Argo scowled as the merchant caravan moved along.
It was only a caravan in the loosest sense, given that there were no pack animals, and no wagons. The player's inventories held all the items and goods that they were going to resell.
Several times she had wanted to go ahead, try and make her own way to Alne, the city at the foot of the World Tree, but it would only take one lucky monster to kill her, and then she'd be sent back to the last safe point on the trail.
She wasn't a front-liner like Kii-bou or Aa-chan were, and her stats reflected it.
So she plodded along at the relatively slow pace of the convoy, grumbling all the while. She was about to drift off on her feet when the ring of a new message jolted her back awake.
Grateful for anything to relieve her boredom, she swept open her messages tab.
[Sylph leader being attacked by Salamanders, trying to intercept.] And felt the bottom of her stomach drop out.
She needed to… what could she do? Her friend marker for Kii-bou was still far in the distance, and she couldn't get there in time, not that she'd be able to change the course of the battle.
An attack by the salamanders on the Sylph leader, who was currently meeting with the Cait Sith to discuss the upkeep of their alliance, would have overwhelming firepower, the sort one person couldn't change.
She glanced desperately around, and her eyes fell on the leader of the caravan. "Hey, Roggie?" She asked, jogging up next to the tall, lanky, and bearded spriggan.
"What is it newbie?" The more experienced merchant asked. "Trouble figuring out what you're gonna sell?"
"I was just wonderin' what the policy regarding sales is if the Salamanders go to war with the Cait Sith and Sylphs," Argo said, not exactly trying to hide what had just happened.
"Shit. they're moving already?" The experienced merchant scowled. "There goes most of our profits."
"I thought Alne was neutral territory?" Argo said, even as half-a-dozen scenarios played out in her mind that could cut into the merchant's profit lines. Everything from forced seizure of property to killing spriggan merchants outright would be possible.
"It is, but that doesn't mean much if the Salamanders cut off their enemies at the Wall. They've certainly got the numbers for it." Roggie tapped a few buttons on his screen, manipulating the calculator. "Without the Sylphs buying their stealth gear and the Cait Sith buying taming equipment, we could lose as much as forty percent of our projected income on this trip alone, and it'll only get worse."
"Whoever said war was good for business was never in our situation." The caravan leader looked frustrated, but resigned. Like war breaking out between the Sylph-Cait Sith alliance and the salamanders was inevitable.
"Anything we can do?"
"Well," Roggie rubbed his chin. "If we offered a discount to the salamanders in exchange for them leaving the sylphs alone, they might take the bait."
"That won't work." Argo shook her head. "They've already amassed an overwhelmin' amount of firepower, and my friend says that they're startin' their attack soon."
The taller spriggan scowled, rubbing his chin. Then he opened up his message box, and typed out a message, sending it off with a frown. "Just contacted Lady Trasmin. She'll probably have a good idea of what to do." He closed his menu, readjusting the strap on his backpack.
"Let's keep moving, whatever happens, we can still probably make a profit on this."
Argo nodded, and fell into step behind him, her hand typing out a message on autopilot.
[Stay Safe.]
Argo's mind raced with worry as her body moved on autopilot. Her… boyfriend? No, her partner was going into a dangerous situation, where he could very likely die. It wouldn't be the first time he had gone into a scenario like that, but she couldn't help but worry.
The memory of Asuna's name fading from her friends list flashed through her mind.
Argo shook her head. Kirito wouldn't die. And even if he did, they weren't in SAO anymore, he wouldn't be gone.
He wouldn't.
The mantra did little to calm her as she walked.
She became so absorbed in her worry that she almost missed the dinging of a message coming in. Roggie swept it open instantly, reading through it, stroking his beard.
"Hey, is your friend a Spriggan or an Undine?"
The question seemed to come out of nowhere, but Argo had long gotten used to people asking her such questions.
"Well, that's info, and I'm not in the habit o' just given' out info, but ya can buy it off me for 100 Yrd if ya want." Roggie sighed, in the sort of self-deprecating way. Even with the war on.
"C'mon, ya can't expect a merchant ta not try and turn a profit." Argo grinned, even as Roggie withdrew 100 Yrd from his inventory and placed it on her outstretched palm. "And he's a spriggan, fairly high-skill one at that too."
Roggie nodded, a small grin lighting up his face. "Alright, you need to send him this:"
Argo leaned in, and her smile grew as the plan was outlined.
The green fields of the central region of Alfheim passed by so quickly underneath me that they never quite came into focus.
Leafa and I had been flying ever since we left the Legue Corridor on the World Tree side, spurred on by a message that Leafa had received in a video call from one of her in-game friends.
Apparently, a high-ranking Sylph had leaked the location of the meeting between the Sylph lord and the Cait Sith lord to the Salamanders, encouraging them to set up an ambush.
At last count, there were almost 68 Salamanders headed for the meeting spot, almost five times the number of Sylphs there.
And to make matters worse, the meeting place was in a shielded location, which meant that no one could get a DM or any other form of conventional system-based communication out.
They'd even blocked streaming and recording.
There was a possibility that everything was just a false alarm, but Leafa's friend Recon had sounded deathly serious when on the video call, and had had to close it in a hurry to avoid someone, so I was inclined to believe him.
"That two-faced, lying, backstabbing, no-good, son of a-" Leafa's nigh-endless stream of curses and profanity drifted back to me from where I was flying in her draft. It was one of the few ways to conserve your flight gauge in ALO, and we were making the best of it.
"I sense a lot of players ahead!" Yui exclaimed from my pocket, where she had stayed ever since my transformation wore off.
I readjusted my sword grip. I hadn't wanted to kill those Salamanders, merely get them off the bridge so that I could get into Legue, but whatever natural fire resistance they had wasn't enough to overcome the damage output of the Lava.
It had been frightening how powerful I was in that moment, and the dying screams of those that had fallen into lava would be keeping me up at night for a while. Maybe if I had been more careful, picking them up and throwing them behind me they would have lived? Or maybe I could have just leapt over them?
No, that would have left Leafa vulnerable, and I couldn't leave my sister like that. Just like I couldn't leave her here to go after Asuna. I cared about her too much for that.
This wasn't SAO. They'd respawn.
It was cold comfort as we flew onward.
The ding of an incoming message brought my thoughts up from the dark spiral they had been tumbling down.
It was hard to read the message while flying, but I gave it my best effort. As I scanned what my partner had typed out, I felt myself grin, despite myself.
Argo had pulled through.
I just had to play my part now.
It shouldn't be too hard.
The outcropping where the leaders of the Sylph and Cait Sith factions were meeting wasn't surrounded by Salamanders yet, but they were visible in the distance, and as we got closer, I could see the alarm going up on the cliffside.
But with the lack of teleport and corridor crystals, there was little the defenders could do to get the VIP's away. There was a party assembling at the far side of the outcropping, grimly facing down the Salamander horde.
I swooped past them, keeping a careful eye on my flight gauge. I was lucky that the meeting point was so close to Legue Corridor; I still had five minutes of flight time left.
I hovered in place fifty feet from the cliffside, deliberately interposing myself between the defenders and the Salamanders. I equipped one of the swords that had dropped from a mob. It was a shoddy sword, with poor stats, and a focus on END instead of STR, like I would have preferred, but it was the second-best sword I had on hand.
My best sword was already equipped.
Not for the first time, the thought occurred to me to turn around and head for the World Tree. I didn't have any true quarrel with the Salamanders. They tended to be a little aggressive, but as long as I stayed out of their way, they wouldn't attack me.
But no, I couldn't run. My sister was part of a faction being actively hunted by Salamanders, and she was behind me. If I left, she would die. She'd respawn, but I didn't want her to die all the same.
And I was technically allied with the Sylphs, or at least their leader. She had promised weapons and other equipment to the SAO survivors who were coming to attempt the grand quest.
Argo would never forgive me for cutting and running.
So I hovered there, one sword drawn, keeping the other as a reserve for if I needed it, facing down well over fifty Salamanders.
The last time I had seen an organized force this big had been at the start of the battle against the Skull Reaper.
Hopefully I would be able to keep the casualty count smaller.
Not that I had a good record with that so far in this game.
As the horde of Salamanders approached, One of them, a man with very elaborate pauldrons and a long, flowing coat, broke off from the rest, diving towards me, his sword outstretched.
I met him head on, raising my blade to deflect his thrust, his momentum carrying him past me, I managed to tap him with my leg as he shot past, making him wobble in the air as I pursued him.
I raised my sword in an overhead slash, taking advantage of my own momentum to try and put a higher damage modifier on my admittedly weak blade. He rolled mid-air, the motion taking him out of my path.
Our initial exchange came to a stalemate, and as we sized each other up for round two, he snorted. Then, he raised one fist with his bicep parallel to the ground and his elbow at a ninety-degree angle, his sword held in a ready position at his side.
The raid came to a halt behind him, displaying a level of technical ability that left me impressed. Not even the ALF, the most militaristic of the guilds in Aincrad, had the discipline these guys did.
"Speak your purpose, Spriggan." The man crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow, as if daring me to say something so he could attack me again.
I swallowed, and began speaking. "I am here to inform you that an attack on the Sylph-Cait Sith alliance will lead to a global ban on weapon sales to the Salamander faction by the order of Lady Trasmin." The Salamander's other eyebrow raised.
"Furthermore," I continued. "An attack on the Sylph-Cait Sith Alliance will be met with a declaration of war by the Spriggan-Undine alliance."
The Salamander hovered in silence for a second, then started laughing. I felt my heart sink.
"You really had me going for a second there," He said, miming wiping a tear from his eye. "The weapon sales thing was outlandish enough, but you Spriggans cementing an alliance with the Undines? Last I heard, you were still in the preliminary talks!"
"Um, General Eugene, sir?" One of the Salamanders detached from the group and flew down to hover at the now-named General's shoulder. "You cut me off the last time I tried to tell you, but I ran across a mixed party of Spriggans and Undines running through the Briar Heart Dungeon three days ago."
"And you didn't bring it up again until now?" The general rounded on his soldier.
"You told me not to sir." Who remained remarkably stoic in the face of someone who was probably a far higher level than him.
"Blast," General Eugene muttered, scratching his cheek, hovering in mid-air. "Were they just scrambling to get to know each other?"
"No sir," The salamander soldier explained. "They were used to working with each other, and were trying to incorporate convergent magic into their fights."
General Eugene groaned, gripping his forehead. "This is probably a decoy. It would be just like Lady Trasmin to pull something like this, but if it's real…" He trailed off, his eyes scanning over the battlefield and lingering behind me. "Sound the fall back. A war against four races would destroy us."
As I watched, my heart in my throat, the salamanders turned as one, and fell back.
"We'll duel again, spriggan." The Salamander general turned away, and I let out a sigh of relief. Crisis avoided.
I slowly fell back to the outcrop, painfully aware of the stares that the assembled fairies were giving me.
Well, most of them were staring. One of them was just glaring at me.
"Hey Leafa," I said, trying to grin carelessly.
"What the fuck was that Kazu-Kirito!" My sister yelled, stomping over to me. "What part of 'Running an Evac' means confronting the enemy force head-on?"
Internally, I smiled. It was nice to see her unreserved like this again. She had been walking on eggshells ever since I had used the metamorphosis spell, painfully aware of just how strong I could be.
Externally, I sighed. "You know, I did have a plan before I got here."
"Oh, and did you make this plan yourself?"
"No, Argo put it together for me." My sister let out an exasperated groan, and threw her hands up in the air.
"She was supposed to be the smart one!" She grabbed me by the shoulder. "Log off, now."
"What? No! I can still make it to the World Tree today if I hurry," I said, brushing her hand off my shoulder.
"And probably get yourself killed trying to get up there!" Leafa responded, "Log-
A polite cough echoed out from behind Leafa, and she abruptly fell silent. "Lady Sakuya!" My sister turned around and bowed so fast, I was surprised that she didn't give herself whiplash.
"That will be enough, Leafa," A very regal-looking Sylph clad in a kimono that was layered in various shades of green said, clasping her hands before her. "I need a full report." The leader of the Sylph faction said, the picture of an in-control leader.
Leafa sprang to attention. "Yes Ma'am," She saluted somewhat eagerly, and Sakuya sighed. "I was alerted to the presence of the salamander attack party by Recon. He overheard Sigurd making plans with a salamander to claim the Lordship of the Sylphs once you were killed," My sister said, so perfectly at attention that I almost believed she had joined the JSSDF in my absence.
"Ah." Leafa broke character, looking hesitant. "I have a recording of him talking to a salamander captain if you need it?"
"No, no, it's alright," Lady Sakuya sighed, waving off her subordinate's offer. "I never should have let him be my running mate," she groaned, rubbing her face with one hand. "Alicia, would you be so kind…"
"'Course!" A petite, brown-skinned Cait Sith said, raising her hand and chanting a few words, although they made no sense to me. It was unlike any spell I had seen before, as it formed a sheen of light. The light solidified into a plane that showed off what appeared to be a very fancy office, with a tall sylph standing behind the desk, leafing through some papers. He noticed the plane of light almost immediately. A flash of surprise crossed his face before his features arranged themselves into a solemn expression.
"Ah, Lady Sakuya, it's good to hear from you. The meeting is going well, I trust?" He said, setting the papers down.
"No, it isn't," The lord of the Sylphs said, "Given that we were interrupted by a force of salamanders before we could truly come to an agreement on anything, I would say that the talks have been set back quite some time."
If I hadn't been watching him closely, I would have missed the flash of anger on his face. "That's unfortunate. I trust that the salamanders are dealt with?"
"They are." Sakuya nodded, then her voice turned sharp. "But I'm more interested in how they showed up in the first place, given that this place was supposed to be a secret."
"Perhaps some of the warriors blabbed in the wrong place." The sylph behind the desk said, moving a stack of paper closer to the center of his desk. "I could open an investigation, if you would like?"
"No, none of my guards even knew which location we were going to until we got there." Sakuya pressed forward. "The only one who knew was you, Sigurd."
"Then perhaps the leak was on the Cait Sith side?" Sigurd deflected, avoiding meeting Sigurd's gaze.
"That doesn't explain the recording I have of you talking with a salamander captain about this meeting." Sakuya said, driving the final nail home in the coffin. Sigurd's eyes widened in panic, and he froze in the act of writing something down on his paperwork.
"By the authority invested in me as Lord of the Sylphs, I hereby declare you, Sigurd, an exile for the crime of conspiracy to murder your lord." Sakuya said, and the now named Sigurd's eyes widened in panic.
"Wait, Lady Sakuya, I can-" His plea was cut off by a teleportation effect enveloping him. The spell cut off before it ended. "Well, that's taken care of," Lady Sakuya muttered under her breath.
"You should have gotten rid of him months ago," The brown-skinned cait sith said, "He always seemed the wrong kind of shifty to me."
"Regardless, we are ignoring the man who kept us from war," The kimono-clad Sylph said, turning towards me. "Welcome, you are Kirito, yes?" She bowed, and the katana at her back clinked ominously.
"I am," I said, bowing with one hand held over my chest. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I have heard many great things about you." Leafa had talked my ear off about her when the message came in, before we had started flying. She had had nothing but good things to say, but now that I was face to face with her I felt rather like a rabbit being stalked by a cat. Sakuya had a hunger in her eyes that I didn't like. I blinked, and the feeling vanished.
"Now, I know that you are in a hurry, Kirito, but would you be willing to sit with me for a while? I would very much like to get to know you." Lady Sakuya walked over to a nearby table set on a patio surrounded by a trellis. She picked up an ornate teapot that had been resting on the center of the table. "Would you care for some tea?"
"Normally, I would," I said, "But-"
"Ah, don't be such a wet blanket," I felt a jab in my side, and looked down to see the petite, brown-skinned cait sith standing next to me. She had managed to sneak up on me without me knowing. "We just avoided war! That calls for a celebration, doesn't it?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"Then C'mon, let's have some fun!" The petite fairy grabbed me by the wrist and tried to drag me over to the table, only for Leafa to intercept her, freeing me from her grip.
"I'm afraid my brother has to go meet his girlfriend at Alne," Leafa said, smiling far too widely for it to be genuine. "Let's go Kirito,"
"Oh really?" Sakuya sounded disappointed, for some reason. "That's a shame, I would have loved to get to know you better." The hunger was back, and with the weird emphasis on words… was she trying to seduce me? I let myself be pulled away by my sister, too preoccupied with the idea that a woman I had just met was trying to seduce me.
I really hadn't done anything to endear myself to her.
"The nerve of them!" Leafa said once we were flying again, making a beeline for Alne. "Seducing my brother in front of me!"
I let her rant, still stupefied over Sakuya's actions. "Why did she try to seduce me?"
Leafa whirled around mid-air, staring at me in disbelief as she flew backwards in a display of skill I was not going to try to replicate.
"Papa really doesn't think much of himself," Yui said, poking her head out of my pocket.
"Kazuto, you saved their lives, their positions, and their character data."
"Huh?" What Leafa was saying made some sense, but not that much. If life-saving was all that was needed for seduction then Liz would have fallen for me while we were retrieving the ore that had formed Dark Repulser, but she'd been one of the biggest advocates for me pursuing Asuna.
"Yeah, once a player is a lord, they're subject to a few special rules, such as not being able to leave safe zones unescorted, and having their character deleted on death." Leafa started to explain, having misunderstood my incredulity.
"No, no, that's not it, I just don't see why saving their lives would make me attractive to them." Leafa just stared at me again, before dropping her eyes to meet Yui's gaze as she continued to fly backwards.
It really was amazing, what she was doing. Her wings were still buzzing in time with mine, but she was angled slightly, so that they pushed her backwards rather than forwards, with her legs sticking out straight, her feet clasped together so that her profile was minimized.
She must spend a lot of time flying.
"Ugh, whatever," Leafa said, swirling back around, flying forwards again seemingly without any visible effort.
As she did so, a majestic city came into render distance, nestled around the base of the tree that we had been flying towards for the past five minutes. It was one of the most beautiful sights I'd seen, with majesty rivalling that of Aincrad's finest views.
The buildings spiralled up from the ground, following the roots of the world tree, meeting the trunk at the center. In the gaps, there were streets and buildings of a different style, indicating newer construction. We landed outside one of the gates, and walked in with the crowd of NPC's and players passing through.
