If You Wish It

Translation (choice) comments:
General:

• For some reason, all instances of "glass" are written in kanji with furigana. Don't know why.
• 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.
• 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. However, Kirito does use the English words "wyvern" and "dragon" in certain instances; these instances are indicated in itallics like all katakanised English.
• 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. This trait of his irks her, until she just gives up on him entirely. 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.
• Alice usually speaks in the polite tone (teineigo) with everyone. But when speaking to Bercouli or Quinella, 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).
• With Quinella, Kirito's speech fluctuates from purely casual, to tacking on a polite copula ("desu") at the very end as an afterthought, to proper polite tone. In some sentences, he starts mixing proper polite tone with his pseudo-polite tone, and even casual tone with colloquialisms. To account for this, I added "ma'am"s at the end of the sentence to indicate that he's trying to at least pretend to be polite (but usually only as an afterthought), I used slang and contractions to indicate a casual tone, and avoided contractions + used more formal words to indicate an actual polite tone.
• I decided to omit/localise honorifics used with titles (e.g., Supreme Priest-san and Supreme Priest-sama), unless the titles were used to call out to the person themselves, because it doesn't sound awfully good when the person is not part of the conversation themselves.

Part 1-specific:

• In one instance, I used "but" and "however" one after the other. This is to account for the fact that the original text already used one conjunction (が) like that, but Kirito then decided to throw in a second one (しかし) for good measure.
• In two instances, Eugeo shortened the auxiliary verb command form "-nasai" (なさい) with the sentence ending particle "yo" (よ) to just "na yo" (なよ). To account for this, I made the sentence that this colloquialism is used in a bit more colloquial than usual (your --> yer and come on --> c'mon).
• As Kirito is an engrishomaniac with a compulsive desire to use butchered English words to sound cool when decent Japanese words already exist, there is one instance where Kirito talks about wanting to use a butchered English "thank you". I used furigana (ruby) text to make it more clear that he's talking about English words in that instance. Reminder that ruby text works as follows: #what he meant to say#(what he actually said)
• In one instance, Kirito used a colloquial そんで (sonde) instead of それで (sorede). To account for this (lazy) colloquial abbreviation, I shortened "that way" to "t'way".
• In one scene, two different phrasings (顔をしかめる and 眉を寄せる) that are basically just different ways to say "frowned" were used in the text. So, I translated both instances more literally for a clearer distinction.
• In the "dear friend of mine" instance, Kirito went grandiose by using the phrase 我が友よ (waga tomo yo), which is a rather overdramatic/archaic way to refer to one's friend.

Part 2-specific:

• Since I'm a kendoka, I left all stance names as is and used notes to explain what they're like. Note that my explanations are based from personal kendo experience and shinai are two-handed swords, while Kirito usually uses one-handed swords.

Part 3-specific:

• 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.

Part 4-specific:

• In the "dear friend" instance, Kirito went semi-grandiose by using the phrase 友よ (tomo yo), which is a rather exaggerated/archaic way to refer to one's friend.

Part 5-specific:

• Cardinal speaks with archaic grammatical structures and is supposed to sound like an old sage in a young girl's body. So, to account for this, I tried to use archaic and Shakespearean words in her speech, and switched around the word order for it to sound odd. I'm not exactly an expert in archaic English, so please don't expect an accurate depiction of Shakespearean English in my amateurish attempts. I used the following sources for some archaic words: https://learn.lexiconic.net/shakewords.htm; https://www.lexico.com/en/explore/archaic-words.
• Mithcan is probably derived from the word "mikan" (mandarin orange). I use courier font for it as its name is in katakana.
• In one instance, Kirito seems to have confused himself and had a brainfart with double negatives. Basically, he kept using different forms of the same word numerous times in the same sentence until he somehow screwed up his grammar and ended up answering a "to be or not to be" question as "to be or not to not be". Or it could have been a typo on Kawahara's part, if he was the one who got confused.

Part 6-specific:

• The Dark Territory has quite a few synonyms in this story. The official term is ダークテリトリー (Ingurisshu for "Dark Territory"), but it's also called 闇の国 (yami no kuni, "country of darkness") and 暗黒界 (ankokukai, "darkness world"). So, I translated ダークテリトリー as "Dark Territory" with itallics to indicate that it's an English term, 闇の国 as "Land of Darkness" and 暗黒界 as "Darkness Realm".
• During Alice's conversation with Lipia, both of them start using fancy expressions. I assume that it's supposed to indicate fancy knight etiquette/speech or something. To account for this, I replaced "you"s with "thou"s and used some fancy/archaic words here and there.

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#(What was actually said) (e.g. #shadow fairy race#(Spriggans) - "Spriggans" is what was actually said in text, while "shadow fairy race" is just a brief description of what Spriggans are to help differentiate between the different fairies.
• 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).
• In some instances, certain Japanese words or idioms themselves become the topic of attention, but the wordplay/nuance is lost in translation; in this case, the furigana should be understood as such: #Meaning or Japanese word#(What was actually said).
• 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.

Credits

Raws: https://sao-alicization.net/bddvd/02.html (Part 1), Celest (Parts 2-6)
Translation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas
Proofreading: JengKay

If You Were Here prismatic colors (side story)

Index

TBA

Table of Contents:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

1

"Furyumuguuuuuuuuuuun!"

When I unleashed a shout from the depths of my soul, holding an iron baking tray in my hands, a smile tinged faintly with sorrow appeared on the face of Eugeo, standing in front of me as he said the following.

"Kirito…… wouldn't it be best to just give up on that cake already and make a different one instead? The tea party is the day after tomorrow, you know, and if you don't manage to bring a new cake to it, both of us will be turned into plates by the Supreme Priest, you know?

"Funuuuun……"

After responding in an enigmatic language, I looked down at the object on the baking tray I had just taken out of the oven.

Twenty centimetres-wide, five centimetres-tall, and cylindrical. The colour: cinder-like jet-black. Actually, not ‘like’. The black colour was the result of the object being scorched, so it was a prime example of cinders.

"……Well, you know…… The ingredients for it are just wheat flour and sugar, then some eggs, cheese, cream, and some Siral fruit juice. All we had to do was mix them all together and bake the thing, so there's no reason for it to be scorched black like this in a mere minute, is there."

When I returned to speaking in the Human Empire language as I said this, Eugeo nodded with an expression that made it clear it didn't make sense to him either.

"Well…… I myself do think that it's strange. It's even more enigmatic that the cake is still utterly half-baked if you take it out of the oven at the fifty-nine second mark."

"You said it. What the heck happens between the fifty-nine and sixty second mark……"

Shaking my head to the sides, I gazed at the large oven.

The place we were occupying at the moment was a corner of the Grand Kitchen on the tenth floor of the Central Cathedral. Even this gigantic kitchen, filled with the bustling orchestra of kitchen knives, pots and frying pans during the day, had fallen completely silent by now. That was because it was now past ten at night, so the head chef and all his cooks had long since returned to their rooms.

Honestly, I am quite sleepy myself and the same probably applies to Eugeo as well. During the day, we were mercilessly worked to the bone from nine till five by high-ranked knight Scheta-sensei; completely exhausted, we took up working on our cake prototype, thus by ten o'clock, the weight of our eyelids is reaching our limits. Till yesterday, this would be the point where we'd finish up our work, but we can't exactly do so tonight until we have achieved some progress. Just like Eugeo mentioned moments ago, if we don't manage to complete a new cake by noon on the rest day two days away, we would be punished by Her Holy Eminence, the Supreme Priest Administrator. I don't really think we'd actually be turned into plates as she had declared…… wait, I should probably assume that it's quite plausible for that to happen.

Heaving a sigh, I placed the pitch-black lump that should have become a baked cheesecake onto the kitchen counter. Due to the faintest shock, the fragile lump crumbled, losing all of its Life before disappearing.

The reason why Eugeo and I are endeavouring to bake cakes in the Axiom Church's Central Cathedral. That's because the ruler of the Human Empire, Administrator, promised us that she would continue her talks with the other Supreme Priest, Cardinal, as long as we can make new cakes for them.

Both Administrator's and Cardinal's ultimate goal is to protect the Human Empire from the near-at-hand invasion by the army of darkness. There's no way that the two going into a deathmatch against each other would be a good idea, thus we have to ensure by any means that the rest day tea party continues on, but at this rate, it's going to end in disaster on just the second instance.

"……Say, Kirito. Wouldn't it be best to just give up on this cheesecake thingie and make a simpler cake instead?"

Staring down at the now-empty baking tray, I feebly responded to Eugeo's words.


"A cheesecake is supposed to be about as simple, if not even simpler, to make than the shortcake we baked last week. There's no need to cover it in cream, nor is it necessary to adorn it with strawberries……"

"Eeeh? Wouldn't that make its appearance a bit too basic……? How should I put it… sounds like it would just be a flat bun or something……"

"Well…… it might be more basic in appearance than a shortcake, but that's the good part about it. The surface baked to a goldish-brown, contrasted by the light yellow of its insides is just……"

My own words made me recall the taste of a baked cheesecake that I haven't tasted in three years by now, prompting me to gulp down the saliva in my mouth. It's not like I’m cray-cray-crazy for sweets, but out of all cakes out there, a rich cheesecake is my favourite one. Honestly, the fact that I wanted to eat one myself may have had a little sway in my choice to have this cake in particular for this week's tea party's menu. However, it can't be that my self-interest has led to the cake always ending up scorched-black.

"……Is there really no way for us to look inside the oven while it's heating……"

When I muttered this, my partner shrugged his shoulders as if to say, 'what stupid thing are you thinking of now'.

"The only way to look inside is to open the door. But if you do open it, the heat will escape, causing a cooking failure, you know."

"Right indeed……"

I had to nod at that.

If this were an oven from the real world, you wouldn't end up with a cooking failure just because you opened the door a little bit while it's heating to check on how well the dish has cooked; however, excessively strict requirements are imposed in Underworld. As Eugeo mentioned just now, if we were to open the oven's door before it's done cooking, the temperature inside will instantly drop and even if we heated it again, the cake would never reach its completed state. In other words, the cooks in this world have the following ironclad rule about opening the oven: 《Don't open the door even if you hear a baby crying inside》.

In fact, we were prepared to waste one cake's worth of ingredients and attempted to open the door the moment we reached the fifty-nine second mark, but the cheesecake was still basically raw at that point. Yet when we open it at the sixty second mark, it's already scorched-black. In order to check on what exactly happens in that single second, it doesn't seem like we have any other choice but to install a glass window into the oven door; however, glass production and processing in Underworld is a cutting edge industry that requires proficient craftsmen and high-grade equipment, thus even us Integrity Knight apprentices can't exactly just waltz up to a Centoria glass workshop all of a sudden and tell the craftsmen, "Make us a small window for an oven door!".

In that case, we could just go ＤＩＹ… or at least I'd like to do so, but we don't exactly have the time to start learning the art of glass production right now, nor do we even know what exactly glass is made from in this world, for starters. If we considered what other transparent materials we could use instead, I can't think of anything other than crystals and diamonds, but those are bound to be even more valuable commodities than gla……

"Oh, wait, hold on."

As I muttered this, I was met with a questioning look from Eugeo. After replying to him with a broad grin, I raised my right hand and began chanting a rite.

"System call. Generate crystalline element."

The small dot of light produced on my fingertip was one of the eight elements, the 《crystal element》. Since it was an element with even fewer uses than the steel and darkness elements, we didn't really use it much even during our lessons at the Swordcraft Academy, but now it was our last hope.

"Form element, plate shape."

As I continued the chant, the dot of light turned into the shape of a thin plate via my command and imagination, before materialising with a faint "kin" sound. What fell into my palm was a twenty centimetre square glass plate, five millimetres in thickness.

"……What exactly do you plan to do with it?"

As my partner looked at me with an even more distrustful expression, I gave him a slight wink and closed the valves on the oven's sides with one hand, before bringing the glass plate to the centre of the Grand Kitchen.

There, a pure white marble——the same material that the Cathedral's outer wall was made of—— hemisphere was enshrined. Steel pipes extended in eight directions from the bottom part of the likely one-and-a-half-metre-wide hemisphere; a short tube was furnished at its top, red flames spouting out of it every now and then.

This hemisphere was a Divine Object known as the 《Kiln of Eternal Flames》⁽¹⁾, created by Supreme Priest Administrator with her super high-ranked system control authority; sealed inside of it were heat elements that never went out. Known as the most fastidious of all the elements, heat elements would gradually release their heat just by being kept in the air, until they eventually disappeared; or if they touched any sort of object, they would just heat it up that very moment and, likewise, disappear, thus I don't have the slightest idea on how the heck was anyone able to contain them in a marble kiln.

The pipes extending from the kiln connected to the stoves and ovens throughout the Kitchen, providing them all with intense heat for cooking. Right now, the valves at the end of the pipes were all closed, which meant that the energy from the heat elements was now escaping little by little through the tube at the top of the kiln.

Standing slightly on tiptoes, I held the glass plate in my right hand over the faintly-red flame.

"Oi, Kirito, what are you……"

"An experiment, just an experiment. Oh, just watch."

Responding thus to Eugeo after he spoke out in concern, I focused on the glass plate.

Utensils made out of steel and crystal elements on the whole have low Life values. Even this glass plate would probably easily break if I were to apply some force while holding it between my hands, but what about its heat resistance? Even if it had poor physical strength, its resistance against intense heat and cold…… in other words, its resistance against elemental damage was a different story altogether.

Warmed by the flame, the central portion of the glass began to shine red before long; but however it had yet to break. Twenty seconds, thirty seconds, forty seconds…………

"Uo-hoooot!"

Feeling an intense sensation of heat at my fingertips all of a sudden, I threw away the glass plate.

"Towah!"

The reason why even Eugeo let out a scream was because the red-hot glass plate flew right next to his feet. The glass crumbled to pieces near my partner's feet after he had jumped away. However, I believe that it most likely wasn't broken by the heat, but rather by the shock of the crash. If I hadn't thrown it away, it seems it would have lasted for over sixty seconds.

"Oh geez, what the heck are you doing here……"

Saying thus with an appalled expression, Eugeo quickly created a freezing element, turning it into a lump of ice.

"Here, cool off yer fingers."

"Thanks."

This would be a moment where I'd prefer to say #thank you#(sankyuu), but that's a word that doesn't exist in this world, thus I expressed my gratitude in the Human Empire language, before taking the ice. With my heated fingertips rapidly cooled off, the throbbing pain practically disappeared entirely.

"So, how did your experiment go?"

"Succeeded, probably."

At that answer, a sceptical expression once again found its way on Eugeo's face.

"'Probably', you say…… what the heck are you planning to do with that plate?"

"I'll leave you in suspense, so you'd have something to look forward to seeing. Though, it really is getting late today, so let's save it for tomorrow."

"Is that really a good idea? The tea party is already taking place the day after tomorrow."

"That means we still have one more day, right."

Answering thus, I slapped my partner on his back. On the inside, I was greatly panicking, but since I was the one who dragged Eugeo into the Cake Plan, I didn't want my unease to show on my face at the very least.

"Tomorrow, let's try explaining our circumstances to Scheta-sensei and ask her to allow us to wrap up our training in the morning. T'way, if we focused on the job starting from when we finished our grub for lunch and worked until ten at night, I'm sure we'd be able to resolve even the scorching issue."

"Hmm, I wonder if the Scheta-sensei would actually agree to giving us half a day off……"

"Even Sensei doesn't want to see me and you being turned into plates…… or at least I think she wouldn't. Besides, don't you think that person is somehow similar to Azurica-sensei from the Swordcraft Academy?"

"Well…… I do feel that the aura they give off is just the slightest bit similar, but what of it?"

"Azurica-sensei has overlooked me breaking the curfew on numerous occasions, so Scheta-sensei must actually be a nice person inside as well, I'm sure of it."

At my wishful thinking, Eugeo just slightly shook his head.


Having finished up our experiment at the Grand Kitchen and arrived at our room on the twenty-eighth floor following a lot of stair climbing, Eugeo and I heaved a sigh just as we both collapsed onto the sofa.

At this point, I would love to head to the Grand Bath on the ninetieth floor to recover from all that physical and mental labour, but the elevating disk doesn't operate at this late hour. I didn't have the energy to climb another sixty-two floors worth of stairs, thus I considered going to the shared bathroom on this floor——though, seeing as we are the only apprentice knights living on the twenty-eighth floor at the moment, it's practically our exclusive bathroom——but I can't be bothered to get up for that.

'I'll just take a bath in the morning…… actually, I feel too languid to even go to my own bed……', as I was overwhelmed by such slovenly thoughts, it only took moments for my eyelids to drop down.

"Oi, Kirito, you'll catch a cold if you fall asleep there."

With my right shoulder violently shaken by Eugeo, I somehow managed to just half-open my right eye.

"It's all good, I am an Integrity Knight, even if only an apprentice, so I won't catch a cold by simply falling asleep on the sofa."

"What does being a knight have to do with that!"

Asserting thus with an appalled expression, Eugeo stood up straight, changing his shaking attack into a pulling attack.

"C'mon, get up before you fall asleep. Have you forgotten the time you dozed off at a sheep farm in the middle of the winter when you were a child and caught a cold because of it?"

"Yeah yeah……"

The moment I reluctantly stood up, my drowsiness was blown away as if it had never even been there. Staring fixedly at my partner's face head-on, I enquired in a hoarse voice.

"……Oi, Eugeo, what did you just……"

"Ah……"

Eyes bulged open, Eugeo instantly screwed up his face, lifting his right hand to touch his brow.

"……There it goes again. Just like the time you gave me a cake to celebrate my birthday, Kirito……I felt as if we had been together ever since we were little……"

"…………"

Having no idea how to respond to that, I contracted my brow as well.

Me having spent my childhood with Eugeo at Rulid Village can't have actually happened. The first time I dived into 《this version of Underworld》 was three years ago; by that point, Eugeo was already a seventeen-year-old young man. When we first met under the Gigas Cedar, Eugeo recognised neither my face, nor my name and vice versa.

However, I, too, experienced the phenomenon that contradicts this fact five days ago——on Eugeo's birthday. When he saw my shortcake present for him, Eugeo muttered, "I haven't been this happy with a present since that time you made me a wooden sword from silveroak when we were kids.", and I replied, "I've had quite some trouble with that sword too, but it was easier since Alice made the scabbard for it."

At that moment, I vividly recalled. How I had given Eugeo a wooden sword, which I had made from a silveroak branch over a period of two months of work at a secret vacant plot in the eastern forest, as a present to celebrate his birthday. That was his tenth or eleventh birthday…… what's more, I also remember how Alice had made a scabbard for the wooden sword at the same place as well……

Humans are living beings who sometimes create fake memories, yet I can't find any way to explain why that scene felt so much realistic, nor how I'm sharing the same memory with Eugeo. In the end, our only way to find out the whole truth is to ask the people from Rath who had created Underworld and are now managing it. For starters, that's the reason why I have my eyes set on reaching the topmost floor of the Central Cathedral, where the console for contacting the outside world is located——probably.

The topmost floor is Administrator's personal quarters, thus I definitely can't do something as dangerous as attempting to stealthily sneak in there during the night. My only choice is the orthodox method of earning her trust somehow and thus being invited to the topmost floor; hence, I absolutely must ensure the success of part 2 of the tea party the day after tomorrow if I wish to achieve that goal……

"Don't think about it too deeply for now. I'm sure that someday the time will come for us to resolve this enigma."

When I patted him on the shoulder, Eugeo gave me a slightly impatient look, but his usual smile instantly found its way on his face.

"……Yeah, you're right."

"Now, we have an early morning tomorrow, so how's about we go to sleep already. Good night, dear friend of mine."

Saying thus, I attempted to retire to my own bedroom. Yet my partner displayed fearsome reaction speed by grabbing me by the nape.

"You've built up a lot of sweat today as well, so you have to take a proper bath!"

"Yeah yeah……"

As we had one of our usual conversations that somehow wasn't any different from the ones during our Swordcraft Academy days, I couldn't help but worry whether we truly can become Integrity Knights.

2

"Well then, if either of you are able to cut three cen…… no, make that two cen, into the steel pillar, you can take the afternoon off."

The next day, on the 16th Day of the 4th Month.

Scheta-sensei responded as such when I appealed, "Please give us half the day off", at the training grounds on the fifty-first floor of the Cathedral.

"Two cen……"

Muttering this, I glanced at the steel pillar erected on the ground a slight distance away. The seven-centimetres-thick and about a hundred-and-twenty-centimetres-tall pillar had countless cuts on its surface, but since the majority of them were no more than scratches, it's questionable whether even the deepest of the cuts amounts to more than three millimetres. Since these cuts were already there when we began our training twelve days ago, that would mean that the apprentice knights before us only managed to cut into the pillar to that extent…… wouldn't it?

"Um……"

Having timidly raised his hand, Eugeo voiced the same concern that had been on my mind.

"But it appears that none of the knights that practiced on the steel pillar before us managed to land a cut that deep……"

At that point, although her facial expression itself didn't even twitch, Scheta-sensei shrugged her shoulders, as if saying, "What are you babbling on about."

"I didn't witness it personally since I was asleep for a long time, but the cuts you see on the pillar right now must have been made by low-ranking knights, who have neither dragons nor Divine Objects of their own. You can't become a high-ranking knight if you don't possess at least enough power to cut down the pillar, so the pillar has been replaced numerous times by now."

"……I-is that so."

Muttered Eugeo in an astonished voice.

I was just as shocked as him. Scheta-sensei had effortlessly sliced off the top of the pillar on the first day of our training, but I had believed that this was due to her extreme skill as the long-standing number twelve knight and so us low-numbered knights wouldn't be skilled enough to pull that off. However, if what she just said were true, that would mean that the number thirty knight Alice, and probably the number thirty-one knight named Eldrie, too, have managed to accomplish the feat of slicing the steel pillar. And yet it took me and Eugeo all we had to even deal a millimetre-deep cut on it throughout the twelve days, wait, make that eleven days if we exclude the rest day, that we worked on it till yesterday.

"……U-um…… how many months did it take for the high-ranking knights to manage to cut through the pillar?"

When I subconsciously posed that question, Scheta-sensei slightly raised up her right eyebrow.

"For the slow ones, it takes about three months."

"……And for the fast ones?"

"Three days."

"…………"

I subconsciously ended up exchanging a glance with Eugeo.

My goal is to manipulate the system console that should be located on the topmost floor. Meanwhile Eugeo's is to undo the 《Synthesis Ritual》 that has sealed Integrity Knight Alice's memories and to restore her to her Alice Zuberg self. In order to achieve these goals, we need to have the Supreme Priest Administrator reconcile with Sage Cardinal and earn both of their trust. I do believe that Cardinal wouldn't care whether we are apprentices or knights proper, but it would probably be too much to expect that we can raise our trust gauge with the Supreme Priest to the max solely through baking cakes on a weekly basis, on the other hand. Unless we're knights proper, or high-ranking knights if possible, I don't feel like she'd hear us out properly.

It's already too late to cut down the steel pillar in just three days, but we could do it in one month…… no, make that three weeks.

Having resolved myself for that goal, I once again gazed at the long-standing knight in gray armour.

"Scheta-sensei, may I use my secret moves?"

"Do as you please."

Since I got an OK that easily, I tried pushing my luck a bit more.

"Also…… may I use my own sword?"

Hanging at my left hip right now wasn't the black one that I had fought alongside with throughout the Four Empire Unification Tournament, but rather a steel sword that I was supplied with at the training grounds. While it was by no means of low Priority, it wasn't on the same level as my black one with its Divine Object class stats.

However.

"That won't do."

As Scheta-sensei easily rejected my idea, I blinked several times.

"Wha…… w-why is that so?"

"Striking the pillar by relying solely on the brute strength of your Divine Object doesn't amount to actual training. Your training will not end until you become capable of cutting that pillar with your skills, rather than your strength."

"…………"

Skills over strength. That's a line that I'm well-familiar with from movies and manga, but I can't help feeling that it's unreasonable when someone actually uses it on me. The power of a slash consists of 《the sword's weight + hardness + sharpness + speed》; there's no distinction between power and skills in the damage value that is calculated through that formula… or at least there shouldn't be one.

From when I secretly checked on it during our training, the object class of the steel pillar assigned to me is 38, while its Life value is 24420/25000. Seeing as its Life hasn't decreased all that much despite its surface being riddled with cuts and despite Scheta-sensei slicing off its tip, it probably means that neither of them is great enough of a loss to lead to the destruction of its main body.

According to Underworld's logic, in order to deal damage to a class 38 object, you need to use a tool with a higher Priority. Since Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword is class 45, while my black sword is class 46, it shouldn't be impossible to sever the pillar entirely, let alone dealing a two centimetre cut on it, if we were to use them, but the steel swords we use for practices are class 30. By the time we finish our daily practice, our blades become utterly dull——though some mysterious rite is applied to them, so we find them as if they were brand new the following day——yet if we were to unleash Sword Skills with them, they could end up breaking in the worst case scenario. Even when Scheta-sensei herself demonstrated slicing through the steel pillar, didn't she use her own Divine Object, rather than one of these practice steel swords?

Having seemingly sensed this displeasure of mine, Eugeo opened his mouth first.

"Sensei, may we use Incarnation?"

At that moment, the high-ranking gave an unusual expression of amusement as she nodded.

"If you can actually make use of it."

I quickly put my right arm around Eugeo's neck and made him suddenly turn around, before drawing my head closer to his to whisper the following.

"Oi, Eugeo, you do know that we can't even properly use the 《Incarnation Arm》, let alone the 《Incarnation Sword》!? How exactly do you plan to cut the pillar with it!?"

"But Kirito, if we want to make a cut two cen deep on the pillar with our current abilities, our only choice is to make use of the power of Incarnation. We certainly can't even move a single pebble with it yet…… but perhaps we might be able to strengthen the power of our slashes a bit with it."

"Strengthen…… but still……"

"Look, remember when you had a match against Volo-sempai when we were Primary Trainees?"

With that event brought up out of nowhere, I blinked repeatedly.

It's been over a year already since we were Primary Trainees at the North Centoria Swordcraft Academy, but I still vividly recall the match against the top seat, Elite Disciple Volo Levantein, that I had at the time. When a great number of figures, who were probably his ancestors, appeared faintly behind Volo as he unleashed his secret move, 《Heavenly Mountain Splitting Wave》, aka the Sword Skill 《Avalanche》, I was nearly overwhelmed by him.

However, I narrowly managed to hold my ground and, what's more, push back the Avalanche; that was all because of my black sword's special ability to absorb spatial resources, as well as the support of Sortiliena Serlut-sempai, who had been my mentor. Enrolled at the Order of the Norlangarth Imperial Guard at the moment, Liena-sempai had also come to encourage us when I participated at the Four Empire Unification Tournament with Eugeo, but as we were sent to the Cathedral right after the tournament, I wasn't able to properly express my gratitude to her. If I have some time left during tomorrow's rest day, I sure wish I could go visit her…… but first I sure need to finish up that cheesecake…… for starters, I sure wonder if I can get permission to go out…… and so on and so forth continued my derailed thoughts.

"When Volo-sempai's secret move abruptly became stronger during that match, now that I think about it, I wonder if that itself was the power of Incarnation……"

Eugeo's whisper brought my consciousness back to the topic at hand.

"……Oh I see now, that may indeed be the case……"

I gave a nod with my arm still wrapped around my partner's neck. The army of Volo's ancestors that I had seen back then surely couldn't have been actual apparitions. If that had been his swordsmanship strengthening through Incarnation, that is, through imagination, there's no reason why we couldn't pull off something that Volo had been able to…… or at least we should be able to pull it off. Probably.

However, if all these conjectures are correct, that brings up new problems.

Specifically, the fact that we need a 《image core》 in order to strengthen our slash with Incarnation. Just like Volo had visualised the history of the Levantein family, or just like Liena-sempai had visualised the pride of the Serlut family when she crushed Volo during their graduation match, we, too, must find our very own core.

And yet that's not simple to do. After all, neither I, nor Eugeo have a backbone as swordsmen. Eugeo had been a 《Gigas Cedar Chopper》, that is, a woodcutter after all, while even I am a 《Lost Child of Vector》 of unknown origins; we have utterly zero relation to any famous house with a proud history, like the Levanteins and the Serluts, after a——.

"That's so not like you, Kirito."

Eugeo whispered all of a sudden.

"Pedigrees have nothing to do with actual strength, ain't that right? If Liena-sempai or Golgorosso-sempai ever heard you attributing their strength to being born as nobles, you'd definitely earn a scolding from them."

"……How can you tell what's on my mind?"

When I posed that question with a strained smile, my partner exaggerated with a composed look.

"'Course I can, you let everything show on your face after all, Kirito. Anyway……you should have one of your own; a foundation for your Incarnation. Go ahead and show it off to Scheta-sensei."

"Wha……you want me to do it!? You weren't going to do it yourself?"

"'Course I do; after all, weren't you the one who taught me the Aincrad Style, Kirito?"

Smirking, Eugeo slipped out of the clutches of my arm and took a few steps back.

I've never voiced this thought before——nor do I intend to voice it in the future either, but I believe that Eugeo is superior to me when it comes to talent for the sword. For the time being, I do believe that I could win six out of ten serious fights against him through the difference in our experience, but if Eugeo were to shape his hidden potential properly, he'd overtake me in another three years, actually, make that two years.

To even my own surprise, I feel utterly no fear for when that moment comes. On the contrary, I'm waiting for it with bated breath. It's precisely because I'm waiting for it that I'd like to pass on absolutely everything that I can to him.

"……Aincrad Style, huh……"

Muttering at a volume that only I myself could hear, I looked down at my body. What I was wearing wasn't an Integrity Knight armour like Scheta-sensei's, but rather a gray practice uniform that matched Eugeo's. Yet on top of that uniform, for just a brief moment, I witnessed a phantom image of a fluttering jet black long coat. Though I did not have the slightest backbone in Underworld, it wasn't like the two years of experience I had in the Floating Castle Aincrad had disappeared. Using that image as the core of my Incarnation strengthening…… may be possible, but that leads to one big issue.

In my mind, I've always been shirking from my Aincrad persona back when I was called the 《Black Swordsman》. To such an extent that I don't even want to find out the reason why. I feel that it's a combination of my self-degrading belief that I have no right to be treated as a hero, as well as my guilt towards the many people that have died in front of me, being associated with my past self.

Yet, I believe that sensation has become quite toned down over the three years I spent with Eugeo here. While the fact that he has absolutely no knowledge of my past self is one of the factors for this, that's not all there is to it. In front of Eugeo, I have always been able to be my true self. I've even been able to expose my bad and awful sides to him, wearing my heart on my sleeve.

At this point in time, I might be able to accept my past self. Even as the persona of the Black Swordsman, the foundation of my Incarnation.

"……If I mess this up, it'll be your turn next, ya hear."

Calling to Eugeo as such, I looked at Scheta-sensei. I couldn't find anything that even resembled an expression on her extremely cold, orderly face. Resolving to surprise her for sure today, I turned back to the steel pillar.

I drew my steel sword from my left hip side. The practice sword was far heavier and sharper than the wooden sword I had used at the Swordcraft Academy. The foundation of swordsmanship is to first establish a connection between your heart and your sword…… Come to think of it, ever since I started these practices, I never once performed maintenance on this sword. I got so used to the sword's Life regenerating all on its own that I've been treating it slovenly on a daily basis.

——When we're done with our training today, I'll give you some proper polishing, okay.

Sending such thoughts to my steel sword, I took up a chuudan stance⁽²⁾. From the bottom of my heart, I called out the image of the Black Swordsman Kirito and placed it over my current self.

——You sure are self-serving, huh. You've been trying to forget all about me all this time, yet only when the situation calls for it do you turn to me for some strength, huh?

My past self called out to me in a cynical tone.

——Yeah, I've always been self-serving ever since I was little. But now, I'm wielding my sword not for my own sake, but for the sake of Eugeo, Alice, Liena-sempai, Ronye, and Tiese.

Answering as such in my mind, I slowly pulled my sword into a waki-gamae stance⁽³⁾. Breathe in, breathe out, in, and stop.

"…………Haah!!"

Expelling air sharply, I raised my steel sword vertically. A shrill sound and a bluish-white, cold light came out from the blade, freezing the surrounding air. The One-Handed Sword single strike technique, Gelid Blade.

Swung down with a bit of a thrust, the sword struck the steel pillar's side. Rather than simply cutting through steel with steel, I imagined cracks appearing on the metal after it was chilled by the extremely low temperature to become fragile.

'Kiiiiin!!', a high-pitched, clear metallic sound rang out throughout the wide training grounds.

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#(lunch) 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#(nigiri) 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#(gohan), 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#(Cait Sith) 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.⁽⁴⁾

"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?"

4

4 PM.

Having returned to our personal room after we finished taste-testing our 1Xth baked cheesecake experiment (and our first actually successful entry of them) and preparing for tomorrow, Eugeo and I collapsed onto the sofa just like yesterday.

Half of our bottled-up fatigue originated from the physical exhaustion due to our morning practice and afternoon cake baking, but the other half originated from mental stress. After all, Bercouli Synthesis One used the excuse "It would've still been a little half-baked if I hadn't accurately counted the time for ya" to force himself on us and take part in the taste-testing, during which he ate four out of eight slices of the cheesecake.

Even as he heartily chowed down on the cake with his fork, the Knight Commander's aura didn't weaken one bit, forcing me to be tense throughout the encounter. No matter how I looked at him, he didn't feel like a bad guy; on the contrary, I do believe he seemed like a supremely trustworthy superior, yet I wasn't mentally resilient enough to be capable of relaxing entirely beside a guy who was so powerful that he could slice my head off with his sword in a flash if he felt like it.

Although Eugeo appeared to be suffering from just as much mental fatigue himself, his reason for the fatigue is probably slightly different from mine. Turning my head slightly to the side, I enquired in a hoarse voice.

"……Eugeo, in the end, you never did ask Knight Commander Bercouli about the fairy-tale behind the Blue Rose Sword."

Just then, my partner gave a mild nod with a sway of his flaxen hair, before replying.

"Yeah… because after all those talks during our taste-testing, I sensed that the Knight Commander had had his memories of the past sealed away through the 《Synthesis Ritual》, just like Alice…… I thought that it would have been awfully cruel to talk about the past with a person like that; besides, when I considered the fact that I was eating sweets at the same table as the hero from the fairy tale that I had been told numerous times since my childhood, it just kinda overwhelmed me……"

"Oh, well, good thing we didn't get stuck fighting him then."

When I responded as such, Eugeo gave a feeble, strained smile

"True that. All that time, I was worried sick that you, Kirito, would screw something up again, just like with Volo-sempai, and we'd be pitted against him."

"If that were to happen, you'd be stuck #in the same boat#(ichi-ren-taku-shou), ya hear."

——'Whoops, #《一蓮托生》#(ichi-ren-taku-shou) is a four kanji idiom that originates from Buddhism, so I guess he didn't quite catch that?', but just when that thought went through my mind, Eugeo exaggeratedly shook his head with a displeased expression.

"Oh heavens no, I'd leave it all to you, Kirito. Though……it's great that the Knight Commander is a nice guy despite looking scary. He did seem to enjoy the taste of the cheesecake as he ate it."

"An entire four slices, at that. Even Alice's expression clearly implied that she wanted another helping; I wonder, are all the Integrity Knights such gluttons?"

"That's not the case here."

The reply came from Charlotte, who had moved over to the low table in front of the sofa at some point. Although she had changed into her onee-san form during the taste-testing to eat some cake, she was now back to her small black spider form.

Once she hopped over to the ink bottle on the table, Charlotte went all the way up to the top of the lid, before continuing her speech.

"Since the senior Integrity Knights have served for tens of years, while the oldest of them have even served hundreds of years, they're all sick and tired of food. Though the Cathedral's cooks are masters of their trade in the Human Empire, the menu variety is still limited, you see…… No matter how delicious the food is, you'd have a hard time eating the same thing for hundreds of years, wouldn't you? Though Alice probably isn't yet like that since it's only been several years since she became a knight, people like Bercouli and Vice Commander Fanatio, on the other hand, ought to be only eating the bare minimum necessary to sustain their Life."

"Eeeh, can you really do get tired of it……"

I ended up exchanging a glance with Eugeo subconsciously. Even my partner had an expression on him that implied he didn't quite agree with the idea, as he objected to Charlotte's conclusion.

"We've been having meals at the dining hall on the tenth floor every day, but all the foodstuffs offered there are really delicious, you know? I can't believe anyone would get sick and tired of eating any of it, even if they did eat it for hundreds of years……"

"Huhu, would you be able to say the same thing after a hundred years, I wonder."

Now that she mentioned it, I don't have all that much confidence in myself; though, in order to actually live over a hundred years in this world, we'd have to get the Supreme Priest to conduct the 《Synthesis Ritual》 on us. If the price for perpetual youth and longevity is losing all my memories of the past, I'd have to give that prospect a flat no thanks. Besides, it's not even clear whether a living-and-breathing example of an actual Fluctlight diving in through the STL, rather than an Artificial Fluctlight, could even be synthesised at all.

As I was considering such things, I finally discerned the meaning of the phrase 《Summoned Knight》 that Alice had spoken of. Knights proper like her and the others were led to believe that they were beings summoned from the Celestial World or whatever they call it, rather than humans born in the Human Empire. Surprisingly, this may actually be where the reason why they get sick and tired of their food lies.

As I continued brooding over such thoughts, Eugeo voiced yet another question.

"But Charlotte-san, you do know that Knight Commander Bercouli ate a whole four slices of the cheesecake, right?"

"That's because it was his first time eating the cheesecake that you both made. Of course, he probably did take quite a liking to its taste too."

"Hmnmn…… hold on……"

Reclining on the sofa's backrest, I folded my arms as I wondered, partly to myself.

"The Human Empire's cuisine is filled with elaborate delicacies, including appetisers, soups, meat, and fish dishes, so why is it that the dess…… sweets are all so plain and lack variety? The cakes are basically just buns, while all the pies and tarts only have butter cream or fruit fillings, oh and there's also something like biscuits, I guess. I know that sugar is a valuable commodity, but it's not that expensive that the general populace wouldn't be able to afford it at all, after all……"

After bringing up all those thoughts of mine, I began panicking that I didn't sound very Underworlder-ish with my concerns. Sure enough, Eugeo began giving me a suspicious look as he tilted his head while boring into me.

"Kirito, don't you have a large variety of cakes in your hometown? If that weren't the case, how would you know the recipes for shortcakes and cheesecakes?"

"Oh…… yeah, I had them in my hometown, probably. But I just thought, 'it sure is strange that Centoria doesn't have any.'"

Even I myself thought that my attempt at explaining my way out of the situation wasn't going quite well and it didn't seem like Eugeo, the guy who wears his honesty on his sleeve, was buying it right away either. "Hmmn……?", as my partner gave me a doubtful look, I was considering how I could coax him, when Charlotte unexpectedly threw me a lifebuoy.

"That's because fresh cream didn't exist until you discovered how to produce it, Kirito. Butter cream has too much fat in it, so if you'll have stomach problems if you use it in great quantities.……. Cardinal-sama has also tried devising various sweets made with butter cream; the one where she mixed it with raisins soaked in rum and then stuff it between biscuits was her finest piece of work."

"Ho-hoh……"

'Isn't that what you'd call rum raisin? I'm gonna have to pester her for some the next time I go to the Library Room', with that resolution in my mind, I followed up on the topic.

"Though, making fresh cream wasn't all that hard either. It's strange that nobody discovered it in hundreds of years."

"That's because milk loses its taste if you freeze it even once."

Hearing Eugeo jumping aboard the topic, I felt my chest relax in relief on the inside.

"The people in Rulid would take care not to let any of their milk freeze up in midwinter, so nobody would have even considered trying to intentionally freeze any of it. What's more, it's forbidden to abuse Sacred Arts, you see…… No normal person would have thought of intensely mixing milk while keeping a freezing element inside of it and then straining it once it's turned sleety."

"Everything's a challenge waiting to happen, dear friend."

"How many times do you think we've had to suffer serious trouble because of such challenges…… ——Hey, hold on. Kirito, did you seriously forget how to make fresh cream, despite still remembering how to make shortcakes and cheesecakes?"

"Oh…… yeah, guess so. The God of Darkness Vector sure deals in some weird pranks, huh."

Forcefully weaseling my way out, I stood up straight.

"Now then, let's make this the day we finally go over to the Grand Bath while the Elevating Operator is still working. Charlotte, counting on you to look after things while we're gone."

"Oh my, I'm going too. Cardinal-sama has ordered me not to leave your side even for a moment, after all."

At the black spider's reply, I froze up for a moment.

"……But wait, it's men's bathing time right now……"

"That rule doesn't apply to spiders."

Replying as such, Charlotte jumped over to my body from the ink jar and slipped into the back of my collar.

"…………"

Once I exchanged a glance with Eugeo in silence and both of us shrugged our shoulders in unison, we left the room to cure our bottled up fatigue.

5

The rest day on the 17th Day of the 4th Month, at exactly 12 o'clock.

The second tea party was held at the 《Morningstar Lookout》 on the 95th floor of the Central Cathedral.

The cast in attendance was the same as last time. Namely, me, Eugeo, Alice, Scheta-sensei, Elevating Operator-san, Charlotte, as well as Supreme Priest Administrator and Sage Cardinal. I was so sure that Knight Commander Bercouli would also be attending, but I couldn't see him anywhere at the present moment.

Honestly, I'm actually thankful that the Knight Commander wasn't here. After all, holding an audience for the first time in a week, the Supreme Priest was, as usual, giving off an aura so brutally cold that it I felt as if my Life was going down just by meeting her gaze; if the Knight Commander were to be in attendance on top of that, 'mental fatigue' would become too mild of a description for my sorry state.

Today, Eugeo prepared some black tea, while I placed the same cake preservation box I had used the previous week onto the table. When I carefully removed the silver cover, baked cheesecake final version No. 1 showed up from inside. The moment they laid eyes on it, Administrator let out a "Hmm", while Cardinal let out a "Hooh". 'Well since I succeeded in drawing their attention, that's one stage cleared', I secretly let out a sigh of relief.

During yesterday's taste-testing, while Bercouli only gulped down his cake while saying stuff like "Why ain't this simply scrumptious", Alice actually offered an opinion that was worth listening to. According to her, the taste itself was quite pleasant, but a cause for concern was the fact that its appearance was even duller than that of the shortcake——or so she said. Since Eugeo had told me the same thing before, I poured an ample amount of whipped cream and cheese cream in alternation on the surface of final version No.1. Once again finding it difficult to slice the cake cleanly, I turned to Scheta-sensei and pushed the cake towards her a bit.

"Umm, Sensei, eight slices please……"

"……Why do I get the feeling that I'm being forced to do this every week."

Despite what she said, Scheta-sensei drew out her Black Lily Sword upon standing up and stabilised her breathing for a while, before putting her ultrafine-ultrathin blade to work. I couldn't see the cuts at all this time as well, but when the Supreme Priest flexed one of her slender fingers, the cake split into eight pieces through Incarnation power, before flying through the air until each of the pieces landed in front of one of the people at the table.

"H…… here you are, enjoy your meal."

Once I finished the phrase with cold sweat welling up on my back, Administrator and Cardinal were the first to take their forks into their hands and cut off the tip of their cheesecakes. They then put it into their mouths, chewed twice or thrice——

!!!

I could feel the exclamation marks rising up above their heads. And it couldn't have been just an illusion that there was one more "!" in there than last time. Both of them closed their eyes and faintly raised their heads, immersing themselves into the aftertaste.

Just when the two opened their eyes and took a sip of the black tea, the rest of the participants at the event used this chance to take their own forks. Although Alice and Charlotte had already tasted the prototype version, the final version had more upgrades than just the decorating cream. Seeking a more rich flavour, I've limited the flour mixed into the dough as much as I could, while in turn increasing the amount of fresh cheese in it as much as I could.

For a while, all six of the women continued working their forks and mouths in silence. The first to utter something was, surprisingly, the Elevating Operator.

"……Aww, it's nearly all gone……"

As she muttered this in sorrow, there was indeed but one last bite left on her plate. The same applied to Administrator and the others. This time, Eugeo and I ate our own shares as well, thus we had nothing left to give away.

"'Tis naught but a fact of life that the more thou eateth, the less of it remaineth."

Said Cardinal as she stabbed her last piece with her fork.

"'Tis futile be to lamenteth and denyeth that which naught but most obvious course of things be. All things in life value hast precisely because cometh all to an end one day."

Just then, on the opposite side of the long table, Administrator let out her voice in a provocative tone.

"Oh my, I'll be having none of that, thank you very much. Overturning what's considered to be the natural course of things is the very reason why I exist."

"If that the case be, what planeth thou dost? Will thou the structure of this cheesecake analyseth and with Arts reproduceth? Doing so would by no means guarantee a yield of the same taste; 'tis be most unlike thou to misprision a fact as simple as this."

"Perhaps. But I am the ruler of the Human Empire, you know. I have the right to make the impossible possible.

Upon arrogantly declaring thus, the Supreme Priest brought the final piece that remained on her own plate to her mouth and slowly savoured the taste, before looking at me. Sticking out her now-empty plate, she gave me her order.

"Thirty-three, seconds."

I glanced at Alice, giving her my thanks in my mind.

At the end of yesterday's taste-testing, Alice had approached me and whispered. 'This cheesecake is indeed delicious. Too delicious, in fact. And that's precisely why it may become a perilous pitfall'——

"Right away, Supreme Priest-sama."

Responding as such, I turned to the silver wagon where I had been keeping the cake preservation box, took out a new box from the lower tray, and brought it over to the table.

The moment when a second full cheesecake made its appearance, Cardinal's eyes beyond her round glasses went wide open as she gave a strained smile in exasperation, the Elevating Operator firmly clasped her two small hands into fists, while Administrator let out a laugh, "Ahaha, nice one."


The Supreme Priest, seemingly satisfied after eating a second slice of the cheesecake, exchanged information with Cardinal, who also ate another slice despite all her philosophising earlier, regarding the 《Great Eastern Gate》 while drinking cofil tea after their dessert. The moment the tea party finished up at exactly one o'clock in the afternoon and Cardinal left for the Library Room, Eugeo and I both breathed a sigh in relief. Although this meant that we've earned ourselves another week of time, we'll have to make another new cake——which would be apple tarts according to my plans, for next week. The issue was whether tarts with apple amani⁽⁵⁾ existed in this world as well. The Supreme Priest probably won't be satisfied by anything that's not out of this world.

As I encouraged myself, 'More days of experimentation await starting tomorrow, wait no, make that tonight……'

The Supreme Priest, who had been about to head to the stairs leading to the upper floors, suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Thirty-two, Thirty-three. We're about to head out now, so go get ready."

"Hah!?"

The one who raised her voice was neither me, nor Eugeo, but Alice instead.

"S……Supreme Priest-sama, pray tell me you do not really intend to set forth on an outing with these two!?"

"Yes I am, Alice-chan."

"That is most perilous! It has been no more than half a month since they were appointed to the position of apprentice knights; it is more than evident that they are inadequate to serve as your escort alone!"

'Hey, what is that supposed to mean', I thought for a moment, but taking the time to consider things rationally, I realised that she was absolutely right. Actually, the only human capable of opposing Administrator is Cardinal; is there any need for an escort when the two of them have formed a truce?

Despite my thoughts on the matter, the Supreme Priest responded, "Well, guess you do have a point", with a slight tilt of her head, before immediately following up.

"Well then, Alice-chan, you come too. Gather at the Dragon Landing Field in thirty minutes…… at half past one o'clock, okay."

"Hah…… m-me, as well?"

"That's right."

With that assertion, even Alice appeared to be unable to offer any objections. With a clatter, she gave a knight's salute and repeated her orders.

"Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty hereby humbly accepts the duty of escorting the Esteemed Supreme Priest. I shall be arriving at the Dragon Landing Field in thirty minutes with my dragon. If you will excuse me!"

With a wave of her blue mantle, she headed for the descending stairs and disappeared from sight in a flash.

After standing dumbstruck for a while, I timidly posed a question for the Supreme Priest.

"Umm, we do not have dragons though……"

"I know that. Just get ready as well and come to the Landing Field. If you're late, I'll be turning you into carrots, you hear."

"Y…… yes ma'am!"

Our voices synchronised, Eugeo and I dashed towards the descending stairs.

Having had the Elevating Operator, who had followed after us, take us down to the fiftieth floor and then having run down the Grand Stairs to the twenty-eighth floor where we returned to our rooms, we quickly began preparing for the outing. Though, all we did was stuff our belt pouch with stuff like handkerchiefs, candy, and catalysts sets, as well as equipping our beloved swords at our left hips, and that made up the entirety of our light packing; we can't possibly be heading out on a trip that takes multiple days, right?

We finished our commute and packing in fifteen minutes, thus we took a breather for a moment. The Dragon Landing Field was just two floors above us on the thirtieth floor, thus we'd have more than enough time to get there if we left in another five minutes after a break.

"……It's great that they liked the cheesecake, huh, Kirito."

Said Eugeo with a smile, thus I stuck out my right fist as I replied.

"That's thanks to you helping me out, Eugeo. It was your idea to pour two types of creams on top, after all."

"Oh, no…… I just figured that gently whipped fresh cream was really delicious, so adding it to the cheesecake would make everyone happy."

Giving me a fistbump, Eugeo smiled bashfully.

"Well then, let's add plenty of it on the apple tarts we're making next week. Have any other requests?"

"Hmm, let's see, I'd like to figure out what tea goes best with the cake. Let's look up what tea goes best with apple tarts."

"Your wish is my command."

When I gave a deep theatrical bow, Eugeo also played along, "I leave it to your discretion.", and both of us burst into laughter a moment later. We still had plenty of difficulties in store until we can achieve our goal, but even so, I believed without a single doubt that we'd be able to surpass any hurdle that came at us if our days continued like this.


Stepping out of the room at around twenty minutes past one, we headed for the thirtieth floor.

The Dragon Landing Field that we visited for the first time was a facility far larger in scale than I had imagined. There were two wide runways at the centre of the floor, with a large door that opened vertically erected on the northern and southern walls at their ends. There were several dragon standby booths erected to the sides; Alice and her riding dragon Amayori were already at one of them.

Approaching them in a trot, I accosted Alice as she was giving feed to her dragon.

"S'ry to keep ya waitin'. What do dragons eat?"

"……Like I said, you are so……"

Alice began to say with a scowl, but then gave a sigh as she continued.

"Oh, whatever. Dragons generally eat beast meat, though individual preferences can vary greatly. This little one prefers fish and fruit."

Indeed, Alice was currently giving it a large citrus fruit. The dragon took the handball-sized orange fruit whole from Alice's hands and crunched on it noisily.

"Could you tell me what this fruit is called?

When Eugeo asked his question with proper manners, Alice gave him an expression clearly softer than the one she had given me, before answering.

"It's a 《mithcan》 from the eastern empire."

"Is it…… something that humans can eat as well?"

"Of course. Peeling it is a lot of work, but it is delicious."

Hearing this conversation, I stepped away from the two of them while eliminating my presence. I did want to support Eugeo's efforts to forge a new relationship with Knight Alice from the bottom of my heart. However, there was also a concern I haven't told him about. Namely, if his wish were to be granted and the day when Alice Zuberg's memories were restored through 《reverse synthesis》 were to come…… the current Knight Alice's memories would then likely be——

An abrupt, loud rustling sound ringing out behind me interrupted my thoughts.

When I turned around, I saw a huge silhouette sliding into the Landing Field from the northern aperture. It was a new dragon. Its body was coloured in a sparkling platinum silver; the body was larger to some extent than even Amayori's, but seeing as it was long, slender, well-proportioned and elegant, I couldn't feel any sluggishness from it at all. The horns growing on both sides of its head were nearly two metres long, while its eyes were as violet as the evening sky.

'Toh toh', the dragon continued running along the runway until it stopped just before us, where the rider gently jumped off from the saddle. Wearing a minimum amount of travelling gear atop her pure white dress, the person was none other than Supreme Priest Administrator.

Reflexively giving a knight's salute, Alice was unable to hide the surprise in her voice.

"S-Supreme Priest…… you have awakened Yukiori?"

"That's right. This little one would probably like to fly through the skies too every once in a while, after all."

With a nod, Administrator gently stroked the silver dragon's lower jaw. The dragon responded, "Korururu……", in a throaty voice that sounded like a woodwind instrument.

I didn't really get what the word 'awakened' was supposed to mean, but neither did I have the time to ask. Once the Supreme Priest gave merely three summer mandarins—— I mean, three mithcans to the dragon named Yukiori, she once again returned to the saddle with a motion that defied gravity.

"Kirito, you get on behind me. Eugeo, you go on Alice's dragon."

"Heeh?"

Although I subconsciously let out a strange sound, it was evident that this is how things would turn out, seeing as I hadn't been granted a dragon of my own. Seeing as I might get tied up with a rope and forced to dangle from the legs down if I spent too much time dawdling and didn't get onto the saddle, I replied, "Y-yes ma'am!", and climbed up to Yukiori's back. Luckily, the saddle was tandem-style with plenty of room, so even when I sat down in the backseat, I didn't have close contact with the Supreme Priest.

When I settled down in the saddle that came with a soft cushion and looked to the right after letting out a small sigh, I saw that Eugeo had also just got behind Alice on their saddle. Now that I think about it, seeing as the dragons were utterly unfazed by the fact that they were carrying two people plus two Divine Object-class swords, their endurance sure was something.

When Yukiori got on the left runway while Amayori got on the right one, the southern large door slowly began opening. Since it wasn't even two o'clock in the afternoon yet, the spring sky was still bright. Once the Supreme Priest gave a light snap of the thin leather reins, Yukiori began running lightly. Slightly falling behind, Amayori followed suit. The runway ended in a flash and the two dragons launched out of the landing platform on the thirtieth floor of the Cathedral into the sky with great force. Their extended wings caught the wind, allowing their huge bodies to rise.

Although this was, of course, my first time flying through the sky on a dragon, the fact that I didn't feel any fear surprised even myself. Perhaps it was because I had my fair share of flying through the sky in ALO, or perhaps it was because Yukiori's flight was so smooth that it felt like we were gliding. The dragon took a turn to the left in the skies above the Cathedral front yard, then flew over the marble wall and entered the urban area of East Centoria. Although we were close to two hundred metres above ground, I could clearly see the adults standing still on the main street as they looked up at us, as well as children attempting to catch up to us by running. I felt the urge to wave my hand at them, but I resisted it as I had a feeling I'd be scolded.

Instead, I glanced to the left behind us and saw that Amayori was following us perfectly. Alice was, of course, calmly holding the reins, but Eugeo behind her, on the other hand, looked more or less pale. There was no doubt that he, for one, was experiencing flight through the sky for the first time in his life.

I was worried that he would get airplane sickness, I mean, dragon sickness and puke on Alice's mantle, but I couldn't call out to him at this range. As I was about to at least send my partner a "Hang in there!" through Incarnation——

"Thirty-three, hold the reins."

The Supreme Priest sitting in the front seat gave out this order all of a sudden and actually passed on the reins. Although I grabbed them in panic, I had no idea how to use them.

"U-umm, I don't really know how to fly a dragon, ma'am!"

"Just holding the reins is enough. Yukiori is clever, so it'll read the flow of the wind and clouds and fly on its own for you."

"Ha-haah…… Wait, in the first place, where are we even going, ma'am……?"

Just then, Administrator responded in a voice that felt like she was exasperated from the bottom of her heart.

"Ain't it obvious, the 《Great Eastern Gate》, of course."

"Huh…… WHAA!?"

"Why are you so surprised, I wonder. Weren't you the one who instigated that shrimpie into forming a truce with me?"

"H-how is that relevant here……?"

"It's your fault that I froze the 《Mechanical Sword Soldier Project》 and got stuck with continuously repairing the Great Gate. Isn't it only natural that I have you see with your own eyes how much effort it costs me?"

Now that she mentioned it, it does feel only natural, I guess. Though, as I recall, the Great Eastern Gate should be located at the End Mountains; doesn't that mean that it's as far away from here as Rulid Village?

"E-ehm, I do believe that you have a point there but…… ain't the Great Gate over seven hundred kilors away from Centoria……?"

"That's right."

"If that's the case, we won't reach it soon even with a dragon, right, ma'am……?"

"That's right."

Having confirmed my suspicions like it was no big deal, Administrator continued the conversation while reclining on the small backrest of the front seat.

"Well, if we took the normal flight route, it would take seven hours for us to get there even if we went at a hundred kilors per hour. But rest easy, because not so far away in Easta, shrimpie should have set up a 《door》that even a dragon can pass through."

Easta was probably referring to the Eastabarieth East Empire. And as for the 《door》, I guess it's referring to the teleport door that had been used to transport me and Eugeo from the Cathedral's rose garden into the Great Library Room two weeks ago.

"So, if we were to use that door, we could get ourselves transported to the Great Eastern Gate in an instant, ma'am?"

"Right. It peeves me to admit this, but in terms of transportation arts research, it seems that shrimpie is just the teeniest bit more knowledgeable in the field than I am, so I left setting those up to her. Of course, it's not like I couldn't make them myself, you hear? It's just that it'd be a pain in the ass, since you need to recite an idiotically long rite for it."

"I-I see…… and so, where is the door……"

"She said it was at the peak of Mount Shunca, so it's about a one hour flight away from here. Apprentice knights normally wouldn't get to fly on top of a dragon…… much less Yukiori, the oldest and strongest of them all in this world, so be sure to take your time savouring this moment."

"Y-yes, ma'am……"

Nodding, I once again looked down at the ground. The dragon had already left East Centoria's urban area and I could now see vast wheat fields——wait no, make that paddy fields. The still-small seedlings had just barely sprouted, but come autumn and the whole field will probably bear golden rice ears.

When I once again looked at Amayori, I saw that Eugeo, having finally got used to flying, was now having some sort of conversation with Alice. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it seemed he was doing his best as usual. Now that I think back upon it, I feel that it took him less time to break the ice with his valet Tiese than it took me to break the ice with Ronye, thus having contact with girls may, unexpectedly, not be one of his weak points.

However——

As I contemplated earlier, Eugeo's endeavours to close the distance between him and Knight Alice may one day end up entirely wasted.

"……Synthesising, huh……"

The moment I muttered that word unconsciously, a jolt ran through Administrator's back in the front seat. Before I even had the time to think "Oh shit", the Supreme Priest turned around, her silver eyes coldly piercing my eyes.

"……So shrimpie told you something she shouldn't have, I see. So then, how much do you know about the Synthesis Ritual?"

"Ehm…… umm……"

I gulped, but now that it's come to this, my only choice was to answer truthfully.

"……Taking out a 《memory fragment》 from the knights, sealing their memories before becoming knights and implanting a 《Piety Module》 in their place to enforce loyalty to the Axiom Church and the Esteemed Supreme Priest…… that's what constitutes a 《Synthesis Ritual》 , I was told."

"That's about right…… So? What do you want to say to me, Kirito Synthesis Thirty-three?"

"Eh…...mm…… if I am honest, you wouldn't turn me into a plate or a carrot, would you……?"

"Of course not, probably."

"Th-then in that case, allow me to say it…… setting aside the pros and cons of synthesising, I do believe that the 《Integrity Knights have been summoned from the Celestial World》 thing is a bit nonsensical……"

When I mustered the courage to say that, Administrator once again turned around and looked at me with an even more chilly glare.

"What do you mean, nonsensical?"

"Well, ya know, basically all of the knights are actually either the winners of the Four Empires Unification Tournament like us, or criminals that violated the Taboo Index, is it not so? So, you take them and seal their memories by synthesising them, and then give them new memories that they've been summoned from the Celestial World…… Ain't that going to mean that every time you synthesise a single person, there'd be a need to adjust the memories of all the knights that had contact with this knight, ma'am? For example, if Eugeo and I were to be synthesised and become knights proper, you would need to rewrite the memories of Alice and Scheta-sensei while you're at it or questions would arise, would you not……?"

"They do arise. Actually, since that's exactly what I'm doing, it happens every time."

Administrator responded in a somewhat sulky voice. Upon turning back to the front, she thrust up her fists into the sky all of a sudden, before shouting the following.

"It's a pain in the ass; simply absurd! But what choice do I have; that's the story I went with at the beginning, after all! As if I can just say 'Oh, you guys were actually people from the Human Empire all along' now of all times!"

"Th…… then, how about you at the very least give up on it hereafter; on synthesising, I mean, ma'am? If you make us and the other knights 'Appointed Knights' rather than 'Summoned Knights', you would no longer need to adjust the memories of all the knights each time, woul-……."

"Hey, you're just saying all that because you don't want to be synthesised yourself. I'll have you know that the 《Synthesis》 that is your middle name implies a person who's been synthesised, you hear. I should have told you this when we first met; 'Do your best so that those names come true', I said."

"Well, ya know, if you ask me whether I want to be synthesised, or whether I don't want to be not synthesised, I would choose 'I don't want to be synthesised'."

"In that case, there's only one way to achieve that. Just like you had me form a truce with Cardinal, find a way to do something about the Dark Territory invasion. The Integrity Knights exist for two reasons…… the first is to kill Cardinal, the other is to repel the forces of darkness. If both of these reasons ceased to exist, I'd have no need to increase the number of knights anymore. Even I feel a few regrets about it; if I were to synthesise you, I'd probably lose your ability to make all those cakes too, after all."

Once she declared all of this in one go while facing forward, Administrator once again reclined on the backrest.

"……I'm going to sleep for awhile. Wake me up when we reach Mount Shunca."

——'Um, I don't exactly know what that mountain looks like though, ma'am.'

Was what I was about to say, but I closed my mouth just as I opened it. Instead, I slackened my hold of the reins a bit, entrusting Yukiori with figuring out the destination.

6

Turns out there was no need to keep my eyes peeled for Mount Shunca. After all, it was a mass of rocks that shot up to seven or eight hundred metres smack dab in the middle of a flatland, sticking out like a sore thumb on the same level as the Tokyo Skytree.

Convinced that this had to be our destination for sure, I gently shook Administrator awake. Having taken back the reins from me, the Supreme Priest had Yukiori ascend along the rock face and dive straight through a gigantic gate constructed at its peak without any hesitation.

The same peculiar sensation I had when I was teleported to the Great Library Room from the rose garden assailed me again, a rainbow light engulfing my vision; when I subconsciously opened my closed eyelids the next moment, I found that we were no longer at Mount Shunca. Standing in our way in front of us was a gigantic mountain mass that hadn't been there just seconds ago. The pure white mountain range that seemed to pierce the heavens was undoubtedly the 《End Mountains》 that encircled the Human Empire, the same ones that I had seen up-close from Rulid Village. As the time now was past three o'clock in the afternoon, the light from now-more-yellowish Solus caused the ridgeline to sparkle.

Though, there was one single difference from the mountain range in the north. A deep ravine was carved out of the mountain surface straight ahead of us as if a gigantic god had sawed it out, dividing the mountain range that was two thousand or so metres higher than the surrounding area into two.

Upon sending a fleeting glance to Alice behind us, the Supreme Priest had Yukiori plunge straight into the ravine. The moment sunlight was obstructed by the perpendicular cliff, a chill engulfed my entire body. Even I, as inept in the Arts as I was, have started getting the hang of feeling the state of the local spatial Sacred Power with my skin recently; yet, the supply of Sacred Power in this ravine was surprisingly low. Although some resources themselves had accumulated there over the course of many, many years, it'd probably take a humongous amount of time for it to charge up again if all of them were used up.

The two dragons slowly advanced through the hundred-or-so-metre-wide ravine. As the cliffs at our sides grew taller, our vicinity rapidly grew dimmer. Yet, what appeared tens of seconds later gave off such a prominent presence even within the darkness that it was bizarre.

An unfathomably gigantic——gate. Scale-wise, it rivaled the Central Cathedral.

The gray gate jutting out from the bottom of the ravine probably extended to a thousand metre height. I couldn't even tell whether it was made of stone or metal. It was so exceedingly big that it threw my perception of distance out of whack and I shrank into myself in fear that we'd end up crashing into it if we got any closer, yet the Supreme Priest continued having Yukiori move on nevertheless.

When her dainty hands finally pulled on the reins, my entire field of vision was covered up entirely by the gray structure. Even when I raised my head, I couldn't see through to its top because of a thin haze that covered it.

"So this…… is the 《Great Eastern Gate》……"

When I muttered this in a hoarse voice, Administrator responded without hiding her irritation.

"That's right. The curtain that protects the Human Empire, yet will cause a war."

"A curtain……? It looks far too sturdy for what you cal-……"

"Take a good look at its surface."

Upon being told this, I strained my eyes towards the great gate towering in the darkness. That very moment, I let out a small gulp.

Numerous cracks were running like a mesh along the gray surface. As I stared at it dumbfounded, one of the cracks spread out with a loud noise, making contact with another crack. Small fragments poured down from a dumper truck-sized lump that was encircled by a triangular crack; even now it seemed like it could fall off the gate itself at any moment.

Just then, Administrator extended her right hand. Although you normally can't possibly make more than five elements with one hand, she managed to create about twenty metal elements on her hand in one go, and without any incantation to boot. When the gray dots of light flew off and soaked into the crack, the lump that was about to fall off stopped vibrating.

"……Is that how… you continued mending this hugeass gate, ma'am? All this time ever since last summer……?"

"That's right. Honestly, it's like trying to cool off a hot stone with a few drops of water…… The decline of the Great Gate's Life is so fast that I can't possibly keep up with it by simply adhering metal elements to it, yet if I were to use a large scale rite, I'd end up exhausting all the Sacred Power in this ravine. Even delaying the process like this is only going to work for another half a year at best."

"…………"

I could only gnaw at my lips.

The Supreme Priest Administrator had mentioned this during last week's tea party. That the reason why she had suspended her Mechanical Sword Soldier Project whatsit and continued mending the Great Eastern Gate… was because she bet on the potential that I had shown with Eugeo. Her "Find a way to do something about the Dark Territory invasion" remark wasn't just a mere joke. The Supreme Priest was seriously thinking that we might possibly find a way to save the world. Just like how we created the shortcake or the cheesecake.

"……What if… this gate were to break down…… what would happen then……?"

"I'll show you."

Upon muttering this, the Supreme Priest pulled Yukiori's reins. The silver dragon who didn't lose its gleam even in this darkness cried out a short "Kururu", before flapping its elegant wings. Its large body rose up perpendicularly as if it were a ＶＴＯＬ aircraft. Slightly below, Alice's Amayori followed suit.

As I looked at the gray wall flowing in front of me, I suddenly felt as if I spotted some kind of text in the Latin alphabet carved into it. However, I didn't have enough time to read it before it disappeared below us, giving way to the top of the Great Gate. I do believe that it'd be impossible for both man and beast to climb all the way up here, but it seemed that numerous sharp steel barbs were set up at the upper edge. About ten metres above them, Administrator had her dragon hover in place.

"…………"

Without a single word, I fixed my gaze beyond the gate——at the desolate scenery of the Dark Territory that I actually laid eyes on for the first time.

I can see why it's called the Land of Darkness. The ground was as black as coal ash; the sparsely growing trees were twisted as if in agony; not a single watering hole could be found—— and the sky was as red as blood, even though there should have still been some time till the evening. Compared to this spectacle, even GGO's wasteland maps could still be regarded as being filled with natural life.

The phrase 'world of death' crossed my mind; however, I was forced to immediately revise that notion. Far beyond the short ravine that extended to the opposite side of the Great Gate, there were several lights swaying on a plateau that was slightly higher than the surrounding ground. Bonfires…… someone had set up camp over there.

"……What are those fires for……?"

"The Dark Territory's advance forces, obviously. They're observing how this gate crumbles away bit by bit. Once its collapse is at hand, the entire flatland you see there will probably be filled up entirely by the grand army of the five races of the Darkness Realm."

"Five races…… as I recall, those were goblins, orcs, ogres, giants, and……"

"Humans. People of the Dark Realm."

As Administrator answered as quietly as a mutter, her voice seemed to have such a cold ring to it that it gave me the shivers. Is she angry……? Towards the army of darkness……? Or perhaps……

At that moment.

"Esteemed Supreme Priest! Something is coming!"

Alice's voice rang out sharply. When I strained my eyes in panic, I saw several black dots coming towards us in the deep red sky. Bit by bit they became bigger, finally taking form. Black wings and long tails……

"D-dragons? The Dark Territory has dragon knights too?"

"Of course they do. They're dark knights. The main force of the army of darkness, who have crossed swords with the Integrity Knights for hundreds of years. If they've noticed my presence and are now coming to take my head, they sure underestimate me, huh."

As the Supreme Priest declared this, Alice's shout overlapped with her words.

"I shall make short work of them, thus I would like to humbly ask you to stand back, Supreme Priest-sama!"

As Alice was about to have Amayori charge ahead with Eugeo still riding on its back the moment she shouted this, Administrator quickly thrust out her right hand to stop her.

"That will not be necessary, Alice-chan. I have to make an example here by eradicating them in a single attack so great that it causes the advance troops behind them to scurry away as well, letting them know what befalls those who dare approach the Human Empire."

Her right hand moved to her left hip, slowly unsheathing a rapier. She turned the mirror-silver blade, sparkling like a mirror, towards the dragons closing in on us at high speed.

The dragons closing in on us numbered four. When I strained my eyes, it seemed that there was indeed a human riding atop the dragon in the vanguard. So that's a dark knight——that is, a human living in the Dark Territory, huh. While I did have an interest in finding out what kind of beings they were exactly, it didn't seem I'd get the chance to get a close look at them.

Administrator's rapier bellowed, 'Buuuun……', as it was wreathed in white light. While it wasn't all that flashy as a phenomenon, I could feel with my bare skin just how tremendous the energy contained within the sword was. The light gathered at the tip of the rapier, condensing and letting out a shrill, high-frequency noise. If this were to be fired out, it would cause the evaporation of both the four approaching dragons and their riders without even leaving a corpse behi-……

"…………!?"

That instant, my eyes shot up wide as I shouted out reflexively.

"H-hold it! Stop, stop!"

It's unclear whether my English there got through to her, but the Supreme Priest jolted her rapier upwards, before giving me a stern look.

"What exactly is your problem, Thirty-three?"

"I would like to ask you to take a closer look; only the one in the lead is an actual dragon, while the three in the back look somehow different!"

"Huh?"

Frowning, Administrator turned her gaze to the four approaching silhouettes and immediately said the following.

"Oh my, you're right. The three in the back appear to be large minions. Though, that changes nothing about them being enemies."

Cardinal had spoken of the term 'minion' during last week's tea party. It seems that they were likewise winged creatures, but their necks weren't as long as those of dragons, while their taloned limbs just dangled down languidly. They looked more like gargoyles than dragons.

However, that wasn't the problem.

"Wait, look, doesn't it seem like the dragon in the lead is being chased, ma'am?"

"Hmn? Mnn, that may be true, but like I care. I'm going to kill them in the end anyways, after all."

"W-wait wait wait, aren't you interested in why they're being chased though, ma'am?"

"They probably just snagged someone's snack or something."

"That's not the impression I'm getting here, ma'am. Can't we save the killing for after we find out the reason behind what's going on, ma'am?"

"You sure are a pain in the ass……"

Even as she continued giving the biggest frown she could, Administrator still made a slight change to the angle of her rapier.

"Then I'll only take down the minions in the back."

"Y-yes please"

"Eih"

With her not-all-that-pumped shout, a pure white laser was discharged from the tip of the rapier. It instantly split into three, forming large arcs before piercing the winged monsters chasing the black dragon.

'Pigyaaaa!', a faint scream could be heard. The three monsters called minions fell down one after another, scattering black blood in the sky in their wake, until they disappeared from our sight.

The pursued dragon's speed went down. It wobbled in the sky, looking like it could crash down at any moment. It seemed that the rider atop the saddle was arduously trying to rein in the dragon, but they just couldn't get it to stabilise its flight.

"Sigh…… if that dark knight comes pouncing on us after all this, be sure to take responsibility for it and defeat them yourself."

Upon giving this order to me, Administrator once again hoisted her rapier.

Light element energy was what shot out of it this time as well. Yet rather than producing another super-powered laser, it instead formed a ribbon-shaped mist. The white ribbons gently flowed through the sky, enveloping the black dragon that had closed in by another two hundred metres by then.

Having probably had its Life healed up by the Supreme Priest's healing Arts, the dragon's wing flaps regained their strength. It increased its speed, heading straight for us. I could already make out the details of the knight riding on its back. Their entire body was enveloped in a purplish-black helmet and armour and I couldn't see their face.

Alice's Amayori flew in front of Yukiori. 'Jarin', with a noise the girl pulled out her golden sword. Despite witnessing its radiance, the dark knight did not stop their advance.

Eventually, once the black dragon closed in to a point right in front of us on the other side of the Great Eastern Gate, it finally switched over to hovering mode. As if trying to indicate they had no intention to fight, the knight in its saddle hoisted their open right arm, before shouting.

"Pray tell me, do I have the pleasure of happening upon an Integrity Knight of the Axiom Church!"

At that voice that sounded muffled due to the helmet, Alice responded sonorously.

"Indeed thou have! For what purpose do thou approach this Great Gate, guarded by us Integrity Knights!"

Just then the dark knight placed their hands on their helmet and pulled it off their head without hesitation. Her long, purplish-black hair streamed out. A woman……?

As I gazed in wondernment, the knight's coquettish husky voice rang out.

"I am the eleventh-ranked Dark Knight, one who is known as Lipia Zancale! I have come to this land bearing a decree from my lord! I would like to seek an audience with the Commander of the Integrity Knights!"

(To be continued)

Notes

1. ^ The name is a pun. The name for this Divine Object is Eien no Kama (永炎の窯), while the Japanese word for "eternal/eternity" is also pronounced as eien (永遠).

2. ^ In kendo, a chuudan stance (中段の構え, lit. middle/central stance) is when the sword's hilt is kept around belly button level and the is sword kept centered in front of the body.

3. ^ In kendo, a waki-gamae (脇構え, lit. side/flank stance) is a stance when the sword is moved to the right hip, with the tip of the sword being hidden behind one's back.

4. ^ 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.

5. ^ Amani (甘煮, lit. sweet-boiled/cooked) is a term for food that has been dipped into a sweet sauce of soy sauce, sugar and mirin before being cooked.