As a bonus, best Alicization daddy also joins the party!
-Gsimenas
Credits
Raws: CelestTranslation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas
Proofreading: JengKay
Translation (choice/nuance) comments:
- Aside from instances where actual system commands are recited, Sacred Arts elements are almost always referred to with Japanese expressions (kanji), rather than English words. Since the Japanese kanji terms aren't as sophisticated as the English variants, I translated the element names literally when they are mentioned in actual Japanese. For example, the "cryogenic" element is called the "freezing element" (凍素) outside of commands.
- For some reason, all instances of "glass" are written in kanji with furigana. Don't know why.
- I went with Tap's translation of Scheta/Sheyta's name, because I feel that it represents the pronunciation more accurately.
- Nearly all instances of the word "dragon" use the word 飛竜 (hiryuu, "flying dragon") in the original text. I omitted the "flying" part because a non-flying dragon would just be a lizard or something in the West. And the anime sure portrays the UW dragons as regular Westernish dragons, rather than a wyvern or something, so I'm not sure what the "flying" bit is supposed to achieve. Meanwhile, Kirito also uses the word "wyvern" in one instance; this one is just an English word in katakana.
- When speaking to Alice, Kirito's tone varies widely. At first he tries to sound formal by using the polite tone (丁寧語, teineigo), which is basically just using -masu and "desu" forms. However, over time, he just slips back into his usual casual tone without all the politeness markers. This even becomes the topic of the conversation at one point... and leads to him using both speech styles in the same dialogue line... Anyway, since I can't just leave in all the "desu"s and "masu"s and call it a day, I tried making Kirito's speech sound more polite by removing any contractions and going for more formal synonyms when he's trying to be polite. You'll even find an instance or two of "ma'am" where Kirito switched styles mid-sentence and I had to find a way to account for that. Meanwhile, in the casual tone instances, I used contractions and simpler words to account for the speech style.
- Speaking of speech style, Alice, on the other hand, usually speaks in the polite tone (teineigo) with everyone. But when speaking to Bercouli, she ups her game by going into humble tone (謙譲語, kenjougo), an even more polite tone where she starts using extra polite synonyms and grammatical forms for a lot of words (e.g., using おる (oru) for ある (aru, "to be"); 伺う (ukagau) for 聞く (kiku "ask") and its derivative forms; adding になる (ni naru) to verb stems to make verbs sound extra formal).
- And while we're on the subject, Bercouli always speaks in a casual masculine tone (uses simple word forms and grammar + adds some masculine sentence ending particles, like "ze" or "zo"), so I tried making him sound a bit extra casual. He does refer to age at one point, but he doesn't use old-timey grammar forms or expressions, so his tone is more like a middle-aged man. As such, I tried not to go overboard with his tone.
- Purplemelon was written in katakana, rather than hiragana. Probably to indicate that the entire thing is the name for a specific species of melons. So, I used the courier font just like with any kana emphasis cases.
- The flowers from V10 get referenced in this part. The Japanese name for them is ゼフィリア (zefiria). The fan translation interpreted this as "zephyria", while Yen Press went with "zephilia". However, due to Google Docs prompting me the "zephyria" spelling, I decided to google it and discovered that "zephyria" is the feminine form of the Latin adjective "zephyrus", which means "pertaining to zephyr (west wind/breeze)" based on the ancient Greek god of the west wind, Zephyrus. Seeing as these flowers have the whole gimmick of only blooming in the west empire, I assumed that the gimmick itself was a reference to the Greek god or the west wind, and thus went with the fantranslation version of the name for the flowers.
- In one instance, Kirito uses 我が (waga, "my"), the possessive case form of the personal pronoun 我 (ware), rather than his usual pronoun 俺 (ore). Ware is a rather formal but dated personal pronoun, usually used in its derivative forms like waga (fancy way to say "my") or wareware (humble way to say "we/us") nowadays. In this case, I just assumed that Kirito either went with the fancy word for emphasis... or to just sound fancy, so I just emphasised the instance with Comic sans font.
- Japanese loves using English words. However, certain English words are used in different senses than the actual English word is supposed to imply. The English word "image" (イメージ) is more often used in the sense of "visualisation/visualise" (or "imagination", depending on the context) than "image/picture". Normally, I'd just translate it to what makes more sense based on the context, but to make things more complicated, this word at one point references something that Charlotte said back in v10, where it's used more in the sense of "(mental) image"/"imagination" as a synonym for "Incarnation". To maintain the reference... and have the whole reference commentary make sense, I decided to leave the word "image", but also tack on the word "visualise" to get the meaning across better. So don't be surprised when Kirito uses an entire phrase but calls it a word.
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).
- Ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ text indicates non-Japanese text that was written in the Latin/English alphabet, rather than katakana. Basically, what you see is exactly how it's written in the raw.
- Courier font indicates that the original word was written in kana for emphasis (when such a word usually isn't written in kana)
- Comic sans indicates emphasis added by myself when I needed to stress something to get the meaning across properly.
- In some instances, the original text used furigana. In cases where the furigana wasn't exact match for the underlying text (usually when the author uses furigana to translate or describe foreign words in Japanese), I maintained the furigana format. Furigana text should be read as follows: Japanese translation/description of what the term/name means (e.g. cat fairy race - "Cait Sith" is what was actually said in text, while "cat fairy race" is just a brief description of what Cait Sith are to help differentiate between the different fairies.
- In one instance, a certain Japanese word itself becomes the topic of attention, but the nuance is lost in translation; in this case, the furigana should be understood as such: Japanese word.
- Single quotation marks (') are quotes that weren't in the original text but were added for the convenience of English speakers to mark implied quotations. I used it mostly to separate Kirito's internal monologue from his narration, as well as mark sound effects and so on. Actual dialogue lines or quotations (with 「」 punctuation marks) within a narration line are indicated with the usual double (") quotation marks.
3
Having chowed down on our grub at the dining room on the tenth floor, I headed straight into the kitchen with Eugeo. As the white-bearded head chef complained that we were a pain in the butt, we made the dough for the cheesecake and poured it into the circular baking pan on the baking tray. Till yesterday, this would be the point where we baked the thing in an oven, but we stopped at this stage today and left the kitchen, descended the stairs, and headed out for the Cathedral's front yard.
The expansive, stone-paved area was quiet as always. The perfectly-maintained waterways and lawn sparkled under the spring sunlight; if this place were to be opened to the Centoria townspeople, I believe it would be bustling with a great number of people right about now, but there's no way the Supreme Priest would give permission for that.
"Hmm, the wind sure feels great…… we should have brought our o-hiru-gohan and eaten it here, huh."
Said Eugeo with a smile, thus I gave a profound nod while still holding the baking tray in my hands.
"You sure got that right. Make it a sandwich or an onigiri and it'd be just perfect."
"……An onigiri? What's that?"
"…………Ehm."
Although cases like this have become considerably less common lately, once a month I still have episodes where I catch Eugeo's curiosity by using a word not found in the Underworlder vernacular. Forcing my head into high gear, I tried out an adequate explanation.
"……You do know what rice is, right? The specialty from the eastern empire."
"Yeah. It occasionally showed up as garnish for meat dishes even in the Swordcraft Academy."
"So you see, an onigiri is a foodstuff made by clutching cooked rice into a ball about yea big. You fill them with umebo…… I mean, dried plums or tarako…… I mean, salted fish roe."
"Heeh…… Hmm, I utterly can't imagine how that would taste."
"I suppose so. Ah, I've sure grown somewhat of an appetite for one now. Wonder if the head chef would make some if I were to ask him……"
"Kirito, despite the fact that you don't remember a thing about the place where you were born, your memories of the food there sure are way too detailed, huh."
"I-I guess."
'Oh right, come to think of it, I was going with the story that I'm a 《Vector's Lost Child》'…I recalled a bit too late. I can't deny that I've been losing any tension I've had over the full three years I've spent living with Eugeo. I have to be extra careful to avoid any fatal slips of the tongue… is what I honestly believe, but the fact that there are plenty of iffy stuff on the Underworlder side does make things more complicated. For example, just moments ago Eugeo mentioned 《o-hiru-gohan》, but the 'gohan' bit there is supposed to refer to 御飯, that is, cooked rice; how exactly do the people of the northern empire explain the origin of the word 'gohan' when they don't have any custom of eating cooked rice?
"Say, Eugeo……"
"Hm? What's the matter?"
"Oh…… oh nothing, let's just get started on our experiment already, shall we."
"Start what exactly, I don't even have the slightest idea of what you're going to do here."
As Eugeo pursed his lips, I pushed him on the back with the edge of the baking tray, having him move to a bench located between the waterways. Placing the baking tray onto the marble bench, I checked on the cheesecake's dough on top of it to make sure it hadn't become disorganised.
"Alright…… now then, let's get to it straight away."
"Oi, Kirito, give me a proper explanation before you do……"
"System call. Generate crystalline element."
I interrupted Eugeo's following words with rite. Like yesterday, I created a crystal element and formed it into glass. After repeating the same procedure five times, I connected the five glass panels I had created at a right angle. Fusing them together without the slightest gap was a rather tall order for a rite, but I didn't spend two years studying for nothing. The moment all the work was done, I now held in my hands a glass box with an open bottom.
"You take this…… and do this."
Which I then used to cover the raw cheesecake on the baking tray. Truthfully, I'd like to fuse the glass box with the iron baking tray too at this point, but since the head chef would rain thunder on me if I ended up breaking the baking tray in the process by any chance, I had to make do with using darkness elements for adhesion between them.
"Alright…… Eugeo, I'll keep the darkness elements up, so you create heat elements inside the box."
At my instructions, Eugeo finally appeared to have guessed my intentions.
"I see…… so you created a simplistic glass oven with crystal elements, huh. Now you want to use this to observe what happens between the fifty-ninth and sixtieth seconds."
"Exactly."
"Hmm, I'm kinda getting a bad feeling about this…… but unless we do so, we're not going to be able to pin down the reason why the cake ends up scorched, huh……"
Seemingly having resolved himself for this, Eugeo placed the fingertips of both his hands on the glass box.
"How many heat elements should I create?"
"Hmmm…… how about three for now."
"Roger. ——System call, generate thermal element."
Once Eugeo recited the command, three deep crimson light dots appeared inside the box.
Normally, it is difficult to create elements through objects, but my self-studies during my days as an Elite Disciple led me to discovering that objects created using elements——especially glass created from crystal elements are an exception to the rule. Though the only use I had for this trick so far was to stuff in some water into a glass ball to show off to Eugeo, today it finally got actual practical use.
Nothing happened at first, but the entire glass gradually started glowing red from the inside. The heat emitted by heat elements was raising the temperature inside the airtight space.
I counted the time in my mind. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Still no change to the cake dough. Thirty seconds. Forty seconds. Finally, the colour of its surface began changing faintly, but the whole thing was still raw. Fifty seconds, fifty one seconds, fifty two seconds……
"Ah…… Kirito, look, smoke!"
Straining my eyes in panic at Eugeo's words, I saw that faint white smoke was starting to rise up from the gaps between the silver pan holding the cake dough, and the baking tray. Fifty-six seconds, fifty-seven seconds, the white smoke rapidly gained momentum with each second. Fifty eight seconds, fifty nine seconds——that's when it happened.
'Shubouh!', with that noise, a flame spouted up from the bottom of the cake pan, engulfing the milky white cake dough. The flame immediately disappeared, but the only thing that remained inside the cake pan were jet black sinders. Sixty seconds.
"…………"
"…………"
I exchanged glances with Eugeo, before we once again turned our gazes towards the glass box.
We did find out what was going on during that one second. However, the cause for what happened is still unclear. How come the cheesecake that was supposed to slowly, gradually bake over a period of twenty minutes turns into cinders in a mere sixty seconds. For starters, what was that flame back there——
This only led to the mystery deepening, but since we accomplished our objective of observing the situation for the time being, I told my partner the following.
"Alright, you can put out the heat elements now."
"…………"
"……Eugeo?"
"I-I've been trying to do that for awhile now…… but I just can't put out the heat elements."
"Huh……?"
Blinking, I once again looked inside the glass box. The three heat elements controlled by Eugeo were still glowing vividly red despite the fact that sixty seconds had passed since their creation.
Normally, elements like the heat elements, freezing elements, or wind elements disperse into the air as heat or cold energy if you stop focusing on them. Though it is dangerous to just cut off the link abruptly, thus controlling them into disappearing gradually is an important fundamental of Sacred Arts, as well as an opportunity to show off your skills. Eugeo's more skilled at freezing element arts than heat element arts, but forcing a mere three heat elements at most into disappearing gently is a trifling matter…… or at least it should be.
"You can't put them out…… why?"
"D-don't ask me. I've been trying to divert my attention away bit by bit, but they just won't weaken the slightest bit."
"Hmm…… oh, could it be because they're sealed tight? And because of that, the heat has nowhere to go……?"
Having realised that, I cut off my attention from the four darkness elements that provided adhesion between the glass box and the baking tray. These elements disappeared without causing issues, so I hurriedly put leather gloves on my hands and attempted to lift the glass box, but…
"H-huh……"
For some reason, when I lifted the box, the baking tray followed along with it. When I took a closer look, oh the humanity, I noticed that the edges of the glass box had apparently subtly melted due to the high temperature and fused with the baking tray.
"Ki-Kirito…… like, forget disappearing, it sure seems like the heat is only building up instead……"
Eugeo let out a panic-stained voice. Indeed, the three heat elements were emitting a dazzling radiance, while the cheesecake-turned-cinders had begun degrading into black powder.
Before long, the glass box itself began glowing red. 'Gyuiiiin', with an ominous noise ringing out, the box began vibrating. I couldn't feel even a particle of a sign that this would all resolve itself peacefully.
"……Eugeo, we're breaking that box!"
Announcing thus, I attempted to draw my sword from my left hip. However, my fingertips only grazed empty air. After all, I had returned the steel practice sword back to its rack at the training grounds, while my black sword was still hanging on the wall in our room.
I began looking over my surroundings in genuine panic, but I couldn't find any conveniently placed fist-sized stones. As the radiance of the heat elements only continued growing, now not only was the glass glowing red, but it had spread to the baking tray as well. It seemed like even if I don't break it myself, give it a minute…… make that thirty seconds and the box would just melt away on its own. Actually, I don't feel like it would end with just the box melting.
"Ehm ehm ehm……"
As I continued surveying the area even more restlessly, suddenly——.
"What are you doing!"
A voice rang out from overhead. When I looked up, I noticed that someone clad in azure and golden colours was coming down straight from the sky.
"Waah!"
Eugeo and I shouted out at the same time and jumped aside. Moments later, the owner of that voice landed with an intense tremor of the stone paving.
Standing straight there was a female knight, clad in full-body golden armour and even more dazzling golden hair in a long braid.
——Alice. Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty.
Without even sparing us a glance as we stood stock-still overcome with surprise, Alice walked over to the glass box and thrusted out her hands.
"System call! Generate cryogenic element!"
The ten freezing elements she created in one go flew towards the red-hot glass, forming a blue block of ice when they made contact with it, thus enveloping it. Yet in just a few seconds, holes appeared throughout the ice, steam spouting out from them.
"You guys, provide some freezing elements too!"
Given orders by Alice, Eugeo and I raised up our hands in a panic. Reciting the rite at a speed where we nearly bit our tongues, we created some freezing elements. Eugeo had eight of them, but six was the limit for me. We sent them out flying, reinforcing the block of ice. Through the fingertips of my extended hands, I could clearly sense the energy of the out-of-control heat elements inside the ice. The low temperature emitted by the freezing elements should have offset it, yet it still seemed like they would break the box and ice and run wild.
"Fnnnnn……"
Letting out a groan, I continued maintaining the freezing elements with all of my mental fortitude. I didn't even know when the clash between the heat and cold would end, but before long, little by little, little by little the flames began to subside…… finally, the three heat elements gave a 'shuu' as they disappeared in a wisp of steam.
Eugeo and I exhaled in relief at the same time and, after lowering our hands at the same time, we looked at Alice at the same time. I was about to express my gratitude to the golden Integrity Knight that saved us from a sticky situation, but——.
"What were you doing, you guys!"
Having shouted out thus ahead of me, Alice used her right hand clad in a golden gauntlet to first point at me, then at Eugeo.
"Is the fact that it is dangerous to seal heat elements shut not supposed to be one of the basics of Sacred Arts! If I had not come here, your box would have blown up, causing you both to suffer serious burns!"
"S-Sowwy……"
Having quickly bowed my head, I then tilted it to the right.
"But, Alice……-dono, where on earth did you come from……?"
"When I was about to have Amayori land, I noticed you guys."
"Amayori……?"
Just as I was about to tilt my head to the opposite side at the mention of the unfamiliar name.
"Kirito, above!"
Since Eugeo shouted in a hoarse voice, I reflexively looked up to the sky.
When I did, I saw a gigantic figure slowly circling the skies above the front yard. A long neck, a long tail, burly limbs, and incisively-shaped wings…… it was one of the dragons given only to high-ranking knights.
During our Swordcraft Academy days, I've had multiple opportunities to witness these dragons soaring high in the sky above the Centoria city area, and I've also laid eyes on some dragons from the entrance to the dragon stable on the west side of the Cathedral as they rested there. Though, this is my first time seeing them fly in the sky this close.
"Woah…… coool……"
When my expression of admiration slipped out from my mouth, Alice responded in just a tad bit gentler tone.
"That is my dragon, Amayori."
After taking a big breath, she turned to the dragon in the sky, and shouted the following.
"Amayori! You can return to the stable now!"
Once she did, the dragon replied, "Kyururuh!", in a voice cuter than I was expecting, stopped circling the area and glided to the western side of the front yard. 'It sure is much more gigantic than one of the wyverns the cat fairy race have tamed in ALO……', with such thoughts in mind, I saw off the dragon until it disappeared from sight, before suddenly turning my gaze to my partner beside me.
This should have been the first time Eugeo, just like me, has witnessed a dragon this close—— oh wait, that's not true. He saw an Integrity Knight and dragon at close range when he was a child. When the girl who was his childhood friend violated a taboo and was taken away to the central capital. That girl is the Alice Synthesis Thirty now standing right in front of us.
As Eugeo stood stock-still in silence, I gently touched his back with my hand. Right now, we had no means of restoring Alice's memories. According to Sage Cardinal, Alice's important memories were extracted when she underwent a special rite called the 《Synthesis Ritual》, becoming an entirely different person in the process. Until we get our hands on Alice's 《memory fragment》 and return it to her Fluctlight through a reverse Synthesis Ritual, she would not return to her original Alice self.
I don't know how she interpreted our silence, but Alice calmed down her anger, before asking the following.
"So…… what exactly were you doing here. You are not at the age where you would commit pranks with elements, are you?"
"O-of course. We weren't doing a prank, but rather an experiment……ma'am."
"An experiment? On what?"
"Ehm……"
I glimpsed at the baking tray atop the bench. By the time I noticed it, the ice had all melted away, revealing the pathetic state of the pitch-black-sooted baking tray, as well as the cake pan deformed by the high temperature. What was once meant to be a cheesecake might have already dispersed because of the high temperature, as not even a fragment of it remained.
"Truth be told, we have spent all this time attempting to create a new cake for tomorrow's tea party, yet we lacked any success no matter what we tried……and so, because we couldn't tell what was going on inside the kitchen's oven, we tried to create a transparent oven out of crystal elements……"
When my explanation reached this point, Alice's expression had another subtle change.
"……A new cake? What kind?"
"That would be one called a cheesecake."
"Hoh……"
The Integrity Knight's sapphire blue eyes blinked twice, before glancing towards the scorched-black baking tray.
"……Were you able to grasp the reason why you were lacking any success?"
"Nah, I wouldn't say we achieved enough to learn the reason…… we did, however, grasp what was taking place."
After shrugging my shoulders, I explained about the phenomenon that had assaulted the cheesecake after fifty nine seconds.
"Hmmm……"
After spending a few moments brooding, Alice raised her face and looked at Eugeo.
"Eugeo, was it? Would you have happened to notice anything?"
"Wha…… ah, ehm……"
Seemingly having been absent-minded all this time due to being fascinated by Alice, Eugeo repeated, "Ehm", several times as he went red in the face when his name was called all of a sudden, until he muttered, "Oh right."
"What I found strange was the fact that despite the crystal element oven Kirito made having different heating power compared to the oven in the Grand Kitchen, the cake dough still burned up at the exact same sixty second mark in both cases."
"Ah……"
Now that he mentions it, he's got a point. The crystal element oven was supposed to have somewhat less heating power than a genuine oven at least at first, thus the scorching should have probably taken place several seconds later. I had absolutely no clue on the reason why it ends up like that. Considering this, did we not just end up running into more mysteries with our experiment……
"I see. In that case, the cheesecake scorching could have been the result of the 《Laws of the World》, rather than the heating power of the oven."
Since Alice unexpectedly told us that, I repeated the same term with Eugeo in one voice.
"Laws of the World?"
"That is correct. That is how the Axiom Church calls all cases where we know that something always turns out in a specific way, though we do not know why. For example, the fact that zephyria flowers only bloom in the western empire, or the fact that eating purplemelons together with deep-fried food always results in a stomachache, or the fact that the Life of foodstuff always declines faster in the summer than in the winter……"
"Ah-ha……"
I exchanged a glance with Eugeo. The purplemelon thing was new to me, but I'm well aware of the zephyria matter. After all, when I was a primary trainee, I had borrowed a flower bed from the academy for an experiment to see if I could make a zephyria flower bloom within the city of North Centoria.
Although the now late—— I mean, bitten-by-poisoncrabs-and-currently-hospitalised Raios ＆ Humbert had interfered with it, the experiment eventually succeeded with help from Cardinal's familiar Charlotte, and I gave the magnificently-blooming zephyria flowers to Sortiliena-sempai as a graduation gift. Due to that experience, I was able to make some conjectures on the 《Laws of the World》 that Alice had mentioned.
Most likely, there were two kinds of 《Laws》. One was 《Common Sense》, where tens of thousands of people of the Human Empire believed in some fact and thus made it come true; the other was 《Providence》, where something was set in stone by the world system right from the start. The zephyria flower, as well as the purplemelon food combo, probably belong to the former, while the fact that foodstuffs were more inclined to go bad in the summer belong to the latter category. The question was whether the cause for my cheesecake burning up in sixty seconds no matter what kind of oven I used to heat it belonged to the former or latter……
"It has to be the Providence category, huh……"
I muttered in a volume that neither Alice nor Eugeo could hear. Because Underworlders don't know about cheesecakes, it can't have been caused by Common Sense. If that's the case, my cheesecake recipe has to be butting heads with some rule set by the system since the moment this world was created.
Honestly, it's not like I have absolute confidence in the accuracy of my recipe. I've only helped Suguha and my mom make it like twice or thrice and tried to recreate the process I saw back then as accurately as possible, though it was possible that I was lacking an ingredient or two. However, would a cake really burn up just because of that……
"Hmmmmmh……"
When I gazed diagonally to the left in front of me with that groan, look at what I find: why, if it isn't Eugeo talking to Alice about something, when did he get close to her?
"Um…… Alice…… -dono, do you have any favourite sweets?"
"Well…… I cannot say I do not have one. Like, apple pies, or fig pies."
"If you love pies, would you happen to have tried the honey pies from the Leaping Deer in North Centoria's sixth district?"
"No……this is the first time I have heard of them. Are they delicious?"
"That is a given. The crunchy and light pie is full of honey and butter filling……"
"Hoh. That does sound delicious…… Though, us high-ranking knights are forbidden from making contact with people on the street outside of our duties, you see."
"In……in that case, we can go buy them for you."
——Eugeo, good luck!
While half of my mind prayed for him silently, the other half continued thinking about the cheesecake. With the sponge that served as the foundation for the shortcake, although I did have trouble making it puffy, it never turned to cinders in sixty seconds. The ingredients for a sponge cake are: wheat flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter. The ingredients for a baked cheesecake are: wheat flour, sugar, eggs, cheese, cream, and Siral fruit juice as a substitute for lemon juice. I have considered the possibility of the Siral juice screwing with it, but even when I tried taking it out of the recipe, the results remained the same. The same applied to the other ingredients as well. What on earth could be infringing the Laws of the World?
"Kirito"
Hearing my name being called by someone, I gave a half-hearted reply.
"Ah……. give me a moment here."
"Kirito."
"I'm thinking right now……"
"Ki-ri-to."
"What, what is it?"
I finally raised my head and looked to the right, where I had heard the voice. Yet, there was no one there. After blinking, I looked to the left, but Eugeo and Alice were still continuing their talk about sweets. I once again turned my eyes to the right, feeling a chill run down my spine. 'Don't tell me that was an apparition? Or was it an auditory hallucination?'
"Kirito, over here."
With one of my hairs being pulled strongly, I blurted out, "youch", as I looked at my right shoulder. What I found there when I did that was a small, black spider that didn't even reach a centimetre in length. I happened to have forgotten all about her existence, but this was Charlotte, Cardinal's familiar that always lurked somewhere around me. However, it was exceedingly rare for her to establish contact on her own like this.
"Y…… yo, Charlotte. What's up?"
When I asked this question in a whisper, the spider looked up at me with her deep crimson eyes, answering thus.
"I had no choice but to come out, seeing as you and Eugeo will be converted into objects by the Supreme Priest at this rate."
"Eh…… does that mean you know the reason why the cheesecake burns up?"
"I don't know that much, but I do believe what Knight Alice mentioned to be correct. Wouldn't you think that the 《Laws of the World》 are rejecting your cake because you've made some fundamental mistake with it?"
"Even if you do have a point ……I should have got both the ingredients and the process down right……"
"Kirito, you have eaten the cheesecake whats-it at some point in the past, right?"
'Gasp'. It's as if she's implying she knows that I'm not a Vector's Lost Child, but rather a human who came down onto Underworld from the real world. However, all I could do was nod.
"Yeah…… I have."
"What you should remember isn't the process, but the cake itself. Visualise the image of the cheesecake's taste, smell, and texture in detail."
Visualise the image. Charlotte used the same word when she gave me a pep talk at a time when I was struck with grief because Raios and co laid waste to my zephyria flowers. It's a word that you probably can't find in textbooks on the Sacred Tongue, nor is it a word that Alice or Eugeo would likely know.
I closed my eyes and tried to recall not the time when I was making the cheesecake with mom and Suguha, but rather the time all three of us were eating the completed cake together. Its surface was baked to light brown, its sides were a mellow cream colour; when you stabbed it with a fork, you could feel its density resisting the action, while the contrast between the smooth cheese dough and the rough crust when you put it into your mouth……
——Crust?
"Oh…… OOOH……"
I stared at the scorched traces that remained on the baking tray atop the bench, then gazed at Charlotte on my right shoulder, then finally turned my face towards the puzzled-looking Eugeo and Alice.
Shouting, I briskly walked over to the two. Being a longtime companion of mine, Eugeo nimbly got out of the way, thus I instead firmly grabbed Alice's shoulder armour with my hands, shaking her wildly back and forth.
"OOOOOOOOOH!!"
"Ky…… kyaaaaa!!"
Giving a scream as she was shaken wildly by me, Alice surely bristled her fair eyebrows, before giving me a hearty punch in the stomach with her right fist.
'I'll have you know! I have been given authority to decrease your Life by up to fifty percent, you hear me!'
As Alice raised hell, I crudely soothed her anger with a "now, now, now", before returning to the Grand Kitchen with Charlotte still on my right shoulder. Since Alice tagged along for some reason, I foisted the scorched baking tray on her and requested, "Wash this up with Eugeo."
"……Why would I do something like that."
"Because I'll give you some of my sample cake if it goes well."
When I proposed this, the golden Integrity Knight's beautiful face was clouded by a sense of conflict for a moment, before she eventually gave a subtle nod.
"Well, if that is all you need, I do not mind doing it…… but Kirito Synthesis Thirty-three, you know, do you not think that your choice of words towards me has been somewhat rude for a while now? Despite the fact that Eugeo, on the other hand, has been maintaining proper etiquette with me."
"Uh…… you think so……?"
Tilting my head, I looked to my partner behind Alice to her left, and saw that he was giving me a nod with a serious look. It appears that I started leaving out all the 'desu' and 'masu' in my sentences unconsciously.
"Why, please excuse my impertinence…… I shall bear in mind not to forget my decorum from now on, Alice-dono. Now, with that outta the way, I'll leave it to you."
Forcing the knight to take the burnt-to-a-crisp baking tray, I hurried over to the pantry adjacent to the kitchen. Seeing as the lunch break had just ended, practically all of the chefs, including the head chef, had stepped out for a break. Treating this as my perfect chance, I gathered up all the ingredients and stepped over to the kitchen counter.
Till now, I would begin by mixing the white fresh cheese——it was apparently made by mixing fresh cow milk with nectar from the southern-specialty thistle flowers——with the fresh cream I had developed, but this time there was another process I had to go through first. I placed a decent quantity of plain biscuits into a ceramic bowl and thoroughly crushed them with a wooden pestle. Then I poured in melted butter and nimbly mixed them together. I then set up a new cake pan on a new baking tray and spread the crushed biscuits at its bottom, before pressing it all together to have a flat surface.
This was 《crust》——the foundation for a baked cheesecake. I had been in charge of making the crust when I was helping Suguha out with making the cake, yet I had utterly forgotten all about it when all of my attention was taken up by the cheese dough.
As I recall, Suguha had once told me. 'There are some cheesecakes with crust and some without it, but I prefer the ones with it.' In that case, you'd assume that it'd be possible to create one without the crust in Underworld too, but apparently not. After all, since this world is based on The Seed, all the dishes can only be made within the scope of The Seed's Cooking system. Although everything I'm going to say now is just my own conjectures, isn't it possible that the only baked cheesecake the system most likely recognises is the variant with crust, so if you try to bake one without the crust, it will just deem the dish to be a failure, causing it to turn to cinders after sixty seconds. This itself is the 《Laws of the World》 that Alice had mentioned.
Considering that, the fact that last week's sponge cake went off without a hitch is practically a miracle. After all, I would have surely been stuck in cinder hell with it just like I have been this week if I had lacked even a single ingredient.
Watched over by Charlotte from my right shoulder, I took up working on the cheese dough. Although I've already grown used to this part, I carried out my work cautiously to avoid making any mistakes specifically because I've grown used to making it; in the end, I squeezed some Siral fruit juice and mixed it together until the surface became smooth. After I then poured the finished dough atop the crust, evening out the surface with a wooden spatula, it was finally time for the oven. I turned the valve on the pipe connecting to the 《Kiln of Eternal Flames》 to the third gradation mark, initiating the heating. Then I flipped the large hourglass installed on the side of the oven. Now all I could do was pray.
Having been polishing the scorched baking tray till now, Eugeo and Alice finished their work and approached me as well. As the two stared at the oven in silence, their profiles revealed expressions half filled with expectation, half with anxiety. Their expressions were so alike that I nearly gasped; it just made me more convinced that Alice Synthesis Thirty really was Eugeo's childhood friend Alice Zuberg.
'Wait……if our memories associated with Eugeo's birthday are genuine, that would make Alice my childhood friend as well. Maybe that's why I have a tendency to loosen up my tone with her? If we were to return her memories through a 《reverse Synthesis》, would Alice remember about me as well……?'
As such thoughts went through my head, the hourglass reached the fifteen minute mark. Has the content of the oven long since turned to cinders, or perhaps…
——I'll bring a proposal to the head chef to have him install an actual, small glass window on the oven's door after this.
Making up my mind about that, I continued staring at the black, cast iron door.
That was when——.
"Oooh, ain't that a rather nice smell."
A voice rang out from behind me, causing not only me and Eugeo, but even Alice as well to jolt in surprise.
I turned around, thinking that the head chef had returned from his break. Yet, standing at the entrance to the Grand Kitchen wasn't the old white-bearded cook I've grown used to seeing.
So gigantic. He's probably over a hundred and ninety centimetres tall. His steel-gray hair tinged with blue was cut short, while his nape was as thick as a huge tree. His shoulders were also bizarrely broad, but his body, far burlier than that of any Underworlder I have ever met…… burlier than even that of the demon of bodybuilding, Volo Levantein, was covered in a loose kimono that reminded me of a yukata, so I couldn't see anything other than his chest. On his left hip was a worn and dully-glistening, largish sword. His face was the prime example of a stouthearted man, while his high nose bridge and hollowed-cheeks felt reminiscent of some bloodline from the north or west. As for his age, I'd put him in his mid-forties or so.
No way is he just some nobody. In terms of 《hidden gravitas》, Scheta-sensei herself was quite the big deal, but this yukata-wearing giant managed to surpass even her. I was curious who he was, but right now I couldn't exactly avert my attention from the oven.
As I kept switching my gaze back and forth between the hourglass and the giant man, Alice began running all of a sudden. Running up to the giant man standing at the entrance to the kitchen, she shouted in a joy-filled voice.
"Oji-sama!"
——Oji-sama?
An actual blood relative…… is unlikely to be the case here. However, having stopped right before the man, Alice did indeed look as if she was speaking to her father.
"When did you grace us with your return!? I was informed that you would be away patrolling at the End Mountains until the following week."
"I returned just awhile ago. Got called back by Her Holy Eminence, ya see."
The man's voice as he answered her question was a rusty bass, fitting considering his appearance. Based on the fact that he called the Supreme Priest 'Her Holy Eminence', or more importantly, based on the fact that he was in such a place in the first place, he's probably affiliated with the Axiom Church, but his outfit definitely didn't make him look the part. After all, I could see a pair of trousers that looked like white suteteko peeking out from the hem of the yukata, while the things on his feet were geta, no matter how you look at it.(1)
"Kirito, Eugeo, be careful."
Muttered Charlotte unexpectedly, prompting me to look at my right shoulder. Her voice just now had seemingly reached Eugeo as well, since my partner looked at me, blinking.
"'Be careful', you say…… who is that then?"
"Integrity Knight Commander, Bercouli Synthesis One."
The moment I heard that name, I could hear a hiccup-like sound from deep within my throat.
The fact that the Axiom Church has a person serving as knight commander was already known to me from what the Elevating Operator and Scheta-sensei had told me, though to think I'd be having my first encounter with him in a place like this. The fact that he's the commander probably means that he's stronger than both Alice and Scheta-sensei, so I do indeed have to be careful not to mess up how I interact with him.
——Wait, hold on. Did Charlotte say that the man's name was Bercouli just now? Where have I heard that name before…………
"It can't be……no way……"
Since Eugeo muttered this with a dumbfounded expression, I enquired in a whisper.
"You know something, Eugeo?"
"Y-yeah. C'mon, didn't I tell you the legend of the Blue Rose Sword when you had just appeared at Rulid Village, Kirito?"
"Oh……"
That moment, I opened my eyes wide as my memories from three years ago came back to me right away. The hero that appears in the fairy tale that Eugeo told me about, where he comes across a white dragon while out exploring the Northern Cave……that guy's name should be Bercouli. Name overlap probably does occur in Underworld too, but it's unthinkable that they'd be unrelated. A distant descendant——no, more likely……
"The twenty minute mark is about to pass."
Hearing Charlotte's voice again, I reflexively turned around. The sand in the hourglass was just about to reach the fourth gradation mark. I was interested in Knight Commander Bercouli, but I had to concentrate my focus here for now.
I stared as the fine sand fell down without a sound. Since there were no clocks as objects in Underworld, nor was there a time display in the corner of my vision, it was difficult to measure time accurately to the millisecond. Nevertheless, in order to adhere to the twenty minute count that the head chef had calculated with years upon years of experience and intuition as strictly as possible, I attempted to make out the perfect timing to take action.
The moment I saw that the edge of the sand that had piled up had reached the line of the gradation, I placed by hand on the oven door——
"Hold it."
A deep voice rang out behind me all of a sudden, causing me to draw back my right hand with a jolt. When I turned around, I saw that Knight Commander Bercouli was standing right there by the time I noticed.
The casually-dressed great man raised the corners of his mouth in a broad smirk as he said the following.
"Twenty minutes, wasn't it? Four more seconds then. Three, two, one, zero."
A moment; I grabbed the handle of the door for sure this time, pulling it open. 'Bwah', the heat surged out, but I held out and nimbly pulled out the baking tray.
Atop the baking tray I had taken to the kitchen counter, the jet-black cinders that I've seen so often that it made me sick—— was nowhere to be found, as instead I saw a baked cheesecake cooked to perfect light brown. I sucked in a chestful of the nostalgically sweetly-aromatic aroma, and let it out after holding it in for a bit. I exchanged glances with Eugeo and we gave each other a high five in silence. Now all we needed to do was to cool it off with freezing elements after the heat goes away and it'll be all done.
'So the problem really was the lack of a crust, apparently. I have to make sure I don't forget the foundation for the apple tarts I'm planning to make for next week, wait, couldn't I make tarts without a foundation?......', with such thoughts going through my mind, I turned ninety degrees to the right.
Looking up at Knight Commander Bercouli's imposing figure from up close, I could describe it in one word: overwhelming. So much so that from the bottom of my heart, I felt that I absolutely don't want to end up having to fight him, even in a practice match. I don't know anyone, certainly not in the real world, but neither even a VRMMO player, whom you could so aptly describe as 'a man of commanding presence'. Even Agil, the most macho battleaxe-wielder among my companions, probably wouldn't look imposing next to this guy.
After about two seconds spent spacing out, I corrected my posture in panic and, since I didn't have a sword hanging on me, I gave him a bow instead of a knight salute.
"A……A pleasure to meet you, I am Kirito Synthesis Thirty-three, appointed as an apprentice knight two weeks before."
"Likewise, Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-two!"
Followed up my partner, but his voice was as tense as when we had our audience with the Supreme Priest. Accompanied by Alice behind him to the side, the Knight Commander gave both me and Eugeo a sharp downward gaze with his steel blue eyes, before responding with a daring grin finding its way on his face.
"Yo. I'm a guy named Bercouli, workin' as the Integrity Knight Commander. You're Eugeo and Kirito, eh; why, ain't you lookin' like quite the promisin' individuals."
The instant Bercouli gave this appraisal of us, Alice immediately voiced a rather strict comment.
"I have my doubts about that, Oji-sama. These two are not Summoned Knights, but rather Appointed Knights from the Human Empire folks, like those two children. Their swordsmanship and artsmanship aside, I do believe we cannot count so much on their virtuousness."
……Summoned Knights? Two children? Appointed Knights……?
The umpteenth onslaught of mysterious terms caused me to frown my brow, but the mood here really didn't leave room for me to butt in with a question on those. Bercouli suddenly shrugged his shoulders, before saying the following to Alice.
"So, you're sayin' that their swordsmanship and artsmanship looks promisin'? If they've earned such high regards from ya, Alice-jouchan, I have to think that they must be quite the big deal then."
As the Knight Commander gave a broad grin, Alice rebutted in what seemed to be panic.
"N…… no, that is not what I was attempting to imply! For starters, I have not even crossed swords with these two, after all. It appears that Scheta-dono is handling their tutelage; it is most obvious that they will be unable to endure a single month with her."
"Hoh. Scheta 《The Silent》 taking up their tutelage itself is quite the big deal, y'know."
"……Oh, I give up!"
As Alice peevishly looked away, Bercouli gave her an affectionate gaze for a mere moment, before once again facing us to say the following.
"Despite what the lil' miss is saying, I myself have serious expectations for you, ya hear? That ya'd become excellent knights proper and help out me, Fanatio, and Alice-jouchan. Do yer best, you youngsters."
Once his burly hands with countless scars grabbed both my shoulder and Eugeo's firmly and patted us twice, Knight Commander Bercouli gallantly turned aside. However, he stopped still after just two steps.
He turned around with great force, and once again returned before us——
"Whoops, forgot the most important bit. That…… thingie with the remarkably pleasant smell, were you guys the ones who made it?"
Notes
1. ^ Bercouli's wardrobe explanation all in one go:
A yukata (浴衣, lit. "bathing robe") is a light kimono worn in the summer or after baths.
A suteteko (ステテコ) is a pair of traditional men's underwear for kimono that look like trousers.
Geta (下駄) are traditional wooden clogs that are worn like sandals with kimono.
A yukata (浴衣, lit. "bathing robe") is a light kimono worn in the summer or after baths.
A suteteko (ステテコ) is a pair of traditional men's underwear for kimono that look like trousers.
Geta (下駄) are traditional wooden clogs that are worn like sandals with kimono.
hey thanks for translating but i wonder what happened after part 2 ending
ReplyDeletedid kirito managed to do it
it was cool to see blackswordsman kirito persona
The fact that Kirito and Eugeo actually got the afternoon off should be a clear indicator of how part 2 turned out in the end.
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