After our talk with the KoB leader they didn't approach us again even when clearing floors Fifty Seven and Fifty Eight.
It was for this reason that I was quite surprised when I received a message from Asuna late April. Apparently her and Yuuki had encountered quite a serious issue and wanted our help with it.
At first Kazuto wanted to refuse not wanting to have to deal with the KoB but the situation was quite severe.
By the time we arrived on floor Fifty Seven Asuna and Yuuko were addressing a large crowd about what had occurred. Apparently someone had been killed while in a safe zone inside the city.
Kazuto seemed to be particularly worried when he heard about what had happened and we spent the next two days trying to uncover the mystery.
Other than being moral support I didn't think I helped that much but it was apparently a single guild's attempt to scare the truth about a different murder.
The entire experience made me think about how at any point Kazuto or I could die if we make a mistake or If someone stronger than us attempted to kill us.
Despite the real life consequences we had been told about on day one there was a spike in murders recently. According to reports there were instances of people manipulating sleeping people into duels to kill them.
When we finished helping Asuna solve the crime I took Kazuto home. The spike in murders and now this current situation had taken a toll on me and I needed to spend some time away from it somewhere safe with Kazuto.
After talking to Kazuto about needing some time to ourselves we decided to take a break from floor clearing.
Despite being married, Kazuto and I hadn't really been intimate and I couldn't help but wonder if now was a good time to start.
The thought of it made me feel nervous, I mean I am still quite young and in no rush but I also wanted to be close to him.
It was times like this that I wished I had access to the internet. I had no idea how to even approach the topic with Kazuto and was a little worried he would reject me.
Since my wedding I had been practising my cooking a lot more wanting to be able to cook for Kazuto. While I don't think I have to bribe Kazuto into anything, I wanted to cook a romantic meal before suggesting anything.
Kazuto had apparently been thinking about these things too because we spent the night becoming much closer than we were the day before.
We wanted to start our holiday after our night together but were reminded that the Fifty Nine floor boss would be a difficult one. It seemed that every ten floors threw a new challenge at us.
The Boss inside turned out to be a Hydra each of its heads had a seemingly unique way of attacking. Despite it being the entrance to the Sixtieth floor the boss was surprisingly easy to deal with.
I don't know if this was because the floor clearers were so strong or because it was particularly slow for an enemy this high up but we were glad it died easily.
We spent the month of May levelling with the guild but not spending time on the frontlines. A few people had questioned us about this but we commented that we were needing this break.
When we were not fighting and gaining levels Kazuto and I would retreat to floor Twenty Two. It had been some time since we went so low but this floor had many lakes and rivers.
I was happy to show off my new swimsuits, I was glad that another player was able to make cute ones.
I was really happy Kazuto had bought a tent so we could sleep by the lakes.
Back in Japan I didn't go on many camping trips so I was happy to learn from Kazuto some survival tips. We learnt early on in our holiday that Maroon Wolf meat was very tasty.
I also had to learn how to prepare fish to cook on a campfire. I had made fish with my mom sometimes in Japan but never on a campfire.
While I spent time learning new cooking methods Kazuto found a love of fishing. Sometimes the other guild members would return to the lake with us but we spent most nights alone.
During our holiday we ran into another beta tester Kazuto knew. He seemed surprised to see her on this floor since she was not on the clearer's team despite being a former beta tester.
Koharu was her name and apparently she had been looking for Kazuto. I was quite surprised to hear some random girl had been looking for my husband but upon seeing me she smiled and introduced herself to me.
"I'm Koharu. It's nice to meet you. Kirito and I did some quests together back in the beta."
"I'm Leafa. Nice to meet you too" I responded politely, still trying to gauge her intentions.
"I want to join Kintsugi. I was too scared to fight when the game started but I want to change." Koharu told us looking at Kazuto.
We had not recruited anyone new recently since we are quite picky about who we take on. I looked at Kazuto wondering how he would respond. He clearly knew who she was.
"We did build this guild as a place for those who accept us." Kazuto said talking to me, not Koharu.
"I don't really mind but we are seen as a floor clearing guild and she isn't tere." I said looking at Koharu's gear it looked severely low level.
Koharu didn't respond as we spoke, instead seemed to be listening. She looked at her gear and couldn't refute what I was saying.
"She could power level pretty easily on higher floors but I would like to see what she can do for myself." I added trying not to make Koharu think I disliked her.
"Fighting us would be a rather unfair fight. We could ask Sachi?" Kazuto responded
Despite Sachi's growth she was still the least confident fighter in our guild, that wasn't to say she was bad she was still good enough to fight on the front lines even on the last floor they participated in.
"I think that can work for us. I will message her."
While we waited for Sachi to be available we treated Koharu to lunch. Sachi came down to our floor as the sun was setting, she had been gathering materials for Agil's cafe.
Sachi seemed just as nervous as Koharu at the idea of testing a potential new member to the guild. The fight lasted much longer than Kazuto or I had expected with Koharu expertly dodging Sachi's spear.
"It's clear to see you have good technique. Would you allow me to test against mobs?" I asked, knowing that a PvP was in no way the same as a PvE fight.
"We would need to go at least ten floors higher so we should camp here for the night," Kazuto added before Koharu could respond.
Koharu agreed to allow us this test too and camped with us that night, this of course meant me and Kazuto had to behave.
Koharu turned out to be just as skilled at killing mobs as she was in her fight against Sachi. Having another dagger user certainly wouldn't hurt the guild since they are able to deal a lot of damage.
After seeing her fight I had no reason to refuse her entry to the guild. Kazuto seemed to agree with me and Koharu joined our guild.
Since we were on holiday Koharu was handed off to Silica who would be able to help her on the higher floors. After being rescued by Kazuto and I Silica had become somewhat of a badass.
She practised nearly as hard as us and strived to be one of our top fighters. Koharu was certainly in for a long training session while Kazuto and I finished our Holiday.
As May was coming to an end and this was when we had agreed to go back to the frontlines, I wanted to try and find a way of commemorating this time we had spent together.
We had taken many pictures using capture cubes but I wanted something more, some sort of souvenir maybe.
In order to find something I dragged Kazuto into the village of Coral. It was to the southwest and I had come here a few times over the month to buy condiments and ingredients when we didn't want to eat fish or wolf.
It took some time to find but in a small shop I found what I wanted. It resembled a snow globe, except it didn't have any snow in it.
Inside the globe was a miniaturised Coral there with a lake and a forest and a few of the houses that were available for purchase in the actual Coral.
Since we had shared storage due to our marriage we bought a single globe that we intended to put above our fireplace when we returned home.
Even though I knew our Holiday would have to end I couldn't help but feel sad seeing May turn to June.
Despite coming back to the front lines progress was slow and in fact the clearers had only just cleared Sixty One and were preparing to explore Sixty Two.