Chapter Eighty-Five: Cleaning Up

As the two stood silently, staring at one another, neither Lanser nor Asuna knew how to break the eerie stillness. But fate heard their prayers.

Their messages arrived at the same moment.

“What is it?” Though the awkwardness had been broken, Lanser still wanted to hold the other in silence a little longer, and his tone had clearly darkened.

“Um...” Though he could tell his boss was in a very foul mood, the matter was urgent enough that he continued, “A player was attacked inside the town, and their HP was completely wiped out.”

“What!” Lanser had already known this, yet he could not help exclaiming nonetheless, though he still put on an expression of surprise.

“I already teleported the crystal over. And, boss, I suggest everyone begin investigating. Otherwise, it might affect...”

“Enough, no more. I’ll take responsibility for this. All you need to do is prepare for the raid. Don’t let this affect our progress. As for this matter, it absolutely cannot be a bug. Kayaba Akihiko would never allow a bug to exist. No matter how he learned of our progress, at least this much is already known by many people. He could not have been unaware, and since nothing has changed, that only means this is not a bug. So don’t worry too much.”

Hearing Lanser say as much, the other party said nothing further, only nodded and returned to announce Lanser’s decision.

“Lanser...” Asuna looked at the crystal in Lanser’s hand but said no more.

“Let’s go together.”

Unlike the solemn Asuna, who kept her eyes fixed on the crystal, Lanser only glanced once and knew that it was indeed the same. Then, as he turned back, he happened to catch sight of Asuna’s hair—

“...”

Lanser suddenly realized he could no longer turn his head away.

“Lanser, come on, let’s go find the boss!” Asuna called out to him just as he was dazed, and Lanser snapped back to himself.

“Oh—”

Before he could finish, as the two hurried toward the transfer point, a message from Kirito arrived: “Come to Agil’s place at once to discuss.”

On the way, Asuna also received word that the Blood Oath Knights had handed full responsibility for the matter to her. The two of them no longer hesitated and headed straight for Agil’s shop.

When Lanser reached the shop entrance, he saw a sign hanging there that said the store was closed. Neither of them hesitated and pushed the door open.

The moment they entered, they saw Sachi lying on top of Kirito. Though they could not see her face, the trembling of her shoulders and the continuous sobs made the situation plain enough.

When Lanser looked toward Agil, the other man took a swig of liquor, then helplessly shrugged, meaning he had no idea what was going on either.

“What happened?” Though Lanser asked, he still decided to use messages to spare Sachi, and sent Kirito a private note. “Just now, Sachi and I went to a restaurant for dinner. When we finished eating, just as it happened...” Kirito’s head also lowered a little at that point. After the earlier incident, Sachi still went out from time to time, but she was no longer like she had been before. In general, she only stayed around the middle floors and near the cleared areas.

“Any clues?” Lanser asked.

Kirito did not answer, instead turning to look at Agil standing off to the side.

“Here—” Seeing Kirito look his way, Agil handed Lanser a strange weapon.

“Are you sure this is a sword? Can such a bizarre weapon actually be thrust into anything?”

Lanser stared at the weapon, which looked far more like a mace than a blade, and rubbed his head in exasperation. “Are these barbs? But why are the barbs straight? Shouldn’t they be curved? Shouldn’t they make it easy to go in and hard to come out? But this thing—forget about being hard to pull out, I doubt it can even be driven in.”

Even Sachi, hearing Lanser’s nonstop complaints, could not help laughing.

“All right, aside from that, do you have any other clues? If all you have are complaints, then there’s no need.”

Kirito had not expected Lanser’s habit of grumbling to flare up again at a time like this.

“This? How would I know? I’m a blacksmith. If we’re talking about identifying skills, I’m probably not even as high-level as Agil, the black marketeer.”

It was the truth, but it made Agil standing nearby break into a cold sweat.

“Hey, hey, we’re discussing this inside-the-safe-zone PK incident, okay? And when was I ever a black marketeer? I’m always buying low and selling low, all right?” After venting his frustration, Agil still tried to salvage a little of his image in Asuna and Sachi’s eyes.

“All right, no time to waste. Kirito, go investigate anyone who was present at the time and seemed suspicious, or anyone who might have a clue. I’ll look into who bought this blacksmith’s weapon and see what turns up. As for Asuna—go speak with your commander and see whether there’s any useful information.”

Seeing that Asuna looked somewhat dissatisfied, Lanser explained, “We’re not bad when it comes to strength, but our information is fairly limited, and we don’t have data on this kind of player. The Blood Oath Knights should have some, though. If not, go find PoH and his little buddy. I’ve heard they’ve set up some sort of organization in the middle floors, and it sounds like it has some clout.”

After he finished speaking, and saw that Asuna had finally lost the anger from before, Lanser at last let out a breath of relief. “I can’t exactly say that what’s happening now is useless and nothing more than a farce.”

Thinking this, Lanser could only feel helpless. Even knowing the truth, he still had to put on a show—at the very least, to reassure the ordinary players.

“All right, Agil, just keep working. If you have time, contact the companions on the front lines. Especially that Klein fellow. I don’t want him saying next time that I look down on him.”

With that, Lanser led the way out. Asuna and Agil had only exchanged a few words during raids, and as for Kirito, they were fairly familiar, but it would not do to disturb him while his “official girlfriend” was present. So after seeing Lanser leave, she rose as well, bowed in thanks for Agil’s drink, and hurried after them.

“All right, Agil, I should go look for the only woman we have as a clue right now. You should also follow Lanser’s arrangement and contact that group. They’re all the type who do nothing but fight and never move their brains, so let them use their network to check around. After all, everything we do is for clearing the game. I don’t want to see people lose heart from too much pressure before the game is even cleared.”

With that, Kirito also pulled on his cloak and stepped outside. After all, lately he had become rather famous.

“Ah... what a bunch of brats, always making work for people.” Agil sighed helplessly, drained his last glass of beer, shook his head, and began going through his contact list.

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“This time, I won’t let you escape again.”

Standing in his smithy, Lanser checked his equipment. This time, he would probably have to face the full force of the Smile Coffin guild. He did not want to end up paying for one careless mistake with his own life. But at the same time, he did not want to repeat his earlier error and let PoH slip through his fingers again.

Good grief, I wonder if anyone missed me? Honestly, I don’t want to keep ending up idle, but my buddy’s enthusiasm was too much. After I took a cab home, it was already past midnight. I finally managed to crawl out of bed in the afternoon, and after that I was still half-delirious. At last I’ve managed to write a proper chapter. Everyone, please comfort this poor injured hand of mine. I swear I’ll never again go drinking with that pack of beasts, and I was even more foolish to believe their nonsense.