AN: A short chapter before I consolidate everyone's stats and skills plus plan out a fight for either an event boss or the floor boss. Next chapter will be Strea's interlude I guess.

Lives are like petals, they fall off easy

26th February 2023

Frontline: Floor 25

Current location: Floor 24, Panareze, Cottage on the farthest island

A beautiful day.

Whilst the air would fog up every night, the same could not be same after dawn.

Ah, the main settlement on the 24th floor was a beautiful place to live in!

Paraneze's city is designed as a man-made island in the center of a large lake, connected to innumerable other isles through floating bridges stretching out in all directions.

Having a private isle to ourselves was simply awesome!

Thankfully, the handful of purchasable private isles that were connected by floating bridges came with the bridge itself so we wouldn't have to worry about blockades of any jealous fans when people inevitably discover our their favourite idol's new home.

Strea also had her own fans since she took up the guitar, her singing has also improved a lot. She didn't join Yuna on a stage or anything as she liked doing Yuna's preferred role of the travelling bard in the spare time.

Well, at least until she stumbled upon a nice restaurant or cafe... or anywhere with lots of meat. In which I would be messaged and dragged along to engage in a non-stop eating crusade.

Lux, Hiyori, had taken up the Ocarina as a spare hobby. Other than that, most of her skills were combat orientated. Much like Strea's... with the exception of that [Tailoring] skill Strea took. (I must be thinking too much like Kirito because I'm lamenting the lack of combat skills on their parts)

We usually trained together, she still hasn't gotten one up on me since I could just predict her rather straightforward yet powerful strikes and catch them Aizen style.

Well, I somehow managed to get her to stop using the 'sensei' and 'sama' honorifics after she dropped her short hero worshipping attitude. She also got my name right after the whole LC event.

I was currently taking a seat on the dining table placed just outside our new cottage, continuing my writing habit.

It's been awhile since I've had the time to marathon the now titled 'Sternritter Chronicles' of our new shared auto-biography.

I had already penned upto our adventures to the 20th floor.

However, I was now editing and finalising some earlier events such as Lux's encounter with Laughing Coffin along with Lux's first floor boss fight against the 10th Floor boss.

'Kagachi the Samurai Lord'

The floor where Lux got the last hit with her newly gained [Battoujutsu], along with the last hit bonus of a powerful katana.

Kuchinawa, named after a white serpent of lore.

I recall it being a snake god oddity in the Monogatari series and a Mushi that ate Gods from Mushishi... I think.

Well, I followed the Kirito route of upgrading weapons to hell and back until we get new ones.

Which was very often, I might add! (Hurray Luck!)

It was feasible for me to do so as I needed only minimal materials to upgrade things successfully.

Strea calls me a cheating hacker that makes the Random Number Gods angry. She's worried about them smiting me.

Sucks to be them.

In any event, there was a certain monster that dropped these items which were extremely rare yet could only be sold to NPC's for lots of Cor.

Needless to say, I farmed the shit out of them and got us filthy rich.

And that was how I bought this cottage without using the Guild Funds (made from tax of guild member kills).

A nice large sea/lake side cottage with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

"Hey Nick, Nick! What'cha writing?" Yuna asked after an hour, leaning over my shoulders.

Something soft gets shoved into the left side of the head, ah, I knew this feeling very well.

Only the person with no sense of personal space would do such a thing.

"Mmhmm... Ah, I know this part! That's where I was like dodging that hissy Samurai's white snake whip and I was like *Washak*! Chopped it right off! Then you went in and broke his sword." Strea pointed at the big book I was writing in.

Ah, I got used to and started loving her lack of personal space. I mean, only socially concerned Japanese people would be bothered by a pretty girl shoving her breasts into one's cheek.

"Yes, yes, I remember it too. Strea was like the main heroine back then." I said, praising her.

Certainly, that was a nice HoTD moment when Strea slid under Kagachi's white snake whip, her chest Gainax'ed quite a lot.

Worth.

"Hmhm! Go on! Tell me how great I am!" Strea happily hummed.

"Strea's important contributions were always something I would forever etch into my memory." I said, avoiding specifics with a stupid grin on my face.

"Mmmmmmmmm-" Yuna gave me that look as if I was scum.

"Wow! That's some praise!" Strea had a hand to her cheek, basking in her little dome of almost perpetual happiness.

That sight warms my heart... especially after I decided to simply level up [Observe] instead of relying on [Revelation] to learn more about Strea.

What I learned had placed a real deadline on me... I had to act quicker.

I eventually found my solution by experimenting with some low level monsters and eventually, succeeded using 'that skill' with Gamatatsu.

If I'm right, it will work with Strea as well.

"Ahh, I like this part the most." Hiyori walked over, turned the page and pointed to the one where I helped her out.

Or as she puts it, heroically rescued her.

Personally it was more of a slaughter against the Laughing Coffin... it was mostly due to Luck and a lot of manipulations that I took their attention off the deaths that had occured or Hiyori would have blamed herself for the deaths of that party.

Yes, just keep blaming PoH and the rest of the LC.

That's the best way to live in SAO.

It's all KAYABA's and Laughing Coffins fault.

"Aha! 'The back of one's neck is any creature's greatest blind spot. To not protect it at all times should be a sin on the battlefield.', that's so cool! Hey, hey, Nick go say it again for me!" Yuna asked as she read through the passage.

"Ooh! You have to do it in the same pose as back then." Hiyori added in.

"Yeah! It can be like a stage-play! You're gonna sell this book right? It's gonna be so cool if it's adapted you know!" Strea enthusiastically continued the line of conversation.

"Well, I guess I could"-

"Nick!"

"Yeah!" I shouted at whoever suddenly called my name.

It must have been a friend since there were only a few people I gave access to.

"It's me, Diavel!" The blue haired Knight was under a cloak.

Damn, all the girls were here... and considering his cloak this meant he came here 'on a thinking walk', in other words, away from his guild.

This meant we were to have a serious discussion.

The kind of shady things these girls shouldn't hear but...

"Hey man! How's things going? Wanna come in? Let me guess, your trainees are being 'childish' again." I say to him.

It had a lot more meaning as we had already agreed on some code-words.

'Childish' meant they were being butt-hurt and were causing trouble that is endangering the front-lines.

"Sure, I'll take you up on the offer. Ladies, good afternoon." Diavel greeted the girls politely as a group.

He seemed to be under the impression they were one cohesive unit.

Which wasn't that far from the truth considering our relationship levels... although Strea's is currently hard-capped (at 70) due to her circumstances right now, there's an overflow that's just waiting for me to finish up her quest and improve it.

After that... well, I guess we'll all be sharing a bed after they sort things out.

Well, we all went inside. Yuna served us up some tea before joining us.

"Wow! This is like some secret guild talk isn't it? Is it alright for us to be here?" Strea asked with excitement in her eyes.

Lux was intrigued and had a searching gaze on Diavel, Yuna followed her.

Well, I couldn't have that can I?

"Nah. It's just some 'casual' talk right? I'm sort of Diavel's 'rant absorber' for the 'childishness' he has to put up running a three thousand player guild." I say in a relaxed matter.

Conveying that we were supposed to be using code, fake a lack of seriousness and that I was to give advice to deal with the troublemakers.

After all, I've been calling a few of his 'lucky' shots over the past two months, why wouldn't Diavel trust my 'judgement' even if some of the results were painful in the short term?

"Heck yeah. Nick knows what I mean. You would think that everyone would be 'smart' about the stuff they do, but really, people do 'stupid' things. The Guild is really 'complex' you know, and it's getting worse. I just need someone to 'talk' about these things on occasion. And Nick's the man." Diavel clearly understood the message I conveyed.

In other words, people are being petty in his guild as the chain of command is getting destabilized among certain leaders. Also, it's likely to do with opinions along with the old extortion problem that some lower ranking members get up to with the endorsement of the other two (out of three) same old trouble-making 'leaders' of the Sons of Liberty (SoL).

Diavel said some meaningless yet well hidden crap that confirmed the message I anticipated.

Hmm, since the front-line is the 25th floor and those bosses tend to be a step up above.

"So basically, they don't think they get enough 'exposure' in the front-lines? And that they have a problem with some 'showy guild' supposedly hogging the 'attention'. Wow, they sound unfair. Still, you've been 'coddling' them a bit so perhaps you could let them 'take the spotlight' for a change? You know, so that you can 'groom' them better. I have a hunch that there will be an 'opportunity' soon for them to show their stuff. Why don't you let them fetch their 'friends' that believe the same? It'll be like killing two birds with one stone."

I tell him jokingly while uttering that completely heartless suggestion.

The first two sentences referred to his two leaders right beneath him that were unruly, the ones that were running extortion rings and had bad attitudes towards players like Beta Testers and others. The 'showy guild' was us, the [Sternritter].

Those people were the part of the SoL who hated our guts as a troupe of three Unique Skill users and one Strea. I think they also hated me for being a gaijin with three pretty ladies surrounding me all the time.

Sure, they loved 'Uta-hime' as their bard but they've begun advocating for faster boss fights and for us to be left out in some of them. The 13th and 16th Floor bosses were fought without us, those two leaders and the DDA were trying to undermine our position quite a bit out of some personal vendetta that was utterly petty.

Maybe it was because Strea bought all the meat in that one sale by an NPC that they wanted to use for a party... or that Lux ignored them... or that their 'idol' Uta-hime clinged onto me.

That, or it was because Gamatatsu used his tongue and swallowed some of their members harmlessly, keeping them in his dark and scary stomach when tehy annoyed him.

What I essentially told Diavel was to use the excuse of diversifying power and giving more responsibilities to get those leaders to fight the boss without him... and without us.

Needless to say, I will be keeping Kirito and co. out of this doomed fight.

I was also telling Diavel that he should subtly suggest to them to get the Divine Dragon Alliance to join their group expedition against the Floor Boss.

Diavel almost looked nervous, he wasn't power-hungry or obsessive with leadership, but he wanted to finish the game... with the least work possible on his part. We actually preferred to relax instead of playing our 'roles' all the time... admittedly I embraced mine much easier than he does thanks to the incentives by [The Gamer], still...

"You think so? I'm not sure if I'm 'confident' that they can handle it." He answers.

What he meant was that 'they are so not ready'.

"Well, we'll never know if they didn't try at all! I mean, rushing a 'minor' expedition like that could result in failure. But if they knew what they were doing then everything will be just fine for you." I reply evenly, telling him to keep the expedition to rush the boss a secret and that no matter what, the results would benefit him and the trapped players as a whole.

"Haha... I guess you're right. It's best that they show what they are made of..." Diavel trailed off with an increasingly strained smile.

Things like these always drained our relationship meter a little, but it was for the greater good.

Diavel left soon after.

Strea probably had an idea about it but was thinking it was a legitimate minor expedition down below.

Yuna knew that we were talking about something else, but didn't press it as she had known I've been talking with Diavel for a long time... and that his success was largely due to me.

Hiyori was disturbed as she was more familiar with such hidden meanings.

I myself was disturbed a bit by what I had just suggested, nothing to stop me from being calm but...

I decided to just take a seat out in the dining table outside of the cottage, admiring the water view and the fake stars in the sky that I could see despite the fog.

"... Come, you shouldn't just lie down there, Strea." I say.

Strea descended from the roof, smiling as I found her out.

"You should take a seat somewhere, I'll be... thinking for a long time."

"Okay! Wow, you sure don't let your guard down!" She said, sitting down on my lap.

Uhh... wait, no, I should just smile and be happy.

"I don't think this seat is that comfortable." I smiled as I said that.

"Hmm..." She shook her ass a bit and made herself a bit more comfortable on my, uh, legs.

"I'm good now!"

My friend under my pants is also feeling very good.

But this is a serious moment now, you know!

"Alright then. I'm glad to here that."

I say, placing my arms around her and stared out at the night sky.

I was silent, contemplating about how I just told Diavel that he should 'purge' his guild of some troublemakers while getting information on the boss in such a way.

Did I feel bad?

Yes, they were people that have not directly wronged me.

No, they were people who's attitudes could have led others to being boxed-in, killed, hurt...

"... Those people you mentioned... they're not coming back from the 'expedition', are they?" Strea asked.

"You figured that out?" I asked, before thinking for a moment. "Or did Hiyori say that?"

"Hiyori did." Strea confirmed. "She said it was for a good reason, and Yuna overheard what she suspected. Well, they didn't want to talk about it so someone had to."

"...I see. I'm glad it was you then, Strea."

"Mhmm... I feel so special."

"You certainly are Strea." More than you realised, I remarked mentally. "No, not all of them. I'm sure the best of them will make it back. Diavel should have less trouble them, so will the lower-level players and all those that stay at the Town of Beginnings. I think that after some time, everyone's lives will go back to normal."

"Will they really?"

"I have to believe. So long as the people Yuna, Hiyori, Strea and the slightless important friends to me make it out then I will be happy with the result. If I think more people that deserve making it out of SAO do... then I will live with the consequences."

... We spend a long time together... innocently, before we went to bed.

Well, before Strea once again entered my bedroom and tried to use me as a pillow.

Tomorrow, a good amount of the 'sudden' raiding party was wiped out. There were a few survivors here and there, weaklings, most of them... who survived by spamming their teleport crystals like cowards *ahem* smart people. The stronger players like good guy 'Schmitt', the grunt 'Shivata', Shikamaru wannabe 'Yamata' survived... poor 'Lind' who would have been a Diavel fanboy in another life did not make it.

I was at the Monument of Life with Strea waiting as many names were crossed out.

No one was here yet, not many knew of the impending surprise raid.

That was how Diavel and I planned it.

The stragglers would come back with the juicy information about the boss that I could have picked up on with a simple glance yet not tell anyone lest I give away my powers.

I point to the names 'Lind', and many other names, saying each of their names.

Making sure to point out the secret LC members that I found out about yet couldn't 'prove'.

"Those are the names that died today. Not all of them were bad, nasty, annoying... but the leaders certainly were endorsing some detrimental behaviours and attitudes. These are the people I had essentially put down for the sake of Diavel and the many names in Aincrad that people won't remember for not fighting." I say to Strea while trailing my hand down the wall.

"..." She didn't look too sad, but she wasn't happy either.

I did the same for a few other names.

"Those are the names that are crossed out for all your sakes. Those are the only ones I can never regret because they endangered the lives of those I consider precious." I named the Laughing Coffin players and some other orange players that had attempted to kill or rob us some time back.

"... Can we go now? I understand. Nick, you only wanted to do what you thought was right. I... I want to belive in you."

"...I'm glad that you have so much trust in me, Strea. But what comes next will require some of that trust." I tell her, looking serious.

"Pardon?" She tilted her head, perplexed.

"Have you noticed yet? Of the names not yet crossed out..."

I pointed to the section that held the names beginning with 'N' and 'S'.

"Neither the name 'NickLZH' nor 'Strea' exists. Curious, isn't it? MHCP002."