip a bit, before nodding. At that point, I placed my left hand on his head before it could droop down, and began playing with his curls.

"Have you ever noticeably changed your appearance or something since you were a child? Like, changing your hairstyle or something like that……"

As I got started on that idea, I suddenly realised something. Does hair grow naturally for Underworlders like it does for people in the real world? ——Wait, I haven't cut my hair even a single time throughout those three years since I awoke in this world; the same probably applies to Eugeo. On that note, I've never even cut my nails, nor have I seen any nail clippers here.

While it is only for natural hair and nails not to grow in a virtual world, it makes me wonder what happens when they get cut or burnt in some unforeseen accident. There is no avatar customisation option on the Stacia Window, after all.

My question received a knuckleball⁽²⁾ of an answer from Eugeo.

"No, I've never used any carsha fruit on me, after all."

"A carsha…… fruit."

As I muttered the term back like a parrot, Eugeo gave me a puzzled look.

"Kirito, you did have carsha fruit in your hometown, right? Bottles of concentrated juice were being sold at general stores in the Central Capital, after all……"

Guessing what the effects of the carsha fruit thingie were from his words, I answered.

"O-oh yeah, we did…… I think. You apply some juice you get from a fruit on your head and your hair grows, right?"

'If I got that horribly wrong, I'm just going to pretend I was joking and laugh it off', I thought for a moment, but, luckily, Eugeo nodded.

"Yeah. It's a valuable plant, so if the people at Rulid Village were to find any at a forest, they'd normally sell it to a pedlar; barely anyone would actually use it on themselves."

"So you're saying Raios's long…… I mean, #long hair#(chouhatsu) was the result of using carsha juice on himself……"

"If you wanted to grow your hair that long, even an entire bottle of concentrated juice wouldn't be enough for the job, I believe."

"Hahaa…… so that's why long hair is so common among men of the nobility."

"It seems some of them are born with hair that tends to grow long, though. My hair and yours, Kirito, would be considered pretty long."

After he pulled on my forelocks, as if getting back at me, Eugeo's gaze returned to the front.

"……Anyway, my hairstyle hasn't changed since childhood. As for my face…… I can't really tell without an outside opinion, but it shouldn't have changed so drastically that I no longer have any likeness to my child self……"

As Eugeo seemed to be about ready to sink back into his gloom, I pulled him out of it with my deliberately loud voice.

"Then there's no room for doubt! Alice has lost her memories of her life at Rulid."

"……Her memories……!?"

Seeing my partner's face jolt up at that, I gave him a deep nod.

"That's the only explanation I can think of. What's more, the one responsible for that, most likely, isn't the God of Darkness Vector, but rather the Axiom Church."

"The Church……"

Muttering this as his face went pale, Eugeo looked up to the tapestry adorning the wall with the Axiom Church's crest; at that point, I strongly grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Get it together, Eugeo, if it were God Vector's handiwork, there'd be nothing we could do, but it stands to reason that there should be a way to undo something that a human has done, right? We're going to get Alice's memories back."

"Bu…… but, how do you plan on doing that……"

"Our only option is to put in our best effort to investigate the matter. Don't worry, we're already Integrity Knights, even if only apprentices. We should have considerable authority even inside the Cathedral…… We no longer have any need to be scared of any teachers or dorm managers as we did in our academy days."

"You were the only one scared of them, though, Kirito."

With that rebuttal, Eugeo finally showed a faint smile as my hands gripping his shoulders were met by his hands.

"You're right…… We've managed to claim victories in the Swordcraft Academy Graduation Examination, Norlangarth Swordsmanship Tournament, and even the Four Empire Unification Tournament. If we break down here, all the effort we've put in so far will have been for naught."

After uttering these confidence-radiating words, he lowered his hands. Then he reclined on the soft sofa and closed his eyes.

"……Besides, Alice is safe…… and doing well. I have to be glad…… most of all……"

Even when his whispers turned to calm sleeping breaths, I did not try to wake my partner up. It was still only just past three in the afternoon, but a lot has happened today ever since morning and there's no need to comply with academy regulations anymore. Even if today isn't a rest day, he's free to sleep if he wants to…… probably.

After three minutes of waiting, Eugeo's breathing stabilised and I slowly stood up. Deciding to assign the left side bedroom to my partner just like at the Elite Disciple dorm, I opened the door to it. Then I returned to the sofa, gently picked up Eugeo's body, and laid him down on the large bed in his bedroom. I then took off his shoes and placed them on the floor, before covering his body with a thin blanket and then taking a breather.

I didn't tell Eugeo, but the one responsible for sealing Alice's memories was most likely the Supreme Priest of the Axiom Church, Administrator. If she is capable of halting the natural decline of Life with her arts, meaning that she has obtained de facto perpetual youth and longevity, it would come as no surprise that she is also capable of manipulating memories as well.

If my conjecture is correct, reclaiming Alice's memories will, unfortunately, not be that easy of an ordeal. It doesn't sound likely that the silver-haired and silver-eyed ruler with astounding beauty and giving off such an intimidating presence would be so eager to listen to a request from mere inexperienced apprentice knights. For the time being, we'll have to obediently put in our best efforts with that practice or whatever while we gather information in the meantime. Why did the Supreme Priest seal Alice's memories—— what on earth happened to her when she was brought to the tower as a criminal?

"Just a little more to go, let's keep at it."

Muttering to Eugeo's innocently sleeping face, I took a step back. Scheming to one day get my hands on that concentrated carsha fruit juice and apply it to my partner's hair while he's sleeping to cause him to have long hair, I silently left the room.



Once I had finished organising the baggage in my own bedroom and had changed into a shirt and trousers of simple design yet high-grade texture that had been left for me in the wardrobe, I returned to the living room.

Taking care not to cause any loud noises, I cleaned up the cup and pot, before thinking, 'What to do now…' As it seemed that the practice with that Number Twelve-san whatsit that Chief Elder Chudelkin had mentioned would only begin tomorrow, I guess I'm free to consider the remainder of today to be my leisure time, but when I recall that unexpected encounter with Knight Alice, I feel the temptation to idly wander about the tower.

At the Swordcraft Academy, there were heaps of 'you can't do this' and 'this is bad' regulations, resulting in me leading a very suffocating student's life, but now that I'm left alone to my devices in an environment without such regulations, I ended up at a loss at what to do. Though of course, even the Cathedral probably has a variety of rules around——such as the fact that the Grand Bath switches from a men‘s bath to a women‘s bath and vice versa every two hours ——but at the very least, no one left a list of regulations in this room.

However, thinking from a different perspective, this means I could make use of the 'It's not my fault that nobody told me about it!' excuse to get out of trouble. Even Alice, who ended up giving us a bath scene, simply let us off with a "I guess nothing can be done if you weren't aware of that" in the end. Though, she did seem really reluctant to do so.

I bet we'll be informed about heaps of regulations either orally or in written form tomorrow, so today will be the final day I can use my blissful ignorance to go around the place freely. For starters, my hunger meter has been been going up quite a bit for awhile now, yet aside from a variety of tea leaves, there's not a single cookie left for us in the simple kitchen, so that leaves me with no choice but to wander around in search of food in order to prevent the decrease of my Life.

Upon reaching that conclusion, I took the notepad——as paper in this world is a valuable commodity, this too is quite a luxurious item——that had been left for us on the low table and wrote down:『I'm going out to look for food for a bit; be back by the fifth hour bell.』, onto it; after some hesitation, I decided to leave the room without my beloved sword.

5

Just like when I had first come here, the twenty-eighth floor hallway was completely deserted.

As I recall, the Cathedral‘s floors twenty-one through forty-nine were supposed to be the dedicated living area for the monks, nuns, servants, and apprentice knights, so why is there such a lack of signs of people living here. I've started feeling the urge to open up all the doors I kept seeing on the left and right side of the hallway, starting from doors number 2807 and 2806, but this would definitely be considered a breach of rules—— or even more fundamentally, a breach of basic manners.

At this rate, I guess my only choice is to return to the grand stairs and climb down till I catch the scent of food…… with that thought in mind, I was walking along the hallway with a red carpet laid on the floor, when...

From around the corner ahead of me, I heard something that sounded like scraping. If this were a dungeon, I would be preparing for a fight against monsters, but #monsters#(kaibutsu) wouldn't be walking around the Cathedral hallways and, in the first place, I didn't bring my weapon along. Yet I still erased my footsteps as I approached the corner and promptly checked on what lay ahead with my back against the wall.

Naturally, it wasn't a monster.

A young woman with a gray skirt and ivory apron was sweeping the hallway with a long broom. Each time she swept her broom with a skillful motion, fine dust particles fluttered from the carpet and dissolved into the air, before disappearing.

The 《spontaneous filth》 in this world was mostly just a visual effect of sorts, so a sweep from a broom or a duster was enough to get rid of it, thus there was no need to collect all of it in a dustpan; nonetheless, it probably still takes quite a bit of work to clean up such huge hallways. An 'I'd hate to get in her way' thought passed through my mind, but I couldn't just pass by her ignoring her existence whatsoever, so I made up my mind and went around the corner, before calling out to her from the back.

"……H-H'llo~"

At that, her hands stopped sweeping the broom, after which her slender body turned around.

Once the woman turned around, I saw that she indeed appeared to be in her late teens, her bright brown hair tied into two and dangling in front of her. Given the hairband with white frills on her head and her puffy-sleeved apron-dress, the term 《maid-san》 passed through my mind, though I had to assume that my Sacred Tongue would probably not be understood.

The woman examined my entire body with a look of wonder, before giving a slight tilt of her head. Her eyes of a darker brown than her hair blinked once, before I heard her weakly-intoned voice.

"Who would you be?"

"Ah……s-sorry. I'm Kirito…… an Integrity Knight apprentice who arrived here just today."

At that, the woman blinked once more, before giving a deep bow.

"Please forgive my impudence. I would be Corsche, the cleaner. I have heard that new Honoured Knights would be gracing us with their presence at room 2808…… though, if I am not mistaken, I was told that there would be two of you."

Hearing Corsche's tone that sounded awfully familiar for some reason, I tilted my head in my mind as I answered.

"Yeah…… there's another one named Eugeo, he's currently sleeping in his room. Also…… ehm, there are some things I'd like to ask you……"

"If it is something within my capability to answer, please go right ahead."

Hearing her answer with that serious look of hers, I quickly sorted through the various questions whirling in my mind, before posing my first question.

"Ehm…… for starters, why's this place so deserted? As I've heard, this group of floors should be inhabited by monks and nuns……"

"There would be two reasons for that, my sir. The first is that the rooms for the monks and nuns are located above floor thirty-one, hence you would normally be unable to chance upon them on this floor. The other reason would be that, at this time of day, the monks and nuns would be found studying Sacred Arts at the training grounds and studies below the twentieth floor."

"……Studies……"

'Don't tell me they're gonna force us to study there too…', I muttered with that thought in mind. Putting that worry aside, I voiced a new question that was prompted by her answer.

"In that case, who does live on the twenty-eighth floor here?"

"The twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors would be where Honoured Knight Apprentices have their residences, my sir."

"Eeh…… There are other apprentice knights aside from us……?"

Come to think of it, the Four Empire Unification Tournament is held annually, so it wouldn't be surprising for there to be ten or twenty apprentices other than us here. So that means that we will have to compete with them in order to become knights proper, and the majority of them are bound to be high-class nobles; wouldn't that mean that the only thing waiting for us is a repeat of our days at the Swordcraft Academy…… just as I was being dejected by such a thought…

"Yes, currently, there are two other Honoured Apprentice Knights residing on the twenty-ninth floor."

"……T-two of them? Just a mere two of them?"

Just as I felt as if the wind was taken out of my sails, Corsche gave a nod.

"Yes. Hence, the only people living on the twenty-eighth floor here would be Kirito-sama and Eugeo-sama."

"…………"

——In that case, give us our own separate rooms! Also, why weren't we given room 2801 then!

…Was what I felt the urge to shout out, but Corsche wasn't the one who decided room assignments, of course. Anyway, at least I learnt why there didn't seem to be anyone on this floor. It's just that all rooms other than the one Eugeo and I were given are unused.

In that case, where did the winners of the annual Four Empire Unification Tournament go off to? They finished their studies in a single year and moved on to become knights proper…… is what I'd like to think, but then the numbers don't add up. The Unification Tournament has been held for over a hundred years now, yet Eugeo is number thirty-two, while I am number thirty-three.

As I was seized with a bad foreboding about things, Corsche gave another blink.

"Would that be all with your questions?"

"Oh…… I feel bad that I'm interrupting your cleaning, sorry, just one more…… actually, make that two. Ehm, it's not like I think we're better than the monks by any means, but why are the apprentice knight rooms located on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors, while monk rooms are found above the thirty-first……?

"That is because the Dragon Landing Field is located on the thirtieth floor and the Honoured Apprentice Knights have their dragon mounting practices there."

"…………Dragons……"

Oh that's right, the Axiom Church's Integrity Knights double as dragon knights. During my Swordcraft Academy days, I've seen huge dragons flying far above in the skies of Centoria numerous times. I've always thought of them as beings of a different world, like the stars shining in the night sky, but becoming a knight proper would also mean getting to ride on those dragons.

In that case, I'll have to get them to let me take the entrance exam for the Cait Sith dragoon squad back in ALO…… with that thought in mind, I opened my mouth once more.

"This will be my final question…… my stomach is so empty that I might die, you see; is there a place where I can get some food?"



'Being apprentice knights, you are free to visit the Grand Dining Room on the tenth floor to have a meal whenever you wish.'

When Corsche informed me of this, I'm sure that it was only my imagination that I felt her giving me a faint look of shock.

While quickly descending the grand stairs, I finally recalled where I've heard Corsche's polite——or put another way, inhuman tone. The Elevating Operator girl that took Eugeo and me from the fiftieth floor to the eightieth just a mere hour ago. The girl who had even ended up forgetting her own name had a speaking style very similar to Corsche's.

So does that mean that Corsche also had her natural decline of Life frozen? And that like the Elevating Operator, she has spent tens of years continuously sweeping the hallways of the Cathedral with a broom……?

Once again made aware of my deep awe and slight opposition towards the Axiom Church and Supreme Priest Administrator, I continued descending the stairs. In the morning, it hadn't seemed like a big deal when we were guided up the grand stairs all the way to the fiftieth floor, perhaps because of the tension I had felt at the time, but now a measly eighteen floors felt like a horribly long distance. Just when my thoughts that the Cathedral's lower half should have an elevator too were about to burst out of my ears, I finally arrived to the tenth floor.

There were two huge doors further down the wide stair landing; while there was no information plate for it, I could definitely feel a faint but nice aroma coming from beyond them. Having approached them with unsteady steps, I placed my hands on one of the doors, and pushed it.

Beyond the open door——.

"……Wow……"

I found a room so vast that I couldn't keep myself from expressing my impression. Inside this banquet hall that was close to the level of the 《Grand Corridor of Spiritual Light》 on the fiftieth floor and the Grand Bath on the ninetieth floor in size, there were multiple rows of dreadfully long tables and chairs with a backrest. There was a similar hall in a fantasy movie set in a wizard school that Suguha loved, but this was probably even bigger than that.

On the long table covered by a white cloth, there were numerous candlesticks, silverware, and water jugs among other things, but no sign of any food. 'Then where is this nice aroma coming from', as I looked around the hall with that thought in mind, I noticed that there was a counter in front of the inner wall and heard bustling activity and energetic voices coming from beyond it. It seems that the hall was the Grand Dining Room, while the Grand Kitchen was beyond the counter——it appears.

Drawn in by the aromatic fragrance of roasted meat, I passed between the long tables with unsteady steps and approached the counter. Inside the bright kitchen, more than ten cooks in white clothes were chopping something with kitchen knives, or stirring huge pots, or gazing into ovens.

I don't know how many monks and nuns this place has, but it seems like they will all be coming to the Grand Dining Room at the same time for a meal and the kitchen staff was currently in the midst of preparing a large quantity of food for them. I hesitated interrupting them when I thought of that, but my stomach was just about to reach my back and I don't even know if I'm supposed to have my meal alongside the monks as an apprentice knight.

'Chudelkin, you bastard, you should have told us about stuff like that!', I thought, but the Chief Elder wasn't here. As my empty stomach continued to grumble, I took a further ten steps forward and leaned over the polished wooden counter as I called out.

"U…… um, excuse me……"

However, nobody would look at me… or more like nobody could hear me over the clamour in the kitchen. I had no choice but to try again.

"EXCUSE ME! CAN I HAVE A MOMENT!"

"Haaah!?"

The impactful groan came from a sturdy-looking cook who was slicing a huge mass of meat on the front kitchen table. When he turned around, the face I saw easily fell in the top three among the 《scary old dudes》 that I've encountered in Underworld. By the way, the other two were Sadore, the metalworker who had fashioned me a sword out of the Gigas Cedar branch I had brought to him, and the officer of Zakkaria's garrison, who had written a recommendation letter that I needed in order to take part in the Swordcraft Academy's entrance exam, for me.

The cook who, just like the other two men, I was all but certain could make all the kids he passed by cry if he were to go for a walk on North Centoria's main street, stroked his white beard that looked like an upside-down broccoli with his left hand as he glared sharply at me.

"Whatcha want, young'un."

"Eh…… ehm…… I was wondering if I could get something to eat……"

"HAAAAAH!?"

Came another imposing groan. The meat chopper in his left hand that was so huge that you could basically classify it as a weapon at this rate gleamed sharply at me.

"Ye know that dinner starts at six, doncha!? If the priests find out that one of ye monks sneaked out of your studies for a snack, ya'll be tossed in'ta the dungeon!"

"U-uh no, I am not a monk, you see…… I am… a knight……"

"HAAAHH!? A KNIGHT!?"

When the aged cook stuck his head out, the cylindrical, about fifty centimetre-long hat atop his head tilted to the side. After pushing it back into place with his left hand, he let out an even deeper voice.

"If yer a knight, doncha have yer exclusive dining room on the ninety-fourth floor! If ye ask Hana there, she'll fix ye up with as much of that fancy noble cuisine as ye can eat!"

It was unclear who this Hana was, but I no longer had the energy to climb all the way to the ninety-fourth floor from the tenth floor, and in the first place, it appears that the floors above the fiftieth were basically all restricted to apprentice knights.

"Um no, I don't really want any fancy food….. besides, as an apprentice knight, I probably can't enter the exclusive dining room for knights proper……"

"Oh, so yer an apprentice, eh! Why din'cha say so first!"

Having shouted that out, the cook approached the counter and stared fixedly at my face.

"So that means ya lad are the next apprentice knight after Alice-jouchan and Eldrie, eh."

(To be continued)

Colophon

Sword Art Online Material Edition 29
Publisher: WordGear
Date of publishing: 2019-5-2
Supervisor: Kunori Fumio
Printing: Ryokuyou

Sword Art Online Gaiden X3 [32/33]

Index

N/A

Notes

1. ^ A jou (畳) is a traditional Japanese unit used for measuring the size of a room. It is equal to 1.653 square metres (the size of a Nagoya tatami mat).

2. ^ The original text used the phrase "予想外のボール" (an unexpected ball). This was a vague reference to baseball, but not any official pitch name. So, (after a Google search) I chose "knuckleball" as it's a pitch that results in unpredictable motion to keep the baseball reference while maintaining some sense. Disclaimer: I know nothing about baseball, so please excuse me if there was a better way of phrasing this.